Franka Baly on Love, Loss and Blazing Your Own Trail - Part Two

In Transition

On this episode of the In Transition podcast, we continue our conversation with @Franka Baly as she shares insights on love, loss, and blazing your own trail. Franka emphasizes the significance of having good credit to fund a business and attract investments. She discusses the possibility of using venture capital (VC) funding for businesses with high overhead costs or new innovations, stressing that it is typically sought when there is a lack of sufficient capital or credit. She advises weighing the business's needs and capabilities before deciding to seek VC funding, cautioning against giving away too much equity in exchange. Franka also reveals her upcoming plans, including the relaunch of frankabaly.com as her personal brand for women over 40. This brand will focus on building women's brands and helping them with brand strategy. She plans to share her knowledge and experience through speaking engagements and mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs and business owners. In addition, Franka has a corporate arm called Fbux Consulting that specializes in UX consulting with companies and government agencies. She touches on the importance of clarifying goals, target audience, and purpose to create with intention. Franka shares her personal experience of starting her business, highlighting the significance of saving money and replacing current income with business income before transitioning full time. She emphasizes the need to create a good foundational structure for a business, such as opening a bank account and obtaining an EIN, to separate personal and business finances. Franka discusses the importance of monitoring business finances, paying taxes, and using financial software to maintain financial health. She also delves into the significance of understanding how others perceive one's brand and engaging with them on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. Finally, she emphasizes the importance of execution and constant improvement based on feedback, rather than spending excessive time creating a detailed business plan.

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About Franka:

Born to a large Trinidadian family, Franka is the last of nine children. A creative force since the age of 3 when she started coloring on walls, Franka matured her talents and today is a confident and experienced business owner, designer, and brand strategist. She's the Creative Director of Franka Baly Media where she leads a team of creatives in designing and developing brands for visionary and impactful business owners. Before embarking on this journey to run Franka Baly Media, Franka honed her craft working for several large corporations as a UX Designer across various industries from technology to oil and gas. During her more than 25-year career she's been responsible for designing applications, websites and launching hundreds of brands. Her signature style is to create modern, clean, scalable, and performance-driven brands and websites that tell a story and are aligned with the goals of her clients. She's always been passionate about working with women over 40, but over the past year she's leaned into this work by creating several programs to support them in getting the support they need to design and launch brands to showcase their brilliance. Franka is mom to her wonderful twin sons, Jared and Kaelen, and resides in Tomball, TX. She loves reading, live music, and traveling anywhere there's a great beach. To learn more about Franka visit her website at https://frankabaly.com/ [00:00:59] Confidence in diversity shapes her identity.

[00:03:49] Ted Lasso inspires resilience and self-control.

[00:07:44] Lack of clarity causes marketing problems; be consistent

[00:12:04] Create solid financial structure for business success.

[00:15:23] Starting a business requires investment and structure.

[00:19:06] Invoice, reports, bookkeeping, entrepreneurship, mindset, company, weight

[00:23:20] Business plans aren't necessary for entrepreneurship anymore.

[00:24:14] Spend less time planning, start executing faster.

[00:31:00] "Good credit and personal capital key to business success."

[00:35:40] Relaunching personal brand for women over 40.

[00:38:17] Join Catalyst community to grow together.