Kirsten Koppang Telford and Joanna Track

When many entrepreneurs think about stepping away from a business they've poured their heart into, it can feel like the end of a dream. But for serial entrepreneurs Kirsten Koppang Telford and Joanna Track, these transitions have been crucial steps that led them to even greater impact and goal alignment as they grew.

"Your business is an asset. It's not your baby," says Joanna, Founder & Chief Strategist of Good Eggs & Co., who’s founded multiple companies including sweetspot.ca, eLUXE, Newsworthy Co, and The Bullet.

She learned this lesson firsthand during her time running eLUXE, when emotional decision-making led her to keep staff on longer than was financially viable. "I was paying salaries with my own money, and it ended up being a huge mistake. As an entrepreneur, you have to separate your head from your heart and make decisions that are best for your business. But that’s not to say you shouldn't do them with empathy and compassion. To me, it’s about how you manage the decision versus how you make the decision."

For Kirsten, CEO of The Forum, whose entrepreneurial journey includes founding ideaPARK Communications (which would eventually become Cogeny Communications), Common Junction, and ePACT Network, each business transition has been about recognizing when it was time to pursue a greater impact.

To her, entrepreneurship is a career path, where each venture builds on the lessons of the last.

"It's easy to get stuck thinking 'I started a business and it failed, or I exited, and that's it, I'm not an entrepreneur.' But you don’t only have one chance to be an entrepreneur. If we look at someone who's had three or four different jobs, we typically see that as them learning, growing, and finding a path that better aligns with the next step in their growth. It's not any different for entrepreneurs. When they move on from a business and start another, they’re taking what they learned, taking the networks they built, and taking every mistake they made in business one and using that experience to build something stronger."

Reacting to Change Outside of Your Control

Both Kirsten’s and Joanna’s experiences highlight the importance of staying attuned to market changes and being willing to evolve.

When the dot-com bubble burst, Kirsten and her Partners at IdeaPARK had to pivot quickly from supporting startups to helping government agencies implement internet solutions. "The whole tech economy shattered overnight and our clients started shutting their doors rapidly. We had to look at it and say, 'okay, what do we know, and who needs that knowledge?' What we realized is the only people that were investing in anything at that time was the government. They were just catching up with the early internet days and starting to make significant investments into implementing technology to solve real problems."

Joanna also emphasizes the importance of market analysis when making business decisions: "You have to do a really thoughtful and thorough assessment of the situation. Don't just jump ship when the going gets tough, because the going is going to get tough at different points. Be sure that you're being very analytical. Look at the numbers, look at the reality, look at the market, and then decide: is this a bump or is this an earthquake?"

There’s Value in Every Experience

Both serial entrepreneurs show that even challenging business experiences provide invaluable learning and relationships that serve you in future ventures.

After eLUXE, Joanna found that her experiences—and particularly the challenges she faced—made her even more valuable to her next clients. "I’ll never forget one client, who led a fashion business and was a very brash kind of guy, who specifically told me, 'I'm hiring you because of your failures. I want you to come here and make sure I don't fail.'"

Kirsten agrees, and shares that serial entrepreneurs are often more attractive to investors precisely because of their ability to push through challenges. "You're more likely to get venture capital as a second-time entrepreneur than as a first-time entrepreneur because the venture capitalist is going to look at you and say 'Okay, you've made all the mistakes, you've been through the hardest parts of entrepreneurship, and even still, you have the tenacity to move forward and find a way to regroup.'"

You Don’t Have to Face Challenges Alone

Kirsten and Joanna both speak to the fact that you don't have to navigate these tough transitions alone.

"Don't be a hero," Joanna says. "You're not in it alone, there's no shame in asking for help, and there's no shame in telling people that things aren't going well." She practices what she preaches, and looks back on the moment when prominent entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den star Arlene Dickinson, who was also an avid reader of The Bullet, asked how her business was doing during the pandemic. Joanna was completely honest: “I said it how it was: 'terrible.' She did a deal with me on that basis, not because I said it's fantastic."

Now leading a national charity that’s proudly supported and connected 18,000 women entrepreneurs and counting, Kirsten’s no stranger to the power of community and the importance of finding it. "Your community of other entrepreneurs, the people who actually get it, are so crucial. It’s why organizations like The Forum are able to have such an immense impact.”

You’ve Got This

For entrepreneurs facing the difficult conversation of whether it’s time to move on or who’ve already done so and are feeling lost, they offer encouraging advice.

As Joanna says, "It always works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out, you're not at the end yet."

Kirsten also shares a powerful reminder: "Just by starting, you’ve changed the world, at least a little bit. Not everyone can say that.

Know that you’ll take everything you’ve learned from that business forward with you, and leave the parts that are not serving you behind. All the things you learned—for good and for bad—will set you up for your future."