William Lopez
Business Name: Alternative Strategies
Website URL: www.altstrategies.com
E-mail: william@altstrategies.com
Year Founded: 2000
Number of Employees : 17
What does your company do? Alternative Strategies is a full service marketing communications firm. Our agencies capabilities include:
Public Relations
Marketing
Social Media
Graphic + Web Design
Media Buying
Was there a specific turning point when you realized your business was moving to the next level? Yes. The moment when I made the decision to invest in my employees. To ensure I have a team that carries out our mission and and my personal outcome for every client, this requires that you have a team that shares in your goals and mission.
What processes or procedures have you implemented that have helped grow your company? We developed our Think Tank Approach. Learn more by clicking here:
http://altstrategies.com/thinktank.html
What is most rewarding about running your business? Having the ability to be flexible and adapting to the needs of our clients.
This ensures that we don’t remain stagnant. This allows us to put the interest and success of our clients as our primary desired outcome in all we do.
What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them? In our industry, it’s a challenge to meet unrealistic expectations. In my early years, this was very frustrating. I have since learned to ask the right questions and create a dialog early on. This has proven to ensure we are on the same page at the start of our working relationship.
If you were starting over today, what would you do differently? I would have looked for a business partner. There are strengths and lesser strengths that we all have. I work with many clients that have business partners. I sometimes find myself thinking about the value of having a business partner.
What advice do you have for other business owners? Continue challenging yourself.
Continue to challenge your staff.
Take risks.
Ask for help.
Stay passionate.
Please list any favorite books, tools or resources (software, website, etc.) you would recommend for others: I very much enjoy all of Stedman Graham’s books. I have learned a lot about myself and business.
I also recommend The Four Agreements (by Don Miguel Ángel Ruiz).
What is something that people might be surprised to learn about you? My last name is Lopez. I don’t speak Spanish. My mother is Irish.
The only language I know (other than English) is sign language.
