Ep. 205 – Susan Alonzi - Starting, growing, and selling a business requires more than just financial support. Susan Alonzi shares with us her 18-year journey as a leadership development entrepreneur and how she handled the exit from her business. Susan Alonzi is currently President of Center Connection, LLC. and is on the Board of Trustees for Introspect International. She capitalized on her corporate experience in marketing, operations, and IT in the high tech-telecommunications industry, to being a successful entrepreneur for 18 years in the leadership training field. Susan consults in leadership and professional development, operational consulting, and coaching. Center Connection supports individuals, teams, and organizations in defining their role in personal leadership, through values and behavioral-based coaching. Susan shares her insights on starting, growing, and selling a training and leadership development business. This program is particularly valuable for coaches and consultants who want to build more than a lifestyle business. Listen in to learn the importance of knowing yourself enough to be motivated and take some risks as an entrepreneur. You will also learn the processes and strategies to keep in mind when planning to sell your business.
Key Takeaways:
- The importance of mentorship for support to get to leadership positions
- How to manage your mental and physical health plus your expectations as an entrepreneur
- Learn to ask for support and be confident enough to make decisions for your business
- Do what you can to bring value to your business and eliminate any unnecessary activities
- Start getting ready to sell your business earlier to ease things for the actual exit
- The value of having a GSA for your business to help you bag government clients
"Know what your business is worth." -Susan Alonzi
In this episode you’ll discover:
Susan shares her career journey before she tried her hand in entrepreneurship 18 years ago [1:52]
The valuable lessons she learned after many years of running a leadership development business [8:00]
The components to add to your business to bring value and move it forward [14:35]
How Susan and her former business partner shared responsibilities for smooth business running [20:12]
The importance of practicing resiliency and being open to changes during a crisis [22:19]
How they structured a framework of turning something small into a big business [25:41]
Tips on how to approach strategies and processes to sell your business [29:08]
She explains how her company trained and vetted external trainers for a good representation [35:05]
How Susan and her team translated their knowledge into paper to develop tangible processes [38:57]
The learning process that enabled Susan to work with government clients [40:52]
Understanding the GSA structural piece for businesses wanting to work with the government [49:03]
Susan’s advice to women planning to take on the entrepreneurship path and later exit [51:15]
CAREER
Susan Alonzi is President of Center Connection, LLC. Susan consults in leadership and professional development, operational consulting, and coaching. Center Connection supports individuals, teams, and organizations in defining their role in personal leadership, through values and behavioral-based coaching.
Susan is on the Board of Trustees for Introspect and continues to support Introspect through training and consulting.
As one of the original co-founders of Introspect International, LLC, Susan capitalized on her corporate experience in marketing, operations, and IT in the high tech-telecommunications industry, to being a successful entrepreneur for 18 years in the leadership training field.
Susan’s love of people and her commitment to supporting people in their personal and professional development journey complemented Introspect’s vision of “…changing people’s lives with the positive message we teach.”
EDUCATION
Susan has a degree in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Northern Colorado.
RESOURCES
Organizational & Employee Development
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