Designer, home goods guru, and author Jennifer Adams went from making other people’s beds as housekeeping to making millions annually off her bedding and furnishings line thanks to partnerships with major retailers like Costco and One Kings Lane. Her new book Love Coming Home is one part home improvement and one part self improvement, exploring the limiting beliefs that keep people from making improvements to their home.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“the biggest was my lack of belief in my own ability and the insecurity that I had. All I knew was working hard. And every decision I made was out of fear as opposed to thinking about what I wanted. And so when I was able to stop and reset and think what do I want, and go about my business that way as opposed to out of lack or out of fear everything changed for me. And so a lot of the challenges were in my own head. There were a lot of outside challenges as well. I had no money to start my business really and just getting financing was really tough. For a long time my credit card was my bank and we would pay it off each month but that was my line of credit”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The Secret by Rhonda ByrneFavourite Quote:
“if I knew I couldn’t fail what would I want and what would I do”
Recommended Online Resources:
Harvard Business Review – Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world’s best business and management experts
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“Ask yourself the question you asked me, ‘if I knew I couldn’t fail what would I do.’ And then start the basis for your business with that in mind. And then breakdown what it is you need to accomplish to make that happen and put it into small chunks like steppingstones. And then use your data, there is a lot of data at our fingertips, to first and foremost say: Am I in the right industry? Am I in an industry that has potential for growth? And then, what can be your point of difference? And then hold onto that point of difference. And then just now that entrepreneurship is an up and down rollercoaster. And because you have the ups and downs that doesn’t mean you are in the wrong business, it just means you are in business. And everybody has lows that come with the highs. And just really when you are at your high that’s when your business is the most at risk because we tend to think everything is great and we are not really sharpening our pencil and looking underneath the covers. And when we are at a low sometimes, we don’t have the resources to grow but that’s where we are at a sharpest because we are looking at all the inefficiencies and we are fired up to grow the sales and things. So just now is a normal part of business, don’t get complacent at the highs when you are at the lows know that the upside will happen”…[Listen for More]
More About Jennifer Adams:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
Zig Ziglar “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”
Other Quotes From the Chat with Jennifer Adams:
- “asking and getting a lot of no’s and finally getting a yes”
- “look to somebody who has accomplished what you want to accomplish in a big way and look to clues for some of the things they did well and some of the things that they didn’t do well”
- “the doubts don’t go away I just think you get more used to knowing they are a normal part of the process. You just have to know that the doubts and the fear exists and that it’s normal and proceed anyway despite that, just acknowledge that it’s there”
- “expand your vision of what is possible and don’t launch a business just because your friend thinks it’s a good idea or your parents think it’s a good idea. Expand your awareness of what is possible for you and then have that be the basis”
- “find a different point of difference”
- “for me the thing that has helped me the most is to turn my to-do list upside down and do the hardest thing first each day because it frees up my mental capacity to focus on the good and the productive and the growth things as opposed to saving the things that I fret over, they stay my mind and they cause delays”
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