Bea Wolpert, an amazing entrepreneur, lawyer and woman leader from Columbus Ohio is a great raconteur. I’ve had the good fortune of hearing Bea in her inimitable style—reality laced with humor and self-deprecation—share her own experience as a lawyer working with entrepreneur clients. I realized her stories and insights serve well as advice for most prospective and practicing entrepreneurs. Here they are
- Purpose Be purpose-driven – It’s well worth figuring out what are you passionate about. Pursue that passion rather than money alone – be it dog-walking, raising Labradoodles or being a chef or lawyer (all examples she illustrated)
- Relationships Work on building authentic relationships – these take time and will pay off in spades
- Give forward Focus on giving something of value first – people will automatically seek more and become customers. This could be a blog, seminar or webinar, free consultation, or samples at farmers markets – make it easy to buy from you.
- Sales Recognize your job is selling – not just being a chef, designer, lawyer and learn to become good at it.
- Numbers Business is about numbers – so the more you learn to understand numbers – costs, profit & loss the better off you will be
- Commitment Be all-in. Don’t expect a bank (or anyone else, except a parent possibly) to fund your company or you, if you are not willing to be all-in and
- Plan Whether a business plan for a bank, succession plan for yourself or a marketing plan for the company, planning is both important and will help.
