There could be financial disadvantages. It depends upon where you are in your career. There could be more financial disadvantages because you’re the only income earner. For me, that’s really not the case. I’m further along in my career and have an experience base that is significant. I already launched a business as an independent consultant and my ex-spouse helps support my family. I am fortunate to have an element of that financial freedom. The time is right for me to launch my new business, ConnectWell. I’m in the startup phase of this business and have exclusively focused on it now in 2010. I hope to start gaining visibility for this business 4Q10 and I intend to generate revenue in 2011.
Why this type of business, and why now?
I was thinking about launching the business for a long time. I have been in the diabetes industry since 1993 and watched this epidemic growing while in the industry and it became troubling. From a personal values standpoint, I decided I’d rather prevent diabetes from happening than focusing on treatment. I had been operating as an independent consultant, which helped me develop confidence to start a bigger business. I broadened my experience beyond diabetes and I’m still part of a think tank. All of these experiences augmented my view of ConnectWell, which in turn helped me create the vision for this company. I also volunteered at a diabetes camp in 2008. The next year I brought my kids so they could see the impact of this disease on others. You have to stay on top of diabetes and teach kids with type 1 diabetes how to manage it. I kept thinking to myself, if I could help kids at diabetes camp figure out how to manage their disease, I could certainly train adults how to prevent type 2 diabetes from happening in the first place. This idea also provided me with the vision to start my business.
Also, I had a career break. I was on a fast track career path in the corporate world after coming out of Harvard Business School, until my second pregnancy. It turned out that I was pregnant with twins. Having twins was truly a gift, because it forced me to focus not only on my family, but it also changed my view of my work in the corporate world. I then worked as a consultant, which in turn gave me an independent viewpoint, working across companies and over the entire spectrum of diabetes.
Do you think business ownership has led you to remain single?
I am in a stable, long-term relationship with another entrepreneur. He’s completely supportive of what I’m doing. I think you have to bring other entrepreneurs into your life. I need to have someone who is supportive and optimistic. I’ve learned so much, and continue to learn from him on how to think like a CEO.
As an entrepreneur, you have to be around nurturing people. All the odds are against you, so you really need fans and supporters and like-minded thinkers that tell you that, “You can do this!” which in turn gives you the energy to keep on plugging away at your idea and vision.
What advice would you give another single woman who is thinking about starting a business?
She has to have a lot of confidence in her capabilities and the concept she’s developing. Most people are going to try and knock you down. You’ve got to be really strong and know your own capabilities in order to move your idea forward. You have to be ready for rejection; you’ll hear “no” over and over again. You’re also not going to have a big company behind you with nearly infinite resources. You have to evolve the business idea and move it forward as you get market information in order for it to become successful. It is important to always keep learning as well.
What about your education? Did that play a role in you becoming an entrepreneur?
Over half of the graduates of Harvard Business School start their own companies. That gave me a lot of confidence—that I was trained to do this—and at this point in my life, I knew I wanted to start a business. I also took an entrepreneurial management class at Harvard, and learned that I have the bootstrapping, startup mentality. Harvard also has a really strong outreach program to their alumni. They also offer a Virtual Learning Series to the alums, and broadcast the webinar series, which I attend. Recently, they had Lynda Applegate (a professor of entrepreneurial management at Harvard Business School) discuss entrepreneurship. That course gave me that extra momentum and encouragement to move forward and support my business idea. Although I earned my MBA when I was in my twenties (pre-marriage, pre-family), Harvard Business School continues to offer me great resources to start and move ahead with my business.
What about being a single WOMAN business owner? Do you think it is easier, the same, or harder than being a single man starting a business?
I think it is actually easier to be a woman business owner today than work in corporate America as woman. The pay/equity issue still exists. Also, the corporate environment is so inflexible on how the work is bundled, even today. It is very restrictive. In corporate America, in order to be on the fast track, a lot of face and travel time are required. Furthermore, people in corporate America make judgments on your gender, your marital status, whether or not you have kids relative to what they think you can do. It is very hard for a corporation to tap into your entire personal talent base because they decide what you can or cannot do, and it is very rigid.
I work just as hard if not harder than I did in corporate America now as a business owner, but I work on my schedule. I work when my kids are asleep, and now I have to be even more productive during my work time. I can schedule work around my family life and not have it negatively impact my work or my family life. I schedule my meetings with people I need to meet with and it is very fluid. I can work on a weekend when the kids are with their father, and it works much better with my life—and no one is judging me based on my parental responsibilities or how I spend my time.
I think this is a big piece of why entrepreneurship works well for women. Women plateau in corporate America at levels not fulfilling for them, because the corporation doesn’t maximize the skills of women with families by providing flexible work arrangements. Also, there are so many politics inside corporate America that you spend more time thinking about having to work through and around the internal system that work isn’t as efficient. As an entrepreneur, I just get things done! I get so much more work done by working at a faster and more productive pace this way—I don’t have to work through the politics.
What was the best training you received to prepare you as a business owner, other than your MBA?
I have role models in my family who are entrepreneurs. We’ve done this in our family for generations. I’m trained to be in corporate America, but I can transfer these skills to creating and growing my own business. My dad is a physician and started in group practice, then went into private practice. He broke out and started his own practice and then expanded it into a group practice partnership. They had a common vision of how to move it forward together. That was important to me. I could see how having his own practice gave him flexibility in his schedule to take more trips and spend time with his family. He wasn’t restricted by corporate philosophy.
I think this had an important influence on me, because I learned by watching him that entrepreneurs have more freedom to design their lives. As an entrepreneur, I feel like I have more control to design a total life; people are multi-dimensional. Corporate America is about getting a few weeks of vacation and that’s it, but entrepreneurship allows me to have this freedom to design my life and work in concert with all dimensions of my life.
Also, relative to my education gearing me for entrepreneurship, I went to UC Berkeley as an undergrad and currently live in the Bay Area. I tap into their alumni events as well. They offer a Women in Leadership conference with entrepreneurship and healthcare panels. Attending the panel discussions has been very helpful, as entrepreneurs are very willing to share their challenges and struggles. I love these panels, because they are encouraging and provide ideas to help you move forward rather than just telling you something won’t work.
How about being both a mom and an entrepreneur?
It is so much easier to be