Lakeisha Robichaux, having completed the exclusive Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Small Businesses program, has a detailed plan for growing her human resources and payroll services company beyond southeast Louisiana.
“Our unique differentiator is that we are very hands on with our clients,” Robichaux tells Business Report in its latest Entrepreneur feature. “We don’t see them just as a number or as an account we need to get—it’s about building a relationship and being a partner in their business.”
The company she founded in 2014, Baton Rouge-based Chief of Minds, works with companies wanting to outsource responsibilities like recruiting, payroll, training and development. Her six-person team also helps clients with compliance—a headache for any business owner—and keeping up with changing state and federal laws.
“We are actually putting those changes in place so the business owner doesn’t have to worry about it,” she says.
Robichaux has long had entrepreneurship in her blood, selling candy in her neighborhood as a child and designing T-shirts that she sold at school. As an undergrad at UNO, a psychology class peaked her interest in interpersonal behavior, which, combined with her entrepreneurial spirit, flourished into a passion for human resources.
Working in human resource management for several Fortune 100 and 500 companies and as an engaged networker, Robichaux became something of a go-to person for those looking for guidance in HR matters.
“I really realized that not everyone understands what human resources is and why they really need it,” says Robichaux, who is exploring expansion options in areas such as Georgia, Texas and Washington, D.C.
Read the full Entrepreneur profile. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
