We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sherri J White a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sherri J, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

I was able to finally scale up my business by finding out what the people who were patronizing my business really wanted , and then finding out exactly how to give it to them . For so long I was giving my clients what I thought they wanted, as opposed to really figure out what their true needs and desires were. I went through several rough patches where I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, and it wasn’t until I began to survey and ask my clientele what their true needs were, that I started to see how far off I really was. Once I was able to identify what I wasn’t providing my customers, is when I had to self reflect and realize that just because it was MY business didn’t necessarily mean it was all about ME. I began to put systems in place that allowed me to run my companies with the structure, and professionalism that appeased to me, while implementing the right services and processes that worked for them. It was at that point that scalability was possible. Once I got the right formula and implemented the correct blueprint, that magic really started to happen.

Sherri J, 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?

Well I’m Sherri J , teen mother turned serial entrepreneur. Having my child at the age of 14 , I learned early on all about hard work, dedication and work ethic, and those have been the pillars in my life that have gotten me where I am today. I am pretty much a Jill of all trades. From being a Licensed Realtor in both Georgia and Florida, Multi Site Childcare Center Owner, Business Coach, Mentor, and Women in Business Awards show founder and event curator, I literally can do it all. What sets me apart from others is I do the work. Most people have a tendency to obtain a certain level of success, and from there, delegate every duty that comes their way to other individuals. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with this method, its just not the method I choose to take. My creativity and the way it is executed is very important to me, and because of that I must be hands on with everything that is presented with my name attached to it. I am most proud of the fact that although I am as successful as I am. I have still found a way to remain humble in this crazy world we live in. I believe remaining humble and relatable, all while standing in your success is a powerful place to be.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

Yes, in 2017, after about a year of negotiations and back and forth I purchased my first turnkey business. It was a childcare center that was already up and running with approximately 50 kids. Childcare is of course the industry that I identify the most with as I have been in the industry over 14 years now, so when I heard about the opportunity I was intrigued.

The deal came with both the Real Estate and the business, and the price collectively for both was under 500k and by the grace of God I was able to acquire both the business and the real estate with no bank loan.

I purchased this business, because it was an amazing addition to my already extensive portfolio, allowing for me to have another childcare business in an area that I was told was in severe need of the type of Quality Childcare services I provided.

Fortunate for me my acquisition process was fairly smooth. The owner knew what she wanted in a buyer, I knew what I wanted in a seller, and we made it happen. It was honestly one of the most seamless transactions I have ever close on, and 5 years later I am still in possession and ownership of the childcare center.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my audience on Social Media simply by being authentic, and that is truly my advice to anyone seeking to build there social media presence. Be as authentic as you can possibly be, all while learning who your true audience is. If you can master who your audience is, and what they are looking for, you can truly master your online growth and presence. When I first got into social media, I would just post whatever emotion I was in at that time, as long as it was tasteful, I started to see based on who was in that same emotion as me at that particular time was who would engage the most, and from their I was able to begin to create content based on that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sherrijwhite.com www.thegalentinesdagala.com
• Instagram: @sherrijlovely @thegalentinesdaygala
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JereshaSherri
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherrijlovely/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFdnjUfQTNmXsWq8-G6_KOw

Image Credits
Jasmine Lavi Janet Howard