Nancy Sharp, CEO of Food for Thought gave us some strong entrepreneur advice last night. She’s built a company from Zip to $25 mil in revenue. Here are a few key points.
1. You have two choices. Lay down or get up.
2. Own your confidence – if you don’t believe in yourself no one else will. (this is echoed in The Corner Office by Adam Bryant – Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOS)
3. Know your numbers. You have to read the dials on the bus you’re driving.
4. Plan. Find your own North Star. Only you as a small business owner can plan the map.
5. Invest in good advice.
6. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re going to have screw ups. Own them and adjust.
7. What balance?
8. Put your mother in receivables. She’ll get the money in the door to feed her children.
Thanks Nancy! For your food for thought and your Food for Thought. Both were delicious.
I’d add one more thing that she said about a lesson she had to learn: Think like an owner/investor, not a manager.
Nancy’s talk was amazing to hear. I enjoyed her raw and uncut approach to sharing the struggles she faced. I most appreciate her acknowledging that she didn’t know what to do or even how to do it, but dammit, she was going to make it happen! I think it is easy to fall susceptible to the notion that there is one path to success and she busted that myth wide open.
Hi Josh,
Thanks for stopping by, here and at the meeting. Yes, Nancy did tell it like it is. And what she said, which is so important, is that the path to success is inside you and me. That it exists waiting for our discovery. Wouln’t it be wonderful to have it all spelled out so that we could just go and do it? But the idea of experimenting, of knowing what you know and trusting it and finding out what you don’t from people who have been there shortens the route. Now that we entrepreneurs have our own community – as far reaching as around the globe and as close as in person, we can seek and get the truth and the support to move us into the future. I saw the blush of excitement and energy in your face and heart – and it’s that energy that will carry you through. Fuel your passion as if your passion itself depends on it. Because it does – in claity AND in confusion.