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SALT LAKE CITY — For many working women like Maryna Detsiura, launching their own business is a dream pursuit.
“I would like to start (a chain) of healthy snack bars,” she said. “I’m pushing myself to start as soon as possible.”
The Ukrainian immigrant was among the small group of aspiring entrepreneurs who gathered Wednesday in downtown Salt Lake City for a workshop on what it takes to become a successful small-business owner. One of the major takeaways she heard from the four-person, all-female panel was to be committed and smart about organizing any new business venture.
“Always surround yourself with people who already have experience and exchange (ideas),” she said. With 15 years in the finance industry, Detsiura, 40, said delving into an entirely new realm is a daunting task, but something she hopes will provide long-term fulfillment.
“It’s a little scary, but the most important lesson I learned today is to be motivated and realize, ‘You can do it,’” she said.
The panel of local businesswomen told the audience at the Microsoft Store in City Creek Center to be bold and confident in their ability to flourish, despite the often long odds of success when launching a new business.
“I can go through life all concerned and wrapped up in my inadequacies, or I can go through life seeking out other people’s gifts and talents,” said Wendy Bird, executive director of Pearls With Purpose Foundation — a Utah-based nonprofit that offers microenterprise training for disadvantaged women in the Philippines, Cambodia and India. The women involved in the program primarily make artisan jewelry using pearls and other naturally sourced minerals, she explained.
“Our focus is long-term self-reliance,” she said. “The women create the products, make everything by hand, (and) use good-quality (products) so that women in America would be proud to wear.”
She said her message to anyone desiring to become an entrepreneur would be to “have passion, discipline and integrity.”
“Every day you (have to) recommit to what you’re passionate about, and look for ways to make that passion come to fruition.” she explained. Revealing a wrist tattoo emblazoned with the word ‘HONESTY’ spelled out in all caps, she said one of the keys to success was to maintain a sense of honor at all times in your own business practices.
“There are a lot of people out there that can hurt you, and you just have to move forward with integrity with everybody you’re involved with so that good things can happen,” Bird said. She related a story in which former employees embezzled $50,000 from her organization — almost destroying the entire enterprise.
It was during that experience that her resolve as an entrepreneur was tested at its highest level, but she was able to regroup and keep the foundation afloat despite the nearly crippling criminal actions of people she had trusted so much, she told the audience.
For Meher Ayesha, owner of Axis Web Consulting, becoming a successful small-businesswomen required persistence, an open mind and hard work. Born in India, she arrived in the U.S. about 18 months ago — following a five-year stint in Shanghai — determined to pursue her goal of entrepreneurship after spending years in the unfulfilling world of corporate business.
“I would come into the cubicle and think to myself, ‘What am I doing with my life?’” she said. “I would ask that every day. I did not want to work for someone else.”
Upon settling in America, she set out to achieve her dream of working for herself, which required dogged perseverance.
“There are a thousand ‘no’s’ before a ‘yes,’” she explained. “You need to persist to find that ‘yes’ and not give up amidst the ‘no’s.’”
She added that with so many individuals around the world pursuing the same dream of entrepreneurship, the only way to succeed is to be as diligent and determined as possible.
“There are a thousand players out there, 7 billion people on Earth, and whatever you’re doing, there are 100,000 people already doing the same thing you are,” she said. “You have to be (knowledgeable) about that.”
She said America offers a plethora of opportunities for those who are ready and willing to work for success.
"If you are open-minded, (you will realize) everything around you is working for your success — if you believe in it," Ayesha said. "That can happen only if you have an open mind."
