Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ajia Allen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Ajia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure. Digalyne was launched in January 2020 just before the pandemic hit. Oddly, the pandemic was an opportunity to leverage the growth of digital for my own business, while maximizing the interest in digital entrepreneurship. The opportunity was there, but achieving the vision of what I set out to do looked different than with what most were familiar. A skill, turned into a hobby to help friends and family, then an aha moment for a side hustle, and finally it developed into an incorporated digital business.

I set out to do a lot of things. Most of which surrounded doing something to better the state of underrepresented businesses and Black and Brown talent. I wanted to dismantle the myth that Black talent “did not exist” or that Black owned businesses could not be competitive with counterparts.

I wanted to bridge knowledge gaps and maximize the opportunities in what digital had to offer. I wanted to help the lifeblood of the U.S. economy embrace digital readiness for ongoing scalability and innovation.

Unfortunately (and yet with a bite of reality), the pandemic introduced a hard lesson to people and to businesses of all sizes about digital…it’s needed and even more so digital transformation is something worth learning about. This techie buzzword that many may or may not have been familiar with may actually be useful, and in the midst of something disastrous like a pandemic, it can help make or break the viability or growth of business. It can help struggling businesses stay afloat…and even more.

The challenge was that most people within my core customer base… when they hear “digital agency” instinctively think of digital marketing. Yet, when it comes to advancing underrepresented business communities and moving toward the changes in industry, digital marketing does not cut the mustard alone. So, I had to teach and reimagine how to reimagine to enable other people to do the same.

Digalyne, as a proponent of transformation, transformed itself to meet the needs of those with whom we wanted to provide value. Small to rising organizations in various industries usually have a resources gap, challenges in gaining capital, and limited knowledge of digital strategy and application outside of trends, all while digital transformation is helping the largest corporations create an even wider divide between the smaller firms and the existing Fortune 500s.

So I designed Digalyne, as it is today, to meet rising businesses where they are, with an inclusive talent force, through accessible digital strategy services, consulting, and resources. Our vision is to redefine a world of inclusive and human centered digital innovation using the latest tools, technologies, techniques, and the understanding that innovation can come from anywhere and anyone.

Where we’re going is much more pronounced and setting foot in the subscription-based world of digital transformation, community, and equitable innovation at a globally connected scale.

Ajia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Of course, my name is Ajia Allen and I am the founder of early stage startup, Digalyne. I wouldn’t consider myself a “techie,” (though there’s ongoing debate :) ) I am really just a person who loves a challenge and hates anything to do with inequities in our world. I recognize people and their needs on a macro and personal level, and so created Digalyne as a brainchild of me wanting to tackle greater issues like the digital divide and lack of accessibility or inclusivity in the digital transformation industry for people who look like me.

First, I noticed trends among small business owners: they’d reach a point where they wanted to expand, but were uncertain of how to do so. Worse, the divide between businesses in communities of color and the greater digital economy was gaping. These observations inspired a service firm designed to bridge a knowledge and resources gap as organizations launch and scale, while taking hold of new approaches to digital entrepreneurship.

A true entrepreneur at heart, I’m a Strategist, Encourager, Connector, and Writer with demonstrated experience as a digital strategist, certified project manager and technically trained proposal practitioner in the information technology, healthcare, and federal, state, and local government verticals. I have led and supported digital strategy, digital projects and SaaS product launches at the agency, start-up, and global corporate level worth more than $16.4 million.

Born and raised in the Washington, DC metro area, I love to learn, discover, travel the world and embrace cultures. I’m happy to embrace a challenge head on and bring people, especially other women, with me.

Some on paper things I suppose you can note: I’m a certified member of the Project Management Institute and scholar in the Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Arts in Strategic Communications and Digital Marketing, and Bachelor of Arts for studies in Communications and Marketing Management.

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

Absolutely. Starting a small business is nothing but learning how to pivot and embracing lessons learned.

I started the business transitioning from a non-paid hobby and side hustle as a 9-5 full time employee. The real transition was personal and mental and did not happen right away. In fact, it took more than a year in business to recognize the necessity for the mental shift to take place to be able to scale a business. I needed to think bigger. I needed more funding! I needed people! I needed systems and more. No, I did not start with having those established in the way that best met being able to achieve Digalyne’s vision. Nope. I started as a solopreneur who was wildly blinded and derailed from viewing social media entrepreneurs as the example. Big mistake! That mistake cost me time and wasted preoccupation with building social media capital rather than authentically building toward the vision.

I also had to pivot into putting my resources and energy into my business as a full-time venture and as a gateway to investing in other businesses. When you transition from a side hustle to a full-time business, the subconscious idea that you have a safety net has to be eliminated because it tends to reduce the amount of effort needed to maximize business success. Once I realized that I still carried that mentality, I recognized where my business model had to shift along with my daily habits… even how I spoke about Digalyne had to shift.

Pivot. Pivot. Pivot. That’s all you do as a small business owner… and that’s exactly what I help other small to rising businesses do, in the digital space, too.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Yes, that was how I was able to pivot. I actually had full-time employment during the pandemic, though the launch of the business came just before the height of the pandemic’s consequences (lockdowns, layoffs, etc). On top of having to shift from the way I thought about approaching the business (side hustle to full-time business), I also had to restructure all aspects of the business plan, business model, and operations.

Changes included, but were not limited to, reanalyzing the business model, developing a pricing sliding scale for customer affordability, re-evaluating the market, determining the best way forward for wider market penetration, developing a flexible marketing strategy, and bringing on a team of 6 consultants.

Digalyne is launching an opportunity for digital transformation adoption in Washington DC and Dallas to start, and continues to do what’s necessary to grow in organic ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.digalyne.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digalyne_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digalyne/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digalyne-consulting/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3gkvV-jzjBipJVZcG-o4Jw

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