Written in Partnership with Tedfuel
Sofia Shved is CEO of PR Novo, a PR agency that helps rising entrepreneurs get press coverage and leverage their personal branding. Among her clients are Fortune 500s like GE, Novant Health, Emirates Post, Eltizam Asset Management, NU Skin, and high-growth startups like BroadwayHD, BetterCloud, and others.
She scaled her business to multi-millions from scratch and is now expanding her presence in new markets. Read this interesting conversation.
What motivated you to start PR Novo? How did the idea come about?
Since childhood, I’ve been very good at presenting different things. I have always tried to find how to use this talent in the best way possible. PR Novo’s main goal and service are to present people to the world. It’s what I’m best at and what I really enjoy doing. Especially when I see people getting happy with their results after working with us.
What do you attribute your success to? Is there a trait you have or a person who helped you along the way?
My husband has helped me a lot, and I’m very grateful to him for such support. He has a very deep knowledge of scaling businesses and has grown his own start-up to 500 employees. His experience helped PR Novo scale pretty fast to seven figures.
When times get tough, what would you say motivates you to keep going? To not hit the snooze button and to keep fighting for your goals.
You see, I don’t fight for my goals. As soon as you start thinking of it as something you need to FIGHT for, you’ll get the fight. I prefer to get my goals naturally while being balanced and happy in life.
If you wish to hit a snooze button, it should be already alarming. Either it means that you’re doing the wrong kind of business that doesn’t make you happy, or you’re not being able to balance other spheres in your life.
The right business is when you don’t need to get extra motivation from outside. Then, even in tough times, you won’t experience the wish to leave it.
Also, for me, it is important to see problems as part of growth. Try to remember when you grew in life the most – was it during times when everything was perfect, and the sky was clear, or when you had to overcome something and put a real effort? I’m sure the second one. That’s how you should treat problems in business.
Employees are one of the most important players to succeed in business. What do you look for in an employee?
The number one trait that I’m looking for in employees is responsibility. Without it, no success is possible. The second trait that comes along with it is honesty. Talent, creativity, even knowledge – all of this becomes not that relevant if a person is not responsible and honest. I know that my employees will do their best to deliver what they promised, and if they meet any kind of problem, they will share it and be brave enough to learn from their mistakes.
Have you ever gotten a disappointed client or customer? If so, how did you handle the situation?
Yes, I think these situations happen in every business as sometimes there are things that aren’t under your direct control. But the difference between businesses is defined in how we handle these situations. Not long ago, a customer of mine was extremely worried about her PR article delay as it was attached to some event in her life. I made sure I did everything in my power to make everything happen on time, but besides that, I offered her another free service from my side. As a result, she got even more happy and grateful for our work.
Is there any resource or resources that helped you on your journey to becoming a business owner?
My background in psychology and coaching has helped me a lot in business. In my opinion, the best resource is yourself. Sometimes instead of running to someone for a piece of advice, the better choice is to look within and ask yourself the right questions. For this, meditation is an extremely powerful tool. If you feel like you’re out of the ideas or met with a dead end in some situation, take some time and relax.
What are the three best pieces of advice that you would give to anyone starting a business? What do they need to know from the very beginning?
There are three major reasons why businesses fail:
- Problems with the product
- Wrong target audience
- Not suitable team
Make sure you have the three, and success will come along.
You can try PR Novo for your personal branding and public relations. Check their Website. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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