Good Morning,

We’re all on paths to become bosses in our own rights. And what makes us great girl bosses is not the fact that we are good girls who never mess up. It’s the fact we’re human women bound to make mistakes, especially in our 20’s and 30’s. The good news is that we are not defined by the mistakes we make, but rather how we recover from them.

On the site, we recently shared 11 Women’s Biggest Career Mistakes They Made in Their 20’s. I too have had my share of mistakes in my career, some of which have unfolded before you in the public eye. As many of you know, I ended my first site, Necole Bitchie almost three years ago. It wasn’t a mistake that I ended the site. I had outgrown the content because it no longer represented the woman I had become nor wanted to be. The greatest mistake I made in my career was that in all the years I operated that site, I never once prepared for what would happen once the site ended. In short, I didn’t have an end goal.

There are a lot of courses, workshops, and seminars that teach you the art of starting a brand, but there isn’t as much emphasis on creating an exit strategy. Even while I was operating Necole Bitchie, I was approached for a seven figure acquisition. Clearly that deal never happened, but had I agreed to sell the site, all of my ducks weren’t in a row to negotiate a good deal that favored me.

My biggest advice for entrepreneurs and women starting businesses is to know what your end goal is so that you have a clear road map to reach your destination, whatever your goal may be. Do you want to achieve funding? Do you want to expand into products or become a huge media empire? Do you want to merge businesses with another brand or eventually be acquired? These are important questions that I did not ask myself while running my old brand.

Since I did not plan for my exit, I paid dearly for it financially, mentally, and and emotionally. But guess what? I did what a girl boss does and I learned from my mistake. When I finally recuperated and was able to start the brand xoNecole, I began with an end goal in mind that I did not have for Necole Bitchie, and that was to come out with a major acquisition or investment.

To prepare, I created a business plan, marketing deck and kept up with my companies profit and loss reports monthly. Preparation is so key! You have to be ready so that when the the opportunity comes you don’t have to get ready. My big opportunity came quicker than I could have ever imagined it would. Two years after launching xoNecole, my brand was acquired by none other than Girls Trip producer Will Packer, which is a testimony on its own that I can’t wait to share with you at a later date.

I couldn’t be more proud of my decision and am so thankful that it was a black man who saw my vision and the value of my brand and stepped in to help me expand and take it to the next level. I am even more proud that we are black-owned.

I think it’s important that you read our article and learn about mistakes other women made early on in their career. Read them to not only avoid making the same bad decisions, but to know if you’ve already gone down that same path, you’re not alone.

So check out these women’s mistakes and let me know in the comments section if they resonate with you!

xo,

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