ONLINE: Noelle Stary

×

Expand

Bill Psolka

20 Lemons founder Noelle Stary.

It's no secret that many small businesses are struggling for survival right now. New Jersey-based entrepreneur Noelle Stary started marketing company 20 Lemons during the Great Recession — the last major economic disruption before our current COVID era — so she has some experience finding a way forward during tough times. In Main Street Moxie: From Surviving to Thriving in the New American Marketplace, released in November, she shares tips for getting to the other side, and Stary will discuss the book via Zoom at this event hosted by the DeForest Area Public Library.

press release: When the going gets tough –Noelle Stary has your back. This young entrepreneur has built two thriving businesses from scratch through a voracious devotion to improvising and improving. Her book, Main Street Moxie is filled with real-world ideas that may change your world.

She shares hard-won tips for success in the face of the global pandemic at a virtual event at the DeForest Public Library, January 7, 6:30 p.m.

Since the pandemic has changed the business landscape many ‘Main Street’ businesses are operating out of bedrooms, basements, garages and home offices. 

East Coast entrepreneur and author Noelle Stary says, “Thriving as a small business owner requires finding your grit.  It’s not always easy, I know. But when you have grit and moxie, you can will yourself through anything.”

You can join the presentation and the discussion afterward at the Deforest Library on January 7, 6:30 p.m.

Zoom registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvf-6gqDIqGtEFY5zLqq6bpgZigJ6mUqCF

The Moxie Difference

Stary had a pretty clear idea of what she wanted to be when she was a little girl.

“I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” she says. “While other girls were playing house with their Barbies, my dolls were being dressed for success and heading out to work.”

Today she is a role model for change. Before she was 30, she founded the first co-working space in New Jersey www.coworkinginjersey.com including a Woodbridge site. She is also at the helm of her marketing firm, 20 Lemons, and its focus on the hospitality industry. 

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines moxie as “energy and pep, courage, determination, and know-how.” Stary explains the importance of that word in business. “When I was 26, and I founded my first business, I had enough energy, courage, and determination to take care of the fact I had no more know-how than most people my age, but I did have moxie.”

Despite skepticism from friends and family Noelle Stary started her first business in the middle of the Recession in 2008. She has gone on to become the owner of two companies. 

Main Street Moxie is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is the story of how the author applied grit with her singularly unique brand of moxie to make it through the largest paradigm shift of her generation.

Innovate –Be Fearless

When Stary was a student at the University of Maryland, she learned the school’s mascot was a two-inch long diamondback terrapin. She was impressed that the school turned the tiniest mascot in college history into a marketing slogan to be fearless.

She took that feeling to heart when she started her business. In her book she writes, “Be fearless, even if you are the tiniest company on the block. Go after the client who is larger than you are. Start a new product line. Don’t get trapped into thinking ‘We’ve always done it this way.”

She writes: “There’s a saying it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. How many hours have you put into your business so far? If you work the average 40-hour week (and yes, I know, as a business owner you are probably working a lot more than that) it will take you 250 weeks, or approximately five years, to become an expert at your own business.”

Stary adds don’t let that number discourage you because every week and with every client, you learn something new about being in business and becoming that much closer to expert status.

She explains that most business owners may never again need to surmount as many bumps in the road as they have during the 2020 pandemic. “But ideas in this book will help you to survive and thrive in the new American marketplace that was created by the pandemic,” she says.

Today, many Main Street business exist not just in business districts. They are learning how to thrive and survive in homes across the country. Stary adds, “When you are thinking about shopping local take the time to look for those small businesses now operating out of someone’s home or garage.” 

At the end of the day, when you get to the last page of Main Street Moxie, Stary wants you to feel this way. “I want them to say, ‘I’ve got this,”’ she says.