Don’t fear debt, embrace risk, and more advice for women business owners

Sarah Halzack - No matter how solid your idea is, it’s never easy starting–or growing– a small business.

On Friday, administration officials, investors and entrepreneurs gathered at The Washington Post to offer advice on fostering a thriving, woman-owned small business.

Here are some of the tactics they think could help you take your business to the next level.

Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis Berman, sisters and co-founders of Georgetown Cupcake:

When LaMontagne and Berman were looking to open a branch of their booming sweets shop in New York, they encountered a vexing–and typical–small business problem.

They were getting loads of home delivery orders from New York residents, so they knew they’d have a built-in customer base if they opened a physical store. And yet the sky-high rents made the economics of such a move tricky.

“The only place that we could afford was this abandoned loft building in Soho,” LaMontagne said. “It had been abandoned for 25 years, it had graffiti on the walls, no back walls, a dirt floor. And we made it work because it was the one rent we afford.”

The risk paid off, as the New York location is now a thriving part of a national enterprise that employs 400 people and bakes 8 million cupcakes a year.

The sisters offered that experience as a case study of their broader advice to entrepreneurs: Be willing to take a risk, but do it from a foundation of deep research.

Nell Merlino, creator of Take Our Daughters to Work Day:

To get your business off the ground, Merlino recommends turning to your inner circle.

“I think what’s important for women to recognize is that is where most men get their initial funding–from friends and family,” Merlino said. “So that’s step one. And since the recession, that is often step two and step three because there’s less money available in a lot of areas.”

Katherine Jollon Colsher, national director of Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Small Businesses initiative:

Jollon Colsher highlighted confidence and a clear vision as crucial to success. But she said another more nuts-and-bolts element is crucial if a business is to grow significantly bigger.

“We meet a lot of businesses who aren’t willing to take on debt; it’s a source of pride for them,” said Jollon Colsher. “They get so excited, ‘I have no debt!’ But if you want to be a $13 million business, at some point in time you’re going to need to take on some debt.”

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