The Power of Connection: Building Relationships in Tech and Food Industries

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women In Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Christine Ferns, who is the President and CEO of Step Up Consulting and Step Up Foods. Welcome.

Christine Ferns: Thank you, Lee. Great to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn about your story. Can you tell us about Step Up Consulting and Foods? How are you serving folks?

Christine Ferns: Absolutely. Thank you. So, yes, I own and operate two businesses. Step Up Consulting is a software implementation consulting firm. We are a boutique firm headquartered out of Los Angeles. We focus on deploying and implementing UKG, which was formerly Kronos, and we work with their HR, time, and payroll cloud-based software that we implement for customers across the country. We work across verticals, so we focus on public sector, private sector, education, retail, and healthcare clients.

Christine Ferns: And our forte is working with smaller businesses, so anywhere from 100 users to maybe about 1,500 users, because when I established Step Up Consulting, one of the key drivers was realizing the gap in that space where they want a lot of boutique consulting firms that offered, really, hands-on consulting expertise and support to smaller organizations that may not have been as well thought of in terms of having technical support, having expertise in a particular subject area, and that’s where we come in and we provide them with that support.

Christine Ferns: And then, Step Up Foods, really, I joke and say that’s like my third child, because I have two teens. And I established Step Up Foods last year. The reason and the driver behind establishing Step Up Foods was because my origin is from India, I grew up in Mumbai in India, and I’m a foodie. I love food. I love talking about food, reading about food, cooking and eating food. And I thought that North America was ready to expand their palette beyond just the more common Indian foods that are available today. So, what we are striving to do is bring authentic and regional Indian foods to the North American market space.

Lee Kantor: Now, let’s talk a little bit about your consulting firm first. When you decided to kind of focus in on, I think it was Kronos you said at the beginning, that’s what they were called when you first started, a lot of people who are in business think they have to serve a big group of people, a wide variety of services, because they don’t want to miss out on anything. But you decided to kind of focus in and become subject matter expert and kind of just a really deep knowledge about this one thing, can you talk about that decision, because that seems counterintuitive for a lot of people? And I think I’m in your boat where I believe that niches bring riches. So, if you can focus in on one thing and get deep knowledge, you’re going to become more valuable to the people who are using that.

Christine Ferns: Absolutely. Lee, I have a very firm personal belief. I like to keep everything simple in every sphere of my life. And that extends to the core values that I have put into place for both the businesses. So, to come back to your question about Step Up Consulting and the business niche that we serve, we have come up with a very core offering for our small and medium business clients that focus on the main areas of the implementation. It focuses on training their teams, training the end users prior to the product being launched. And providing them with the tools and the know how necessary to then have absolute ownership of the product and be able to successfully maintain it on a go forward basis.

Christine Ferns: So, prior to establishing Step Up Consulting, I worked for about 16 years in the software implementation space as a project manager and then a program manager. And I was able to delve into my knowledge and my experience and come up with these niche offerings because I’m well aware of what the pain points are during a software implementation. So, I was able to narrow our focus onto those pain points and tailor our offering and customize it accordingly that really works for the small and medium business space that we serve.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you were deciding to do that, that seemed very natural and organic for you. But a lot of entrepreneurs out there, they think they’re going to miss out if they focus so narrowly. Did you ever have that fear, or did you see such a big opportunity that you felt like, “Look, we’re never going to be able to, you know, solve all these problems. But if we can fix this one, the market is plenty big enough for us to be successful.”

Christine Ferns: It’s exactly what you said at the end. We’re never going to be able to solve all problems. I wish I could, but I know I cannot, not in this life. So, I targeted the top three to five issues that I noticed of the hundreds of projects that I worked with in my career, and I root cost those and then came up with solutions for those, and that’s what we have built the methodology of Step Up Consulting on.

Christine Ferns: And safe to say, it’s been met with a fair degree of success because, to your point, when customers begin working with us, they’re a little all over the place. They are definitely looking at the big picture, but there’s so much that they are trying to wrap their arms around, and that’s when we get them to focus on what is critical for the immediate success of their software implementation and then how they could then focus on the lesser critical factors in the long term.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you finding that once you get in there and start working with a client, they see so much value and you’re able to kind of wring out so much value from the relationship that they kind of stick around and they want you to solve more and more problems.

Christine Ferns: That is true. They definitely come back for more work. You know, we have seen a lot of repeat business. In the software space, especially with SaaS, cloud-based software, it’s like leasing a house because you’re paying your subscriptions from day one. So, what we get customers to understand is that they want to get their return on investment as quickly as possible, so our mantra is look at your big problems, get those resolved in the near term, and then stagger out the smaller issues for the long term. Because at least you’ve begun using the software, you’ve begun getting your ROI, and then you can continue expounding and building upon the software solution for the long term.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned a few of the areas or industries you work in, education, I think you mentioned, and public/private a little bit, is there other kind of industries or is this kind of industry agnostic?

Christine Ferns: It’s industry agnostic because, really, the methodology that we’ve put together is very much a one size fits all. There’s a little bit of customization that we do based on industry at the onset when we are putting the requirements together.

Christine Ferns: For example, if it’s a school, we focus on their staff segments, which could be janitorial staff, part-time staff, bus drivers. Versus if you’re working with a healthcare organization, then we’re working with nurses who may be working round the clock and have 24 by 7 schedules. But the USP of our offering is it is pretty much industry agnostic, and we have already built into place the customizations needed for the verticals that we serve.

Christine Ferns: So, we try and make it as easy and seamless and painless as possible for our customers when we begin working with them, because we have already taken the time up front to nail down the pain points of their vertical and have those solutions in place.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is the pain that they’re having? Are they contracting with you as soon as they purchase the software? Or is it something as they purchase the software and then they realize that they’re in over their head, that they didn’t realize how complex it was to really implement effectively?

Christine Ferns: It’s typically the first. So, they contract with us through UKG as soon as they have procured the software. And then, we have a smaller segment of our business that’s focused on customers who may decide to do the implementation by themselves, and then realize that, you know, it’s too much of an undertaking for them and they’d rather bring the experts in.

Lee Kantor: Now, let’s talk a little bit about Step Up Foods. Was that just something a passion project for you or did an opportunity kind of bubble up, you’re like, “Oh, I think I’m ready to take on this”?

Christine Ferns: Sure. You know, I chuckle when I talk about Step Up Foods because, well, my educational background is in hospitality and culinary management, so that’s what I studied for, for my undergrad. And as time moved on, I switched careers and moved to IT on the business side. But food and culinary management continues to remain something I’m passionate about.

Christine Ferns: And I think one of the key drivers behind establishing Step Up Foods was just because I grew up eating some amazing foods from my home land in India, and I just feel like I miss those foods over here. I feel like that subcontinent has so much more to offer in terms of the food that we presently get over here in the U.S. and that’s what led me to really establish Step Up Foods, because what we are looking to do is we are distributors of regional Indian foods.

Christine Ferns: So, my idea is being able to bring those lesser known foods, maybe create a fusion version of those when we bring them into the U.S., and really have it have mass appeal. So, my ultimate goal is being able to take these foods, which include snacks, it includes spice-based, we’ve got dessert options on there, we are working on a line of beverage options now, but I’d really like to take those into the mainstream market space like the supermarkets, the big box stores, so that we could have more and more people enjoy these offerings in their more authentic forms.

Lee Kantor: So, this is, I guess, tangential from your consulting business. Obviously, it’s not IT or anything like that, but are there some lessons learned from the consulting that’s helping you roll out the foods?

Christine Ferns: There is, because, Lee, Step Up Consulting was established in 2019, so we’ve been around for about five years now. Lots of loving lessons learned along the way as you can imagine with a startup. And I’d like to think, yes, we’ve taken those lessons, we did some things very well, we did some things not so well, but we’ve taken those and put those into place at Step Up Foods because that’s how you learn and grow.

Christine Ferns: One of them, like I was alluding to before, was I like to keep things simple, so I’ve used that same philosophy for any offering that I am working to develop within Step Up Foods. The second is, it’s all about people at the end of the day. Our mainstream offering of Step Up Consulting, definitely, it’s technology. We work with cutting edge software. We work with BI software. But at the end of the day, what it comes down to is how you work with people, how you’ve made them feel, how you’ve been able to solve their tangible and not so tangible problems, and that’s what leads to the success of our projects and our endeavors. And I have, you know, applied that same philosophy into Step Up Foods as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, one of your core values is empowering women and minorities through both of your businesses. Why was it important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community? And does that relationship help you kind of on that mission?

Christine Ferns: Thank you, Lee. It does. I consciously realized because I spent so many years working in technology and I see that women continue to remain underrepresented in the technology space, and that was something that stayed with me. And I said, you know, in my own small way, if I ever start something on my own, I’d like to try and get as many women as possible to work with the company I establish, and that’s something that we enjoy doing at Step Up Consulting.

Christine Ferns: A lot of our workforce are working mothers, they’re women. We’ve established a process that allows us to all work virtually. We have flexible work schedules. So, we have our workforce needing to take time off later in the afternoons to go pick their kids from school or from daycare, and then coming back and wrapping up work for that day. And the methodology actually supports it. We don’t miss a step in doing that.

Christine Ferns: So, that was one of my guiding principles, that was something I really wanted to put into place, was create a workplace that was friendly for women, be gender agnostic, so to speak. And I feel like we’ve been fairly successful in doing that.

Christine Ferns: And then, coming to WBENC, I have my certification with WBENC now for Step Up going back, I believe, almost four years, and it has been a true asset. We have been able to bid on a lot of federal and local government contracts by virtue of being a WBENC certified organization. We have also been able to afford the trainings that WBENC rolls out. On a very regular and frequent basis, they get speakers from different walks of life to meet with WBENC members. And I try and take advantage of those whenever I can. They have been extremely insightful and informative.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Christine Ferns: I think with WBENC, I definitely like to see more in person events. I think that would be really helpful for us small business women entrepreneurs. You know, the opportunity to meet up more in person to learn from each other. And, also, if we could get some more support in terms of branding help, marketing support as WBENC certified organizations, I think that would would be extremely useful to small business entrepreneurs such as myself.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to connect with you to learn more about the consulting or the food business, are there websites, is there social media? What’s the best way to connect?

Christine Ferns: Absolutely. We’d love to hear from you. And the Step Up Consulting website is stepupconsultingco.com, that’s S-T-E-P-U-P-C-O-N-S-U-L-T-I-N-G-C-O-.com. The Step Up Foods website is simpler, it’s stepupfoods.com. And I’d love to hear from you. If you’re looking for something in the technology space or if there’s something you can contribute to us in the food distribution space, we’d love to hear from you. You can reach me at C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N-E-dot-F-E-R-N-S@stepupconsultingco.com.

Lee Kantor: Well, Christine, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Christine Ferns: Thank you, Lee. Thank you for the opportunity. It was great speaking with you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, we’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.