February 2015 - Page 2 of 2

Last week the Birmingham Business Journal announced its Top 40 Under 40 class for 2015 and I am proud to say that I am among the young professionals chosen for this honor. What makes me even prouder and even happier is that I recently learned a group of women who have in some way been inspired by the work I do through See Jane Write teamed up to nominate me for this recognition.

This time last year I didn’t even consider myself a real entrepreneur and now here I am being featured in the Birmingham Business Journal! This wouldn’t have happened without the support of that group of women (or the support of my sweet husband who helps me with every See Jane Write event). But I also believe this wouldn’t have happened had I not decided to change my attitude last summer.

Back in July Megan LaRussa Chenoweth’s keynote address at the See Jane Write Bloganista Mini-Conference inspired me to start taking myself seriously as a businesswoman. As a result, I revamped the See Jane Write website and weekly newsletter, started working with a business coach, and started signing up for every webinar on business building that I could find.

As I state in my article for the Birmingham Business Journal, “My career as an entrepreneur started to take flight when I overcame my self-doubt. Once I started to take myself seriously as a businesswoman, other people started to as well.”

For that article, each honoree was asked to answer a slew of questions and obviously not all of them could be used. If you live in Birmingham I hope you’ll pick up a copy of the latest issue of Birmingham Business Journal at a local bookstore like Little Professor Book Center. But I thought it would be fun to share with my blog readers a few of my responses that weren’t used in the article.

Enjoy!

What keeps you up at night?

Ideas keep me up at night! I always have so many ideas for lessons I can teach, programs I can offer, events I can host, and things I can write to inspire my students, my clients, See Jane Write members and other women in my sphere of influence.

What’s the first website you visit each morning?

SheReadsTruth.com

What book has influenced you most in your career?

The book that has influenced me most as an entrepreneur is Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. It pushed me to overcome my impostor syndrome and to start believing that I am good enough and smart enough to do what I want to do.

What inspires you?

Women inspire me more than anything on this planet. My mission in life is to empower women and girls to find their voice and share their stories. That drives nearly everything that I do.

What important lesson have you learned that has helped your career?

I’ve learned to embrace and be unapologetic about my femininity and to never see it as a liability.

What’s the best advice you’ve received?

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Your turn! I’d love to read your answers to these questions, too! Leave them in the comments.

*Cross-posted at WriteousBabe.com.

Sponsored Post for Do-It-Yourself Crafts

2015 is the year I’m really focusing on growing as a businesswoman and so I’m getting as much advice as I can from other female entrepreneurs. Recently, I had a chat with Julia McNair, owner of the Birmingham-based arts and crafts shop Do-It-Yourself Crafts. While talking with McNair I realized that entrepreneurship is very much like a do-it-yourself project because to be successful one must be both creative and patient.

What inspired you to start Do-It-Yourself Crafts?

I started the store in 1999. I had been working in corporate retail management and had loved my job…until I didn’t. I was considering going to law school, but that didn’t really call to me, either. I found myself doing more and more craft projects, but in my small Southside apartment, I didn’t have the space to store supplies. I decided I wanted a place like a paint-your-own pottery shop, where I could go to create things – not just paint your own pottery. When we opened, we had a varied selection. We sold supplies, as well as having a studio to work in. We did scrapbooking, rubber stamping, glass wine painting, and a whole lot more.

After a few years, we added paint your own pottery, and then mosaics, and then glass fusing. Other items went away. When Hobby Lobby opened, I knew I wasn’t going to out-do a big-box store, so we closed the craft sales section of the store and expanded the studio into the front. What has stayed over the years are the items that customers have told us they want to have – if it didn’t sell, it went away.

Starting a business is obviously risky. What is the scariest thing you’ve faced as an entrepreneur and how did you handle it?

Honestly, the first thing is the scariest: signing the loan, signing the lease. You have to make the money to cover those obligations. After you get started, the momentum will carry you.

What’s the one piece of advice you would offer aspiring entrepreneurs that you wish someone would have shared with you before you started your business?

Starting a business is wonderful and terrible and everyone should think about doing it, but you should know that once you start a business, it’s not a hobby anymore, it’s your business. I joke that I may own a pottery shop, but I’m in the marketing business. It’s nonstop and relentless and never-ending. I read something once that said that if you own a business, you spend about 15% of your time doing the thing you opened your business to do. I think that estimate might be high.

You can think you know exactly what you are going to be doing, and you might. But you might not. Your customers will let you know what they want – and you can change with what they are telling you, or you can stick to your guns and see if you make it. The customer isn’t always right, but they are your only source of income and so you should make every effort to let them be a source of income.

What do you do to make your business stand out from other shops like yours?

Customer service. When I had competition, that was the most important thing to us – that we focus on our customers and make sure that we went above and beyond.

I no longer have any local competitors for pottery shops – the studio that had been my competitor closed and I have opened a second shop where she was located – but that doesn’t mean I don’t have competition for customers. We are competing against the roller skating rink and the bowling alley and the movie theater. We are also competing against all the canvas painting places and other “ladies’ night out” options people have. We are competing with not spending money at all. There is competition everywhere.

Speaking of ladies night out, give us some tips on how to throw a great party at your shop.

If you are having a kid’s birthday party at one of my stores, the best thing is that you can let us handle it and just enjoy yourself. I am a mom and have done parties for my son at other places, and I know that we are easier. (In fact, I am the WORST critic to go to a party – I really pay attention to the details when I’m seeing what other places do and don’t do.) My goal is for the kids to have a great time, but for the moms to say it’s the easiest party they have ever done.

For a girls’ night out – it’s up to you! We can be where you get together with girlfriends and just enjoy a night together, or it could be a class where everyone does something specific. Often we do the Introductory Glass Fusing class for this – I tell a bunch of bad jokes, and then everyone makes a project. We try not to tell you exactly what you have to do – but instead give you some lee-way in how the night shapes up.

To learn more about Do-It-Yourself Crafts and book a party of your own visit DoItYoursefCrafts.com.