Happy National Entrepreneurship Week!

National Entrepreneurship Week is February 20-24, 2017. Each year, over six million new businesses launch and millions more grow. At the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce, we celebrate entrepreneurs every day. To be an entrepreneur is to be...

• COURAGEOUS

• INNOVATIVE

• A PROBLEM-SOLVER

• A MARKETER

• AN INVENTOR

• A SUPER HERO!

Seriously, the number of diverse skill sets required to be a successful entrepreneur is astounding. We celebrate you and thank you for creating local economies for us all to live, work, and thrive within.
We'd like to kick off the week by highlighting a Chamber member who is a young entrepreneur with a really innovative idea.

Entrepreneur Q&A with Zak Ammar,
Vixster Waste & Recycling

Name: Zak Ammar

Age: 25

Business Name: Vixster - Waste & Recycling 

Business Description: Vixster provides waste & recycling collection services for rural America. 

Secret Weapon as a business: Unparalleled customer service, and value for our clients. 

Best part about owning your own business? You get out of it, what you put into it. 

Worst part about owning your own business? Having really high - high's, and extremely low, low's.

Keys to success as a start-up? Having a solutions oriented, and problem solving mindset - at all times. 

Thoughts on social media marketing for your business? (What works, doesn’t, lessons learned?) Social media marketing provides a good avenue for Vixster to inform clients, and potential clients with valuable content. I have learned that content is important for a start-up and that sharing your story, and useful content - helps create business value. We have not found SM marketing to be a good sales tool. 

Anything else you’d like to add? People decide not to start their own business for thousands of reasons. Taking the leap, enduring for 2-3 years, and being persistent in your own business, will create substantial personal growth, and long term financial freedom. My advice for people of all ages: Determine what you are passionate about, and how you can provide extreme value to people; then start a business revolving around these two core principles. Persistence, perseverance, and a hard work (but smart-work) mentality will take you to places that many people only dream about.

--Thanks Zak! We are all cheering for you!