Before he joined Valenta BPO as a Managing Director, Richard Nohe made a name for himself as the guy who could identify, understand, and start solving an issue before most people became aware of it. So says Legal500, who named Richard Individual of the Year in 2015.

Although his list of job positions and accomplishments is far too long to list here, let’s just say that Richard’s experience, expertise, and skill set makes him a perfect match for his role at Valenta—and Valenta’s innovative business model and enormous portfolio of business solutions is a veritable candy store for Richard, whose passion lies with helping businesses solve today’s challenges with the most up-to-date technologies and best practices.

To give you just a taste of Richard’s impressive skill set, he has intimate knowledge and hands-on experience in legal and corporate affairs, compliance, regulation, digital transformation, cybersecurity and data privacy, geopolitical risk management and risk mitigation, and understanding mind-boggling, multi-jurisdictional contracts. In addition to serving in senior leadership roles at BT Federal and AboveNet, he’s served as a Congressional Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a post-graduate researcher at Columbia University, and the director of the evening news at CBS News.

Richard’s educational background is just as impressive, with a bachelor’s in English from Augusta University, a master’s degree in telecommunications from New York University, and a Doctor of Law degree from New York Law School. He’s also earned Executive Certification for Organizational Design for Digital Transformation from MIT Sloan School of Management, and he’s a certified Information Privacy Professional in the U.S.

Richard is tasked with building out Valenta’s US Central Region business on both the customer-facing and franchise sides, and we’re excited to watch him do his thing! We caught up with Richard recently to check in and ask him some burning questions about why he chose Valenta and what advice he has about starting and running a business.

Why did you choose Valenta BPO?

It has a compelling business model with global off-shore delivery capabilities and innovative franchise structure of GTM.

What’s your advice to anyone buying a business?

Be sure you are financially ready and excited by the opportunity. Also, focus on an area that really interests you, something you would be interested in even if not doing it to make money.

Who is your most important advisor and why?

My wife because she is not interested in business and keeps me grounded. It’s a good balance.

What is the best business advice you ever received?

Success is doing what you can, where you are, with what you have.

Do you have any tips on how you will get the most out of your business?

Focus strategy for the long term, tactics for the near term, and make sure they are in sync. Then be patient and don’t rush things.

What is the key factor in your current business success?

Tenacity and continuous learning.