We were lucky to catch up with Latrisha Anderson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Latrisha, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your firm earns is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

I started my first business in 2007, and it failed tremendously since I didn’t have the proper foundations, tools, and resources. It wasn’t until some years later that I knew I had to give entrepreneurship another try. I walked away from a high-paying director-level position to start VISIONful so I could help entrepreneurs across the globe take action to make their entrepreneurial dreams a reality while also connecting them to grant funding.

During this journey, I had to decide to make a mindset shift and release every excuse that tried to hold me back from living a life of purpose, passion, and destiny through the avenue of entrepreneurship. I am a mother of five kids, so trust me, I understand to the fullest of not having enough time to focus on pursuing personal dreams and aspirations. But I just couldn’t keep going into my 9–5 every day with the feeling that I was created to do more and to be more. The easy part for me was committing to chase after and pursue my entrepreneurial vision. The hard part was deciding to take some practical steps without having a blueprint.

In 2015, on a drive home from work one day, I thought about what I truly wanted to do in life, and I realized I enjoyed and desired to help people take action to fulfill their visions and dreams, and hence, the business and movement VISIONful was born. A few months later, I told my former employer that I was leaving the company, and I also asked them to become my first client. Five businesses later, they are still one of my clients today! I will never forget the day my employer became my first client!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I was a senior in college, I was placed at an internship at a counseling agency, and I was tasked with researching grant opportunities that the agency could apply to. That was the moment I learned that there was free money that organizations could receive to cover business expenses and programming costs. From that day forward, I immersed myself in the world of grants! For the last 16 years, I have helped non-profits, businesses, universities, schools, and organizations secure over $42,000,000 in grants. The plan was to become a licensed family therapist, but instead, I furthered my education by earning a Master’s in Grants Management. This was the same year I started VISIONful. I knew I had to use my skills and knowledge in the field to help others. I didn’t start my company for the money. I started it for the impact! I wanted to help “dreaming entrepreneurs” become VISIONful Entrepreneurs who took action to make their dreams a reality. Not only do I provide resources to aspiring entrepreneurs to launch, sustain, or grow their businesses, but I also connect them to grants and other resources. I provide grant writing, coaching, and educational services to individuals and organizations. I am most proud of how I serve a community of entrepreneurs. Over the last year, I have gained a new title of grant funder. I love to coach and educate leaders and entrepreneurs on securing money they don’t have to pay back, but I love being the one to distribute the grant check. Over the last year, VISIONful has distributed over $40,000! For November, we will issue $10,000 in grant funding to celebrate National Entrepreneurs Month! I win grants so that I can give grants, which separates VISIONful from any other business development or grant firm.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I actually had a major pivot earlier this year when my family and I (all 7 of us) moved from Georgia to Florida. I have five children, so for me, family time and flexibility are very important. I recognized that I was in the season where I needed to focus on my children and family, which meant I couldn’t take on every client or write everyone’s grants. I knew I had to make a pivot and start offering more digital services and products so that I could free up my time while also serving more people. Since January, I have had over 7,000 people request support or my services. There is no way for me to provide quality direct grant writing services for all those people even though we were a team of 10. I knew it was time to pivot and scale. My team and I launched digital grants guides, new entrepreneur launch bundles, numerous digital products, and I also developed an ever-green Grants Academy. I also have a new flagship subscription program where entrepreneurs can learn from me and access my insight, direction, and coaching by joining my Grants Core Group. The entire 2023 has been a pivotal year for sure. I really had to lock in this and discipline myself to keep pushing through, to keep creating, to keep piloting, to keep evaluating, and to keep moving beyond my perceived limitations. This year hasn’t been without challenges, but in essence, I walked away from hundreds of thousands to pivot and create a business model that will be more sustainable, scalable, and lucrative in the future, all while being more present and available to my little ones.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I asked my employer to become my first client, this was also how my business was initially funded. I had no backup plan. I just knew and had faith that I was using the best strategy. Since then, however, I have secured over $260,000 in grants awarded to my companies. I secured this capital by focusing more on impact than on the money! The last grant I won was for $10,000 from Beyonce’s BeyGood Foundation. The best part about winning this grant is that I also helped 10 other entrepreneurs win this same grant! I am a grant-winning blueprint, and I encourage every entrepreneur seeking grants to join my Grants Core Group at https://getthebagwithla.com/ so that I can help you raise capital (specifically grants) to launch, grow, or sustain your business. I also encourage you to join my free VISIONful Entrepreneurs 21-Day Challenge at https://visionfulsolutions.com/pages/challenge .

Contact Info:

• Website: https://getthebagwithla.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_visionful_entrepreneur/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VISIONful/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latrisha-anderson-27264a42

Image Credits
Mayweather (@mayweatherimage)