A FIERCE CHAMPION FOR SMALL Business OWNERS

Angelique provides business training and advice to thousands of small businesses across 72 countries worldwide on how to secure 5, 6, and 7-figure corporate contracts. 

Named “The Undisputed Champion at Helping Small Businesses Land Big Clients” by Inc. Magazine and Enterprising Woman of the Year by Enterprising Women Magazine, Angelique has been featured by Huffington Post, Forbes, Inc., Yahoo Finance, American Express, Washington Post, Entrepreneur, ABC and more.

Who is Angelique Rewers?

I certainly hope I’m doing a good job of using this lifetime to explore that question! In a nutshell, I am a mother of twin boys, a wife — married to my high school sweetheart and best friend of 26 years, a dog lover, a die-hard Baltimore Ravens fan, a wildly driven entrepreneur, a globetrotter, and a fierce champion for small Business Owners. 

You have over 20 years experience guiding small businesses. What common mistakes do small businesses make?

The most devastating mistakes are the single points of failure — and yet those are the ones we see most often. If you don’t stick the landing on a keynote you deliver, or you hire the wrong executive assistant, so what? It’s inconvenient and might cause a short-lived blip on your results. But it’s not going to cause engine failure. 

The mistakes you really need to worry about are things like not finding a compelling problem to solve for your clients — a problem that is so urgent and so expensive and so tangible to your target market that they are willing to commit their money and, more importantly, their precious time, to solving it. 

You also need to know how to message and position what you do so that it appeals to the eyes and ears of that target market. A huge mistake we’re seeing more and more for both small business owners, as well as larger companies alike, is a watering down of their messaging. It’s just gobbledygook. Messaging that says absolutely nothing other than strung together buzz words. That’s a huge problem when you think about how noisy the online world is — and how distracted and stressed-out people are today.

You are the CEO and Founder of The Corporate Agent. Why the Corporate Agent?

About 13 years ago, I started getting more involved in the small business market. And one of the single-points-of-failure mistakes I spotted right away was that many small business owners failed to identify a profitable target market for their business.

Instead, they were chasing after clients who could barely afford to work with them, let alone offer a significant lifetime customer value. And so, the math just didn’t add up. The time and money to win those clients was higher than what the clients were actually worth to their bottom line. You don’t have to be a math genius to figure out that if it costs more to get clients than what they bring in, your business will soon be bankrupt.

At the same time, I knew that corporate clients provide tremendous benefits. You can find these companies easily in the market. They have substantial budgets. They like to keep buying from people they like working with. They always have another problem that needs solving. Having consistent cash flow creates predictability. Predictability creates the ability to invest and grow. I could keep going, but suffice to say, B2B organizations are the most valuable clients in the market. 

At the same time, 95% of what is being taught out there about how to win these clients is off the mark. It’s strategies that make B2B decision makers want to run and hide. Think about that: strategies that actually repel your target market! However, having been on that side of the decision maker table, I knew it could be done better. It could be done in a way that focuses on the long game. 

So, over 10 years ago we created The Corporate Agent to help small business owners — especially experts and professional service providers — to win these high-quality, coveted clients. And do it in a way that is authentic to them and the work they do and that builds genuine relationships with decision makers. It’s been quite a journey but the results really speak for themselves. The work our clients are doing in the world — with brands like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Delta, Mercedes and more, to companies practically no one has heard of, and everything in between — is absolutely transformational and inspires me every single day.

What are the key skills that a startup entrepreneur cannot do without?

Three things: Math. Mindset. Marketing. 

Most business problems can be solved with a five-dollar calculator. 

But you can’t solve those problems if you’re not thinking like a CEO. 

And clients can’t buy from you if they don’t know about you. 

So, make sure you know where your target clients are. If you’re selling to younger consumers, then yes, you want to be on Instagram and Tik-Tok. 

However, if you’re selling to B2B and corporate organizations — you can’t do without knowing how to get line of sight with the true decision makers who control the “go” decision. So, make sure you understand how to get visibility for your particular market, as opposed to following what everyone else is doing, which probably isn’t working for them anyway. 

And get your calculator out. It will save you a lot of heartache. 

What should one look for when opting to start a business?

The right community to be a part of. 

One of the most surprising things about entrepreneurship is that just because you’re highly intelligent, or just because you’re great at what you do, or just because you’ve had tremendous success in other areas of your life, doesn’t mean business ownership will come naturally to you. 

In fact, statistically speaking, it probably won’t. There will be days where it feels like up is down and left is right. Everything about how we’re raised, to the skills that are taught in school, are designed to turn us into great employees — not entrepreneurs. So you will need to change not just what you’re doing, but how you are thinking. 

You need a mentor. You need training. But you especially need the right community — comprised of business owners who have high integrity, like-minded, and who are building similar kinds of businesses as you. That’s going to create the right environment for you to forge new mindsets and also provide a container of support, which every business owner needs. 

That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of here at The Corporate Agent: the global community we’ve created of mission-driven change agents. These are small business owners, primarily professional service providers, consultants and other experts, who are based all over the world. 

They all have taken the time to understand how to build their businesses long term. And they not only support one another, but they also team up with one another to take on incredible market opportunities. It’s truly taken on a life of its own, and these entrepreneurs inspire me every single day. 

What legacy do you want to leave behind?

My all-time favourite quote is from Oscar Wilde: “The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.”

That sums up the essence of life in just nine words. Life is designed to be an exciting expedition. 

I hope my legacy is that I inspire entrepreneurs and business owners to say “yes” to that expedition. To seize the moment. To stop hiding. To make bold decisions. To go, go, go. 

How do people seeking business advice contact you?

The best place, of course, is our website: www.TheCorporateAgent.com. There are terrific resources there for serious entrepreneurs. Three other fabulous ways to connect with me are on Instagram (@AngeliqueRewers), Clubhouse (@AngeliqueRewers) and LinkedIn.