This story is part of our 1,000 stories campaign. What’s your story?
Name: Alexis Grant
Business: Socialexis.com, a service that creates online content for small businesses
Industry: Marketing & PR
Location: Washington D.C., U.S.
Reason for starting: For starting my own business? I like the autonomy and freedom to create awesome work and share it with the world. Having my own business allows me to pursue opportunities that interest me, learn on my own terms and have the flexibility to live life the way I want to.
We want to create great work. We have so many client requests at the moment that we could grow quickly, but I’d prefer to keep the growth slow. Focus on bringing our product revenue (from ebooks and courses) up to match our client revenue. Important to note that I’m working with a contractor model, not employees. While most of my contractors stay long-term and it has worked well, I’m thinking about moving to an employee model over the next couple of years.
Related: Read about another Marketing & PR entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? I’m pushing myself to think of success in terms of happiness metrics — Am I happy with my life? Am I proud of our work? Do I feel happy at the end of each work day? But I still have the stress and speed-boat mentality of a lot of new business owners, so this is a work in progress. I also ask myself: Am I making a difference? Is the work I put out into the world helping others feel happier? Am I earning enough income to support my preferred lifestyle?
Biggest Success: Every success feels big when you’re growing along the way! A few successes include the growth of our new writer’s community, The Write Life. It feels good because it puts all our community-building skills to work in one place. I also just launched my first Kindle book, You Deserve to Love Your Job and it’s selling! Another success is learning how to manage a team of 10 and fostering a community within our team, and of course keeping our clients super happy.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? Managing my team — While I am a natural leader, it doesn’t come naturally to me. Figuring out how to manage so everyone feels motivated and encouraged still takes practice.
Related: The Secret to Better Hiring
Who is your most important role model? My mom and dad. Both have helped me get where I am in my business, and it all started when I was young — they instilled the “work hard to get what you want” mentality. They have always supported my choices, even when I’ve taken the alternative route, and to me, that’s admirable.
[box_light]Website alexisgrant.com, socialexis.com
Twitter @alexisgrant
Facebook facebook.com/writeralexisgrant
Pinterest pinterest.com/alexisgrant[/box_light]
Tell us your story!
Read about another Marketing & PR entrepreneur here.
Edited by The Story Exchange