Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Clay Canfield, Founder of Sobriety Hub, located in St. Louis, MO, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Sobriety Hub is an operations management software for Sober Living homes. You might be wondering, "what even is a 'sober living home'?" Good question!
Sober Living Homes are non-clinical facilities where people go to recover from addiction, usually after rehab. Sober Living homes all keep track of their residents' rent payments, drug test results, recovery meeting attendance, mood, medications, and more. Sadly, there is no adequate solution to help Sober Living operators manage their homes.
Our software, Sobriety Hub, is the common solution. It’s purpose-built for sober living homes. In fact, Sober Living Homes using Sobriety Hub report that Sobriety Hub is exactly what they've been waiting for. It's the perfect tool to monitor their residents and manage their businesses.
Tell us about yourself
Sobriety Hub is founded by myself and my co-founder, Joey Lanfersieck. The two of us share a passion for serving the addiction recovery community. The idea for Sobriety Hub was inspired when I worked as a house manager at a sober living home. I could see the inefficiencies in record-keeping, and I wanted to solve the problem. It wasn't until later that I realized that the problem was not unique. That's when we really started developing Sobriety Hub.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Making the first sale and making my customers happy. This has always been the most important thing to me, and even making just a handful of customers satisfied and willing to pay for our app was incredibly fulfilling.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
I think it's hard to accept sometimes that things are simply not going to be perfect, especially in the early stages. When you are wearing many hats, you have to make compromises, which is hard.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Make it fun. The way to do this is to pick something you care about and something you actually enjoy thinking about all the time.
- Focus on developing the perfect product for the end user. I think it's best to take on a "servant" mentality, focusing more on what you are able to offer than on what you might receive.
- The best product (should) always win. Sales skills, fundraising capacity, connections, marketing, PR, branding, and distribution channels - all of these are secondary to the end-user liking your product.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.sobrietyhub.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clay-canfield/
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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