Welcome to the third article in our Small Business, Big Dreams Challenge series. This series is a snapshot of where former winners of the challenge are now, including updates on how the prize money helped fuel — and fund their business goals. 

In our first piece, we talked to Xenia Marcinko , executive producer of The Magus Films and 3rd place winner of the BankUnited Challenge, year two. In the second, Drs. Angie Mason and Tyre Patterson discussed with us how winning 2nd place in the second year of the challenge changed their business lives. For this piece, we caught up with a Chief Executive Officer who used her winnings to help further her business goals through technology. Here’s how winning the prize money from the contest helped shape her future. 

The business: HR & Beyond

Contestant: Ivelices Linares Thomas

Contest: Year 2, 1st Place

Ivelices: I’d met some executives from BankUnited through other networking opportunities. When they learned what our company did, they thought it would be a value-add for us to become a resource to some of their clients. A lot of times, there is a big gap in human resources function, especially with small and mid-sized businesses. Through meeting people who worked with BankUnited, I started to respect the culture and I loved the people I was meeting, so I became a customer myself. While transitioning accounts over, I became aware of the contest.

At the time, I was at a crossroads in my business. We were growing, but I had identified a gap where I needed the right technology to manage my clients and employees. Whenever you’re dealing with technology, it’s a significant investment. I knew if I won, it would help me move forward towards investing in the right tools for my business to take it where I wanted it to go.

I think I won because — whether a business is woman-owned or not — human resources is such a critical component. I think the judges felt that what we do, and how we’re doing it by providing outsourced HR support in the way that we do, is unique and needed. They saw the potential in what our business could be as we continue to grow. Because of that, it was worth their investment to help us. 

Winning was encouraging from many perspectives. One, it validated what we’re doing as a business. The judges are respected, successful women in various industries, and the fact that they found value in what my business was doing and looking to accomplish gave me encouragement that I’m moving in the right direction. 

I also ended up doing business with several people in the room, including one of the judges. So, it was great to build my network. 

Lastly, winning the prize money allowed me to implement the technology I originally sought. The funny thing is, I was hesitant to hire more people until I had the technology or to grow from a client perspective because I was concerned the growth would get away from me. Without a system, I didn’t have visibility into what people were doing and how they were doing it — I wasn’t able to establish standards. 

We’ve now implemented a CRM system that manages not just the client marketing piece, but also our internal system. We use it as a Help Desk to manage our clients, so we have visibility into our work, and how quickly we’re reaching our goals. We’ve also included automation in some of our work, which has been a huge time-saver. 

For example, we used to do this long questionnaire with our clients, which required an HR advisor to review this long list of questions. Now, that questionnaire is programmed into our system. Clients get a link and can do it at their own pace and then submit it. It saves time and it’s more efficient. With that efficiency in place, I’ve gone from three employees at the time of the challenge to seven. We’ve more than doubled in the last couple of years. As I reflect on it, I’m happy to see there was growth, and I was able to do what I intended.

I would say know your numbers, including things like your revenue, and revenue growth. That demonstrates that you understand your business and know what’s needed for the next steps. I think that’s a potential weakness for most business owners. It certainly wasn’t one of my strengths, initially.

I would also say to make sure you know how to truly convey what your business is and what the value add is. Sometimes, those questions weren’t answered in the business owner’s presentation, and then the judges had to ask them, so they ran out of time to ask questions of more substance. Make sure you are hitting on those important elements of what your business does, the value it adds, who your customer base is, and be specific as to what you would use the funds for.

Finally, be engaging. I tried to insert humor to relieve my nerves and make it interesting. Whatever makes sense for you as a contestant, to make it thought-provoking, to make it different and distinctive, be sure to add that in. 

In honor of National Women’s Small Business month in October, BankUnited’s Small Business Big Dreams: Women in Business contest offers women business owners the opportunity to earn up to $15,000 to put towards furthering their business goals.