“Having the right co-founder is the best thing you can do for your business.”
- Laura Early, Co-Founder, WISE Advise + Assist
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Listen to the podcast or watch the interview videos on the Founders and Startups YouTube Channel.
Laura Early, Co-Founder, WISE Advise + Assist (Full discussion)
Managing a 100% Virtual Workforce (Highlight video)
Creating Community Among Remote Employees (Highlight video)
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Laura Early co-founded WISE Advise + Assist, a virtual assisting agency powered by military spouses with her business partner, Diana Jaquith. WISE provides time-saving services to business owners and enables military spouses to work remotely so that they can have the life, family and career that they’ve always dreamed of. This addresses the challenges often faced by military spouses who struggle to maintain a career due to frequent moves – sometimes every two years.
In Feb. 2020, WISE had 40 team members and they’ll end the year with 50-60 employees. Laura and Diana plan to give more military spouses the opportunity to join the WISE community to create a long-term career. They’re just getting started!
Laura explains that in our two-income economy, financial stability for service members is critical. It’s important to our national security that military spouses have a career. For deployed personnel, knowing that their spouse has a consistent job at WISE alleviates worry. Further, if a service member knows that their spouse is happy, healthy and has a fulfilling career, they can be more focused on their mission.
Key takeaways:
+ The WISE logo features an owl and the team loves to make wise owl references!
+ When new employees are hired they establish minimum availability which is considered for staffing jobs.
+ WISE hires 3-6 people at one time and they go through an on-boarding process together. This creates a cohort and they become resources for each other.
+ The WISE on-boarding process includes WISE 101, who’s who in the company, WISE systems, payments, customer avatars, finance training, mission, vision, and core values.
+ Every client is assigned a WISE project manager who has gone through significant training and is experienced with client-facing interactions.
+ Each employee “live records” their time using Harvest, time-tracking software.
+ Studies show that virtual workers are significantly more productive than employees in an office.
+ Laura says that 90% of being an entrepreneur is trying and failing.
+ WISE used to send invoices using PayPal. Due to the number of transactions, PayPal froze their accounts for a time period, causing a significant cash crunch which threatened payroll.
+ Working virtually gives military spouses life consistency when they move.
+ Creating community among the workforce is a big emphasis for WISE. They’ve created virtual coffee hours, a “water cooler” channel on Slack, and every team member is assigned to a pod with a leader who is responsible for employee development.
+ If an employee hasn’t communicated with the team on a given workday, someone from WISE checks in with them.
+ There are multiple WISE employees in 4 or 5 geographic areas and those employees sometimes get together to work and socialize.
+ Having two co-founders has been critical to the success of WISE Advise.
+ When starting a company find your community, mentors and coaches. Reach out to others who have been entrepreneurs to learn from them.
+ Great entrepreneurial resources: Hello Alice, local Small Business Development Centers, Meetup and Chamber of Commerce events.
+ Laura’s husband is in the Army. Her family has been in five homes in the last six years and they may stay in the DC area for several years. He seeks out adrenaline-junkie activities in and out of work.
+ Self-care is important to Laura, a self-described "recovering workaholic.” She does spin classes, brunch with friends and family, and makes time to connect with friends who are not business owners.
+ Laura and Diana carefully separate their “friend” time from “business partner” time. They create quarterly founders retreats for themselves.
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Learn more about WISE on their website.
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