Most little girls get their first taste as an entrepreneur selling lemonade in their front yard. When it comes to doing hair, they usually practice on their dolls.
Coleen Otero said her first experience in the business world started at the age of 12 when she was styling hair for women twice her age.
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From there, the young businesswoman went on to open her own salon. Eventually, she met her husband and the two went into property management.
When the market crashed in 2009, they had to sell their properties and the young couple moved in with Otero’s mom.
“Two months turned into two years,” Otero said.
For many that would have been enough to call it quits, but not for Otero.
“It’s a passion,” she said.
Instead of giving up, she got better.
She learned how to recession-proof her life and is now helping other women to do the same through her business “CEO Chick Network.”
Otero said a lot of her clients have great ideas, but they need a road map.
She gives them what she calls “Vitamin C’s for CEOs”
She said everyone who is considering starting a business needs to be clear, consistent, confident, courteous, and coach-able. As part of her individualized business development strategy, Otero helps women do everything from securing funding to setting and achieving business goals.
One of her clients, a mother-daughter duo, that started a handcrafted body care line says Otero helped them get Nzuri Body Essentials into a major health club.
She helped them with their marketing and branding and even encouraged them to set up casting calls with models so they could better promote their products. It was something they say they never would have imagined doing.
Otero's team of business professionals helps clients get these kinds of results through one-on-one coaching, weekly group coaching sessions, an annual event, and a CEO retreat.
CEO Chick also provides grants. Every week in July a business owner was awarded $500 in cash, a free CEO Chick Membership Scholarship, and several other goodies including a signed copy of Otero’s book “Brand to Bucks.”
It has been a long journey for Otero, but she said she is grateful to use the lessons she has learned to help others.
“I feel like I am being the woman I needed when I was younger,” Otero said.
To learn more about CEO Chick go to CeoChicksOnline.com.