1. Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
Ans : Belmero Inc. is a highly specialized team of PeopleSoft, Oracle Cloud, Workday, SAP, Lawson, Epic, Cerner, Consultants and Experts that help companies and organizations take their solution to the next level and realize the ROI they should be. We also resolve their operational pain points, resolve functional production support issues and provide expert counsel to their leadership/steering committee. One of our most exciting services is our Supplier Returns Managed Service, which proactively, quickly and cost effectively addresses Accounts Payable Recovery. We are also known for helping customers with successful SCM, Financials and HCM incremental implementations, upgrades and individual expert functional & technical consulting resources.
2. Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
Ans : Robert is the co-founder and CEO of Belmero. He has extensive experience, over 20+ years, in the ERP space. Robert has helped organizations reach their aggressive ROI goals and cost cutting objectives in many industries. He has helped many SMEs and large cap companies like 3M, Fastenal, Pioneer Electronics, State Farm and Bridgestone Firestone.
3. What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
Ans : Belmero was created because we were seeing many organizations struggling with their ERP system thinking another ERP system is the solution. After organizations implement another new ERP, spending tens of millions of dollars and years of time, they found themselves right back in the same spot they were in with their previous ERP. The root cause of their struggles and not achieving their ROI goals really boils down to one thing…ERP knowledge. You don’t know what you don’t know. Extensive ERP experience and knowledge is a critical success factor! Belmero was created to provide true ERP experts that are known for helping customers leverage their ERP the way they should be and achieve their ROI goals
4. What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans : There are many elements to success that entrepreneurs should be intimately familiar with and practice on a daily basis. Being passionate about your business is critical. The passion you have for your business will show-up when you’re talking to prospects as excitement and high-energy. It’ll make it fun for you and your prospect. It’ll help you stand out from your competition. Another thing every entrepreneur should do is make sure they have a great marketing plan. Generating qualified leads is probably one of the areas almost every small business really struggles with. There are many other pieces of advice but I’ll mention just one more. Know your numbers! Every entrepreneur must know their financials. Minimally you should know your pricing, costs, gross margins along with your sales, general and administrative expenses so you’ll know your bottom line.
5. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans : Determination. Never give up regardless of what comes your way. There’s a lesson or reason in everything so learn from it and keep going. Resourcefulness. Being resourceful is a key especially when you’re first starting out. It’ll be extremely valuable in solving problems, obtaining info, building relationships with strategic partnerships, finding good counsel and for many other reasons. Delegation. You can’t do everything. Delegate the work out that you’re not good at, doesn’t make sense for you to do or that at the end of the day doesn’t allow you to focus on and build your company.
6. How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans : It depends. Some days 12 hrs and other days it could be a lot more. When your starting a new business or growing a business it takes strategically focused time and energy.
7. To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans : I’ve been very fortunate and blessed to have great people & opportunities.
8. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Ans : Marketing is very interesting. What works in one industry doesn’t necessarily work in another. Business to Business vs. Business to Consumer adds more variables. It’s trial and error to figure out what works best to reach your target audience and even that can be a moving target. The most successful form of marketing we have found is to find great complimentary partner companies to work with. The collaboration is very powerful
9. Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
Ans : We considered going out and obtaining funding. There’s pros and cons in doing that just like anything. At the end of the day we decided to self-fund it and keep full control and equity of the company.
10. What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans : Be honest, have integrity, listen to your partners and customers and do whatever it takes to make sure your customers are taken care of. Long term success will come if you take care of your people and customers.
11. Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans : We have some very exciting and aggressive goals we would like to achieve in the years to come. We have growth plans across the company. This includes significant year over year top line growth, marketing expansion, product/service lines and internal support teams. We’re very excited about the years to come!
12. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Ans : There are so many small businesses that have literally started from nothing and created a successful and very profitable business. Most of these go unnoticed or unrecognized. My hat is off to them. They deserve the recognition! I understand, appreciate and admire the perseverance and road they traveled.
13. How important have good employees been to your success?
Ans : Hands down this is a key success factor. Having a team you trust, that has the expertise and that listens and genuinely cares about the customer is priceless.
14. How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
Ans : Great question. There’s many ways to answer this but to sum it up, I would say to listen to your counsel, partners, prospects and use your own intuition. You can’t go wrong if you use this approach.
15. What motivates you?
Ans : Everyone’s source of motivation is different. They’re motivated because of the financial aspect, the prestige, the excitement, it’s the fuel that drives them, the peace & harmony is brings, it gives them a sense of accomplishment and many others. One thing that motivates me is resolving a problem or fulfilling a need that could not be fulfilled. I enjoy helping people resolve their problems or fulfill their goals.
16. How do you define success?
Ans : Success has many definitions. The same definition(s) are shared by many people but it depends on the individual. The most common definition is associated to accomplishing specific financial goals. That’s important but I think it’s more than that. It’s doing what you enjoy doing not what you have to do. It’s having the freedom and resources to do from a personal perspective what your passionate about. Also, it’s about having the friends that share your same mindset to build & support each other. It’s being happy and enjoying the accomplishments and achievements you’ve made to date but always setting new intentions and goals. It’s a cliché, but it’s true, success is a journey not a destination.
