She Who is Wise: Four Guidelines Every Entrepreneur Should Follow
Aug 11, 2011 | Professional Development
Receiving the WWPR Emerging Leader’s Award was a truly wonderful honor and I am grateful to have been considered among such a talented pool of women. It has been an empowering and motivating reminder that through all the blood – sweat – tears my firm has been able to make a real impact on our community. 
2011 Emerging Leaders Awards Winners - Tara Chantal Silver and Jennifer Mastin Giglio Starting your own business can be a taxing experience, but creating your dream job can also be most satisfying. After working in many different industries, I fell in love with the field of communications and became an entrepreneur because I always had a desire to build my own dream and control my own destiny. Three years ago, I founded SilverStrategy (silverstrategy.com), a full service public relations and public affairs firm. Having learned so much from others and from my own experiences, even the less successful ones; I have had the ability to coach many local business owners. It’s been one of the most fulfilling parts of running my own shop- assisting other passionate people to fulfill their own dreams. My blog, YourGoodIdeaFairy.com discusses the challenges of entrepreneurship and garnering strategic advantages through successful communication strategies. There are four major themes that I often recommend to business owners and hope that you will find them helpful resources in your own endeavors. 1) Your Edge is Key. Why you and your brand over competitors? Understand your market and figure out who your target is and then your plan for market segmentation. What is your path and edge that demonstrates your value to your targeted market? 2) It is not always about working harder, but working smarter. How effective and focused are you about accomplishing goals? Try not to get caught up in the tasks that aren’t moving you forward. It can be a challenge to focus on the long term goals while working on the short term ones so check-in with yourself every day by asking yourself, how you are allocating your time for needed strategic planning and goal setting? 3) Hats. As a business owner, your first few years can be the most demanding. Entrepreneurs wear many hats and play many roles - (IT tech, accountant, manager, director, etc.) - so learn how to deal/manage all aspects of your company, but I am a strong supporter of allowing the talent (you the entrepreneur) to focus on what you have to offer and hiring others for their specialty supportive roles. 4) He Who Is Wise. Learn why and what works for some companies and doesn’t for others and apply wisely. Make mistakes and learn from them along the way but if you can educate ahead of time, then you can make smarter choices. Play scenarios out in your head and talk them through for best results! If you can use these guidelines you’ll be ahead of the curb. Above all else make sure you are passionate about your business idea and motivated enough to grow and see it through to achieve the goals you have set out for yourself. Take a deep breath, accomplish one task at a time and just keep pushing forward through the good, the bad and the ugly! Take time to appreciate the guts it took to believe in yourself - this is an exciting time so congratulations. Please feel free to reach out with any questions and I look forward to meeting all the talented women of WWPR in the coming year. For more information check out my website SilverStrategy.com, and follow me on Twitter @SilverStrategy / Facebook. Do you have any questions about entrepreneurship? If you are already managing your business, do you have any additional themes or tips to share? What resources have helped you in your business? I'd like to help WWPR to start an entrepreneur's round-table on entrepreneurship. Would you be willing to get involved and/or help plan an event for this new group?
2011 Emerging Leaders Awards Winners - Tara Chantal Silver and Jennifer Mastin Giglio Starting your own business can be a taxing experience, but creating your dream job can also be most satisfying. After working in many different industries, I fell in love with the field of communications and became an entrepreneur because I always had a desire to build my own dream and control my own destiny. Three years ago, I founded SilverStrategy (silverstrategy.com), a full service public relations and public affairs firm. Having learned so much from others and from my own experiences, even the less successful ones; I have had the ability to coach many local business owners. It’s been one of the most fulfilling parts of running my own shop- assisting other passionate people to fulfill their own dreams. My blog, YourGoodIdeaFairy.com discusses the challenges of entrepreneurship and garnering strategic advantages through successful communication strategies. There are four major themes that I often recommend to business owners and hope that you will find them helpful resources in your own endeavors. 1) Your Edge is Key. Why you and your brand over competitors? Understand your market and figure out who your target is and then your plan for market segmentation. What is your path and edge that demonstrates your value to your targeted market? 2) It is not always about working harder, but working smarter. How effective and focused are you about accomplishing goals? Try not to get caught up in the tasks that aren’t moving you forward. It can be a challenge to focus on the long term goals while working on the short term ones so check-in with yourself every day by asking yourself, how you are allocating your time for needed strategic planning and goal setting? 3) Hats. As a business owner, your first few years can be the most demanding. Entrepreneurs wear many hats and play many roles - (IT tech, accountant, manager, director, etc.) - so learn how to deal/manage all aspects of your company, but I am a strong supporter of allowing the talent (you the entrepreneur) to focus on what you have to offer and hiring others for their specialty supportive roles. 4) He Who Is Wise. Learn why and what works for some companies and doesn’t for others and apply wisely. Make mistakes and learn from them along the way but if you can educate ahead of time, then you can make smarter choices. Play scenarios out in your head and talk them through for best results! If you can use these guidelines you’ll be ahead of the curb. Above all else make sure you are passionate about your business idea and motivated enough to grow and see it through to achieve the goals you have set out for yourself. Take a deep breath, accomplish one task at a time and just keep pushing forward through the good, the bad and the ugly! Take time to appreciate the guts it took to believe in yourself - this is an exciting time so congratulations. Please feel free to reach out with any questions and I look forward to meeting all the talented women of WWPR in the coming year. For more information check out my website SilverStrategy.com, and follow me on Twitter @SilverStrategy / Facebook. Do you have any questions about entrepreneurship? If you are already managing your business, do you have any additional themes or tips to share? What resources have helped you in your business? I'd like to help WWPR to start an entrepreneur's round-table on entrepreneurship. Would you be willing to get involved and/or help plan an event for this new group?