There are so many wonderful lessons that I’ve had the honor of learning during this business journey. I never, ever, ever, wanted to own a business. I went out of my way to not take any entreprenuership classes in business school, it seemed so hard! Now 10 years later, I almost don’t recognize myself before I had a business. I think deep down inside, I always craved building something from the ground up. These are 10 lessons I’ve learned from owning a business for 10 years and running MaZi Dance Fitness. But first….
My artistic background
As you might now, I danced professionally since the age of 12. I never thought much about what I wanted to do when I grew up, because I was already doing it: dancing. Looking back, there’s a lot of “founder attitudes” in the dance world. Competition is fierce, survival of the fittest is the daily mantra, and you train, test and tweak. Every darn day.
My corporate background
I was happy when I worked corporate after grad school. Then I was placed in “emerging markets” at Best Buy, and I think it was there that my entreprenurial spirit came alive. I had to work creatively to prove things that might be, and test products and services that were just babies. There was just one problem; I was not in control. I could do all the legwork, have my backing data and know the right answer in my gut. However, in a huge corporation, I sometimes couldn’t cut through the red tape.
Turning point
I had the chance to leave my safe, happy, slightly entreprenurial corporate gig in Jan 2009. I was sick to my stomach about leaving a place I had grown to love. The offer was simple: anyone who wanted to leave would get 10 months of pay and other perks. The company wanted to restructure and it was their classy way of doing it while they still had boatloads of cash. I wrestled with the decision, and cried and felt sick and then the answer came with clarity. I had to leave. To do what? I didn’t know.
The seed that planted MaZi Dance Fitness
The first 2 weeks after I stopped working were dark. I felt lost and lazy. Then the next 6 months were amazing and the most unproductive and lazy I ever have been in my life. I traveled with my husband to wherever he was staffed for consulting. I lived out of hotel rooms and a suitcase, reading US Weekly, started my first blog called “NEWNESS” that nobody saw and freakin LOVED every second of no agenda.
Then one day at dinner, Nick asked me if I was ever going to “do anything”? I bristled at the question and felt personally attacked. Wasn’t I doing enough already? I mean I always was ready on time to go to dinner all dolled up.:) I was pleasant and accomodating, with absolutely no stress. When he saw I hesitated, he said that the only thing he noticed I did was work out and go to dance classes. Why don’t you open up a dance studio? The thought had been thrown out before by friends and I had never allowed myself to entertain it. I even took a quiz on some site aptly named “Should you own a business?” and when the answer came out, probably not, I shrugged and thought….right?! I don’t thinks so either. Haha.
However, the little seed that was planted grew so big that I could hardly think of anything else. When I saw my sister for my 30th birthday party in Vegas, I told her the plan. “We should open up a dance fitness business!” All we had done the entire trip was show each other different workout moves. Or, we would dance something we both knew as cardio and laugh and laugh. She went back to Houston, where she lived and I went back to my hotel room in Boston, where Nick was staffed and I thought nothing of it. Then 2 weeks later she called me and said, “I put in my 2 weeks notice, I’m doing this with you!”.
MaZi Opens in Wicker Park
We weren’t super strategic about location. I threw up 3 locations for her to choose from: Denver, Chicago, or Boston. She said Chicago because she loved the building there (she’s an engineer). 🙂 So it was decided and one weekend I came to Chicago and looked at 10 places before finding THE spot. I was about to give up and almost didn’t go to the last showing because all the locations were either to expensive, ugly or both. I called her and said, I found the spot, pack your bags! Fast forward 10 years. What have I learned in 10 years of having a business?
10 things I’ve learned in 10 Years of Owning a Business
1. Money comes and goes, but time does not
I have wasted money and time in not knowing what I’m doing as a business owner. Guess which one I’ve never gotten back? TIME. It’s hard to see and manage time because as the owner you have to spend so much time seeing what works and what doesn’t. That’s all fair and fine but it’s so easy to be inefficient with your time. My recommendation is to learn how to identify time drains right away. They can be people, systems, or yourself. No matter what you do in life, this is a useful lesson.
2. You can’t do it alone
You will need support systems and lots of them. Lean on your family, friends, fellow busines owners, team and pets. There is so much pressure to grow, thrive and survive that at times it will feel like you’re drowning. You’re not, it’s ok. Ask for help. This lesson has helped me in motherhood the most. Building a team is one of the most important things you will do. They are the soul of the organization and your relationship with them has to include equal, unconditional respect. Take your time finding people that are the right fit.
For the first couple of years, my sis and I taught almost every class. When we opened up the 2nd and 3rd locations, we did the same at each location. You can’t do good strategic work, if you keep doing the same things you were doing year 1, so finding people you trust to do it is key!
3. But if push comes to shove, you CAN do it alone.
I’m contradicting myself because, there are many times when you will HAVE to do it alone. Not because no one wants to help or you don’t have a support system. It is because sometimes you’re the only person that can do what needs to be done. And that’s ok. It will show you what you’re made of and it all accumulates to more and more confidence. This exercise is necessary for you to have longevity because you need to believe in yourself if you want to survive.
4. Maternal instincts
Now that I’m a mama, I can tell you that having a business is a lot like having a child. There aren’t many things you wouldn’t do for it. Stay up all night? Skip a meal? Work until you collapse? Yup. Motherhood is the same. There’s a big component of selflessness that has to be there for a business to flourish. Those instincts are key to keeping the business/baby alive. Analytics are important but so is gut feeling. I notice many parallels with motherhood and business ownership. We have opened 3 locations in 10 years and each time it felt like I left a big part of myself in each that I won’t get back. It’s not tragic, it’s just what happens when you pour every ounce of yourself into something.
5. Relationships are everything
In an interview with PureWow, they asked me about lessons in business. My answer was largely driven by relationships. This is what I replied. “Thanks to technology, today’s world can feel transactional, but relationships are everything. Respect, manners and genuine interest in others’ lives really matter. For MaZi Dance Fitness, we’ve had some relationships that are going on ten years. They mean everything. With Dancing Mama Style, I’ve realized that online relationships can be just as strong as IRL. There are people on Instagram I’ve never met that I am in touch with daily and are real friends.”
6. Your heart will be broken
You will most likely be betrayed in business and in life, and it will feel really personal, even though “it’s just business”. For us, it happened quite early at MaZi. Within a couple of years we had the 2 worst betrayals that we have suffered thus far. We had one person that tried to take advantage of our trust and naivete. I’m not ready to fully expose this but someday I will. The other person opened their own studio and tried to stay teaching at ours while they marketed to our clients under our nose. People will speak badly about you when you lead, it’s inevitable. Sometimes it will be outright lies. What we have found is that in the end the truth rises to the top and sets us free. When this happens now it still sucks but if you are doing your best, there’s nothing else to do.
7. Your heart will overflow
On the other hand, your heart will overflow some days. No matter what type of business you have, you’ll meet people that will change your life. And you will change theirs and it will feel a lot like love. I realize as I’m writing this that I haven’t talked a lot about making loads of money or having huge financial success. Obviously that’s pretty key to staying in business but it hasn’t been what has “mattered”. What has mattered is the fulfillment of changing people’s lives, even in a small way.
8. Self-awareness & Evolution
There’s something about having to move an organization forward every day that makes for understanding yourself better. You have to be uniquely self aware of your strengths and weaknesses to keep evolving. Evolution is non-negotiable if you intend to be in business for longer than a year. There’s dozens of things I’m terrible at and have had to chose whether to work on them or outsource. Which leads me to………
9. Work harder on your strengths
Whatever it is you’re good at, work harder at getting better at THAT. That’s your competitive edge and what will set you apart from the rest. I’ve read that great athletes do this as well.
10. The real secret sauce
My sister and I have worked really really hard to thrive in one of the most competitive fitness markets in the country. We’ve seen big fitness brands and small ones come and go for 10 years. But if you want to know the “secret sauce”, it’s God. We’ve asked him to help us serve him, even in small ways. On the days we are broken hearted or felt we might not last the day, we have prayed hard and found answers. Sometimes the answers are not the ones you want to hear. They will push you and pull you and require you to lose all ego, but in the end you’ll be closer to HIM.
10 lessons from 10 years of owning a business wasn’t an easy to piece to write, but I hope you found it honest and helpful. And if you want to be a business owner, don’t let anything stop you, especially yourself. It is a most wonderous journey. XO, Z
For more on business see here and for more on being a working mama, see here. XO, Z
