We had a great launch party on Sunday. I was very pleased to meet both aspiring and seasoned female entrepreneurs. One of the main topics of discussion was the challenges of entrepreneurship. It was in these stories that I started to reminisce about the beginning stages of my business. I had no idea I would be an entrepreneur. I had a small business that I started and thought it would be a small nest egg for me later in life. In 2008, I lost my job and was left unemployed with just enough money in my 401k to cash out to live off of for a few months. I had no plan.

Months went by and I was still on the hunt for a J-O-B. I did not understand I was still young, college educated and had years of sales and marketing experience.  3 months later and the only interview I had was to knock door to door to sell AT&T service through a third company. My funds were depleted and I had no idea about my next move. I had a few clients here and there but nothing to really keep up with my lifestyle. And just like that the light bulb clicked. If I was willing to walk door to door to sell AT&T what would I be willing to do for my own business? My husband and I went back to the drawing board and restructured our business plan. We moved into office space by the end of the month and we were officially a brick and mortar business. And the rest was. . . well then the recession hit.

Two years and 5 employees later business came to a screeching halt. It was bad timing.  I was a new mother, wife and the phones stopped ringing. I wanted to panic but unfortunately I did not have a plan b I had to make plan a work. Back to the drawing board again and we revisited our old plan and made adjustments to increase our profits and decrease our expenses. We left our wonderful office and went virtual. We kept some of our staff but used them per project instead of hourly. We made tough decisions but in the end the plan worked. We started to see sales increase. We were more careful with our budget and aware of where are marketing efforts were working and stopped advertising that did not generate sales. We decided to rebrand and identify our new target market.

The lessons I learned during the tough times helped me to be a stronger business women and better manager of my business finances and sales goals. Although the economy took me in a direction I wasn’t expecting it was my plan that kept me on track. Even though we made adjustments we had a plan in place that allowed us to get back to the basics of our business and never forget our mission. It is because of this that I created The Pink Plan to offer the same road map of success.  Entrepreneurship is not easy but having a plan and staying consistent will help you get back on track.