Power
One of my favorite female entrepreneurs is Lisa Messenger. Her views and badass attitude are infectious as you read her books. My favorite by far is “Daring and Disruptive.” One of my favorite quotes is right from her introduction,
“I choose to take the mistakes and struggles and use them as motivation and to make myself better. One of the biggest struggles I currently face is that no matter how hard I try, I cannot make everyone happy. That I can put so much effort into balancing what is best, and there is always someone who has an issue. I find it nearly impossible to not get my feelings hurt and not just yell, “You don’t understand all the reasons behind that choice!” I am sure this is something I will always struggle with, but I am hoping with time I get better at not letting it affect me so much. This is where falling back to your values is so important. Always listen to the feedback, but also have confidence in your decisions.”
Lisa Messenger also states, “The entrepreneurial journey is really one big conglomerate of challenges to overcome, fears to face, failure to endure.” The year anniversary of C&M Play Studio might be a time of enjoying the successes, but I find myself spending more time focusing on the mistakes. I have found learning from mistakes offers the largest space for growth. My current list of the downfalls from the first year is below and I continue to find more:
Under analyzing the cost of events
Need a better marketing strategy of birthday parties as most people do not know we offer them
Continue to improve training. I like to give teachers the space to create their own environment, but I learned most people tend to appreciate more direction and clear expectations. I am trying to readjust and get more organized with those expectations
Personal and professional improvement goal: nothing has stood out to me more that needs the most improvement than my communication style. I tend to speak in bullet points and as efficiently as possible. It is just who I am as a person. I am also aware that this leaves a lot of questions to be answered. I have a lot of ideas I have gone over with my team to help myself improve and keep everyone on the same page
Keeping teachers or families as long as I did even when they are not a good fit for our values
One of the first things you need to do when starting a business is to understand and accept that you will make mistakes. Use these mistakes as tools to pivot and improve your company as quickly as possible.