Chamber Spotlight is a bi-weekly feature sponsored by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. This week’s spotlight is on Percepi, a consulting and leadership training firm. Speaking is Lead Facilitator Jared Detter.

Reston Now: Why did you decide to start your business in Reston?

Percepi: We’ve been providing consulting services to large international businesses very successfully from our base in Reston since 2001. Our focus has been national and international in scope, not regional. Over time, we’ve repeatedly heard from local, small to medium sized businesses that have been interested in accessing our services.

Small- and medium-sized business are not immune from the leadership challenges that face larger organizations, yet they are often more resource constrained and do not have anyone in-house to focus on leadership development.

We started Percepi specifically to address this need. Reston is the perfect location for supporting these types of organizations as they look to achieve their goals, and helps us contribute to growing the economy in the greater Washington, D.C. region.

Reston has been a great location for us as a business and we want to be good for Reston and support its place as a prime destination in the metropolitan community.

Reston Now: What are the challenges and rewards of being a business owner?

Percepi: The benefits of owning a business are that there is the potential to make a difference in people’s lives on your own terms. You cast the vision and develop the business around your strengths and goals and have the opportunity to see your investment of blood, sweat, tears, and investment flourish. The biggest challenge of owning your own business is that there is no downtime — you have to be connected all the time. Effectively managing time and stress is key to success — you have to have lots of positive energy.

Emotional intelligence is a core skill. A major challenge of being a business owner is that the technical skill that allowed you to open up your own business doesn’t necessarily translate into the leadership skills that are necessary to help your business flourish. Percepi exists to address these challenges — not only have we developed proven approaches that help business leaders, we’ve experienced running a business first hand.

Reston Now: Name something about your business that most people don’t know?

Percepi: The workshops we conduct are based on models and exercises that we’ve successfully used for decades, helping leaders and teams in organizations become more successful all over the world. Being psychologists, we bring a unique perspective to business — one that is designed to drive results into the organization through more effective leadership. The workshops are immersive and most people are surprised at how deeply the learning affects them — it’s not uncommon for people to tell us that their experience changed their life. Read More

Chamber Spotlight is a regular feature sponsored by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. Today’s spotlight is on Teresa Sikes, owner of TeresaKatherine Designs, a web- and graphic-design firm.

Reston Now: Why did you decide to start your business in Reston?

Teresa Sikes: I moved to the area to take advantage of the wealth of science and technology businesses in the Dulles Corridor. Reston has a town-like feel and is growing immensely, so I decided to position myself in the middle of that growth.

RN: What are the challenges and rewards of being a business owner?

TS: It’s so rewarding helping my clients see their visions and ideas come to life (often in ways beyond what they dreamed). Being a business owner affords me the possibility of working on projects I am passionate about. The challenge is getting others to see why your services are unique and essential, especially with many of the template-based designs out there.

RN: Name something about your business that most people don’t know?

TS: This business was born out of necessity; I am a scientist-turned- designer passionate about uplifting STEM-related ideas and research. A mentor once put it to me, designing for STEM is not sexy, that’s not why people go to art school. But I love it and I want to get the best ideas out there and in to action. The only way for that to happen is for researchers and companies to get funding, and to get funding you have to win over your colleagues and competitors. If no one can understand your figure and your materials are hap-hazardly put together, who will take your idea seriously? I started TeresaKatherine Designs to fill this niche and allow me to use my training and help others in the realm of design.

RN: What is the unique value proposition your clients get from you?

TS: They know they will receive a well thought-out and custom design based on careful research for their needs. I’m a scientist, I look at a diverse set of sources for inspiration and am very thorough.

RN: Describe a typical day at your business.

TS: I like to get all my busy work and so-called boring tasks done in the morning as I’ve found I’m much more creative at night. One day a week is reserved for business TLC; this allows me to save any specific business-related needs to tackle together so I’m not interrupting my work with finances nor I am letting business upkeep get out of hand.

RN: How has the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce helped your business?

TS: I’ve been a member just over a month and thus I’ve made great connections and hope to continue making more leads.

RN: What is the quote that best describes your business?

TS: Bonding art and science.

RN: What is your advice to someone who is thinking about owning a business?

TS: To me, it feels like getting married (I am not married, but what I imagine it would be like). You go into the courthouse and get in line with everyone waiting for a marriage license, sign away at the dotted line, and vow to stick with it through thick and thin. Though you feel giddy, you know it’s going to be a hard road ahead. It’s a huge milestone, but it’s exciting and I love what I do, so I say go for it.

Chamber Spotlight is a feature sponsored by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. Today’s Q-and-A is with chamber member Mark Watts, Partner with the CST Group. CST Group is a Certified Public Accounting firm in Reston. CST provides comprehensive accounting, tax, and business advisory services for closely held businesses, medical practices, real estate firms, government contractors, non-profit organizations, as well as for professionals and business owners.

Reston Now: Why did you decide to start your business in Reston?

MW: Reston is one of the most dynamic areas in Northern Virginia. Because of Reston’s close proximity to Washington DC, Tysons Corner, and Dulles Airport, the area is extremely accessible for employees and clients. Metro’s new Silver Line has also made the commute to Reston even easier.

CST is always trying to recruit top talent, so we chose Reston as an alternative to the congested Tysons Corner area. Many of our employees embrace the “live, work, play” lifestyle.

Community impact is an important focus at CST Group, and we’ve really enjoyed having the opportunity to partner with local charities in the area.

RN: What are the challenges and rewards of being a business owner?

MW: As a small business owner there are two critical components to know — your client base and your employees. Those are my two challenges and my two rewards. There’s nothing more rewarding and satisfying than helping a client. We’ve worked with many of our clients for decades and consider them friends and partners. Read More

Chamber Spotlight is a feature sponsored by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. Today’s Q-and-A is with chamber member Mike Jennings, President of BEI Networks. Jennings and his wife, Ellen own the company, which provides  IT support to businesses throughout the Washington area. 

Why did you decide to start your business in Reston? We purchased BEI from the former owners when it was located in Arlington. We moved it to Reston in 2004 because we reside here, the Dulles corridor was growing, and we are very involved in Reston in both our business and personal lives.

What are the challenges and rewards of being a business owner? Challenges: hiring good people, balancing working “in” the business and working “on” the business. Rewards:  getting to know and helping our clients (I’ve learned so much about many different types of businesses) and working with smart, creative, dedicated employees

Name something about your business that most people don’t know? BEI was launched in 1987 and supported mostly Novell networks in the beginning; We’ve been an Ultimate Seahawk Sponsor of South Lakes High School’s athletic programs since 2009; We are the leading provider of IT support to ambulatory physician practices in metro DC and the only IT service provider with its own internal HIPAA compliance program.

What is the unique value proposition your client’s know of when using your services? Healthcare practices come to us when they’re tired of their operations and clinical workflow being impacted by never-ending IT problems. We help by solving healthcare’s unique IT challenges and then proactively managing their IT with a thorough knowledge of and deep experience with EMRs, medical devices, and HIPAA. This allows them to focus on seeing patients efficiently and thereby increase patient satisfaction and improve cash flow.

Describe a typical day as the business owner — I’m in charge of our service operations, so there is a lot of continuous interaction with our support engineers throughout the day. I also have my fair share of meetings. I meet with clients regularly, with vendors who help support our clients (phone, cabling, telecom, software and hardware vendors) and with our management team. I often function as the VCIO (Virtual Chief Information Office) for many of our clients so that means working with them to plan how their technology should evolve as their businesses grow and change.

How has the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce helped your business grow? We’ve met partners and prospects via the Chamber, but also have learned a lot about the Reston community. I already live in Reston, my kids have attended Reston schools (my son is at Virginia Tech and my daughter has graduated from UVA), I own a business in Reston, I am on the Reston Planning & Zoning Committee and the Chamber has helped me complete that circle.

What is the quote that best describes your business? We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle 8.

What is your advice to someone who is thinking about owning a business? Enjoy the highs and when you hit some lows have the confidence that you’ll get through it. It may seem like there is NO WAY to overcome the rough patch you’re in but if you stay focused on what you believe are the right things to do then it won’t be long before that rough patch is just a memory.

Chamber Spotlight is a feature from the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. Reston Now will spotlight the chamber’s local businesses and business leaders on a regular basis. Today’s spotlight is on Bite Me Cancer, a nonprofit run by Sharon, Michael and Nikki Ferraro.

Why did you decide to start your business in Reston? Bite Me Cancer is run out of our home office in Chantilly. As a small growing nonprofit, we have to keep costs low. We spend a lot of time in Reston, so we feel many times like we live and work in Reston.

What are the challenges and rewards of being a business owner? All three of us consider ourselves the business owners (Michael, Sharon and Nikki Ferraro) since we are the co-founders of Bite Me Cancer. Being a business owner as many rewards and some challenges.

Rewards include: making a direct difference with our own beliefs and goals, flexible schedule, quicker decisions, able to shift priorities quickly, having complete ownership of the direction andsuccess/failure.

The challenges: flexible schedule can be a challenge because it’s very easy to work more hours and can be harder to step away from the work, most of the time need to wear many hats and so need to keep up with skills needed for the business, sometimes don’t have the “experts” available.

Name something about your business that most people don’t know? Bite Me Cancer’s name came from our daughter (Nikki, founder and cancer survivor) saying “Bite me, Dad” when he thought he came up
with a great name for her new Relay for Life team (a week after being diagnosed) and she thought his choice for the name was silly. As soon as she said “Bite me, Dad” we all looked at each other and she said “Bite Me Cancer?” The name was born for the team, and five months later it became the name of her foundation.

What is the unique value proposition your clients know when using your services? Donors and volunteers to Bite Me Cancer know that we run an honest and efficient nonprofit where over 90-92% of the dollars goes directly to program goals of the foundation. They know that we care deeply about helping cancer survivors, and they know that we are available almost 24 hours/day if they need to reach us.

Describe a typical day as the business owner? For Bite Me Cancer, there are many activities going on through our five committees and our board of directors. So as a business owner, there is a lot of coordination of the needs with our volunteers, making sure they are following through, having questions answered, etc. Also, there are emails and calls that come in that need responses. Read More

Chamber Spotlight is a new feature from the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. Reston Now will spotlight local businesses and business leaders on a regular basis. Today, Jen Sterling of Red Thinking, a digital marketing and brand strategy firm.

1. Why did you decide to start your business in Reston? I escaped DC and moved west early in my business. Originally located in Loudoun County, I shifted to Reston because I fell in love with the energy and the people. I felt drawn in and welcomed. In addition, it was a thriving hotspot for my target market as well making it great “feeding grounds” for my business.

2. What are the challenges and rewards of being a business owner?

It’s a complete and total roller coaster. Sometimes that is emotional …f rom “Wow this controlling my own future thing is amazing!” to “What the hell was I thinking?” And sometimes that is financial where you are rolling in it one month and the next you start thinking about invoicing your dog just to get cash flow. It is one of the most challenging, and yet rewarding things that I have ever done. I would never go back.

3. Name something about your business that most people don’t know? Our business is a ubiquitous workplace. While we are headquartered in Reston, we no longer maintain a formal office space. Our staff is able to work from wherever they want. They may be in a home office one day, a local Starbucks the next, or perhaps at the beach for a week. Our work is not tied to location so we can work from anywhere and everywhere.

4. What is the unique value proposition your client’s know of when using your services? Our entire goal as a company is to provide an environment where our staff and our clients can succeed while still having a life.

5. Describe a typical day as the business owner? My days are never the same. One day I am focused on financials and running ratios, the next I am knee-deep in a dashboard about our proposal pipeline. The day after that I may be in a three-hour strategy session with a client who is preparing to take their business through a 180-degree shift in focus. I am interviewing new staff and cultivating the team members I already have to make sure that they are happy and delivering. One of my favorite things about being an entrepreneur is that no day is the same.

6. How has the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce helped your business grow? I first joined the GRCC when my business was young. The GRCC’s staff and fellow members helped me to learn about the region and to explore the business community around me. As a volunteer for the Chamber, I met hundreds of people and I learned to build teams to accomplish goals. As a volunteer leader in the chamber I learned to plan strategically, to budget, and to build partnerships between organizations. All of these lessons helped shape and improve my business.

7. What is your advice to someone who is thinking about owning a business? Know that it will be the most magical and frustrating ride you will ever take. You will have days where you feel like a superhero, but be prepared to also have days where you question your sanity and your ability to handle it all. Then be resilient and never give up. It’s worth it!

Photo: Jen Sterling/Credit: Red Thinking