Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kathy Koultourides, Founder of KKnow How LLC, located in Fountain Hills, AZ, USA.

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

KKnow How LLC is a consulting company that provides customized training solutions to enhance the performance of corporate sales teams. Our customers are B2B Mid-cap organizations with sales teams that number from 15-1,500 in North America. Our mission is to contribute to the success of our clients by providing training that produces business results.

Tell us about yourself

I am a published author and sales and performance improvement innovator with over three decades of experience. I began my career in B2B sales in Chicago and was progressively promoted to sales management and general management before moving into the sales training space. During my career, I have lived, developed a business, and managed the learning function for 4 Fortune 500 companies throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada. It was this multidisciplinary experience that got me started working on my own business.

I launched KKnow How LLC in January 2016 with the idea to take the training techniques that I created for large multibillion-dollar companies and bring them to smaller companies that lacked the resources I could provide. I am motivated each day to do what I do by devising creative and innovative learning strategies that get results. I am passionate about how to make training stick by thinking through the entire learning experience. I do not believe in throwing training dollars at the front line without creating engagement and accountability from the learner's supervisor, manager, and senior leaders. I have spent my entire career practicing this approach and achieving great results.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner is the positive outcomes my clients report because of my work. I have helped my clients reduce risk, improve revenue, and stabilize turnover. I also celebrated my 6th year in business this past January! Thinking back, my business has evolved over time from serving small start-ups to providing increased skill-level training to mid-cap publicly traded companies. I now serve 25 clients.

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

There are plenty of hard things. The first that comes to mind is saying no and being able to do it without offending the client. It's hard to turn down business, but sometimes there are things that are outside of your scope or may overtax your bandwidth. Speaking of bandwidth, another area that's hard is taking time off. When you wear all of the hats, you tend to work many shifts!

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

  1. Put your client's best interest first. Work to help them either make money, save money, mitigate risk, improve a process, or improve their customers' experience.
  2. Be transparent. Honesty and integrity go a long way toward credibility. When you are credible, you're trustworthy. When you're trustworthy, you get referrals. When you get referrals, you grow.
  3. Give a lending hand. Provide your expertise to help an association, a fellow solopreneur, or a young professional just starting out. Whatever you teach them, you will get back an abundance of personal growth which will reflect well in your business.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

When you choose to work with KKnow How LLC, we ensure that all training initiatives are defined by solid business outcomes. We will create training that emphasizes application and prepares the employee to put their training to work. We will carefully link post-training activities to drive active manager support and then document the results to ensure that your training investment is producing an adequate return.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.kknowhow.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KKnowHowLLC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kknow-how-llc/

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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