Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jeana Van Sickle, Owner and CEO of JVS Consulting, LLC., located in Hopkins, MN, USA.

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

We provide two primary services for small to midsize nonprofit organizations: grant writing services and facility solutions. People generally understand grant writing, but the facility solutions piece is a newer service we launched in 2021. Essentially we help growing (or shrinking) nonprofits evaluate what kind of physical space they need to best support their staff in carrying out their organization’s mission. This has been especially important since the pandemic as more nonprofits - like many businesses - are looking for flexible workspaces more conducive to working remotely. Finally, to expand the business in 2023, we are launching grant writing and fundraising courses at How to Become a Grant Writer.

Tell us about yourself

I’m an accidental nonprofit professional - having fallen into an opportunity right after grad school about seventeen years ago. But I didn’t start my own consulting firm until five years ago after getting fired. In the nonprofit world, everyone has at least one (if not more) “nonprofit horror stories” because nonprofits just don’t run like a regular business. Often there aren’t clear policies for reporting on and being believed about unethical and harmful behavior. My position was eliminated after speaking out about an untenable situation with an abusive boss.

I spent a long time in this space of embarrassment afterwards and was kind of drowning in resentment and a sense of betrayal I felt for not being believed. At the same time, I’d already been engaged in community organizing for racial justice, Trump had just been elected, and we were right around the corner from the #MeToo movement in 2017. I began drawing connections between the harm I experienced at my job and the harm women of color in our industry experience - only tenfold - when factoring in the pervasive culture of systemic racism in philanthropy. I’d been engaged in racial equity work in one form or another for a decade, but this was the first time I stopped being clumsy about it and started getting really intentional and clear about how to move from equity to justice and abolition.

I knew I didn’t want to go back to working for anyone else, but if I was going to stay in nonprofit - a place where I’d experienced trauma - I needed to do it in a way where I was really living into my beliefs. What motivates me every day at JVS Consulting is the mission I established for our work - to specifically help dismantle inequitable funding practices in philanthropy that disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities. As much as possible, JVS Consulting is focused on working primarily with nonprofit organizations led by BIPOC and/or organizations actively adopting anti-racism policies and putting them into practice. And, of course, we are constantly evaluating how our own whiteness shows up in our work and how we can keep learning and growing.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Since starting my consultancy five years ago, I’ve written more than 300 grants for 21 organizations of all sizes and stages of growth. I’m pretty proud of that!

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

Self-promotion. I’m an introvert by nature and a people pleaser, so even though recognition and positive feedback feel really good, I hate having eyes on me. But I’ve slowly grown more confident - especially as I see so many other women - especially friends - reinventing themselves in midlife, starting their own businesses, and supporting one another.

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

  1. If you are a “big ideas” person, make sure you surround yourself with a “willing to get in the weeds” person and vice versa. In the former, it doesn’t matter how amazing your ideas are if you can’t execute a detailed and realistic plan to bring your ideas to fruition. If you are the latter, being constantly stuck in the details leaves very little room for creativity - a necessary ingredient for growing your business.
  2. Speaking of creativity - write, draw, paint, dance - find a purely creative endeavor to engage in daily. Creatively fuels brain power and makes our ideas better. Right before the pandemic, I learned metalsmithing, and now I start each day in my studio. The time I spend there has changed the way my brain engages in problem-solving for my business.
  3. Underpromise and over-deliver. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of a new business and a new idea, but always make sure you can do what you say you can do!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://jvsconsultingllc.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jvsconsulting

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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