When I heard Carolyn Rodz, CEO of Alice speak so openly and candidly at a small business summit about business failure, I knew I wanted her to speak to the women of NAWBO Houston. Our planned meeting got pushed back due to the wildfires in California. So we rescheduled for April 2020. We had no idea that the whole world would be responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing of this conversation couldn’t have been more ideal. Especially with so many micro and small businesses feeling the brunt of mandatory shutdowns.
You can watch the entire presentation here.
Here are my favorite takeaways from Carolyn’s presentation.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need. You’ll be amazed at what opens up to you. People want you to succeed and if you’ve sown into your community, they’re happy to return that goodness to you.
- Access your network/Rely on your community. If you took the time to strategically build your network and community, absolutely access them when needed. Don’t let pride or ego get in the way of what you need.
On rebuilding a new venture…
- Instead of trying to explore the ocean, be hyper narrow and very selective on what you spend your time on.
- Daily exercise should include focusing on three areas of your business to move it forward. Make sure you do something within those three buckets every day.
- End-of-day review. Spend ten minutes at the end of the day to review how you spent your time. Whatever wasn’t a good use of your time delegate or outsource it if possible.
- Make sure you’re always looking for new solutions and ways to uplevel your business.
- Don’t go it alone. Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. A business partner is there with you to go through the ups and downs of it all. Carolyn says she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Watch Carolyn’s Tedx talk on failure here.
