Janet is a mother of five boys, all of whom are grown now. As a lifetime entrepreneur with 40 years of experience, she currently runs two businesses and loves being busy and exploring all the possibilities.
Q: Why did you become an entrepreneur?
A: The funny thing is, nobody in my family were entrepreneurs, they were all in the medical field. I don’t really remember specifically choosing to become an entrepreneur – I just always had a business brain rather than a science brain. I’ve been lucky to have a thousand entrepreneurial ideas and a few that have been very successful.
Q: Tell us about your business.
A: I have two businesses, Writeology and Janet Gifford. Writeology helps small businesses with website content. By optimizing their website content, they can attract their perfect customer, and turn them into a raving fan and increase profits.
Janet Gifford is my entrepreneur coaching business. I work with new entrepreneurs, just staring out, and help them evaluate their options, ramp up quickly and earn a solid side-gig income that meets their goals.
Q: What is your personal mission or your big why?
A: I have been in business for 40 years – both in the corporate world and as an entrepreneur. I’ve gained a LOT of wisdom over those years and had a number of amazing women mentors (and my share of not-so-great bosses!) I’m excited that now, it’s my turn to mentor up-and-coming female entrepreneurs. And in all honesty, a solid retirement/financial portfolio is pretty darn nice, too.
Q: How do you integrate work and home?
A: I’ve always found a way to create a home office; sometimes it was the dining room table, sometimes it was a spare bedroom or a desk in the family room. For several years it was a dusty loft in a barn! And, I have ALWAYS carved out time for my businesses. Very early on I started the habit of creating my weekly/daily task list and not going to bed before each day’s list was done. There were many nights I was up long after my kids were asleep, but the sacrifice was always worth the extra time and effort.
Q: What has been your biggest lesson to date as a business owner?
A: It’s a lot harder work than people think, and it takes a ton of time commitment! I hear all the time “I’d love to own a/be a _________”. I always say YES! YES!, but I’m also honest in explaining what it really looks like from the inside.
Q: Do you have any advice or wisdom to share with fellow fempreneurs?
A: I’ve always followed this advice, and taught it to hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years: Ask Yourself: Would You Hire You? Meaning – be honest about how much time and effort you’re really putting into your business. If your goal is $5,000 a month, but your efforts are worth about $500 a month – you’ve got to ask yourself that question. As the boss, would you hire you? Would you keep you as an employee? It’s always a good wake-up call when you need to match expectations with efforts, in order to see income.