Kendra Lewis became a mom as a high school senior and faced many challenges early in her life. Pushing herself to rise above what others said, Kendra worked full time while going to night school.
She faced homelessness and doubt. But Kendra eventually graduated with three degrees, created multiple businesses, and worked for some of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the world.
However, working for a Fortune company was not her dream. Her mission was to work with small businesses. She wanted to help entrepreneurs launch their ideas into the world – and that’s exactly what she’s doing today!
Join us in this episode as Kendra shares her passion for transforming small businesses.
Here are some takeaways she shared:
1. Delegate!
The most powerful thing that a business owner can do is to honor their journey and stick to the path that was created for them.
You can’t be the social media expert, marketer, HR director, and CEO at the same time. If you’re trying to do it all yourself, now’s the time to stop! You can’t focus on strategy and the long-term health of your organization when you are down in the weeds with all the tactical work.
Find the gaps in your skill set and your organization, and fill them with experts in those areas. Then, get out of the way and let them do the work.
2. Don't get distracted by too many shiny nickels.
The first step to shifting into your inner Fortune 500 company is being bold enough to envision it. And once you have the vision, you have to start by putting action behind it.
If you’ve veered off the path, remember to always bring it back to what your business is about – what’s your “why, your vision and mission? It’s easy, especially for entrepreneurs, to go from thing to thing thinking that you’re growing and improving.
But make sure each new initiative or project is part of an overall strategy and that it all ties together. Then, be sure to evaluate them annually, making sure they’re still worth doing and there aren’t any issues that need to be addressed before moving forward.
3. Once your plan is in place, give it room to breathe.
In other words, don’t get too reactionary if it isn’t going exactly as planned right from the start.
The more invested we are in the business, the quicker we may be to press the “panic” button when things get the smallest bit off track. Give yourself a reasonable date to reevaluate how things are going – and, then, adjust if needed.
The last thing you want to do is pull the plug on something that could’ve been successful but simply needed a few tweaks here and there to keep it going.
As a next step, ask yourself the following questions:
What is the “why” behind what you do?
Kendra mentioned the idea of “operating at a level beyond where you are today.” What does that mean to you? And how would that look in your organization?
What are your core and non-core activities? Do you feel like you’ve done a good job of delegating the non-core activities?
Explain the difference between “top-down” and “bottom-up” planning that Kendra discussed. Which do you tend to do more often?
Kendra’s Big Business Checklist can be used to develop a big business mindset.