233: Johnathan Grzybowski: Grassroots Entrepreneurship – Impacting Your Local Community

Hiring local talent and nurturing face-to-face relationships in your backyard. It may not be sexy but it works. It also serves the local community in ways that fancy big-brand tactics do not. In today’s episode, Johnathan Grzybowski, a rogue risk taker turned serial entrepreneur, shares how his graphic design company (www.penji.co) is impacting their local community while empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Camden, New Jersey has been named the most dangerous city in the United States more than once. Penji.co is committed to hiring students from Camden in order to change the landscape of business in their city and give people career opportunities that were not available to them previously. Through their old-school approach to business, www.Penji.co provides unlimited graphic design at one flat monthly rate. While they use social media to raise awareness and build their personality, they attribute their success to the relationships they established less than 30 miles from their office.

Networking events, customer interviews, and working with local businesses and organizations – Johnathan shares how they created a product that people actually want and need, while building a team that is more like family than simply co-workers.

If Johnathan and his team can do it in Camden NJ, what can you do in your city?  

Key Takeaways

1. Bring the best version of yourself to work every day – there are people who are counting on you.
2. Making an impact in your local community has to be more than a nice idea.
3. Find your first 100 customers in a 5-30 mile radius from your base/office.
4. When hiring people for your team, ask them: What is your dream? How can we help you get there?
5. Entrepreneurs often focus so much on themselves that they don’t actually focus on the things that really matter.
6. Ask questions. Get people involved in your process. If we built it would you buy it?
7. Your corporate mission and social mission can be different – one is for your customers, the other can be for your local community. What is the impact you want to serve?
8. You have to be able to show off your personality – in the way you show up to your customers so they can get to know you, like and remember you.

Resources

Blind Entrepreneurship Podcast

Connect With Johnathan Grzybowski and the Penji Team

www.penji.co