Nancy Sharp
Food For Thought Enterprise

Nancy Sharp is one of the original founders of Food For Thought Enterprise, now celebrating 24 years of providing Premier Food Services in the city of Chicago.  In 1983 the company earned early recognition and success as a Special Event and Catering company.  Through a commitment to the Heart of Hospitality, delivering innovative cuisine and consummate services, Food For Thought won the admiration of both clients and peers.   In 1989, Food For Thought Management was developed to deliver Premier Food Service Programs integrating custom Café Concepts and Catering Services within Business and Industry, Museum and Cultural Institutions and Universities and Recreational environments. The two divisions of Special Event Catering and Food Service Management now blend together to deliver custom Food Service programs throughout the city of Chicago and its suburbs.

From Boston, she and her husband Curt moved back to Chicago and began Food For Thought Enterprises with Susan Trieschmann.  The company grew to gross double digit sales under the leadership and devotion of the 3 partners.   Sadly after 21 years Nancy’s husband became ill and passed away.  His dream was to build Food For Thought up to be an elite provider in the Food Service Industry, offering the Heart of Hospitality through exemplary culinary innovation served by people who had a passion for service and building relationships.

Today, Ms. Sharp has fostered the growth of the company to $25 million in sales with a work force of 280 full time employees.  The Heart of Hospitality is the standard to which the company continues to attract dedicated people serving the highest level of culinary innovation and services.

Ms. Sharp currently serves on the Advisory Board for The Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at De Paul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and Kendall College. She also serves as a board member for the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School and Windy City Harvest.   She is an active member of the Society for Food Service Management. 


When you first started your business did you feel passion for your work?
When first starting our business we/I had incredible passion for our work.  We believed there was a niche of the combination of hospitality and fine dining in catering that was underserved. There are always competitors working on the food side of our business but training hospitality and technical service skills is where most providers lack the fortitude to keep training and people development at the top of their focus.
We were passionate about our products of both food and service equally and each customer that walked through our door we felt it a privilege to serve.   We still hold those values true today.

When you first started were you able to visualize your final outcome?
When first starting we were not able to visualize where we are today 25 years later and we are yet to reach the final outcome.  In the first decade of business we set our planning for 1-3 years out and that was as far as our minds could take us.  We were busy with daily tasks of sales and operations and it held us back from thinking long term.  The faster you get out of the daily tasks and into strategic discipline the faster you can determine an end goal.  
Moving our mind set from sales and operations to business owner/investor is when we began to position the company for its potential and thus we are marching to our final outcome.     

What were your top three obstacles or challenges?
The top obstacle was WE as leaders of the company. The company can only grow in direct proportion to the leader’s intellectual skill sets and emotional maturity. The second obstacle was moving the family business mentality to a professionally managed firm disciplined operation.  This is an area where time and money is spent and wasted. Whether it be tenured employees or family members, the sooner people are mentored to be professional performers the better off the company is. The third challenge is hiring true professionals in your industry who know more than you do on many levels.  As business owner of 25 years I don’t have the outside experience that someone who has made 4-5 impressive career moves up the corporate ladder has.  The owner/investor must bring in outside professionals and weave them into the business along with showing them a BIG reason to join a smaller firm. This must be a monetary, ownership and growth opportunity that shifts owners to the investor mindset.
 
How did you deal with doubt, fear and self recrimination?
Doubt, fear and self recrimination comes with the territory of leadership. Only when you doubt yourself do you look for answers. Only when you look for answers do you learn something new. Only when you learn something new do you drive your business further. If you aren’t in pain of doubt, fear and self recrimination you aren’t growing your company at all.
The flip side is forgiving yourself.  There are days you just have to accept you will have doubt and forgive yourself for failure.  Forgiving yourself for failure is easier than trying to forgive yourself for not trying.  My constant practice is continued learning. I read business books, magazines and listen to books on tape everyday. I read a chapter in a business book everyday in the morning.  I am active in business groups of entrepreneurs and professionally network.  If I am learning everyday my mind is stimulated to conquer challenges and find answers regularly. If I find answers before hand the doubt and fear are kept at bay.

Did you feel that the traditional male dominated workplace affected you at all?
A male dominated workplace is inevitable.  Do I come up against men in businesses that are tough or rude, sure?  I make it my business to never play the tough or rude game. I am proud of who I am and what we do and stand for. Men can join me on the journey or they will need to get out of the way. I go over them and around them; never do I place myself under them.
Men are a fact of life women need to manage as they manage all other obstacles and get on with the business of being great.

Did you have mentors?
I believe that you can’t go through life WITHOUT mentors both personally and
professionally.  Everyday I meet a person who shares a perspective or piece of
wisdom and I feel I have been mentored.  I have had both men and women mentors who over the years have become the best of friends.  In each stage of our company’s growth I have reached out to different people who have taken the time to mentor me through a challenge or a stage of business.  And because I have been blessed, I now mentor others.

Do you feel you were traditional in terms of your steps to Optimal Level?
There is no ‘traditional’ ways to reach Optimal Level. If you want to reach Average Level you go the traditional way and you will reach Average eventually.  If you want to reach Optimal you have to know the rules and break them every chance you get. No one has ever reached the peak of Optimal without finding opportunities that are not traditional, handling risk with courage, and looking in the mirror regularly to ask’ How can I reach greater results.”

What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started?
Looking back the one thing I wish I knew was how to build the ‘outcome goal’
from a sounder perspective on the financial and strategic side much earlier.  We let our business take us in directions instead of leading it to where we wanted it to go. We let our people lead us in directions instead of us leading the direction. Far too often women run their businesses as democracies to keep people happy.  Our businesses’ are not democracies and the sooner women realize they are ultimately in charge and the future outcome is their responsibility, and the future is tomorrow, we will all take charge of our destiny far sooner.

Any regrets?
None ... I love what I do and feel privilege to do it everyday.

Do you believe luck has something to do with your rise to where you are now?
I don’t believe luck has anything to do with success.  The right time and the right place theme usually have underpinnings of a dozen hard years of work to land in the right place at the right time.  Hard work, planning and determination are far greater tools than waiting for luck.

Do you feel you paid a price to be successful?
In life we pay many times to be who we are, and do what we want with our life. If we weren’t paying the price regularly we wouldn’t be anywhere.  The price I have paid has been worth the journey I have the privilege to be on.  Is the journey perfect-no? But it is rewording, humbling, challenging and then rewarding again.  Most people ask have my children paid a price.  And I believe they have paid a bigger price and I hope to see their reward is bigger.  They are entrepreneurs at heart and have a value system of working hard to get what they want. They know how to set goals and how to make their money work for them.  They have a value system that is sound and know what true commitment is, even when it is hard. They know the only thing in the way of their success is themselves and the choices they make.  I hope the price has been worth it as they grow to all they can be.

What I the best piece of advice you have for women who are on their way to Optimal level?
There is no one BEST piece of advice for women reaching their OPTIMAL level. To reach the Optimal Level (and each person defines this place differently) you must go through the hills and valleys of life and there will be BEST advice along the way at different stages.  Listen and learn and be open to all that you can.  Your next answer to getting what you want is always found in the next person you meet, the next book you pick up or the next great idea you have.  Put all this together and TAKE Action. No one will make your dreams come true except for you.

Do you have any other tips for career women?
Women must own their success and stop making excuses. The only thing in our way is ourselves. Men could use the same tip.  Success is not gender specific; it is a place we can all reach with focus, courage and determination.

What do you think I the biggest mistake women make?
The biggest mistake women make is staying in victim, martyr or aggressor behavior when things do not go THEIR way.  The second biggest mistake is letting their world’s dramas (home, work, friends) waste their time and determine their outcome, instead of taking charge of their lives.  Every choice you make every day matters and is a reflection of where your ultimate outcome in life will be.

Lastly, women are poor financial planners and start learning the importance of money way to late in life.  Every penny you earn is one to invest. You will outlive most of your husbands and even maybe your children. Start saving and planning your retirement and take hold of your financial destiny now.

Any comments you want to add?
No one reaches their Optimal Level on all sides of life overnight. Often one side of life is winning while another side of life seems to slip.  To reach Optimal you must let time pass and learn all the lessons necessary along the way.

The journey is as important as the outcome.