"For Every Body" founder shares 10 lessons

Becky Anderson founded “For Every Body” 17 years ago with one purpose in mind – to teach her four daughters how to work that didn’t include a tractor. She also started a party planning company four years ago called “For Every Home.”

Becky Anderson

During the Entrepreneur Lecture Series on March 1, Becky shared 10 lessons she feels are important to achieve success in entrepreneurial endeavors.

Lesson 1 – Everybody needs a mentor. In business, who you know can often be just as important as what you know. Find a mentor who inspires you to go further than you think you can. My perspective changed in what I should look for in a mentor; not only should I find someone who is successful, I need to find someone who cares about helping me reach my full potential.

Lesson 2 – Dream big and set goals. Becky shared advice from one of her mentors who said to “dream big, paint your vision in living color, and then make it happen.” Our goals need to be specific and have timelines. What do I want? How am I going to achieve it? What needs to happen to get there? Are we asking ourselves these same questions? She said a Harvard study showed that 97 percent of people who write their goals down are farther ahead than those who haven’t.

Lesson 3 – Time management. This lesson struck me the most. As a full-time college student, it is easy to think more hours are required in the day. “We all have 24 hours in a day, how are you going to spend yours?” What are we doing with our time? Imagine if instead of watching TV, spending countless hours on Facebook, or playing video games, we focused on accomplishing our goals. What a difference we would see in our society!

Lesson 4 – Have Passion. “Have so much passion that people know where you work and what you do…bleed the company.” I love the idea of not only being passionate, but sharing and teaching others how to be passionate as well.

Lesson 5 – You must read to succeed. 65 percent of people do not read after they are done with school. I agree with Becky that “successful people are always reading and continuing to learn.” I learned that “if you study or read one hour a day about your field or specialty, you can be in the top five percent of the population within two years.”

Lesson 6 – It’s the fast that eat the slow not the big that eat the small. Take action! Don’t be afraid to fail. Keep moving forward.

Lesson 7 – Go where the hockey puck is going to be, not where it is at now. “Don’t become so in love with what you are doing as to miss out on other opportunities.” We need to ask ourselves, “what do we know this week that we didn’t know last week about…” followed by facts and hard data. Whether about our own business, competitors, customers, etc. we need to be aware of where we (and others) are going.

Lesson 8 – Don’t get emotional or take things personal in business negotiations. “Don’t EVER make a decision which will affect the long-term when you are in an emotional state. You never want those you are negotiating to see that side of you. Get mad somewhere else, not in front of the people.” What great advice!

Lesson 9 – Trust your gut but make educated choices. We will have chances to make choices based on our gut, but make sure it is backed by reasoning. Do not be afraid to take risks.

Lesson 10 – Have a Plan B. Another way of looking at this lesson is to not place all your eggs in one basket. Just like I learned in boy scouts, we must always “Be Prepared.”

- Steven Espinoza