by De’Juan Galloway
Meet Felicia Joy, a corporate executive turned entrepreneur, who uses her experience from both worlds to assist small businesses and self-starters nationwide. In 2008, the Georgia native started two companies, Ms. CEO Inc. and Joy Group International, which specialize in content delivery and brand consulting, respectively. Most notably, Ms. CEO Inc. produces The Ms. CEO Show, an online radio show that reaches 1.5 million monthly listeners.
Joy provides insight and resources for entrepreneurs to turbocharge their businesses on each broadcast through lessons she draws from her own experience. Her book “Hybrid Entrepreneurship“, presents readers with a strategy on how to work full-time and build a part-time business—a practice she considers a pathway to beating the slow economy. TAP caught up with Joy to discuss the landscape of hybrid entrepreneurship, the social dimensions of business and her journey to becoming Ms.CEO.
How did you make the transition from a corporate executive, as a crisis management and communications executive, to running your own business?
The transition happened over a period of time because I made the commitment in my mind to do it. I began making changes in my lifestyle and launched my business part time while I was still working. I made the transition around the time the company was cutting cost and jobs and I actually volunteered [to be laid off].
What’s the difference between your two companies?
Ms. CEO Inc. is a media, merchandise, and event company focused on women entrepreneurs. Joy Group International is a business development and consulting firm.
Is there a main focus for the two companies?
That continues to be a challenge for me; Ms. CEO Inc. is the better known brand because that is what I have been focused on more in the last year. However, Joy Group International is beginning to take off, so I am focusing more on it and adding more people to my team to run Ms. CEO on a daily basis. This will give me the opportunity to build up Joy Group International.
What are the different components of Ms. CEO Inc.?
The media division includes our online radio show and content. We are also in the process of pitching women entrepreneur-focused content to different television programs. Additionally, we have merchandise—a very classic black t-shirt that say ‘Ms.CEO’. We did market testing in boutiques in Atlanta and there is a real interest in them. We are gearing up to sell those in stores nationwide. Our event division produces events that are one of a kind.
What makes your events unique?
Our goal with our events is to give women entrepreneurs very specific information on how to grow their business and make it more profitable. For example, we are organizing an event called ‘Shop, Show and Tell’ and it’s merging shopping with social media. Women vendors will sell their merchandise and we will have a social media station set up, so that shoppers who buy from the vendors can use Facebook, Twitter and recorded video to talk about their experience with the vendor. What this does is drives the vendors’ businesses both on and offline.
Why would an investor invest in your company?
I actually don’t look for investors because I don’t want my company controlled by someone else. Hypothetically answering that question, an investor would want to invest because I am one of the leaders out here helping small businesses grow. Small business and entrepreneurship is the number one trend worldwide. The economy is based on experts and information right now and I dare say that I am one of the front-runners as an expert in building businesses today.
Can you tell us about your book “Hybrid Entrepreneurship“?
Hybrid entrepreneurship is merging the concepts of employment and entrepreneurship, two ways of earning income. In the past, employment and entrepreneurship have had contention between each other. If you were an entrepreneur, people would look like at you as an outlier, thinking you started a business because you can’t get a job. Entrepreneurs have been kind of snobby about the fact that they could go out on their own and make it– the two looked down on each other. Entrepreneurs felt if you had to get a job you were too weak to survive off of your own work and you had to rely on someone else for income.
I feel like where the economy is now, it is smart for people to use the best of both worlds and that’s what the book is about. It is about having a full time job because even though unemployment is high right now, ten percent in most places, 90% of America is working. So my advice is to keep your full time job and start a business part time because your job is not guaranteed to be around and you will get the benefits from both.
The evolution of new digital media and technology has been responsible for producing many new forms of entrepreneurship. Have these technologies had an effect on you as an entrepreneur?
Absolutely, these new technologies have created the avenues for a lot of people to get into business. It has lowered the cost of starting a business, enabled you to do business from anywhere and given people access to information they didn’t have before. This gives them the ability to compete with companies who may be larger in scale or more deep-pocketed in terms of financial resources. New technology has definitely been a boom for entrepreneurship.
What kind of research do you conduct to perform competition analysis?
I look at their sites, read trade journals and look into companies’ social media accounts to see what they’re doing. To be honest with you, I look at that up front, put my plan together and execute. I know a lot of people advocate for keeping a constant eye on competitors but that’s not my personal strategy. When you do that it’s running a race and continuing to look back, you slow yourself down and tie yourself to your competitor’s standards. My approach is, ‘I am always going to be number one’ and while I read press and stay in the know of the marketplace, I do not tie myself to other’s standards because I am going set the standard for whatever stage I am in.
Do you have any favorites in the current pool of small businesses?
I love Propser.com because small businesses and entrepreneurship are exploding across the globe and Prosper.com lets everyday people fund each other’s businesses. We know what’s going on in the credit markets and with Wall Street reform but there is no shortage of money in America. The money is there, it just depends on what we want to do with it, so a small business like Propser.com is helping other small businesses survive and I enjoy that. Another small business concept that I like is AClothesEncounterOnline.com. It was started by a woman who organizes parties where people can sell clothes to each other. One person’s junk is another’s treasure—this is perfect for those who want to be fabulous and fashionable but do it for less.
What is the best way for an entrepreneur to find financing for their business?
In ‘Hybrid Entrepreneur”, I talked about the concept of builders versus Samaritans. Builders are those who want to build the business and samaritans are those who want to make an income on their savings as an alternative to putting in it a bank that doesn’t offer a great rate of return. I recommend finding samaritians, who are people in their community or in their family with money and make a compelling case on why they should invest in their business. It’s no longer about large companies but more about smaller companies in communities getting off the ground with help of those communities. When communities help local entrepreneurs it produces local employment, so it’s a win-win. I would also recommend people rethinking the cost to start their business. So I advocate for people to find ways to start smaller, smarter and leaner and growth the company with the resources they already have.
What advice would you give to the entrepreneur who has dreamed up their business and planned it but is running into challenges in the execution phase?
If your challenge is that you are not generating any revenue, the market is telling you that your product or service is not something [consumers ] want and you have to tweak your service. If your challenge is revenue [coming at a slow rate] or you’re getting picked off by competition, then you have to look at your business and have metrics in place to identify the problem. Talk to people-one of the worse things an entrepreneur can do is stay isolated. There are so many resources out there to help you troubleshoot your business.
How would one go about aligning their passion and starting a business to produce profit?
Passion is a good thing but not in the way it is often talked about. People oftentimes talk about starting a business based on their passion specifically; I say do it if your passion is something consumers will pay for and spend their money on. One might say ‘I love to cook, I’ll start a restaurant’, but if there is a glutton of restaurants in your area or you don’t have a solid business model to make that restaurant profitable, that’s not the route to go.
I think another way to fuel your business with passion is not always making your passion the core of your business but being passionate about another part the business. For instance, you may not be head over heels about business insurance but you may be passionate about customer service .
There are so many forms of marketing available to entrepreneurs. Which ones have worked best for you?
Internet marketing. The Ms. CEO radio show has been a great marketing tool for me. I would encourage other to use online radio as a platform for marketing. BlogTalk Radio allows you to do it for free. American trust has been miserably obliterated and what online radio allows one to do is build trust. Week after week, people can determine if you know what you’re talking about and overtime you build trust with listeners
What would the Felicia Joy of today tell the Felicia Joy of three years ago?
I would tell myself to have a life. I have always been ambitious and always felt like I have to work all the time. I felt that if I worked more hours out of the day, I would get to my goal faster. That is not always true because there are so many other components that go into successful business building. I could work twenty four hours a day but I can’t control people, the markets or things going on the world. So what I can do is work efficiently and execute my plan consistently everyday and let time take its course. Additionally, I have learned that if I am so burnt out from working that I can’t have quality relationships with friends and family, then I am not best even when I am at work.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given that has assisted you in your mission as an entrepreneur?
“Life by the inch is a cinch, life by the yard is hard”. I take that from the book “The Richest Man In Town” by Randall Jones. It profiles entrepreneurs who are the richest in their town. What the quote speaks to, is trying to do too much at one time. You can write the most eloquent business plan but that doesn’t mean that the business is going to go according to your plan. However, if you get up every day, commit to building a successful business and take it day by day then you will ultimately reach your goal. Overwhelming yourself or trying to do too much at one time results in you not being successful. I liken the quote to when I worked at Hartfield-Jackson airport. When I started, there was a runway construction project. I saw it go from a pile of dirt to what is considered one of the most important runways in the world. I watched them build that everyday into what it is now. That is how you have to approach business and live life, inch by inch.
