We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Lewis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Ideas come from dreams. I fully agree that if you can dream it, you can achieve it.

Here are Mobu Enterprises Steps to success

Vision into a plan
1. I have visions and I wrote these visions very clearly via a business plan. Many people would say writing a business plan before starting business is unwise. I say if you don’t plan, you plan to fail. How will you know you can proceed if you haven’t understood your market, industry, or customer? A business plan allows you to prescribe your steps within your business and without it, it will have you misdirecting your energy on things that are not relevant to your business success. Make a plan and write it clearly.

Team work makes the vision work
2. Once you have a business plan, I figured out who was going to be on my team. There is a section of the business plan that speaks of management or team. Our challenge as business owners is we try and do everything ourselves, even if you are capable, why would you put so much burden on yourself? Don’t put more on you than your time will allow. Find out who you need on your team, make sure they align with your vision, and travel the road together pushing the business plan to its max until its time to scale.

Slow movement is better than no movement
3. You have your plan written, now you have a team, next is finding your customer. Set a meeting with your team and paint the picture of your ideal customer. I would place a primary and secondary target audience. From there, find out who they are and what they like. The major question to ask your team, do we solve this group of people’s problems? If not, redirect your energy. If yes, find out how to market to them.

Mo likes, mo problems
4. Since you now know your audience and how to reach them. Do test marketing to see how they respond to your marketing tactics. Marketing was in the business plan too, so follow your marketing plan. Remember that the “Mo” they like you, the “Mo” they will buy which will lead to scaling for your business.

Scaling is as Scaling does
5. You are almost at the end. You had a vision. You created a plan. You found your tribe. You know your audience AND they like you. So now what? How can you leverage all of your social capital to benefit you in the long run. Scaling is as scaling does, the leveraging of all of what you have done so far is predicated upon, does your vision, plan, team, and audience love you long time? If they do, what else can you do to make them continue to love you? Create loyalty programs, offer new products, giveaways, subscriptions, ecourses, or sweepstakes? Scaling requires deeper engagement. Figure out how to deepen the connection and spread the love of your business to a broader audience.

Sustainability and Succession is the end all be all.
6. To bring these steps together I would say the final step is sustainability and succession. While I didn’t mention much about systems within this explanation. Your number 1 key to success is having a system that anyone can follow, even your grandchildren from a succession prospective and your customers children from a sustainability perspective. Ask yourself will your customers children need your product? Will your great grandchildren want to inherit your business?

In sum,

These will allow you to begin, grow, and sustain any business. Don’t overthrow it, just do it!

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

Who is Jessica

Jessica Lewis was birthed to her parents, but she rebirthed many a time throughout her life depending on her direction. She is a Ghanian named Asafoanye Korkoyoe Wayoe Tetteh. She is also a free national named Ablaa Fawziya Bayyacht. I mention allograft this because I am multi faceted. I’m a multipreneur, having 4 primary businesses. I have a green design build Construction firm where we build residential and commercial structures out of shipping containers. I have a business management consulting company which helps business owners from idea to conception including asset protection strategy. I have a finance company where we help people obtain business and real estate funding including Wall Street raises. Lastly, I have a Ankara Fashion Design how that focuses on custom tailored clothing and street wear. I have been in business for 20 years, sharpening my skill sets and following my visionary curations. I have a wonderful tribe and always appreciate a good partnership

Why did I start Mobu Enterprises (My Green Design Build Firm)

I was tired of seeing my previous employers not use green building for good. It was about money to them and I wanted to solve world problems. I started Mobu 4 years ago and In my mind, the shipping container is THE one tool that can solve all of the housing challenges worldwide. It’s water, fire, and wind resistant. It is much like Legos where you can stack them, place them side by side, to make anything you can imagine. Our motto is ,The sky is not the limit”.

We help our clients achieve design ideas that deflates traditional construction capabilities. I’m pleased to say that containers can push the housing envelopes and can aid in solving the world housing crises. The only challenge we have is, at the local levels, municipalities and other industry professionals need to think globally with its use and adoption in building codes not as a “alternative” ordinance but as a main component in these regulations. When described as a alternative and not primary it makes it seem like it’s different, more complicated, and lends to it being out of the ordinary leaving no comparisons for easy adoptions. They make it seem like it’s so different, that they don’t have anything to compare it to or it’s more risky because they don’t understand the process to erect a building made out of containers.

Frankly, it’s ignorant and unprofessional for those who have decision making power to not seek to understand how it CAN with versus CANNOT work within their frame of regulations. This is my passion, purpose, and priority with respects to making it a common use in Construction.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being a woman in construction and both of us being Melanated in the green Construction space lends to our resilience. I have personally been challenged and as a company been challenged by not heing considered seasoned enough to provide insight or do projects.

Our proudest moments were us being accepted in the industry as experts, which meant we were asked to speak on panels, educate others in other platforms about the use of containers for construction, and even, of course receiving our first client. The trust that has now been established within this industry is proudly accepted and humbly appreciated.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We are currently dealing with the need to pivot our company’s business model from site built to plant built, along with single family to multi family, both for the same reason. Currently the housing need is far too great for us to only do single family homes, building this way would not allow for us to keep up with demand. As a result, we are progressing toward opening our manufacturing plant and also moving toward large scale development projects to keep up with the housing needs of our community worldwide. Plant built will allow us to build faster and on a larger scale, decreasing our time to market. It’s just a necessary pivot based on the greater need of the community. We scale based on need not dollars.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.shippingliving.com
• Instagram: Www.instagram.com/shippingliving
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shippingliving
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobu-enterprise/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCVXiUGOrzgXYmyUYO3BjS9Q
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/438090099949243/?ref=share