Tennis champion and Olympic gold medalist Venus Williams has some advice for the more than 30 million small business owners and entrepreneurs across the U.S. struggling to find their footing in the new normal: Don’t let fear take over. It’s a lesson she learned at the age of 19 while competing with sister Serena, then 17, at the 1999 U.S. Open. Williams only made it to the semi-finals—her sister went on to win the tournament.



“I let fear take over, and that&#8217;s where I should have just let go and would have been my best,” she says. “You want more, and you work very hard for more, so less than that is just&nbsp;not&nbsp;acceptable. That was my biggest loss.”&nbsp;



Speaking to&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;ahead of the American Express “<a href="https://about.americanexpress.com/all-news/news-details/2020/American-Express-to-Host-Ninth-Annual-Business-Class-LIVE-Summit-for-Success-for-Small-Businesses/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Business Class Live: Summit for Success</a>” on October 20, Williams drew parallels between her experience playing tennis and running various businesses during the pandemic. “Even though it’s a very challenging time it’s an opportunity to really refine your business and make it something that is a service or a product that is really needed and not just wanted,” says Williams, the founder of full-service commercial and residential design firm V Starr and activewear brand EleVen by Venus Williams. “This year showed all of us that we need to be a product or service that you can’t say no to.”



All entrepreneurs can benefit from that guidance right now. As of August 31, more than 163,000 businesses have closed as a result of the pandemic, according to Yelp’s September&nbsp;<a href="https://www.yelpeconomicaverage.com/business-closures-update-sep-2020" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Local Economic Impact report</a>. This represents a 23% increase from July 10. Even more alarming: 60% of closed businesses have permanently shuttered due to Covid-19 and the resulting restrictions in many states. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.yelpeconomicaverage.com/yea-q3-2020.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Q3 Yelp Economic Average Report</a>&nbsp;released on October 22, however, points to a hopeful rebound: More than 210,000 businesses have now reopened amid a significant increase in consumer interest for outdoor related services and activities.&nbsp;



For those businesses that have managed to stay afloat, the path forward will require the will to adapt in an ever-changing environment. In fact, about 76% of small and medium-sized businesses have had to pivot their business models to maintain revenue, according to the latest Business Resilience Survey of 1,000 business owners by American Express. Of those surveyed, 73% expect to pivot again in the next year. More than 80% still believe the benefits of owning their own businesses outweigh the challenges.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“It’s okay to be afraid, but it’s not okay to let it ruin your decision-making process. There’s always a reason to be afraid. But should you let that take over? Hell, no.” </blockquote>



When it comes to overcoming obstacles, small business owners can’t afford to doubt themselves. Williams learned this, and the importance of mental preparation, long ago. “It’s okay to be afraid, but it’s not okay to let it ruin your decision-making process,” she says. “There’s always a reason to be afraid. But should you let that take over?,” she says. “Hell, no.”&nbsp;



The hard-earned lessons from the court have translated to the boardroom as she’s set out to become a multi-venture entrepreneur. Inspired by her father, who ran his own security company, and her mother, who encouraged her creativity as a child, Williams found her second calling in fashion and interior design. In 2002, she founded V Starr, which recently collaborated with Airbnb partner Niido to design its first-ever apartment complex. In 2009, Williams and her sister became the first African American women to buy&nbsp;<a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=4422313" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a stake in a NFL franchise</a>&nbsp;when they joined the ownership group of the Miami Dolphins. Three years later, she launched EleVen by Venus Williams and earned her associate degree in fashion design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Earlier this year, she partnered with Credo Beauty to launch a line of clean, mineral-based SPF products for EleVen by Venus.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Williams says running her businesses in the current environment has been one of the greatest challenges she’s ever faced, but she still appreciates the silver linings. “The world of business is really lending a hand to African Americans and women and minorities during this time. And that has also been unprecedented—so opportunity comes out of this really crazy hardship as well. You have to look at that as a challenge—you need to accept it and run with it. There’s no time to waste.”  



-By Maneet Ahuja,Forbes Staff

Empire State Building Hosts Venus Williams and American Express In Support Of Small Business Saturday

Venus Williams’ Advice For Entrepreneurs: Don’t Let Fear Take Over—Just Push Through It

The idea came on an errand. The grandparents of Sizwe Nzima asked him to walk to the clinic to collect chronic medication for them. It was not far from their home in Khayelitsha, 35km outside Cape Town in South Africa. The trip changed his life.
The errand was a symptom to the problem that faces many public hospitals and clinics in South Africa. They are choked by long queues.
Nzima thought to himself, on that day, how a team on bicycles could deliver medication faster and more efficiently.
The World Health Organization says that of the 36 million people in the world, who died from chronic disease in 2008, nine million were younger than 60. Ninety percent of them were premature deaths that occurred in low- and middle-income countries, such as South Africa.
“We did some research at the clinic. We asked the Khayelitsha Health District to find out what people think of the introduction of the new service,” says Nzima.
This was the birth of Iyeza Express, a medicine delivery business that opened in Khayelitsha last year. Nzima completed a six-month entrepreneurship course at the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development. Ackerman is the founder of South Africa’s second largest supermarket, Pick ‘n Pay, and is on the FORBES list of the continent’s 40 richest people.
Nzima was rejected the first time he applied to the academy in 2011, but he kept applying and was accepted in 2012 and won R10,000 ($1,000) for the best entrepreneur.
“I bought those two bicycles I started off with and bought a few t-shirts. I bought a phone, printed a few business cards and a few pamphlets. I saved the rest of the money for transport and for traveling and started using it for repairs,” says Nzima.
“I combined the experience I had in having to wait in those long queues, waking up early in the morning and going through that whole process at the hospital and leaving late.”
Nzima delivered medication to doorsteps for clients, who were too busy to collect them or too weary to stand. He charged them R10 ($1) for the service.
In one year, he has grown his customer base from his grandparents to more than 200 clients. He has four people pedaling with him thanks to seed capital from the South African Breweries Innovation Awards.
“I won a R100,000 grant that helped me buy more bicycles, buy more uniforms, buy bags and build my apartment, where I can live here and keep my bikes,” says Nzima.
For now the headquarters are a little corrugated iron shack in his grandparents’ backyard, where he keeps the bicycles safely and does the books.
He is buying more bicycles and needs people to pedal them. Nzima hopes to gain a subsidy from the health department after reading the objectives in the government’s 2020 health plan booklet. For now, every day Nzima and his four-man team flits through Khayelitsha’s alleys and roads with a backpack filled with goods that will ease the pain and may save the lives of their customers.
Right now, they are far from making a fortune from their daily runs but their name Iyeza means it’s coming.

Tag: Entrepreneurial Development

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Venus Williams’ Advice For Entrepreneurs: Don’t Let Fear Take Over—Just Push Through It

The Pedal Power That Could Save Lives On The Road To Riches