Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Raquel Gomes, CEO of Stafi, located in Miami, FL, USA.

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

Stafi www.getstafi.com.
Our clients are small business owners.

Tell us about yourself

I am a psychologist and have always loved people and dealing with people. But my dad was an entrepreneur and since age 5, I would go to his business and do things around the business and get paid money to do so. I believe that’s where my love for entrepreneurship was born. After graduating as a psychologist in the South of Brazil at age 23, I decided to pursue an MBA in international business in the US and started my career in sales. I climbed the corporate ladder and became an Executive for large corporate America in the high-tech space. I have always been passionate about helping people, especially women. I am into women empowerment and helping women have everything they want in life: a very successful career and business and a very fulfilling personal life in general. I believe women should have it all!

There was a limit to my growth as an employee. In the end, I had to follow my boss's and the company I was working for’s direction, and many times, I didn’t agree with the way the company operated. Also, their “why” didn’t move me enough. That's why I created Stafi eight years ago. Stafi’s reason for existing is to help others achieve growth in their business as well as in their personal lives.

What motivates me every day is my “WHY.” The reason that I do what I do. That's the fire that keeps me going every day.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

As a business owner, I am faced with new challenges every day. I am constantly learning. I am constantly working on myself, the way I manage people, and the way I deal with stress. Owning a business is a beautiful school. A big accomplishment is getting to our targeted goals as a company over and over again. That is really rewarding. It shows us that we are doing things the right way. We are truly adding value to our client’s businesses and lives. Our clients speak on our behalf, and it is really touching how we have changed their lives https://getstafi.com/testimonials/, and there is no bigger accomplishment for me than that!

On the other hand, we are changing people’s lives in their home countries in Latin America. We provide them with a great opportunity to work with an American company and to benefit financially from it. We invest in their constant training, growth, and mindset. We have a team of professionals internally at Stafi that all they do is support the Stafi representatives from a psychological and training perspective to make sure they feel as if they are part of a team and are always learning. Having that recognition from our staff is also incredible to me.

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

One of the hardest things for me is to balance work and personal life - I work on this daily. It’s hard to stop working sometimes because you get so engaged in everything happening constantly and love seeing the results of your efforts. But there is the other side of this; keep on going. It’s always pleasant. It causes stress and burnout. Giving myself the “allowance” to stop and leave certain things unresolved, for tomorrow is something I have to “chat” with myself daily in order to be able to do so.

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

  1. Trust your gut - this can be hard for some of us when making the decision to be an entrepreneur. It takes a lot of courage, but in the end, your gut is always right.
  2. Don't give up - if you don't get it right at first, you can tweak things to be successful. At some point at Stafi, our focus was providing part-time personal assistants to busy moms. That didn't go very well for many reasons, but I didn’t give up. I worked on identifying our niche and services that would create a difference in the world and only found it through persistence and by paying attention to the outside world.
  3. Value your time and only use your brain power and efforts on the things you are really good at, that ONLY you can do, and that gives the most value to your business. Delegate all the rest. This will make your business grow so much faster; trust me, I have been there!!!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.getstafi.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetStafi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getstafi/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raquel-gomesstafi/

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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