Angela Stewart is the CEO and founder of Cloud Stewards L.L.C., headquartered in Atlanta. She’s a graduate of North Carolina State University with a degree in management information systems and earned her Executive MBA from Georgia State University. She also holds multiple technology certifications.
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The backstory of her journey begins primarily with performing technology consulting work, and later moving into IT management roles. The nature of her work involved the implementation and support of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions–such as SAP, PeopleSoft–and Enterprise Applications, which are internal applications that run a business. Eventually, Stewart honed her skills to become a subject matter expert in cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Marketing Automation solutions such as Salesforce.com. Although the majority of her value proposition to an organization is technology advisory, she also provides Web and mobile-based applications that empower businesses to grow or scale.
“I’m passionate about what I do because I get the unique opportunity to watch a company blossom from a small company (with everyone wearing many hats) to a larger organization operating in high growth mode,” explains Stewart. “I get to help companies create a stable technology foundation, where they can grow rapidly and operate efficiently without having to make huge technology investments during the process.”
Stewart has 20+ years’ experience working in corporate America, mainly in information technology sectors. “My first job was at IBM. I worked full time while attending college full time. I also worked in management and consulting roles for companies such as Red Hat, JP Morgan Chase, Salesforce.com and Manhattan Associates.†While in her MBA program, Stewart launched her own consulting firm offering technology solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.
Today, Cloud Stewards serves small to medium-sized businesses that want to leverage technology in order to grow. For example, retail companies that require a more reliable point-of-sale solution, or companies that need a mobile app developed from scratch. Cloud Stewards helps the business stakeholder with the go-to-market strategy and will then design a solution to improve their customer’s experience with their brand.
As a sought-after industry expert, Cloud Stewards helps businesses get into the power position of success by allowing them to focus on (actually) running their business while feeling confident that they are getting the latest-and-greatest expert technology. “I get the opportunity to align with the company’s visionary and become his or her technology coach. Typically,
this person is an owner or an executive that really understands his/her industry and what is needed in that vertical, but they don’t have the technology know-how or the time to put the supporting technology solutions in place,†says Stewart.Stewart shares 10 fundamental strategies to position businesses for rapid growth.
1) Never stop learning. Attend conferences, take online courses, subscribe to blogs, and keep abreast of technology and where it is headed. It changes rapidly.
2) Set goals and stay focused on them. Be willing to pivot but make calculated, deliberate decisions to deviate from the plan.
3) Surround yourself with people that understand and support you. It’s important to have a support system of people that not only encourage you, but are willing to pull you away from the day-to-day operations for a coffee break or to get some weekend downtime.
4) Create a space in your home or office that encourages creativity. Your atmosphere and environment matters, and does affect your productivity.
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5) Know the best time of day in which you flourish. Understand when you hit peak performance. Is it early in the morning before the sun comes up or perhaps late at night after everyone is asleep? Take advantage of your OWN time zone!
6) Monitor and track trends in your industry. Think about where the market is headed and proactively prepare yourself for any changes.
7) Understand your business model and find technology solutions that work within that framework, not the other way around. Warning: DO NOT drastically alter your business processes to make the technology work.
8 ) Understand who your competitors are and what they are doing. Try to calculate your percentage of market share and understand if you are losing it, gaining it, or flat lining.
9) Embrace social media. Become an expert in your space by maintaining a blog about your industry trends. Continually update your social media pages with relevant content and focus on digital activities that encourage your customers to remain loyal to your brand. Make sure your website is engaging. Use social media to drive traffic to your website. It’s critical that all website activity can be tracked and measured.
10) If you’re in a B2B (Business to Business) industry, understand your customer’s customer. Understand that your product or service must add value to your customer in a way that helps them add value to their bottom line. Continually get feedback from your current
customer base and use that as input into your plan. Your customers have choices, so let them know that you heard their feedback and will implement it in upcoming product releases or service offerings.Cloud Stewards continues to emerge and evolve as an industry leader that’s looking to collaborate with the right partners, either technology companies that offer unique services, innovative ideas, or “ready-for-market†products. Cloud Stewards has plans to partner with technology companies based in Europe, Africa, Asia or South America that want to expand in the United States or are looking for joint venture partnerships.
Small business owners can request a FREE discovery session by contacting Cloud Steward at info@cloudstewards.com. You can also contact Cloud Stewards via their website, on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Roz A. Gee (@RozAGee) is an event speaker, media contributor and consultant, and CEO of The Rated Gee Agency with core service sectors in media relations, brand readiness and speaking/training. She has masterfully mixed over 20 years of cumulative experience and has worked professionally for industry titans such as General Electric, AT&T, AOL, IBM, and Northrop Grumman. Schedule a complimentary analysis at www.MediaMatchMaven.com. You can find Roz on Twitter: @RozAGee and Facebook: TheRatedGeeAgency.