For entrepreneur Cierra Robinson, her ideal career was always centered on outreach. With a public relations background, her goal was to be involved in philanthropy and giving back to the community through channels like the Boys & Girls Club and the YMCA.
Even though she’s still involved with non-profits on a different level than she originally saw herself, her day-to-day activities involve speaking to youth about entrepreneurship, spreading the word about financial literacy and branding and writing business plans to fund her own business, CMR Agency, which focuses on branding, marketing, entrepreneurship and economic and business development.
“I believe that innovation and entrepreneurship is the key to the job system right now,” Robinson says.
Through her involvement with Stilettos and CEOs, a D.C.-based networking series that connects women, money and politics, Robinson has the opportunity to make a difference in how aspiring businesswomen choose to attain their goals.
With the intention to empower women who are have their own businesses, seeking their own businesses ventures or just wanting guidance in the realm of business, Stilettos and CEOs works as that type of mentorship that may be needed.
“We have the events and we partner with different organizations,” she says. “We have the opportunities, and we bring the people there to a mutual location, and that’s where we make it available to those individuals.”
The idea of seeing something that was merely a thought or an idea of hers evolve into something as fruitful and successful as a full-fledged business is what enticed Robinson about the world of entrepreneurship, she admits. Deep down, we all have something we want to sell or have a good or a service that we all have that we want to see come to life, she adds.
“I really wanted to see something unattainable be attained,” she says.
Making something attainable isn’t always as easy as it may sound. The entrepreneur points out that finance will always be a struggle, but the key is research, which is something that she does quite a bit of herself. For anything you want to do, there’s a great chance that there’s an avenue for it. There are business magazines like Forbes, business plans competitions and even the possibility of getting funding through partnerships by writing proposals.
The greatest misconception is that there’s no funding, which leads to people believing that there aren’t any opportunities.
“You are your funding when you can research those different types of things,” she says.
Robinson is motivated by the idea of knowing that people may look at her and see her doing something different and want to do the same for themselves, which drives her to want to do something more.
“You direct your own path and you’re setting the stones for the next people to follow so go for it and follow your dreams,” she says. “You want to lead the way for the person behind you.”