Laura Wagenknecht of Mosaic Business Consulting is a powerful leader in her space. Her focus is on helping women and minority business owners start, scale, and sell their businesses in a way that is efficient and effective. She has been an unofficial cheerleader and mentor to me this past year and I truly appreciate her love and support. She has a radio show called “The Mosaic Life with Laura W.” with some great interviews with a variety of business owners. Check out https://bizradio.us/podcasts and scroll down to find her show. If you are interested in being on the show as a guest (me! ????♀️), email Laura at laura@mosaicbusinessconsulting.com. Make sure to provide her with detailed information about what you do for your business.
Laura has recently been awarded Best in Business from the Asheville Chamber of Commerce! There were over 50 nominations! Well deserved – congrats Laura!! Feel free to connect with Laura on LinkedIn and on her website www.mosaicbusinessconsuliting.com.
First things first – what would your walk-on-stage music be?
Probably “Roar” by Katy Perry. At least I’m trying and learning to be more like this – to allow my voice to be heard.
When did you start your business, and why did you create it?
I began my business in 2018 with the thought of helping develop better leadership skills. And while this is still a passion of mine, I realize now that it is only part of the picture. I really have wanted to help women become more successful in general, and this passion continues today.
Tell us about your business and what makes you unique in your field.
Mosaic Business Consulting helps put the pieces together to help women and minority business owners and entrepreneurs start, scale, and sell their businesses for more money. The clients I’ve seen over the years have been teaching me, telling me what they need to know and how I can best assist them. Because of this, I shifted my business to meet their needs. With my diverse background in retail, healthcare, nonprofit, teaching at universities, and now business, I bring a systemic perspective and offer ideas that are out of the norm for some business operations. This helps the business move forward more quickly and effectively.
What do you feel makes your audience special?
Personally, I think women are amazing! I have had the privilege of getting to know these wonderful, super-smart, and extremely talented women and watching them run their businesses and gain success. Most of these women are amazing at what they do, but may need some help with running their businesses. While it’s possible to know it all, it’s great to know that we don’t have to! Personally, it lights me up when I’m coaching a client and can see the AHA moment or lightbulb go off in their heads. It is such a gift to be able to witness this and be a part of their process. This is another thing I enjoy about women – most are open to learning and growing, and moving forward. This openness works in their favor and lets them become something bigger than they ever thought possible.
If you could magically give all of your community members one thing in this world, what would it be, and why?
I think I would give people the ability to be less judgmental of others. When we stop putting labels and other limitations on people, the world has no bounds and can become something even greater than we thought possible. This would enable everyone to reach for their dreams and get closer to attaining them.
Has anything surprised you about starting a business?
I think the thing that has surprised me the most is how much a person has to learn and be willing to grow, not just in business but as a person. An entrepreneur has to be open to constructive criticism, learn from it, and be willing to change if necessary to build their business and their brand more effectively. The amount of iterations that my business has gone through is mind-boggling! I have grown throughout this process and continue learning and growing as I move forward.
Did you create your own website or hire it out? Do you use WordPress?
This is such a great question! ???? After many years of trying to do things on my own, I realized that I needed to rebrand my company. So, I reached out to someone who helped me with this process. Like my clients, I too, needed help in articulating what I do and how I differ from my competition. It was through this process that I realized two things: 1) While I love to develop marketing strategies and marketing plans, I hate to implement these things, and 2) I don’t want to learn much about websites – I would rather put my attention elsewhere to better assist my clients. So, I hired someone to develop the rebranding of the website. It is still under construction, but it is a far cry from where it was a year ago!
What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about starting their own business?
Do yourself a favor and definitely PLAN AHEAD! One of the main issues that I find in working with my clients, even if they’ve been in business for ten or more years, is that they aren’t using a business plan. A business plan isn’t something to write to get funding – it is a road map of where you are and where you want to be. It helps people figure out what they do in very clear terms and how they intend to build their business. If done really well, it will break down their marketing plan month to month and their financial projections month to month. This will help the business owner compare their projected values to their actual numbers and determine what is working and what course corrections are needed to grow the business faster.
If you could go back in time and do something differently, what would you do and why?
I would probably have taken my own advice and developed a business plan long before I did! I also would have outsourced my marketing about two years earlier than I did. I can only imagine how much further ahead I would be now.
Do you have an email list? If so, did you start it when you launched?
Yes, I have an email list, and I started it right when I began. It has grown substantially over the years. However, the CRM I’ve used in the past was not very effective. I have since changed and will be starting to send emails to my audience in the near future.
Is this your only job? Did you launch your business while working another job?
I actually quit working before I started my business. I probably wouldn’t recommend this to most people. For me, it just felt like something was missing from the work I was doing. I believed in the organizations and missions, but I was not enjoying the work itself any longer. This emptiness set me on a path of exploration. Through this exploration, I learned more about leadership, management, and, more importantly, my passion for helping women become more successful in business, regardless of their role.
How do you promote your site?
In addition to having a radio show where I bring people to the site, I am also beginning to use lead magnets and other tools to get them to my website. The main thing I need to do is add a VLOG! But oh, how I hate to make videos!
Who are your favorite bloggers or podcasts right now? Or what is an influential book that you’ve read lately?
This is a great question! I like podcasters who speak about more practical things someone can do rather than the basic fluff. I like to be given true nuggets of things I can implement in my business immediately to improve it. I also like some of the political conversations since this greatly influences policies that impact funding, support, and resources for women in business.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I have a new program that I’ve developed, called the AcceleratHER Business Program. This is specifically tailored to help women who are starting their business, as well as those already in business that want to SCALE their businesses to another level. It includes business planning, strategic planning, marketing strategy, imposter syndrome, time management, delegating (yes, you can actually do this at a reasonable price!), and much more! Learn more on my website www.mosaicbusinessconsuliting.com. To get to the link for the course links, they need to connect with me via LinkedIn.
