Lisa Nutt of Make Every Minute Count on personal and professional growth

Describe your business in a few words?

The Make Every Minute Count ecosystem encourages us to go (do that thing), grow (personally and professionally) and give (through a membership based family to family giving circle).

What made you take the leap to start your own business?

I’m a serial entrepreneur. This is the third time I’m in business for myself and the pandemic has made it even more clear to me that this precious life of ours is no dress rehearsal and it’s all borrowed time.

What was your background prior to starting your own business?

Both by choice and circumstance, I’ve had to redefine my life at least four times in this lifetime. I call it a curvilinear journey. I’ve earned my MBA and held leadership positions in both public and private organizations. I left a career in Higher Education in 2018 to embark on my latest entrepreneurial endeavors and commit to no longer surrendering my potential and contributions I want to make to the world to others.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

My mother had her own businesses when I was growing up so I’ve always viewed it as an option. She was my first business partner (I was 21 at the time) when we co-owned a restaurant/deli together.

Take us back to when you first launched your business, what was your marketing strategy to get the word out and did it go as planned?

As I mentioned before, this is my third (and hopefully charmed) time as a business owner. For this launch, I not only emailed my whole list of contacts but also developed a social media campaign on Facebook and Instagram. While I got some traffic to my website and FB page, it didn’t yield the results I had hoped.

We always learn the most from our mistakes, share a time with us that you made a mistake or had a challenging time in business and what you learned from it?

I lost a different business as a result of the Great Recession at the end of 2009. I had opened the doors to my specialty retail store in early 2007 and had broken even by that December. It was an exciting time. And then my sales plummeted in January of 2008. I knew before the economists and anyone else had officially declared it that something very significant was happening to our economy. I was determined to keep my business going so I started teaching, consulting, making changes to my offerings, collaborating more and eventually closing several days a week to reduce my costs. At the worst time, I was commuting over 200 miles two or three times a week for a part-time temporary job to help me pay my bills and ended up with less than $200 in sales the last month I was business. All of that taught me that no matter how much you know, how much you do, who you know, where you are located, what you have, it can all be lost to situations much greater than all of it and still we can redefine, re-emerge and rise.

What is the accomplishment you are the most proud of to date?

I’m most proud of taking everything this Universe and lifetime has thrown at me and learned, survived, thrived and remained hopeful of living out all of my dreams.

What’s next for your business? What can we expect to see over the next few years?

I’m excited to grow our membership-based Family to Family Giving Circle and developing more merchandise on my own in partnership with other companies and organizations.

Do you believe in work/life balance? What are some of your best tips?

I believe that balance varies moment to moment so having a full and robust toolkit of self-care tactics goes a long way. Something as simple as taking some deep breaths and listening to some good music can center me immediately.

What’s something our audience would be surprised to learn about you?

I’m a single parent by choice. I adopted my precious sons from the foster care system when they were 3 and 2 years old. They are now 11 and 9!

What are your top 3 tips to stay productive each day?

I use my calendar, notifications 10 minutes prior to anything and remaining flexible throughout the day.

What does being an Entreprenista mean to you?

Being an Entreprenista means I’m in the company of other businesswomen who are growing and developing their ventures at their highest and best levels. That’s incredibly inspiring and encouraging!