MBA 057: Raising a Business with DANA MALSTAFF

Elevator Pitch: Who is Dana Malstaff?
Dana helps mom entrepreneurs start businesses so that they can change the world. By doing this she wants to show children that following your passion can actually be a sound decision.

Starting Out
She has always worked for small startup companies and enjoys the challenge they bring. The last job she had she worked with a consultant who saw potential in her and suggested that she starts her own business, specifically as a consultant. Having a mentor to guide her through the process really put her at ease. Immediately after starting her own business she fell pregnant. Dana jokes about her becoming an entrepreneur and parent at the same time. It was never her intention to be a stay-at-home mom; she wanted to run her own business. She wondered whether that made her a bad mom or a bad entrepreneur. She wanted to be good at both. During that time they also moved to be closer to Dana’s family. Coincidentally California was also more conducive to her business. She found it easier to connect with other entrepreneurs. She approached a book coach in her mastermind group. She wanted to write a book about the guilt she felt for wanting to run a business instead of raising her son at home. The book Boss Mom was born. She despised the fact that society tried to make her feel bad for wanting to excel at both.

First Business
In Dana’s first business she worked as a content strategist, but the business was slow to grow. When you run a business that’s based around services and products it’s a slow growth. However, if you decide that your brand is to be more than the services and products offered, according to Dana that’s when the magic starts to happen. When Boss Mom was released many people could relate to Dana’s situation. After that she started a podcast and group coaching programme to help those in similar circumstances. Boss Mom evolved from a book to a business, seeing rapid growth. It helped her to hire great people to brainstorm with her. They challenged her to think past the obvious and to come up with excellent ideas. Dana really sees the value in surrounding yourself with an amazing team. Only around two years into her own business Dana started to make good money.

Dana offered business coaching where she helped moms run their businesses better. From the coaching she gained the knowledge that she would eventually combine in a course, Raising Your Business.

Catalysts
When she first started working for herself and things were moving at a slow pace Dana attended a conference. During the course of the conference she learned that you should establish what it is that you do best and leverage that. She identified that she had a particular gift for content strategy and helping all the pieces of a business fit into place. Dana outsourced the parts of the business that didn’t align with her gift and could subsequently start to scale the business.

Adding Routine
Dana finds that routine simplifies her business. She has dedicated days for interviews and other days where she sees colleagues. Fridays always involve people, usually in a networking sense. Weekends are spent with her family. She also teaches her clients to batch tasks together.

Making Mistakes and Learning From Them
Even if you have a mentor you’re still going to make mistakes. The hardest part is being decisive and a good coach helps you to overcome that obstacle. Your objective shouldn’t be to not fail but to recover as quickly as is humanly possible after failure.

Multiple Income Streams
Initially Dana made her money from one-on-one executive facilitations. In her second year she built some coursework on Udemy and Skillshare to generate more revenue. Dana mentions that for every additional direction your business expands into, your expenses go up,