BLACK
B O X 101 DAYS Day 36: This is Erika’s first business-to-business meeting pitch— and her first time promising results that other people will deliver. Erika realizes she’s going to have to depend on others (her callers) to carry out the successful work she is pitching. Later she will learn that others can’t always deliver what she promises. She will have to develop better techniques to train and manage contractors, she will learn. The pitch is positive, and ends with a request for a proposal.
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house SC COM. Questions arise: “Buy or Lease? Downtown, or on the Eastside in one of the office parks? An expensive, sexy space or an affordable utilitarian space?” Erika also meets with her accountant today. “Since I was a journalism major, money management is not my forte; business start-up guru Kim Williams told me to pay people to do things you cannot—so I pay someone to tell me how to add and subtract.”
Day 37: The GROW Conference monopolizes the agenda for today. Erika makes her debut as the owner of SC COM—the company’s first public appearance. She prints business cards—the kind that you run from a home printer with the perforated sides—with her business name, phone and email, and passes them all out.With each introduction, her “elevator speech” gets better. SC COM’s operations are rather complex, so three hours of saying it over and over helps her fine-tune it. “At the end of the day, my feet were tired and my voice was hoarse, but I was energized and encouraged by the experience,” Erika says. “And I went home and called my graphic designer to get some proper business cards designed and printed.”
Business Black Box
Day 39: Erika holds another media networking media in order to keep her friends and contacts in the media up to date on SC COM.
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Day 40: Today is Erika’s last day with the YWCA.“It’s difficult to leave something you have created, not knowing what its future is,” Erika says. The agency was not in a strong financial position, but is under new, young, energetic leadership. “When I started the empowerment center four years ago, (former executive director) Phyllis Martin advised me not to plan to stay there forever,” Erika says. “‘You are not the empowerment center,’ she told me, quite directly.” “It was my vision, and a group of women shared in that, and we created something great,” Erika says. “Is it sustainable? I don’t know. But this opportunity (SC COM) came, and I couldn’t pass it up. I had spent too many hours at the YW telling women to leave the comfort of their fulltime jobs and build something great, something that will make them money and create a legacy for their children. I couldn’t not do it.” “Since then, people have expressed their amazement at my ability to walk away from an eight to five, benefits, an office and job security, when I have a mortgage and a child at home,” Erika says.
Day 44: Following some positive talks with potential clients, Erika and Mike head downtown to scope out some perspective spaces to
September/October 2009
Day 45: Today Erika goes to PWC training. “In between elementary school field day events, I learn what my job is going to be at PWC.” She is also looking for a way to balance work and life. Erika’s BlackBerry becomes a permanent fixture in my hand. “I’ve become one of those people I disdained for so long,” Erika says. “But it’s imperative to balancing life—being able to solve work issues and communicate messages while watching your child get water dumped on her head at field day. After sending the email, I can snap a quick picture of Isabel and her friends.” But having a BlackBerry can’t solve all of the struggles starting a company and being a full-time mom create. “Sometimes, I want to focus entirely on the moment—on being a mom—but as the business owner, you really can’t,” Erika says. “My daughter Isabel fusses at me to put the BlackBerry down, but I can’t always do that,” she says. “I use it as an opportunity to talk with her about business, work, income and living—and how to juggle all of that at one time.” SC COM creates a unique opportunity for moms who face this same situation. “I know a lot of moms who have work guilt—they feel guilty about working, but they have to, or actually enjoy what they do during the day,” Erika says. “One thing I love about my business, is we help moms bridge that gap—most of our callers are stay at home moms who want to contribute to the household income, or who want to keep their professional credentials fresh for their eventual return to work; on payday I’m excited to be able to provide means for them to do it, because I struggle to do it myself.”
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