"Start your business with an exit strategy" with Karwanna D
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Karwanna D. has over 10 years’ experience helping women and minority small business owners grow their business with government contracts. As a certified Government Contracts Strategist, she’s one of the first minority-woman photographers to position herself to land large government contracts on multi-billion-dollar projects. As the author of “Trillion Dollar Secrets to Government Contracts” and 10 Habits of The Highly Effective Entrepreneur,” she has leveraged her success to empower thousands of small business entrepreneurs across the US. As an educator, author, and transformational speaker she’s been featured in CBS, NBC, FOX, Star Tribune, She Boss Talk, and more because of her success and her willingness to help others through her signature program Trillion Dollar Government Contracts Accelerator.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I’m a first-generation college graduate. I’m the 4th of 7 children who grew up in an urban community to a single mom. Growing up in the inner city, I was surrounded by blight, poverty, drugs, and violence and society projected that a girl like me was supposed to end up another statistic. But for me, I used my childhood experience as fuel to be different. I refused to give in to what statistics said about me. Therefore, I knew in order to create a different story, I had to be strategic and work even harder than the average. So, obtaining a higher education was not an option for me, but it was a must. Shortly after obtaining my B.A. in Mass Communications from CSU Hayward, I moved to southern Ca and obtained my first career position, which led me to be one of the highest-paid African American women in the US in my age group.
What inspired you to start your business?
After 10 years of working a 9-5, doing the exact same thing day in and day out while missing all the important moments of my new baby, I realized that working for someone else was not for me. I needed to get my life back. It was important for me to get into a position that would allow me to be present for my daughter and my other children who would come later. In order to do so, I knew that I had to become my own boss so that I could determine what my workday looked like and how I was going to prioritize being there for my children’s field trips and PTA meetings, Dr. appointments and being able to be home with them when they were sick. So that was my inspiration. Little did I know that little spark of inspiration would lead to me becoming one of the most influential small business owners whose successful business journey now enables me to educate, empower, equip and inspire thousands of other small business owners across the nation.
Where is your business based?
My business is based in San Francisco, CA
How did you start your business? You have heard the phrase on how many people have started their business on a shoestring budget. For me, I literally started my business on a nickel and dime budget. I emptied old purses, junk drawers, flipped couch pillows and flipped open jacket pockets, and scraped up enough funds to get a business license. Before knowing the true essence of having a strong business foundation, that was the minimum that I knew of. Little by little I discovered that I needed to add additional pieces to my business like my EIN, my DBA, a business bank account, a business phone number, logo, and more. But that awakening would come years afterward as I evolved and grew into a CEO.
What were the first steps you took? The first steps I made when starting my business after obtaining my business license was signing up for a course that taught me how to write my business plan. A business plan is everything. I like to refer to it as a blueprint or roadmap to success. Even with the most basic documents as a new business, I knew that as a photographer and videographer, in order to do business, I also needed to acquire camera equipment and a computer. I’ve always been extremely resourceful so upon my research I learned about a small grant called “Tequity”, which gave me the capital I needed to get the first set of equipment and that is when I really began getting clients and reeling in revenue. I learned about the business IDA (Individual Development Account), which was a banking program that matched $3 for every dollar I saved up to $800 so at the end of the program, I was able to invest another $2400 into my business and upgrade my equipment.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
Becoming an officially certified photographer for government agencies has been one of the most highly effective ways for me to raise awareness for my business. I find that this strategy has been more effective than a traditional advertisement and joining networking groups.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge I’ve had in the early years of my business was finding customers, landing regular paying customers, and trying to find a way to grow my new business to a sustainable company. For the first few years, I spent more time chasing customers than I did running my business and getting paid. So, when the customer chase and my business income did not add up, I knew I had to do something different. Traditional methods of starting and growing a business as a minority, woman-owned photography business located in the urban community weren’t going to work. Because for me, there were limited resources, lack of success stories to follow, and even with higher education, people who look like me just didn’t get very far without the proper investments and guidance in business.
I’ve always been the type of individual that would not give up easily. I knew there was something out there hidden under a rock that was going to open the right door for me to succeed. The one thing that helped me overcome the troubling hurdles in business was my discovery of what I coin the “Trillion Dollar Secret to Government Contracts”. I learned that the US Government was spending trillions of dollars every single year on both products and services and that they had a mandated obligation to provide a % of all their spending opportunities to women and minority small business owners. “Lightbulb Moment”.
That was my golden ticket. And this discovery literally changed my life forever. Not only has it enabled me to successfully grow my business, but it was the solution to having consistent, sustainable income, regular paying customers, and building capacity. Even during the COVID pandemic, while most businesses were forced to close their doors, government contracts were still being awarded and the businesses that were in a position to qualify for these contracts were able to continue growing. It a failproof business model. In fact, between March 2020 and July 2020 the government’s response to the pandemic was $1.5 Trillion spent on cleaning services, masks, sanitizers, and other products and services offered by small businesses. My business success has enabled me to expand my business model into coaching and consulting other women and minority small business owners to show them exactly how I did it and what they need to do to grow their business with government contracts. I’ve been able to help thousands of photographers across the US unlock their potential to do business with one of the biggest players in the game.
How do you stay focused?
What keeps me focused is knowing where I came from and how I started on a nickel and dime budget and was barely able to leverage a program to get my first camera and a basic computer. When you can look back at your journey and clearly see the milestones, the hardships, and the hurdles and can map out exactly what you did to overcome those things to get where you are… You have no choice, but to stay focused on where you’re going. For me, I know that my business is bigger than me. Government contracts have allowed me to flip my photography business into a full-service multi-media company and impact the lives of many other photographers and small business owners around the globe. That lets me know that I have a purpose. And with purpose, I must stay focus on what’s next, because I know there’s something even greater to come of this.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
For me, my business tells a story of how a young girl from the inner city can succeed in anything she puts her heart to. I’ve been able to work on some of the largest billion-dollar projects in the history of my community. Little me. That’s legacy. And I did that with my very own lens. The lens captures the history and tells a story at the same time. I’m a certified woman-owned, minority small business owner who’s qualified to land federal, state, and local government contracts as a photographer. That’s big. That’s legacy.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
My most effective marketing strategy has really been a simple 2 step system. That system is Positioning and Executing. I position myself as a disadvantaged small business looking for opportunities. I know what you’re thinking. Why would I position myself as being a disadvantaged small business? Simply because I’ve learned the Trillion Dollar Secret to Government Contracts. Disadvantaged small businesses have a golden ticket to access and land multiple 5, 6, and 7 figure contracts. From my experience, unless you’re a celebrity photographer, you can’t do that with individual customers as your clients. From there, I simply execute the scope of work that I promise to deliver. Positioning & Executing. That’s the marketing strategy for success.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
The best piece of advice I can provide to aspiring and new entrepreneurs is to start your business with an exit strategy. What is your end goal? Your business is more than that. It’s simply a vehicle that you can use to generate wealth. With that, you want to position yourself for success. Not only do you want to clearly identify your ideal client and have a strategy to reach them, but you want to work every aspect of your business to build its value. What does that mean? At the very minimum, you have a business and customers. But when you leverage your business as a wealth-building vehicle you also want to add multiple streams of services or products that you can offer, business credit, vendors, and sustainability contracts (government or corporate)… When you get that right, you can think about the future. You can think about how, between all the things, you’ve built a valuable multi-billion-dollar business that you can eventually retire from or sell. What is your end goal? Where is your vehicle taking you? That is the question I would leave you with as an aspiring or new entrepreneur.
What’s your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
One of my favorite books of all time as an entrepreneur is “Make Today Count” by John Maxwell.
I absolutely love this book because it helped me to really focus on business on what matters. It’s so easy to get distracted with emails, phone calls, and unexpected situations and that can lead to being very unproductive. The principles taught in this book helped me to prioritize what’s important and delegate what I don’t necessarily have to do on my own so that I can be more effective in my daily efforts to get things done. His theory is based on principles. Similarly, In my own book “10 Habits of The Highly Effective Entrepreneur”, I talk about some of the habits you should develop and implement into your life consistently to be more effective and to get results as an entrepreneur. My theory is based on action steps. What you do counts. It matters. And it can determine your level of success.
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
My favorite tools and resources are Get Response, Leadpages, Waveapps, Paypal, Stripe, Square, Thinkific, Clickfunnels, Canva, Pixieset, Lightroom, Fiverr, and Upwork. I love these tools because it helps me to manage clients, create amazing marketing assets, outsource small tasks, manage assets, and keep track of my revenues. I remember when I first started as a small business and I literally tried to do everything in my business the old fashion way. I refused to invest in tools and resources because of course as a small business owner my mentality was to keep my overhead at a minimum so I can keep the maximum. If you’re thinking that, STOP! Once I learned how to invest in myself and into my business, that’s when my business began to grow exponentially. I would go to tradeshows and business conferences and walk right past all the booths where people were selling these “tools” to help small businesses. I didn’t know just how helpful they would come to be for me. Now, I get every tool that I think would help me save time, be more efficient, automate things, and every resource I can leverage to make me look good. It was apart of my growing pains. At some point, an entrepreneur will need to evolve to be a CEO and it’s the tools and resources that will help you get there.
Who is your business role model? Why?
My business role model is Cliff. He was the first minority small business owner who told me about government contracting and how he was able to grow his first multi-billion-dollar business leveraging his social-economic background. I consider him my role model because he has a similar background as me, growing up in the inner city. He gave me insight into what I was missing. Before learning about government contracts, I was struggling to make ends meet as a small business. He showed me the light and I ran with it. That changed my life.
How do you balance work and life?
Balancing work and life has been one of the most challenging things for me personally. I absolutely love what I do. I especially love helping other people learn the exact system and steps I took to grow my business so I can go 24hrs teaching about contracts and working my own contracts so it’s hard. My husband and kids keep me in check. They remind me that they exist every day and they remind me of the very reason I started my business in the first place. I wanted to be my own BOSS so that I can have the freedom to be there for my kids. So, the habits I discuss in my book “10 Habits of The Highly Effective Entrepreneur” are daily habits I had to implement into my own daily life to have balance.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
My favorite way to decompress is listing to either worship music, inspirational music, or meditation music and just calming my mind. It helps me to control all the many thoughts that float through my mind about what I must do, deadlines, who to call…etc. Everybody needs a way to decompress. For me, I absolutely need to decompress to switch off the entrepreneur's mind to the mom, wife, lady mindset. There must be a clear transition from work to life or everything will become a blur and you can easily get burned out.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
For the next six months, I plan to expand my brand and knowledge through media coverage. I plan to have my story featured in news magazines, articles, podcasts, TV…etc. so that I can inspire and enlighten other small business owners on what’s possible and how they too can sell their services to the government.
How can our readers connect with you?
You can connect with me at:
Karwanna Dyson on Facebook
Phone: 888-694-6446
Email: contact@shesgotgoals.com
Youtube.com/KarwannaD
Podcast: https://karwannad.buzzsprout.com