For Episode 245 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Charlie Aldis, the co-founder and CRO of Maven IT. Charlie started in the telecom industry at just 18 years old, and by 30, had worked his way up to the executive level. However, frustration, anger, and stress caused his blood pressure to skyrocket, and he ended up having a stroke at work one day. It was then, after more than 30 years in the telecom industry, that Charlie realized he needed a change. So he hooked up with an old colleague, Aaron, and together, they founded Maven IT. Maven IT got its start with the aim of providing enterprise-level managed IT services to small and medium businesses. After a chance phone call to the franchisee of a Smoothie King opening up new stores in Michigan, Charlie and his co-founder Aaron realized that franchises were a very underserved market in terms of managed IT services. And so, eventually, Maven IT evolved from serving primarily small to medium businesses to operating in the franchisee space. To date, they’re in 32 states servicing about 1100 franchise locations nationwide and growing.

To learn more, visit their website at https://www.mavenitinc.com/. 

00:00 – Intro

01:03 – What are three things that you think every entrepreneur should know?

02:58 – Can you tell us a little bit about Maven IT? What is it you do, and how has the business evolved since you first started?

08:55 – Why did you leave your job, in an industry you were in for more than 30 years, to get into entrepreneurship with Maven IT?

15:31 – Where does your entrepreneurial drive come from? 

22:19 – What have you found most challenging or frustrating about pivoting from the telecom world into entrepreneurship?

29:55 – What does success look like to you now?

35:44 – If you could write a letter to your younger self, what advice would you give?

38:48 – If our audience members wanted to connect with you, how could they do that?