Business growth expert and investor Candy Valentino was born to teenage parents in small-town Pennsylvania. Her family lived in a trailer park and relied on welfare and government assistance for much of Valentino’s life, and when her father lost his job as a mechanic, he had just $200 to his name. When Valentino was five years old, her father negotiated a deal to start his own small business in a basement garage.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Candy Valentino
“From [that] time until I was 16, I got dropped off at that little auto mechanic shop every day while my dad fixed cars and welded metal and did all of the things that you do in a greasy, grimy garage,” Valentino tells Entrepreneur. “Instead of learning dance or soccer, I learned about small business. I answered the phones, typed on the typewriter and interacted with clients. I grew up inside a small business.”
So Valentino was well-equipped to handle the day-to-day of entrepreneurship when she decided to start her own business at age 19. Although Valentino had considered being the first in her family to attend college, she read a book that said she didn’t have to pursue an expensive education to be successful — and make a lot of money.
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“I wish I could say [my initial motivation was] super inspiring,” Valentino says, “but the only reason I wanted to start a business when I was younger was because I didn’t want to be poor. I wanted to have a different environment. I wanted to have nice things, a beautiful house, all the stuff that you see on TV.”
It was the late ’90s, and the Small Business Administration was looking to fund women entrepreneurs. In the decade leading up to that point, women in business had experienced quite a turnaround: Until 1988, women couldn’t receive a business loan without a signature from a male relative.
Valentino’s very first business idea? A spa, inspired by her first visit to one on a trip to New York after high school graduation (her first time out of the state). Someone had given her a gift card. Not only was the spa a relaxing, nice-smelling place to be, but it also appeared to be good business, attracting a steady stream of customers. Wouldn’t women everywhere love this? Valentino thought. I should bring this back to my small town.
Valentino pitched her idea to the SBA, and the panel, which included five women out of its six members, decided to give her a loan. “ I often think that was a little bit of a divine moment,” Valentino says, “because they had experienced all of these [barriers in business] that I didn’t, and they gave me a loan.” Valentino had 45 days to get the business up and running; she had just enough money to open the doors and hire some people.
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The spa was a success, and Valentino continued to pioneer in the space, laying the foundation for an impressive business career spanning more than two decades. To date, the self-made millionaire has started and sold two companies, helped build businesses across industries, founded the nonprofit Heal Animal Rescue and established a cash-flowing real estate portfolio. She is also the host of The Candy Valentino Show and a bestselling author, most recently of The 9% Edge: The Life-Changing Secrets to Create More Revenue for Your Business and More Freedom for Yourself.
“ I basically became the CFO inside of my company without a degree.”
One of the most important keys to so much growth and success, according to Valentino? Being willing to work harder than anyone else, especially in the early days.
“Even when you don’t have all the right answers, even if you don’t know what to do in the beginning, to be successful at anything, we have to have the courage to commit and the fortitude to continue,” Valentino says. “We have to care more about our dreams than the opinions of other people.”
However, launching a business is one thing, but sustaining it — to avoid becoming one of the many that fail — is another. Maintaining a business’s momentum requires an entirely different skill set, Valentino says.
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“ Grit is what got me started,” Valentino explains, “but financial acumen is what got me to continue. And it’s the only thing that got me to exit twice. The one thing that will separate you from everyone else is your ability to lead the company as it relates to revenue and profitability.”
Lack of revenue, funding and profit is why the vast majority of businesses fail, Valentino adds. Fortunately, Valentino loved math and digging into her business’s finances: accounting, taxes and P&Ls — “all of the boring stuff that nobody else wanted to do.” So, she tackled those tasks and hired employees for everything else.
“ I basically became the CFO inside of my company without a degree,” Valentino says. “I developed the habit [of considering], What do I need to pay attention to? What numbers inside of my business are talking to me? What data and metrics do I need to learn? That shifted everything. That’s when we went from just a small business that was successful to scaling and setting ourselves up to exit.”
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“She became a real-life example of what it’s like to be bold [and] lead in a male-dominated space.”
Valentino has also learned a lot about leadership over the years — inspired, in part, by several women leaders. Like many girls growing up in the late ’90s, Valentino says she heard an all-too-common career question: “Do you want to be a teacher or a nurse?” That’s when she started looking up to women leaders like Mary Kay Ash, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Oprah. She recalls printing out quotes from them and taping them up in her bedroom.
As Valentino entered the business world herself, one of her most significant personal mentors was a woman named Anne Degre.
“She became a real-life example of what it’s like to be bold [and] lead in a male-dominated space,” Valentino says. “She was in manufacturing, which I later got into, and even though our stories were very different — she was born into a very big company, and I had to build it — it was still eye-opening to see how she navigated spaces that men sometimes didn’t want her to be in.”
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Since Valentino started her first business at 19, her early leadership style primarily involved following the “golden rule,” treating others as she wished to be treated. However, as the teams Valentino led grew from 20 employees to 30, 50 and beyond, she saw the value in another kind of leadership: being kind and strong.
“Both can exist,” Valentino says, “the ‘and’ is what’s important — being kind, understanding and expecting greatness. Most people who work for me would say that I expect greatness not just from them but from us and the entire organization. When we [accept] mediocrity, the company is not going to achieve what it can. Seeing people for who they are, even when they don’t see it themselves, is critically important — [as is] calling them up into that higher version of themselves.”
“ I knew exactly what I was talking about so that nobody could rattle me.”
As a woman in business, one of the biggest challenges has often been — and still is — getting people to take her seriously from the start. If she walks into the room with a man, it’s not uncommon for people to assume that she’s in a supportive role, she says. When Valentino was younger, the assumption bothered her more. Then, she started to see it as a “superpower,” an opportunity to come prepared and set the tone.
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“ I knew exactly what I was talking about so that nobody could rattle me,” Valentino says, “and within one conversation, they knew who was in charge. It made me better. It made me sharper than some of the men that I interacted with because they had the advantage of just walking into the room and everybody assuming that they’re the boss and they’re going to do whatever they say. And sometimes, they weren’t as prepared as me.”
There’s still a lot of room for growth when it comes to supporting women in business, Valentino says. She notes the need for more women professionals in finance, venture capital and private equity. If a woman is interested in breaking into those fields, it’s time to double down and understand she’s more than capable, according to Valentino.
Related: The Odds Are Still Stacked Against Women in Business. Here’s How Young Women Can Defy Them.
“[It’s about] knowing that you have done some of the hardest things in your life,” Valentino explains. “Figuring out finances in your business is really nothing [compared to] having a baby handed to you that you have to walk out of the hospital and raise. Let’s be real: That’s way more difficult.
“Sometimes women underestimate their power because they think, Oh, I didn’t have this experience, or They’re not taking me seriously,” she continues. “But it’s us not taking ourselves seriously enough to command the rooms that we walk into — that’s where the greatest level of growth still lives for women today.”
This article is part of our ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.
