Andy Charles has become the thing he once abhorred.
As the owners of a chocolate business in Maine, Charles spent years telling his employees to “turn away people who came in with the ‘C-word’ on their foreheads.”
Consultants, that is.
Now, as the founder of Central Avenue Advisors, Charles admits he is one. Sort of. Unlike traditional consulting firms, Central Avenue Advisors only makes money when its clients make money.
“I’m not asking anybody to write a check until I’ve delivered something of value,” he said. “I don't make money unless my clients do first. We're already in a society that's over spammed, over sold and over pitched (them). That’s just not my natural style anyway.”
To improve employee retention, automate processes and increase the bottom line for his clients, Charles combines his years of experience as a business owner with tools and services designed to save companies time and money.
For example, before moving to Florida, one of Charles’s first big clients was a medical marijuana dispensary that had a line of food products and wanted to make medicated chocolates.
“They knew about cannabis and I knew about chocolate,” he said. “I taught him how to create medicated chocolate bars.”
After moving to St. Petersburg and founding Central Avenue Advisors in 2015, Charles realized he had to think outside the box.
“I realized that traditional consulting would be a much tougher slog here just because I hadn't yet established the kind of relationships and connections that take time to develop,” he said.
Since then, Charles said he has helped businesses transition to electronic forms of payment and helped a Tampa-based maintenance company cut its wireless bill by $60,000.
“[These companies] sometimes don’t have a clue or have the time to figure out how to do that on their own," he said.
Charles recently pivoted much of his focus at Central Avenue Advisors towards promoting an application that allows employees to request advances for a small fee. The app is free to the employer and charges employees a small withdrawal fee. According to Charles, the employers who offer the app have reported less turnover and absenteeism, while attracting more qualified applicants.
“It is hard for companies to find qualified hourly talent,” Charles said. “This app gives companies an opportunity (to) adopt it early and have a leg up on their competitors who are trying to hire from the same pool. In the next couple of years, having immediate access to wages will become the norm because the market demands it.”
Charles considers himself a solo-preneur and for now he’s made St. Pete his home. He’s a partner in Seed Funders and said he’s devoted to the startup community. For now, at least.
“My intermediate term dream is to generate enough income and opportunity from this that my beloved new spouse and I can switch over to part-time virtual work,” he said. “Then we can run this business from a sailboat in one of the Greek islands or a hut in the rainforest somewhere.”
