Maureen Edwards, Founder, 8 Simple Steps
Maureen Edwards is an award-winning marketing, branding, and business strategist, recognized as a leader in simply building businesses that make more money, keep more money and outlast the competition.
After inventing, patenting, and commercializing two pet products, she built her first company. After that, she built five more profitable companies and has worked with over a hundred other entrepreneurs to build or turn around theirs.
Her third proprietary innovation, the S.T.A.R.T. Blueprint, teaches and guides small businesses the science and strategies to build a profitable and sustainable business from the ground up or identify gaps and accelerate a fast turnaround to thrive and survive.
The S.T.A.R.T. Blueprint has generated $50 million in revenue for companies. In addition, Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker and instructor for national small business organizations.
She embodies and embraces entrepreneurship. She has lived it, done it, made many mistakes, experienced great success, and is now on a mission to make a difference in the lives of business owners, so they can S.TA.R.T. SOAR and STAY in business and enjoy the journey along the way.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
Clubhouse. It allows for real-time community building and discussion of relevant conversations with the greatest opportunity to build your business, network, and develop friendships.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
As the founder of 8 Simple Steps, my mission is to ensure as many entrepreneurs build a revenue-generating, profitable, and sustainable business and enjoy the journey of entrepreneurship along the way.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
I love seeing how people can be successful doing what they love and serving the people they can make an impact on.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Make fear motivate you, not derail you from achieving your dreams.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
My family motivates me, the entrepreneurs I meet inspire me, and the faith that "everything happens for a reason" moves me forward when things may not be going as I planned and it is time to reassess direction.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
Being married for 30 years and raising kind, smart, and hard-working children.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
I love events, either live or digital.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Resilience, empathy, intuitiveness, honesty, patience.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
Owning a business is not corporate America, and failure is not a dirty word.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
I admire all the entrepreneurs who took a calculated risk with only a belief in themselves and are working towards building a profitable business that can change people's lives.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I love interior design and home flipping. It is creative and artistic with just the right amount of business strategy included.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
Positive. I did a COVID pivot and took something that was no longer feasible into a successful company that allowed me to multiply my impact in a way I never thought possible.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
Yes, I have one, and I mentor, not coach, hundreds of entrepreneurs.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Build your brand before you build your company.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Impatience and lack of self-reflection. If they do not see the results fast enough, they stop doing it instead of assessing why the results are not happening and pivot accordingly.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
Don' let perfection be the enemy of good.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Thrive Cosmetics, Ulta, Spanx, ThirdLove.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Success is waking up every day with passion, clarity, strategy, and a positive mindset, ready to make an impact for the betterment of others. I have learned that life is so unpredictable. You cannot control some things that will happen to you. All you can do is control your reaction, and either uses the event to thrive or not.