Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Beate Chelette, Founder of The Growth Architect, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

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

As a strategic consultancy, we help our clients to grow their authority and scale their impact. We work with many different clients, from Amazon to small business owners, who need strategies, strategic facilitation, workflows, and processes. Our clients know where they want to go. They have a clear vision of their future and an understanding of concepts like culture, mindset, team building, and leadership. They have invested in personal development and consultants and make continuous business improvements. With so many pieces to align, they know they need a cohesive strategy that ties the business units together to achieve their growth objectives. Our clients also know that the next step for organizational growth requires leveling messaging, systems, and teams, as well as aligning business units and functions to their strategy to elevate the entire company.

We use our diagnostic tool, the 5-Star Success Blueprint, to bring everyone together. To get a clear view of how everything connects, we first go to 30,000 feet. With this understanding of what is working and where the disconnects are, we know what needs to be addressed. Now we can co-create a strategic plan with the leadership team, set priorities, and identify quick wins. With that in place, we design the different phases of the roll-out based on desired impact, urgency, and budget.

Tell us about yourself

I'm known as the Growth Architect and Founder of The Women's Code. I provide visionaries and leaders with proven strategies, blueprints, and growth maps that provide clear steps to improve business systems and strengthen leadership skills and teams so our clients and audiences can maximize profits and scale their impact. People describe me as no-nonsense and having the ability to inspire, motivate and empower. My story of resilience and ability to reframe challenges into opportunities has been featured on over 200 media appearances, including podcasts, radio and television interviews. What gets me up is working with unique personalities and big thinkers and helping them articulate their vision clearly, building signature systems and growth maps.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

As a first-generation immigrant, I had found myself $135,000 in debt as a single parent. I remember the humble days when I had to bootstrap my passion for photography into a global business that eventually licensed content to 79 countries. Hands down, my greatest accomplishment was my multimillion-dollar exit deal when I sold the company to Bill Gates. I am the Podcast host of The Business Growth Architect Show. I have been listed among the "Top 100 Global Thought Leaders" by PeopleHum and "One of 50 Must Follow Women Entrepreneurs" by HuffPost.

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

Not to take failure personally and to build up a thick skin of resilience. A lot of people think that everything that happens to them is not for them. This simple shift, I learned a long time ago, is critical to your success.

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

  1. Never take failure personally. Fail faster and more often. You are not judged by how often you fail but by how often you get back up.
  2. Keep your word. Not just your word to others but promises you make yourself. If you say you are going to do it - do it.
  3. There is no prince/princess story; if there is, they are boring. Everyone I know who made something out of themselves without exception had their fair share of adversity.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://beatechelette.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrowthArchitecture
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beatechelette/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beatechelette
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatechelette/

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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