Business Showcase: Yvette-Michelle Cottle Darby

Yvette-Michelle is a creative entrepreneur who has been an entrepreneur since 1994. In the initial stage of her entrepreneurial journey Yvette-Michelle worked from home, eventually branching out to having her own brick and mortar location on the beautiful commercial hub of Queen Street at the corner of John Street, Toronto Canada. Her second floor shoppe across from other creative entrepreneurs was the outlet for her personal designs — jewellery, hats, scarves, bags and purses — and a place where she also showcased work from other designers. Her creative venture was called, Verona Collections and included primarily one of a kind pieces and limited editions. After years of working in retail, Yvette-Michelle had to eventually face the reality that she was not able to keep her business afloat. She was experiencing cash flow and she had problems securing investors and funding, as a result she was forced to take her business back to her home studio and change from retail to whole sale. For many years you could find her creations at some of Toronto’s best specialty stores.

Like every thing else, one’s entrepreneurial journey often takes a turn, and when it did for Yvette-Michelle, she started another venture which she named Crafted Spaces through which she teaches sewing and other crafts including crocheting, knitting, and paper flower making. Yvette-Michelle started this new business working from her home studio and after some years of successfully doing so, she has moved into a commercial space in downtown Barrie in Ontario, Canada, which she calls her sewing studio. It is where you can find Yvette-Michelle from Tuesday to Sunday.You can visit her website for details of her sewing classes and courses; as well as familiarize yourself with her other offerings.

Her sewing studio is a very spacious and airy space that is beautifully decorated, deigned to facilitate teaching and learning. Here is a little glimpse of the space.

Photography by Yvette- Michelle Cottle Darby

Photography by Yvette-Michelle Cottle Darby

Photography by Yvette-Michelle Cottle Darby

Business Showcase: Dr. Carol Soloway

Dr. Carol Soloway is a business woman who retired after running a successful professional business for over 30 years. Dr. Carol Soloway is a Chiropractor who successfully managed her own business and who recently decided that rather than retire, transitioned to becoming a writer. Dr. Soloway believes that passion is needed in entrepreneurship. 

Here are some questions and the responses of Dr. Carol Soloway about her business and her perception of her entrepreneurial journey.

Is passion needed to run a successful business?

Without passion, you have no business. I started my chiropractic practice 30 years ago. In order to start my chiropractic practice, I sold my house — the only thing I got in the divorce, moved into an apartment and put all of the funds into the build-outs, security deposit, and one year’s operating expenses. I knew I had one year to make it or lose everything — oh — I also had $10.000 in student loans. Since we’d just moved to California, I knew no one. I was completely alone — parents deceased and no friends within 3000 miles. I started to network; I joined every women’s group I could find and connected one woman to the other. 

My network was built around the connections made at the meetings — corporate attorney, accountant, dentist and every professional group I could access. I even had a will drawn up although I had nothing to leave to my children. There were nights that I slept in the office, but within one year, I broke even and within three years, the practice grossed over six figures. After 15 years, my son came into the practice and I started to do more medical legal report writing and reviews. It took off due to my “over studying.” I now have all of the medical legal work I want and am booked up six weeks in advance entitled Sex Happens.  

What ignited your passion for business? And how did your keep your passion burning? 

I will attribute it to a very strong belief in myself and proving I could make it. After failing at “happily-ever-after” and getting divorced, I decided I had to succeed. My business depended on me and no one else. What kept my passion burning? It used to be an incredible sense of helping people find relief from pain.

After transitioning from your chiropractic practice, what have you been doing?

I am a medical legal evaluator and I do it for the intellectual challenge and monetary reward it brings — which makes it harder to keep me motivated, but my real passion is my novel, SEX HAPPENS. SEX HAPPENS is as gut wrenching as Eat, Pray, Love and as titillating as Fifty Shades of Gray which I am working on getting it published. 

To listen to some of the challenges that Dr. Soloway faced as an entrepreneur including divorce and managing and growing a business singlehandedly. You will also hear how she dealt with them. I invite you to join her on this pod cast below.

These are some questions that framed the discussion she had with Dr. Cheryl Cottle on Women in Business Radio.

1. Can you provide us with some details of your background, to fully understand your journey and experience?
2. What are some challenges that you faced in your business, in spite of the success you have made?
3. What are some strategies that provided the success you have gained?
4. What are some strategies and techniques that you wished you used in the earlier phase of the development of your business? 
5. How important is support — What was your support circle and how did it assisted you?
6. What can you say to a woman entrepreneur who is now getting into business, so that she does not make the same mistakes that you have made? 
7. Do you believe a woman entrepreneur needs computer technology to manage and operate her business effectively? Why is it an essential tool?
8.  Do you believe that social media a great place to increase her knowledge base in business and at the same time increase her networking capabilities? 
9.  If you have to advice a woman on business expansion, do you believe that global business development is an option for North America business women?

Check Out Business Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Dr Cheryl Cottle on BlogTalkRadio