Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Christina Salerno, CEO of Magical Teams, located in Falls Church, VA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We are a premium hiring and operations agency for when it's time to transition your business to the next level - where the priorities, people, and processes are in place to grow. We are long-term success partners helping founders shift from under the overwhelm of scaling into building happy, profitable teams.
Tell us about yourself
I never wanted to start a business but ended up doing so multiple times now. I'm a generalist with a wide range of expertise, and it makes for a difficult "career story" where I constantly got overlooked in traditional hiring practices.
I reinvented the hiring process to find talent in a more equitable and effective way and have trained our team to run full-cycle hiring campaigns for our clients. We also work with select clients on their operations and utilize our collective skillsets to provide an operations support team that feels like magic.
I built the team and company that I wished I could have been able to find - where generalists and weirdos are celebrated and empowered! It's an honor to provide this for others now.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Magical Teams is a multi-six-figure consultancy with a team of 12+, and we're only just getting started - we recently passed the one-year milestone!
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
From the beginning, I knew I wanted to create an environment that's unconventional. This requires very skillful communication and creativity to navigate deconstructing and reconstructing in order to find what works best. We've gotten where we are because I sought out and trusted smart, passionate, collaborative, and kind people.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Execution. When starting, don't spend a lot of time "thinking" about the business; just jump right in and take action. You'll learn way more in practice vs. theory.
- Focus. Often business owners get started because they have ideas. Sometimes, a lot of ideas. Iteratively improve by testing ideas and eliminating the ones that don't work. I used to imagine having "idea funerals" so that I could focus on the ideas that mattered most. You will always have way more ideas/things that you'd like to do than will be possible to do. Be deliberate with resources and focus on one thing/bottleneck/idea at a time.
- Identify your product/market fit. Skip everything else that's irrelevant until you find this. You'll need a lot less than you think. The website, branding, and sales pitch matter much less than being curious, interacting with people, prototyping, beta testing, and delivering an MVP that meets a need or solves a problem for someone. Find the someone(s). Make something awesome for them. When they become repeat customers and refer people who also buy from you, then you've found product/market fit!
Where can people find you and your business?
Website:
https://www.magicalteams.com/
https://www.magical-match.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MagicalTeams/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magicalteams/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/magical-teams/
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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