What was the inspiration for your business?
After 15 years in the telecommunications field, Naheed Syed formed Global Resource Management to service telephone companies. "I was always an entrepreneurial person at heart, even when I was in the corporate world. I helped the organization I was working with start four new divisions. I thought, let me try it for myself and see how I do."

How much did it cost to start the business?
Syed got her company off the ground with a $100,000 investment.

How did you grow your business so rapidly?
"We live by our mission statement. If you can't live by your mission statement, then there's no reason for you to even be in the business. I see all kinds of entrepreneurs around me. I see that they don't have a strategic plan. They don't know who they want to go after and why. We have a way of going after the client we want."

She says it can take six months to a year to research a potential client and understand everything and what the company's pain points are. "And then when we present, they'll hire us."

Syed adds, "Once we get a client, we will not get another major client of that category for a least a year and a half to two years. All our efforts are in proving to that new client that we are a company that is worthwhile."

How do you balance your family and business responsibilities?
"I have to be very honest with you; I ignore my family a lot. I'm a workaholic when it comes to business." Her daughter works for her and frequently travels with her. Her husband does so when he can, "so we can at least spend time together." Syed says she's been making an effort to spend more time with family after realizing about a year ago that she was preoccupied with business. "So now I try to stay home as much as I can. I try to leave [work] by 6:30 or 7, get home, have dinner and whatnot, and still pull up my laptop and be able to do work."

Do you have a funny story about juggling kids and work?
Syed says she nearly had a heart attack one weekend day when she took her son to work with her at a data center. She explained that a data center has one switch you can push in an emergency to shut down and secure the entire data center. "I didn't see my 3-year-old for a little bit, so I said, 'Where is he? What is he doing?' He was just reaching up for that red button to push it." That's the last time she took her son to work with her.

What's on your iPod?
That's my most relaxing time. When I'm in the car, I listen to music." Two of her children are musicians. "I'm trying to learn what hip-hop means. I'm more the John Denver, Barbra Streisand kind." Her youngest son wants to be a rapper, while her other son is part of a band called Rehab.

What are you reading?
Syed says she last read How to Market to Women. "I don't have time for casual reading."

What's your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to grow their business?

1. Have a strategic plan, understand why you opened the business in that sector--what you can do different from everybody else competing in that sector.
2. Stay focused on what you said you would do.
3. Make sure that you sell properly, that you cost the product properly and that you deliver.
4. You have to let go and trust other people. Find the right people that you need to bring into your organization. If you have people working for you, trust them, grow them and give them responsibility so you don't have to try to do everything.
5. Complement yourself with the folks that you hire--have their strong points be your weakness.

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