Jan 5

Jan 5 Lessons Learned

In doing some reflection work last quarter, I was reviewing the following data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open
45% during the first 5 years
65% during the first 10 years

Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more.

The last statistic was the one I was trying to confirm. Because (deep breath here) The BWC turns 15 this year! 🥳

When Myrna Marofsky and I started The BWC - I wasn’t really thinking about the longevity of the organization. Our focus was to see if we could help women business owners reach $1.0M in revenue since only 2% of all women-owned companies ever make it past that. We thought we would “try it” for a year and see what happened.

Well, a lot has happened. Over the past 15 years and we have learned a lot - from our members, from others, and even from our mistakes. Here are a few lessons to share with you (which are also our values!).

Commit to the Experience

We learned in the beginning that our business is all about the “experience”. In fact, our purpose statement is about “Creating experiences that foster growth.” So our commitment to that is key.

Some of the key “experience” ingredients to our success have been our:

Curation process
Facilitators
Circle format with peer learning as the foundation

And that commitment goes beyond the Circle experience. We strive to make sure that a great experience happens at events, in our online member portal, in our newsletters, during the customer journey and even in interactions with others.

Focus on Growth & Support

Another learning we had is that growth is defined by each individual. Not everyone that joins The BWC wants to hit a million. Sometimes they want to create a well-run organization that they can pass onto a family member when they are ready. Or perhaps the growth is more personal or about their leadership.

Through our meeting format and goal sharing, we learn about what growth looks like for each member and then work to ensure we support them in that. And when I say “we” - that support comes from their peers just as much, if not more than it does from The BWC team.

Always Evolving

We all know that change is the only constant thing and it is happening at a rapid pace. But, what we have learned is that we don’t need to change for change’s sake.

Instead, we need to constantly evolve. As an organization we need to adapt to that ever changing environment and help our members and ourselves develop new skills and abilities to be successful in reaching our goals.

This means seeking out new and better ways to do things, testing and iterating (what I call “living in beta mode”) and constantly asking for and being open to feedback. And it means always asking if the “next change” supports the experience and growth of our BWC community.

Connect to the Community

As we all have probably learned, nothing gets done without the village”. Our 15 years is filled with examples of where the community has helped us every step of the way.

For example, the women of the WPO MN community have been key to our longevity. When we first started - they spread the word about our new organization and helped us get members for our first few Circles. More recently, we are partnering to hold a joint Galentine’s event for members to further connect our two communities.

And hopefully we have helped the community too. From making connections to experts and resources inside and outside of BWC, sponsorships, sharing our knoweldge and expertise as teachers/speakers and providing content and facilitation for some of WomenVenture’s educational programs.

It has been an amazing 15 years and we look forward to more lessons to learn and more years of Circles.