Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Brian Dapelo, Managing Director of Monarch Point Consulting Group, located in Vero Beach, FL, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Monarch Point Consulting is a strategy consulting firm that specializes in helping financial services and private equity firms increase profitability and performance in 6 months or less through strategic planning, transformation, and program management.

Tell us about yourself

I started my career in financial services working as a financial advisor, trader, and portfolio manager before launching my own investment firm. While I enjoyed making money from investment decisions, I discovered that I really had a knack for organizing, planning, solving problems, and achieving objectives. Fast forward a few years, and during my time in business school, I stumbled across strategy consulting as a career and realized that was what I wanted to do. I eventually joined PWC to work with high-profile clients and learn more about consulting, and although it was a great firm to work for, I decided to launch my own consulting firm to have more independence in my career. With that, what fires me up every day is to combine using my skills and experience in solving critical business problems to fulfill a personal passion for helping people.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Getting my first Fortune 500 client and successfully delivering the client's intended results months ahead of their estimates. I felt like a rockstar.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Multitasking. Maybe it's just me personally, but I'm a terrible multitasker and owning a business requires one to be able to pivot immediately from all the aspects of business ownership. One moment you're working on conducting an analysis or a deliverable for a client project, an inbound lead comes in, and you have to switch gears to sales or managing relationships immediately. It's fun, but it's also exhausting.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Focus on sales early on, especially with the 3 F's (friends, family, fools). After that, market like crazy before you're ready to launch. If you don't have potential customers/clients waiting at the door to buy your product or service when you are ready to open for business, you're wasting your time.
  2. Failures are inevitable. You have to have a strong stomach to deal with it, the mental fortitude to keep going, and the strategic mindset to know when to pivot if necessary.
  3. Make sure your product/service is solving a real and urgent problem that is clearly defined, otherwise you won't be in business very long.

Bonus: If you don't have any competitors, there's usually a reason why.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Entrepreneurship is both incredibly rewarding and incredibly stressful. It is a high-risk/high-reward endeavor, but for those comfortable forgoing the consistency of a stable paycheck in return for freedom and being their own boss, it's totally worth it if you've got a solid product/service.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://monarchpointconsulting.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandapelo/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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