Kathy David is an immigrant from Cebu City, Philippines, who moved to the United States at the age of twelve. She is a driven “opportunity junkie” who has founded two successful companies. Her first company, IT TechPros, Inc. (www.it-techpros.com), was founded in 2006 and the company was formed with the purpose to offer enterprise-level I.T. services and support to small companies.
Kathy is the President & CEO of IT TechPros, and over the years, IT TechPros has garnered many awards, like the SBA Minority Business of the Year in 2013 awarded by the San Diego SBA and the Supplier of the Year in 2013 by the Women Business Enterprise Council-West, and her company has been recognized by other prestigious organizations.
Her second company is Alpas Athletix (www.alpasathletix.com), which was founded in January 2017. Kathy, a fitness enthusiast, and who loves being outdoors, was looking for a product she wanted for herself, but after a few Google searches found out quickly that what she was looking for did not exist in the marketplace. So out of her own need, she created the product to use for herself, and she was surprised that her idea worked.
Kathy is the inventor of the “Alpas Bra,” a patented, world’s first-ever strapless sports-performance bra. Kathy’s strapless sports-performance bra is an alternative solution for women. The bra will stay on and provide full support while performing physical activities, thanks to her patented creation and design. Her product will soon be released to consumers online sometime this year.
What is your entrepreneur’s story? How did you come about building your business?
I started in the corporate world and had a successful career as a banker for a fortune 500 financial institution for nine and a half years. In the last six years of my banking career, I had a significant focus on business banking and enjoyed working with my business customers, consulting them about business financial solutions and services. I had opportunities to meet with them at their place of business, see their operations, and I admired every single one of my business customers. I knew one day that I would start and have my own company, and finally, around Winter 2005, I put my resignation to leave.
It was a leap of faith for me. I left my job and took a month’s break to figure things out. At that time, I still didn’t know what I was going to start, but my husband, who at that time was an I.T. manager for a biotech company, asked what I thought about starting an I.T. firm. I thought it was a brilliant idea!
My corporate job was my training ground, and I learned everything from customer service to dealing and managing people. I learned systems and operations, H.R., sales, leadership, KPIs, and everything about running a successful business. I also got exposed to several technologies and network refreshes throughout my tenure at the bank, so I understood and was comfortable with technology. I was also highly competent in consulting with businesses. I loved solving problems and helping my businesses succeed. I was confident that I was able to transfer everything I learned from my previous career to a technology service start-up. I was excited!
After we launched in 2006, I was able to land our first contract within a month, and in less than a year, my husband was able to quit his full-time job as an I.T. manager and join our business full-time. Today, we are a seven-figure a year business and have grown as a boutique I.T. firm in San Diego County. We focus on small businesses that have 20 and up to 150 employees in manufacturing, engineering, construction, and other B2B companies. We have clients all over the nation and support their employees around the globe. We have a high-touch approach with our customers and focus on nurturing and building relationships with every customer that we work with. I couldn’t be prouder of where we are at today.
As far as my new venture, Alpas Athletix, I am still in pre-revenue, and I am still gearing up for my launch. I am excited that I’m now at a point in my life where I can start another company. This is what I love to do — creating and starting something new! My goal is to also build Alpas with the same love and organic approach that I have applied to my tech company. I want Alpas Athletix to be a leading brand in the fitness garment space. I know I can do it!
What is your business model — how were you able to grow so fast?
My I.T. company’s model is managed services. We are a contract-only based I.T. firm. This is the model I started back in 2006 before I knew the term managed services. I learned from working for the bank that recurring revenue is key to sustaining and growing a business, so I followed that same model. I have had the company for thirteen and a half years, and although we grew exponentially during the first three years, from zero to over $300K in annual revenues, I have learned that we prefer the steady, proven, and profitable way of growing the business.
The year 2013 was one of the worst years we experienced in the business. We grew so fast within a short period, and during this process, we realized our entire team was not prepared for the pace we were going. We were also at max capacity and couldn’t service all of our clients at the level we wanted to, and what our customers expected. It was a disaster! We did get many new customers but also lost a ton of business because of it.
We were way in over our heads. It felt like I was in a tornado. I was tossed around, beat up, and chopped up emotionally and mentally for the mistake I made to pursue growth aggressively. I seriously thought we were going to go out of business too. I felt that our ship was sinking fast to join the likes of the Titanic in the deep blue ocean, but somehow, I was able to get the boat back on the right course and prevented it from hitting a big iceberg that was going to take us down. That was an experience that I do not and, if I can control it, never want to repeat!
So, I understand why it is so sexy to hear stories about companies growing to become gazillion-dollar businesses in less than ten years, but what most people fail to realize is that it takes longer than that for the average person. It takes time to nurture and grow a business. There are companies like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rent the Runway, and others that have a valuation of over billions of dollars, but those companies are “unicorn” type companies. It represents less than 1% of the businesses out there in the world. Most small businesses take a while to get to become seven, eight, or nine figures in annual revenues or higher. You’ve got to have serious skin in the game, and it is for the long haul.
As far as my product business, Alpas Athletix, I think I will be able to grow it quicker than IT TechPros. I know I can do it in half the time. That is what experience can do, and it can accelerate success. I do have more experience and wisdom under my belt when it comes to starting, running, and growing a business. I am in it for the long haul, and I am willing to invest the time to make sure that these two companies, and other companies I am still yet to build, will continue and will be successful.
Can you give me an overview of who you are, what is your educational or overall background? What are some of your achievements?
I started my full-time banking career at the age of 19 years old and stopped attending college because my job became a priority during my earlier years. My employer became my real-world training ground and university. I was fortunate that my previous employer also puts me through sales, operations, management, and leadership training workshops. I am lucky.
When I left the bank, I went back to school to get my technical certifications needed to be in the I.T. field. I went through several business and entrepreneurial programs at different colleges and Universities in Southern CA. In 2007, I was awarded a scholarship to attend the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where I graduated in 2008 from the Management Development for the Entrepreneurship program. This was a unique MBA/University level course work and Alumni program for established entrepreneurs.
I also received another scholarship to attend the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program at Long Beach City College, and I graduated in 2013. In that year, I graduated from another business program called Founders First Business Bootcamp, a program by Founders First Capital Partners. The program is focused on teaching companies to scale a business beyond $5M of revenues per year.
My background has been super focused around business and entrepreneurship. I attend an executive-level program every few years to make sure that I am always up-to-date and learning about new and better ways of innovating in business. It is my passion; I love business!
Some of my achievements? Since 2006, I have received awards and have been recognized for Entrepreneur of the Year, Business Owner of the Year, Women CEO of the Year, and have graced the cover of two different magazines.
I operate with a positive mindset and love to be of service to others. These recognitions are a blessing to me, and I am grateful for the people who have nominated me and have given their time and effort to recognize the work that I do in the business community.
Outside of all the professional achievements and accolades, I am most proud of my two daughters and happy to be celebrating my 18th wedding anniversary with my husband this year. A quick fun fact: my husband is my high school sweetheart, and we are also celebrating our 27th year of being together. My family is important to me, and the business is a family-owned and operated firm.
What have you learned through your experiences as an entrepreneur that can be used by aspiring business individuals?
It takes time to build something meaningful. The world of entrepreneurship is a sport. You need a lot of experience, conditioning, and training to build your endurance. What has been helpful to me is continuing to go to school and take short-term business courses to get the knowledge, as well as the support from other like-minded individuals. Always be growing, have a positive mindset, and surround yourself with successful people.
Another important element as an entrepreneur is you must first learn about yourself. Get to know you! If you have never taken personality and competency assessments, I recommend that you start there. I have found all of the assessments I have done super helpful. I have learned to focus on what I am good at and managed through my weaknesses, but I have always focused on my natural talents. I have had a positive, professional career experience because I know where I should put my energy and focus on getting the highest input for my efforts. Getting a life or business coach is also something I recommend, but only if you are ready for it. Getting into mastermind groups is also very helpful to get feedback and support from like-minded people.
What makes your business so unique and successful?
What sets us apart and the value we bring to our customers is our relationships with them. Our customers tell us all the time how much they love working with us because we listen, we care, and we are attentive. IT TechPros is a high-touch, people-oriented, service-based I.T. business. Our values speak loudly about how we operate. Our values are connection, trust, expertise, family, and fun.
Our goal is to have a long-term relationship with all of the customers that we elect to do business with, and the connection & establishing trust happens at the very first engagement process. We are continually learning to enhance our expertise to ensure that our customers are getting the best from every single one of our team members. We are a family-owned company, our team members have families, and most of our customers are family-owned too; this value is very important to us, and we treat everyone like family. Finally, what is most important is that we do love to have fun, and we do different and unique stuff for our customers regularly throughout the year. We run the business with a lot of heart, and we do love all of our customers.
What have you learned through your journey as an entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship, to me, has been a personal, spiritual, and self-discovery journey. I have learned more about myself; I have learned what I stand for as an individual and as a business owner, and I have learned so much as a human being over the last 13 years. I have been through some of the toughest situations a person can get themselves into, and I have persevered over and over again. I learned that I could accomplish anything I want as long as I am committed to it. It is essential to be committed.
What skills and attributes make you as successful as you are?
I am loyal to my cause. I am also resilient, dedicated, and confident. I am my biggest fan, and I think despite what is going on externally, I am my biggest cheerleader. I do have people that also cheer me on and support me. I am so thankful for everyone who has poured into my business and life, but at the end of the day, I have to believe in myself 100% and make sure that I keep myself accountable for the things that I said I am going to do. There are other skills and attributes that I can share, but I am choosing this one because this is a big part of my success. I believe in my abilities!
Why is online business, marketing, etc. important?
If you are in business, a small business, or an entrepreneur, marketing your company is essential. Marketing is the way you are going to share with the world what you do, how you can help your customers and a way for them to learn about you. The final result of your marketing effort is for you to get prospect interest, take them through your sales engagement, and finally, for your prospects to become your customer.
I used to go deep-sea fishing with my husband years ago, and the best way for me to explain marketing to the average person is like how a tuna fishing boat chums the water to get the fishes to bite. If you have never gone deep sea fishing, I recommend you to tune into Netflix, and watch the show titled Battle Fish. It is a good show, and there are a lot of business and leadership lessons that I have learned from this show. The show documents a handful of commercial tuna fishers who go out to sea during the tuna season to try to catch as much Albacore Tunas they can catch.
The captain of each boat studies the ocean and makes a decision based on data to go to the location to see if they can spot or land a school of Albacore tuna. Once they have narrowed in on the spot, they chum or throw bait in the ocean to get the school of fish closer to the boat. Once the school is under the boat, and eating frenzy starts, and the fishermen start hooking the fishes one after the other either using their fishing poles, or manually gaffing the fish if they are close enough to hook onto, and they try their best to hook on as many fishes as possible.
In business, this is making sure that you know your market, you know who your customers are, where you can find them, target the platforms where your customers are, then lure them in with an enticing offer, and then onboard them as your customer. Marketing is the process in which you create a method to market what it is you are trying to sell in the marketplace. It is, in essence, like fishing for Albacore Tuna.
Business owners need to learn and find out the best marketing channel or campaign they will use to get new customers. If not, the business is doomed to fail.
Social Media :
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_kathy_david_/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathydavid/
Personal Website: https://www.kathydavid.com/
Business Website: https://www.it-techpros.com
https://www.alpasathletix.com