DHB Vision helps clients see way forward

Dana Hayes-Burke wanted it all – a career, a family, and the ability to find the right balance between the two.

After planning and taking the steps to get where she wanted to be, the 37-year-old owner of DHB Vision Strategist, wife, and mother of two sets her own agenda.

"DHB Vision Strategist is my dream business. I started in 2017, unofficially as a private consultant. It was registered in 2018 and took off from there."

She said she'd always had a clear vision of what she wanted – an international business that allowed her to be in control of her time and finances.

"I see people I have known in business from my childhood and they can't take a vacation because they have to work, and are still struggling to make ends meet, and I wonder why. If I have a business that isn’t going to pay me, it makes no sense. Sure, I'd have to work long hours, but it can’t be every day."

Her online home-based business offers consultation services for clients who need help in visualising what they want to accomplish for their business and make it happen.

"I help entrepreneurs and micro-business owners transform their businesses to becoming profitable, so they can pay themselves.

"People get into business because they want better for themselves, but not all know how to do it. I help to see their vision, believe in it and build their vision. My goal is to clarify what the business actually does for you and work on how.

" It doesn’t happen overnight, but it works...My goal ultimately is to not have people depend on me. I want them to fire me," Hayes-Burke told Business Day.

She said one of the reasons why DHB Vision Strategist was able to grow during the pandemic was because she had been online since 2018 "building for the clients that were coming."

Hayes-Burke, a former student of Holy Name Convent, Penal and a UWI graduate said her first degree is in management studies, and her masters is in management studies with a focus on international business. Her consultancy work stems from her postgraduate research on the readiness of SMEs in TT, which was published in the International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business.

She said her research showed there was a gap between starting a business and not knowing how to grow it.

"It's like building a puzzle without having the photo on the cover of the box."

She said she started to teach about the vision, which is the foundation, then about business strategy, live on Instagram in 2019.

"Then covid19 came along, and many business owners were struggling, but my business started growing, because people needed my help.

"With some of them, their pricing was bad, or their marketing was off...I think that’s when it got the international status, with regional and international clients contracting my services, most of whom were women."

Eventually she started speaking on a number of virtual international stages, and, when borders reopened, at in-person events.

Hayes-Burke said part of her job is that of a business coach.

"I help my clients refine their business model, make it more complete, to function like a business and get away from that 'hustling space.'"

But DHB Vision Strategist wasn't where she started. Her first business was an events-management firm, which she opened in 2012.

She said back then, although her career in the corporate world was going really well, she started looking at her trajectory and doing some calculations.

"Career- and family-wise, I realised the corporate world wouldn’t allow me the life balance I wanted to have. I designed my business model, registered my business, and started with $0. Back then I just used Facebook to market, continued to build and went full-time in a year...

"That wasn’t my dream business, just a transition. But I started with what I had – a certificate in events planning."

She said in the current economic climate many people are looking for additional sources of income to buffer the effects of rising prices, resulting in a number of "side-hustles" popping up.

"Now is a perfect time for people to start exploring ways in which they can monetise their skills.

"But now is a difficult time to just be winging it. If you are in or getting into business, invest in increasing your know-how, because now we have to be a lot more calculating if we are to get the results," she advised.

For more information visit www.danahayesburke.com