President Laura Lane McKinnon started the meeting by reminding members of the Thanksgiving Card service project. If you have taken a packet home with you, please remember to bring the completed cards back to the meeting. We will be giving the cards to Meals on Wheels to distribute the cards to homebound and isolated seniors the week of Thanksgiving. Once all Rotary business items were discussed, Laura Lane introduced our speaker, Amy Shippy, who talked about entrepreneurship.
Amy describes herself as a serial entrepreneur and said that is is a high risk game. She loves the challenge of building a business by connecting the dots, putting everything together, and watching it grow. There are a lot of hurdles along the way that can stop you in your tracks. However, you can make something from nothing if you just keep moving forward. Amy says you need to be open to opportunities. Currently, Amy owns three businesses - Marche de Macaroons (which she started with $800), Blue Poppy Designs (she started with $1500) and Lottiebelle's. All of her businesses were effected by the pandemic. Thankfully, she was able to reimagine and pivot which helped keep her businesses open and even allowed them to grow during this time. She said staffing is the biggest issue she is currently facing. She ended her talk saying that you can't be defined by the things that go wrong. You need to define yourself but the things that go right.
If you would like to listen to more insights from Amy, she and Rebekah McLeod have a podcast called Lady BizWiz. Lady BizWiz is all about equipping women with business fundamentals and emotional fortitude who are in the launch phase or who may be stuck trying to take their business to the next level. The podcast can be found on most streaming apps/devices.