VBE Spotlight on: Tend Consulting

Tend

Tend Consulting was founded by Aaron Andrade in 2020.

Tend, co-founded by Aaron and Laura Andrade, specializes in accelerating team performance by enhancing team chemistry.

Aaron's 20 years of experience in team-building across various sectors, and Laura's expertise in behavioral science, empower them to optimize collaboration within corporate teams. By understanding each individual's work style, Tend helps businesses achieve success faster, resulting in increased job satisfaction, higher retention rates, and improved customer satisfaction.

Their offerings include workshops, strategy sessions, and personalized support designed to boost team dynamics and drive organizational success.

Learn more about Tend at: www.tendyours.com

About the Business - Connect & Re-energize

What services do you provide?

"We offer facilitated team building days designed for hybrid/remote corporate teams."

Who are your primary customers?

"Our primary customers are 10 - 15 person senior leadership teams for small to mid-size corporations. We offer the most value to teams that have settled into a hybrid work model, but need to gather together in-person periodically to increase their team chemistry."

When and how did you start your business?

"'We started our business in 2020, however have been working to build community within teams for 20+ years."

Business Growth Challenges - Growing Through Challenge and Change

What were some of the challenges in starting your business?

"Simplifying our service offerings so that it was easier to do business with us. As consultants we have a variety of expertise that can be customized to help with many situations including hiring, training and coaching. We realized quickly though, that streamlining to one service - a team building day (lite, standard and premium version) would offer our customers the most value in the least amount of time invested."

What is the key to the success of your business?

"The key is not falling for the "either/or" trap when it comes to your corporate team. The polarized debate about whether everyone should either go back to work (despite many conveniences of work from home) or go 100% remote (despite the need for some in-person human connection) is a false dichotomy. Instead, there is a third option, which is key for our business. Embrace the advantages of working remotely but don't abandon in-person gatherings altogether. Instead elevate the experience and raise the bar for what a periodic in-person gathering looks like and that's where we come in."

What lessons learned can you share with people to make their business succeed?

"Spend as much time as possible simplifying and clarifying your message. Business Made Simple is a great program that has helped us re-think the way we do marketing. Clarity is so important. Spend less time on the bells and whistles and more time on just being clear and simple with your messaging."

What pitfalls should they avoid?

"Don't waste time, effort and money on doubling down on your "niche." We spent too long worrying about that and not casting a wide net and learning more about what's needed by talking directly to customers. When you just have a service mentality, just finding the need and serving it, the "niche" and the "target" will sort itself out."

What other information about you and your business would you like to share with the NaVOBA community?

"Today's corporate teams are more disconnected, disengaged and isolated than they've ever been. At the same time, team leaders are often too busy or over-worked to coordinate a team gathering. Even if you can't afford a team building day facilitated by us, we are definitely excited to help you think through your strategy and even have a few self-service templates at a lower cost that you can try with your team. Whatever you do, don't assume that team chemistry will just take care of itself. It takes active investment and we're here to help."

Service information

Branch:

Army

Service Years:

2000-2008

Highest Rank Attained:

SSG

Why did you join the military?

"College money!"

Military Occupation:

"91X Behavioral Health Specialist"

Significant Achievements/Experiences:

"Bronze Star (Operation Iraqui Freedom)"

Biography/Fun Facts

In 10 years I see myself...

"traveling the world and doing team building days on every continent (OK, except maybe Antarctica)"

People might be interested to know that...

"I got married when I was 20 years old (who does that!)... well if you met my wife you'd understand."

Favorite sports team...

"is definitely the New England Patriots (queue the haters...but how can you not appreciate a team that won a Super Bowl being down 25 points in the 3rd quarter...)"

To relax...

"I like to play basketball with head phones in and just feel the flow. A little like our team building days!"