Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Steve Duke, Founder of Duke Business Advisors, located in Charlotte, NC, USA.

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

Growing a successful business is a challenging affair. One only needs to look at the statistics of the percentage of businesses that have survived the past ten years and, of those, the number that makes it above $1MM in annual revenue. (It is a small fraction of the number that starts!) However, if the market exists for business products or services, there are known tools and processes to assist businesses in achieving success and sustained growth.

In my business, I work with business owners to help them wherever they are in their business journey. On the early end, I mentor early-stage businesses at a local incubator; for more mature businesses, I help them with growth; as they approach an exit, I help them prepare an exit plan; and finally, I can also help them exit their business.

Tell us about yourself

I spent most of my career in the corporate world in a variety of functions, from engineering to general management. I was always interested in business in general. I studied and received an MBA later in my career, which further stimulated my business interest.

My journey included starting and selling a small business and playing a leading role in a start-up business after my corporate time. This taught me what my MBA didn't teach me. Subsequently, I worked as a mergers and acquisitions professional. Since I am one of those continuous learners, I kept adding to my skills and added business growth advising and exit strategy planning for business owners. I am motivated by the statistics about businesses. Only about 35% of businesses have survived the past ten years. Less than 10% of businesses make it past one million dollars in annual revenue. Less than a quarter of businesses that go to market actually sell. These are sobering and distressing statistics. I am motivated to help business owners beat those odds and get a return on their labor!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Being consistent with my characteristic of being a life-long learner, I would say my biggest accomplishment as a business owner is my accumulation of knowledge in my current capacity as a business advisor. If my goal is to help business owners, which it is, then my knowledge is a major element that gives me the ability to do so. None of us ever knows everything, but I feel that I have achieved a critical mass of knowledge in this space to be able to accomplish my mission. My mission is to be able to help business owners!

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

There is a multitude of challenges as a business owner. But especially when you are starting out, you are "it." All decisions flow through you. Many of the responsibilities are yours. If you had been an employee before starting your business, you may have had many responsibilities, but nothing like as a business owner, where absolutely everything flows through you. And even when your business grows to have a senior staff, you are the one that has the final responsibility for all major decisions. There is a reason people say, "It is lonely at the top."

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

  1. Make sure your business makes sense. By that, I mean make sure there is a large enough market for your product or service. You may be able to offer a product or service, but you must make sure there are plenty of buyers willing to pay for it.
  2. You may not get there, but you should at least have a goal and a plan to get there. As you were figuring out the market, this should have been part of that process.
  3. Know your numbers. Most businesses fail because they run out of cash. Cash for a business is like oxygen for a human. A business can't do without it.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://dukebizadvisors.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevduke/

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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