WomenandBiz.com

Dear Tayelor,

It is a great pleasure to interview you and learn more about your entrepreneurial journey and your business Absolute Style and Beauty.

Could you share your background before starting your business? What was your education and professional experience?

Tayelor Kennedy

I actually started my business on a part-time basis before I went to college.  I have an MBA and I worked in the financial and insurance industry for a while.

When did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Since I was 5.  At 5 I worked in my Aunt’s corner store.  I also had a lemonade stand. I come from a family of business owners.  In addition to holding down full-time careers, my parents and several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins all have businesses.  

Did you have a start-up business plan of any kind? Please tell us about it. No,

I jumped right in without any idea of what I was in for.  I made a ton of mistakes with regard to marketing, and the biggest mistake is, I didn’t document my process and my financials were a mess.

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Dear Deborah,
You have provided great tips as a guest writer of Womenandbiz.com, and now you just published your first book, congratulations!

Deborah Bailey

Could you share with us your experience prior to becoming an entrepreneur?
I spent over twenty years in the corporate world at companies such as JC Penney, Avon, AT&T, Lucent and Johnson and Johnson. I’ve changed careers a few times. When I started out I worked in the garment district in NYC, and then worked as a copywriter. I changed careers and became a computer programmer and business analyst. I’ve always been willing to make career changes when I wanted to try something new.

How did you spot the opportunity to start your business?
I’d been planning to start a business for years. In fact, I wanted to start a business after high school graduation. Unfortunately at that time being an entrepreneur was not the norm. Instead I was encouraged to either become a doctor, lawyer or get a good job and a pension. Read more

Tell us about your background before starting Warrior Wear Inc.

Carolyn Newman

I attended American University in Washington D.C. and completed both a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Communications in 1985 and a Masters Degree in Public Administration in 1987.   I have happily worked in the non-profit sector for 22 years, primarily for Jewish organizations.  I was a Vice President for the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Director of Development for the Jewish Community Foundation of Broward County, Miami Regional Director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Florida Foundation Director for AIPAC.

I retired in April of 2006 after my mother’s passing 5 months earlier from Breast Cancer.   One month after retirement, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer.

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Dear Lauron,

Could you share more about your background prior to starting your own business?

Lauron Sonnier

After a short while, though, I became very restless like I think most entrepreneurs are. I had tapped out where I was, so I headed to the big city of Houston, Texas, with high aspirations. I found very quickly that the world of television worked very differently there. I instead took a position as Marketing Director of a book manufacturing company. I was really naïve and didn’t even ask what their marketing budget was. It was a small but mighty business owned by two brothers who started the company in their early twenties. They became like family to me, and I got a terrific opportunity to learn about the inner workings of a business. I also learned how to make marketing magic happen without a lot of money. It was a terrific opportunity that paved the way for me to go out on my own. In fact, after four years there I became restless again. When I went to quit the job, the owners asked me what I really wanted to do. I told them I eventually wanted to go into business for myself. They came back the next day and said, “If you’re serious, we’ll help you.” After I picked myself off the floor, we started a company together, and that was my official foray into entrepreneurship. They were true angels and for me, it was true baptism by fire. You never know when or how your dreams are going to come to fruition! A few years later, I bought them out and I’ve been solo ever since.Marketing is all I’ve ever done, in one form or another, and I have been very fortunate to have numerous pportunities early in life and career to give me a foundation for being an entrepreneur. When I was in high school and college, I worked at a small newspaper and then at an advertising agency. All of that helped me to get connected in the community, and, while I was in college, I got offered a position with the local television station in a marketing position. It was a huge break. So, very early on, I was able to learn about business and to get some great hands-on experience in my field. (I graduated with a BS in Marketing.) Read more

Dear Nina:

You have been one of our expert guest writers for the last several years, and our readers have received great advice from you. Thank you for your contribution. We would like to learn more about you and your business this time.

EB. Could you tell us about your background and your decision to start your own business?

Nina Kaufman

EB. What were the biggest challenges you faced as you started growing your business? How did you overcome them?

NK. I wish I could say it was a well thought out plan, complete with market research, long experience in my field, and a full-blown written business plan. Well, it wasn’t. I had been practicing law for about four years when I recognized four important truths about my experience working for other law firms: (1) I was not seeing women become partners of these firms . . . which made me concerned about my career advancement prospects; (2) the attorneys were not being taught within the firm to develop specialized skills–rather, they were hired from other firms because they already had those skills (for example, trial advocacy skills); and (3) I was not encouraged to learn about networking and to develop my own client base. The fourth “truth” was that I was really unhappy in these job situations. Deep down, I believed that the issue (for me) was not the legal profession itself, but that I had not yet found the place where I could feel fulfilled practicing law.

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EB. Could you tell us your background prior to starting your business?

NM.Prior to starting my current business, I ran a small customer service auditing business. I would audit customer service provided by businesses ranging from independent stores to large, multinational corporations. I evaluated the overall customer experience and provided reports to companies. I enjoyed it for awhile and learned a lot –you can never learn too much about providing excellent customer service! But I outgrew it and knew it wasn’t something I wanted to do long-term. That’s when I got into media.

Natalie MacNeil

Education-wise, my degree is in Business and Political Science. I love politics and international cultures. I’ve had the opportunity to visit more than 50 countries and I love the experiences you have while traveling.

EB. What inspired you to start your award winning blog: “She Takes on the World”?

NM. I started She Takes on the World as more of a personal blog while I was still traveling a lot. It was a way to keep in touch and share my experiences. As I shifted my priorities to focus on building my business the blog naturally shifted to more of a business and entrepreneurship blog.

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Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background prior to starting your business?

I graduated from Indiana University with a BA in Marketing, then earned my Masters of Business Administration at University of Miami, with a specialization in International Business. I’ve always enjoyed sales and marketing, and I have a passion for travel. I also love to entertain, and consider myself a pseudo gourmet chef.

Leslie Linevsky

How did you come up with the idea to start Catalogs.com?

I got my start in Internet retailing in 1994, when e-commerce was in its infancy. Together with my husband, we launched Neckties.com, an upscale mail order print catalog and website selling artistically designed men’s neckties.

From that experience, I learned the power of filling a specific retail niche for online shoppers.  The web offers the perfect place to shop efficiently and conveniently for specific products in a way that is nearly impossible in bricks-and-mortar stores.  By bringing together a comprehensive collection of catalogs all on one site, we realized we could offer a level of options and convenience not previously available to shoppers.

That realization was the spark for Catalogs.com. Recognizing the untapped potential of aggregating and indexing a wide array of catalogs that shoppers might not know about or have access to, we developed a way for Internet shoppers to select and receive catalogs of their choice all in one place.

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Could you tell us about your background prior to starting ECOBAGS.com?

Sharon Rowe

I was a professional actress in NYC, balancing an acting career with various other positions –

1. Worked at CBS 60 Minutes as Administrative Assistant

2. Senior Account Executive (sales) with MicroVideo, Inc. a start up company that I worked at and helped to build into a multi million dollar business.

How did you spot the opportunity to start ECOBAGS.com?

I don’t know that I spotted the opportunity as much as I started living the opportunity. It all started because I didn’t want to accept single use bags, which led me to find “filet” cotton string bags (like the ones I saw all over Europe).  I bought some for my own use and began bringing them with me for shopping.  Everyone wanted to know where I got them and where they could get some so, coming from an entrepreneurial family I guess I had an “aha” moment and thought that there might be a business opportunity in there somewhere. Read more

My first book is published! This business resource guide teaches you—the entrepreneurial woman, when, where, why and how to ask for the help you need, in order to reach your business goals and dreams, while always trusting yourself and your intuition. You can download a free excerpt and purchase the book on the publisher’s site, by following this link: http://bit.ly/vYYdU. You  can learn more about the book and about my writing, and get updates on upcoming book signings and my virtual book tour, by visiting my blog and book’s site at http://www.askotherstrustyourself.com/.

EB – What was your education and professional experience before becoming an entrepreneur? Were they helpful to starting your businesses?

Rachel Russo

RR – I received my bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Rutgers University and my master’s degree in Marriage & Family Therapy from Iona College. After graduating from Rutgers, I took the opportunity to pursue “a unique social work opportunity” with a start-up online matchmaking company in NYC. I then went on to do matchmaking, marketing, and recruiting for well-known companies. In between my employment with these organizations, I began finding my own freelance clients for Relationship Coaching. I found these people through Craigslist.com, Lambent Services, and soon from the referrals of satisfied clients.

The profound understanding of human nature that I acquired from my education is a tremendous asset to my coaching practice. My post-modern, solution-focused training as a therapist has provided an excellent foundation for helping clients in a coaching context.  I have learned a lot about relationships from doing couples counseling and through my first-hand experience interviewing singles for matchmaking companies. Years of recording feedback on the dating experience of men and women have provided me with valuable lessons on the impact of gender on relationships. A combination of such experience coupled with my own worldview has shaped my practice as a Relationship Coach. Read more