If you are dreaming of building your own empire, but don’t know how to do it or where to start, the best place is to go to the source and find someone who HAS done it.
Last week, my ‘MASTERMIND. with Sherrie' heard from serial entrepreneur - Deb Farnworth Wood.
Deb’s remarkable story is one of moving to the other side of the world to retire - only to build a $70m business, Australian Skin Clinics and then launch a new business mid COVID pandemic, Issada Cosmetics.
With the experience that Deb has had building her own vast empire, she was the perfect person to share her knowledge with the ‘MASTERMIND. with Sherrie’ participants.
Here are some of the lessons she shared with us:
On experience:
Deb has an incredible breadth of experience across many fields of business. including pharmacy, GP Services, surgical facilities, dietetics, podiatry, nurse practitioners, counselling, secondary care services and in the multi-outlet retail sector.
This vast knowledge is down to her incredible work ethic and that any work experience is good experience. No matter the industry that you work in, you are building a skill set that can be transferable across industries. You should value these transferable skills as they can open many doors you never realised were there!
One of the greatest skills that she believes that you can have is one that every real estate agent has…Everyone needs negotiation skills, no matter the role that you work in.
On her businesses:
Deb has learnt many lessons in her years as an entrepreneur. One of the most important is to be self-aware about the potential of the business you are running. Businesses go bust and it’s not an unusual occurrence. Deb always recommends that you should have diversity so if something does happen, you have a plan B. In Deb’s case, it’s property!
In her operations, she has worked out that to diversify risk, let other people’s money work for you. This is via investors, crowdfunding and even franchising. You should also be constantly questioning how you can save the business money while maintaining standards and employee productivity and happiness.
On your staff:
Deb believes in the people that work for her and work with her.
No matter the company, people cannot work well in a bad culture, and you can pick the businesses that do. Culture comes from the top, so if you are struggling with it in your business, start with you.
To help build staff morale and have a business with a great culture, talk to your staff. Ask them: If we could do anything to make you better, what would that be?
On mindset:
One of the most important things that Deb focusses on is her mindset. Sometimes we can have an unhealthy playlist playing in our minds that simply isn’t true. Drill down what yours are and reset your mindset with the truth!
Deb’s 8 key steps to an entrepreneurial mindset are:
Opportunity recognition
Initiative & self-reliance
Future vision & goals
Creativity & innovation
Critical thinking & problem solving
Communication & collaboration
Comfort with risk
Flexibility & adaptability
Deb’s final three pieces of advice are:
Learn everything about everything
Don’t take no unless there’s a good reason
Be persistent.
If you are interested in registering your interest to be on the intake list for next season, you can find out more here: sherriestoror.com/mastermind.