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

Hi Jamie, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

I had been in operational roles throughout my career. When I was managing an OBGYN practice, we were going through a big transitional time. The founding provider was approaching retirement and the partner was about to become sole owner of the practice. We had been in the same location for decades and were approaching the end of our least. We had to decide if we were going to renew and stay or look for a new location. This was an opportunity to make this long-standing practice a new facelift and for the new owner to make it her own. I had a pretty big job to do and understood the weight of this decision and needed to do my research so that the practice was set up for success. I was going to help the incoming owner make the best decision for her next steps.

So, I had to really do my due diligence and find a commercial real estate broker that could help us through this process. It’s really hard to find someone that isn’t all about the sale but after vetting a few options, we were able to find someone we trusted that would best represent the company and have its best interest at heart, even if it didn’t serve him. We ended up moving to a new location and brokering great deals to get us to the next phase. I worked closely with him throughout this project and maintained a great relationship with him long after it was completed. We got to know each other’s business values and work ethic so when it came time for me to step out on my own and start my own business, it was a natural next step to work together to help in his business operation.

Although he is no longer an active client, we are still very much in touch and are great referral partners for each other. We even get to cross paths on new projects through shared clients!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I founded Seeker Solution with a heart for business owners and leaders and my goal is to help improve business operations in their companies. Seeker Solution is also here as a resource for our clients to ask for advice, lean on for support and be an understanding and listening ear when you just need to unleash and vent!

I started off my career in operations management, so I understand because I’ve been there. And now that I have a business of my own, I connect with other owners through a common understanding of experiences that only we face in this role. Prior to starting Seeker Solution, no matter what company I was with or what level of management I was in, it was ALWAYS so much more than what one person should handle alone. I had many times throughout my journey where I felt overwhelmed and alone. It didn’t matter how many hours I added to my work day, I could never seem to keep up and the load only got heavier and heavier.

This is why I started Seeker Solution. It took me stepping out and away from the hustle to realize that I didn’t have to do it alone. And that what I went through and learned from could be repurposed to help others overcome those same obstacles. We are a boutique business management and consulting firm. We specialize in company growth acceleration and help clients achieve goals, develop leaders, manage money, find customers, create culture and drive results.

Seeker Solution was founded with the mission to ease the business owner’s burdens by stepping in as your company’s C-level advisor. We work with clients who have a footprint both locally and internationally, by providing full-service and itemized solutions. Our customized business solutions include expert collaboration and implementation through Strategic Planning, Training & Development, Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Operations and Process Management to effectively and efficiently achieve business success.

Our clients consist of business owners, executives, operators and administrators. They say some of the reasons they came to us in the beginning was because they felt as if they never had enough time, they were busy, run down, felt like they were spinning their wheels and they didn’t spend their time on what they love to do anymore.

Some common character traits we see in our clients are that they do what they say they are going to do, they realize they need help and they are ready and willing to do the work to make a change. Clients that do not succeed with Seeker Solution are all talk and no follow-through, they are looking for the easy way out and they have a negative perspective.

I’m so proud of the work that we do and how we’ve helped our clients to be more efficient, provide better products and services, cultivate the best staff and company culture and become the best versions of themselves as leaders. But what I am most proud of is the team that we’ve built internally. The relationships we have formed both professionally and personally have been some of the most meaningful in my life. It has not become this way without challenges, but the people we have on our team are people I truly believe I will be connected to for life. We understand and value the same things in business and in life and that is something I couldn’t have put in a business plan or foreseen when starting up.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Like most businesses, the pandemic significantly impacted business. Our client base consists of small and medium-sized businesses in many industries. We had many cancel services or scale back significantly and we got down to an all-time low of just a handful of clients. The only other time we had that few was when I first started up and I was on my own as a solo-preneuer. At that time I had a decision to make. Do I cut back and take over the client accounts and just work them myself again? Or do I stay the course, keep my consultants working on the clients we did have and have faith that we would get through this?

I decided to stay the course.

This was not the best business decision, but it was the right thing to do.

Fortunately for the company and our employees, we had great financial practices in place. We had a significant rainy day business savings account built up over the years. We also had a line of credit in place waiting to be utilized if necessary. Over time, we completely depleted all of our operating cash flow, rainy day funds and maxed out the line of credit. I had payroll fast approaching within the next couple of days and I really didn’t know how I was going to pay my employees. Then it happened. The Payment Protection Program (PPP) funds got deposited into my account and I was able to process payroll the very next day on time, without anyone knowing the difference.

That funding came in just in time and did just as intended for my small business and I will forever look back on that time with gratitude.

Because of the PPP, not only is everyone still working but we got everything back that was lost and then some. We have more clients than we’ve ever had in company history and business is continuing to grow!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing our clientele is doing great work for the clients we have. We do what we say we are going to do, we meet expectations and we deliver great service. Because we take good care of who we have, they become our biggest fans and talk about us all the time to their colleagues. The majority of the clients we have on our roster are because of a referral and even more are with us because another client talked about how invaluable we are to the success of their business. We’re talking over 50% of our current clients are with us because another one of our clients referred them to us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://seekersolution.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seekersolution/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seekersolution/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seeker-solution/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/seekersolution

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