The Forecast Called for Sprinkles (How I Came through My Personal Tsunami) by Pam Turkin

Posted on April 15, 2016April 15, 2016 by Kimberly Wiefling

Quote: Don’t carry your mistakes around with you instead place them under your feet and use them as stepping stones to RISE above them.

My name is Pam Turkin. I am a mom, a wife, a daughter, a baker and admittedly, a serial entrepreneur. For as long as I can remember I was always doing something. There were studded gloves and children’s phone books and Forrest Gump T-shirts to name a few. Most of these early businesses kept me busy enough to stay at home with my kids. That was always my goal. I never was trying to create anything more than a bit of extra income for my family.

When my kids were very young, my first marriage fell apart and I found myself the sole supporter of my family. I did what I had to do and went to work. Though it was hard for a single mom, I relished the opportunity to be involved in a growing company where there was opportunity everywhere. I joined the marketing team and learned quickly that I had found a place for my creativity to shine. I learned all that one could learn about the marketing of a successful brand and I also found the love of my life, Todd, while at that company.

Through my career I worked with many brands: Ralph Lauren, Caterpillar, M&M MARS and Nike, to name a few. I was always intrigued by the power of a name and what it could mean to individuals. I traveled extensively, working with many big box retailers and listened to their challenges. During this time I also began to notice the “cupcake craze” starting on each coast of our country. I would travel home to Detroit on the weekends and tell the tale of the endless lines at places like “Sprinkles” and “Magnolia Bakery”.

HOW COULD SUCH A LITTLE GEM MAKE SUCH A BIG SPLASH IN THE FOOD WORLD?
My curiosity morphed into action, and I decided that Detroit needed a “gem of their own.” Just Baked was born. I spent a year crafting recipes and testing them on my five teenage children and their army of friends, and when this hobby became a business I knew I was on to something special.

The next 7 years were a whirlwind of great adventure as we grew from one small cupcake shop to nearly 20. There were investors and partners that advised us to take the business in directions I never dreamed it would go. It grew quickly and with great momentum and enthusiasm, as we cemented our place in the bakery world.

Looking back, I can now see that the company was growing at warp speed and somewhere along the way, I lost myself. I lost my direction and let the business wander from the core goals that it had been started with. And true to many businesses that lose their way, it all came crashing down in an instant.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT JANUARY 5, 2015.
It started like the many days leading up to our demise: with fear and apprehension. I had taken a few days to go visit my mother out of town and hopefully clear my head to allow the next course of action to become clear to me. But on this morning it would be different. My oldest son called, with tears in his voice and told me of my partners’ decision: “they closed the business mom,” he said, “it’s over.” Though I heard the words I could not process what I had heard. How could that be? My partners had pulled their funding during a major expansion, without warning or explanation. I was devastated. Without warning or financial backing, we were now on our own trying to figure out how to save the jobs of dozens of people who depended on Just Baked to feed their families.

I was crushed.

I spent a good deal of 2015, as I like to say, “Laying on my bathroom floor”. I went over what had happened like a bad horror movie on loop, always ending up in a wounded place I couldn’t seem to shake. There were calls from interested employers, new business opportunities but I was not able to see past the wounds that were still there. I listened, but knew I wasn’t able to accept any of the kind words that people tried to motivate me with.

I do remember one phone interview in which the owner of a very large local business on the other phone said these words. “Pam, you are not done yet. This last business prepared you for the next BIG adventure. You still have greatness in you. I am not going to hire you, go figure out what’s next.” At the time I thought he was crazy. I would NEVER do this again! But looking back on that call, I heard those words often over the year as a kind and gentle reminder that I would be OK again.

And then the impossible happened. I was on a call with one of my oldest and dearest friends who was “stuck” in her life. As I had done often before, I began to brainstorm with her about all the opportunities she had at her disposal to go out and create a business for herself. And just like that, I began to dream again. Not about her new business, but about one I had been contemplating. I had been thinking about a new idea but had given up on myself to properly execute it. However, in this moment it all came pouring out of me like a bathtub that had hit the top and couldn’t help but spill out on the floor. I did my research and realized my idea was solid. I left my comfort zone and shared my idea with a few trusted mentors, who encouraged me to get up and move on.

SO HERE IS THE PART WHERE WE ALL CAN STAND AND CHEER.
I would like to introduce Rise Baking.

Rise Baking is a monthly baking subscription service that ships premium ingredients with original recipes directly to your door. The process is simple. Each month you will choose recipes that suit your taste. Then, your shipment will arrive fully stocked with pre-measured and color coded ingredients making the baking process simple.

Rise Baking is a new business that I collaborated on. I have taken all of my baking skills, knowledge and love of real food, and created a program that will allow any home baker to rival a professional one. I am very proud of Rise Baking for many reasons, but mostly because it shows that anyone can pick themselves up, dust themselves off and start over again. I had many kind local entrepreneurs who encouraged and helped me develop Rise Baking as well as encouraged me to believe in myself and get back up again. I plan to do that BOLDLY.

Everyone makes mistakes, and though I’ve made many, I have learned a lot. I hope my story continues to motivate all the entrepreneurs, dreamers and doers out there to remain positive and to create your story the way it CAN and SHOULD be.

Anyone can “RISE” again even after the most difficult of circumstance and I plan to do just that!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Pam Turkin, Chief Baking Officer of Rise Baking (http://www.risebaking.com). I am a 54 year old women who has built a successful cupcake retail brand to 20 locations. In 2015, I lost my business overnight when my partners pulled their funding during a major expansion. It took me many months to pick myself up but I did!

I created Rise Baking. Rise Baking is a monthly baking subscription service that ships premium ingredients with original recipes directly to your door. The process is simple. Each month you will choose recipes that suit your taste. Then, your shipment will arrive fully stocked with pre-measured and color coded ingredients making the baking process simple!

When Your Start-up Can’t Giddy-Up by Shanna Webb

Posted on August 5, 2014February 25, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

Recently I had a meeting with a client who has dreams of creating the next big dating website. As a new start-up business it really does have legs to stand on, and the concept is original.

The client was in need of a public relations expert who could develop a national campaign to promote the site and to gain more users.

I asked the client a series of qualifying questions such as “Who are your primary investors? What are your goals for this site? How do you intend to pay for this campaign?” And what I found out was pretty dismal – no money to pay for this campaign!

Continue reading→

My 3 Biggest Business Mistakes by DeAnna Burghart

Posted on March 19, 2014March 19, 2014 by Kimberly Wiefling

Starting a business isn’t easy. I’ve done it three times now – twice as a sole proprietor, and once as a founding member of the ProjectConnections team. The process is fraught with tension, loaded with exciting opportunities, and rife with chances to make mistakes. Thank goodness! How else would we ever learn what works and what doesn’t?

I can’t claim these are the only three mistakes I’ve made in business. (I’ve made more than that since my first cup of coffee this morning!) But these are the three biggest mistakes I think I’ve made in any of those business start-ups. How many of them are you guilty of?

Mistake #1: Analysis Paralysis. I’m good at research. Really, really good. I actually research things for fun. That makes research a very safe place to run away to when I’m not quite sure what to do next. You get conflicting opinions, really smart people are telling you to make a variety of different choices, and you aren’t quite sure which one feels right. Research it!

To. Death.

Sometimes, we feel so insecure in our own judgment and experience that we spend weeks or even months longer than we should on “getting a little more market intelligence” or whatever we want to call our stalling. It’s the start-up equivalent of forming a committee to investigate options. Used properly, research is absolutely essential to success. Used excessively it will yield even more confusion and insecurity, not to mention lost opportunities because your competitors were out there doing things you were just reading about.

Lesson: When your research stops turning up new insights and information, stop! Adding one more voice to the “me too” stack isn’t going to tell you how you feel about the information you’ve uncovered. You won’t be able to take successful steps forward until you understand that critical piece of information, and you won’t find it in anyone else’s books or blogs. You’ll only find it by being honest with yourself about what you’ve uncovered.

Mistake #2: Not Speaking Up. In my adventures in the business world, I’ve frequently enjoyed the luxury of being in a room full of really smart people. I know just how fortunate this makes me, and I revel in it. But there’s a danger as well. When you’re in a room with that many smart people on a regular basis, it’s easy to be a little intimidated by them. And from there, it’s a small step to suppress your own misgivings when everyone else seems so sure of themselves. There’s a powerful temptation to “go along,” and by doing so to seem wise and well informed. This is understandable.

It is also a mistake. Stifling that little voice, or that feeling in my gut, has cost me precious time, money, effort, and opportunities. No one can see everything, so if one person is holding back, the group is missing valuable information – even if the person holding back is you.

Lesson: That little voice in your ear, or that feeling in your gut, knows more than you give it credit for. I’ve learned to listen and to speak up when it’s bugging me. I’m not always right, of course. Sometimes I just need to hear others address my concerns, and the feeling goes away. But it pays to speak up, even when you don’t have the final say.

Mistake #3: Not Listening. This is the flip side of #2, and it’s an easy and dangerous trap. I usually find myself falling into this mode when I’ve finished a few rounds of “I told you so” in my head. Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make proud. Stopping to really listen – to my CEO, my colleagues, my customers, my competitor’s customers – has opened doors that would have remained forever closed if I’d focused on speaking (or worse, on selling).

Lesson: Listen when people talk to you. Don’t spend the time running a script in your head of what you’re going to say in response – you’re throwing away valuable input and connections with others when you shut off like that. Open up, sit back, and really listen to what’s being said. Listen like your business depends on it. It probably does. And note that this is probably a good step to take both before and after speaking your mind.

You may have noticed that all three of these items – communication, intuition, connection – all relate to the so-called “soft skills” (they aren’t necessarily) that women are supposedly so good at (we aren’t necessarily). But as dicey as generalizations can be, I think women who end up in entrepreneurial spaces are often more driven and perfectionistic – and thus more inclined to these particular flaws. Or maybe these flaws are just more visible and damaging in the entrepreneurial space. Either way, they’re mistakes worth looking out for. I continually remind myself to listen to others, speak up about my doubts, and above all to do something! No one was ever successful in business by doing nothing at all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

DeAnna Burghart is content editor at ProjectConnections.com. Prior to joining the founding team in 1999, she was a successful software training consultant, and helped launch a web design and SEO firm.

A For-Profit for Nonprofits: Can It Work? By Evelyn Horng

Posted on March 15, 2013January 30, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

I have always been interested in social causes. In college, I majored in public policy, and I interned one summer for a nonprofit that organizes done-in-a-day projects for busy people who can’t commit to long term volunteer opportunities. I also volunteered quite a bit myself – helping to build homes for low income people, pulling out non-native vegetation (aka weeding!), sorting food at a food bank.….

My senior year in college, the obvious set in. You just don’t make as much money working in nonprofit as you do in the for-profit world. I envisioned the kind of life I wanted for myself, and the type of funds that would be needed to support it. And while I never imagined a lavish lifestyle, I just didn’t want to struggle to buy a home in Silicon Valley, or worry about covering all my expenses.

So I entered the corporate world, doing a two-year stint in strategy consulting and then moving on to high tech product management, and climbing the professional ladder. By the time the kids came around, I started re-thinking how I wanted to spend my time. I wasn’t quite satisfied in my last job, and I was looking for more….

More personal fulfillment,
More flexible work situation,
More control over what I was doing….

So a co-worker and I started a company called Roonga (www.roonga.com). Its original goal was to encourage people to share things with their friends and trusted groups. In doing so, we’d encourage reuse, reduce waste, and help our communities be more sustainable. But smaller trusted circles made it harder to get rid of things you no longer need, and people didn’t always have the things that you need in these tighter networks. So recently, we’ve redirected Roonga to work with nonprofits, providing a platform for nonprofits to communicate in-kind needs and building an audience of followers specifically interested in hearing about these.

With the latest turn that Roonga has taken, I feel like I’ve come full circle back to where I started. We are working with nonprofits to improve the efficiency of their in-kind donations, and to support their causes by opening up their audience. In the process, I am learning a lot about the local causes in Silicon Valley, and I am having a great time doing this!

However, it remains to be seen whether we can build a successful for-profit company working with nonprofits. Roonga is a for-profit company – we like the potential of allowing employees to benefit from the company’s success, and we feel it is important to reward talent at competitive for-profit rates. And for me, I like the self-fulfillment of working for a nonprofit cause, while also still retaining the for-profit mindset. I’d like to think that we can take the best of both worlds and meld them into Roonga – but we are only at the beginning of our journey and still have a long way to go….. The future is ahead of us, and we’ll have to see where we end up.

In the meantime, take a look at our nonprofit beta, follow one of our local nonprofits (http://www.roonga.com/nonprofit/#california), and let me know what you think! Email me at ehorng@roonga.com with any thoughts, suggestions, or feedback.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Evelyn Horng is the co-founder of Roonga, a Silicon Valley startup. She was previously VP, Product Management, at MLSListings, Inc., and held other product management positions in various high tech companies. She has a B.A. in Public Policy from Stanford University. She spends most of her spare time trying to keep up with her two young sons.