About:
- Your career always has the potential to skyrocket, and age is no obstacle. After some setbacks, Colleen Kochannek had a career renaissance and created an entire movement for older folks out there.
- Now, Colleen’s mission is to get the “Typewriter Generation” up to speed with the “Laptop Generation.” Some of you may know them as “Digital Immigrants” vs. “Digital Natives.”
- As the Founder of The Scrappy Frontier, Colleen is making a huge impact by helping women over 50 start their first online business with confidence.
- But these women aren’t the only folks Colleen can impact. Dr. Glenn Vo is in the same Mastermind Group as Colleen, and he’s been inspired by her amazing story and her constant hunger to learn more.
“Big Entrepreneur 3”
- You’re Not an “Air Conditioner Repairman.”
- Colleen likes to tell her students that they aren’t “air conditioning repair people.” Let’s say you have an on-ground store—retail, accounting, etc.—and the air conditioning goes out. Do you then shut down for six months and go to air conditioning repair school so you can learn how to fix it? Likely not. So, don’t do the same for your online business!
- We’re not experts on everything. Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest. You’ll move so much faster and you’ll make money much sooner. If you slow yourself down by trying to wear all the hats, you’ll inhibit your growth.
- Get Coaching.
- Don’t try to reinvent the wheel: get a mentor and listen to them. But it’s important to find the right fit for you; there are a lot of coaches out there. Do your due diligence by making sure your potential coach has a personality that resonates with you and that they’re credible.
- If coaching sounds out of your budget or like an investment you’re not keen on making, that makes sense. During the early phases of a business, there’s not much money coming in but a lot of money going out—but that doesn’t mean you should forgo coaching. In that case, Colleen advises that you start committing a lot of time to get into Facebook groups (or wherever else you’re comfortable going).
- Read anything written by Jen Sincero.
- Colleen is a huge fan of anything written by Jen Sincero whether it’s You are a Bad Ass at Making Money, Bad Ass Habits, and so on. Like Colleen, Jen belongs to the Typewriter generation as someone who is also in her fifties.
- On one hand, Jen writes all about self-responsibility—something Colleen had to learn the hard way. Running your own business takes a lot of self-discipline—nobody is there to make sure you’re sitting at your desk or meeting deadlines.
- Likewise, Colleen likes how Jen writes about prioritizing what it is that you really want. So many aspiring entrepreneurs claim they don’t’ have time, but we all have the same 24 hours in a day. The only difference is what we’re prioritizing and how we’re spending our time.
Learning From the Past
Colleen was one of those people who wanted to take the DIY approach with everything. In other words, she had a problem trying to be the “Air Conditioning Repairman” mentioned in the last section. Subsequently, it took about two years before Colleen was able to actually make money and launch a product. She wasted hours learning about stuff she could’ve outsourced. Much of her effort was spent doing things she didn’t wanna do, which meant she was being taken away from the parts of running her business that she really enjoyed doing.
If Colleen could talk to her younger self and shed some advice, she’d tell herself to jump right in—to “get things done rather than get things perfect.” And, on that note, she’d also tell herself that she shouldn’t waste her time doing anything she doesn’t love doing. Our time is very precious and if you’re not enjoying something then you shouldn’t do it.
Don’t Stop Here!
Visit Colleen’s business Facebook Page, Scrappy Frontier, or head over to her website at ScrappyFrontier.com. In fact, Colleen is currently putting together a new product line that is kits for helping you do a step-by-step process of getting started.