Kathy McShane has built a $6 million business around her passion. And she has powerful advice for other entrepreneurs who want to build businesses that allow them to live their values every day.

Kathy McShane has built her career around her love of making a difference. After working in product development and other areas at American Express, McShane started his own marketing company, Kendrew Group, in the New York area. She ran it from 1987 to 2010, doing a $6 million business, also teaching as an adjunct professor at New York University.

McShane then launched the groundbreaking group Ladies Who Launch, a membership organization that has helped 8,000 women start and grow their businesses, running it from 2010 to 2017. In 2018, she became deputy director of the Office of Women's Business Ownership. at the U.S. Small Business Administration, serving the U.S. government for two years before starting his own consulting firm. "My passion is helping women," says McShane.

As McShane has found, budding entrepreneurs often benefit from a combination of technical assistance and mentorship. At the Office of Women's Business Ownership, McShane's work focused on serving women who were first considering starting a business. Helping them build their confidence was a big part of that, as structural inequalities, like lack of access to capital, could erode their confidence as business owners.

"A lot of women say, 'I don't think I'm qualified,'" McShane says. "There are so many situations where women are simply diminished."

McShane is also a strong advocate for people with disabilities, and she explained how her priorities and values in this area have boosted her business during a panel I moderated on July 28, 2022 for the New Public Library. York on entrepreneurship and disabilities. . (The video of the program will soon be available here). After contracting polio at age five, McShane lived with challenges that affected her walk. In her high-profile roles, she had to overcome the discomfort some people feel when they see someone with a physical disability. "A lot of people are uncomfortable around people who aren't the same as them," she says.

Business ownership can be ideal for people with disabilities, she says. “There are so many positive emotional reasons for people with disabilities to get into entrepreneurship,” she says. “You really can be you. You have value. I built my business around my value. You can do it too."

His advice to entrepreneurs with disabilities? "Don't let others define your success," she says. “I don't define success for you,” she says. "You define success for yourself."

The panelists shared a number of other ideas that you might find useful if you are starting a business. Here are some key points to remember.

Create a roadmap and follow it. "I deliberately chose a company where I knew what I was doing: it was marketing," McShane says. As the main breadwinner in her household at the time, she decided it was essential to write a business plan, in which she worked out the financial side of the business. "Otherwise, how will you know you can put food on the table?" she asks.

Make sure you get a reality check on your business plan from knowledgeable people around you. McShane tended to be optimistic. When she asked for feedback on her plan, she recalls, one of her advisers told her, "You better increase that spending by 30%, because it's not going to happen that way."

Run your business according to your values. One of the reasons McShane chose to run her own company after many years in business, she says, is "I could identify and articulate what my values were and only hire people who embraced those values. ."

One of those values was supporting women, as part of a broader commitment to inclusion. "I felt that women are struggling, because we are the nannies and caregivers," she says. “I had women working for me who had young children or older parents. It was a tough place to be, but I gave them an environment where they could be themselves, celebrate themselves, and where we could consider any disabilities or challenges they might have and not see them as negative, but rather focus on the things they did particularly well."

Take time to build relationships. “Relationships and connections matter way more than you think,” said Gustavo Serfafini, co-founder of

Startups Aug 1, 2022 0 66 Add to Reading List

Kathy McShane has built a $6 million business around her passion. And she has powerful advice for other entrepreneurs who want to build businesses that allow them to live their values every day.

Kathy McShane has built her career around her love of making a difference. After working in product development and other areas at American Express, McShane started his own marketing company, Kendrew Group, in the New York area. She ran it from 1987 to 2010, doing a $6 million business, also teaching as an adjunct professor at New York University.

McShane then launched the groundbreaking group Ladies Who Launch, a membership organization that has helped 8,000 women start and grow their businesses, running it from 2010 to 2017. In 2018, she became deputy director of the Office of Women's Business Ownership. at the U.S. Small Business Administration, serving the U.S. government for two years before starting his own consulting firm. "My passion is helping women," says McShane.

As McShane has found, budding entrepreneurs often benefit from a combination of technical assistance and mentorship. At the Office of Women's Business Ownership, McShane's work focused on serving women who were first considering starting a business. Helping them build their confidence was a big part of that, as structural inequalities, like lack of access to capital, could erode their confidence as business owners.

"A lot of women say, 'I don't think I'm qualified,'" McShane says. "There are so many situations where women are simply diminished."

McShane is also a strong advocate for people with disabilities, and she explained how her priorities and values in this area have boosted her business during a panel I moderated on July 28, 2022 for the New Public Library. York on entrepreneurship and disabilities. . (The video of the program will soon be available here). After contracting polio at age five, McShane lived with challenges that affected her walk. In her high-profile roles, she had to overcome the discomfort some people feel when they see someone with a physical disability. "A lot of people are uncomfortable around people who aren't the same as them," she says.

Business ownership can be ideal for people with disabilities, she says. “There are so many positive emotional reasons for people with disabilities to get into entrepreneurship,” she says. “You really can be you. You have value. I built my business around my value. You can do it too."

His advice to entrepreneurs with disabilities? "Don't let others define your success," she says. “I don't define success for you,” she says. "You define success for yourself."

The panelists shared a number of other ideas that you might find useful if you are starting a business. Here are some key points to remember.

Create a roadmap and follow it. "I deliberately chose a company where I knew what I was doing: it was marketing," McShane says. As the main breadwinner in her household at the time, she decided it was essential to write a business plan, in which she worked out the financial side of the business. "Otherwise, how will you know you can put food on the table?" she asks.

Make sure you get a reality check on your business plan from knowledgeable people around you. McShane tended to be optimistic. When she asked for feedback on her plan, she recalls, one of her advisers told her, "You better increase that spending by 30%, because it's not going to happen that way."

Run your business according to your values. One of the reasons McShane chose to run her own company after many years in business, she says, is "I could identify and articulate what my values were and only hire people who embraced those values. ."

One of those values was supporting women, as part of a broader commitment to inclusion. "I felt that women are struggling, because we are the nannies and caregivers," she says. “I had women working for me who had young children or older parents. It was a tough place to be, but I gave them an environment where they could be themselves, celebrate themselves, and where we could consider any disabilities or challenges they might have and not see them as negative, but rather focus on the things they did particularly well."

Take time to build relationships. “Relationships and connections matter way more than you think,” said Gustavo Serfafini, co-founder of