Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jeff Griffiths, Co-Founder of WorkForce Strategies International Inc., located in Calgary, AB, Canada.

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

WorkForce Strategies International is a management consulting firm that focuses on helping our clients - generally small to mid-size industrial firms in a growth mode - to apply competency-based workforce and organizational development approaches to maximize their operating results while improving their employee retention and engagement.

Tell us about yourself

I began my career as an officer in the Canadian military, and I've been a management consultant since 2000. In 2019, my solo practice joined forces with two other solo consultancies to form WorkForce Strategies. My whole working life, I've been a troubleshooter and problem solver, and my military background drove home the critical importance of the people side of the organization. I come to work every day with a vision of helping create workplaces where people truly want to come to work, where they feel empowered and committed, and doing it in ways that don't compromise a company's operating results - in fact; we want to improve all of an organization's key metrics (safety, quality, productivity, cost, competitiveness) while growing and developing people in ways that create an agile, resilient, innovative, "future proof" organization.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The biggest accomplishment has to be the creation and stewardship, along with my co-founders, of WorkForce Strategies through the pandemic and the downturn to emerge where we are today - intact and poised for growth.

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

I think the hardest thing is remaining focused when there's so much to do, so much that you COULD do - between running the business, developing new products and services, converting leads into projects, and then delivering the results that clients expect (and deserve) on those projects - some days it can be a little overwhelming. Being able to take a breath to re-focus on the most important thing to move the business forward each and every day is, I think, the hardest thing for a business owner to do, particularly in the early stages of a company.

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

I think the biggest thing is to remember that your business exists to create impact and value for the customer. Making money and being profitable is important, but if that's the reason you're in business, you need to rethink things.

The second would be to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and then let them do their jobs - the fastest way to create disengagement is by micro-managing people.

Last, I think it's important for a new business owners to force themselves to take time away from the business, to get some distance and headspace, because it's way too easy to get immersed in it and burn out - at which point you've become a liability to the business (particularly if you haven't got people empowered to do things) - and then the business is dead.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.workforcestrat.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffgriffithsfcmc/

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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