Danita Doleman

[00:00:55] Sanjay Parekh: Based in Washington DC, Danita Doleman has over 25 years’ experience providing strategic solutions to businesses in need. She's an expert in connecting people to grant opportunities, and to this day, she has helped individuals earn over $8 million in grants. Recently, Danita's company, SEAS Community Partners, launched Grants4Biz; a service which seamlessly connects individuals and businesses to grants they qualify for. Danita, welcome to the show.

[00:01:23] Danita Doleman: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, Sanjay.

[00:01:26] Sanjay Parekh: So, I'm excited to have you here because we're going to talk, I think, in a couple of minutes about just the whole grant space, because I think that's relevant to a lot of founders. But before we start talking about that stuff, tell us a little bit about your background and what got you to where you are now.

[00:01:40] Danita Doleman: Sure. My background is in IT. I graduated from The Howard University and consulted with all types of industries, all types of businesses, organizations, corporations, government for years. And then, like, it's time for me to step out on my own and take all of those tools that I learned and put them in my tool belt and go out on my own. So, that's kind of how I got here.

[00:02:11] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. I love that. So, starting SEAS, was that the first time you've done something entrepreneurial, or did you do something entrepreneurial when you were a kid, or sometime before then?

[00:02:23] Danita Doleman: No, SEAS is my second company. My first company was a strictly tech company, and with the '08 crash of everything, we just didn't survive. SEAS was born after that.

[00:02:41] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. And so, you decided, so, because of that crash you decided, hey, I don't want to do tech stuff anymore. You wanted to do other stuff, what was the reason for the pivot there?

[00:02:51] Danita Doleman: Yes, I was burnt out with tech and then I started more of a management consulting with SEAS, and then now I'm back to tech. So, it's funny how...

[00:03:03] Sanjay Parekh: Every time you think you're out, it pulls you back in.

[00:03:05] Danita Doleman: Yes, it pulls you back in. Because that's what I was trained in. That's what I know. And that's what's needed now. So, we're back.

[00:03:15] Sanjay Parekh: Really every business is a tech business to some level. You cannot really survive as a business without some kind of technology component somewhere along the chain.

[00:03:25] Danita Doleman: Absolutely, absolutely.

[00:03:27] Sanjay Parekh: So, before you did the IT tech company, was there anything entrepreneurial when you were a kid? Were you hustling for anything when you were younger or anything else like that?

[00:03:38] Danita Doleman: Now that I think about it, actually, yes. When I was in college, I dabbled, that's where I learned, besides family, but learned the kind of entrepreneurial spirit in college. And I worked with nonprofit organizations, and I assisted them with bookkeeping.

[00:03:59] Sanjay Parekh: Nice.

[00:03:59] Danita Doleman: So, I had clients in college.

[00:04:03] Sanjay Parekh: And you mentioned family. Do you have entrepreneurs in the family as well?

[00:04:08] Danita Doleman: Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, my grandfather, my maternal grandfather, was an entrepreneur. My father is an entrepreneur, so it's kind of in the blood.

[00:04:19] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. What kind of businesses did they both have?

[00:04:22] Danita Doleman: So, my grandfather had a moving and storage business. And my father has a physical therapy practice. Occupational and speech practice.

[00:04:32] Sanjay Parekh: Love that. Yeah. It's all over the range. So, you got to see businesses that did things very differently. Do you feel like that helped you in terms of starting these businesses and being able to take like those good lessons from those, to use for yourself?

[00:04:46] Danita Doleman: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And the same cousin who I was talking this morning to, our grandfather, he had office supplies, we played with the office supplies.

[00:05:02] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. So, instead of instead of playing house, you played business.

[00:05:06] Danita Doleman: Yes, we did. We did. We called it Office, let's play Office.

[00:05:11] Sanjay Parekh: I love that. We should have kids do that more often. That is a good thing, there. So, when you were looking to start SEAS how did you get started? How did find those first clients? How did you get everything to start moving forward?

[00:05:29] Danita Doleman: Relationships from the previous company. And volunteer efforts and just seeing where there was a disconnect in some things and oh, hey, I can help you with that. I have experience with that. And then some of those relationships, some of those people, just took a chance on me based on, hey, I can think I can do this for you.

[00:05:58] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. So, when you were starting and really either time when you started the tech company or this one, was there anything that really made you nervous or concerned about taking that leap and doing it yourself?

[00:06:14] Danita Doleman: No. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.

[00:06:22] Sanjay Parekh: Is that not the truth right there? Yeah. Even after the ‘08 crash and the company not succeeding and having to fold, doing it at your second time there. No issues, no concerns, no, nothing that kept you up at night?

[00:06:37] Danita Doleman: No. Just lessons learned. Just diversifying the portfolio of clients and diversifying the streams of income. That's the biggest takeaway. A lot of businesses didn't survive that recession in '08, '09. And some of our rates that we used to get, they were brought way down and it just wasn't working.

[00:07:04] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. When you had that first company were you like very concentrated on a few clients? Were they a large portion of your revenue and that's what caused the issue?

[00:07:14] Danita Doleman: Yes, yes. And then a lot of government contracts and government was just not paying those rates that they paid initially when I started. I had that company for years.

[00:07:26] Sanjay Parekh: So, in moving into this then, how do you make sure that you get that diversity of revenue, that no one client becomes too big of a portion of your revenue? How do you manage that?

[00:07:38] Danita Doleman: Once we have our suite of services and it's fine-tuned and just in the business development phase as we're putting our clients. No job is too small. So, we rate them small, medium, and large opportunities that we pursue. And around those same suite of services. And then, oh, by the way, we have a product that we created. So just trying to diversify the client base, diversify the streams of income.

[00:08:13] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. So, let's talk about that product. So, you built this product, Grants4Biz, and this came out of what? How did you realize hey, we need to build something to solve this problem?

[00:08:25] Danita Doleman: Because of the reputation that we had with successfully assisting clients with grant opportunities, and people would just call like literally every day, hey, someone gave me your number and I saw this grant that I want to apply for and that type of thing. Or we get the call, "Can you help me find grants?" Or I would call, what I consider VIP clients and say, hey, there's this opportunity out. Do you want to pursue it? That type of thing. With all of those different scenarios, we said, why don't we have a matchmaking service? And you just sign up and if it meets your profile, and you have potential opportunity that you can apply for.

[00:09:11] Sanjay Parekh: Okay. So, you basically automated the thing that you were doing in your head before, when people were calling you?

[00:09:18] Danita Doleman: Yes. Because people are like, I don't know where to get started. I don't know where to look. If you sign up, subscribe to our service, you don't have to; you'll get opportunities that you potentially will match for based on the profile that you create.

[00:09:34] Sanjay Parekh: So, you do that part of it. So, that helps them find the grants. But then is there another service you provide to help? Because writing for grants, and I've been involved in the process before. It is more of an art than it is a science, I think. Do you get involved in helping on that side as well then?

[00:09:53] Danita Doleman: Yes, yes. We still do the writing. But we give you an opportunity. If you think you can write, then that's fine. Or you want to get somebody else to write, that's fine too. Or you can use us. The sky's the limit. There are different opportunities and there is an art to grant writing. It's the way that you tell stories.

[00:10:17] Sanjay Parekh: Right. So, it's feels interesting to me. So, it feels like what you've done here is you've taken load off yourself, so you don't have to answer those calls of, hey, I need help finding this grant. But then you've also created client flow, like opportunity flow, into your actual services as well. So, how did this help the business? Did this like supercharge revenue? Like how are you seeing this impact in terms of the business?

[00:10:46] Danita Doleman: It is picking up. We get calls, like I said, every day. And the hope is, with more awareness to the product that we will increase client base and subscribers even more.

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[00:11:26] Sanjay Parekh: Okay, let's switch gears a little bit. You've been through this a couple of times. I'm sure it was stressful the previous time because of the '08 recession. How do you manage stress now and juggle the demands of business and personal life and family and all of those kinds of things?

[00:11:49] Danita Doleman: Mindfulness, mindfulness, mindfulness. Meditation, prayer, exercise. Just really taking my mental health serious.

[00:12:03] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Do you have a routine every single day that you stick to that's, hey, I'm already set up for 8:00 AM is this, and 7:00 AM is this. Do you do it that way or do you do it as it comes?

[00:12:19] Danita Doleman: Definitely. Now I would like to be more intentional about the 7:00 and 8:00 AM so it depends on what happened the night before in terms of work, how late I was up and so forth. But I still like to start with prayer, with scripture, with meditation. And usually at the beginning of the week, I kind of plan the week in terms of what calls and activities and so forth need to happen. And then at night I do meditation again, and that usually will just put me to sleep.

[00:12:56] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. You mentioned exercise. Where does that kind of fit into your day?

[00:13:01] Danita Doleman: In the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, in the evening. I have a rambunctious puppy that needs exercise or else he's walking around the house whining. We have to get that in. And then if it's too hot — and he is a Chow with a lot of hair — he’ll look up at me, like, maybe I didn't think this through. Maybe I shouldn't have complained. So I have to stop and let him recharge before we continue our three- to five-mile walk.

[00:13:43] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. So, that might be a hint for everybody out there, if you can't get the exercise in then get a pet which forces you to then go do the exercise. That can be a good thing. Okay. So, I'm interested to hear your answer to this because you are a tech person just like me. What kind of technology or apps or systems have you implemented that you'd recommend to others that have helped you build up the business? Is there something that you're like, ah, I just could not live without this?

[00:14:14] Danita Doleman: ChatGPT.

[00:14:17] Sanjay Parekh: ChatGPT! Okay, that's a new one. How are you using ChatGPT?

[00:14:24] Danita Doleman: Some with research, some with content. Mostly content. I just had to announce something. I said let me see what Chat GPT has to say. And oh my gosh, it was spot on, and I got actually a few comments from that post.

[00:14:47] Sanjay Parekh: Really? So, you're using this for blog post or social post?

[00:14:53] Danita Doleman: Yes, yes. For blog posts on social.

[00:14:55] Sanjay Parekh: Okay. So, that's interesting. So, if we'd had this interview a few months ago I don't think your answer would've been ChatGPT, but let's dive into this a little bit. How did you first get started with it and how are you figuring it out? Because I think the key secret sauce to using any of these tools is knowing how to write the prompt to get it to do the things that you want. So how are you figuring out how to write good prompts for a ChatGPT?

[00:15:23] Danita Doleman: I think that's probably, I capitalize on my grant writing experience and storytelling. And knowing how to answer those questions in different applications and so I take it backwards and help with the prompts. Because you know, if the grant asks, tell me about a time when you did, or how did you impact that? Or what will this do for you? And so just kind of picking it from the back way helps me with the prompts.

[00:16:08] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. How did you get started using ChatGPT? What was the first thing that got you using it and then you were like, oh, this is really powerful?

[00:16:19] Danita Doleman: One of the consultants that we used introduced me to the tool and he said, send me some questions on X, Y, and Z. And I sent him the questions and then he showed me what he got back. I was like, OMG. And then I started using it myself. Just kind of testing out. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is a game changer. It just saves so much time. And then, just the whole AI world, and I've just found, other tools from creating logos and graphic images and just more content, whether it's video or whatever, and they are really time saving tools.

[00:17:12] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Okay. Beyond ChatGPT what's your number two tech tool that you're like, ah, I couldn't live without this in managing the business for running the business?

[00:17:23] Danita Doleman: Definitely the accounting system Wave apps. That's a good one. And then of course, I am a Microsoft person. I've been using it for 105 years and Google is okay. I like it when we're working with clients to collaborate on proposals or grant applications or something like that. But then I'll take it once it's done, and I'll take it and put it over to the Microsoft suite to make it pretty.

[00:18:02] Sanjay Parekh: I'm a big fan of both of those, I love Wave apps. I think it's a great suite for small and mid-size businesses. It works really well. It's super friendly. And then the Microsoft suite, now that it's all cloud-based it works really, really well.

[00:18:20] Danita Doleman: Oh my gosh, yes. Game changers. I can just be anywhere in the world. And if I don't have my laptop, I can log in and get my files. Everything is in the cloud. I don't know if that's a good thing, but everything is there. Sometimes I'm like, ok, let me break it down for a little bit. But, yes.

[00:18:40] Sanjay Parekh: Still good to have backups even if it's in the cloud. It's funny that they took so long to move to the cloud but now that they have, it's great. So, let me ask you this. So, you've had a reasonably long career now as an entrepreneur. You've gone through multiple companies, you've gone through issues probably in that company, in this company. If you could go back in time and do something differently, what is it that you do differently and why is it that you do that differently?

[00:19:15] Danita Doleman: I think, what I did with the second company is diversifying the client base, the portfolio of products and services and not relying on… Because that company was mostly government contracting. And so, when that happened, we suffered as a result of that. So, this time around, I said I'll never kind of depend on one kind of source of revenue.

[00:19:45] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. That makes sense. And I think that's hard for a lot of entrepreneurs when they're getting started because generally, they might just start out with one client. If you've seen other entrepreneurs in that same situation, have you given any advice about how they think through diversifying that? Because it's hard, because when you have that big client, you're almost spending all your time servicing that one client, right? And you don't have time to go find more clients to make that issue less.

[00:20:17] Danita Doleman: I haven't really had an opportunity to share that experience. Maybe on a personal level, but on a kind of, I guess a larger platform, I would definitely say to diversify the client base. And I was just at a meeting a couple weeks ago and no opportunity is too small because sometimes those small opportunities can grow. And treat the small opportunity with the same quality and care as a large opportunity, because you just never know. because one thing leads to the next. And quality, quality, quality.

[00:21:04] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. You said that before, too, that no opportunity is too small. And it's an interesting comment that you make there, because a lot of people will look at small opportunities and be like, ah, it's not worth my time. Have you seen that borne through where you do the small opportunity where it maybe isn't worth your time, and it has grown? Does that happen consistently for you?

[00:21:30] Danita Doleman: So, yes, it has grown, and I have a client that there'll be small opportunities and medium opportunities, or sometimes there's volunteer opportunities. But what makes it good is that relationship and partnering with that client and knowing that they can count on us and the value that we bring. Because you don't have to kill it on every opportunity. And sometimes to me, the relationship is more important because I know I'll get more work from that client. One time I was like, oh, what's the budget for this? Oh, there's no budget. I'm just hoping that you could, volunteer. Okay. And then sure enough, a couple weeks later, hey, I got this, medium size opportunity for you. It's the value that you bring and the partnership and relationship.

[00:22:40] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. I like that a lot. I think a challenge that we have, we see in business in general, is too many people think of everything they do as transactional and not relationships that span over time, right? You don't really have to make money every single time you interact with somebody. It's not necessary. If it builds over time, that's what gets you to a successful place.

[00:23:06] Danita Doleman: Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:23:10] Sanjay Parekh: I want to ask you, on this podcast, obviously, we talk to founders and entrepreneurs and a lot of people are thinking about doing their own side hustle or taking a side hustle into a full-time business. What advice would you give somebody like that's thinking about doing a side hustle or a small business?

[00:23:32] Danita Doleman: What can you offer? What need is unmet and what value can you bring to that potential customer base?

[00:23:45] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. What about on the side of actually finding clients? I think that becomes the hard thing for a lot of people. You were very fortunate that you had the previous business, so you had those relationships, but what if you were starting from scratch? What advice would you give somebody like that, that doesn't know any of their clients or potential clients or customers?

[00:24:13] Danita Doleman: It's that research and that plan. Who are your potential competitors and kind of where they are? See where your competitors, what they're doing and where they are, and, how you can add a better value to that customer. So that research, so many people start businesses with no plan but that will help.

[00:24:38] Sanjay Parekh: Got to have a plan. Got to have a plan of some sort. Winging it will work sometimes, but not all times. And the plan is useful. Absolutely. Danita, this has been great. Where can our listeners find and connect with you online?

[00:24:56] Danita Doleman: SEASPartners.com. S - E - A - S  Partners dot com. That's where we're at. You can follow me on Twitter, Danita Doleman and SEAS Partners on all the platforms except for IG. We're not on IG yet. Grants4Biz is though.

[00:25:16] Sanjay Parekh: Grants4Biz, awesome. Thanks so much for being on today, Danita.

[00:25:21] Danita Doleman: Thanks for having me, Sanjay. So much fun.

[00:25:28] Sanjay Parekh: Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Side Hustle to Small Business Podcast, powered by Hiscox. To learn more about how Hiscox can help protect your small business through intelligent insurance solutions, visit hiscox.com. And if you have a story you want to hear on this podcast, please visit www.hiscox.com/shareyourstory. I'm your host, Sanjay Parekh. You can find me on Twitter at @sanjay or on my website at www.sanjayparekh.com.