“Follow your dreams and if you want to do something then do it, but you’re going to have to work hard.” These are words to live by from Sylvia Leon, owner of the new restaurant, Soccer City. She’s taken this advice to heart as she operates her business and her family. The same thing goes for college freshman Attison Womack, creator of AGW Designs, a jewelry company. Both of these women lead very different lives and have faced different struggles when starting their companies, but they shared advice to help aspiring entrepreneurs maintain their upcoming companies. These women also have one thing in common when it comes to operating their businesses: perseverance. Although there are the basic skills you learn in school that could benefit a career in business such as math, there are other necessary lessons to be learned outside the classroom. Leon believes that one of these lessons is responsibility: “Well, I learned how to be responsible and organized, and I would not [have] been able to function today without them.” Kids running around, customers pushing in orders every 5 seconds, and training waiters are hat she sees on a daily basis, and she learned that keeping everything under her control is one of the easiest ways not to crumble under all the stress that comes with running a busy restaurant. Womack agrees with this lesson as well. As a new student in college, she learned that she needs to be responsible and do what needs to be done for her company so she can continue to succeed. Without a boss to tell her what to do or her parents watching over her, she has come to the realization that responsibility is the core trait a future CEO needs in order to be successful.

          Starting a business is not a simple task, and maintaining it is even harder. Many struggles go into a company, and it is different for each person. Womack found herself struggling with a lack of support. “I started to double major in business and fashion and people around me started telling me that I was making the wrong choices.” She had to learn the hard way that not everyone will support your ideas, but she overcame this obstacle by just fighting for her own ideas. “There will always be someone who doesn’t like what you do, but keep working for the people who will like it.” On the other hand, Leon faced another range of obstacles. “I’m Latina, so English isn’t my first language, and I didn’t understand the rules of America yet,” she explained as she described the process of opening Soccer City 3 months ago. “I had to attend classes in the library to learn English and business ethics.” She believes that if she can overcome obstacles as hard as these, then there’s always a way to work through your business issues.

          Running a company can leave little room for keeping up with a social life or grades without intensive time management and scheduling. For these women, it took a long time for them to grasp this concept. Leon herself has to balance between her family and the restaurant. She explains, “I have to spend most of my time at the restaurant and not with my kids, but I’m working on changing that.” Womack had to learn to balance work, school, and her social life. She described that when she first started in high school, it was much harder to find time to work while keeping good grades and friendships. She figured out that devoting about an hour a day to work, which may seem like a lot at first, but it was very effective for her company. Now in college, she has found it much easier to find an equal balance in all aspects of her life. Since she only has classes 2 days per week, she dedicates the rest to creating designs, decorating for events, and doing shows.

          Operating a business will never be easy, but these women have found ways around the hard times and are sharing their passions with others, whether it’s giving people a space to be with their families to creating beautiful pieces of jewelry, and Hutchison girls can take the advice given from these women who are working on perfecting their crafts to help them pursue their own business goals.