My Biggest Mistake and How I Fixed It
Marcia Pledger, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Time: 11:30 a.m. Monday
Location: Room E 172
 

Mistakes are a gift when you learn from them, change and grow: But why practice trial-and-error entrepreneurship?

You can't eliminate all risk when starting or managing a business, but you can definitely minimize costly, unproductive and totally avoidable mistakes. Author Marcia Pledger shares lessons from established entrepreneurs who have successfully navigated roadblocks that come from dealing with employees, finances, marketing, technology and even working with family. Nobody likes to talk about mistakes. But in an economy this tough, there's no better time to hear proof of the proverb that the best teacher is not experience, but other people's experience.

Be fearless. Be daring. But make sure your business plan is flexible and includes securing advice from business owners who've taken their lumps with start-up and growth challenges. Talk to people who have already conquered territory you want to claim.

About the Speaker

Marcia Pledger is a journalist and author of the book, "My Biggest Mistake...And How I Fixed It: Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Frontlines." She's a business writer and columnist at The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, where she covers entrepreneurs in a bi-weekly Sunday feature, and women with a million or more in sales, in a monthly feature called "Women Empowered."

For most of her 20 year career, she's covered business, with topics that range from marketing, stocks, public and private companies, and business etiquette. She began her career at the Las Vegas Review Journal covering crime and later tourism. She freelances for national publications, including Money Magazine, where she's been a correspondent for 17 years. Marcia has an online business etiquette column and speaks to organizations about the topic, as well as what it takes for small businesses to turn adversity into success.

She's a graduate of The University of Missouri and has been acknowledged for excellence in journalism by the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists.

A native of Kansas City, Mo, Marcia is the wife of Derrick Pledger and the proud mother of a daughter, Nikelle.