Aged 25 in 2011, maximizes her talents to set up a consultancy to help nonprofits & small businesses have a long shelf life. From solopreneur, now having 8 team members. Got 125% increase in revenue from year one to three. (Andrena Sawyer)

Grow A Small Business Podcast

In this episode, I interview Andrena Sawyer, the President of P.E.R.K Consulting, an advisory firm based in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, for small to mid-sized nonprofits and businesses. Services include registration, staff & volunteer training, strategic planning, expert speakers, proposal writing, and more. Andrena is an author, consultant, strategist, and ministry founder.

As things ended up not working for Andrena, she reverted back to what always worked for her, which was helping other people in the nonprofit space. She realized that nonprofits don't have a long shelf life so she maximized her talents to set up a consultancy to help them. It was 2011, aged 25 when she started with the consulting firm, she saw an immediate increase in revenue from its 1st year to its 3rd year. Grew capacity from solopreneur, now having a total of 8 team members.

Andrena says that what she loves the most in growing a small business is seeing the immediate impact of the idea she implemented. She said, “I love that I can stay up all night and work on my business idea and implement it. The results are a reflection of that effort.”

This Cast Covers:

• Working with nonprofits and small businesses providing business development and capacity-building support.
• Helping nonprofits and small businesses with registration, staff & volunteer training, strategic planning, expert speakers, proposal writing, and more.
• Maximizing her talents to set up a consultancy that can help nonprofits have a long shelf life.
• Expanded capacity for over 11 years from solopreneur, now having a team of 8 people.
• From year one to year three of starting the business saw an increase in revenue of about 125%.
• Has experienced massive change during Covid from declining sales and clients had to close their businesses.
• Pivoting services into virtual and now slowly bringing back the upswings of the consulting firm.
• Learning how flexibility in reaching out to people contributes to the growth and success of an organization.
• Offering workshops for entrepreneurs or solopreneurs who are planning to start a business to help them learn how to manage their future business.
• Recommending new business owners to work on resiliency as a skill, like being able to push through and not taking no as a personal rejection.

Additional Resources:

• P.E.R.K Consulting
• The 4-Hour Workweek By Timothy Ferriss
• The Misadventures Of A New Entrepreneur By Andrena Sawyer

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Quotes:

“As long as I have peace of mind, I'm doing what I like to do, it's sustainable, and I’m able to help other people earn a living, then I'm successful.” —Andrena Sawyer

“Focus on strategies and systems and figure out a way to work smart.” —Andrena Sawyer

“Emphasizing marketing is not just something that you do or perform, but you really have to develop a culture where you're always pitching.” —Andrena Sawyer

“Work on resilience as a skill.” —Andrena Sawyer

“Keep things as consistent as possible.” —Andrena Sawyer

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Music from https://filmmusic.io “Cold Funk” by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com. License: CC by http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0