Maximizing profits, minimizing expenses and finding talented staff to keep things moving seem to be top challenges for both SMBs and large corporations. We have been interviewing companies from around the world to discover what challenges they are facing in their businesses. We also asked each company to share business advice they would give to a younger version of themselves.
Below is our interview with Brice Holmes, Founder & CEO at ONtrepreneur Academy:
What does your company do?
ONtrepreneur Academy helps everyday people build online businesses around their passions, expertise, and ideal lifestyle. We offer online courses and other tools that are designed to help students master product creation, online technology, marketing, sales, advertising, and much more.
Everything in our curriculum is built on top our “ROI” Launch Funnel System, which is a plug-and-play blueprint for designing, building, and automating a wide variety of online businesses. Our goal is to, not only provide actionable systems for our students, but also help them experience the joy, freedom, and excitement that online businesses have to offer.
What is your role? What do you enjoy most about your role?
I’m the CEO of ONtrepreneur Academy and my role is to help our audience understand and believe that online business can create freedom in their lives. Everyone has their own version of freedom, and it’s my job to help our students find theirs – whether it’s financial freedom, location independence, freedom of time, or something else altogether. One of the things I enjoy most about my role is watching a student take a new lease on life when they realize they no longer have to be tied to their career or traditional mindset. It’s not just about breaking free from the 9-to-5. It’s about leveraging technology to make their businesses work for them. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, but I find a lot of joy in helping those who have the passion and guts to bet on themselves.
What are the biggest challenges in your business right now?
One of the greatest things about our industry is that there are new technologies, tools, and opportunities being introduced every day that make online business easier, less expensive, and more accessible to our students. Consequently, this also happens to be one of our biggest challenges as educators, because our students are often overwhelmed by the vast number of options available to them. We’re constantly adapting to make sure our students are aligned with the best tools and strategies for their budget, risk tolerance, and skill level – without adding to the overwhelm. It’s exciting to be in this position, because we have the opportunity to provide immense value for our students. By speeding up the learning curves associated with building an online business, we not only save our students time, energy, and money, we also increase their likelihood of success.
If you could go back in time, what business advice would you give to a younger version of yourself?
Let go of the perfectionism and improve as you go. When I first started out in online business and product creation, I was consumed with making sure everything we put out was near-perfect before it ever saw daylight. Our Website. Our content. Our courses. No detail was exempt from scrutiny, which not only hindered our momentum, it delayed important validation from our customers. Doing so fundamentally assumed that we were focusing on the right elements of our business, and that “perfect” was universal for everyone. When we put those assumptions aside and allowed more customer feedback and data to influence our decisions, we found that we were able to deliver quicker, better, and more effective solutions for our students. It also cut down on development resources, which has allowed us to keep reinvesting in and improving our value proposition.
