Client comments:
“Thank you very much for all the help that you have given me both personally & professionally with my company. With less that 6 months of experience, your sessions have been instrumental in honing my focus, long term goals & mission. You are doing a great service to others who want a better, more valuable life and career – with much more control & responsibility over their happiness & success.”
“Thank you so much for all you do for us! It was a life changing weekend!”
“Thanks for all your help. We never would have made it without you and your team! The businesses we purchased are giving us quite a ride and we are enjoying it immensely!”
“Thanks for opening my mind and challenging me to think differently!”
“Thank you for providing your guidance in building a successful foundation for my business. It helped me clarify my vision. You truly have a gift at facilitating in a new and developing area.”
A Newly-Hatched Egg
Looks at the Incubator
I have been a client of The Incubator for over a year and I want to share my transformative experience with the entrepreneurial training program provided by Jeanne Larson and her team of “Trusted Advisors.” As is often the case, the perspective of the teacher who has already started six successful companies is different from the student’s who are just starting for the first time. As one of those INCUBATOR apprentices who just completed the four levels of training, I thought that sharing some insights from a new “chick” breaking out of the shell might be helpful. Breaking out of the shell of working for someone else into the new world of being an entrepreneur is a terrifying, exciting, freeing and over-whelming process – much like leaving any womb for a new life.
The first thing that struck me about going through INCUBATOR is how overwhelming the process is. From the first seminar where we have to define and clarify our goals, dreams and passions, you leave dazed and bombarded with so much new information and the beginning of a new paradigm emerging. Jeanne breaks it up into digestible chunks so you can make it to the next level, only to be overwhelmed with marketing and feasibility issues. The initial business idea that seems so clear in our heads gets refined and challenged as we convey it to others and experience the evolving process of growth. Like an embryo emerging into a self-sustaining entity, our ideas take substance and form by the level three-business plan writing. The level five financing your business, exposes us to ideas and resources that we will draw upon for years as our businesses expand and grow. What’s fascinating to watch is the confidence and clarity in us as we work through this transforming process. Our business idea is emerging into a new reality and so are we as budding entrepreneurs.
Breaking out of the shell is a great metaphor for what’s changing in us. We grow from passive, somewhat dependent followers of our boss’s wishes, into active creators that define not only the problems but also their solutions. At the same time our awareness of our own limitations and deficiencies cause us to reach out to the experts we’re exposed to through the INCUBATOR training process. Lawyers, accountants, marketing, insurance and financial experts are but a few of the teachers we encounter that are available for further consultation down the road. The real teachers however are the other “chicks”, for as we struggle to break through our own shells, we realize how isolating self-employment can be. The peer group where we get continuing education, challenges and encouragement to keep growing and stay focused on our business plan provides a nurturing setting for our growth. As different as all our business ideas can be, we find common ground in the struggle to break free from our fears and self-doubts. The crisis of unemployment and uncertainty becomes the opportunity to transform us into entrepreneurs and INCUBATOR, Inc. becomes the ideal nurturing environment to facilitate our rebirth.