Entrepreneurship Lessons From Sara Blakely’s Masterclass

Sara Blakely’s masterclass is nothing short of a colourful journey. From having reinvented and redefined one of the most basic yet crucial aspects of women’s clothing, to dealing with the highs and lows that come in business. She has persevered through it all and come out the other side victorious, successful and happy with her life.

Her progress and ability to remain at the top of her game for over twenty years is what makes her stand out from the crowd. Yet, if you had to point at one particular aspect of what makes her different, that would be her formidable ability to drive change. Not only has she been a problem solver in her business, but also other areas of life. Sara is the first female billionaire to join the ‘Giving Pledge’, an organisation through which some of the wealthiest people in the world promise to donate at least their half their money to charity. The Sara Blakely Foundation today also invests millions of dollars in empowering and educating young women in the field of business and arts.

Her masterclass symbolises everything she stands for and gives you a personalised and detailed lesson on entrepreneurship. Some of those learnings are:

Understanding the market

Before Sara began working on Spanx, she never wondered who was actually making and designing women’s undergarments. As she got more involved in her business and began meeting people from manufacturing plants, she was surprised to know that men ran all manufacturing plants which made women’s clothing.

Around the time she had this revelation, Sara was able to narrow down her purpose for Spanx and understand the market she was going to be involved in. She realised you do not have to be the most experienced person in the field to redefine it. All you need to know is how to operate in a niche most effectively and uniquely, because quite often the people who are already making something similar may not have a unique knowledge required to disrupt that market time and again.

Developing your idea

As cliche, repetitive and naive this statement may sound, Sara believes the one question you must ask yourself when starting your business is,

What are you going to make that will change the world?

While this question can be intimidating, the solution often is not. To change the world does not always mean you need to invent like Elon Musk. Rather think about some of the basic things lying in your home that have had a universal impact for people across the globe. Things such as paper clips, coffee sleeves or even the wheel, have all changed the world in a meaningful way.

One of the ways to start is to remember that if you are solving a problem, chances are it could be a problem faced by many people around the world. The issue is nobody has yet made an effort to do something about it—case in point, Spanx.

Learn to ask yourself Why

The one question one must always ask themselves often is ‘Why’. The rationale behind this is that almost everything that is created around you is created by human beings which means they are bound to have flaws in them. Why you ask? Because we are fallible creatures.

Life is quite full of inefficiencies, and when you start questioning things around you, that is when you realise the reason something doesn’t exist is that no one has been able to make it well, no one has had the time to make it or worse, no one has even thought of the idea of making it.

When to share your idea

Quite often, the reason to share your ideas with someone close to you is that you are seeking some validation. Yet, doing that can be quite counterproductive to your business plan. Sharing ideas will often lead to feedback, and that feedback may not always be helpful even if the person giving it to you has the best intentions at heart.

While you may believe you have a great business idea, your friends and family may think otherwise. Despite waiting a year to tell her friends and family about Spanx, when she finally did, Sara had to deal with questions such as

• Well, honey, if it’s such a good idea, why doesn’t it already exist?

• Let’s think about this for a minute — even if it is a good idea, you’ll spend your savings on it!

“Had I heard that the moment that I had the idea, I’d probably still be selling fax machines,” Sara says.

The reason she waited a year was so that she could pursue her business idea rather waste time defending it from people’s opinions. Hearing all the reasons why your business idea might fail, will probably make you question it and give up on it, and that could have been a million-dollar idea.

The Entrepreneurial mindset

As humans, we are programmed to have self-doubt as a characteristic. However, those that know how to nip self-doubt in the bud usually go on to become great entrepreneurs. Try and teach yourself how to think. Learn to give yourself pep talks.

An entrepreneur’s ability to tackle self-doubt and have better control over your thoughts helps you navigate the failures and disappointments that come with the job.

Redefine Failure

Growing up, Sara’s father always asked her and her brother if they had failed at something in a week, and for each failure, they were congratulated. What this did was it turned the negative connotations of failure into something positive. The way it was perceived in her house was that failing at something meant that you had tried something, which itself can be scary to do.

True failure is not trying anything at all.

Selling your product or service

You may think that when you’re selling your product, you’re selling your product, but that’s not the case. You’ll be selling the problem that your product solves.

Break down your pitch and process of selling the product in three steps:

• You must be able to convince the stakeholder, whether that is your customer, your manufacturer or your investor that there is an urgent problem that needs solving.

• Appeal to their emotions so that they can empathise and identify the problem. This can be done by asking them if they have ever faced such an issue. If they haven’t, then make them feel for the people who have. For example, this is the kind of issue my friend, colleague, mother has had to face their entire life.

• Have the conviction to show your product as the only solution to this urgent problem that people are facing. To do this, you must first need to anticipate the kind of challenges your customers may have.

Don’t run after investor money

When Sara started Spanx, she did so with her own cash and zero outside money. While every business and industry is different, it is important to remember that if you are offered outside money, you should first question the very nature of deciding whether you want it because it is easily available or because you genuinely need it.

If you can solve some of the problems with your own time, effort and capital, choose to keep borrowing to a minimum. Getting outside capital is not going to solve your problems in the long run if you are not able to execute your business decisions effectively independent of the money.