My Start-Up Story
January 2004 was when I quit a six-figure job as a pharmaceutical medical science liaison (MSL) and became an entrepreneur. I was tired of witnessing unethical business practices involving the MSL profession. I wanted to make a difference in the way pharmaceutical companies worked with medical science liaison professionals.
I was not making a trivial decision: we were saving up to buy our first home, and by quitting, I had effectively reduced our total household income by more than half. My husband’s unfaltering support for, and belief in my mission is a significant factor in my success as an entrepreneur.
The result was Medical Science Liaison Institute, a consulting, advisory, and advocacy organization focused on a niche profession in healthcare.
Within 2 years of launching, I had created Medical Science Liaison Quarterly, the first professional newsletter for MSLs. I wrote over a hundred articles on aspects of the MSL profession and its management, many of which have been published in industry magazines and peer-reviewed journals (publications list available at my LinkedIn Profile). I conducted benchmarking surveys to explore the value of knowledge and how to measure the impact of relationships with healthcare thought leaders in the pharmaceutical industry.
Just as importantly, we were able to purchase a beautiful home in the Southern California beach cities district in the Fall of 2005. This showed me the power of putting action behind passion.
I had little start-up capital, but I had a burning passion to see through my mission. I wanted to bring awareness into the misuse and abuse of these knowledge workers. I gained the trust of medical science liaison professionals and pharmaceutical executives who valued integrity at work. I also enjoyed recognition from my peers and colleagues in a hyper-competitive industry.
Now, the medical science liaison profession is widely known in the healthcare sector. MSL jobs are fiercely sought after by doctors, pharmacists, and scientists, and their first line of information is often Medical Science Liaison Institute’s websites, including my MSL Job Portal.
I am taking the lessons I have learned from launching and operating a microbusiness to help current and prospective microbusiness entrepreneurs succeed.
You can read another version of my start up story on Clay Collins’ Finance Your Freedom blog - it was published as a series of Liberation Stories that launched this blog:
Here’s a selection from the feature:
It Wasn’t Easy and Worry Free
You may be reading this and thinking, “How Awesome! She put action behind passion and became successful!” Well, hold on a second. I want to tell you about the countless moments when I wondered if I had lost my grip on reality. Or the many times when I wondered if I should go look for another job. Or the tremendous pressure I had put on myself to be an advocate when no one was calling for me to be one. Don’t even get me started on self-confidence. If I plotted my self-confidence on a graph, it would look like a roller coaster ride, oscillating between highs and lows on a daily basis.
What kept me going? What got me through doubt and fear? I can identify 3 assets: (1) the intensity I felt for my mission, (2) Cass’s confidence in me even when I was not always confident in myself, and (3) perseverance to see through my mission to make a specific difference in the pharmaceutical industry. If I did not have any one of these 3 assets, I’d have probably given up a few months into my new role as an “accidental entrepreneur”.