Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in branding and marketing but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Alisha Kumar, Founder of MPOC Marketing LLC., located in Detroit, MI, USA.

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

MPOC Marketing is a digital marketing supporting minority-owned DTC eCommerce businesses. MPOC supports small to large mission-driven businesses in the areas of digital marketing: SMS, Email, Social Media, Marketing Strategy, Content Planning, and Marketing Management. I help brands get their mission and vision to their target customer to convert their lead into a "sticky" brand champion. My goal is to help entrepreneurs utilize their marketing budget most effectively for the highest conversion and return.

My business comprises 5+ contractors (who are also all minority women – women uplifting women is huge to me!). I really believe that to uplift the community, we can really look within our own resources instead of utilizing "guru experts" or "quick fixes" that don't really understand the core of our missions. We provide coaching, tools, and resources so that our internal team continues to grow as well.

My goal is to even the playing field so that all minority brands and aspiring marketing creatives have the same access to information and tools to grow. I want to see more people who look like me and my team win.

Tell us about yourself

After working in a traditional 9-5 corporate job at the beginning of my career, I realized the lack of support and opportunity given to small business owners – I also became growingly curious about marketing data and the ability to analyze customer choices, patterns, and behaviors to result in communication and campaigns to the end consumer. After feeling "stuck" in the career I was in, I started looking at self-made, Instagram-first businesses and tried to see "what I could do to help take this brand to the next level." I began creating pitch decks out of my own interest to see what I could do if I was helping them with their marketing. A good friend encouraged me to send the deck to the brand, something I didn't even think was possible, and so I did. After about 2-weeks, I heard back from the company I reached out to, and they offered me an unpaid internship. I was so excited. Slowly, that unpaid internship became a low-hourly rate, which turned into a salary rate, and I have grown to become their head of digital marketing. The same lineage is similar to the agency's growth. I've been fortunate to receive a ton of WOM marketing from my clients where one client would become three by referral, would become 7, 15, and we are close to crossing our 75th brand in the two years we have been in business.

It's been an amazing experience and what keeps me truly motivated is our success stories. After watching brands struggle to increase their Instagram reach, conversion through emails, or ability to create structured campaigns/releases that their community desires – when we come in and are able to have the data reflect our impact time and time again, that's when I have my motivational moment. I'm driven by the number's success and always lean on that to keep me going.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I'd have to say our ability to stay true to our mission. We have a pretty clearly-defined goal to ONLY work with mission-driven businesses, meaning brands that are created to serve their community and environment in a positive way. Being able to work with brands who care to uplift their community, save the environment, and help the "underdog" succeed – that's what we are all about. Either that or the time one of our clients had a $1M day restock. Being part of that as their Social Media and Email Marketing management team was an incredible success and journey.

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

Navigating failure. I have a quote on my laptop and at the top of my to-do list that says, "failure (and, more often than not, repeated failure) is actually a necessary part of your journey to eventual success." And how true is that? Every single client rejection, team mismanagement, failed campaign, money lost, and the moment when the data was leading us in one direction that ended up being the WRONG direction (which does happen) always leads me back to this quote. Reminding myself that failure is a companion for the journey and not a deterrent to the ultimate success helps keep me motivated along the way.

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

  1. Track your milestones - Looking back on my "win" moments in Year 1 and how that differs from what I'm celebrating in Year 2 reminds me of how far I've come and our team has come in such a short amount of time. In the day-to-day, I don't see the growth or impact as clearly, but when I get the opportunity to zoom out and remember where we came from, I feel so much more confident and motivated to keep going.
  2. Construct a to-do list that works for you. Creating a routine and finding out what was taking me more time or less time helped me navigate when it was time to offboard tasks or designate someone from my team who could do it better than me.
  3. Remember that no one can do what you do. My first client, and mentor, said this to me, and it rang so true – "there is always space for you in the market, your customers are yours, and other agency's/businesses are theirs; you just need to find them."

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.mpocmarketing.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mpocmarketing/

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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