119: Yolanda Clarke - Knowing what it takes to start and grow small businesses successfully

In this episode, we have the current Chief Executive Officer of Powder River Industries, Yolanda Clarke. She is responsible for all aspects of the firm. She began operations in June of 2016. After just 9 weeks PRI broke even and became profitable – nearly unheard of for a start-up in any industry and continues to experience growth year over year. PRI offers devsecops and infrastructure-as-code to US Government customers. Prior to leading PRI to early growth success, Yolanda worked as an enterprise portfolio manager for Lockheed Martin supporting a defense agency. She managed up to 53 projects at once with operations occurring simultaneously around the world at up to 83 different locations at one time. 

The scope of her projects was in engineering, installation, test, and acceptance. Her projects ranged from a blend of large-scale computing, services, cyber, transport, gateways, wireless, and satellite communications.   

Yolanda and I talked about creating project plans before starting a business, how to price a job your wrap rate and creating a board of advisers. She also talked about how she increased her business sales and how she changed her mindset so that she can be a thriving successful business.

Tune in to our next Giant, Yolanda Clarke.