We were lucky to catch up with Patricia O. Urquiaga recently and have shared our conversation below.

Patricia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

The most important lesson I learned at my prior jobs was to never stop learning. I’m the type of person that loves challenges so I’ve always strived to learn as much as I could from everyone. Prior to opening my own business consulting agency, I held two corporate jobs where I held many titles – administrative assistant, marketing coordinator, account executive, media planner/buyer, head of media planner/buyer, sales executive, operations manager etc. My point is, when you take on a job there will always be people with more experience than you. Instead of focusing on this, I challenge you to learn as much as you can from everyone. Not only your superiors, but interns, assistants, and even employees below your level. Not only will you gain more professional experience, but you will also grow personally, becoming a more educated and well-rounded individual. Plus, learning new skill sets can potentially open doors you never anticipated. For example, for me, I started corporate strictly with a business and marketing background. After many years of learning, I can say I’ve mastered areas such as data, analytics, operations, website design, website development/optimization, SEO, graphic design, and finance just to name a few. All of this led to new opportunities where I worked with clients in various industries and markets globally.

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?

Sure! My name is Patricia, but everyone calls me Patty. I’m Peruvian. I’m in my mid-30’s ;) and am a single mother of 1. I love to travel, eat (I’m a foodie), volunteer and spend time with my family and close friends on my spare time. I hold an Associate’s Degree in Architecture and Design from Broward College, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Florida International University and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with a double concentration in Business Analytics and Entrepreneurship from Syracuse University. After approximately 9-10 years of working in Corporate America and managing clients such as the University of Miami, KinderCare Learning Centers, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, NetSpend, Publisher’s Clearing House, Debt.com etc., in 2018, I decided to open my own business consulting firm (Urquiaga & Company, LLC) – finally pursuing my dream of becoming an entrepreneur.

Urquiaga & Company, LLC partners and advises small to medium-sized businesses across all sectors in the U.S. and internationally on strategy, operations, technology, marketing, advertising, social media, business development and more. Our mission is to “connect” and establish long-term relationships with each client. It’s looking beyond the “transaction” and making sure we understand our client’s goals, wants, needs, concerns, challenges, etc., to develop the “right” solution for each client focused on results.

What sets us apart from others is that we look beyond the “transaction”. We are known for truly caring about our clients and being 100% transparent. We listen and we ask the right questions. We want our clients to be successful so, we motivate them, we inspire them, we apply all our knowledge and expertise when executing on their behalf to make all their goals a reality. We transform their business in a way that makes an impact internally, in their industry and amongst their customers and/or clients.

As the founder, I’m most proud of the company culture I’m creating. We prioritize what’s important to us in life. We work hard, we have fun, but we value and understand the importance of having a well-defined work-life balance. We’re passionate about what we do. We are a goal and a growth-oriented firm. We do whatever it takes to elevate our client’s brand to bring results. We’re executers. We have an eye for operations and always look for ways to make our client’s business smarter. I love how much we love our clients and how we strive to make an impact. I’m most proud that we always put God first and that we give back to our community through volunteerism and mentoring. Other services that our firm offers include lead generation, project management, website development and optimization, and content development and more.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding my business at the beginning was not easy. I opened Urquiaga & Company, LLC a year after I was laid off, so I had limited finances as to what I could put towards the business. However, I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want to start this business by getting into debt. Therefore, I launched the business using funds from my personal savings. My goal as a new entrepreneur was to build steady cash flow. So, I made a big sacrifice early on by becoming a one-woman shop. This allowed me to start building the companies savings and later use those funds to hire independent contractors, market the business and eventually grow. During this process, I also took on a second job outside of the marketing industry. I decided to go back to my roots of being a nail technician and working a part-time job. A percentage of my earnings as a nail tech went straight to my company’s savings account. Lastly, another avenue I explored was finding and applying for grants specifically for small businesses and/or minority women-owned businesses. All of this allowed me to raise a decent amount of cash flow for the business, which is set aside as an emergency fund.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

To date, I’ve been very fortunate that growing my clientele has been thanks to word of mouth. Word of mouth is such a powerful and cost-effective way to grow a business. Since launching Urquiaga & Company, LLC my clients have referred me and sent business my way thanks to the relationship we’ve built. As mentioned in our mission, as a business we focus on establishing long-term relationships from the get-go. It’s looking beyond the “transaction” and making sure we understand our client’s goals, wants, needs, concerns, challenges, etc., to develop the “right” solution for each client focused on results. We are known for truly caring about our clients and being 100% transparent. We listen and we ask the right questions. We want our clients to be successful so, we motivate them, we inspire them, we apply all our knowledge and expertise when executing on their behalf to make all their goals a reality. We transform their business in a way that makes an impact internally, in their industry and amongst their customers and/or clients. We are grateful that all our clients see the value we provide.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/urquiagaandcompanyllc?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Email: [email protected]
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/urquiaga