Meet Carmen: Tech Queen
Carmen and her husband set out on a venture together- they took a risk and have built a successful business in Dallas, TX! Carmen is also one of our Founding Members with The Everyday Series- her and I met through a get together on the meet-up app and haven’t looked back since- our friendship came from a genuine place of wanting to support and learn from each other! CMIT Solutions desires for small and medium sized companies to have the same access to technology services as large companies- they are providing this kind of personalized service to so many in the DFW Area! I am so humbled that she took the time to share a little of her journey with us!
Tell us a little bit about who you are and your journey to where you are now.
My husband, who I've known for 20 years, and I met in New York. I was very free and not looking to meet anybody, but we found each other, moved to Dallas and had our first son which was nine years ago. We had both been in careers where we were working to fulfill an obligation to a nine to five job, but we finally took a huge chance last year to start our own company- CMIT Solutions- with the risks of what that entails!
2. Tell us about the mission of your brand. How does it empower women?
The mission of our brand is to provide outsourced IT support but as a business partner as well to small to and medium sized companies. We feel that companies deserve to leverage technology to help them grow. Our company- CMIT- stands for Completely Managed Information Technology, and our goal is to have a very comprehensive, one stop shop for our clients. Many of our clients are women owned businesses that we have met through our community so we in particular like to support them with our services!
3. What is the biggest challenge you've had to press through as a female entrepreneur, and what are the steps you had to take to overcome it?
First of all, it is a very male dominated field. In addition to that, I am a Hispanic female so someone in my field is even more rare. At information technology conferences, I will often be the only woman in the room! That challenge in particular is one that I hope to bring more attention to by collaborating with more women in the IT field. My husband and I run the business alone as of now and a challenge was learning the field of IT because I came from a background in healthcare operations. I learned that while knowledge in the field is important, I have had to adjust how I speak with clients so that I make technology accessible linguistically without the intimidation. I had to overcome this challenge by learning to relate to my clients in a way that they could understand. My husband and I are always trying to learn by attending webinars and conferences to expand our knowledge! IT is a field where you constantly having to stay fresh in the services and products that are available to you at the cutting edge and offer your clients the best that you feel is out there!
4. What sets your brand apart from others?
Our focus as a brand is on cyber security. I guess it's just thinking we have certified security experts and compliance and audit that I know it's like some techie jargon. No, that was not something that a lot of other tech companies do not have. Yes, I think you know, because we're an MSP, which stands for Managed Service Provider. I know that that position is high in demand for big companies. So that makes it even more less accessible to smaller companies. So we're really trying to leverage that. It's just been so rewarding. So like, support a school or support? My longtime neighbors that have their businesses that have never been to the level where they need professionally. And so, I find that pretty rewarding to just be a part of this in that way.
5. How do you collaborate with others working towards a better world?
That's a good one. So I think there's a lot of collaboration when we are meeting and networking, partnering, referring to one another, so that we can keep business local within our communities. And also helping the ultra micro local economy. I think also just when our children see their own parents have their business and their friends. And parents have been their businesses and working together. Just this past weekend, we took our kids to our client’s new office. And this is a dad of their friends. They just think it's interesting for them to see how the pieces come together. And so I like that they have that exposure, and especially when it's kind of a character building, culture of sacrificing. They can't have what they want. And they really can't right now, because hopefully, in the future, there will be an appreciation of why we're sacrificing some of the things that we have to bypass because we're in a growth stage. So hopefully, that's building character and resilience and all the things that will help them appreciate what they have or what they will have.
6. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs in the beginning stages of launching their brand?
There's a balance and when to start and when you feel comfortable. How you think about it, are you making more connections in there, who they're going to be marketing to understand their market, and trying to narrow that down as much as possible. Knowing that, this is whatever research can be done beforehand, on their market, as well as trying to run a realistic performer. Then they know when to expect that they could be profitable. I would say getting a mentor, even before you launch, to review that performance ticket, like a reality check on this is even seen.