Successful business owners can make the process look effortless at times, but running a business is not the easiest thing in the world by any means! That is especially true if, like me, you work full-time and go to school in addition to owning your own business. Luckily, my time as a student has helped me develop skills to make my work easier.
I'm naturally an extremely task-oriented person and enjoy organized environments, so the project management portion of my undergrad was a great refresher on how to use those skills to the best of my ability. The organizational leadership segments of my major were an amazing learning experience for how to build better relationships with my clients. My graduate courses have been helping me to further that skill set to continue building and maintaining strong work relationships while also setting healthy boundaries.
I always use my maiden name (Dohr) as a pun, so I have joked for years that eventually I’d open a business using it. Prior to my business' initial planning stage, I had a friend open a small credit repair business and she was going to all these different places trying to get answers only to be given unhelpful information. She called me crying because she was spending more than her business was bringing in. I helped her set up her business plan and then walked her through other important processes until she didn’t have any remaining questions. When she sent a few of her local business acquaintances to me for help, I realized that I loved helping small businesses get situated and thriving. I sat down and created three different business plans and told myself I knew what I was doing. Despite some nerves and hesitation, I filed for my LLC. Thus, Open Dohr Consulting, LLC was born!
Though I had experience managing a team and working in a professional environment, managing a business is not remotely similar, which has been interesting. There’s a lot more project management involved and I’m continuously setting new strategies or changing processes for clients based on their business models. Without my undergraduate and now graduate coursework, I don’t think I would have had the confidence to just go for it, much less set effective boundaries to run a successful business.