June 15, 2024 • 241 mins
The exhilarating four seasons every aspiring entrepreneur must navigate. Do you have an idea that could change the world but don't know where to start? This episode promises to unravel the mysteries of entrepreneurship, guiding you through the initial spark of inspiration, where curiosity breeds groundbreaking ideas, to the meticulous planning and preparation stage, we provide actionable insights and strategies. We'll discuss the importance of brainstorming, feedback, and overcoming common doubts like imposter syndrome. Drawing from the inspiring journeys of Sarah Blakely of Spanx and Roxanne Quimby of Burt's Bees, we highlight how passion and determination can turn small beginnings into household names.
As we transition to the launch and growth phases, we delve into finalizing your product. Throughout this journey, we emphasize the importance of an optimistic and proactive mindset, ensuring you stay organized and validated. So, grab your notebook, and let's embark on the adventure of turning your entrepreneurial dreams into reality.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello and welcome to Amigas.
Let's Talk, the show where wediscuss life and business and
everything in between.
I am your host, damaris Ramirez.
My goal is that every womanlives her best life.
So, amiga, grab a cup of coffeeor tea and let's talk.
Hi, amiga, today we're going totalk about the four seasons of
(00:24):
entrepreneurship.
So you can call them phases orstages, but I'm going to call
them the four seasons.
It's what every single personthat is going through an
entrepreneurship journey isgoing to definitely go through.
So let's get right into it.
So, season one, season one thatis the inspiration phase.
(00:55):
That is where you get thatbrilliant idea.
You have that spark ofinspiration and you're so
excited you want to telleveryone about it, and that
could be either a product, aservice or a solution to a
problem Something definitelythat either maybe you have
encountered that you needed oryou observed that maybe it's
something that people are tryingto accomplish and you have the
(01:19):
solution to it.
So, during this season, yourmindset usually is curiosity,
enthusiasm and, honestly,everybody starts there.
Everybody starts with thatgrand idea.
So what do you do?
You have this.
You're in season one.
You have an inspiration, youhave this brilliant idea.
You should begin to do somebrainstorming and you should
(01:44):
identify what are these things,that?
What is the solution thatyou're trying to accomplish?
Whether that is a product orservice, there should be.
You should have an answer tothe question what is this a
solution for?
So, if it's a product, thatproduct is going to be the
solution for something that isneeded.
(02:06):
And if it's a service, right,you are going to provide a
service to people that are inneed of that service.
And you want to talk to friendsand families.
If you have a mentor, thatwould be great too, and you can
start asking feedback.
You know what do you thinkabout this idea?
Do you think people might makegood use of this?
(02:28):
Would you buy it?
You want to start doing someinitial research to see does
your idea have potential?
And if, during this stage orseason, right during this season
, you start questioning yourselfand after a while, you first
have that burst of inspirationand then you start thinking, oh
(02:50):
my God, do I have the money toinvest in this?
Who am I to do this?
And you start getting thatimposter syndrome right, that
feeling, that's normal, thathappens to everyone.
It happened to me.
I get this a lot from peoplethat come up to me and say you
know it's a little scary, and Isay you know, it's also that
you're a daring person.
(03:10):
You're daring to startsomething that not everyone
would do, and there's a quote byPeter Drucker that says the
best way to predict the futureis to create it.
So by being an entrepreneur,you're creating your personal
future, and the quote by PeterDrucker emphasizes the
(03:31):
importance that you want to beproactive and you want to take
control of your destiny, and Ithink that's most of the reasons
why someone begins a smallbusiness or they become
entrepreneurs.
For me, it was a little bit ofboth.
I think I just have it in me.
My dad and on my father's sidethey all have had businesses, so
(03:54):
I think it just was in me.
And also I needed some extramoney.
I was a single parent for sometime and I was trying to figure
out what can I do that I love,where I can make some additional
monies, and for me that wasteaching.
So you want to try to figureout what it is that you love, as
(04:15):
I said in some of the otherepisodes, and work on that,
because you're going to workmany hours, so you might as well
.
Do it on something that youlove.
I want you not to give up onyour spark of inspiration.
I want you to go with your idea, and I'm going to highlight
five women that you very likelyhave heard of that had
(04:39):
determination and they were veryresourceful, and they started
with humble beginnings but theyturned their small business into
well-known brands.
So the first one, spanx thatwas developed by Sarah Blakely
you probably have seen her alsoon the TV show Shark Tank and
(05:00):
she started with $5,000 insavings and she decided that she
wanted to create an item thatwould be comfortable and that it
would be slimming undergarmentfor women.
And she first started at herapartment and she was doing
everything herself, just likemany of us have done of us have
(05:28):
done everything from designingto marketing.
But today Spanx is a householdname in shapewear.
You see it in all the stores,you can buy it online and she's
even expanded to include a widerange of apparel.
I actually am trying to findsome time to go purchase some of
her pants, because I have seensome ads in the marketing.
Obviously it's fantasticbecause I'm ready to go out and
get some, where she has some uhalso some slimming uh apparel.
(05:53):
So I want to try her pants soon.
And one quote that uh, sarahBlakely has uh had is that she
said she started Spanx, as Isaid, with $5,000 in savings and
a whole lot of passion.
So stick with your passion andyour determination and you
definitely can have an inspiringstory, just like Sarah Blakely.
(06:16):
Number two Burt's Bees.
That was started by RoxanneQuimby and you can find that in
most drugstores in Walmart, inCBS, in Walgreens and she
actually started making candlesfrom bee wax in her home with
(06:37):
her partner, bert Shavitz, andthey sold candles at local craft
fairs and farmer's markets.
But today Bert's Bees is aglobally recognized brand and
they also have a very nicenatural personal care product,
particularly the lip balm.
I love their cuticle softenerand also I use their lip glosses
(07:03):
softener and also I use theirlip glosses.
And Roxanne has said that theystarted with leftover bee wax
and a dream.
So, as you see, with both Sarahand Roxanne, yes, they started
with that brilliant idea ormaybe just a little money, but
they all both emphasize thatthey had passion or they had a
(07:23):
dream, and you'll see with thenext three it was the same thing
.
When they get quoted, they'revery specific about how they
started.
The next one, number three, isCarol's Daughter, and that was
started by Lisa Price.
Lisa Price began her naturalbeauty products in her kitchen
and initially she also went tolocal flea markets and crafts
(07:46):
fairs.
But eventually people found outhow good her products were and
gained popularity.
And then, especially becauseshe has natural ingredients and
I love her hair products,especially because I have curly
hair and they also have actuallygrown Carol's Daughter to a
world-renowned, recognized brandand was eventually acquired by
(08:12):
L'Oreal.
So that's something eventually,as you grow bigger, that
potentially can happen.
Someone might want to buy youout.
And Lisa from Carol's Daughtershe says that she started in her
kitchen just with a fewingredients, but with a very big
vision.
The next one, number four KendraScott.
You've probably heard of KendraScott Jewelry.
(08:34):
That was started by KendraScott and she started her
jewelry business with $500 inher spare bedroom in Austin
Texas $500 in her spare bedroomin Austin Texas.
She was doing pieces by handand selling them door to door,
going to the local boutiques inTexas and today Kendra Scott
(08:55):
Jewelry is now a well-knownbrand.
You can find it in departmentstores across the United States
and she also has a very largepresence online.
And she says with $500 and adream, I launched a company that
grew beyond my wildestimagination.
And the last one I wanted tohighlight is Stitch Fix.
(09:15):
And this company was started byKatrina Lake and she started in
her apartment with a simpleidea that she wanted to do
personalized styling service soa personalized stylist but for
people that maybe can't afford,like the celebrities, to have
that high-paying personalizedstylist.
So she wanted to do it througha subscription model.
(09:39):
She managed to grow herbusiness and develop her
business while she was attendingHarvard.
And now Stitch Fix is apublicly traded company and they
do provide still personalizedfashion recommendations to
millions of customers online andthey send products to the
(09:59):
customer's home through thesubscription model.
And Katrina says I startedStitch Fix because I wanted to
help people discover and exploretheir personal style.
So all of these women's turnedtheir small home based
businesses into thrivingenterprises and all it does is.
It shows that when you have apassion and inspiration, you can
(10:23):
turn that into a business andyou can, through innovation,
hard work and resilience, alsodo like these five women did.
So definitely, if you want toget all the information, as
usual, that I have in thisepisode, you will be able to go
into the show notes and get acopy of the transcript or, as
(10:46):
usual, I will have a PDF thatyou can download if you just
wanted to have it as a reference.
Okay, amiga, what happens inseason two of the life and
journey of an entrepreneurship?
This is where the planning andpreparation happens.
You should start turning hereyour idea into a concrete plan.
(11:11):
I think the most importantthing is you want to keep a
mindset of being optimistic andorganized as much as you can,
even though usually, whensomeone's in this journey, you
have a notebook full of papers,a lot of stickies, but you want
to try to stay as organized aspossible.
(11:31):
You want to try to create abusiness plan.
You want to identify who is yourtarget audience.
These are the people that aregoing to be in need for your
product.
You want to develop a list ofwhat are the characteristics
that are going to be in need foryour product.
You want to develop a list ofwhat are the characteristics of
this person what is their gender, what is their age, what are
(11:54):
their pain points?
Right, where are they?
What is their age range.
You want to try to be asspecific as possible so that
then later you'll be able totarget that audience In season
two.
You want to do research.
You want to research the market, you want to research
(12:14):
competition.
You want to see the areas where, potentially, this service or
product is available maybelocally, maybe online.
You want to see what thedifferences with prices are.
What are the products that areout there?
How are they different from theproduct that you will be
(12:36):
developing?
And you know, the sky's thelimit, because right now we have
virtual sales.
We can have virtual sales orvirtual classes.
So you want to also look atshort-term goals and long-term
goals and possibly and I saythis is not something that
(12:56):
everybody needs and most of thetime we don't have, but I'm
still going to mention it hereis maybe you want to look into
finding funding sources or apartnership.
So, especially for women,there's a lot of small business
associations that are willing tofund some women projects, so
you might want to look into that.
(13:18):
You want to lean in right.
You want to lean in as SherylSandberg says in her book what
would you do if you weren'tafraid right?
So you want to get her book, ifyou want, and her book title is
Lean In Women, work and theWill to Lead, and this is going
to help you.
Just put everything together,stay more organized, even help
(13:40):
you towards you.
How do you work as you bring instaff to work with you?
That's going to be very helpfulalso.
So carry a notebook that way,at all times, you can jot down
some notes, because you're goingto have inspirations at all
times while you're laying in bed, while you're in the car, while
you're in a meeting, there'salways going to be thoughts
(14:02):
coming through your head theminute that you have basically
opened the door and decided thatyou want to make your dream a
reality.
And you know, if you don't doit with the notebook, then put
it somewhere, find a place inyour, on your, in your cell
phone, where you're going to beable to jot down these ideas.
(14:22):
You want to also validate yourservice or product.
I say that this is season twois where you should have your
product right and you shouldhave someone test out your
product.
If you have an actual physicalproduct, give your product to a
couple of people and tell themto give you their honest opinion
(14:44):
about your product, so you canhave a testing group and
therefore, that will allow youto get ideas so that you can
make it even better.
Season three of entrepreneurshipthis is the launching and
growing stage.
So this is where you're goingto have your business start to
(15:06):
become a reality.
You're going to basically haveyour product available during
this stage.
I think for me this is thefunnest part of having a small
business when you know you'reready.
You're ready to make some money.
And maybe that's why I likethis stage, because all the hard
work that you've done in seasonone and season two, now in
(15:30):
season three you're going tostart making some money,
bringing back some of the moneythat maybe you've invested.
So I would say, and it might goslow.
So I say your mindset is thatyou have to stay confident, you
have to be proactive.
This is where you're going tofinalize your product because,
remember, in season two you weretesting.
(15:51):
So you're finalizing yourproduct or service and making
sure it's ready for the market.
You're going to make sureyou're checking the boxes for
registering your business,setting up your bank account,
having whatever legal andfinancial setup you need to have
.
By season three, you know whatyour branding is.
(16:13):
You've picked your brandingcolors.
That way, you know what yourbrand identity is going to be.
You have your logo, yourwebsite, your social presence
and whatever platform you'regoing to be selling in.
You also, in this stage, have amarketing plan.
This is where you're going todevelop the strategy for you to
promote your product and service, and that's going to be really
(16:34):
important, because you're goingto want to market your product
and also look at the metrics asto what are the different ways
that you're marketing yourproduct and where is it working
better, so that you can thenfocus your energies in that
areas or invest in, if you'redoing paid advertising in the
(16:55):
areas that are bringing in themoney.
You want to be efficient and youwant to streamline your
processes.
As you get more into yourbusiness, you're going to figure
out ways to do things smarterand better.
So make sure you're takingnotes and improving and
optimizing your operations and,if necessary, you might want to
(17:18):
hire additional staff.
I say you're going to only dothat after you've made some
money, whether it's a couple ofhundred dollars, but do not hire
someone until you've made moneythat you've validated that it
all is.
You need to be very specific inwhat you need that person to do
(17:47):
for you.
You want to make sure thatwhoever you hire is going to be
a person that their duties andtheir role is going to allow you
to make more money.
This is a phase where you'regoing to get a clear vision as
to what's working and what's not, and then, once you are able to
improve in that area, that iswhen you get to season four.
(18:13):
Hi, I'm Iga.
We've reached the last seasonof entrepreneurship.
This is season four.
This is the season where you'regrowing and you're expanding
and you're celebrating yoursuccesses growing and you're
expanding and you're celebratingyour successes, and I love this
season.
This is where you're up andrunning.
And now what happens is youstart thinking of how can I
scale?
(18:33):
How can I scale?
How can I reach more people?
So you want to be happy thatyou're being successful and you
want to be ambitious for moreand you want to be adaptive,
because maybe you learned alongthe way that some things need to
be different.
You want to be ready for change.
You're not the same person thatyou were when you started in
(18:55):
season one.
For sure, when you look back,you're like, oh my God, there's
so much that has changed, notonly with your mindset, but
maybe with your product andservice and key takeaways or key
actions during season four iscontinue to refine your
operations and improve yourefficiency.
You want to again add additionalmembers to your team if you're
(19:18):
growing very quickly and youneed that.
You don't want to have burnout.
You want to increase yourmarketing efforts and do them
even more focused.
You want to explore where elsecan I do additional marketing,
explore new channels.
You want to very, veryimportant.
You want to build strongcustomer relationships and,
(19:40):
along those same lines, you wantto encourage your customers to
provide referrals, and you'regoing to be able to do that by
developing community with thepeople that have purchased your
product of service.
So you want to continuouslyreach out.
You want to, if you can andthey're local, meet with them
(20:00):
for coffee.
Thank them for them service.
You can also do it obviouslyonline with them for coffee.
Thank them for them service.
You can also do it obviouslyonline.
If you're mailing something out,send a little extra.
You always see these videos ofpeople doing packing.
I love watching them myself andsometimes we have to monitor
how long we're seeing those, butit's.
Everybody loves to receiveextra.
(20:21):
So whether you are providing aproduct, loves to receive extra.
So, whether you are providing aproduct, throw in a little
extra If you're providing aservice for me.
I teach.
I'm always adding additionalsessions to the classes that I
teach, at no cost to my students, because I really believe in
what I teach and I want to makesure that I give them as many
(20:43):
resources as I can so that theygo away with the idea that I did
the best I could for them to besuccessful.
And, as I said, you want tocontinuously be innovating, be
improving on the offerings thatyou have.
You want to also be able tosell up.
So if you have one product,what can you sell?
(21:05):
What can you add to that sale?
Think of what else could thispotential customer need and
start thinking of developingthose things.
You want to along the way I sayalong the way, not just in this
season, but sometimes we forgetcelebrate your milestones.
That's going to be reallyimportant because you want to
(21:25):
know that all the hard work thatyou do is for a good cause.
So you want to recognize andcelebrate all of your
achievements.
And the other thing you willdefinitely want to do is don't
forget to give back.
You want to support yourcommunity, you want to support
the industry that you're inthrough maybe mentorship or
philanthropy.
You want to maybe mentor otherentrepreneurs.
(21:47):
A lot of times there are peopleout there that are trying to do
the same thing that you aredoing and, you know, not
everybody is strong enough, noteverybody has all the ideas, and
that's why I do these episodesthat hopefully, some of the
stuff that I am discussing willhelp someone out there.
So if someone reaches out toyou, be kind, they might be
(22:10):
starting and they might be lost,so be available.
There's always space foreveryone in this world.
Like I said earlier, the sky'sthe limit.
Explore new opportunities.
You also want to think abouthow do you expand?
Explore new opportunities.
You also want to think abouthow do you expand, how do you
diversify?
And I would highly recommendthat you read the book by Vern
(22:34):
Harnish Scaling Up how a FewCompanies Make it and why the
Rest Don't, and just rememberthat what got you here won't get
you there, and that's a quoteby Marshall Goldsmith.
So, amigas, I hope, whetheryou're already in your
entrepreneurship journey, thatyou go through these four
seasons and see is thereanything that maybe you're
(22:55):
missing that I mentioned thatyou can add to your key actions.
Are you in the right mindset inevery single one of these
seasons, and if you've alreadybeen through season one, through
four in your business, thenthink of what else can you do.
You know how can you expand anddiversify, and when that
(23:16):
happens, you're going to be backin season one.
I find myself in season onemany, many times, whether it's
developing a new product, likeright now I'm in the middle of
completing a book.
I will tell you all about thata little more later this summer,
but that just starts the clockall over.
(23:38):
So I go back to season one andtry to remember that you know
every season will come, and sowe just have to take it step by
step, and then we will all beable to, at the end, be able to
celebrate our achievements andmilestones.
So thank you, amiga, forlistening.
I hope these were helpful.
(23:58):
I'll talk to you soon, hi,amiga.
I'm jumping in one last timejust to tell you about these
five women's groups andcommunities that I love, and
they're really helpful withwomen entrepreneurs, and so
number one is the NationalAssociation of Women Business
Owners.
Number two, women BusinessEnterprise National Council.
(24:21):
Number three, elevate Network.
Number four, femaleEntrepreneur Association.
Number five, women 2.0.
And number six, who I love isPowerhouse Women, so these
groups have helped me.
They provided valuableconnections, support and
resources at every phase, atevery season of my
(24:44):
entrepreneurial journey.
So each journey, you should belearning and growing and being
filled with excitingopportunities and experiences.
So please enjoy every step andbelieve in your ability to
succeed.
Thank you for making Amiga'slet's Talk part of your day.
We hope you enjoyed listeningto today's episode and be sure
(25:06):
to hit the subscribe button toget notified when we release the
next one.
And if you know someone whowould enjoy the show, please
share it with them.
I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for listening andremember to smile, listen and be
patient today Until next.
No-transcript.
Hello and welcome to Amigas.
Let's Talk, the show where wediscuss life and business and
everything in between.
I am your host, damaris Ramirez.
My goal is that every womanlives her best life.
So, amiga, grab a cup of coffeeor tea and let's talk.
Hi, amiga, today we're going totalk about the four seasons of
(00:24):
entrepreneurship.
So you can call them phases orstages, but I'm going to call
them the four seasons.
It's what every single personthat is going through an
entrepreneurship journey isgoing to definitely go through.
So let's get right into it.
So, season one, season one thatis the inspiration phase.
(00:55):
That is where you get thatbrilliant idea.
You have that spark ofinspiration and you're so
excited you want to telleveryone about it, and that
could be either a product, aservice or a solution to a
problem Something definitelythat either maybe you have
encountered that you needed oryou observed that maybe it's
something that people are tryingto accomplish and you have the
(01:19):
solution to it.
So, during this season, yourmindset usually is curiosity,
enthusiasm and, honestly,everybody starts there.
Everybody starts with thatgrand idea.
So what do you do?
You have this.
You're in season one.
You have an inspiration, youhave this brilliant idea.
You should begin to do somebrainstorming and you should
(01:44):
identify what are these things,that?
What is the solution thatyou're trying to accomplish?
Whether that is a product orservice, there should be.
You should have an answer tothe question what is this a
solution for?
So, if it's a product, thatproduct is going to be the
solution for something that isneeded.
(02:06):
And if it's a service, right,you are going to provide a
service to people that are inneed of that service.
And you want to talk to friendsand families.
If you have a mentor, thatwould be great too, and you can
start asking feedback.
You know what do you thinkabout this idea?
Do you think people might makegood use of this?
(02:28):
Would you buy it?
You want to start doing someinitial research to see does
your idea have potential?
And if, during this stage orseason, right during this season
, you start questioning yourselfand after a while, you first
have that burst of inspirationand then you start thinking, oh
(02:50):
my God, do I have the money toinvest in this?
Who am I to do this?
And you start getting thatimposter syndrome right, that
feeling, that's normal, thathappens to everyone.
It happened to me.
I get this a lot from peoplethat come up to me and say you
know it's a little scary, and Isay you know, it's also that
you're a daring person.
(03:10):
You're daring to startsomething that not everyone
would do, and there's a quote byPeter Drucker that says the
best way to predict the futureis to create it.
So by being an entrepreneur,you're creating your personal
future, and the quote by PeterDrucker emphasizes the
(03:31):
importance that you want to beproactive and you want to take
control of your destiny, and Ithink that's most of the reasons
why someone begins a smallbusiness or they become
entrepreneurs.
For me, it was a little bit ofboth.
I think I just have it in me.
My dad and on my father's sidethey all have had businesses, so
(03:54):
I think it just was in me.
And also I needed some extramoney.
I was a single parent for sometime and I was trying to figure
out what can I do that I love,where I can make some additional
monies, and for me that wasteaching.
So you want to try to figureout what it is that you love, as
(04:15):
I said in some of the otherepisodes, and work on that,
because you're going to workmany hours, so you might as well
.
Do it on something that youlove.
I want you not to give up onyour spark of inspiration.
I want you to go with your idea, and I'm going to highlight
five women that you very likelyhave heard of that had
(04:39):
determination and they were veryresourceful, and they started
with humble beginnings but theyturned their small business into
well-known brands.
So the first one, spanx thatwas developed by Sarah Blakely
you probably have seen her alsoon the TV show Shark Tank and
(05:00):
she started with $5,000 insavings and she decided that she
wanted to create an item thatwould be comfortable and that it
would be slimming undergarmentfor women.
And she first started at herapartment and she was doing
everything herself, just likemany of us have done of us have
(05:28):
done everything from designingto marketing.
But today Spanx is a householdname in shapewear.
You see it in all the stores,you can buy it online and she's
even expanded to include a widerange of apparel.
I actually am trying to findsome time to go purchase some of
her pants, because I have seensome ads in the marketing.
Obviously it's fantasticbecause I'm ready to go out and
get some, where she has some uhalso some slimming uh apparel.
(05:53):
So I want to try her pants soon.
And one quote that uh, sarahBlakely has uh had is that she
said she started Spanx, as Isaid, with $5,000 in savings and
a whole lot of passion.
So stick with your passion andyour determination and you
definitely can have an inspiringstory, just like Sarah Blakely.
(06:16):
Number two Burt's Bees.
That was started by RoxanneQuimby and you can find that in
most drugstores in Walmart, inCBS, in Walgreens and she
actually started making candlesfrom bee wax in her home with
(06:37):
her partner, bert Shavitz, andthey sold candles at local craft
fairs and farmer's markets.
But today Bert's Bees is aglobally recognized brand and
they also have a very nicenatural personal care product,
particularly the lip balm.
I love their cuticle softenerand also I use their lip glosses
(07:03):
softener and also I use theirlip glosses.
And Roxanne has said that theystarted with leftover bee wax
and a dream.
So, as you see, with both Sarahand Roxanne, yes, they started
with that brilliant idea ormaybe just a little money, but
they all both emphasize thatthey had passion or they had a
(07:23):
dream, and you'll see with thenext three it was the same thing
.
When they get quoted, they'revery specific about how they
started.
The next one, number three, isCarol's Daughter, and that was
started by Lisa Price.
Lisa Price began her naturalbeauty products in her kitchen
and initially she also went tolocal flea markets and crafts
(07:46):
fairs.
But eventually people found outhow good her products were and
gained popularity.
And then, especially becauseshe has natural ingredients and
I love her hair products,especially because I have curly
hair and they also have actuallygrown Carol's Daughter to a
world-renowned, recognized brandand was eventually acquired by
(08:12):
L'Oreal.
So that's something eventually,as you grow bigger, that
potentially can happen.
Someone might want to buy youout.
And Lisa from Carol's Daughtershe says that she started in her
kitchen just with a fewingredients, but with a very big
vision.
The next one, number four KendraScott.
You've probably heard of KendraScott Jewelry.
(08:34):
That was started by KendraScott and she started her
jewelry business with $500 inher spare bedroom in Austin
Texas $500 in her spare bedroomin Austin Texas.
She was doing pieces by handand selling them door to door,
going to the local boutiques inTexas and today Kendra Scott
(08:55):
Jewelry is now a well-knownbrand.
You can find it in departmentstores across the United States
and she also has a very largepresence online.
And she says with $500 and adream, I launched a company that
grew beyond my wildestimagination.
And the last one I wanted tohighlight is Stitch Fix.
(09:15):
And this company was started byKatrina Lake and she started in
her apartment with a simpleidea that she wanted to do
personalized styling service soa personalized stylist but for
people that maybe can't afford,like the celebrities, to have
that high-paying personalizedstylist.
So she wanted to do it througha subscription model.
(09:39):
She managed to grow herbusiness and develop her
business while she was attendingHarvard.
And now Stitch Fix is apublicly traded company and they
do provide still personalizedfashion recommendations to
millions of customers online andthey send products to the
(09:59):
customer's home through thesubscription model.
And Katrina says I startedStitch Fix because I wanted to
help people discover and exploretheir personal style.
So all of these women's turnedtheir small home based
businesses into thrivingenterprises and all it does is.
It shows that when you have apassion and inspiration, you can
(10:23):
turn that into a business andyou can, through innovation,
hard work and resilience, alsodo like these five women did.
So definitely, if you want toget all the information, as
usual, that I have in thisepisode, you will be able to go
into the show notes and get acopy of the transcript or, as
(10:46):
usual, I will have a PDF thatyou can download if you just
wanted to have it as a reference.
Okay, amiga, what happens inseason two of the life and
journey of an entrepreneurship?
This is where the planning andpreparation happens.
You should start turning hereyour idea into a concrete plan.
(11:11):
I think the most importantthing is you want to keep a
mindset of being optimistic andorganized as much as you can,
even though usually, whensomeone's in this journey, you
have a notebook full of papers,a lot of stickies, but you want
to try to stay as organized aspossible.
(11:31):
You want to try to create abusiness plan.
You want to identify who is yourtarget audience.
These are the people that aregoing to be in need for your
product.
You want to develop a list ofwhat are the characteristics
that are going to be in need foryour product.
You want to develop a list ofwhat are the characteristics of
this person what is their gender, what is their age, what are
(11:54):
their pain points?
Right, where are they?
What is their age range.
You want to try to be asspecific as possible so that
then later you'll be able totarget that audience In season
two.
You want to do research.
You want to research the market, you want to research
(12:14):
competition.
You want to see the areas where, potentially, this service or
product is available maybelocally, maybe online.
You want to see what thedifferences with prices are.
What are the products that areout there?
How are they different from theproduct that you will be
(12:36):
developing?
And you know, the sky's thelimit, because right now we have
virtual sales.
We can have virtual sales orvirtual classes.
So you want to also look atshort-term goals and long-term
goals and possibly and I saythis is not something that
(12:56):
everybody needs and most of thetime we don't have, but I'm
still going to mention it hereis maybe you want to look into
finding funding sources or apartnership.
So, especially for women,there's a lot of small business
associations that are willing tofund some women projects, so
you might want to look into that.
(13:18):
You want to lean in right.
You want to lean in as SherylSandberg says in her book what
would you do if you weren'tafraid right?
So you want to get her book, ifyou want, and her book title is
Lean In Women, work and theWill to Lead, and this is going
to help you.
Just put everything together,stay more organized, even help
(13:40):
you towards you.
How do you work as you bring instaff to work with you?
That's going to be very helpfulalso.
So carry a notebook that way,at all times, you can jot down
some notes, because you're goingto have inspirations at all
times while you're laying in bed, while you're in the car, while
you're in a meeting, there'salways going to be thoughts
(14:02):
coming through your head theminute that you have basically
opened the door and decided thatyou want to make your dream a
reality.
And you know, if you don't doit with the notebook, then put
it somewhere, find a place inyour, on your, in your cell
phone, where you're going to beable to jot down these ideas.
(14:22):
You want to also validate yourservice or product.
I say that this is season twois where you should have your
product right and you shouldhave someone test out your
product.
If you have an actual physicalproduct, give your product to a
couple of people and tell themto give you their honest opinion
(14:44):
about your product, so you canhave a testing group and
therefore, that will allow youto get ideas so that you can
make it even better.
Season three of entrepreneurshipthis is the launching and
growing stage.
So this is where you're goingto have your business start to
(15:06):
become a reality.
You're going to basically haveyour product available during
this stage.
I think for me this is thefunnest part of having a small
business when you know you'reready.
You're ready to make some money.
And maybe that's why I likethis stage, because all the hard
work that you've done in seasonone and season two, now in
(15:30):
season three you're going tostart making some money,
bringing back some of the moneythat maybe you've invested.
So I would say, and it might goslow.
So I say your mindset is thatyou have to stay confident, you
have to be proactive.
This is where you're going tofinalize your product because,
remember, in season two you weretesting.
(15:51):
So you're finalizing yourproduct or service and making
sure it's ready for the market.
You're going to make sureyou're checking the boxes for
registering your business,setting up your bank account,
having whatever legal andfinancial setup you need to have
.
By season three, you know whatyour branding is.
(16:13):
You've picked your brandingcolors.
That way, you know what yourbrand identity is going to be.
You have your logo, yourwebsite, your social presence
and whatever platform you'regoing to be selling in.
You also, in this stage, have amarketing plan.
This is where you're going todevelop the strategy for you to
promote your product and service, and that's going to be really
(16:34):
important, because you're goingto want to market your product
and also look at the metrics asto what are the different ways
that you're marketing yourproduct and where is it working
better, so that you can thenfocus your energies in that
areas or invest in, if you'redoing paid advertising in the
(16:55):
areas that are bringing in themoney.
You want to be efficient and youwant to streamline your
processes.
As you get more into yourbusiness, you're going to figure
out ways to do things smarterand better.
So make sure you're takingnotes and improving and
optimizing your operations and,if necessary, you might want to
(17:18):
hire additional staff.
I say you're going to only dothat after you've made some
money, whether it's a couple ofhundred dollars, but do not hire
someone until you've made moneythat you've validated that it
all is.
You need to be very specific inwhat you need that person to do
(17:47):
for you.
You want to make sure thatwhoever you hire is going to be
a person that their duties andtheir role is going to allow you
to make more money.
This is a phase where you'regoing to get a clear vision as
to what's working and what's not, and then, once you are able to
improve in that area, that iswhen you get to season four.
(18:13):
Hi, I'm Iga.
We've reached the last seasonof entrepreneurship.
This is season four.
This is the season where you'regrowing and you're expanding
and you're celebrating yoursuccesses growing and you're
expanding and you're celebratingyour successes, and I love this
season.
This is where you're up andrunning.
And now what happens is youstart thinking of how can I
scale?
(18:33):
How can I scale?
How can I reach more people?
So you want to be happy thatyou're being successful and you
want to be ambitious for moreand you want to be adaptive,
because maybe you learned alongthe way that some things need to
be different.
You want to be ready for change.
You're not the same person thatyou were when you started in
(18:55):
season one.
For sure, when you look back,you're like, oh my God, there's
so much that has changed, notonly with your mindset, but
maybe with your product andservice and key takeaways or key
actions during season four iscontinue to refine your
operations and improve yourefficiency.
You want to again add additionalmembers to your team if you're
(19:18):
growing very quickly and youneed that.
You don't want to have burnout.
You want to increase yourmarketing efforts and do them
even more focused.
You want to explore where elsecan I do additional marketing,
explore new channels.
You want to very, veryimportant.
You want to build strongcustomer relationships and,
(19:40):
along those same lines, you wantto encourage your customers to
provide referrals, and you'regoing to be able to do that by
developing community with thepeople that have purchased your
product of service.
So you want to continuouslyreach out.
You want to, if you can andthey're local, meet with them
(20:00):
for coffee.
Thank them for them service.
You can also do it obviouslyonline with them for coffee.
Thank them for them service.
You can also do it obviouslyonline.
If you're mailing something out,send a little extra.
You always see these videos ofpeople doing packing.
I love watching them myself andsometimes we have to monitor
how long we're seeing those, butit's.
Everybody loves to receiveextra.
(20:21):
So whether you are providing aproduct, loves to receive extra.
So, whether you are providing aproduct, throw in a little
extra If you're providing aservice for me.
I teach.
I'm always adding additionalsessions to the classes that I
teach, at no cost to my students, because I really believe in
what I teach and I want to makesure that I give them as many
(20:43):
resources as I can so that theygo away with the idea that I did
the best I could for them to besuccessful.
And, as I said, you want tocontinuously be innovating, be
improving on the offerings thatyou have.
You want to also be able tosell up.
So if you have one product,what can you sell?
(21:05):
What can you add to that sale?
Think of what else could thispotential customer need and
start thinking of developingthose things.
You want to along the way I sayalong the way, not just in this
season, but sometimes we forgetcelebrate your milestones.
That's going to be reallyimportant because you want to
(21:25):
know that all the hard work thatyou do is for a good cause.
So you want to recognize andcelebrate all of your
achievements.
And the other thing you willdefinitely want to do is don't
forget to give back.
You want to support yourcommunity, you want to support
the industry that you're inthrough maybe mentorship or
philanthropy.
You want to maybe mentor otherentrepreneurs.
(21:47):
A lot of times there are peopleout there that are trying to do
the same thing that you aredoing and, you know, not
everybody is strong enough, noteverybody has all the ideas, and
that's why I do these episodesthat hopefully, some of the
stuff that I am discussing willhelp someone out there.
So if someone reaches out toyou, be kind, they might be
(22:10):
starting and they might be lost,so be available.
There's always space foreveryone in this world.
Like I said earlier, the sky'sthe limit.
Explore new opportunities.
You also want to think abouthow do you expand?
Explore new opportunities.
You also want to think abouthow do you expand, how do you
diversify?
And I would highly recommendthat you read the book by Vern
(22:34):
Harnish Scaling Up how a FewCompanies Make it and why the
Rest Don't, and just rememberthat what got you here won't get
you there, and that's a quoteby Marshall Goldsmith.
So, amigas, I hope, whetheryou're already in your
entrepreneurship journey, thatyou go through these four
seasons and see is thereanything that maybe you're
(22:55):
missing that I mentioned thatyou can add to your key actions.
Are you in the right mindset inevery single one of these
seasons, and if you've alreadybeen through season one, through
four in your business, thenthink of what else can you do.
You know how can you expand anddiversify, and when that
(23:16):
happens, you're going to be backin season one.
I find myself in season onemany, many times, whether it's
developing a new product, likeright now I'm in the middle of
completing a book.
I will tell you all about thata little more later this summer,
but that just starts the clockall over.
(23:38):
So I go back to season one andtry to remember that you know
every season will come, and sowe just have to take it step by
step, and then we will all beable to, at the end, be able to
celebrate our achievements andmilestones.
So thank you, amiga, forlistening.
I hope these were helpful.
(23:58):
I'll talk to you soon, hi,amiga.
I'm jumping in one last timejust to tell you about these
five women's groups andcommunities that I love, and
they're really helpful withwomen entrepreneurs, and so
number one is the NationalAssociation of Women Business
Owners.
Number two, women BusinessEnterprise National Council.
(24:21):
Number three, elevate Network.
Number four, femaleEntrepreneur Association.
Number five, women 2.0.
And number six, who I love isPowerhouse Women, so these
groups have helped me.
They provided valuableconnections, support and
resources at every phase, atevery season of my
(24:44):
entrepreneurial journey.
So each journey, you should belearning and growing and being
filled with excitingopportunities and experiences.
So please enjoy every step andbelieve in your ability to
succeed.
Thank you for making Amiga'slet's Talk part of your day.
We hope you enjoyed listeningto today's episode and be sure
(25:06):
to hit the subscribe button toget notified when we release the
next one.
And if you know someone whowould enjoy the show, please
share it with them.
I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for listening andremember to smile, listen and be
patient today Until next.
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