Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development
You have chosen to start a small business, not because it will be easy, but because you can do what you love.
Designing
You are a creative person who is motivated to make a difference in the world, and positively change your community. You can see a better way of doing things. You want to start in, but something is getting in the way of doing so. You need someone who can ask you powerful questions that will help you identify and remove the block, access your creativity, and design your inspiring WHY, and what flows from it.
Creating
Your lifestyle is important to you, and you see the opportunity to create that lifestyle with your business. Your curiosity, interest in learning, and ability to think outside the box allows you to embrace the challenges of creating that lifestyle, but you need an experienced ally who can bring skills to the successful creation of a plan and winning strategies for its implementation.
You are motivated by the opportunity to set your own daily hours or work at night, but this requires support and skills for stretching out of your comfort zone; changing familiar routines and updating your beliefs to act in integrity with your intentions.
Launching
There are many aspects to launching, and many ways to start. You want the freedom to choose your path. You’d like to explore the less conventional as well as the traditional options, and to feel purposeful and empowered as you launch. You need a coach who can support you in making value-based, strength-based, strategic decisions and target the actions aligned with your choices.
You enjoy the challenges of being in charge, yet you feel there is a gap between the business leadership skills you aspire to and where you are now.
Sustaining
People are calling you successful and all you feel is overwhelmed. You know there are multiple conditions that are causing it, and that knowledge only makes you feel more overwhelmed. You are unsure you have a complete picture of your situation. You want to become more self and other-aware and learn how to navigate these situations.
Your business is growing and so is the need for higher levels of performance. Your team are dedicated people who you care about, and you see this challenge as an opportunity to create a more cohesive and empowered group. You need to develop winning strategies that will deepen their shared commitment. It occurs to you that your most loyal customers may have valuable comments on this process. You want to explore what they have to say and integrate it into a business strategy that serves the expansion of the business and benefits the community but are unsure of how to bring this about.
Transitions
The entrepreneurial itch has you considering expanding your business into new markets or selling it. Despite having done extensive research into opportunities and outcomes you feel uncertain, and you are unsure why. You want to explore this feeling to gain insight and clarity.
You are retiring. You had hoped to have a relative take over the business, but no one has been interested to date. You could offer to sell it to your employees, or to a chain that is eager to buy it. The chance of the business surviving intact if it is sold to the chain is minimal. Nothing seems to be surfacing that would guide the next steps.
The Regenerative Business
You are someone who prioritizes people and the planet. You have learned about regenerative businesses and want to explore how you can create or transition to a more innovative mode of operation aimed at maximizing social and environmental outcomes. You understand that achieving these results requires an internal shift to a regenerative culture and leadership style.
You want to be one of the business leaders who leads the way in this movement. You want to expand your leadership capacity and create the internal culture necessary for maximizing your social and environmental impact.
ADHD-Inspired Business
The ADHD Entrepreneur
In case you have missed the news….
According to a June 2023 article on eiexchange.com, around 29% of entrepreneurs live with Attention-Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
A 2018 YouTube video by Syracuse University entrepreneurship professor Joh Torrens claims that 62% of highly successful entrepreneurs identify with ADHD traits.
As a Professional Certified Coach who is also a Certified ADHD Coach, my experience (14 years) supports these statistics. In truth, it was my ADHD / Neuro-divergent clients who first motivated me to coach business clients.
If you live with ADHD or have some ADHD-like traits, feel welcome to reach out. I will support you in showcasing your strengths and be your ally in dealing with the challenges you may encounter in starting a small business. I have extensive training and experience in careers, business, relationships, emotions, communication, executive functions, creativity and best-fit environments.
Success Stories
As a person living with ADHD, Karen’s coaching has been pivotal for achieving success in the world of real estate. Real estate work requires structure and attention to detail, but also demands extreme flexibility. When I put things aside to attend to an emergent issue, I often lose track of the task I delayed. When too many things pile up my ADHD mind starts predicting failure and I can go into a downward spiral of anxiety and/ or depression. Karen’s total acceptance of me, and her genuine interest in understanding the way I work allowed me to finally address my struggles. She met me where I was and helped me to build and maintain a solid self- care practice which anchors me throughout the day. In our collaboration on executive function challenges, she listened deeply before helping me to identify my best practices. Our work always seemed very organic. Karen was quick to notice my strengths, and always displayed total confidence in my ability to master my life. I finally began to believe her when we moved into expanding my business and I discovered my creative self. I can honestly say that my days now have structure and flexibility, my business has grown, and I have created a much healthier relationship with myself. Never in my wildest dreams…
I highly recommend leadership coaching with Karen. Karen has a way of asking questions and using the energy between us that helps me gain significant insights and feel good about myself no matter what the insights are. From the beginning of our collaboration, she showed her genuine desire to understand me and what I care about, and she created pathways for growth that I never could have imagined or created on my own. Because of our work I know how to connect to my inner wisdom and have achieved a higher level of confidence in addressing upcoming situations and circumstances.
I highly recommend Karen for people who are small town business owners. She is knowledgeable about what it takes to start and operate successful businesses in small towns, and how to get the most out of small-town life. She has a wry sense of humor that helped me more than once to take a healthier perspective on my challenges. In our work together Karen amazed me by asking the right questions to help me develop leadership strategies that addressed not only the situation I presented, but several others simultaneously. She keeps her eye on the big picture as well as on the present moment. Her questions are thought-provoking and always open the door to new perspectives. I leave every session feeling more self-aware, confident, and creative.
I was a young adult who left my college art program because I didn’t want to “draw within the lines”. I felt constricted by the way they taught us that we should “do art”. I reached out to Karen when I was full of self-doubt but also sure I had done the right thing, which made me feel crazy. From the beginning she had such a genuine curiosity about my inner wisdom and my relationship with it. Her questions helped me to understand my inner struggle and to trust my inner wisdom. When I noted I was finally “free to draw outside the lines” Karen invited me to explore that metaphor. From that deep dive I gained such meaning and clarity about my next action. I began creating new forms of art, then moved tentatively into Facebook marketing, and finally into online sales. Karen ensured each move was in alignment with my full self, and that I had the skills or external resources to navigate the process. A year later I began looking for a physical space with two other artists and Karen partnered with me to create a vision and plan for expanding into the space. I was surprised to discover how empowered I felt. Karen’s intuitive nature and her trust in mine played a significant role in my early success as an artist. She modeled what I needed most and changed my life.
I’m not the easiest person to work for (and that’s what my friends say). I get testy and say things that put people off. I can be stubborn. I can brush people off. It’s how I was raised, and I always justified it that way until it almost cost me my business. When I first reached out to Karen, I had a near mutiny going on. I didn’t realize how much negative energy I gave off. Even when I tried to compliment my employees, they told me I sounded like I was telling them how to do it better. The work I have done with Karen to become more self-aware and improve my communication style has been difficult (as in hard to swallow), but it has saved my business. I have learned to LISTEN, and that is causing change at work and at home. The distrust I created at work has changed to cautious communication. After Karen worked with our team to help us strengthen our relationship and align our goals, I realized I never put any thought into building a team. I’m now exploring that area. I just didn’t know that was part of a business. I have a way to go yet, but I’m committed to seeing this through. I’m using my stubbornness in new and improved ways! Thank-you Karen for your humor, patience, and amazing skills.