The BOSS Network Blog

Entrepreneurship is becoming an everyday normal thing, and according to INC Magazine people are starting businesses at an all-time high. The question is do you quit your job and just start your business? Or do you start your business while working your full-time job? For me, I work full-time in my profession as a registered nurse and run a successful business. It’s not because I am in fear of leaving my profession, but it is because I love the work that I do as a global nurse educator for oncology patients. I want to share some simple steps with you on how you too can start your business while working a full-time job in your profession. Start with what you have What is your expertise, skillset, or knowledge? You are the expert in your field, and you have something that no one else has. Start your business based on your expertise, and not based on what everyone else is doing. Passion and purpose are also a huge part of starting your business, but you must provide people with what they...

Sharon Smith is a natural negotiator and a self-professed romantic. Her genuine interest in people combined with her unmatched passion for helping singles find lasting love exposes her to willing participants everywhere she goes.  In addition to being the founder of Love Match, Sharon is also a Certified Dating Coach. Her savvy coaching approach in areas of love, life, and relationships enable singles to feel confident in areas where they were doubtful before. Holding a B.S in Business Management and Human Resources, she has a successful professional career spanning over 20 years in Human Resources where she cultivates her expertise in interviewing candidates, assessing talent, and personnel development. What were some obstacles that you faced in the beginning process of starting your business or career? Some obstacles I faced in the beginning process of starting my HR career, was learning to be patient. I thought no one could perform better than me, but climbing the Cor...

Building business credit is probably the most important thing to prioritize for business owners. Many startups depend on the use of their own personal assets to secure their funding. This is because they want to increase their creditworthiness. But today, building business credit is preferred by most business owners. The National Small Business Association has surveyed and as much as 27% of businesses claimed that they weren’t able to receive the funding that they needed. For many businesses, the impact of the lack of funding was stopping them from growing their business. Unfortunately, one cannot build a successful business and business credit without having a good credit history. Creditors will be reviewing your credit scores, and if they have nothing to review, they won’t know the risk they are putting their-selves into, worse than that is you will definitely not be approved. You might have heard somewhere that building business credit does not matter. If that’s true, then...

As my husband, Shawn, and I prepared to launch our entertainment management company, we sat down with each other, as we always do, and talked about our vision, and what we were setting out to embark upon. We’d spent countless hours up until that point, planning, pinpointing, and, most importantly, praying, about what we desired for our lives, our business, and everyone we would touch through it. We knew the type of clients that we desired to serve and how we wanted to nurture them and their careers within our firm, but we needed to go beyond that. We needed to think about not only how far that we as a team had the capacity to take people, but how far our clients, these brilliant, black stars (in every sense of the word) could take themselves. So, we came up with a quote that is now the guiding principle of our business: “Reaching beyond the limits of success.” There it was. With that handful of words, we set out to powerfully and intentionally redefine what success means...

Do you know your life’s purpose? Have you ever reflected on your life and wondered what is my purpose? Why am I here? These are great questions to ponder if you have not done so previously.   Why? There are three reasons. First, I believe that each of us has a purpose and a calling on our life.   Second, it is up to each individual to discover what that purpose is and to make a decision to be obedient to the calling. Because understanding your purpose, gives meaning to your life, it serves as a compass for how you live and how to prioritize things that are important to you.   Third, When you are connected to your purpose, your reason for being, you elevate your life,   show up powerfully in the world and increase your impact on the people you ultimately serve.   I believe that our life is about serving others.   Now many people talk about purpose, but for the sake of our discussion, let’s make sure we are on the same page.   I am specifi...

Do you need to reinvent yourself? What does reinventing yourself look like to you? What does it mean to you? Reinventing yourself is defined as “to change the way that you behave or the things that you do so that people think of you as a different kind of person.” As life happens, you may begin to feel that what used to work no longer works or is just too hard to maintain. Everything from children, marriage, to physical change can take a toll on how well you used to do the things you used to do. So the idea of reinventing may not all the way be based on what you do but more so how you do it. For example, if playing sports used to be your thing but lately you have been physically challenged, a healthy change may be to become a coach or a personal trainer. Other examples may be needing more flexibility in your schedule. Now, what do you do? How do you ‘reinvent’ yourself? I think it would be a good idea to write down all your skills, salary requiremen...

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of joining  The BOSS Network  as the keynote speaker for its annual Boss On Campus High Tea event at Howard University. The students in the room were highly engaged and eager to be motivated by the women leaders who dedicated their time to share the life and career experiences that propelled them to success! There was a dynamic panel that featured business and personal growth strategist,  Yvette Gavin , savvy music executive, self-taught serial entrepreneur and business strategist,  Kimberly Jones , certified dating coach and entrepreneur,  Sharon Smith ,  RN. Speaker, Author, Global Nurse Educator, Certified Life Coach,  Priscilla Q. Williams , moderated by  Cameka Smith , founder of The BOSS Network, which is named one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurial Websites for Women, by Forbes.com.    The women reflected on how they transitioned what they learned in their tradition...