6 Easy Lessons for Business Women & Working in a Male Dominated Industry
We’re continuing our conversations with female entrepreneurs!
Debbie Champion is someone I've known and admired for a very long time. She came from a family of entrepreneurs; they had a motel down by the beach in south Texas. Debbie journeyed from clocking in and out, to owning her own business, buying a franchise in a male dominated industry, and then moving into multifamily property ownership and management. I'm so excited to share Debbie's journey with you!
Lessons Learned Growing Up in the Family Business
Debbie is the baby of four kids; there's a five year gap between her and her next sibling. Her siblings had a very different upbringing than she did. By way of real estate, Debbie's dad managed to transition from his background as a lower-income Minnesota farm boy, to being able to build a beach motel in southern Texas.
Debbie remembers when her family first built the motel, when they were literally pouring the concrete for it. If you could imagine a classic 1960s or 1970s motel right on the beach with bright, colorful doors, that would be what it looked like.
Debbie grew up helping with her parent's business. She was about eight or nine years old when they first built the motel, and her mom and dad ran it full time. Debbie would help out with everything from running the register, to cleaning, to checking people in or out.
“I always thought to myself that I would never own my own business. It’s too much work. 24/7 hard work all the time ... but I also had my dad’s entrepreneurial spirit.”
One of the biggest traits Debbie picked up from her experience with her family's motel was her work ethic. Not only being able to work hard, but also knowing when to turn her work ethic off and just have some family time.
It's one of the most crucial things you can learn as an entrepreneur: how to live life outside of your business.
Starting a Business of Her Own
Debbie is VERY adventurous; she was the only one of her siblings to leave Texas. Eventually, despite her initial resistance growing up, she began to want to start a business of her own.
She first worked for OfficeMax doing outside sales. Debbie said sales was sort of entrepreneurial; the customers are your business. She loved the freedom of that job and was able to work from home. But, in 2008, she decided to transition into real estate.
“If you’re not a realtor, you don’t usually think of realty as having your own business or being entrepreneurial - I certainly didn’t in the beginning; I just jumped right in. But in reality, I was already being an entrepreneur and risk-taker. I just didn’t realize that until later when I owned and built a painting company.”
Somewhere along her journey of being a realtor, Debbie got a call from a title company she did a lot of closings with. The title company approached her to work for them in business development. It made sense at the time for Debbie and her household, but that's when she really began to feel like she was just clocking in and clocking out.
I'm the kind of person who can do a normal 40 hour work week in 20, so it really began to feel like I was just punching the clock to show the company I was working 40 hours, even though I was giving them so much more. It just never felt right.
For more of our thoughts on the 40 hour work week, check out this article.
Starting a Painting Business
It's fascinating how Debbie got into the painting business, especially with CertaPro Painters! She always had a resume on websites like Career Builder, and she kept getting teaser messages from franchise recruiters. In the beginning, Debbie was just curious, and she'd ask recruiters things like:
What is franchise recruiting?
What is your job like?
What do you do?
Can I do this job?
But eventually, Debbie and her husband began seriously talking to a recruiter, and they went down the path of learning about different kinds of franchises. Because there were so many different kinds of businesses, they had to develop parameters, like not wanting a retail space or not wanting to work 8-5.
The recruiter presented them with a few different franchises that fit their parameters. Debbie and her husband did their due diligence and researched what each of the businesses were like. Painting was originally at the bottom of Debbie's list; she didn't know anything about it.
But during their research, she and her husband realized that the painting business model had the best of everything they were looking for, including the people who were already part of the organization...so they bought a painting company!
Success in an Industry You Know Nothing About
Because they were using a franchise model, training was provided. Debbie and her husband could own the business and run it, even though they didn't necessarily know everything about it at the time. They learned all of the aspects of their new business with the training that was included.
But what about if you're not in the franchise model? How can you be successful?
Debbie believes it comes down to support. Even if you're not doing a franchise, it's good to have:
A network of support outside your immediate family
Resources and people in similar situations to you, so you can bounce ideas back and forth
A reliable outlet, or somewhere you can vent; sometimes not so nice things can happen
Working in a Male Dominated Industry
Out of 350 people running this same type of painting franchise, Debbie was one of 5 females. Painting is primarily a male dominated industry, and that comes with some challenges. Debbie gave us a couple pointers that helped her navigate those issues.
1. Be True to Yourself
Dealing with the challenges of a male dominated industry can be really difficult. Debbie recalled a story from 9 or 10 years ago...and it still makes her angry.
“There was a business owner I would buy painting supplies from. About 6 months into running my company, I bumped into this person at a networking event. He asked how I was doing. I gave him the numbers and said things were going great! And he just said, “Oh, I didn’t think you were going to make it.” Afterwards, his business did not receive any more of my business; he lost probably $100,000 worth of supply purchases from me. ”
That encounter really lit a fire in Debbie. She was stunned at first; she couldn't believe someone had said that to her. But her gut reaction was to become more determined. She chose to believe that anything she decided to do, she was going to do it. People like that can either get out of the way, or get on board and be partners. It's their choice.
2. Communication and Structure is Key
It's important to give guidance if you're at the head of a male dominated industry. Women, especially women in business, tend to be very organized and calendar driven. It's just how we get a lot of stuff done. Debbie said one of the things that's helped her the most is communicating and checking in with her contractors on a daily basis, asking:
What are you working on today?
What can I answer or clarify?
What supplies do you need?
What do you and your crew need to be set up for success?
Debbie has said that asking questions like these has been very well received by the men working around her. She also believes in the importance of trying to find common ground, and having a good sense of humor; both of these go a long way when working in a male dominated industry.
3. Include Other Women
Something that really intrigued me about Debbie's approach to working in a male-dominated industry was that she would include the wives.
“I got really good about inviting the wife to the interview. If someone’s going to work with me, I need buy-in from everybody so that everyone’s comfortable. This is especially true if you’re having a female boss telling you what to do.”
The Stress Never Goes Away
Eventually, Debbie sold her business with CertaPro Painters and moved into multifamily real estate and property management. I asked her what, if anything, had changed about her stress.
Debbie said her stress is different; it's still stress, but her obligations and priorities have changed. If she was still running the painting business, there's a staff, and painters, and customers. There's more focus on customer service and pleasing people. Unfortunately, there are some people you can't please, no matter how hard you try. There are some aspects of the industry you just can't control.
Going into the investment side of real estate has also been stressful, but in a different way.
Debbie decided to take on a couple of multifamily properties out of state while working on selling the painting company. One of her new properties needs a lot of work, so right now she's dealing with being the point of contact for all kinds of contractors, again mostly men, instead of just painters.
On top of that, investing in multifamily properties is huge financial commitment. Certain parts of the project have to be done on time to make them worth the investment; it's a lot of project management and moving parts.
What Would You Tell Someone About Being an Entrepreneur?
A lot of entrepreneurs rely on mentorship, so I love asking this question to my guests. Debbie was no exception, and she had some great insights!
1. I would have built my team sooner.
As entrepreneurs, we often think we have to do it all, and when you start a business that IS true. You are doing it all: cleaning the toilet, vacuuming, sales, scheduling, everything. It's easy to get bogged down and lose your passion because of the mundane.
Debbie and I discussed a book called "The E-Myth" that addresses this issue.
You could be the best cupcake maker in the world, but that doesn't mean that you know how to run a business. It's valuable for us to understand our business, but there are so many parts. It can be difficult to manage these other aspects of your business, especially if what you're doing is a deep passion for you; you want to focus on the passion and make the cupcakes, not balance the books.
This is why it's so important to bring people along quickly. Employees are a big investment and responsibility for companies. You have to have the cashflow to take care of them and their families, and allowing someone into your business isn't anything to take lightly. Debbie strongly agrees with the phrase, "Hire slow, fire fast."
...but at some point, you have to accept the truth that your time is so much more valuable.
“Why would you spend all of your time cleaning and doing paperwork, when really you’re there to lead others and sell a product? You are the brand!”
2. Accept Growth & Change
Being an entrepreneur requires growth and change; something are going to be a little uncomfortable. Handling conflict was one that Debbie brought up.
Not many people like conflict, and that was a big thing for me. I took some of the courses that the painting franchise offered in conflict resolution because I did tend to rush to that old adage of "the customer's always right." It's just the way I was raised. Now, I've learned that it's more important to listen to both sides of the story before you start fixing things. Slow down, and take it all in.
3. Listen to Your Intuition
Something I think Debbie is amazing at is listening to her intuition. When she's hears that little voice, she pays attention. She may bounce some ideas off a couple people too, depending on what it is. It never hurts to follow up on your intuition, and it's something we've both improved at.
Patterns of People
Over time, in whatever industry you work in, you realize there are patterns of people. Debbie and I both work in people-focused businesses. Debbie had a client once that her intuition said no to. When she didn't follow her gut and decided to go into the next step, problems arose; she realized her intuition was right.
It was hard for Debbie to let a client go - it was probably $20,000 worth of business. But not following your intuition can derail all of the other good things you could be spending your time on. The last place you want to be is trapped and dealing with a situation you know you probably shouldn't have gotten yourself into.
The flip side is also true. There are some times when following your intuition not only prevents a negative thing from happening, but you end up having an even more positive experience instead.
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I hope you enjoyed learning what it's like to be a female business owner, and some of the transitions we go through in business as we morph into these different roles. I'll be bringing you more of these badass, female entrepreneurs to share their journey, and I'm excited to see what the common threads are for them in their business!