Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Glenna Crooks, Co-Founder of CogentSage Group, located in Flourtown, PA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I help seniors – and their adult children – build the “village” of support networks they need to age in place, avoid expensive caregiving services, and allow adult children to stay in the workforce.

Tell us about yourself

I’ve worked in the government, private, academic, and nonprofit sectors and am now in my eighth career. What I did each one is similar: organize chaos and solve complex problems to make life better. Early on, that meant building programs to better educate children with special needs. To do that, I developed the first Individual Education Plans (IEPs). From there, I moved on to health care, working to create organ transplant programs, improve research on rare diseases, prepare for pandemics, and develop ways to support the health of children, women, seniors, and traditionally underserved communities globally. I helped build a vaccine business, have founded several businesses of my own, and have won awards along the way. My favorite was being named a “Disruptive Woman to Watch.”

What I do today was catalyzed by Robert Downey, Jr.’s mention of his “pit crew” in a W Magazine interview. That made me wonder about my pit crew and launched me on a decade-long journey of research with hundreds of people to understand their pit crews, too. I call them “networks” now and know that understanding and managing them well helps people of all ages live easier, better, more successful lives.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I have a long list of satisfied business and government leaders globally as clients. What is most satisfying is the trust they place in me to help. I know from experience that it can be stressful and lonely at the top when someone lacks trusted advisors.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Statistics citing the rate of business failures can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. They can undermine the self-confidence every business owner needs and get in the way of finding other sources of support – like capital – businesses need.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Remember that business failure statistics are about the past and other people. They are not about the present, the future, or you. Don’t allow those numbers to weaken your resolve to succeed.
  2. Take time away by working out, gardening, taking long drives, or doing other things you love. You’ll be more successful if you put some distance between your nose and the grindstone.
  3. You are virtually guaranteed healthy life decades longer than previous generations. Your opportunities to learn, grow and succeed are far greater than any generation has enjoyed in the past.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

The strengths and the weaknesses of every other part of your life will show up in force in your business to impact your success. For example, if your child’s pediatrician won’t return calls, your plumber doesn’t show up as promised to fix a leak, or your hairdresser always keeps you waiting, you’ll spend time and energy dealing with that rather than your business. Think of these people like Robert Downey, Jr. does, as part of a “pit crew” helping you to stay on the road. He said he needed a pit crew because he was “…a Ferrari, not a Ford.”

As a business owner, you’re at least a Maserati and deserve that same quality of support. The strengths and the weaknesses of every other part of your life will show up in force in your business to impact your success.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://cogentsagegroup.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glenn.crooks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlennaCrooks
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennacrooksphd/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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