Taking time to revisit the business plans, allowed us to see what skills our staff, as well as our leadership team (including ourselves) were still in need of acquiring. It was then that I was able to see that either my husband or myself needed to return to school in order to get an MBA. Within my first class, I began getting knowledge on how to GROW our businesses. I sat down with my associates and developed not only the ELEVATE (Empowering Leaders in Education Via Appropriate Teaching Environments) program, but the GROW (Give, Reproduce, Observe Work) program as well. It is sometimes necessary to hire outside help for the purposes of business marketing, development, technical support, etc., but it became too great an expense to do this for four businesses.
There are great programs and schools of business available for those of us who are too busy to sit in a classroom on a daily basis. I was able to find grants and small loans that covered the expense of school so that I did not have to make any initial financial investment. While it has been a challenge managing my time between family, school, business, and community commitments, the value I have added to myself and our businesses as well is far greater than the stress during this short season in life.
