Key Question:
A: Take action. Don't just sit there with your current products and customers. Look ahead and keep improving. We learned from Vicky and the other women in this episode that you have to be a person of action to grow a business. Getting started in business takes action, but many small companies get into a comfort zone and tread water.
Owners who are growing their businesses do the hard thing. For example, they are not afraid to sign off on a loan for millions of dollars. Pamela has monthly overhead of $450,000. Vicky has to have a staff ready to deliver on multi-million dollar projects at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, we did not see these women taking wheel-spinning action. They focus on what will make them money and avoid distractions. Some people observing these women would say that all they do is work. We say, they are doing what they would rather do than not do. They love the stuff of their work. They feel alive when working on a business problem. And we all know that no one has ever built a business only working 40 hours a week. So yes, these women are taking action. Lots of it.
Think about it
What are you procrastinating on or about?
Clip from: Women Shatter Glass
USA: One out of three businesses in this country is owned by a woman. That's approximately 9 million businesses. Yet only one out of ten of those businesses does more than $1 million in annual sales or about 900,000 businesses.
These two statistics prompted the production of this episode. We researched women who do millions in annual sales and found most were in male-dominated industries.
There are many resources to help women start and grow the right kind of business beginning with government agencies like the US SBA and their Small Business Development Centers. There are programs promoted by women-friendly banks, economic development offices, trade associations and industry groups, and women's associations in every state.
With so much help and information around, why do women so often migrate to tiny ideas? ...more inspiration? ... better role models? One of the women studied here asked rhetorically, "Why should I polish nails when I could be polishing steel?"
All business owners can learn valuable lessons from these women. They are the small minority who are making a huge difference in their industry and in their communities. By moving to the top of the game where there are mostly men, a woman's influence can make the greatest difference.
Office Pavilion, Inc.
Vicky Carlson, CEO, President
6920 Carroll Road
San Diego, CA 92121
8587845200
Visit our web site: http://www.opsd.com/
Office: 8587845200
Business Classification:
Office furnishings
Year Founded: 1980
Take Action
HATTIE: What's happening today? What is going on here? It's exploding!
VICKY: You see this smile on my face, Hattie?
HATTIE: It's called cashflow.
VICKY: Yeah, you know, things sometimes take longer than you think, but you just keep moving forward.
HATTIE: I want to understand again, the difference between who you are today and the woman who took the temp job.
VICKY: I had the luxury, I would say, in getting into this industry -- or the opportunity to be able to work through every department so that I understood everything about the business, the whole detail.
HATTIE: Okay, is it mentors though? Is it people that took you in and said Vicky you need to learn this? Or is it you saying, you said a little bit earlier, I want to learn it.
VICKY: No, I just take on more. That's my personality, I just take on more. So then when something happens and they have a need for another manager -- it's let Vicky do that, so then I would take that responsibility on and I could handle it.
HATTIE: All right. So it's being there early. Staying late.
VICKY: Getting the job done. Being organized. Delivering.
HATTIE: So you really went from a town of like 20,000 people as a kid -- Gillette, Wyoming where you grew up and then you went to the big city of Denver, and then the huge city of Los Angeles. Do you think on that journey you carried something with you from Gillette?
VICKY: For sure I did. However, it's funny -- I feel I have, and I know that my core self and values stem from the environment I grew up in. But we did have magazines and we did have television and we had books when I grew up here. So I could see the world and I always knew that I wanted to experience the world.
CHERYL: If you're starting a business, believe in it. You can't sell and grow anything you absolutely don't believe in your heart that it's the right thing to do.
VICKY: It's about not just dreaming, but doing something to make your dreams come true. You have to have some action.
PAMELA: I chose this road. Nobody put a gun to my head and said Pam become a dealer. I chose this path, so I have to bear those consequences. But the rewards were great.
VICKY: I love what I do. I'm having so much fun, Hattie. Each year gets better and better.
HATTIE: Want to build a strong company, try your hand at some heavy lifting. These women are proof -- you can make it in a man's world. I'll see you next time.
