HEIDI PRICE
Ask for feedback from your customers and take it to heart.
“Listen with your ears wide open because it’s the small little details that matter. Your customers are your business, you better listen to them because if you don’t you are not going to do well,” Price said. And don’t judge customers. “No judgement,” she stressed. “Everyone who walks through your doors no matter who they are, you better treat them the same. Some people miss out on customers because of judgement. That has been one of my true blessings is that all walks of life are beautiful and I feel blessed they are eating with me because they could have gone anywhere.”
Instead of letting fear stop you,
feed off it. “If you have a dream, follow through with it because if you don’t all you will have is regret,” Price said. “I am so thankful every day that I did it.”
Christy Dale works with her mother at Simply Beautiful Medical Spa in Gassville, but has owned roughly eight businesses on her own over the years. Many of the ventures were male dominated such as an auction company, tree service, and trash service, to name a few.
Dale says not to allow anyone to distract you or be a negative voice. At one of her first auctions, she stayed focused despite being uncertain. “I was standing elbow to elbow at an auction with a whole bunch of men who seemed like they knew what they were doing. I was the only girl in there. I got in there and did my bidding. I had a lot of them make rude comments. I persisted on learning by emersion.
CHRISTY DALE
Drop yourself into something and learn as you go,” she said.
Dale contributes her success partially to being stubborn, and her desire to always want to learn new things. “My best advice is to embrace failures and never give up because they are learning opportunities,” she said. “If you use those you will be a stronger person and have a stronger business. If you are investing in yourself, you cannot go wrong.”
Margie Raimondo owns Raimondo Winery in Mountain Home, and recently opened a second location in Little Rock. The California native has Italian heritage and her grandfather was a wine maker. She left Silicone Valley and a successful career to become a wine maker and sell gourmet food – her two passions. When a friend told her she should visit Arkansas, Raimondo fell in love and decided to make it her new home. Her first piece of advice is if you plan to start a business, make sure you love it because you’re going to have to work hard.
“People say to me all the time, ‘Margie, you work so hard,’ and I think ‘What are you talking about? This is work? I am so freaking happy. This doesn’t feel like work’ but that’s because I love it,” she said. There are trade-offs for everything in business and you have to weigh the trade-offs. “Ten years later, I am still trying to learn how to balance personal life with professional life,” Raimondo said. For example, if you want to grow the business and extend hours or open an extra day a week, the trade-off
MARGIE RAIMONDO
GAIL CLARK
is you have to pay more for staffing, spend more on electricity, and then work more yourself. You are going to lose money in the beginning. Hire good employees and build a support system around you because at some point you will feel like you’re going to burn out and good supporters will see it coming before you do. “They prop me up when I need it,” Raimondo said.
Before opening Petpallooza in
Mountain Home, Courtney Morris had no idea how much being a business owner would consume her life.
“It takes dedication and a lot of long hours. Being a boarding kennel, I knew it was 365 days a year. We are open 11 hours a day. When I go home I am still working. When you leave your business, there are still things you need to do,” she said. Morris recommends networking
through Facebook, associations and industry networks, and expos. Don’t just rely on what you know, stay on top of what you don’t know by taking continuing education courses so you can learn what’s trending in your field, she suggests. As a mother, the biggest challenge is time management and she’s still trying to conquer that one. Another key to success is to keep good employees and treat them well. If you can’t afford a pay raise, take them to lunch, offer a bonus, make sure employees feel appreciated because good employees are hard to come by and you need to rely on them. “They are my righthand people,” Morris said. Being a business owner
COURTNEY MORRIS
“is a hard road to go down but well worth it. “
Gail Clark, financial advisor with
Edward Jones, decided to make a career switch in her 40s because she wanted to help people plan for their future and achieve their long-term financial goals. She was not deterred by the fact that she was a minority in the industry.
“Less than 20 percent of financial advisors across the country are women, so, yes, you can say it’s a male dominated industry, but Edward Jones has taken huge steps to bring women into the industry,” she said. Now 20 years later, Clark finds great satisfaction in her job and particularly enjoys helping women plan for their future because as a woman she feels uniquely qualified to help other women. It takes gumption to succeed. “The best advice I have received is ‘Don’t give up. Don’t quit.’ Building a practice can be challenging but when you look back at the relationships you’ve developed and the good you’ve accomplished, it is so worth it,” she said.
A good way to market your business is to be heavily involved in the community. Clark has volunteered with a variety of not- for-profit organizations and is on the board at Serenity Inc., which helps victims of domestic abuse. Working with Serenity is so rewarding.
“Get
out there, get involved in your community,” Clark said. “Somebody told me once if you help enough people get what they want in life, you will end up getting what you want. It’s true.”
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