How She Built a Business Using Trust as Capital

Building a Business Without Large Amounts of Capital

Arta began her entrepreneurial career by recognizing a gap between customers who needed essential products and suppliers who needed reliable buyers.

Rather than financing inventory herself, she created a structure connecting buyers, suppliers, financing and delivery. Customers prepaid for their orders, allowing her to purchase from suppliers and complete transactions without borrowing large amounts of money.

The model depended on something even more valuable than capital: trust.

As the business grew, Arta eventually led 78 employees and says sales increased approximately 1,000% in two years.

How to Build Trust in Business

Arta explains why trust became the foundation of both her businesses and her approach to selling.

For her, building trust means understanding the customer’s needs, doing the necessary due diligence and consistently doing what you said you would do.

Her philosophy is simple: create relationships before trying to create a sale.

Look Beyond the Immediate Sale

One of the most valuable lessons from Arta’s career is learning to identify the larger need behind what a customer initially asks for.

Instead of focusing only on completing one transaction, she asks:

• What problem is the client actually trying to solve?
• What additional value can I create?
• What resources can I connect to provide a more complete solution?

That approach helped her turn individual transactions into long-term customer relationships.

Arta says approximately 90% of her business has come through repeat clients or referrals. She argues that for many companies, the best growth opportunities may already exist within their current customer relationships.

Confidence, Due Diligence and the Power to Walk Away

The conversation also explores one of the hardest parts of negotiation: knowing when not to make the deal.

Arta describes the difference between confidence and attachment.

Attachment says: I must have this deal.

Confidence means working hard to create a good outcome while still being prepared to reject a bad decision simply to avoid losing the transaction.

She calls this walkaway power — the ability to remain objective when emotions, momentum or the desire to close a deal begin influencing your judgment.

From Entrepreneurship to Luxury Real Estate

After immigrating to Canada, Arta essentially started again.

She initially sold credit cards and long-distance telephone plans at Toronto Pearson Airport to better understand Canadian consumers and strengthen her sales skills.

She later entered luxury real estate, eventually becoming a RE/MAX Hall of Fame member.

Arta explains how she built that business by going directly to potential customers, focusing on higher-value opportunities and looking beyond individual property transactions to understand what clients would need next.

About Add the Zeros

These experiences form the foundation of Arta’s forthcoming book, Add the Zeros.

Despite the title, her philosophy isn’t simply about charging more, working more hours or chasing bigger transactions.

It is about recognizing the additional value hidden inside an existing opportunity.

Her message to entrepreneurs and business leaders is to begin with what you know, solve a genuine problem, build trust, protect the people who put their confidence in you, and then look for the additional opportunities contained within the relationship.

In This Episode

Jane and Arta discuss:

• How to build a business without substantial starting capital
• Why trust can be more valuable than money
• How entrepreneurs can recognize hidden business opportunities
• Turning customers into long-term relationships
• Growing through repeat customers and referrals
• How to create more value from existing client relationships
• Negotiation and high-stakes decision-making
• Balancing confidence with due diligence
• Why entrepreneurs need the ability to walk away from bad deals
• How Arta built businesses across different countries and industries
• The ideas behind Add the Zeros