Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Felipe Corredor, Senior Admissions Consultant of American College Counselors, located in Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA.

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

American College Counselors provides full-service, one-on-one college and graduate school advising to students and families. We take them through every step of the complicated admissions process, helping them develop competitive extracurricular profiles, choose classes, build their list of schools to apply to, write/edit essays, prepare for interviews, and more.

Our customers are students and their families who want personalized, one-on-one guidance throughout the process. We have customers who want our help with college admissions, and we also have customers who want our help with graduate school admissions. We work with families from all over the world, not just in the United States.

Tell us about yourself

I personally went through a hyper-competitive college admissions process in 2016 when I applied and was admitted to the University of Chicago, which at the time had about a 6% acceptance rate. The process of applying to UChicago and other schools like it was intense and, at times, pretty complicated. I saw an opportunity to help others who felt similarly on their college application journeys. I decided to leverage my experience successfully going through the process and offer it to students and families.

Since then, I've also gone through the graduate school process, having received my MBA. We now help families with all kinds of graduate school applications as well. Each day I'm motivated to help amazing students shine as much as they can on their applications. Ultimately, where they end up going to school is going to change the entire course of their lives. I'm helping them achieve their goals by making sure that they present themselves in the best possible light and take advantage of every opportunity they can along the way.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Each year our students get their admissions results back, and it becomes my new biggest accomplishment. We are growing very quickly, and our results are truly spectacular. 100% of our students have been admitted to at least one of the schools that they've applied to.

Nobody has ever been left out. And the vast majority get into one of their top 3 schools. I'm proud to know that when we combine our expertise with motivated students, we can achieve life-changing results.

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

The "always-on" attitude and personal investment. It's not like a typical 9 to 5 where, once you go home, you can totally forget about work and not think about it for a second until you get back to the office the next day. I am always on when it comes to American College Counselors. I'm constantly talking to students and parents, and I feel personally invested in their outcomes.

This allows me to provide great service that clients appreciate, but it can certainly be very tiring at times. I'm doing my best to find balance in my life and create space for rest where I don't have to be "always on." This also allows me to be more effective when I am working. Finding that balance can be hard, though.

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

  1. Be completely honest with yourself. Do you actually want to run a business? Have you considered all the work that is involved and the personal involvement? The time and money investment? These are all important things to have very clear before you begin.
  2. Be very specific with what you are trying to accomplish. Don't start off with an overly vague mission/vision statement. It's important that you have clear, definable steps you can take to move forward.
  3. Make sure you're selling something people actually want, and give them a reason to buy it from you specifically. This sounds obvious, but it's critical. Is there actually a market for what you want to sell? Have you done the research? If there is, why would people buy it from you? Be clear on your differentiation.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://americancollegecounselors.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americancollegecounselors
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felipe-corredor-diaz-635703137/

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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