How to scale your business
Business Wisdom
Secrets from a serial entrepreneur
with Marcia Kilgore
Many small businesses seek mentorship in one form or another, be it in a friend, peer or those they aspire to. We can benefit greatly by listening to their stories and learning from their experiences. And who better to learn from than female founder and serial entrepreneur, Marcia Kilgore.
Marcia is the founder of some of our most loved brands, with five hugely successful businesses to her name. From her first venture in New York, opening the star studded Bliss Spa, to cult brands Fit Flop, Soap & Glory and now Beauty Pie, her journey and personal approach to life have filled her with advice and lessons that so many small businesses need to hear.
‘I think I am a little bit like the Forrest Gump of female entrepreneurs! I end up in all these kind of crazy situations.’
Read on to learn from an expert and be reinvigorated as you navigate your own entrepreneurial path. From recognising and embracing opportunities to learning from your community and really testing your ideas with the ‘so what?’ test, Marcia’s top tips to any small business owner are unlike anything you’ll read elsewhere!
Growing up in Canada and losing her father at the young age of 11, Marcia’s incredible journey encompasses the magical entrepreneurial mix of a bit of luck, a touch of fate and unwavering grit and determination.
At 18, she moved to New York to study at Columbia University, but was dealt her first blow when her finances didn’t line up and she needed to find another option fast. A few twists of fate led her to a gym filled with New York stars, and her journey as an entrepreneur began.
‘You have to make your own mistakes, have that pain to learn and do it differently the next time. Because you won’t always believe somebody else. You have to experience it yourself and get it into your vibration so that you don’t do it again.’
Over the past two decades, she has built five incredibly successful businesses, each one delving into amazing products for amazing women, yet remains as humble and as enthusiastic as ever…
‘Success comes in many different forms. There’s financial success, there’s family success, there’s friendship success. So I don’t like to think of success as just being financial, but if I do have financial success it’s not about showing it off. It’s actually just more fun to be good at something.’
When her father passed away, her mother was not left in great shape and she felt there was a gaping hole for someone to say ‘don’t worry, we’ll get through it’. So she became that person.
‘I’ve always become the one who was like, okay, let’s figure out what to do. What else can we try? I think that [losing dad] really trained me to learn how to lead, think, be resourceful and come up with solutions. And so while it was horrible, it was also some very, very early training in grit and determination, which is super important if you want to be successful in anything that you do.’
What have five businesses taught her that can help you on your journey?
The ‘so what’ test
It can be hard to know when an idea is really good enough to go all in and start! Seeing as Marcia has started five undeniably successful and brilliant businesses, and confesses to having more ideas bubbling away, she must have a way of knowing when something is worth the risk…
‘If you are hoping to start a new business and you have a great idea, the first thing that you should do is check your idea against what I call the ‘so what’ test. You explain your idea to either yourself or someone else, and you have to be really objective about this. In two sentences, you explain your idea – why it’s important, why it’s different, why anyone should care and then they ask you the question. So what? And if you can’t answer in one sentence you need to go back and hone your idea more. And if you have an idea that you can answer the ‘so what’ question in one sentence, and it makes sense and it sticks in your head, you just can’t let it go.’
Add more dots to your page
‘You have to realise yourself that there are opportunities and it’s almost like a string unwinding to open up all of the opportunities to you. And I always talk to people about connecting your dots. It’s like a connect the dots puzzle. So as you add dots, you can draw new pictures and the more dots you have, the more intricate the pattern could be, or the more unique the picture could be. And that picture is your life. And it’s also your opportunity. So you add dots to your page and you have all different kinds of opportunities. I always encourage people to just add dots one at a time.’
The worse it is, the faster you’ll learn
After selling Bliss Spa in 1999, Marcia’s next venture was Soap & Glory, a tongue-in-cheek beauty brand with disruptive packaging. One of the key lessons she took with her from her first business was about making mistakes, that the worse it is, the faster you’ll learn.
‘You have to make your own mistakes, have that pain to learn and do it differently the next time. Because you won’t always believe somebody else. You have to experience it yourself and get it into your vibration so that you don’t do it again.’
‘I’ve always become the one who was like, okay, let’s figure out what to do. What else can we try? I think that [losing dad] really trained me to learn how to lead, think, be resourceful and come up with solutions. And so while it was horrible, it was also some very, very early training in grit and determination, which is super important if you want to be successful in anything that you do.’
Learn from your community
‘It’s so much more efficient to hear it direct from the horse’s mouth. If you can tap right into your customer’s vibration and make that your vibration, everybody’s going to be happy because there’s no friction. It’s evolution, how you perceive yourself, how you deal with problems, how you put your business out there, how you learn and how you grow and how you improve.’
There’s so much to learn from Marcia’s entrepreneurial adventures. Whilst she’s founded numerous big brands, it’s her small business approach that has allowed her to keep them fresh – innovate don’t stagnate! The way she treats her customers as a community, listening to and learning from them, has helped build loyal audiences with all five brands, and, underlying everything, her grit, determination and ability to learn from her own mistakes are what keep her evolving and developing – as a person and in business.
Cereal entrepreneur spoon: Twinkle Jewellery
Hear more from Marcia
From growing up in Canada and losing her father at just 11 years old, Marcia Kilgore talks to Holly about challenging the status quo, democratising beauty and a personal heroine for Holly, this conversation is truly inspiring.