We recently connected with Dusty Welsh and have shared our conversation below.

Dusty, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Starting a new business is hard work… There’s the worry and sleepless nights, long and exhausting hours of seemingly endless work, and financial stressors that keep founders up at night.

In addition to these common hurdles, there’s the intimidating chore involved with founders completing their startup business plans, which often turns out to feel like the worst part of the process. There’s the endless pages of long-format writing, lots of guesswork and make-believe, and the universally dreaded financials (that often look like they’ve been written by NASA engineers!). Sadly, traditional long-format business plans can cause talented entrepreneurs to give up before they get started, defeated by old-fashioned startup planning methods and the status quo.

As a nationally renowned women’s entrepreneurship coach with over fifteen years of experience launching startups, Sister Sprout founder and lead entrepreneurship educator Dusty Welsh realized there must be an easier, more creative, enjoyable and effective way for women founders to craft, plan and launch their big business ideas.

To better aid female founders through the overwhelming startup process, Welsh launched Sister Sprout (www.sistersprout.com), the gamified business planning program that makes it easier for founders to clarify, document and test their concept ideas. The program features an easy-to-follow 12-step business builder process, walking founders through each section of their startup business plan one step at a time. Aided by colorful webinars, printable worksheets, giant flash cards and the points and badge system, founders are reliably guided through each section of their visual business plan. Gameplay sessions are delivered virtually to English-speaking women around the world, providing inspiration and clarity to the typically daunting and stressful startup process.

Women founders are ditching their business plans to play the startup build game instead!

Dusty, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

“Because I believe entrepreneurship has the power to change the lives of enterprising women and teenage girls around the world.” – Ms. Dusty Lynn Welsh, Executive Director & Lead Business Educator, Sister Sprout

Dusty Welsh is a business launch coach with over fifteen years of experience empowering women founders to reach for their startup dreams. Welsh acts as the Executive Director and lead business educator with Sister Sprout, LLC., offering entrepreneurship education for women and teenage girl learners, guiding both founders and students through each step of the business-building process. Welsh frequently serves as a business and venture pitch coach, volunteer mentor, youth educator, and trusted advisor supporting entrepreneurs around the country and the world. She hosts weekly business builder gameplay sessions virtually and in-person to aid entrepreneurs in completing their visual business plans and startup launch strategies. Welsh aims to support women in realizing their own economic empowerment and fullest potential as strong, creative, and prosperous business founders.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Entrepreneurs can often build their reputation by serving as Subject Matter Experts in their chosen field. As the Director of Sister Sprout, our founder Dusty Welsh frequently serves as a public personality by speaking in public, providing interviews and commentary, acting as a judge and coach for pitch competition events, hosting breakout sessions at industry conferences, attending women entrepreneurship events, and by providing pro-bono services to women founders and industry service providers year-round. Regular exposure as a credible and trustworthy leader in a specific field helps entrepreneurs to grow their personal brand, build their company or clientele, and make fruitful connections into the future.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

During the early development years of Sister Sprout’s business builder program, our founder Dusty Welsh originally envisioned an educational course to support women founders through their startup journey. Upon realizing that the educational market was saturated with out-of-the-box courses for every business-related topic, Welsh began to focus on the idea of finding the company’s “Blue Ocean Superpower” in the transformation of the old-school business planning process into a fun and colorful gamified program. Instead of competing with thousands of other business-related courses and content creators, Sister Sprout makes it easy for women to complete their startup business plans by playing a fun and simple game. While this pivot added an extra year to the development of the Sister Sprout process, this re-direction helped the company (and its educational offering) stand out from the more academically-based, flat process courses. Sister Sprout offers a relaxing, inspirational and transformational business builder journey that increases confidence, self-esteem and advancement for women instead of causing founders to feel bad that they can’t master the long-format business planning process traditionally used.

Image Credits
Sister Sprout