Alicia Fazio @ The Agency Worx leads a women-owned, full service staffing & recruitment agency
BASED IN: NEW YORK
The Agency Worx is a women-owned, full service staffing and recruitment agency. Headquartered in New York City, we specialize in the acquisition and placement of elite creative and technical talent. Our omnipresent network and proprietary cloud-based technology allows us to forge invaluable business relationships with some of the most prestigious and highest earning companies in the world.
What is your background? Do you think you can learn entrepreneurship in a classroom or do you believe that you learn by getting your hands dirty?
I come from a fairly traditional educational background having graduated Villanova University with a Bachelor’s degree. I then pursued a career in corporate America. Villanova is a well-respected and highly regarded undergrad business school but I do not think entrepreneurship is something that can be taught or learned in a classroom. I believe entrepreneurship is a personality characteristic or type and I do not believe there are any “rules” that can simply or precisely define or identify it. In addition, I think if you are someone who has an entrepreneurial spirit, it takes many other traits, skills, efforts and behaviors to become a successful entrepreneur.
What is the best part about being self-employed. What is the worst/scariest part?
The best part about being self-employed is being truly responsible for your successes and failures. My business The Agency Worx, is something to “call my own”. There is a certain pride that comes along with being a business owner, especially when you reach successful moments. This is likely the same for anyone who has great achievements or accomplishments; you truly “earn” it. But as a business owner and as I grow my practice, I can most equate it to being a parent. When great things happen, and The Agency Worx makes other businesses happy, I feel proud that its mine. The fear is the same. As a business owner, you strive for greatness, you aim to please. Fear of failure is scary.
What steps are crucial to take before starting your own business?
The first step is knowing what you want and expecting that you will have to go after it with little to no direction or rules. The most crucial step is to create a business plan and projections of your sales and costs of operation. Another important part of the start-up process is conducting thorough and detailed research of the market conditions, the overall business climate in your space and an analysis of your competitors. A step by step road map to how you intend to reach your targets and goals. Finally, it takes expecting the unexpected and understanding that you will have to stretch yourself to places you’ve never been and going outside your comfort zone.
Grow steady and slowly or take the world by storm? Which one do you think is the way to go? Why?
Growing slow and steady is prudent and I believe the successful way to go. If the business is growing rapidly, the manner in which you manage it can be the “make or break” of your business. Taking on more than your business can handle, can be the death of a business. It’s great to have rapid growth, as we are experiencing, but it is how you handle situations that make you what you are.
What do you think about “fear”? Is it something that disappears at a certain point or do you believe that we all fear something at all times?
This is a difficult question to answer and I believe my answer is subjective because “fear” means something different to everyone. Fear can be a driving force for me and forces change… which can be a good thing sometimes. Fear has to be managed or else it can become crippling and, fear has to be combined with other emotions to be turned into something positive. Fear and excitement or enthusiasm could be a good combination. Risk-taking can cause fear but if you take the risk, knowing that you have to “take a shot”, then it could pay off into a great reward.
What does it mean to achieve success? Do you think that it can ever be fully achieved?
I believe this is also a subjective answer because success means different things to different people. Sometimes, money is success for certain people. Popularity and being well liked is success for some. For me, success is having customers who are happy and love doing business with The Agency Worx. Success is repeating customers who come to The Agency Worx over and over again because they are pleased with what we offer them. Success is hearing “through the grapevine” or from an industry network or acquaintances that they’ve had excellent experiences with The Agency Worx. Success is hearing from candidates that I have “changed their life” and receiving gratitude from candidates who have had great experiences with us. All of these things and so much more mean success to me and I believe I have achieved it… but, I always want to do better!