Starting a Business. Entrepreneurship for Women Over 50.
I enjoy sharing my passion for women’s leadership, advancement, and female entrepreneurship, and I was happy to be invited to be a guest on the For Women Over 50 podcast. This is the transcript of my recent conversation on how women over 50 can reach their business goals.
Entrepreneurship . . . for Women over 50
Host: Hi everybody, this is Maria Pesin, founder of For Women Over 50. We have a website and a Facebook group, and what we do is we share tips and ideas of how to make the next act in your life be your best act.
I am really excited to introduce to you today, Lisa Masiello. Hoping I'm saying that right, and she's an executive and a business owner, and she's going to share with you how her life has changed since she turned 50. Lisa, why don’t you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more.
Lisa M. Masiello: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Maria, for inviting me to participate with you today. So, I've been in the technology industry for about 30 years now. For most of that time, I ran corporate marketing departments for large technology companies and some really small start-ups, and I decided over time that I really wanted to work for myself. So, in 2014 I started my own marketing consulting business, stayed in the tech industry, and actually, some of my clients are some of the companies that I used to work for in the past, and now, you know, I also want to share my expertise that I've gained over the years. So, I'm starting now to write books, business books on marketing and women’s entrepreneurship to give women the advice and inspiration that they can go and do it themselves and to give them the support that they need.
Host: So, you're encouraging and teaching women how to start businesses once they get into the later part of their lives—either they’re switching careers, or they just don't like the career they were doing anymore. Maybe they want to retire, but they wanna do something a little bit, something on the side to just bring in some cash. Whatever their reasoning is, you help women take that leap of faith and take the next step.
What are your recommendations to someone who's interested in possibly doing this? What would you suggest she does first?
Ideas on How to Start a Business
Lisa M. Masiello: So, I would go online first. You know, so often, especially when we come out of the corporate world…you know, we have been in a world, in corporate America, where we have all the resources available to us, and there are so many people around us that we can work off of. Then when we start our own business, quite frequently, it's just us. We're a solo entrepreneur when we first start out, so we may, you know, especially over the last couple of years with COVID, we may choose to work from home, or we may be forced to work, and we're sitting at our kitchen table or our dining room table. We're trying to figure this all out, and we think we're the only one out there doing this.
The reality is that there are millions of women out there who are thinking exactly the same thing and wondering, can I really do this, am I alone, are there resources out there for me, and there are resources. So go online. Look specifically in your state to see what resources are available to women. I was fortunate when I did it. My first question was, what kind of business do I develop? Is it going to be an LLC, or an S corporation, or a partnership? That was my first question. And so, I went looking for help. I found because I live outside of Boston in the New England area, I found the Center for Women and Enterprise, that have a number of different locations around New England, and they provide support and funding and resources, and classes for women on all different topics related to entrepreneurship—not only starting a business but growing an existing business as well. So, I think the first thing to let women know is that they're not alone, and there are many, many resources out there available to them.
Business Opportunities
Host: I think also a lot of women don't even have a clue like what they should do. You know, how to pick a business. Should they do a licensing agreement with a pre-existing business where they have a branch, or should they start something from scratch? How would you advise them to come up with the idea of what their business will be about?
Lisa M. Masiello: Well, and those are things that that you can discuss. You know that was a class that I went to at the Center for Women and Enterprise. I know that the Small Business Administration also offers presentations and things like that. Yes, you're right, you may have an idea for a business, but you need to understand what constitutes a business. Is the idea that I have a hobby, or is it really a business? You know, maybe I like making jewelry and it's really something that it brings me a lot of pleasure. People compliment me all the time on how wonderful the jewelry that I make looks. But can I really develop this into a business? Is there a market out there? How would I charge for the jewelry I'm making? How would I market this jewelry? How would I let women know that I'm offering this jewelry? How do I build a website and those sorts of things?
Host: You know what you’re saying brings two things to mind. One is many times people do turn hobbies into businesses, and it's not uncommon because if you enjoy doing it and you're loving it, and it's something that other people would want . . . I mean, why not? And then the number 2 is, to me, the very first step is to look at the competitors out there and see what they're doing and how you can have your product be set apart from their products so that you are bringing something new to the table. Because let's face it, there's a million business ideas for every possible thing to do, so we don't need another business that’s doing the same thing. We need to have a unique perspective and what's called a unique selling proposition for your brand and what you can come up with.
Lisa M. Masiello: Absolutely, and those are two key points. How can you be different from everyone else? And the first thing you said is so important as well, and we so often forget about it. You have to do something that you love. If it's a chore, if you're doing it just because you have to complete the task, then it's never going to grow successfully into a thriving business because, don't forget, you have to not only work in your business but on your business. So, as business owners, we’re working doubly hard than if we were just going to a corporate job every day. You know, we arrived at 8:00 o'clock in the morning, and we left at 5:00 in the afternoon. Now we're working much harder than that.
Host: That's true. You know, there's a book about what you just said—that you have to work on your business, not just in your business. There's a great book by Michael Gerber called The E-Myth, and there's incarnations of it. He revised it every few years, so you wanna get the revised copy. But it speaks to why it’s important to not just work in your business but to work on it. I like that idea.
Lisa M. Masiello: Absolutely. And we forget, you know, because we have clients saying, “Okay, I want your service or I want your product," and that's what takes priority. So, one thing I would recommend and what I did . . . I had the resources. I looked at my financial situation when I started my business, and I said okay, I have the financial resources to be able to work on this business for about two years. Within that time frame, I need to make this business successful. I didn't want to get outside funding. I wanted to bootstrap the business, so I knew I had about two years of resources available to me. And I went, you know, because I had been in the technology industry for so many years, I did have a number of different people that I knew that I reached out to before I left the company that I was working for, told them what my plans were. They said the moment you leave, call us because we want your services. We know that you do great work, and we want to work with you again. So, I was able, you know, through those conversations, I was able to set up enough initial business that it took me through probably the first year and a half where I really didn't have to go out looking for new business. Of course, I did, because I wanted to grow my client base, but I wasn't in a panic to go out and grow my client base because I had already cultivated some of the people that I knew from the industry.
Host: Well, that's always important. In my case, when I started my consulting business, and I do have one by the name of Vibe Consulting, where I work with fashion companies to help them build their businesses. And when I started it, I hadn't planned on doing it. I had lost my job, and I was older, and I knew it was gonna be hard to find a position at my age because, in my industry, they are a little bit agist. They don’t want older people. However, if you consult, they don't mind. They like it a lot. But as an employee, they seem not to want to hire you no matter how high up. I mean, I was president of a company, so it's not like I was a junior salesperson or anything, but it was hard to find a job, and I knew I wouldn't be able to, so I started my own business as a result, and I just did what it takes to make it work. I decided that I wasn't going to have a Plan B. I was only going to have a Plan A, which is, “it has to work, that’s it.” That's how I pursued it. Nine years later, I'm still doing it and still doing it well.
Lisa M. Masiello: And you know something that you said there sparked my, a thought that I had that I think about every so often. You know, when I was in technology and in the corporate world, I was invited to speak at different tech conferences and things like that, and I always sort of pushed it off because I thought, you know, what am I gonna talk about? If I talk about marketing to technology companies, people know about that. What's unique and different? What's something that I know that nobody else knows. And so finally, someone convinced me to speak at a tech conference, and after the presentation, there were a number of audience members that came up to me and said thank you so much for this presentation. The topic was wonderful. We learned so much. Can I reach out to you and speak with you further? And it really dawned on me after speaking with a few people that I do have valuable information. I know things that other people don't know. I really can develop this into a business. I can add value and help other people in a consulting business, but it can work in any other business as well. So don't think that you can't add value, or you don't have something unique to offer because you do.
Host: And sometimes, even though people know the information, it's the way that you present it to them that's different, that they haven't thought of, that they haven't put it together in a practical way to use it, and you bring that clarity to the subject.
Lisa M. Masiello: Absolutely.
Host: So, what kind of clients do you work with for the most part?
Lisa M. Masiello: For the most part, they are between a start-up and, say, a mid-size of technology organization. They've been around in the tech industry probably for about five or six years on average. They have maybe 25 employees. In some cases, they have a couple of people in their marketing department, and they're looking for strategic advice as to how to grow their business, increase sales, generate more leads, and those sorts of things. But I do have some clients who are smaller. They have maybe five employees where the business owner is also the chief marketing officer and trying to wear all of the hats at the business and is really pulling his hair out because he doesn't have time in the day to do everything and so he looks to me to be his outsourced marketing department if you will.
Host: Is this a predominantly male business, do you find?
Lisa M. Masiello: It is. Absolutely. In the technology industry, most of the executives and the business owners are men, where in the marketing department, in many cases, the chief marketing officer and the marketing manager, the director of marketing, are women. So, if I'm dealing with the business owner, it's most often a man, but if I'm working with an existing marketing department, then it's women in most cases.
Host: So, how, give us an example of how you can help a woman entrepreneur—somebody who comes to you and says, “I want to start a business, but I don't know how.” What book or ideas would you suggest to her? I know you that you're writing books.
Lisa M. Masiello: Yeah, absolutely. So, what I'm doing right now is writing a book called She Did & I Will. It is what I hope will be not only inspirational stories of other women entrepreneurs but a real resource for women. I've had the opportunity over the last few years to meet with government leaders, nonprofit organization executives, and small business owners and entrepreneurs from different countries around the world, and we've talked about women’s entrepreneurship in the United States and many other countries. The same conversation kept coming up—the fact that in many countries women, they understand the value of entrepreneurship, but they don't take the first step because they are not presented with role models who look like them, talk like them, understand their cultural differences, their challenges, and those sorts of things and so my mission with this book is really to present the stories of different women in the United States and in nine different countries around the world and you know to interview them, talk to them about their stories, but then also provide sources—support resources funding resources, training resources, and those sorts of things, so that the women in each of those countries are able to not only see women who are like them, but then take advantage of the resources that are available in each of their countries.
Host: Do you have a woman entrepreneur that you admire.
Lisa M. Masiello: You know, I don’t have a famous woman entrepreneur or a well-known woman entrepreneur that I admire. The women that I admire have been the women in the classes that I attended when I started my journey in entrepreneurship—the women in disadvantaged communities. The women, you know, the mother who is a single mother of three children, and she's trying to finish her college degree and start a business at the same time, those are the women that I look to as inspiration for me and women that I think we should all look to, as opposed to someone who may be a famous entrepreneur that we all know.
Women Superpowers
Host: So, I'm gonna change gears for a second, Lisa. As you've gotten older and now that you're over 50, I'm sure that you've grown in ways that you didn't anticipate. What would you say your three superpowers are right now?
Lisa M. Masiello: Boy, that's a good question. I think the first one would be that I don't . . I've learned over the years that I don't have to have all of the answers. I can feel free to ask questions and appear inquisitive. When I was first starting out in my career, I was afraid to ask questions. I was afraid to appear that I didn't know the answer because I was afraid that I wouldn't get the promotion or I wouldn't get the job that I was looking for, and I think we need to realize that it's not a negative if you don't know the answer. Ask the question. It will actually help you be successful more quickly and be more effective because you are asking the questions and you're learning. You're not going off to your computer in the evening trying to find the answers to questions.
Host: I think people also like to give information, so they welcome the questions, and it gives them an opportunity to share their knowledge, so I think that's a great superpower.
Lisa M. Masiello: And that's really what I found. When I opened myself up as a new entrepreneur and said I don't have the answer, can you help me, it was like a community. It was like I had joined an entrepreneur’s club if you will, and everyone that I spoke to was willing to provide me with information and help and resources and so just ask, and the information will come.
Host: Great, and what's your second one?
Lisa M. Masiello: Well, my second one, I think I would have to say to give generously without expecting anything in return. You know, again, at the beginning of my career, I was very strategic. I was looking for the next position to get into. I was looking for who could help. What could I get to move myself into the next opportunity? But what I found over time, and I learned this because bosses in my career, my colleagues, and things like that who were very generous and shared what they knew, they really gave me the foundation for everything I have learned along the way. So now, as an entrepreneur myself, that's really my philosophy—to give generously without expecting anything in return. If you need my help, you know, I am free to share my time, my resources, my knowledge, my contacts, whatever you need. I am happy to share what I have to benefit you.
Host: So, tell me your last superpower. I'm sure you have more than three.
Lisa M. Masiello: So, I think this is a very important one. I would say “embrace change,” and I use the word embrace very specifically. I'm not saying don't fear change. I'm not saying accept change. Because those sort of have a negative connotation or sort of that deer in the headlight’s connotation, that if change happens, “Oh my God what do I do now?” But if you embrace change, there's opportunity in that, and no matter what change comes, there can be opportunities. So, you know, the tech industry is so volatile, and in the first company that I work for, after about 2 1/2 years, I was laid off, and I thought it was absolutely the end of the world, but a new and better job came of it with new opportunities and new things to learn and, you know, over time the tech roller coaster was fantastic at sometimes, and it was terrible at other times, but I learned to embrace the change and with that opportunities come. So, think of it as positive and not negative.
Host: Lisa, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure having you, and I'm grateful that you shared such good information for our women out there, some of which may be looking to start a new business. So, if someone wanted to reach you and find out about you, how would they do that?
Lisa M. Masiello: Absolutely. They could find out everything they need to know about me on my website at LisaMasiello.com, so that's L-i-s-a-M-a-s-i-e-l-l-o.com.
Host: That is great. And also, in the show notes, we will be putting her website on for all of those who want to find her. So, thank you, everyone, for joining us. For those of you who are not part of our Facebook group, look to join it. Also, if you link into my website and join up, you will be able to see all of the podcasts that come up. So, thank you for joining us, and have a great day, everyone.
Lisa M. Masiello: Thank you Maria.
