Building a business can leave you with feelings of uncertainty, but it’s high time you ditch the overwhelm and stop doing it alone.

The Blush Pages are on a mission to empower female entrepreneurs, like you by offering connection with the industry’s top professionals, accountability with like-minded entrepreneurs, and online business education in order to help you build an incredible business.

I’ve the privilege to interview Melissa Koehler, the Founder of The Blush Pages (TBP). Melissa is a Small Business Strategist who is passionate about helping women build a business they can be proud of!

What started as a career as a professional photographer has blossomed into the creation of several brands and businesses and a passion to teach others how to get started without feeling alone and overwhelmed.

She has found the “easy button” for building a business with the creation of The Blush Pages, where entrepreneurs can join in community, find joy in running their business, and access the help they need to build an unstoppable brand. She believes in passion over perfection and the truth that the only superpower you need is YOU!

I was excited to chat with her about the stories behind TBP, what challenges she faced in running her business and some important lessons she had learned along the way. If she can do it, you can do it too!

Let’s get straight into it!

---

What made you start TBP? What’s your vision and mission for TBP? And what are you hoping people who join TBP can walk away with?

The idea for The Blush Pages all started close to 18 years ago. I was new to the entrepreneurial world and was so excited about growing my business. There was so much I didn’t know about running a business and I really just wanted someone to give me a cliff notes version of what I needed to do and the exact people I needed to hire. I couldn’t find that easy button then and so, almost 19 years later, I decided to create it.

My hope is to make running a business so much fun. Sometimes the “back end stuff” can be so overwhelming and I really just want a space for women to go that will teach them some of the most important things that I learned along the way in my entrepreneurial journey.

I believe wholeheartedly that this will help make the work fulfilling and profitable. Business is fun and I want to help keep it that way so entrepreneurs can focus on what matters most.

What’s one thing you’d do if you were to start over your business from scratch?

Haha! Join The Blush Pages? LOL. In all seriousness, I would want a resource that helped point me in the direction that I should be focusing my efforts. Social Media wasn’t a thing when I started my first business, but for today I would say, “Stop scrolling and comparing and start focusing on what really matters in your business.”

What’s one thing you wish someone had told you during the early stage of starting a business?

It doesn’t need to be perfect to start. I think a lot of us spend so much time thinking about how our business should look and concentrating on the “what if’s” and potential negative nellies that might deflate our spark. Do it anyway, messy and scared. Just do it!

Can you share one of the failures/challenges in running your business, and what did that teach you?

I would say stopping myself from doing something. I have a lot of great ideas that I talk myself out of because of fear. Then years later I see that a version of my idea was created by someone else and it stings. This has happened more times than I would like to admit.

Also, taxes. Doing your books the right way from the start. There were a few years at the beginning of my business that I didn’t have any idea what I was doing and it was a little rough figuring things out. Keep track of your books/finances from day one.

If someone is at the rock bottom and sees no way out (future seems hopeless/dreams seem unattainable), what message would you want tell her?

Friend, I feel where you’re at. It sucks and I’m sorry! One thing I know to be true is that you were given the beautiful gift of your dream but the world can be a cruel place sometimes. It’s not fair. But, what I know is that your dream was given to you for a very specific reason. One you might not even see right now.

As cruel as the world can be, your dream must be a bright light to the people that need it. And I promise, there are people that need it. We need you and what you bring to the table. Fight for your dream and fight for yourself because you were made to change the world.

Success means different things for everyone. Personally, what does success mean to you?

This is a tough one right? Success to me means that I get to have the freedom to be with my family whenever and wherever we want. That we can wholeheartedly give back to our community and organizations that are close to our hearts. That through my actions and efforts, someone else’s life has been changed for the better. To show my children that there is value in hard work, but that the reward is when you feel like you’ve made a difference. Success for me is internal, not monetary.

---

Ready to ditch doing it alone and work smarter with like-minded entrepreneurs? Join the waitlist to be first to know when The Blush Pages membership enrollment opens!

Meanwhile, if you want to get productive in your business fast, she has made a freebie for you.

---

If you want to follow Melissa’s journey and get some exclusive business tips and tricks, checkout The Blush Pages’ website, blog and Instagram.

---