Organizations & People
Kate Izell Founder & CEO, Izell Marketing Group Becoming an entrepreneur at 27 wasn’t something Kate Izell necessarily set out to do – it just happened gradually. “I actually started as a digital marketing freelancer, but the operation naturally developed into a company as I continued to get new clients and didn’t want to turn away businesses that I knew I could help,” she explains. Izell’s initial inspiration for her work was a desire to help small businesses afford high-quality marketing services that they might not have had the budget to secure from larger agencies. Now, Izell is the CEO of Izell Marketing Group, which works to provide digital marketing strategy as well as ongoing marketing and analytics services to clients. Perhaps the biggest challenge Izell faced as a young entrepreneur was learning how to combine her passion and values with the nittygritty of operating a business. “I spent a lot of time learning everything I could early on about business finance, operations, and growth. I generally tried to bridge all the gaps in what I knew versus what I needed to know,” she shares. As her clientele grew, Izell also learned the importance of making good hires. “I had to figure out how to not just build a team of intelligent, competent people; I needed the team to balance out and work well independently and collaboratively. This dynamic can get complicated as more people get brought on,” Izell explains. “Having a leadership team in place that I can trust unequivocally has been key.” In becoming a business owner, operations and hiring aren’t the only things Izell has learned a lot about. “One of the big things I’ve learned is who I am as an entrepreneur and what my role means to the company over time,” she says. “I need to stay focused on what’s ahead, which makes it challenging to focus on some of the finer details of our current operations. Consequently, I recently decided to promote my first hire to be our Chief Operating Officer so that all of these critical processes could be handled by someone other than myself.” Six years of business have helped Izell learn where she fits within an organization and taught her what’s important about being at the helm. “Effective leaders are those who understand the value of what others do for you and your business,” she advises. CITYSCOPEMAG.COM « 6 5