Let Go and Trust the Process
Getting Ready to Go Out On Your Own As a Small Business Owner
Happy day, friends! 👋🏿👋👋🏽 Today’s newsletter is all about helping you “get ready” to step into the small business world. In Part One, I introduced you to Estee Santoni. She’s the founder and CEO behind the VIVA Agency, a branding and marketing communications agency. In Part Two, you’ll learn the following:
🌴The little things she did to “get ready” to become a full-blown business owner
🌴A few different organizations that help small business owners
🌴Why it’s totally okay to start a business after many years of being in the workforce
🌴 This is how Estee Santoni forged a path for herself as a small business owner…
THE PATH ISN’T ALWAYS CRYSTAL CLEAR… AND THAT’S OK
“I always knew, whatever I did in life, it would be with people. I needed the energy. I love picking up on these, like, nonverbal cues and socializing. Those are the things that fill me with joy. So I just didn’t know what that path looked like necessarily.”
Estee Santoni didn’t have her exact path to entrepreneurship mapped out in her mind as a young adult.
SOMETIMES, THERE’S AN “AHA” MOMENT
It was only while working at a media company that she realized just how misunderstood the Hispanic market was.
She kept seeing the same misconceptions about Latinos over and over again.
As a Cuban-American, she knew she could make a difference to bring about more understanding.
One of the moments that crystallized it for her happened when someone asked her a question.
It wasn’t a joke. It was a serious question.
The person asked her, “Where in Mexico is Puerto Rico?”
“My eyes got huge. But I’m, like, I need to have patience because some people genuinely don’t know. Or they’re not taught... So, now it’s educating people that we are different.”
Santoni was determined to educate people that Latinos can’t be placed into a “one-size-fits-all” bucket.
She decided she would take a chance and start her own agency, the VIVA Agency.
Even though she’d worked at the same media company for nearly 20 years, Santoni believed she could chart her own path, in her niche, as a small business owner.
GET REAL ABOUT EXPECTATIONS; ASK AND ANSWER THE HARD QUESTIONS
Santoni says she had a moment when she stepped back and said to herself, “If I’m going to do this, I need to be real about it.”
She says she knew she had to create a business plan and level with herself.
Did she really have “… realistic projections?”
She also asked herself, “Where are my strengths? Where are my weaknesses? Opportunities?”
DON’T JUMP AHEAD; FOLLOW THE BUSINESS PLAN
As a go-getter, Santoni says it was hard to force herself to “… to slow down. Although I really wanted to skip to letter G, I needed to make sure my A, B, Cs and Ds were in order.”
In other words, you can’t just have a business plan; you also need to follow it.
EVEN IF YOU’RE AN “EXPERT,” YOU NEED OBJECTIVE ADVICE
It was also really hard to stop and ask for help. After all, she’d been in the business for nearly two decades.
“I had to swallow my ego. Although I think I know everything… I’ve done it all…. it was like, okay, let me lean on someone and get an objective opinion.”
SEEK OUT ORGANIZATIONS THAT WILL HELP YOU FOR FREE
To get that objective opinion and guidance, she contacted Prospera.
Prospera is a nonprofit that helps Latino entrepreneurs.
There were many things about the process that surprised her, like the fact that she could choose which vendor to work with on her business plan.
And here’s something that she believes may surprise aspiring entrepreneurs, as well.
GET YOUR PAPERWORK READY
You’re given a deadline.
With Prospera, she was told, “We’re giving you a grant for this. And we’re giving you 90 days to complete it.”
Santoni thought she had all her paperwork ready to go. Until she was told she had to show proof that she was at least half Hispanic.
It normally wouldn’t have been a problem, except she couldn’t find her birth certificate.
She eventually sorted that out and was able to prove her Cuban heritage.
But, again, it was another little thing about the process she wants to share with aspiring entrepreneurs.
CHECK ITEMS OFF YOUR LIST
Would she become a consultant? Would she do marketing?
These are important decisions she had to figure out early in the process.
Santoni was checking items off her list.
“Launch my social media hashtags. Launch the logo. Announce it to my network… Announce it on LinkedIn.”
It was a bit tricky because she wasn’t going into a whole new career.
FORGET THE EGO
Instead, Santoni says she had to “let people know what I’m doing because, although it’s in the same vein of what I had been doing, it is something very new. And I needed people to understand that I was ready for this next phase and kind of had to swallow my pride and say, ‘I’m reaching out for connections, for networking…’”
YES, LOTS OF HELP IS AVAILABLE
Luckily, there are resources available for help.
“I was able to get a mentor through SCORE.”
She also reached out to another organization, NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business Owners.
“So I just started contacting these other organizations. And they have so many workshops and seminars, whether it’s for the oomph you need just to get motivated [or] perhaps it’s a financial question. Perhaps it’s help getting incorporated… they will help you through those processes.”
Going through those processes has given Santoni the confidence that she will be able to figure things out, no matter what gets thrown her way.
THINGS WILL NEVER BE “PERFECT” – DO IT, ANYWAY!
“I’ve learned that I have to just dive in. That nothing is ever going to be perfect. Leaving what I was doing, I thought that I had to get the perfect social media content. The perfect website. The perfect plan with the perfect proposal. I wanted everything perfect before I ripped the Band-Aid and announced it publicly.”
That was until her husband reminded her that things will never be perfect.
“That was the biggest lesson for me is to let go and trust the process.”
INSPIRATION FOR THIS ISSUE:
Are you ever really “ready” for a big undertaking?
Some people have the vision thing going for them. They have a clear picture of what their goal is and how to go about accomplishing it.
For most, though, it’s trial and error, many times over.
The key is not being afraid to try something new till you find what your purpose is.
Even knowing what your purpose is will not be enough, if you don’t take action.
Deciding to go out on your own after many years takes guts. It’s too easy to get comfortable and just keep going with the flow.
When you’re older, there are more risks. You generally have more responsibilities. You may have a spouse. You may have children. You likely will have more debt. There are other things to take into account.
And you tend to think through the possible ramifications more carefully.
That can be good and bad.
Being “ready” is subjective. Many entrepreneurs will tell you that they’re glad they didn’t know what was really involved. Because if they did, they may not have gone through with their plans.
Few people will ever be “ready” to jump in.
But they do it, anyway.
Estee Santoni didn’t have her roadmap figured out when she entered the working world.
But she knew the general contours of what she excelled at and what she enjoyed.
She didn’t have all the details figured out when she became a small business owner.
But she knew she had to come up with a roadmap and have the discipline to follow it.
The temptation to think you’re “not ready” may have you second-guessing yourself, especially if you’re a perfectionist.
But you fight through that and create the path as you go along.
Yes, you may have to pivot. And you may take some steps backwards.
You may have to throw out the playbook and start over.
It happens.
The state of being “ready” can be a mind trick.
Get ready.
And, then, like Santoni, “trust the process” that you’re ready enough. #theskyisNOTthelimit
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