Q 1. Please 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: White Sunrise is a custom programming shop that specializes in Application Development, eCommerce and API writing. We bring a servant leadership mindset to all our relationships (both internal and external) and look at all client relationships as not vendor to customer but partner to partner.
Q 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: BS Marketing, University of Georgia
Q 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: Early in my career, I was working on a couple of projects that I needed to get completed, and I had a negative experience trying to get them done. I had spearheaded the projects to begin with because I was very interested in technology. At that time, there were not many companies delivering a strong product for application development that you could trust. I experienced missed deadlines, no contact for months; so I decided to look for individuals I could partner with to work on outstanding projects. Interestingly, I was volunteering in the media department at my church and started a conversation with a fellow volunteer who told me that he could help me. He told me to give him and project and, if he did not deliver a quality product, I did not have to pay him. Needless to say, he did a great job and we began working on projects together. I knew that if we could build a good team and culture, we could find a lot of work since I knew there was a big need in the marketplace for quality products and reliable service. I truly believe that technology has the ability to positively impact our lives. From a long-term technological prospective, we want to leverage technology to work on social issues that will help people enhance their lives in a positive ways beyond the obvious – better web handicapped accessibility from an auditory and visual perspective for example. From that meeting, White Sunrise was formed and we have been providing application services since 2008.
Q 4. What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans: (1) Always invest yourself in others: Build your team and invest in people and together and you will build the business. People build the Business and nothing else. Pour as much of yourself into investing in people as you can and you will see dividends both personally and professionally. The relationships you have and the quality of those relationships are really all you have. Everything else can be taken from you at any moment but the relationships of those around you if built properly will stand the test of time. Find people who are more talented than you in a number of areas. Everyone you bring on should be more talented than yourself in their given area of expertise.
(2) Always invest in your personal development as a business owner: Constantly read books, blogs and other resources to keep yourself from making the same mistakes other people have made. Get suggestions on what resources to access through other successful entrepreneurs (if you can figure out what helped get them to where they are that will help you get to where you want to go faster). Seek out mentors that can help you along the way. You will be humbled as we have been by how many people who have been extremely successful want to give back and help others who are just starting.
Q 5. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans: Servant Leadership
Ability to Build Trust
Ability to step outside of your comfort zone. In a startup position, you have to be willing to put to put yourself in situations that might be uncomfortable in order to achieve success.
Q 6. How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans: Average work day: Eight
Q 7. To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans: If you are a servant leader, people are willing to do more for you and the company. If you are more of a decisive leader who only issues orders or edicts, you tend to isolate people. Working in a team environment, giving everyone the opportunity to participate in the process, galvanizes people toward the same vision. In turn, this directs more energy into greater achievement.
Q 8. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Ans: By maintaining a strong partner to partner relationship with our clients, we find that most of our success is achieved through word of mouth.
Q 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: Bootstrapping; no we did not go in the direction of investors. We made the decision to finance the start-up ourselves and use revenues to support future growth.
Q 10. What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans: Determination and adaptability – Go out every day and say I’m going to be successful no matter what, but be objective about what you are doing and be willing to adapt. As long as you are determined, you are going to be successful. If you are being smart about inspecting what you are doing and be responsive with your approach; each day will get work better and better. Work really hard but always assess what you’re doing. No battle plans survive first contact with the enemy.
Q 11. Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans: From a vision standpoint, it’s like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – initially you focus on getting your primary needs taken care of and, as you work up the chain in an organization, you get past the state of survival. We are now moving toward self-actualization; going more toward social issues and development of applications that help change people’s lives, ie. handicapped accessibility – making the web more accessible for people with disabilities such as visual, auditory, etc. As an organization, we want focus more on making the world a better place and the web more accessible for all people.
Contact Detail
Company : White Sunrise
Name : Brent Wierson
Address : 4501 Karls Gate Dr
City : Marietta
State : GA
Zip Code : 30068
Tel No : 770-290-8741
E-mail Id : sales@whitesunrise.com
