We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dawn Sipley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dawn , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

In my job prior to starting my business, I had started as a part time employee at a staffing company where I proved myself extremely valuable to the ownership. As a way to keep me engaged with the company, they offered me sweat equity and just like that, I was a business owner! This was something I had never set out to accomplish so I was so proud of myself. I constantly was self learning different aspect of the business, marketing, sales, A/R and more. After a brutal separation from my business partner after 12 years of dedication, I was gutted. I had been fooled and deeply betrayed by someone I thought had my best interest in mind. The last thing I wanted to do was start another business but under the insistence of those around me, I started my company Sipley The Best with nothing but a prayer that I could feed my family. Instead of filling job orders day in and day out, I wanted to teach people how to hire. The worked flowed in immediately, I had people sending money through money apps at first, because I was yet to set up a business checking account! My success was instant, my reputation and my community showed up big time in support of my vision. Soon though, I realized I couldn’t do everything WELL, alone. I noticed my service started to suffer and I needed support. Now, just because I knew HOW to hire, didn’t mean I could afford to do so. So I got creative and called my local Career Source who I knew had Federal dollars to help small business owners hire. I completed the application and was approved for a grant that would pay 50% of my new hires salary, for the duration of 6 months. The process was tedious and time consuming but with my new office manager earning $40K, it was worth it! Within 6 months of releasing all my administrative duties, our company quadrupled in revenue! The next hires were easy :)

Dawn , 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?

In college, I was a Realtor, it was the perfect part time job for full time money. I had an amazing Broker who taught me the ropes of business and sales, at a 101 level. At the age of 23, my mother tragically passed when she was 44 and I instantly received custody of one wounded 16 year old sister. Honestly, I was a mess myself but knew I had to get a job where there was insurance. So I went to the mall, where I had a terrible boss. This allowed me plenty of room to grow and learn though and before I knew it, I had built an amazing team around me and word got out I was an amazing recruiter. Over the next few years, I found myself recruiting for national non profits, technology firms, which made me a perfect recruiter for a staffing company.

I was always shocked at how much our clients in staffing would pay us for something I found so simple and easy to do. I was a natural and success came quickly. I moved swiftly from part time recruiter, to recruitment manager and then VP and finally Franchisee/owner. During my time in staffing, I discovered I loved working with small business owners. I could see my impact not only in the numbers of the business by making strategic hires, but also an impact on the lives and families of those we employed.

Having a love for the public speaking and teaching, I thought that teaching others how to hire better might be a great complimentary business to the staffing world. The old adage, “Give a man a fish and you can feed him for the day, teach him how to fish and he can feed himself for a lifetime.” Little did I know, this would soon be my entire business model in the next chapter of my life.

Sipley the Best charges a simple flat monthly fee to our clients to be of service and assistance to all of their HR needs, especially around recruitment. Gone are the days of clients paying a 20% contingent fee for EVERY SINGLE hire…..instead pay less and learn how to do it along the way, allowing our clients to make as many hires as they want for 1 flat fee. Am I leaving money on the table? ABSOLUTELY…do I love what I do, UNDOUBTABLY!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

Act Like You Belong…. There was a huge manufacturer in our town where I had long wanted to do business but so did every other competitor! Their gate keeper was great at their job. Well, being a mom of a Girl Scout, it was cookie season and we were up to our eyeballs in these crazy cookies! One day, I read in the local paper about this “Big Kahuna” prospect that I wanted to land….they mentioned the name of the HR Director. That was all I needed….I hopped in my Jeep with 1 of each of our GS cookie flavors and headed to their facility.
I walked up to the front desk, just as I had a million times before and said “Hi, I am here with John’s Girl Scout Cookies” She smiled sweetly and said, “Oh those always get me intro trouble” and she buzzed me through. Well…..obviously since I acted like I belonged there, she thought I knew where I was going….I had no clue but I waltzed through the doors without hesitation.

As I walked down the halls, it was quiet but there were name plaques on the door, accounting, payroll, purchasing….I was getting closer. Finally I saw someone and again announced, “I am delivering John’s GS Cookies, can you point me in the right direction?” After a left and a right turn, I saw his door, “HR Director”. The door was open and there sat a stressed looking man, deep in concentration.

I said, “Hey John, knock knock, I have your cookies!” He said, “I didn’t order any cookies”, as I entered his office and sat down. I said “oh which is your favorite”….Thin Mint of course and I quickly popped open the box, opened the sleeve of what I now call Money Mints and slid them across his desk. He swiftly scooped them up and took a cookie, biting into with satisfaction and I announced, “so my name is Dawn, I am with …..He never knew what hit him but he ate half the sleeve during my pitch.

I did over a million dollars annually with that company for many years.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Just as the nation was coming out of COVID lock down, our community had its first in person Job Fair. A local company had registered but was uncomfortable with exposing themselves to so many people. With Sipley The Best being an HR Consulting company, they asked if we would attend on their behalf, they would pay us. They were amendable to our rate and I just happened to ask, if I could advertise the job openings of our other clients. They didn’t care, they were hiring accountants, they just wanted those resumes. If a welder or receptionist came by and I could introduce them to a hiring company, then great, better for everyone!

So, our Job Fair services idea was born! We charge half of the registration fee to go a job fair, advertising their openings and returning all the resumes collected to them! They can hire as many people as they like, at no additional charge. Our clients love it, we make a ton of money for doing something that we would be doing anyway, and they don’t have to do any of the “work” of participating in a job fair.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sipleythebest.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sipleythebest/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SipleyTheBest
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sipley-the-best/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sipleythebest6545
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sipley-the-best-sanford?osq=sipley+the+best