Not every individual are capable of portraying the grit to follow an entrepreneurial trail. One has to be passionate and persistent over crafting his/her vision into a reality by surpassing all the obstacles in the way. A say, failure is the first step of success, which means that irrespective of the number of failures one faces, it is necessary to encourage oneself for being persistent enough to attain the desired goals.
Meet Stephanie LaTorre, Founder and CEO of EGM. A proficient leader who believes in the integrity of being sedulous for her work and the honesty required for a business to flourish in a long run. Her strong determination has led in achieving many milestones and to create a notable stature for herself in the world of web design. Besides, her compassion for budding female entrepreneurs has also assisted many women in creating their own websites for the growth of their business.
Below are the highlights of an interview conducted between CIO Look and Stephanie:
Kindly take us through your journey on becoming a proficient leader.
I learned my leadership skills while working as a Dining Room Manager for a private golf club in Rio Vista California and later for same position at Trump National Golf Club. Working in the hospitality industry taught me quite a bit about managing a staff and customer service. It is a delicate balance required by any manager and a good leader knows without it there can be no moving forward. Your clients and your employees are the two most important parts of your business. You must take care of those first before you can move your business forward.
How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to appeal the target audience?
We have programs to fit any type of learning style. For those who prefer the DIY teachings, we have a course, WordPress Express that allows them to build their website. We make sure that whatever method is best for you we have an option for that. I’ve spent years developing my training materials and programs and perfecting them to make sure that they are the best options available for any female entrepreneur looking to build their new website.
Describe some of the vital attributes that every business personnel should possess.
To me the most important aspects of any entrepreneur must be the ability to keep with it even when things don’t look like they’re going well. I’ve been in my business for five years fulltime and been through ups and downs all around everything that you could imagine. And after all of my amazing successes moments, there are still some days where I feel like maybe I should just give it all up like maybe it’s time for me to get an a.k.a. real job. These moments are completely normal. The difference between an entrepreneur that makes a huge success and an entrepreneur that fails with in the first few months is the ability to not giving up no matter what.
As per your opinion, what roadblocks or challenges are faced by women in a corporate business? And what is your advice to overcome them?
Many women when I started my business, many were unaware with the process of how to support their families and contribute while starting a business. When you start a business, it takes a couple of years and sometimes more to get things really up and running and maybe replacing what you were previously used you as a corporate salary. But the benefits are that you will exceed the salary that you were making at your proper position by 10 times potentially and will have more time to spend with your family, which is a major benefit of running your own business. The best advice I can give for a woman in that position is plan ahead as much as possible. Budget yourself so that when you are ready to quit your full-time position you have enough Funds aside for any possible outcome.
Have you in any ways contributed towards the cause of women empowerment.
I like to think that through my work, I’m helping to empower women individually. Many of my clients are female and have told me that through their website it has gained them freedom—a freedom to live and cherish their lives on their own terms. By creating their websites and helping to market their business I am helping them to create not only a new way of life for themselves but also for their daughters who are watching. There is a new generation of women being born and growing up right now that are not seeing their mothers go off to work all day or not contribute financially to home but instead being able to be at home baking cookies doing all the mom things and also running multimillion dollar businesses.
What are your insights on the necessity of ‘Women in position of power’?
And, how could it bring out a change in traditional male dominated industries? I have been very fortunate in my career. I have learned from some of the top mines in corporate business both male and female. I would love to see where the standard is no longer dominance on one side or the other but instead that it doesn’t matter. And I see that happening more and more each day.
How do you strategize your game plans to tackle the competition in the market?
I strategize my business on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semiannually and annually basis. In short, I am always strategizing. My job is not to be working in my business. My job is to be the leader of my company and pave the way for many others. I have a dream to grow my business and help over 350 women each year with their business and their website. In order to do this I have a team that helps me. By having that team in place I am able to spend my valuable time strategizing and making it possible for any woman anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection to build their online business with their website. One of my biggest strategizing tips as I give myself one big project every 90 days. This means that my focus for those 90 days besides my day today and month-to-month choir mints for my business are solely placed on this one big project. This could be the launch of one of my retreats. This could be the launch of one of my online programs. This could be something personal and not even business related. This allows me to focus 100% of my energy and focus and potential on this one project and give it everything I’ve got.
How do you upgrade yourself with volatile technological trends to boost your personal growth?
The officer in short it’s by working with people who know things I don’t. I have a coach to help me strategize. I have a coach to keep me centered. I have a coach to help me with my spirituality. And I have a coach to keep me fed. I am amazing at building websites but I am terrible at building cars. That is why when I need help with something I’m not afraid to ask, I go to the person who is the expert and get their help and learn everything I possibly can. Once I’ve learned it, I don’t stop. I look for the next thing that I need to learn to keep moving forward.
What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?
By the end of 2019, I will be launching an online space for those who have lost a parent to cancer. I lost my parents to cancer and I know what it does to a person no matter what age they are at. I only wish there had been more resources available to me to help me go through that transitioning time. I would like to create a free resource center for anyone looking for help after they have lost a parent to cancer. There will also be an area to make donations for cancer research. Currently, we have several resources that have been donated for this cause and we are continually growing to make as much available as possible.