Sandra Cole on Making Every Avoidable Mistake, Building Roots & Wings, and Why Mentorship Is the Most Undervalued Business Tool in Atlanta

Not understanding cash flow. I had a profitable business on paper for almost a year before I understood that profitable and solvent are two completely different things. I was growing, I was busy, clients were happy — and I was 60 days from not making payroll.

The other one was pricing. I undercharged because I was afraid. Afraid people would say no, afraid I was not worth more, afraid of the conversation. That fear cost me probably $80,000 over the first two years. A mentor would have caught both of those things in the first 90 days.

It started with one conversation. I called a woman I had admired from a distance for years and told her exactly what I was trying to build and why. I asked her if she would be willing to mentor one entrepreneur for one year. She said yes.

From that yes, I asked her if she knew three people like her. From those three, I asked each of them for three more. In 18 months, we had 40 mentors. Now we have over 120 active in the program — attorneys, accountants, founders, CMOs, people who have built and sold companies — and they are all volunteers.

I think people underestimate how many successful people genuinely want to give back. They just need someone to create the structure and ask.

Duration and accountability. Most mentorship is informal — someone passes your resume, takes a coffee meeting, answers an email occasionally. That is valuable, but it is not transformation.

Our pairings run for 12 months minimum. We do structured check-ins, we set quarterly goals, we track outcomes. Mentors and mentees both sign a commitment agreement. We create real accountability on both sides.

The data backs it up. Our alumni businesses have a five-year survival rate that is nearly double the national average for first-generation entrepreneurs. When you have a guide who has been down the road before you, the map looks completely different.

Atlanta is not a footnote in Black business history — it is Black business history. Auburn Avenue. The families that built institutions here while everything was trying to stop them. That legacy is in the soil of this city.

Every entrepreneur we serve is connected to that history whether they know it or not. The act of building something here, of creating employment and wealth and community — that is continuation. That is not starting over. That is picking up something that was laid down intentionally for someone like them to pick up.

I feel that every day. It is a privilege to be part of this work in this city.