Meet Michele Williams | Founder and CEO of Scarlet Thread Consulting and Metrique Solutions

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

Hi Michele, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
The thought process behind starting my own businesses was that I had something to share that I could not find in the same form in the marketplace. And I knew from working with and talk with many people that they had the same need.

From that point, it became more about how to package and deliver than a question of should I do this.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My current businesses are Scarlet Thread Consulting, started in 2013, and Metrique Solutions, founded in 2021.

Scarlet Thread Consulting was formed out of my prior business, Scarlet Thread Interiors, where I not only created beautiful window treatments by working with homeowners and designers, but also where I worked as an educator across the US teaching business and pricing strategies to others in my industry.

Interestingly, Metrique Solutions was born out of Scarlet Thread Consulting.

My career began in software development for financial applications back in the 80’s. After a ten year career in corporate I came home to raise my family and within a year and a half I started a home based business offering custom window treatments. That career carried me into education as I realized many in my industry were struggling with how to price custom work and how to run the financials of their business.

In 2009 I became a partner in a school in NC that taught these very things. After selling this business in 2012, the need for coaching and consulting with private businesses was on the rise. Scarlet Thread Consulting was formed to meet that need.

In 2018 the podcast, Profit Is A Choice, was added to the company offerings with a heart to help business owners recognize that each decision we make in our business takes us closer to or further away from profitability.

While still teaching courses, now most of them online accessible, I found myself creating spreadsheet after spreadsheet to share. In 2021 I hired software engineers to take these spreadsheets and to put them together into a financial dashboard aimed at the business owner to show them their data in a visual way.

The goal of Metrique Solutions, the dashboard built from my spreadsheets, is to empower business owners with information for decision making that is not as readily or easily accessible in their current financial software.

Metrique Solutions also has modeling tools for financial goals, break even goals, billable capacity, and pricing strategy.

What I find exhilarating and liberating in business is that it is not static. It is ever growing and changing. From starting in software development, to 25 years later creating my own software company to work with and serve the small businesses that I had been with for those 25 years is astounding. I would not have imagined this back in the 80s at all.

Seeing what others need and asking how we can meet that need is at the heartbeat of both of my companies. We are constantly looking to serve small business owners by helping them do 3 things well: Know and understand their financials so they can use them to make decisions, have a usable strategic plan for 1-3 years at a minimum, and to have a framework for decision making that supports what they are trying to accomplish.

If we can do these three things for those we serve, we will consider it a success for us all.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am pretty low key and prefer to hang out with a book, on a boat, or at an antique store. So if someone visited us for a week here in the ATL, we would most likely do the big things like the aquarium and World of Coke, and maybe Stone Mountain. But after that I would love to take them to Avalon to shop and eat, then a long walk on the Greenway in North Fulton, followed by a pizza at The Standard.

We would also go the High Museum of Art and the Botanical Gardens. If it was nice out – we would also go to Gibbs Gardens.

After all this – we would go from antique store to antique store stopping in all we could find along our path.

To end our time together my favorite places are on our boat in Lake Lanier or on our back porch hanging out with a good book or an SEC football game on the TV.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
So many people and authors have inspired my journey in business. First is my husband, Joel. He has supported me in 20+ years of entrepreneurship and in the start of multiple businesses. My sons, Harrison and Brantley, have also played a large role in asking about my business and showing thankfulness in what it brought into our family.

My parents and sister as well as friends (too many to name) have cheered me on and jumped in to help in a myriad of ways. While it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to grow and care for a business as well.

Books and authors that have impacted me are, “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, “212: The Extra Degree” by Mac Anderson and Sam Parker, and “E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber.

Website: https://www.metriquesolutions.com https://www.scarletthreadconsulting.com

Instagram: scarletthreadatl metriquesolutions

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-williams-business-coach/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/metriquesolutions
https://www.facebook.com/scarletthreadconsulting

Image Credits
Catrina Maxwell and Valeria Kar
Jesse Volk and Christina Wedge