Kandace Vallejo is the owner of remedios consulting, she’s the founder and principal of remedios consulting and she’s a serial founder and intersectional organizer who has worked in social movements and philanthropy, she has built LED and scaled multiple efforts and grant making initiatives for racial climate and economic justice. She pairs her two decades of social impact experience with extensive training in the healing arts, her sharp political analysis and strategic mind combined with her keen business sense and highly relational sensibilities to position herself as a unique partner to nonprofit and philanthropic entities, working to align with and strengthen social movements. In 2014 she founded Youth Rise Texas, where she worked alongside young people to build a healing centered movement contesting criminalization and deportation. Miss Vallejo is a co-founder of the Texas Youth Power Alliance and the founding board chair of jolt action.
We share the conversation…
Larissa- What do you enjoy most about your job?
Kandace- Really for me, it’s about helping make other people’s life and their work easier and helping people grow, and helping people who are ready to take that next step in their life and their work. To take things to the next level and help connect people to other people and to other kinds of resources and to help people think outside of the box. Having been a founder I know so often, when you’re in the thick of everything and you’re just trying to get done with the things that you want to get done and you know everytime you get a big project done. I used to always say as a founder “I’m climbing 10 mountains at once and every time I climb one I look over the horizon and I’m like oh God there’s another 10 and you keep going”.
Larissa- Why do you think people/organizations fail to build profitable businesses?
Kandace- I think so often what I see leaders struggling with, whether it’s a business leader or a nonprofit leader, is that we’ve failed and I’ve done this too. I’ve failed to build the necessary foundations, back office and Operational Support that we need to be able to grow a sustainable and profitable business.
Larissa-What do business owners need to do to prepare to have a profitable 2024?
Kandace- One of the things that I would recommend people thinking about is to really focus on the basics of your business, what are your one to three main product, best sellers, what data can you pull about your revenue, your sales, your products, that can help you understand what are those three core products that your delivering to market. The other piece of advice I would give is, to think about your one or two major pain points that you’ve run into in the past year and try to think big picture about those pain points.
Larissa- How important is it to have a team that matches the goals of your business?
Kandace- Yeah I mean I was not aware that the statistics are that businesses will close in eight years, do more to the fact that there isn’t enough leadership support than its dues to revenue closure. I’ve seen it so many times, and i’ve lived it myself in the nonprofit world, working in startup nonprofit, and feeling burnt out and feeling like I just can’t get everything done in the amount of time that I have, and that feeling alone can really drive burnout so I really think team is everything. Think about how to build that core team as early as possible, of other leaders who are going to support your business growth.
Larissa-Why do employees fail?How important is it to have a team that is well trained for success?
I think that the training is of course crucial but I also think that if you are in a scenario where you have employees that you believed when you hired them you made the right choice and it’s still not working for some reason, then I think that’s also on us as owners and business leaders and nonprofit leaders to look at ourselves and to hold that mirror up to ourselves and say okay where did I go wrong to here to be able to identify for ourselves also our own growth edges or our business, to see where perhaps the business may be missing something that employee needed or where we as leaders may be missing something.
Larissa- What would you like people who listen to us to take away today?
Kandace- I think the biggest thing that I hope leaders that I used to talk to and work with, can think about is really how to build more Operational Support for themselves in their business. For some people, that is hiring an external company to do HR. For some people that might be contracting out your bookkeeping and paying someone else to do that piece of work that’s going to take them less time to do it then it will you because maybe you are not a numbers person.
Larissa- What services do you offer at Remedios Consulting?
Kandace- I think the way that I like to work with clients is very hands-on and very boutique so I don’t have specific programs that I put anyone through. What I like to do is have one to two discovery calls with someone to understand where they are at in the stage of their business growth, what are their major pain points, and what are they hoping to achieve in the coming years so that we can design a tailormade set of services for them.
Laura Ramos James is an expert with liability insurance and working with commercial businesses. Attorney Laura Ramos James is the owner of Ramos James law, a legal firm with over 20 years of combined experience in successfully handling hundreds of personal injuries and accident cases representing individuals, workers, and families who suffer from accidents, workplace injuries, product liability, truck accidents, wrongful deaths, and personal injuries. She graduated with honors from St Mary’s University and joined the prestigious Baylor law school program. Laura practiced as an insurance defense lawyer before becoming a planted lawyer and she’s truly knowledgeable of the legal strategies used by her opponents in court. She has won numerous awards during her practice. She and her team have continuously worked to develop their network of professionals to help their clients.
We share the conversation
Larissa- Please tell us a little more about your story and how you got to this career.
Laura- I am actually a dog bite survivor, I was bit by a dog when I was a toddler and I of course experienced trauma and injuries and a lot of the stuff that goes along with that. Growing up I wanted to help people that were in a similar situation but I didn’t quite know that my path would end up taking me to a legal career even though I did want to be a lawyer since I was little. Eventually I went to law school and found a way to be in the courtroom.
Larissa- What do you enjoy most about your job?
Laura-Two things I enjoy the most, I love writing wrongs and if somebody is responsible and refuses to take responsibility I just automatically side with the person that was wronged and it gives me great pleasure to bring justice to that person and make things right. The other thing that I really love is even though I’m an introvert, at the same time I’m a people person, I love people so I really truly love getting to know my clients, working with my team and getting to know people from all walks of life.
Larissa- Do you frequently work with small business owners, or against small business owners?
Laura- I would say a lot with small business owners because small business owners are typically the individual, so we work a lot with individuals and big insurance companies. We represent them as a person that was hurt, we don’t represent the business.
Larissa-Can you give us 3 examples of things that small business owners frequently fail to do and they should do to improve or mitigate risk?
Laura- That is really good I think focused and helpful because like you said it is very easy to think, $200, $300 that I save is gonna help me a lot but if you expose your whole business then it’s pointless to have not invested in protecting it. The three things that small business owners frequently fail to do and they should do to improve and mitigate risk would be to get commercial insurance, the other one would be to create a Limited Liability company (LLC) and to have a liability waiver in place for their company.
Larissa- Why do you think they don’t pay attention to it?
Laura- I think it’s a very easy call to say, I’ve gotten a quote. It’s $200 a month if I get commercial liability insurance or however much, like I would rather just use this money to get more laptops for my business. The majority of people, we don’t think it’s going to happen to us, like it happens to other people but we’re like what are the chances that it’s gonna happen here.
Larissa- What can be the consequences of neglecting to do this?
Laura- The consequences can range from, you having to pay out of your own pocket you know, open your checkbook and write a check to someone who is making a claim or trying to cover their losses, to absolutely losing your business. Losing personal assets if you fail to create an (LLC), so things that you have been working towards and building and trying to create can all get taken away because you neglected to mitigate risk.
Larissa-How can small business owners stay updated with risk management strategies for their business or vehicles?
Laura- I would say there are a lot of resources that are free of cost and some others have limited cost. Obviously staying in touch with organizations like yours and similar organizations can always be sharing those types of strategies with them, there are now in the Advent of the availability of information at our fingertips where we can just research things like that. The Texas department of insurance has put out certain resources like that for people.
Larissa- What would you like people who listen to us to take away today?
Laura- Probably, broader than the specific three things that we discussed, I would say, I would like small business owners to take away that, always stay educated always seek out knowledge and you know don’t bury your hand in the sand and say, you know we’re all busy, we all have homes and we all have businesses and things like that. It’s easy to kind of turn a blind eye or say, I don’t have time, I don’t have money. To seek out education is the best way to save some money in the future for your business and protect it.
EGBI is an organization that helps small businesses grow. Their mission is to eliminate barriers, and train and coach small business owners. They made it accessible to come in contact with EGBI to expand their business to its fullest potential.
What is 501 C3?
501 C3 means that the business has a non profit status. They are not part of the city, but work closely with the city.
What is EGBI’s mission?
They train, coach, and support small businesses, and eliminate barriers so that the business owners that EGBI serves can run successful businesses.
What service does EGBI offer?
They offer training, help with planning, and management. Businesses that have been around for three or more years are offered a plan to get their business to the next level.
How long was EGBI around for?
EGBI has been around for 19 years.
Who are EGBI’s ideal clients?
They support many different types of businesses for example, hair salons, food trucks, restaurants, photographers, ect.
What is the process to work with EGBI?
The process to work with EGBI is simple. There are many ways to come in contact with EGBI.
If EGBI doesn’t charge, then how does EGBI make a profit?
EGBI doesn’t want money to be an issue for someone that wants to work with them, so for now they have a contract with the city of Austin to eliminate financial barriers one might have.
How do I keep in touch with EGBI?
Anyone can sign up to the newsletter, and you can follow them on social media like Instagram, Facebook and youtube.
