Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shaykara Webster. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Shaykara thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights 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

To me, ideation has always been the easy part. We all have ideas and dreams and hopes. Executing is the hard part, because it requires the faith and courage necessary to share your idea with the world. A few years after completing my MBA program there were countless interactions I had with previous bosses, colleagues, and other young professionals in my network that resulted in successful consultant projects. After so many projects, I decided to take what I was already doing and turn it into a business. To be completely honest, I originally made it a business for personal tax preferences and to utilize the business as an opportunity to give other black professionals access to supplemental income. I grew up around entrepreneurs my entire life so I did have somewhat of an advantage in knowing what my next steps needed to be in order to move towards execution. Some of those preliminary items included deciding on a business name and DBA (if applicable), filing for my EIN on irs.gov, applying for my business license and certificate of organization with the secretary of state, and working with a graphic designer and website developer on my logo and website. Once all of those items were completed I instantly shifted my focus to processes and systems to automate my workflow and sales funnel. How did I want my potential clients to submit inquiries? Did I want them to have access to a set price list, or would all of my service packages continue to be customized to better support my target audience of black owned small businesses and non profits? 3MC Business Solutions started off services clients I personally knew or had previous working relationships with and quickly grew to being a machine that I was able to leverage in multiple 5 figure B2B deals. I have met so many esteemed professionals and learned about so many awesome projects and organizations while simultaneously giving other young black professionals freelance opportunities on my team to service our clients through 3MC Business Solutions, and I look forward to our future endeavors. We are currently in the process of shifting our focus from filling business gaps for small businesses and non-profits to real estate development and investing to help close the affordability gap for black Americans all over the world.

Shaykara, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a 29 year old black woman from Columbia, SC. I attended The University of SC for my undergraduate studies, and Winthrop University for my MBA (HR concentration) program. After graduating from USC I moved to Charlotte, NC to work full time and attend Winthrop full time for their evening / hybrid program. (Not sure what I was thinking doing both work and MBA school full time, but we made it to the finish line). Shortly after completing my MBA program I took a new job opportunity that relocated me to Atlanta, GA in the summer of 2017 and I have been living in Atlanta, GA ever since. My work experience in a nutshell is 10+ years of experience in HR management, talent acquisition & recruiting, and program/project management across multiple industries from beauty to staffing to nonprofit to technology to web3. I currently run a HR department for a web3 technology company full time while simultaneously running my own business (3MC Business Solutions). I am recently married (Sep 2022), so my business was not as high of a priority last year but we had a very successful 2021 and got to work on some huge projects like finding the new CTO for moveon.org and much more. Though we will be focusing our 2023 efforts on transitioning from business consulting to real estate development, we will always work to provide impact in our black communities through all of our endeavors. 3MC Business Solutions originally launched in 2018 to help black business owners fill business gaps that they didn’t have the budget to fill with a full time hire. So for example, instead of a new business spending $70-90k/yr on a HR manager they could spend $20-50k/yr with 3MC and fill their very specific HR needs instead. So if they only needed payroll support that could very well be as affordable as $20k/yr (depending on their headcount) in comparison to the annual salary and benefits they would have to pay a fulltime payroll hire. Fast forward to 2023, 3MC Business Solutions will now be acquiring land and rehab projects to develop into beautiful residences for minority families at below market costs to help combat the rental price crisis many minority families are facing today.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I have had to unlearn the belief that credit is bad. Using credit poorly is bad, but leveraging credit to build wealth is not bad and is something that needs to be discussed more often in black communities. I can’t speak for every black American, and I understand that everyone has different experiences and emotional attachments to money but for me personally I grew up in a household FULL of love and laughter but not as much money. Though we never wanted for anything, I always had a deep rooted desire to figure out why we never had enough money and solve that gap for my family and the family I hope to have some day. I worked extremely hard to become debt free over the past few years (minus student loans), so when the opportunity to leverage credit/debt comes up in business my default response and feelings were to stay away from credit and to only use cash so I can stay debt free. However, the reality is no matter who you are and what is in your bank account the ability to leverage credit will always render bigger end results as long as you are responsible with the credit you have access to.

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

3MC Business Solutions is the perfect example of my pivot in life. We will be focusing our 2023 efforts on transitioning from business consulting to real estate development, but we will always work to provide impact in our black communities through all of our endeavors. Though pivoting can be scary, it should be celebrated. How cool is it that we have the ability to pivot in life?! Instead of fearing how uncomfortable we are with the unknown I am encouraging us all to celebrate the fact that we have the ability to pivot in business, career, and life. This means that we never have to remain stuck in places that no longer serve us, and that is a blessing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shaykarawaajid.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaykara/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/shaykarawebster