We were lucky to catch up with Juan Mejia recently and have shared our conversation below.

Juan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Please tell us about starting your own firm and if you’d do anything different knowing what you know now.

Taking the leap into entrepreneurship is never an easy task. I also do not think there is a right or wrong way about doing it. It becomes part of the entrepreneurship journey. I was fortunate to have been surrounded by individuals that had started their businesses before me and through their wisdom skipped some hurdles along the way. I often see how people pay hundreds of dollars for third party companies to file with the Secretary of State’s Office when it only costs a fraction of that. Additionally, it is free to obtain an EIN but many people do not know that and get taken advantage of when it comes to business formation services. The challenge I faced when I started JCM Ventures was that I got inundated with the work and put planning and structure on the back burner. We as entrepreneurs often get caught up in the working of the business that the planning and structure often get left for when we get a “breather”. When it comes to clients, I quickly learned that quality is so much more important than quantity. You want to make sure you and your clients are a good fit for another. The biggest piece of advice is to find like minded individuals that are further in the process than you are. As entrepreneurs each of our journeys is different but there are lots of similarities along the way that we can learn from one another. Also keep in mind, “you must enjoy what you do and who you do it with”!

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

I immigrated from Colombia and grew up in Metro-Atlanta. After graduating from Kennesaw State University, I joined corporate America and oversaw operations for a franchise chain in the southeast. In 2016, I founded JCM Ventures to aid entrepreneurship and scale organizations. JCM Ventures has three divisions: strategy, development, and site selection. Through our strategy division, we work alongside leadership to identify and help execute processes and procedures to help accomplish both tactical and long-term goals. In the development division, we work to diversify and strengthen revenue while creating partnerships along the way. The site selection division was introduced in 2019. I obtained my real estate license as many of my clients were Spanish speaking and there were very few Spanish speaking commercial agents. I was able to help my clients with their commercial real estate needs in a language they were most comfortable in.

In regards to the most proud stories with clients, I will share two of them. On the consulting side, one of my favorite projects was working with Rehabilitation Enables Dreams Inc. (RED) in order to expand their restorative justice program into Gwinnett County. RED’s curriculum is structured to develop a participant’s social, civic, and financial literacy and get them into society with the tools to succeed. In the commercial real estate realm, I work with several foreign governments’ consulates in Atlanta helping them relocate their offices. I am able to work with the local team, the government leaders abroad, and the US Dept of State making sure all entities are on the same page to move forward with our plans.

I am actively involved with the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. Through my involvement, I DT Spade’s President and decided to partner with the firm to help not only imagine but help build our city. Currently, I am helping grow the firm’s nonprofit and government vertical. I am the proud product of community organizations and now have the honor to give back and serve some of those organizations that poured into me. I think we should always continue to invest in ourselves and do so by participating in various leadership programs like: ARC’s Regional Leadership Institute, Hispanics in Philanthropy’s Lideres Fellowship, GHCC’s Cultivating Hispanic Leadership Institute, among others.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

Part of the entrepreneurship journey involves “unsuccessful” ventures that are full of insight and learnings as well as the ones that grow further than expected. In 2016, I also began a marketing agency as I saw a need for marketing, real and honest marketing. What started as helping our immediate network, quickly grew and we had to bring on a team to be able to serve our clients. We ended up merging our agency with another rapidly growing agency that provided complimentary services. We continued to grow together and the company needed full dedication for all C-suite leaders. That is when I had to make a decision, to pour my energy, time and effort into marketing or JCM Ventures providing the consulting services to clients. It was hard to have to choose between two “babies” but I knew my passion was helping business owners navigate operational challenges. I sat down with my business partner and devised a plan to buy me out of the company and roll off slowly to not impact operations. I know the company had strong potential for growth and with the right people in place giving it all…the possibilities were endless. While not a full acquisition of the firm, stepping away from my role was a tough decision. As a founder, it is important to know when it is time for you to pivot: that could mean services, clients, company leadership, or in my case stepping away from the company as a whole to pursue my passion. Now, years later from making that decision, I am happy continuing to follow my passion: to help leaders and their organizations make informed decisions.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think there is not one answer to this question. It is a combination of different factors but I will cover two important ones to me: the quality of service and being involved. As a business owner, there are plenty of attention grabbing opportunities to provide our clients but none are more important than the quality of our work. We could give our work away for free but if the quality is not there people still would not want to work with us. You can tell when people are knowledgeable and love what they do within the first interaction. Being involved is the other factor mentioned, when you are part of the community you serve it is easier for people to get to know you. I do not mean showing up and passing out business cards but truly being present for causes of the community. It is getting to know people and building long term connections. Maybe business comes from it, maybe it does not but one thing’s sure: building genuine relationships will go further than transactional ones.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jcmvpro.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcmventures/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jcmejiatl
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcmejiatl/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jcmejiatl
• Other: https://linktr.ee/jcmventures

Image Credits
NAHREP Atlanta, Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, GA Trend Magazine, Rehabilitation Enables Dreams Inc, Consulate General of El Salvador in Atlanta