All In: How Women Entrepreneurs Can Think Bigger, Build Sustainable Businesses, and Change the World

By Stephanie Breedlove

Answering the Call of Entrepreneurship
Are you all in as an entrepreneur in business and in life?

Stephanie Breedlove took a leap of faith, left the corporate world, and answered the call of entrepreneurship. Over the next few years she built a thriving business while simultaneously raising two young children, eventually selling her start-up for more than $50 million. In All In: How Women Entrepreneurs Can Think Bigger, Build Sustainable Businesses, and Change the World, Breedlove outlines the hows and whys behind the decisions that led her towards success. Her inspiring message empowers readers to be all they are called to be, to set the bar higher, and to grow businesses with economic impact and power.

All In explores the current status of women in growth businesses, debunks myths surrounding entrepreneurship, and gives practical advice and support for women who want to start or grow their own businesses. Using research, case studies, and transparent insights from her own journey, Breedlove gives her readers the information and authentic guidance they need to take the leap and bravely make tough choices on the road to success.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
• Release date: Feb 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781626343603

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Berkeley

Preface

Answer the Call

Women and men are called to entrepreneurship for the exact same reasons, yet men answer the call twice as often.

—Kauffman Foundation

Are you being called to be an entrepreneur? The most pervasive message of this book is to encourage women who are called to entrepreneurship to be all in, to go everywhere they are meant to go, and to leave their mark on the community and the economy and perhaps even the world. If I can help you prepare, plan, and take action to start and grow a business, then I’ve done my part as an entrepreneur who believes in paying it forward.

When I began my entrepreneurial journey, I did not know what I know now. I did not know that I would not have a female mentor to turn to or emulate. I did not know that I would feel like a trailblazer, or that I’d feel alone in the quest to create growth, scale, and sustainable value. Did I get discouraged? You bet I did. But ultimately, I followed my gut as it beckoned me down a path outside the norm, filled with hard work, a path to where and who I was meant to be.

Is the entrepreneurial grass really greener? If you have an idea that keeps you up at night, you might be a great entrepreneur. I want to empower you to be all you are called to be, to set the bar higher, and to grow a business with economic impact and power. If entrepreneurship is your calling, I can honestly say that the grass really is greener—hard work, risk, barriers, and all.

If you are struggling to answer the entrepreneurial call, you are not alone. In fact, you would not be normal if you weren’t. There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of barriers to navigate, and a lot of bumping up against norms that unleash doubt. Research has proven that women and men entrepreneurs share similar motivations, see the reasons for their success largely the same way, and face many of the same challenges.¹ Studies have even proven that the appetites of men and women for financial risk is largely the same.² Yet men are two times more likely to start businesses than women, and their businesses are 3.5 times more likely to cross the $1 million threshold. Although experts widely agree that women entrepreneurs often face unique challenges, it doesn’t seem that they’re often held back from success. The main roadblock is simply getting women to start or to choose to grow a business in the first place.³ I guess this is where women like me come in.

If you are struggling to answer the entrepreneurial call, you are not alone. In fact, you would not be normal if you weren’t. There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of barriers to navigate, and a lot of bumping up against norms that unleash doubt.

Gaining confidence in who you are often comes from choosing paths that expose who you are not. The truth is, I almost did not answer the call. It wasn’t smooth, and it was not easy. It evolved from a need and a calling I had no idea existed.

Life takes you on twists and turns, and as much as you plan, you often find the best plan is to just roll with it. Sometimes the path to finding your strongest talents, the best you, and the person you were meant to be looks nothing like your plan, and nothing like society’s norm. Learning to be adaptable and to consciously maximize the outcomes of the twists and turns produces a maximized life. I would never have planned to be married at twenty-two, a mother of two children a year apart at twenty-seven, and a full-time entrepreneur at thirty.

Gaining confidence in who you are often comes from choosing paths that expose who you are not.

And this is how the journey began.

Upon completion of my MBA at twenty-three, already married and feeling a responsibility to begin crafting a life, I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I went to work in corporate America hoping to find success and fulfillment climbing the ladder at Accenture in the Denver office.

Only two years into my career, personal life took priority, creating an unplanned work-life collision. My husband, Bill, and I learned that we were going to be parents! Maybe planning isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I was filled with joy, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t stressed.

There weren’t women in the firm having children, much less returning to work after the birth of a child. Heck, it was 1991, and there weren’t many women in the firm—period. Were they going to fire me? If I returned to work, were they going to take me off the career track? Were they going to allow me to take ample time off? How was I going to be as good of a mother as my mom, who has innate super-parent skills, and also draw fulfillment from my career? I wanted both, but this seemed impossible. Was this just a selfish thought? Life had been so much easier yesterday.

Bill was simply ecstatic. I realized I had barriers that he did not. I was fully aware of the cultural and workplace barriers I faced, but was I also facing my own internal barriers? Was I making a mountain out of a molehill? This level of stress may seem a little foolish today, as corporate America has made some progress. In 1991, however, this was very real. Regardless, I think we can agree that most of corporate America has yet to embrace a culture that recognizes work-life balance as instrumental to maximizing productivity, engagement, and passion, but the evolution is in process.

Bill and I had philosophical discussions about the life we thought we wanted. Did I want to continue a career or focus solely on motherhood and family? How did Bill feel about the options? We tried to imagine how life would look and feel in each of these scenarios. I think I knew which path was for me, but I didn’t have examples to show me what life would look like if I returned to my career. Bill was in full support of becoming a dual-income team, and we had a strangely clear understanding that it was going to take a team effort to travel this path successfully.

This gave me the confidence to be my own hero. I dug deep to push through the barriers before me and decided to return to work and try my hand at fulfillment from both motherhood and career. Sometimes all it takes is a little support.

I prepared a proposal and attempted to control my professional destiny. In 1991, there was no standard maternity package at Accenture, so the worst they could say was no. I scheduled a meeting with the partner in my area and made my pitch with as much confidence as I could muster. I remember sitting outside his office waiting to be called in, feeling nauseous from fear, not pregnancy. I asked for five months off. Upon my return, I requested to work four days per week for the first six months—an attempt to create balance. I expressed that I expected my career to slow down but not plateau. I would sign a contract guaranteeing that I would stay for a minimum of one year following my return—an attempt to prove I was serious.

He looked at me and smiled for what seemed like an eternity. While I waited for him to respond, I wondered, was this an I like your gumption smile or a who do you think you are smile? Then he said yes to everything. (I would get only six weeks of paid leave but the full five months off.) I’m not sure how much of this barrier was internal, but I’m guessing a lot of it was. He must have liked my gumption.

Davis, our first son, was born on a hot August day, and Bill and I began a new life as dual-income parents. I returned to my career, committed to the belief that I would become a better and happier me cultivating my talents as both a mother and a professional. However, the corporate job didn’t seem to be enough anymore. I had this heightened desire for my time, talents, and impact to make more of a difference. Maximizing the value of my time away from Davis was taking top priority.

We hired a nanny to care for both Davis and a neighbor’s daughter, as we couldn’t afford a nanny on our own. The shared situation was less expensive than day care, and we were down to a few thousand dollars when I returned to work. A nanny was not yet a common form of childcare, making us early subscribers. We also had a unique outlook on the relationship with our nanny. We wanted to treat her professionally. She was not a babysitter. She was our third parent. We were a team. She worked a structured schedule that required focused management and regular staggering of our work schedules. We provided paid vacation, sick days, a health plan, and annual reviews and raises. We also paid her legally, withholding taxes and paying employer taxes.

We muddled through this process on our own, as we couldn’t find outside expertise. Neither accountants nor nanny placement firms were able to offer assistance. Were we the only people in America paying legally? Surely not, and an idea began to percolate. What if we started a company that helped families pay their in-home caregivers legally, offering payroll processing, tax remittance, and HR services? Our company could take care of the stuff we had been struggling through. As crazy as it sounded when we talked about it, it felt right. It felt like the path to fulfillment for me. But we took no action. Talk was safe.

Then we had another surprise.

We learned that baby number two was on the way, a mere seventeen months behind Davis. Again, this was not the plan. I dusted off the pitch I had just made at work and made a repeat performance. I’m not sure they believed that I would return, opting instead to have a litter of children. But as we dusted off the contract and moved forward in good faith, Bill and I couldn’t get the business idea out of our heads.

Austin arrived on a cold January day and completed our family of four. We had been incubating our business idea for several months— helping friends and brainstorming. Brainstorming usually occurred as a random conversation while getting ready for work, on the way to the OB/GYN, or on weekends while Davis was napping.

We decided to launch a test while I was on maternity leave with Austin. We were a little crazy, strangely driven to this odd idea. We conducted research, developed a name and logo, created marketing material, outlined service delivery methodologies, built process and service deliverables, and, most importantly, defined business values that matched our unique talents. There was no leap. It was more of a low-risk hop. Good entrepreneurs are not slashing through risk with reckless abandon; they are cautiously calculating and mitigating at a measured pace. For us this meant launching a skeleton structure of the business concept on a small budget, without quitting our jobs. In today’s jargon, we were launching a minimum viable product (MVP).

Did we have expertise in payroll, taxes, and labor law? Zip. Was our education and previous work experience a strong enough foundation? Absolutely.

So what did the test look like? Motivated by my strong belief in the power of relationship marketing, the strategy was to form relationships with in-home care-placement firms. I offered education and training on legal obligations to placement firms and free consultations to their clients. The goal was to enhance the value of their service and to grow our business through client referrals. I traveled from Denver to Texas and California to build relationships. I chose these places because I had family and free places to stay. I traveled by myself with the boys to Texas. They were three and twenty months. Davis rode in a carrier on my back and Austin on my front, and we were a holy terror on every flight. My mom kept the boys while I visited businesses in Houston and Austin. I went to the Bay Area just before returning to work. Bill took vacation to man the fort alone with the babies. And I set off to stay with one of my sisters for this final marketing push of the test. Fortunately, this extra effort proved to be one of the most successful trips of my career.

I returned to my corporate job, and our test became moonlighting for two years. I took the lead with a role as the face of the company and touchpoint for marketing, sales, and client service, while Bill became a guru of payroll and tax processing behind the scenes. We were not experts at everything required of us by any means. We just gave it our all and hoped it would be enough. We quickly realized that the skills gained in our corporate careers were translatable. We managed a small amount of business in the evenings and weekends. Our life was focused in and around the home with two babies, and we were having fun. Breedlove & Associates had officially been launched!

In Year 1, we had a measly $3,000 in revenue, but Year 2 climbed to $17,000 without a single penny or hour spent on marketing. Then our entrepreneurial hobby began to kill us. On the side was not a recipe for success for the business nor family life. Operating our test was no longer a few hours per week in the evening or on weekends. It was considerable time each evening and was taking me away from my family. Our growing group of clients deserved better. In short, it was a mess.

I became so miserable that I couldn’t tell if the test had proven this wasn’t for me or if it was encouraging me to dump my corporate career and give it a try full time. Without personal wealth or a network to tap into for funding, our financing strategies were limited. Couple that with our natural tendency to be financially conservative, and we decided that only one of us should take the leap.

When faced with this life-altering decision, I couldn’t seem to go there. All those barriers snarled loudly in my head: You have two children, you are one thousand miles from the nearest relative, you only have $40,000 in the bank, you have a good job with a rising career, and the in-home care industry barely exists. The timing did not seem right, and it seemed far too risky at our stage in life. Frankly, it just seemed crazy.

Bill repeatedly encouraged me, You should and can do this. We need brand, marketing, sales, and client service power to launch this business, and these are your strengths. I can build systems and define operations behind the scenes as business comes in. I would answer, I don’t think I can. He didn’t give up. We are already a dual-income team. We are doing it on a small scale. Aside from the financial risk, how will our life be different? You can do this. It was time to put fear on the back burner and break out determination and blind optimism. Isn’t this what we’d hoped for? Finally I said, I can do this, and I want to! I began to believe the journey would be worth it many times over, even if we faced failure. Going back to a corporate job would be the easy part. In 1995, I left corporate America behind to bring an idea to life and grow it to all it could be.

As I began the journey, I called upon many entrepreneurial traits that gave me strength. They were instrumental for keeping the fears inside Pandora’s box, present but not wreaking havoc. Could I be an entrepreneur, a good mother, and a good wife? Was it irresponsible to take this risk? Did I have what it takes? Was I willing to simplify, prioritize, and focus at much greater levels? Was I ready to be uncomfortable? These are doubts and questions shared by every woman entrepreneur. Realizing you are not alone is an important part of the process for success.

I employed blind optimism, as it is often half the battle. My whole-hearted dedication resulted in a belief that my jill-of-alltrades skills would allow me to single-handedly start and operate a business successfully—a common entrepreneurial trait. I saw failures as beginnings of something better, rather than an ending and a loss. I saw risk as almost nonexistent if it were calculated. I listened but kept perspective, preventing others from deterring me. I focused on being self-aware. Embracing my weaknesses allowed them to be managed. We all have them. As long as we don’t let them run amuck, confidence will grow. The list of entrepreneurial traits that will be your greatest allies may not match mine exactly, but know them and grow your confidence in knowing they are plentiful.

BUSINESS STRATEGY 1:

ANSWER THE CALL SMARTLY AND TRUST YOUR GUT.

The best way to answer a call is to be self-aware, adaptable, and strategic. Incubate and test your ideas. This process is about listening for the call to grow louder as you try it on for size without significant risk. Listen to your gut. Let your feelings play their rightful role in the decision. Good entrepreneurs often listen to their gut more than to advisors, family, or society, and it is usually right.

Be prepared. The calling doesn’t end. If you are going everywhere you are meant to go, you will be continuously called. Many years into the journey, I remember going for a walk on a beautiful day. Davis and Austin were in college, the company was nearing $10 million in annual revenue, we were leaders in the quality and professionalism of the inhome care industry, we’d built a star-studded management team and state-of-the-art technology, and we were brainstorming new products and services.