Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Andrew Poles, Co-Founder of Impact Speaking Lab, located in Austin, TX, USA.

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

Our business specializes in training teams and organizations to be highly influential through a proprietary communication and relationship training program. Our program leverages neuroscientific and communication principles. Our customers range from SMBs to enterprise accounts.

Tell us about yourself

I first started working on this business in 2019 when I completed my career as a professional seminar leader for one of the world's best personal and professional growth, training, and development companies. My commitment at that time was to make the science of impactful speaking and effective self-expression available to anyone. What motivates me to do what I do each day is imagining a world in which every human being's voice matters, gets heard, and connects that human being profound to other people. I want to contribute what I can to bring about that kind of world.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The COVID Pandemic was brutal for my company. We had to cancel all our booked trainings as they were all scheduled to be in person. We then had to learn how to redesign and deliver all of our trainings through virtual, web-based media, and then we had to go back out into the market and sell those new offerings. My biggest accomplishment as a business owner is overcoming those challenges and, in fact, using them to launch an even more successful and well-received business.

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

One of the hardest things to manage as a business owner is staying true to your own vision and purpose. It's easy to let those value-driven compass points devolve into success metrics - selling that next training, hitting a revenue goal, systematizing for efficiencies, etc. But to have every aspect of your business be aligned with and expressive of your purpose and to keep that purpose alive and real in your daily work is a challenge.

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

Tip #1: Don't build your business around your full-blown vision of your ultimate business model. Start with what the market is responding to well, get good at delivering that and then add on as you grow.

Tip #2: Get a great coach. Coaches help you see where you have blind spots that limit your performance. They help you ongoingly elevate your satisfaction, your fulfillment, and your results.

Tip #3: Get smart fast about how to build and grow your business in terms of GTM strategies, marketing channels and strategies, and sales processes. If you take on Tip #1 and find your product-market fit early, and then you crack the code on how to get your product in front of your market effectively, you're well more than halfway to success.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://impactspeakinglab.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/impactspeakinglab
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-poles-69918512/

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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