Ossining Innovates kick-started my joining the Ossining Community.
How would you describe an Ossining Innovates! event?
An inclusive, welcoming space that makes you feel comfortable to ask anything without fear or embarrassment. It always feels like you’re amongst friends even if you didn’t know each other when you first walked in the door.
What brought you to your OI! event? What were you looking to get out of coming?
I first learned about OI! through the online community calendar Burbio. I was new to Ossining and had just started my own business. I was intrigued when I saw the “Meet the Entrepreneur Next Door” event and saw it as an opportunity to meet others, make some friends, learn something new, and learn about the community.
Being a shy person and a recent transplant, I had been a bit nervous about exploring Ossining on my own, going into new places for the first time. Since OI! rotates their meeting location, I was able to get introduced to new businesses at each meeting, like the Westchester Collaborative Theater, the Farmers Market, Good Choice Kitchen, and others. OI! helped me get connected and embedded in the Ossining community faster than I could have on my own.
And, while it certainly made me feel right at home in the local community - some of my closest friends I met at OI! events - it also has been a big boost for not only my startup, but also my new life living in Westchester. I’ve met clients and vendors who have helped me grow my business. I have met mentors, formal and informal, whom I feel comfortable talking with when I need help thinking through a new opportunity or bump in the road.
When Abby asked me how Ossining Innovates! has impacted my journey as an entrepreneur, I wasn’t sure where to start. Honestly I think everything I’m doing today has some kind of link back to working with Ossining Innovates!, Abby, and Henry!
What do you do differently now that you took away from attending OI! events?
A central theme for Ossining Innovates! is using customer-centric in-market experimentation to understand where there is a market need that you can meet, make money while doing it, and build the life you want to live. Henry in particular spends a lot of time reminding us that entrepreneurship is as much, if not more, about discovery than about a detailed business plan and roadmap. It’s about understanding what resources you have on hand, testing your ideas with a small amount of money, collecting feedback and data, adjusting, tweaking and moving forward. Through their tips and the lessons from their speakers you can’t miss that successful entrepreneurs regularly take stock of what is working and what is not, and then make changes or tiny adjustments.
When I first met Henry and Abby, I had just started a marketing and branding business. Since I’m not a graphic designer I began to realize that the reality of that business for me was farming out the work, spending most of my time on client acquisition and sales, and making little profit. At the same time, I realized what my clients really needed was help with project management, tackling their challenges and making forward progress by breaking down the tasks and obstacles that once seemed overwhelming into manageable steps. This was something many of my clients, other entrepreneurs, really needed. It was something I am very good at and I love doing. It also fits with what I find most rewarding: helping people and building my local community.
While I can’t say only the lessons learned from OI! brought me to this point, I can certainly say it’s been a huge part of where I am today. I’m really thankful these are lessons I learned before I invested too much time or borrowed any money to build a business that was not going to bring the financial or personal satisfaction I was looking for. I’m still on my journey, still very much a startup as I tweak my offerings to scale and my pricing packages to bring the return I want, but I’m much more confident and happy with my path now. And, I have the OI! community to look to, ask for help, offer help, and share the entrepreneurial journey. There’s still a lot for me to learn – that part is never finished, so I see Ossining Innovates as a continued part of my journey as well.
What one thing do you want people to know about your business?
I really enjoy helping young businesses and working with people who are going through a transition in their life and embarking on something new, whether it’s starting something new after retiring or after your children go off to school or making the transition from the corporate world to working for yourself, I can help. I enjoy helping my community and hope my enthusiasm is apparent in the work that I do.
What one thing do you think people should know about OI!?
OI! is in it for the community - Ossining and surrounding areas - and for helping the individual entrepreneurs to be successful. They are doing everything in their power to make it happen and bringing together people at all stages to join as speakers, mentors, participants. They are working hard, but it takes all of us to participate in order to make it successful. Join OI! for a meeting, as a volunteer, as a location host, help them help us!
Lana Kitcher
www.lanakitcher.com