Becoming an Accidental Entrepreneur

Startup Sunday

Guest post by Susan Baida

I wasn't someone who always dreamed of being an entrepreneur.  I was content in corporate America, building upon a 17-year career in brand marketing. I had an impressive resume including world-renowned companies such as Avon, Estee Lauder and Starwood Hotels. I enjoyed rising the corporate ladder, jumping from director to executive director and finally to vice president, a career-long aspiration.

I was on a roll until it all came to a crashing halt when the economy took a nose dive in the third quarter of 2007. I was at Starwood Hotels, which happened to be in one of the hardest hit industries. 

I was told that my position would be eliminated and absorbed by another team. Having never been laid off, I was completely devastated. In the midst of all this, my father-in-law passed away, adding incredible loss to an already difficult situation.

As if that weren't enough change, I also learned that I was pregnant. I had just turned 39 and had been trying to get pregnant for 22 months, so the news was glorious. 

Most would have thought this was perfect timing, a time to relax and enjoy the pregnancy, but I felt differently. I was very career-driven and ambitious. I was a complete wreck, worried that no one would ever hire me being unemployed and pregnant.

I wasn't entirely wrong. There were a number of interviews I went on where my background was exactly what they were looking for. But when I mentioned that I was pregnant, I never heard from them again. I then tried another tactic of staying silent while visibly showing a bump 4 months into my pregnancy. That didn't work either. I was just not marketable while pregnant. So much for the Pregnancy Discrimination Act!

So what does my unemployment, pregnancy and father-in-law's passing have to do with my becoming an accidental entrepreneur? Pretty much everything.   

Before his passing, my father-in-law spent the last 10 years with Parkinson's disease. My husband, John, was his caregiver and found this to be one of the most challenging and complicated tasks he ever experienced.

The irony is that my husband is a healthcare industry expert with over 20 years of experience.  He's the last person you would imagine finding the process of care difficult.  

Based on this trying experience, my husband identified a dire need that could help caregivers across the country. He came up with www.eCareDiary.com , a comprehensive website for caregivers where they could find everything from an appointment/medication management system to a search engine of care facilities. 

He was so compelled and excited by this concept that during the day he worked a full time job (we needed the income), and at night and on weekends, he became a full-fledged startup entrepreneur. 

Where was I in all of this? I believed in the concept passionately and was very supportive. However, I was a reluctant bystander, clinging to my dreams of resuming corporate life. 

I jumped at the first opportunity to return to the cosmetics industry as a marketing consultant when Avery was 4 months old. A dear friend and former colleague hired me at Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. I stayed for 6 months when the brand was ultimately impacted by the recession and had to cut back.

It was February 2009. John was extremely frustrated that his original goal of launching the site in December 2008 had not occurred. All the money that we had invested was at risk of going to waste because the site needed someone on it more often and to manage the development more consistently than John was able.

The light bulb finally went on. I needed to let go of the world I knew, leap forward into the uncharted world of entrepreneurship and join forces with John on this amazing business venture. I took the leap and have found unimaginable fulfillment.

What I have gained as a startup entrepreneur more than makes up for what I might have missed out on in corporate life. Here are some examples:

1) Communities – While you can feel isolated as an early phase entrepreneur working by yourself, there are such amazing, supportive networking organizations. My two favorites are Ladies Who Launch, a national women's entrepreneur organization with local chapters in major cities, and NY Tech Meetup, a group of web entrepreneurs that meets monthly (I'm sure there are Tech Meetups throughout the country).

2) Entrepreneurial skill set – Being an entrepreneur, I realize how much I took for granted the support and resources available in a corporate setting. However, while you're doing everything yourself particularly in the early phase, you learn new skills that stretch you tremendously as a person. You wear many hats including business strategist, company evangelist, salesperson, technology expert, and human resources head.

3) Social Media – A web business cannot survive without it. The expertise you gain in this area is essential and will serve you for years to come. In the last 4 months, I focused on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg and blogging and cultivated networks that have propelled our Google and Alexa rankings dramatically. 

4) Flexibility of Schedule – Being your own boss, you manage your own time. I am able to spend time with Avery by participating in Mommy & Me classes, taking her to play dates or to the library. We are applying to various nursery schools (a highly competitive process in NYC) that require an average of 3 appointments each between tours, parent interviews and child play observations. I imagine tending to these would be a challenge in a corporate job.

If you are contemplating becoming an entrepreneur, my advice is to:

• Weigh the pros and cons,
• Obtain feedback about your venture from friends and experts in the field. If it's positive, then you might have a viable concept in hand.
• Be in tune with the forces of nature. Don't force a square peg into a round hole, like I did in pursuing my old career when a new one was obviously calling, and
• Timing is everything. You'll know when to take the leap. Trust your gut.

Comments

[Yinglan Tan]

Venture capitalists are like skilled chefs. Their dishes - the successful companies in their portfolios - are most valuable when the firms remain small and retain their own distinct style. When a chef tries to mass-produce a menu item, the dish loses value - scaling a batch beyond its ideal size degrades its quality. Likewise, when partners of VC firms take on too many deals and overstretch themselves with too many companies to look after, they can no longer add sufficient value to each portfolio company.

Tan Yinglan

The Way Of The VC - Top Venture Capitalists On Your Board (Amazon: http://www.tinyurl.com/wayofthevc)
Blog: http://www.wayofthevc.com