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

Alright, Rosalie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.

You never forget that feeling! Especially coming from a traditional corporate role where I wasn’t in a sales facing position, switching to owning my own business was a whole new experience for me. I was now responsible for bringing in the dollars. My first dollar came from someone I met on a virtual platform. I had connected with them and we started messaging. Based on my virtual presence and content, they ended up scheduling a discovery call to learn more about what I do. It was a great conversation and I sent over a proposal afterwards so they could decide if they wanted to move forward. Waiting wasn’t easy. I knew the conversation had gone well, but you just never know. A couple days later I got the email, “Let’s do it!” I was elated. To me, it meant someone recognized the value my services could offer and understood how it could help strengthen and protect their business. It also meant my business had its first customer. It was definitely a special moment for me and Portecua Consulting.

Rosalie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always been about building and growing, and my latest chapter has brought me into entrepreneurship. In early 2023, I founded Portecua Consulting on a mission to empower every impact-driven business with a powerful enabler: a risk lens.

A risk lens transforms the way we approach every decision in our businesses so we can make the best decisions that will grow, optimize and protect our businesses—everything from strategy, finances to operations. There are so many risks we face when we start businesses and I want us to be in the best position to identify and get ahead of them. I’m taking everything I learned from my 14-plus-year career and pouring it into our women and people of color entrepreneurial communities because I believe we deserve equal access to the risk knowledge, strategy and tactics for success. We deserve to be empowered to make strong and sound business decisions as we disrupt the business landscape and become powerhouse leaders. We also 100% desire and deserve safe spaces to grow, to be represented, and to build wealth for ourselves and future generations, and I want to contribute to that.

And part of my biggest contribution that I’ve focused on this year is to write a book—a business book that will enable you to build, lead and protect your business with confidence. Trust me when I say I want all of us to have this knowledge to succeed! The book is told from the lens of stories so you can understand and avoid the mistakes others have made in building their businesses. I also don’t want anyone to be afraid of risk so the book is written for you to become friends with risk. Build a Beautiful Business con Confianza. Look out for it very, very soon.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I never thought I’d find myself laid off, but I did in 2022. I was shocked, devastated and frustrated, and I could’ve easily let it get me down. But instead of going down a negative path, I saw it as a positive path to new beginnings. I took the opportunity to reset and assess where I wanted to take my next chapter. From a development standpoint, I had been putting off pursuing my next certification due to lack of time, and now I had the time so there I went—heads down for three months studying and taking (and passing) all parts of the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) exam. During that time, I also decided that this setback would not get in the way of my career growth. I’ve always been a builder and building a business was on my list of future aspirations. I took this layoff as a sign to start my consulting business and take my risk and audit expertise to help entrepreneurs protect and optimize their businesses. With that, Portecua Consulting was born.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Communities—both virtual and in-person. When I started my business, I intentionally sought out communities where I could connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs who were after true impact with their business. I found several female and Latina-led communities that had members who wanted to drive change and disrupt as much as I did. The great thing about being in communities is that you don’t join them just to source clients. You join them to genuinely connect with others. The more you interact, the more you learn about what they do and they learn about what you do—and then they have you top of mind if they, or someone they know, needs your product or your services. It becomes a natural client source versus purely a sales source. Communities have been a fantastic way to connect and grow my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://portecuaconsulting.cpa/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/portecuaconsulting/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/portecua/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@portecuaconsulting

Image Credits

Nevenka Trinajstic