They decided to save the best for last and put ANDD the final site visit destination on the list. The ride there felt like the Super Bowl, giving me butterflies as I was walking into the building. Overall, I was very proud of our group for the questions we asked, and also our answers to questions on the spot in front of the class. ANDD being such a small, newer, company I was curious to see if we would be able to get the responses necessary to produce a top notch presentation, but after the visit I am confident our group gathered the essential information to deliver. Overall, it was an extremely delightful, friendly atmosphere that stemmed from ANDD’s mutual excitement to meet all of us, besides Meade, who they attempted to take hostage. Fortunately or unfortunately, the local handyman managed to save her with a random piece of firewood with a plastic ring around it, so we still have to write these blogs (kidding).
Similar to other people we have encountered throughout our visits , today we met a handful of very talented female entrepreneurs that ranged from all different types of ages. This is serves as a nice reminder that it is never too late to take control of your own life and become your own boss. It seems that all of them deal with a lot of risk and uncertainty no matter what line of business they are in. When you start your entrepreneurial journey, facing these hurdles is basically a right of passage, and are crucial to overcome if you want to truly be successful. Even if the business is surpassing expectations, the owner still has to make hard decisions that could impact the company without knowing what exactly will happen. These sort of leaps are scary to make at first, but sometimes business forces your hand.
A major difference that varies brand-to-brand is the mindset during the early stages. Some brands could be focused more on survival, simply trying to stay afloat when revenue is probably the lowest it will be. Other brands could be pedal to the metal NOW, marketing as much as possible to generate income that they can then put back into the company. No two brands are the same, so there is no right or wrong answer, which makes business so beautiful to me. Another difference is the role of the owner. While pretty straight forward, it was interesting to see the contrasts between companies like 1337, where the President has no coding experience at all, yet oversees all the operations of the biggest coding graduate school in the country. For Farah at CCCL, she’s been getting her hands dirty for 30+ years, working her company up to where it is now initially by herself, but now with like-minded individuals to help carry out her visions.
The women this afternoon all shared similar traits required to be your own boss. They were creative, outgoing, and hard-working. Even though they had different products, the general mindset was the same. Learning about how the classes focus on technological stuff like CapCut editing, TikTok videos, and Instagram account management, it was a pretty humbling reminder that those skills are not common everywhere in the world. After following all of their accounts, it is obvious to see when they had started their lessons because the content quality had increased greatly, further backing up how impactful organizations like ANDD truly are.