We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Veronica Yanhs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Veronica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

It’s no secret that the moment you interact with the Business Laid Bare brand, you immediately know that we’re no ordinary business— we’re an operations strategy agency focused on helping impact-driven startup founders streamline their day-to-day operations so that they can increase their income and impact with immense ease, pleasure, and sustainability. Additionally, You also see our bold sex and kink-positive brand and know that this is something that is core to who this business is. The home page is a picture of me naked, laid bare tastefully and cheekily.

Combining operations and kink/BDSM was never a question. It’s so easy to mold the two together into the Business Laid Bare brand. Our brand is everything, influencing how we work and who we work with. I knew the moment I started this business that I had to show up 100%. I’ve hidden enough in my life and quieted this part of me to “remain professional”. I knew that if I didn’t show up in my own business wholly, the business would never succeed.

It’s a risk for sure. Sex, kink, and BSDM are already something that is still so taboo even though it’s much more mainstream than before. I’ve had plenty of unsolicited business advice from business owners and professionals in the past: tone your kink down and don’t be so polarizing so that your brand doesn’t reflect your revenue.

I’m sure I’ve lost some money by being who we are. But, if people cannot accept me or my business exactly as we are, we were never meant to work together successfully anyways. I’m happy to say that being myself, “turning up the kink”, and showing the world that we are experts in our field, the revenue and inquiries have continued to pour in. I’m living the dream: creating an impact for our clients to thrive while also being accepted for who I am exactly as I am.

Veronica, 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 became immersed into product design and entrepreneurship while I was an undergraduate at Stanford University. During that time, I worked on countless projects exercising product design skills (minus the sketching!) and project management skills. I realized that being able to take information and turn them into timelines, frameworks, and repeatable processes was a skill that not everyone had. I immediately began working on larger projects with Apple and after graduating, have consulted for Nike and various other organizations as well.

The entrepreneurial itch never went away. So, I did the one thing that made sense: turn my expertise into a business.

Business Laid Bare is an operations strategy firm that provides consulting and implementation services for the many different clients and businesses we work with: service-based agencies, non-profits, e-commerce, and brick and mortar shops. The common theme that ties in all our clients are that they consider themselves impact-driven: they have a desire to do exceedingly well so that they can take the profits they gain and do good with it in the world (from investing in employees to creating generational wealth to donating to organizations that matter to them).

Our clients come to us because they know they aren’t operating as efficiently as they can. Their day-to-day work could be better well-oiled, and smoother. They’re tired of “flying the plane as they’re building it and holding the business together with duct tape”. Business Laid Bare creates that operations strategy to help them be process-driven and disciplined so that growth and expansion can happen with immense pleasure, ease, and sustainability. Impact can’t happen if the business isn’t sustainable.

Clients always begin their journey with us through our Assessment (https://businesslaidbare.com/work-with-us/the-assessment/). It’s our deep dive diagnostic into their daily operations and what operational systems and processes they need to go from where they’re currently at to where they want to grow.

After the Assessment, we work with our clients to implement the operations strategy roadmap so that those systems and processes get implemented and the business immediately feels the relief.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Admittedly, Business Laid Bare was scraping the bottom of the barrel at one point. I remember feeling like I had to beg for clients or charge an insanely low price to get clients. After some hard conversations, I learned that my messaging and positioning was completely off. I was targeting clients that didn’t want to be targeted and were not in a space to understand the importance of operations to their business success. I also was at a point where I listened to too many opinions on how to run a business. I ended up burning my business to the ground and started over. I only wanted to do things that aligned with my strengths (working 1:1 with clients) and having 1-2 offers. Additionally, I worked on my mindset and targeted ideal clients that were more mature in the business lifecycle. And within the first 13 months, I crossed $100,000 annual revenue. It took me over 3+ years in the past to do that in the previous iteration of Business Laid Bare. I’m so grateful that I took the time to have these hard conversations. My success to this day has been because I listened to the one voice that was constantly getting ignored: mine.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The amazing and thorough work that the business does. Period. Integrity is one our core values and it shows through in everything we do for our client. By doing an excellent job, we’ve been referred out many times to our clients’ friends, colleagues, and their clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.businesslaidbare.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veronicayanhs
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronicayanhs
• Other: Weekly Newsletter: https://businesslaidbare.com/newsletter/ 50+ SOP Ideas that Will Bring Your Business Pleasure + Ease: https://businesslaidbare.com/sop-ideas/

Image Credits
Gina Co. Photography https://www.facebook.com/ginacophotography/