No matter what stage of life you’re in right now, Angelique “MsLadyInc” Sharpe, is coming in clutch for Milwaukee’s emerging entrepreneurs by offering key business tips to youths, college students, parents and other individuals who are in different stages of life.
Sharpe is a multidisciplinary educator and prosperity strategist currently serving as the Entrepreneur-In-Residence for the Milwaukee Public Library, where she pours into youths, young adults and other community members during her Residency entitled “Entrepreneurship at Every Stage of Life” .
Through creating learning methods and partnering with organizations, Sharpe said she educates individuals on topics that aren’t normally covered.
“Everybody who’s teaching entrepreneurship is not an educator,” she said. “Just because you’re doing a workshop doesn’t mean it was effective or digestible.”
Here are tips Sharpe has for emerging entrepreneurs.
Use your existing resources
When considering launching a business, Sharpe recommends individuals start by visiting the Milwaukee Public Library to find foundational books and have access to free resources like workshops.
“If you’re starting a business and have no internet or laptop, you can check out a laptop and hotspot from the library,” she said. “They are also subscribed to all the major business publications like the Milwaukee Business Journal, Forbes, Black Enterprise, and Entrepreneur to name a few. It’s important to know what’s happening in the business world around you.”
She also encourages emerging entrepreneurs to connect with ecosystem partners for workshops and training. This includes the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp., Legacy Redevelopment Corporation, the Small Business Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and more.
“These are ecosystem partners that help entrepreneurs prosper,” Sharpe said. “Don’t just pick one, engage with as many as possible so you can cast a wide network of support.”
Sharpe said she believes that Wisconsin chambers of commerce are a good place to connect because there are ethnic and diverse chambers for African Americans, Hispanic, LGBT, Chinese, Black and other individuals.
“Entrepreneurs only do what they know, so it’s important to expose them,” she said. “You have to open their eyes to help them see where they are in this big entrepreneur system.”
Prepare yourself before starting a business
Before launching a business, Sharpe said you should understand the value proposition of your business.
Value proposition is identifying what makes your business unique and why a customer should use a product or service that you offer.
“There are millions of people that do exactly what you do,” Sharpe said. “When you know your value proposition then it becomes your pitch.”
She also said it’s important to learn the psychology of why people buy.
“If you know why people buy certain things, then that will be the backbone of your marketing strategy,” Sharpe said. “I personally haven’t seen anyone in the business world teach on that.”
Another thing Sharpe wants emerging entrepreneurs to know is their audience. She said entrepreneurs often market to users who aren’t necessarily their customer.
“You might create something for kids, but the kids aren’t your customer,” she said. “The marketing would be to the parents instead.”
Sharpe reminds entrepreneurs to make sure they are marketing to the people who are spending the money.
“Sometimes your customer and your user are the same person, but sometimes it’s not,” Sharpe said.
Create a plan and leave the pilot stage
When launching a business, Sharpe said people often think because they have a limited liability company (LLC) or nonprofit, it’s a business. But she said many entrepreneurs fail to have a strategy.
“To be a real business you need to have a roadmap of where you’re going,” she said. “A business entity without a business plan is a business that’s doomed from the get-go.”
Sharpe said businesses with no strategy can lead to other common mistakes like not leveraging them from the pilot stage.
The pilot stage is when entrepreneurs test their products and services among a small group of people like friends and family. This helps them identify potential problems before offering the service or product to a larger market.
“It’s OK to pilot your business as a side-hustle before you legitimize it, but people will launch their business and stay in the pilot stage without really utilizing that time to refine,” she said.
According to Sharpe, people do this so they can avoid paying taxes and keep a low profile on themselves.
“Operating as an informal side-hustle business is cool for a short while to test products or services, but when a real opportunity is presented, they won’t be able to take advantage of that because their business isn’t legitimate,” she said.
Understand where your money is going
Emerging entrepreneurs must understand how money flows through a business.
“Sometimes we think our revenue is our profit and that’s not the same,” Sharpe said.
Whether using a Google spreadsheet or other resources, Sharpe suggests creating a record-keeping system that will track where money is going.
“You’ll also be able to scale your business resources,” she said. “If you don’t know your business resources then you could be overspending.”
Find a business mentor
Most importantly, Sharpe said, find a business mentor that can help you on your entrepreneurial journey.
“Do not try to build your business alone. Find people who have already walked the road you are trying to travel, and do not limit yourself to just one. The smartest entrepreneurs build a circle of mentors for every stage of the journey,” she said.
If you are a Milwaukee resident interested in starting an entrepreneurial journey, you can register for Sharpe’s entrepreneurship labs on Aug. 17 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee Central Library, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Sharpe also has free entrepreneur drop-in hours to meet one on one to discuss your business endeavors on Aug. 5 and Aug. 19 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee Central Library in the Business Commons area.
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