Kristen Denzer is the CEO and Founder of Tierra Encantada, a chain of Spanish immersion daycare and preschool centers that feature organic, fresh-cooked meals. Tierra has four corporate locations with a fifth opening in Spring of 2020. They just launched franchising nationally in May – and already awarded a multi-unit deal.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Kristen’s Grandfather
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I needed capital where I had to get an SBA loan, I had to have a large space, I needed a lot of renovation and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I thought that having had several other small businesses I had it down and it would be easy but I was very wrong. I would say one of the biggest mistakes I made was underestimating how much working capital I needed”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE Book by Phil KnightFavourite Quote:
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Industry Facebook Groups – A Facebook Group is a place for group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion.
- Google LLC – is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
- Inc Magazine – get advice, tools, and services that help your small business grow
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“think about when you are older, think about when you are 80, 90 years old and what you would feel proud about saying and what you think you would regret. Because a lot of people they think about things and they don’t really look at the bigger picture. When you are that age in your older you are going to look back and you are going to regret the chances that you didn’t take, you will regret the time that you didn’t spend with your family, you will regret not going for it and doing something that you really loved and the time you spent working at a job that you hated. And so, the biggest advice I can give is don’t let yourself be someone who just wonders what if. Take action, even if it’s every day, whether it’s just one thing that takes you closer. Because most people underestimate the resources that are out there and how helpful people are”…[Listen for More]
More About Kristen Denzer:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Fall down seven times and stand up eight.” Proverb
Other Quotes From the Chat with Kristen Denzer:
- “People always are thinking oh I want to put down a smaller down payment so they try to cut as much as they can from the budget. But the problem is its banks they will give you 20, 30, 50,000 in working capital when you first ask them for a loan but when you open and you aren’t meeting your projections and you don’t have money to pay the bills they are not going to give you another loan then. And so it is way better to have as much working capital as you possibly can get at the start because if you don’t need it you don’t have to take it but you’d better have it and not use it than need it and not be able to get it”
- “what people can do is to just do it”
- “if I’m going to do something, I am going to do it. I am not going to do something halfway; I’m not going to do something that I think there is a chance of failure of and not really try. I’m going to be all in and I’m going to do whatever I need to do to make sure that it works”
- “I think that a lot of people they look at very successful entrepreneurs and they think wow they have it so easy look at everything they have but they forget that it took a lot of work to get there”
- “the best companies they aren’t built overnight, they take time, they take effort, they take energy and hard work. And it’s only going to be worth as much work as you put into it”
Leave a Reply