Susan Fennema is the Chaos Eradicating Officer (CEO) of Beyond the Chaos, a consultancy helping small business owners to simplify their operations and manage their projects so they can grow their businesses and get their lives back. With 30+ years of operations/project management experience in professional service industries, Susan is on a mission to improve American society exponentially. When not making multi-course dinners, she enjoys Texas A&M football games and Blackhawks hockey. She lives and works from her home in McKinney, Texas, with her husband, dog, and cat.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Susan’s Dad
When business started difficulties overcame:
“when I first started out, I traded a job that was not exactly what I was loving for a client that was the worst. It was like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. I did not even feel like I had started a company I felt like I went to work for a bad bad boss… When the opportunity came across my desk I am like oh this is great I get a client and it’s a well-paying client. And I have a bit of the fear of if I’m going to get enough clients – this will be fantastic. And I realised real fast that I traded better for worse here. I needed to fire my first client ”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Book by Stephen R. CoveyFavourite Quote:
“Plans Are Worthless, But Planning Is Everything…” The World War II leader and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Recommended Online Resources:
- Teamwork: Work & Project Management Software. Project management tool for client work. Teamwork lets you deliver projects on time and on budget all from one organized place
- Asana – Easily organize and plan workflows, projects, and more, so you can keep your team s work on schedule
- Slack is where work flows It’s where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“systemised your business, figure out how to develop a process so that you are not the bottleneck in every single step”…[Listen for More]
More About Susan Fennema:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“I choose to make the rest of my life, the best of my life.” Louise Hay
Other Quotes From the Chat with Susan Fennema:
- “you know you’ve made it when you don’t do anything you just set the tone” Susan’s Dad
- “keep it simple is what I wish I had known. And that’s one of those lessons again. We all probably know it but how you apply it to a consulting situation is a big challenge”
- “Without question you have to be confident. You have to be a leader even if you are a solopreneur who is a single consultant or a coach that confidence plays into everything. It’s how clients trust you. There is a quality of leadership involved in that that you have to display that when you are taking someone down a path that they can trust that they are going to end up in the right place. And that’s a lot of responsibility to take on. And so you have to be confident that you can lead them that way”
- “the act of planning lets you assess everything that could change or affect your project and your system so that when something changes… because everyone’s right… it will, you know how to adapt to it”
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