Today we’d like to introduce you to Dina Shepherd.
Dina, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I come from a line of entrepreneurs so I guess you can say entrepreneurship is in my blood. My father is from Jamaica, West Indies and he was out working and help care for his family at age 13. He quit school in the 7th grade and worked for $0.50 a day doing odd and end jobs to help provide for his mom and siblings once his father became tragically ill with epilepsy. My father then came to the U.S. and became a permanent resident, he met my mother in Pennsylvania who was a certified nurses aide. They met and married within weeks (literally).
My father and mother both worked as migrant workers, they would work in Pennsylvania during the Spring and Winter picking apples and other fruits and vegetables at orchards and in the winter they would travel to Florida and pick oranges and other produce for southern orchards. When I was around 5 1/2 years old my parents decided to stabilize and stop traveling up and down the states for work, my mother went back to work as a Certified Nurses Aide and my father worked as a janitor at a local university in Pennsylvania.
At the age of 8, my parents decided they wanted more for themselves but most of all my younger sister and I so they decided to open a painting and janitorial service. This was way before the days of social media and all of the creative ways to market a business so my parents would dress up in their Sunday best, they had cards and flyers printed and they went from house to house and business to business advertising their business, they were relentless. A few months later they successfully landed their first cleaning contract and the business continued to grow, the business is still in operations today.
Following in my mother’s footsteps I knew I wanted to work in nursing and I wanted to work with seniors as she did. I became a certified nurses aide in the state of FL right after high school and 14 months later I went to nursing school and became a Licensed Practical Nurse. I worked in a long-term care facility caring for seniors that needed complete care and help, I advanced quickly into a leadership role and upon leaving my first job I was the Unit Manager. I moved to Atlanta, GA in 2004 and entered Senior Living and worked in leadership roles in assisted living communities some of the communities were Atria Senior Living, Belmont Village, and Dogwood Forest Alpharetta.
I started consulting on a freelance basis in 2009, I consulted and supported non- medical home care owners and personal care home owners from start-up to licensure. I always knew I wanted to be self-employed but was afraid of the “instability” I thought entrepreneurship might bring. I continued to work for several years and in 2013 while living in Cleveland, Ohio with my husband and children I decided to open my own non-medical home care company and geriatric care management company, I knew I wanted to return to Atlanta, GA which I considered home despite being from Pennsylvania so I opened a second office in Atlanta.
I started my business on an unemployment check and a tax return and with determination and resilient mindset, I wasn’t going to allow myself to fail. In a little less than a year, I grew my business to over $125K in the first year organically. In 2015 my husband, and I along with our 3 boys moved back home to Atlanta and in 2016 I became pregnant with our daughter, I started having many complications with the pregnancy and I was wearing myself thin with the business, I knew I needed to make a difficult decision. My husband and I felt it was best to close out operations and we sold the business. It was the hardest thing I had ever done but I knew it was for the best, I needed to take care of myself. Shortly after the complications in the pregnancy began, I was diagnosed with Lupus.
I took the first part of 2017 off to care for my health, my new baby and adjust to my new normal. Once life began to stabilize I needed to make a decision and returning back to work was not an option for me, I also didn’t feel the calling of starting a non-medical home care company again. So I decided to work as a consultant. There are other consultants that provide assistance with home care startup and other services but my niche is different, I don’t just help with startup but with all areas of business and long-term education and support.
I teach people how to work effectively as leaders, as entrepreneurs not just how to obtain a state license to start a business. I love what I do, I customize my services based on the needs of my clients and I love seeing them grow and reach their goals in the journey of entrepreneurship. I have amazing plans for 2018 to stretch my reach and provide additional services, what out world!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There was certainly a learning curve that happened early in the business. I struggled with work/life balance, I was very dedicated to seeing my first business grow and be successful but for a while, it was costing me precious time with my family and that is not what entrepreneurship is about. I also had the typical learning curve in learning how to effectively market my business, how to properly budget and use my resources correctly in business. Typical novice mistakes and challenges.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Alterra Consulting – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Alterra Consulting currently supports aspiring and established business owners that seek to start or enhance their healthcare business. We specialize in senior care services such as non-medical home care/private duty home care, assisted living facilities, respite care, personal care homes, adult daycare programs (both medical models and social models), transportation services, respite care and much more.
We help in several areas, we act as a support and mentor for those that need some accountability and minimal direction all the way to extensive coaching and consulting where we go in and create systems and business set-up for our clients. We are very unique because again, we don’t just support you with startup services but long-term coaching and consulting. We take a holistic approaching to servicing each client in terms of entrepreneurship. I am proud of our ability to be versatile in many areas of healthcare business and our ability to make each entrepreneur feel hopeful about the future of their business especially once they start to see desired results.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The future’s looking bright and beautiful. We are working on many projects as we speak to increase our reach to those seeking to open healthcare businesses, we are also opening our coaching services up to other industries as well. I cannot tell all of the secrets so you will just have to stay tuned and wait for 2018 to see all of the amazing things we have in store.
Contact Info:
- Address: 951 Maple Leaf Ridge Jonesboro, GA 30238
- Website: http://www.alterraconsult.com
- Phone: 678-749-1874
- Email: info@alterraconsult.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/HealthcareCEOSuccess
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
