Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Shane Green,  President of SGE International, located in Las Vegas, NV, USA.

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

We are service culture experts. We help customer-oriented businesses and brands develop a culture that attracts the right people, retains the best talent longer, and engages employees to perform better and wow customers more often.

Tell us about yourself

I was with the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company for almost ten years before starting this business. Over the years, we have been involved in improving the customer experience for companies around the world. I realized that while most companies wanted to improve their customer's experience, few had an employee experience strategy to inspire their people to "want" to exceed customer expectations and perform at their best. While companies invest like mad in products, places, and processes, they are not doing the same for their people. These days companies have no choice with employees having a lot of leverage, but regardless the best service brands are always the best employer brands. Through our experience and research, we know how to "hack" cultures. This is the intentional and organic approach we have to identify small positive changes (hacks) to improve the employee experience at work. I wrote the book Culture Hacker, Wiley 2017, which outlines a number of small changes a business can adopt to improve its culture and, in turn, its productivity, performance, and profitability.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

We have had a number of successes as a small business, helping Fortune 500 companies elevate their performance with our Culture Hacking methodology. I know for our team and myself, our biggest accomplishment and satisfaction comes from improving the customer's experience with an organization and, most importantly, the employee one. We have a cascading approach to companies and culture. We start at the top, working with owners, executives, and managers on their leadership habits and approach and the type of workplace they create. As a result, thousands of employees from different companies and industries have told us how much our work made a difference to them and their peers over the year. We think that is pretty cool.

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

The hardest thing about being a small business owner is the margin for error. When you are a large corporation, small mistakes or missed opportunities might not make much of a difference, but for small businesses, they can be everything. Knowing that if the business falls over or we don't deliver as we promise, it impacts the lives and reputation of our team means I am always conscious (maybe too much) of every decision that the team and I make.

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

  1. Love what you do and be an expert in the business you want to start. This means that you know the products or services you offer well so you can share that expertise and passion with your team and create value and connection with your customers.
  2. Get really close with your customers. Never assume you know what they want because they change quickly. Always be curious and continuously ask for their feedback and ideas. They are your best source of R&D.
  3. Define your values and have tangible behaviors. Values define "how" people should perform. While performance is traditionally defined by what is delivered, in today's world, every business owner must be concerned with how they get those results. Having clearly defined values and behaviors in place that you as an owner lives in leads you to set yourself up to create the type of work environment and culture that will attract, engage, and retain the best people. Culture is no longer an HR thing but a business thing that every owner must focus on.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://sgeinternational.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SGEinternational/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sgei_lasvegas/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_SGEi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sgei/

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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