When we started Studio7 in 2008 there was an awesome chance we were not going to make it. When I say awesome, I mean one out of two businesses closed that were started in 2008. Whoa! That was quite a wake up call when I heard those stats just a few days ago at a conference called Entreleadership. When I heard those stats, I felt super protected and knew that we were obviously blessed to have made it with flying colors. I made a five year business plan and my five year plan was blown out of the water within 3 years. That's exciting, right? We were only getting busier and busier. One of the things that I learned in Entreleadership is that businesses fail for two reasons: money issues and too much success. We have had much success and let me tell you, it threw us for a loop. Our clientele grew and our staff grew. Next thing we knew, our annual revenue was, oh, somewhere around...wait, what was it? Let me look through a stack of papers and we will find it. Success had found us by the grace of God and our dreams had come to fruition. We went from operating with two employees to 15. Then we had a baby...a beautiful little baby. She's so sweet that I had to cut my hours down. It was time for someone to take a leadership position and we found a fantastic salon manager right under our noses! She took a lot of responsibilities off our hands and I felt relief. Step by step we were getting organized. Scott was working on our budget or P&L and to say the least, he felt overwhelmed. I'm not writing this because we are anywhere close to going out of business, I'm saying we had more responsibility than ever. That's what was overwhelming.
About a month ago I got an email saying there was an Entreleadership conference in our area. I signed up that day. We feel pretty great about how we have done things thus far without a master's degree in business but we know we can do so much better. It was a seven hour learning session. I love being in business with Scott because when we talk about business, it's dramatic and passionate. Scott doesn't do anything halfway and I don't do anything without research. We butt heads and then we agree. We agree and then we take action. At the end of the day we accomplished an amazing thing. We have provided jobs and a safe place for people to go to.
At the conference, there was a financial coach there who helps businesses with all aspects of business. We set up a meeting with him with great expectations of a successful future. There comes a time in life when you realize something is bigger than you, you need help, you need direction and this is our time. I know this is going to be a lot of learning and will require dedication but it's worth it. I have a clientele and 15 employees that are soooo worth the extra work! We want Studio7 Salon and Spa to be a well oiled machine. This is the next step in our future and we are excited! I will continue to check in after each time we meet with our coach. In the mean time we are reading the book Entreleadership.
I want to inspire other entreleaders to move forward and grow in their business so that we can have healthy and happy workplaces. Whether you own your business or manage or are an employee, you can be a leader and an example of hard work and dedication.
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