SDN104: How To Accelerate Your Business Growth with Linda Lopeke

How To Accelerate Your Business Growth with Linda Lopeke

"Sometimes entrepreneurs are held up to be the reason their business didn't succeed, when in fact, the reason their business didn't succeed is that it wasn't set up on a proper foundation." -Linda Lopeke (13:22-13:32)

There can come a time when your business isn't growing as fast as it used to be. Your growth may be winding down to the point that you are concerned that your progress may backslide. And you want to accelerate development to reach set deadlines for building sustainable business objectives.

There are many approaches that you can use to accelerate your business growth and achieve the targets you have for your business. In this week's 104th episode of Stop Doing Nothing, we're joined by Linda Lopeke. Together, we're going to cover how to accelerate your business growth and how to do it the right way, with the right people's help. 

Linda Lopeke’s Humble Beginnings

Linda Lopeke started her first business in 1967. But before that, she was into management consulting practice. She was a computer scientist and systems engineer. But her many careers didn't end there; Linda also worked in international finance and banking. 

The Birth Of The Smart Start Business Success Accelerator

Starting her own business in 1980, Linda dealt primarily with corporate clients. Then, there is a leadership conference that Queen's University has each year called QLEAD, and they invite top entrepreneurs to come and speak to their student population and give guest lectures. Linda was there, giving one lecture on entrepreneurship. After her lecture, the students in the lecture hall all rushed at me. They started talking to me about the different business ideas and wanted to develop what they couldn't find any support or guidance for bringing them to market. They were having a really difficult time, and they had such brilliant ideas and so much enthusiasm. It was clear that they believed in themselves, and they needed someone to help them bring their dreams to life and who didn't discount them for their age or their lack of business experience or anything like that. 

At that exact moment, Linda decided that she was going to help these kids and ended up creating the Smart Start Business Success Accelerator.

Using The Smart Start Business Success Accelerator Versus Doing It On Your Own

The difference between somebody going at their business on their own versus working with a Smart Start Business Success Accelerator is that there are 12 foundational core competencies to make your dream survive and unfold the way that you imagine it would be.

When a new entrepreneur is bootstrapping, they may have a small number of loans from parents, friends, and family. They may have a small bit of money or credit cards that they can use. They can tap into these limited resources to help them by the expert guidance they truly need. It isn't easy to evaluate people who do offer courses and coaching programs when they are considering making investments because they don't have the foundation to vet these people. And so, Linda started this Smart Start Business Success Accelerator program to help address those concerns. 

"It's not enough to be smart. You have to have people looking out for you who want you to succeed and who are willing to tell you when you're off base and why you're off base." -Linda Lopeke (29:47-30:04)

12 Core Competencies You’ll Learn Using The Smart Start Bu