Finding Your Business Fit
Selene Vakharia’s First Hand Lessons Learned On An Entrepreneurial Path Less Travelled
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In This Episode
Who do you want to work with? What is your version of success? Are you afraid of going after your niche audience because it might mean always maintaining a smaller business instead of the overnight, high dollar exits entrepreneurs are supposed to chase? Selene Vakharia of SMRT Women shares her journey of building a business in Whitehorse, Yukon and lessons she’s learned in her work creating a community of female entrepreneurs.
Episode Breakdown
First 10 Minutes
Today’s episode is a family affair as we met our guest Selene Vakharia whose sister Vanessa Vakharia, The Math Guru joined us back in May 2019. Selene tells us about her life in Whitehorse, Yukon, and how the entrepreneurial spirit is growing in the community. She shares her journey in starting a marketing business and then shifting to building a community, SMRT community, a place for female entrepreneurs to engage and grow their businesses.
10 Minutes – 20 Minutes
The group talk about the importance of finding the right audience for your business because of all the impacts it can have throughout your businesses marketing and operations. Selene shares how the first element she tackles the idea of fear around focusing on a niche market instead of a broad market. The group discusses the entrepreneurial lifestyle and the emotions that come with the choice to build your own business.
20 Minutes – 30 Minutes
Dave asks specifically for female entrepreneurs how Selene sees women integrating their businesses into their lives. Selene explains the idea of business fit, of building a business that works for you. It’s about helping people understand what they value and what success is for them. It’s not always about getting as big as possible as fast as possible. The group discusses the stigma that exists around the idea of keeping a business small or having a lifestyle business. Dave asks whether Selene feels that ego of success is seen in women entrepreneurs as well. She agrees that it exists but from a different perspective of being afraid of failure.
30 Minutes – 40 Minutes
The conversation circles around the connections between the group and what made Selene move to the Yukon.
Selene Vakharia
Founder of SMRT WOMEN
Selene Vakharia is the founder of SMRT WOMEN, an award-winning community for aspiring and working female entrepreneurs. She is a business and marketing strategist with over 15 years of experience of successfully helping businesses and organizations grow their audience and reach their goals with creative high-impact marketing and event solutions. She is a community builder who is passionate about supporting female entrepreneurs cultivate the skills, support, and connections they need to build a profitable and successful business that they love.
About SMRT POP UPS
SMRT POP UPS was started in 2014 with a Facebook page and a dream of putting on weird events for millennials in a small neighbourhood cafe after hours. The brand quickly established a reputation for designing and delivering engagement, marketing plans and social media plans that stood out from the crowd.
The Smart-Fun approach that is the essence of SMRT POP UPS colours everything we do from the types of engagement events we plan to our marketing strategies. SMRT POP UPS believes that when learning and communicating is made fun and beautiful everybody wins. With this signature approach we can engage broader audiences, encourage people to think differently about an issue, and help organizations large and small tell powerful stories. Partnerships, entertainment and out of the box approaches are at the heart of what we do.
We are also strong believers in social media. SMRT POP UPS Owner and Co-Founder Selene Vakharia, is one of the most highly trained local social media and digital marketing professionals in Yukon. Her expertise in online audience research, audience targeting and promotion are unparalleled. With our clients, we are constantly looking for new ways to leverage the conversational power of social media to engage audiences the issues that matter.