Founder of Unstoppable Women in Business, Susan Trumpler, on her Road to “Accidental Entrepreneurship”

Please share a brief introduction about yourself and your business:

I’m the founder of Unstoppable Women in Business and The Success Collaborative – our 6-month group coaching program for women online business owners. Not many people go into business because they are dying to become sales professionals! But… if you don’t learn how to make friends with sales, you won’t have any clients, money, or even a business!! I’ve written the book: “OH SH*T, I’m in Sales? The Entrepreneurs Guide to Making Sales her BFF and I invite you to listen to the first two chapters of the Unstoppable Women in Business Podcast. It would be great to get to know you!!

What excites you about being an Entreprenista League member?

I’m a collaborator at heart! Can’t wait to meet all of the wonderful women and support their success.

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

I’m an “accidental entrepreneur”. After being RIF’ed from a corporate job, I looked around and found ways to generate income that were fun and fairly easy to do using my sales background. I never looked back!

What was your background prior to starting your own business?

Corporate Sales for ADP then I went to work with a small sales training company. Eventually, I bought a sales research company and then started Unstoppable Women in Business. I’m painfully aware that the balance of power in both corporate sales and entrepreneurship needs to lean far more toward the woman-led side!

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

No! It snuck up on me and smacked me in the face. But now I love it and would never consider anything else!

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?

The first company that I ran my marketing strategy for was to become a channel partner to sales training companies. I still run that company under that model. But with Unstoppable Women in Business, I’m going the more traditional route for online businesses — networking, speaking, social media, etc. into funnels that drive people to some valuable events and then into my programs when there is a fit.

What is the biggest challenge you have encountered along the way and what did you learn from it?

BE PATIENT! A lot of the women that I coach think that they should be millionaires overnight. It takes time and patience. I like to call it the “Roomba” method – you know, the self-driving vacuum cleaner. It just keeps going until it bumps into an obstacle and then without any fan fair at all, it makes an adjustment and goes again. Repeat until success has been reached, or the floor is cleaned!

What is the accomplishment you are the proudest of to date?

Being an entrepreneur for over 10 years, providing for myself and my very comfortable lifestyle. Also, having my daughter as my business partner for almost all of that time. We are so well suited and it has deepened our relationship.

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

I believe in it – but not all within the same week or even month. I believe in SPRINTS — sometimes I work like a mad woman and then there are times that I slow way down and enjoy myself more. It all balances out!

What’s a piece of advice you can share that you wish you’d known when you first started your Entreprenista journey?

BE PATIENT! 🙂

What have you achieved recently that you’d like to celebrate with our community?

Writing the book was a big accomplishment. I never had a burning desire to write one, but once I set my mind to it, it was fun and with the support of a great publisher, it became a reality and it was a little surreal!

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

Scaling, of course! I want to create a coaching collaborative where other business coaches could run their own cohorts using the Success Collaborative methodologies. I would support the coaches, while they support their cohorts.

Learn more about the Entreprenista League and join today!