We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leslie Sharp. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leslie below.

Leslie, appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Thank you for allowing me to share with your readers. Yes, my marketing business is significantly larger than when I first began. Today, our agency has a full roster of both retainer and project clients. Within our first year in business, I could pay myself two and half times what I earned at my most recent job. I have two paid team members, and our agency revenue increases quarterly.

But for years, it was just me. I worked late nights, very early mornings, and weekends while maintaining full-time employment. I would take any project people offered me. I was saying “yes” to everything from logo creation to banner design. Not only was I taking any job, but I was also completely clueless about what to charge. Additionally, I had no systems or parameters in place to dictate how I worked with clients. I was working tirelessly and not making anywhere near enough money for the amount of work I was doing.

I knew I needed to make a change when I no longer enjoyed what I was doing. Marketing was always a passion of mine, but the stress of how I was side hustling began to make me question if building a business was the right path for me. It turns out entrepreneurship is the path for me, I just needed some help understanding the difference between building a business and simply delivering a service. Everything changed for the better when I got that help and that clarity.

Scaling up actually meant scaling back. First, I narrowed our service offerings to pre-defined packages emphasizing social media marketing. I was no longer accepting random jobs from clients. Instead, I was clear about what I was offering. I also narrowed my target audience to focus on established businesses with a marketing budget and clearly defined goals. And I developed a new pricing formula. I learned to price based on the value I added to the client’s business. This allowed me to serve fewer clients while charging more than I was previously.

The main obstacle was my mindset. I was completely terrified of transitioning from a “side hustler” to a full-time entrepreneur. I had clients, a track record, and results but running my business on the side while working a full-time job felt “safe.” However, in feeling safe, I also felt completely miserable. In receiving business coaching and going to therapy, I learned fear is natural with big transitions. I became more comfortable with being uncomfortable.I return to this thought each time I need to make a new leap in my business and over time, I’ve become less fearful.

Strategically, one of the best things I did was hire a team. I never want to compromise the level of excellence I give my clients. However, there is only so much work I could do as one person. I was drowning in projects, and the quality was suffering. Learning how to price my services for profitability allowed me to hire an operations manager/content creator and a finance manager. In addition, we contract for additional services like public relations and web development as needed, which does not affect our margins. Providing exceptional service to clients increases our referral rates, and it’s the main way our business grows. That top-tier service wouldn’t be possible without our team. Having a team also protects me from burnout. Recently, I took a week-long vacation, and our agency was able to operate and serve clients as normal. That’s a major win for me!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

When I was in high school, I saw an MTV documentary about Sean Combs and how he built Bad Boy Records. It highlighted how marketing was the engine behind the brand. At that moment, I knew I wanted to study marketing. It’s said that most college students change majors at least once, but I never waivered from marketing. After earning my degree, I was fortunate enough to land a significant role at an aviation consulting firm, where I traveled and learned practical business management skills.

From there, I transferred my business acumen into the nonprofit sector, working for large-scale nonprofits like the American Heart Association. It was around that time I began my first two entrepreneurial endeavors as a resume writer and a wedding planner. Resumes are personal marketing campaigns, and I enjoyed using my business skills to help individuals find employment. I also see weddings as branding mediums as the really memorable weddings reflect the values and personality of a couple. As I made more contacts in the nonprofit industry, I was invited to conduct workshops and marketing seminars. I saw many leaders struggling with reaching audiences as the prevalence of social media began to take off.

So, I shifted from resumes and events and went all-in on building my marketing agency. While working full-time, I spent evenings and weekends refining my service offerings, building my clientele, investing in coaching, and developing my business structure. I launched my full-time marketing agency in November 2020. Now, our agency specializes in full-scale integrated marketing. That means we ensure consistency across every avenue in which potential customers would interact with a business. For example, we may write the script used when answering the phones to ensure that matches the brand voice presented in social media campaigns. We’ll do employee training to help reinforce how to be representatives of the brand they work for.

I’m proud that I built my business on faith and hard work. Nothing was handed to me; we operate with integrity and deliver on what we say. We have served multiple industries across the country, and we’re just getting started.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A big lesson I had to unlearn was the “hustle culture” mindset. This is the belief that success will come only if you grind at all costs, forsaking rest and leisure. Being no stranger to hard work, the hustle culture mindset initially felt comfortable. However, a full-time job, serving clients, volunteering in ministry, and taking classes proved to be absolutely overwhelming. I turned to my faith for guidance. I was reminded that my belief system promises both rest and success. Furthermore, it doesn’t say they are only available separately. I learned to trust God more and let Him guide me on when to rest. I now embrace rest, breaks, and vacations as a part of my success strategy.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

The initial funding for my business came from my full-time job! Entrepreneurship is often glamorized. I think a part of the glamourization is how one begins their business journey. We often see the stories of those who quit their jobs with no alternatives, just a belief to “bet on themselves,” and they ended up making it big. Or the person who won a big pitch competition and received grant funding for their business. Those stories are great, but there is another group of entrepreneurs. That’s those who fund their dream with their day job. I feel like that doesn’t sound as “sexy” as just walking away from a job and never looking back, so we don’t applaud it as much. But, I believe this smart and calculated approach allowed me several advantages. One, I could focus on building my business my way without answering any investors. I also never had to worry about paying anyone back. Instead, I always put money back into the business. Funding my business with my day job also allowed me to build my business without tremendous pressure. I didn’t have to worry about how bills would get paid, so I could focus all my energy on the business, not trying to survive. I committed to still doing my day job well and not slack on performance. That paid off as my former employer ended up being one of my first 5-figure clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.leslieljones.com
• Instagram: @lesNluv
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leslie.lorelle.jones/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/leslieljones
• Twitter: @leslieljones
• Other: My next venture, along with my business partner Shanta Lowery, is Black Bride Box. We aim to fill a void in the wedding space by delivering culturally relevant, Black-owned bridal products to engaged African American women looking for the perfect subscription box. Learn more at www.blackbridebox.com