Ally Lozano is followed by thousands of women across the internet who are looking to chart a similar path to hers: reaching success as an entrepreneur. As an attorney who quit her job at a young age to start her own firm, and then going on to build that company into a multi-million dollar success story, she has since become a leading voice among female entrepreneurs, including other lawyers who want to branch out on their own.
The lessons she teaches her followers along the way center on how to adopt the right mindset needed for success in business, insights on marketing and sales and tips on what it takes to build a business in the 6, 7 or 8 figure realms. She has become a go-to leader in female entrepreneurship in her own right. We caught up with Ally to gain her insights into the opportunities that exist in entrepreneurship today and what it takes to reach financial independence.
What’s the most underappreciated lesson you’ve learned as an entrepreneur?
Ally Lozano: Self-education is key. You need to constantly be learning new things and the best way to do that is to read books and implement what you have learned. The more that you can keep yourself informed, the better.
What were some of the doubts you had when you first became an entrepreneur?
One of my biggest doubts about running my own company was that I believed that I was severely underqualified. I had an incorrect story that I kept playing over and over in my head that I couldn’t build a real business because I didn’t have an MBA. I thought that without business training that I could not become a great businesswoman.
That’s when I decided to “give myself an MBA” by reading every single business book I could get my hands on and trying every idea I could, even when they failed.
What was the greatest mindset shift you had to make to become successful as an entrepreneur?
AL: In order to be successful, you have to not just embrace failure, you have to rush toward it. So many people are afraid to fail and it makes them not even try. Failure is an absolutely necessary and unavoidable part of success. Now, whenever I have a new idea or want to implement a change, my team’s mantra is “let’s run toward failure.” We want to see every single flaw as quickly as possible so we can see if we can fix it, pivot, or let go of the idea completely.
Has the pandemic opened more opportunities for new entrepreneurs to take the leap?
AL: There are always opportunities. The thing is that you have to take action to get them. Everyone has a great idea (or two or three!), but very few people take action to achieve them. It is crucial that you 1- seek out opportunities and 2- take action on your dreams. The only person who can achieve your goals is you, so you have to get out there and go after it with fervor and dedication.
What’s the most important shift you need to make to take a business from 6 figures to 7 or 8?
AL: You must think of your business as more than a means through which you can do work that you love (i.e. an accountant having an accounting firm because she loves accounting and is a great accountant). You have to see it as an actual business and start to run it as such. The key to doing so is to implement systems. Automate as much as possible and make everything a system. I think it is important to look at successful business models, like Starbucks, to try to emulate their efficiency and systems. For example, I own a law firm, which is quite different from a Starbucks, yet my firm serves clients just like Starbucks serves customers. At Starbucks, each customer around the world has a consistent experience when we go into the store- we order in the same place, we pick up our coffee in the same place, we can customize in the same ways, etc. I have used that concept to try to give my clients a predictable, consistent experience when they work with my law firm. You can do the same in your business, and it is crucial in order to be able to scale to 7 and 8 figures.