Your New Business BFF! - Kellye Franklin

Team Subkit -

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kellye Franklin, founder, and CEO of Kellye Franklin, LLC, located in Bowie, MD, USA.

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

Kellye Franklin LLC, also known as The CEO BFF, is an operations consulting agency providing solutions to help women scale their mid-six-figure earning businesses and support companies ready to elevate their team's results with comprehensive operations and program management training.

Tell us about yourself

Starting my business was a marriage of need and purpose. Working in my high-paying Fortune 50 job, I was struggling to find harmony between caring for my loved ones and myself and operating as a high-performing employee. It was slowly eating away at my performance and my sanity. I was yearning for more freedom and control over my personal life and professional career.

During those 25 years in corporate, I watched so many women put in the hard work and extra hours only to be told they needed 'one more thing' to prove they were worthy of the roles they'd already worked in for years. Moving into business ownership, I watched many women carry this same mentality of hustle, sacrifice, and exhaustion into running their businesses.

My inspiration is my non-negotiable freedom goal to move the way I want to move while still earning the money I desire. My motivation is every business owner I help gets a little less overwhelmed as they gain more efficiency and more profits. Every training attendee I help gain the knowledge to have more control over their career trajectory lights a fire under me.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My two biggest accomplishments to date are submitting a proposal for a major corporate training solution and helping a client implement new HR software into her company which helped her streamline and automate her employee onboarding. I'm always super excited to serve all my clients, no matter what size. Their accomplishments are my reward.

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

The hardest thing about being a business owner is you OWN IT! You own everything. The successes, the challenges, and the outcomes regardless of what they are. The results of the company are yours to own. There's no supervisor holding you accountable or grading you. You are your motivation. Your performance review is your profits. Even with a team, the ultimate responsibility for the vision, strategy, and results is on you.

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

Three tips I'd give anyone looking to start, run, and grow a business would be:

  1. Decide if you want to run a business or a side gig. They require different commitment levels and learning, and that's important to understand upfront, so you have the right expectations for yourself and your results.
  2. Put systems in place. Not later, but now. New business owners make the mistake of thinking their too small to implement processes, but this is actually the perfect time to do it. Systems are how you get more done with less, which is one of the biggest challenges for starting and growing a business. Waiting to get systems in place until you start growing will just leave you exhausted and playing catch up.
  3. Invest in support where you need it most. Growing your business requires the business owner to have enough time to strategize and use their expertise. You can't do that if you're the only one working in the business. Plan for your growth but make strategic investments in your tools and team.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://kellyefranklin.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theceobff
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theceobff/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theceobff
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyefranklin/

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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