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Female Founders: Nora Anna of PerfectGifts4Me On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You always need more money for a start up than you think. No matter how you crunch the projection numbers, add 50 percent more and even that may not be enough. Don’t let this discourage you. There are many programs for start ups that are extremely helpful. Reach out to your community, your state, and the federal government. There is a lot of money out there.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of Nora Anna.

Nora Anna is the CEO of PerfectGifts4Me and Coconino Consulting Group. PerfectGifts4Me is a platform that takes the guesswork out of the gifting process. She is extremely knowledgeable in how to balance two businesses as a CEO, and how to make her business thrive in spite of the pandemic.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

In 2020, America’s spending on Valentine’s Day chocolate reached a rather magnificent $2.4 billion, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). As for flowers, 37 percent of consumers bought flowers, spending $2.3 billion on them.

That’s $4.7 billion dollars on chocolates and flowers — really big business. There is nothing original going on here. To me, gift giving is a miracle and should be treated as one.

According to Psychology Today — A well-received gift can improve the quality of the relationship between giver and recipient by increasing feelings of connection, bonding, and commitment. A poorly received gift can do the opposite.

Doing my research, I discovered that 77 percent of consumers plan to return their holiday gifts after receiving them. When I ask friends about their holidays, I get responses like –

“My wife does not know how to buy presents for me.”

“I just threw my presents away. They were so bad. I would not bother re-gifting them.”

“It was a nonevent. We stood around exchanging gifts cards.”

“I hate my presents and it’s such a hassle to return or exchange them.”

I started talking about the idea with my friends and family. We all have adult children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews. The list is endless. Getting presents for all of them is downright daunting. Getting presents they want is nearly impossible.

On Valentine’s Day, February 14th 2020, PerfectGifts4Me.com was born to make the thought count; to take the guesswork out of gift giving; to be a platform to replace the “hint.”

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Certainly, COVID-19 had a major impact on how all of us live and do business. We postponed roll out by seven months. We did not want to be perceived as taking advantage of a really horrible set of circumstances.

While assessing our new lives, we realized that some sectors of the business world were more deeply affected than others — the small business community and the non-profit community.

During the Pandemic’s height, I was driving through my own community and I noticed every other store front was shuttered. Non-profits were all desperately competing for the same money.

My thoughts were — if 77 percent of holiday gifts are returned, exchanged, or thrown out, we need to channel these resources elsewhere. PerfectGifts4Me.com became socially responsible. The Personal Gift Profile now has three components instead of one — My Gift Gallery — for gifts you really want; Save the World with Me — for non-profits you wish to support; and Support my Small Business Community to bolster beloved neighborhood businesses. Imagine the time and energy to be saved. Imagine those wasted resources being helpful to our communities.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I was running late to a meeting. I decided to take a shortcut. In my way was this fence. To go back and go around would take too much time. In a split and thoughtless second, I looked at my watch and said to self, “I can make that. It’s only 6 feet high” and up and over the fence I went. As I hurriedly climbed back down, I jumped the last couple of feet not knowing my skirt had caught at the top of the fence. When I landed, my skirt had ripped off and was dangling from the top of the fence on the other side.

What I learned? Your Mom is right. Always wear clean underwear in case you are in an accident -but — seriously — time really is valuable. When you are late to a meeting, the impression given to the people you are meeting is that they are not important. Organizing your time properly is one of your greatest tools in the shed.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I have learned from so many wonderful people who have been generous with both their time and knowledge. If I had to pick just one, my Mom is my biggest hero. She taught me many many valuable life (and business) lessons but most importantly to have faith in myself and be unwavering in the face of adversity. The storm will pass. The sun will shine again. Tough it out. Some doors will close or remain closed. Go to the next door and keep knocking.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

Fear!

Simply put — most women feel (or have been told) they are not smart enough or good enough or have the resources to compete when the complete opposite is true. There is more opportunity for women business founders on any scale even in this extremely volatile climate we have now.

You need a good idea, commitment to that idea, and thorough follow through. Re-read the part about my Mom and the doors.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Education. Education. Education. I don’t just mean university. Find what gives you passion and learn everything you possible can about it. Work with people in the field even if you are taking out their trash. Learn from them. Respect your successful elders. They are happy to share knowledge they obtained the hard way.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

The old adage — “Variety is the spice of life” holds very true here. Women bring a lot to the table. While we are equal to men, equality does not mean the same. We are very different from men. We see and feel things uniquely. We need to have more faith in ourselves and be free to show the world what we have to offer.

Being a CEO and business owner is a lot of hard work but it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I feel I make a difference. I learn every day. My efforts are appreciated. These are invaluable assets I was not getting out of corporate; however, my corporate experience gave me very valuable lessons for which I am grateful.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

Too many new business owners think they are going to make a billion dollars in the first six months and it just doesn’t work that way. They are gravely disappointed when this does not happen; they give up; they walk away. This is a shame.

Owning and running a business is a serious commitment with a lot of responsibility and surprising amount of hard work. You need a lot of fortitude and skin that is at least 3 inches thick. The rewards are worth it. I left corporate in 1999 and I have never looked back.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

#1 — You always need more money for a start up than you think. No matter how you crunch the projection numbers, add 50 percent more and even that may not be enough. Don’t let this discourage you. There are many programs for start ups that are extremely helpful. Reach out to your community, your state, and the federal government. There is a lot of money out there.

#2 — The importance of mentors is highly underrated. This goes back to education. Really listen to people. You will be surprised how much you learn.

#3 — Being a baby in the tech world is very daunting. Learn the language. Understand what you need and how to communicate how to get it. When we were searching for a developer, we found ourselves knee deep in designers.

#4 — Digital Marketing and SEO is filled with very expensive pitfalls.

#5 — I have heard Bill Gates said, “If I only had one dollar left, I would spend it on marketing.” Whether Bill Gates said it is the stuff of urban legend. The trick is to spend it on the right marketing for your business and your budget.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

PerfectGifts4Me.com is about turning gift giving back into joyful exchanges with each other and redirecting wasted resources. It’s not just about the money but the time and energy as well. All those resources can be redirected back into our communities, families, friends, and partners.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

In a society where everything is very disposable, we need to value people more. Value of life needs to become a great priority and soon. To me the janitor is just as important as the CEO. When I see people treating wait staff badly, I absolutely say something. I jubilantly greet and appreciate my Sanitation Engineers (aka the Garbage Man).

Also, in our society the elderly, the infirmed, and the special needs communities are vastly under serviced and that needs to change. It’s not just money. People need to change their attitudes and how they react.

There is a tremendous shortage of properly trained people to work or volunteer in these communities. Once again, I call on education. All high school and college students should be required to spend “x” number of hours working or volunteering in the Special Needs communities as part of their curriculum especially if they are going into the health care or teaching sectors.

I feel the same way about our environment. There is a desperate need to understand we all share the same planet. We all live in the same space suit so to speak. We need to take better care of it.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would love to sit down with Elon Musk. He is our generation’s Alexander Graham Bell. Elon Musk is a brilliant visionary. I think it would be fascinating to have a private conversation with him. I hope he is free for lunch.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this!


Female Founders: Nora Anna of PerfectGifts4Me On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.