7 Entreprenista League Members share the biggest business challenge they overcame and what it taught them

Brand Photographer Brittney Guy-Atakpo of Brittney Jean Photography

The biggest business challenge I have faced is sticking to a schedule that made me feel productive and good about my work ethic. What I have learned is that there is no right or wrong schedule or routine that produces success. I have been more grateful for my flexible schedule and routine and content with how I get my work done in a day and what it means to be productive by instead of having a die hard routine and instead having daily outcomes I want to achieve that will help grow my business and bring value to my clients.

Follow Brittney on Instagram: @brittneyjeanphotography

Tax & Accounting Expert and Author Tatiana Tsoir

The biggest challenge I faced was a mindset shift. After working for a CPA firm for 6 months in 2010 I knew that I was a bird that wasn’t meant to be caged. I had a few clients on the side and I knew I wanted to be a mom that’s available for her kids, yet did something for herself too.

I got pregnant in 2012 and branched out on my own. I built my business from ground up and I thought, for many years, that I want to work by myself to avoid having to rely on someone. Then, as my business grew, I realized that i am getting busier by a lot, but my bank wasn’t getting fatter by as much. Something needed to change…

I read a book “Get Paid what you’re worth” in which Dominique Molina described that she was working herself to death for clients who didn’t appreciate her and realized that without hiring someone she will never be free. At that moment it dawned on me that I WILL NEVER BE FREE, that my setup was faulty from the start, that I wasn’t a business, I wasn’t an entrepreneur, I was just a person with a skill.

Adopting this new setup meant re-designing my entire firm, my entire process, my entire mindset. Change is HARD…. For anyone, and I am not an exception. When you have clarity, the rest is just mechanics. So even though some things – the how-to of them – are challenging, for me it was the goal first, and I can figure out how to get there, eventually.

I came across 2 coachings at the time: 1 was technical tax planning training which would allow me to charge my value AND deliver tax savings back into people’s accounts and 2 was business coaching to take charge of my business and life. I desperately needed both. I couldn’t “afford” either, or so I thought. 

I realized that I could get there myself, eventually. Maybe in 5-10 years. But I didn’t want to spend 5-10 years and coaching was what could transform my life and business asap. So i stepped out of the comfort zone and out of the “think small” mindset and charged both on a 0% APR for 12 months cards (I had to get 2) and signed up. I never looked back. Since then I’ve quadrupled my business, wrote a book, launched several courses and never again let myself think small.

Imposter syndrome has by far been my biggest business challenge. 

Connect with Tatiana on LinkedIn: Tatiana Tsoir

Follow Tatiana on Instagram: @tatianatsoir.author

Personal Brand Strategist Salima Omwenga, Founder & CEO of UFlourish Consulting

Imposter syndrome that went unchecked for some time completely tanked all my marketing strategies as well as prevented me from taking on clientele that I assumed would think I was not qualified. Slowly but surely I learned that nobody is going to believe in me more than I do. I learned that I had to separate feelings from fact. I felt scared, I felt unprepared, but the facts are I know what I’m doing. I learned the only thing I can do to stop feeling the effects of imposter syndrome is to stop thinking I’m an imposter. Once I made that mindset shift, it’s like the sun came out when it came to my business.

Follow Salima on Instagram: @salimaomwenga

Follow UFlourish Consulting on Instagram: @uflourishconsulting

Vera Miller, CEO & Founder of Canna & Belle

Money allocation and budgeting, how to stretch a dollar as a startup. I learned that some tasks might be daunting, and you might believe that you have to pay others a steep sum to get it done, when in reality it might be as simple as a google search away from you getting it done yourself.

Follow Canna & Belle on Instagram: @canna_and_belle

Nidhi Dangayach, Co-Founder of VERLAS 

Building brand awareness and trust while breaking through the clutter of direct-to-consumer market. D2C brands are constantly telling their audiences about how they’re disrupting the space by offering the best quality without the 10x retail markups. Unfortunately, not all brands have stood true to their commitment which poses it an even bigger challenge to drive conversions. As a truly direct-to-consumer company with its own team of R&D, Designers, Artisans & Quality Control, we’ve come to learn that our highly personalized Concierge Service has been one of our biggest strengths in facilitating confident purchases.

Follow VERLAS on Instagram: @verlasofficial

Rebecca Nunez, Founder & CEO of The MRN Agency

 With an average fail rate of 92% for minority female founders, the biggest challenge I’ve faced is conquering the fear of failing, publicly. For the first 3 months of starting The MRN Agency, I didn’t even update my LinkedIn title or publicly publish my website. In fact, it wasn’t until reaching our 1-year milestone that I felt comfortable with putting CEO and Founder in my signature. After a decade of hearing that “I needed to wait my turn” it felt as though starting my own agency was impossible since brands only work with “big established agencies”. However, I realized that I was my biggest critic and I challenged myself to step into my voice. I then realized that by facing my fear of failure, I was opening doors and opportunities for other female leaders to do the same. I didn’t grow up seeing many women that look like me at the head of the table… so maybe by me finally taking my seat I could encourage others to do the same.

Follow The MRN Agency on Instagram: @themrnagency

Marisa Bloom, Founder of Blooming Designs 

I didn’t plan for unexpected rapid growth and didn’t have the infrastructure in place to support and keep up the level of service I held myself too. 2 key interrelated takeaways: 1. I didn’t believe in myself and my vision to think that I would ever get to the point where I needed this infrastructure -self doubt led me to question decisions and making the right capital expenditures 2. I put off investing in things that are crucial such as “back office” systems/administrative items/website/delegating which I have learned key to a successful business and am playing catch-up instead of offense and would definitely recommend people use a consultant to prioritize what should be invested in etc and when.

Follow Marisa on Instagram: @bloomingdesignsbymarisa