What Small Business Owners Need to Succeed
I have coached hundreds of small businesses, built a tech accelerator, and I am a small business owner. I know all too well the challenges of running your own business. The path to entrepreneurial success is full of obstacles, and it is a journey many entrepreneurs walk alone.
I started Climb Book Club because I wanted to give small business owners access to two things that I know are essential for success: 1. continual learning and 2. a community of like-minded founders.
Continual Learning:
You are the head of the company now, and you are technically the lead on all parts of your business. Even if you hire people to be subject matter experts, you still need to have enough understanding of their fields to know if they are doing a good job and coach them to improve. Continual learning is essential to improve your business, be an effective leader, and to stay relevant in the market.
According to some of our most successful leaders, their secret to continual learning is reading.
Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true. - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding - Bill Gates
You must feed your mind with reading material, thoughts, and ideas that open you to new possibilities. - Oprah Winfrey
With Climb Book Club, you get a curated list of books to read, guided questions to help you digest and apply the information, plus extra motivation to get your reading done, so you can be a valuable contributor at book club.
Community of Like-minded Founders:
Being the boss is amazing, but when you have questions - who do you go to? When you had a job, you may have talked to your supervisor or coworkers, but now those people don’t exist. Being on your own in business can be lonely and overwhelming.
As a founder, I am one of the lucky ones. In my last job, I helped to build an accelerator for LGBTQ entrepreneurs, so I was surrounded by founders every day. When I went out on my own, I had a built-in network of entrepreneurs to reach out to ask questions, find inspiration, and sometimes commiserate together. Without that network, I don’t know if I would be where I am today. I know the value of your network is immeasurable, and I’m not the only person who feels that way:
Entrepreneurs need support to not only survive, but thrive. No one understands the ups and downs, the struggles and success, the joys and the pain points, better than other entrepreneurs. Surround yourself with ones who genuinely care about what you’re doing, and be that support system to others. - Rachel McCrary, Entrepreneur.com
When you join Climb Book Club, we will go the extra mile to introduce you to entrepreneurs who will be valuable additions to your network. You will be asked a set of simple questions that will allow us to place you in discussion groups with other entrepreneurs that have similar professional goals and goals for book club. If along the way, you feel like you would like to move to different group type, let us know and we can make that happen.
Continual leaning and community - what every small business owner needs to succeed!
