Today we’d like to introduce you to Ande Lyons.
Ande, please share your story with us.
I’ve been having entrepreneurial adventures since 1985. Initially, they were vicarious adventures while I worked directly with CEOs of small businesses. I call those years my “entrepreneurship boot camp” experience.
After earning my MBA in 1989 I went to work at a large international bank for three years as a corporate lender. This was not a culture I could ever thrive in… it’s a risk adverse environment, after all… but I felt it was important to add strong financial analysis and credibility to my resume, so I made the sacrifice. 🙂
In 1992, I left the banking industry and began my entrepreneurial career… and what a ride it’s been! From a boot-strapped consulting business to an $8 million venture-backed dot-com business, to a food manufacturing business funded by angel money, to a highly interactive online business fueled by a charming personality and a strong sense of humor… it’s been a wild and exciting journey. Yee Haw!
Along the way, I honed my business building, brilliant branding, sensational strategic analysis, and creative problem-solving skills… and now, I am honored and privileged to share all this Andelicious Advice with startup founders around the world through my startup mentoring programs. I’m also honored to be a volunteer mentor for 3 local accelerator programs: Entrepreneurship for All, MassChallenge, and MIT’s LaunchX program.
Has it been a smooth road?
If you’re seeking a smooth road, don’t start a business.
Every day a business will give you plenty of reasons to quit. In the beginning, when you first start something new, it’s so much fun and exhilarating. Over the next few days, weeks, months… the rapid learning you experience keeps you going. Whatever your new thing is, it’s easy to stay engaged in it.
And then… the Dip happens. The Dip is the long slog between starting and mastering.
This is why it’s important when you start a new business, to understand you’re going to have a Big Dip. And to have a strategy in place ahead of time to help you understand what quitting the business looks like… what set of circumstances will have you know when to keep slogging through or when to “strategically quit.”
I love that term – strategically quit. It’s a conscious decision you make based on the choices that are available to you.
If you realize you’re at a dead end compared with what you could be investing in, quitting is not only a reasonable choice, it’s a smart one.
In fact, quitting is better than coping because quitting frees you up to excel at something else.
Take a moment to think about this. Quitting frees you up to excel at something else.
You see, every business we launch is a gift. It is the best of teachers – providing us with a deeper toolkit to bring even more of our greatest work to the world.
When you view your business from the mindset of an entrepreneurial adventurer, you won’t have the constraints of success or failure holding you back.
You’ll do your absolute 100% best effort to create a successful outcome. But if it doesn’t work, don’t stay shackled to a belief that your bed is made and you must sleep in it. Let it go and move on to your next adventure.
Knowing you’re going to face a big dip is the first step in getting through a big dip.
When you create a quit strategy, you are giving yourself the necessary fortitude, tenacity, resilience, and perseverance needed to get through the inevitable dips of your business.
It will be much easier to slog your way through because you know ahead of time what “quittin’ circumstances” look like.
This allows you to embrace your dip… to celebrate all the fine-tuning taking place… because adversity brings deeper clarity… and deeper clarity brings you better results.
If you can get through the Dip, if you can keep going when everyone watching is expecting you to stop, this is when you can achieve outstanding results.
To be a superstar startup founder, you need to use the Dip as an opportunity to create something so extraordinary that people can’t help but talk about it, recommend it, and, yes, choose it.
Sure… it’s one thing to decide to stay, but how do you find renewed purpose when you feel shredded from all the heartache of failed attempts?
How do you keep fear from becoming an emotional chokehold on your business?
Well, It’s perfectly normal for your brain to want to focus on what’s not working, what could go wrong, and point to evidence of those failed attempts for validation.
This is when you must rein in your brain and turn it into a high precision tool to help you see solutions.
If you keep seeking the problems, you’ll keep finding them.
However, if you practice asking what, why, where and who questions, you’ll find solutions.
Please don’t ask how you’ll die in the depths of that dip. How is not where your focus needs to be… asking how creates more fear and leaves you stuck in paralysis analysis.
Instead… ask what do my customers desire? What will delight them?
Or if your business needs more capital, ask where can I find the best-aligned investors?
Or if you need to hire a specific role within the company, ask what are the best reasons to come work at my business and who has the exceptional qualities and experience to best fit the role?
These questions bring solutions because they reframe the problem, so instead of seeing an obstacle, you see an opportunity.
They open your mind to creative problem-solving ideas. They free you up to see the possibilities again, and allow the feelings of renewal and hope to return.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into Startup Life with Ande Lyons story. Tell us more about the business.
Using efficient, scalable strategies combined with innovative problem-solving skills and enthusiastic leadership, I mentor “underestimated and underrepresented” startup founders to help them accelerate toward objectives and maximize success.
It’s the possibility that motivates a startup founder, not the guarantee.
With 4 startups and an MBA to my credit, I know from personal experience what it’s like to lay awake at night, wondering where the next sale is coming from, how to find investors, and what resources to trust or use.
My ability to quickly identify winning strategies, effective resources and creative solutions that work for the business, while inspiring founders and their teams with my special brand of enthusiasm and positivity, creates momentum and success for the growing enterprise.
My affordable pricing reflects the often strapped financial condition of a startup.
Through one-on-one business coaching… or support in creating a Powerful Pitch Deck for Investors… I’m honored to serve startup founders everywhere with my special brand of Andelicious Advice.
It would be great to hear about any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve used and would recommend to others.
I encourage anyone who is on the entrepreneurial journey to tune into my podcast, Startup Life Show. I provide actionable advice for founders everywhere.
My favorite books for Startup Founders are: The Business Model Canvas, Running Lean, The Power of Broke, Profit First, and Crushing It.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://andelyons.com
- Phone: 978-886-4620
- Email: ande@andelyons.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ande_lyons/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StartupLifewithAndeLyons
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndeLyons
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andelyons/
Image Credit:
Ande Lyons
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