Adia Lewis of Fort Wayne has long had a knack for helping business owners launch, sustain, and grow ventures. Her two sons and daughter are each small business owners—or in the process of becoming one.
“We’re a full family of entrepreneurs,” Lewis says.
Her own venture, ALL Business Management Consultants, aims to troubleshoot customer service challenges for large corporations online and to help early-stage entrepreneurs get started locally by applying the skills she has learned firsthand, managing call centers and helping family or friends launch and grow ventures.
Lewis has a background in taxes, working for Lincoln Financial for five years and then spending six years working at Ivy Tech Community College, managing books and purchasing at the library. She’s also done tax preparation services for Jackson & Hewitt and H&R Block.
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Adia Lewis, Founder and Owner of ALL Business Management Consulting, works from her home in Fort Wayne.
During the pandemic in 2020, she started ALL Business Management Consultants out of a need to work from home full-time, so she could have the flexibility to attend school online. She already has her associate’s degree in accounting from Ivy Tech and a certificate in data analysis from
ENTITY Academy. But she is currently earning her bachelor’s degree at Southern New Hampshire University online, where she also works as a Credit Advisor.
Lewis’s venture, ALL Business Management Consultants, primarily focuses on managing teams of customer service representatives for large corporations online. But once she completes her schooling, she’s hoping to build out her firm and focus more on data analytics for companies both large and small.
Right now, she’s doing some of this work on a contract basis for large corporations through her customer service platform. She’s also applying her skills in customer services to help up-and-coming business owners, like her sons, think through the challenges of being an entrepreneur or opening a brick-and-mortar location.
“As a call center expert, I spend a lot of time helping bigger businesses manage customer service, and that’s prepared me to help other people do the same thing with their own small businesses,” Lewis says.
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Adia Lewis, Founder and Owner of ALL Business Management Consulting, works from her home in Fort Wayne.
To develop a plan for her consulting business, she attended
SEED Fort Wayne’s Build Institute Program at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The Build Institute is a nine-week, cohort-based class for early-stage entrepreneurs opening small businesses in Fort Wayne within six to 12 months.
“It was very informative,” Lewis says. “I used some of the resources from SEED to help Quinton create a business plan for his barbershop, and I used it to create my own business plan, too. I knew I wanted to get into business consulting before I attended the Build Institute, but it really helped me organize my concept. Now, I want to apply my skills and help more people develop business plans and budgets.”
While Lewis had created a sound concept and financial plan for her business, she quickly learned that managing your own schedule and work hours as an entrepreneur can be challenging, too. When she started working for herself, she began putting in too many hours and needed to recalibrate.
“I used to put in 180 hours a week at work,” Lewis says. “I made myself sick from it, so I shut my business down for a little bit in July 2022, and I recently reopened this year.”
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Adia Lewis, Founder and Owner of ALL Business Management Consulting, works from her home in Fort Wayne.
Now, as she rebuilds ALL Business Management Consultants, she wants to help other entrepreneurs make their ventures more sustainable, too.
“My focus is on what I can do to help others do what they enjoy,” Lewis says.
When entrepreneurs seek her consulting services, she first meets with them to assess their needs, resources, and goals.
“There are a lot of factors to consider, like: What do you have now? What does your business collateral look like? What kind of credit do you have?” she says. “If you’re looking for a brick-and-mortar space, you need to know how much it’s going to cost, what type of traffic you get there, and what type of marketing or advertising you need to do.”
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Adia Lewis, Founder and Owner of ALL Business Management Consulting, works from her home in Fort Wayne.
Her rates for small business consulting start between $75-125 an hour, depending on business owners’ needs. Rates are affected by business size, too. Lewis says the best way to get a quote is to set up an initial consultation with her. Her website is currently under construction, but you can reach her at
[email protected].
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Lewis has seen more friends and colleagues interested in launching their own small businesses and/or working from home, like herself. She hopes that ALL Business Management Consultants can help meet the needs of this growing population.
“I have seen it in the clients that I work with and in myself,” Lewis says. “People are more able to start businesses at home now and to make allowances for each other working from home. I’ve had interviews where people are more willing to say: ‘I’m sorry. I need to reschedule. My toddler is having a meltdown.’ You might not have heard things like that on business calls in the past. The pandemic has allowed more people to consider entrepreneurship and flexibility on the job.”
This story is made possible by SEED Fort Wayne. Learn more about the Build Institute program by visiting their website or contacting [email protected].