Meet Brandi Fox | Start Up Strategist & Serial Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brandi Fox and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brandi, let’s talk legacy – what do you want yours to be?
Leaving a positive legacy is the catalysts to my determination of being a successful entrepreneur. For my children I want to leave a legacy of wealth and life knowledge. I want my children to know the importance of hard work, authenticity, loyalty, and integrity. Even though like others I do fall short in these areas at times, I include those shortcomings in the legacy that I plan to leave for my children. I embrace my mistakes as a lesson for them to understand that sometimes we can make mistakes, but those mistakes do not make us. For my family and friends I want to live a legacy of positivity. I try to live a balanced life full of things that make me happy including God, family and friends, entrepreneurship, food and travel. By focusing on a positive outlook in life I have been given the ability to be there for others during their times of despair, to be an example that “Happiness is a Choice” and that it’s one of the few things in life that we can control. When you actively choose joy over everything, the Universe adapts to your needs and allows you to propel forward. If I had to break my legacy down to one phrase it would be “Be You. For You”

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
B.The.Entrepreneur Consulting Agency is honestly a heart project that turned profitable. My first business is Pamper Us Mobile Massage Service based in Charlotte, NC, which I started at the age of 21 in 2011. Pamper Us motivated me to start B.The.Entrepreneur because I learned firsthand how it feels to be a new entrepreneur with a business idea that you don’t how to bring to life. Start up entrepreneurship in the Charlotte Area has only been relevant for the past 3-4 years. Entrepreneurial start up support before 2016 was almost non-existent which is why every chance that I had, I enrolled in some type of entrepreneurial training program including local programs, online programs, and ultimately obtaining my Masters in Digital Entrepreneurship. As I continued to grow in the area of entrepreneurship and connected with other minority entrepreneurs, a lot of my peers and people that I would meet would often ask me for advice on how to start a business or run their current business. Ultimately I was giving this information away for free, just using my entrepreneurial experience plus learned knowledge to help new entrepreneurs. As I continued to help more people my mentor suggested that I monetize my information. At first I was against it because I know how it feels to boot strap a new business to a point where every dollar counts, but I also understood that those entrepreneurs who were serious about starting or growing their business would be willing to invest in these services. From there I begin consulting one on one with a 80% success rate of clients who have taken a business idea to a profitable business within 6 months. Even though I loved one on one consulting, I realized that one on one services wouldn’t allow me to impact my community as effectively as I wanted to. I wanted my knowledge and resources to be available for anyone at anytime. This desire to positively impact more businesses especially minority businesses stemmed the creation of my ebook series “How to Start a Business in 30 Days”, a Step by Step Entrepreneurial Start Up Guide. This eBook includes 8 self guided digitally fill-able workbooks that walk the entrepreneur step by step through the entrepreneurial process beginning at the entrepreneurial self prep process all the way through the business plan,budget forecasting, branding plan, taking your business to the market, and ultimately learning how to pitch your business to investors. B.The.Entrepreneur’s focus is on creating as many successful African American entrepreneurs as possible by guiding new and aspiring entrepreneurs through the appropriate steps of starting and running a profitable business.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am addicted to the outdoors so the first place I would take anyone visiting Charlotte is Crowders Mountain for an early morning hike. I would follow that up with a recovery smoothie from one of my favorite black owned smoothie spots “Hip Hop Smoothies”. From there I would sign them up for a Charlotte Segway tour where we would explore the city of Charlotte learning more about the history and other fun spots to enjoy throughout the week. I would also visit Dave’s Botanical Garden, the flower arrangements are so beautiful throughout the warmer months, and in my opinion provide an extra sense of peace when exploring. Of course whats a trip without great food, we would definitely head to a Black Food Truck Friday event to enjoy all of the vibes of good food and good vibes where everyone legit feels like family. We also have amazing parks as well, so I would probably set up a picnic at our popular Freedom Park and enjoy people watching. Nightlife is always great with the new addition of roof top bars at some of Charlotte’s top hotels in the uptown area or bars and lounges within our historic South End, providing the opportunity to move between different scenes to meet your social needs.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to give a big shot out to my friend and mentor Jania Massey, Founder of Stiletto Boss University, a non profit teen entrepreneurial training program within Charlotte, NC that helps teen girls start their own businesses. The top incubator program that helped me take my business to the next level would be City Start Up Labs with Henry Rock, an African American Millennial Entrepreneurship Incubator program based in Charlotte. NC.. Jania deserves this shout out because she introduced me to my first incubator program in 2015 with her business Women Entre 2.0. In addition, she has just been a true example of effective entrepreneurship. She is a go-getter, innovative, resilient, and determined. Just being around her keeps me pumped up! Through the City Start Up Labs incubator program I learned how to transition my business mindset from business owner to entrepreneur. Through the experience of starting my first business at age 21 and the completion of these 2 programs (plus about 8 other programs) I was able to gain the knowledge to start my consulting agency B.The.Entrepreneur in 2018. B.The.Entrepreneur helps new and aspiring entrepreneurs transition their business ideas into real businesses by providing one on one assistance and digital tools to start, run, grow, and fund your start up.

Website: www.btheentrepreneur.com
Instagram: b.the.entrepreneur
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandifoxmba/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/btheentrepreneur