With 17 years of finance and operations experience, and a healthy dose of business acumen, Brittany Lorenzi has used her passion for helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses to fuel the meteoric rise of BluePrint Strategy and Collaborate | A Consulting Community.
A native of Louisville, KY, Brittany’s love for entrepreneurship and real estate was heavily influenced by her parents, both entrepreneurs in the field. So, it seemed inevitable that she would follow in their footsteps. But few would imagine she’d do it before the ink dried on her college degree.
While working toward a BA in Business at Hanover College, Brittany took a little swatch of land that her dad gifted her next to an office building and transformed it into a paid parking lot. But still sensing an opportunity, she convinced the owners of the office building to let her put a vending machine in the lobby. Her efforts paid off. In addition to the income she generated from parking fees and snack foods, Brittany was awarded the State of Indiana Collegiate Entrepreneur Award for her excellence in business development, strategy, and execution.
The experience gave Brittany her first real taste of how it felt to bring an idea to market. She also learned the importance of financing.
Brittany’s career trajectory leads her into commercial real estate and executive level financial positions. But it was her success as one of five founders of a successful Nashville-based commercial real estate firm – with revenue upwards of $8M, 75 employees, and three different locations – that solidified her place as a results-driven business strategist, commercial real estate maven, and calculated risk taker.
After selling her share in the commercial real estate firm, Brittany launched BluePrint Strategy offering business solutions designed to help companies grow, from strategic planning and business modeling to back office support. And through her new initiative, Collaborate | A Consulting Community, she meets the physical needs of businesses, giving them a place to work in a professional setting, learning from and sharing with like-minded individuals with a common goal: building a successful business.
For some, achieving such success would make them inaccessible. But for Brittany, the opposite is true. A member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Brittany enjoys mentoring other women in business on the importance of funding their business, mapping out a good strategy to grow that business, and how to manage the ebbs and flows of business ownership. “Many businesses fail due to lack of proper funding and poor planning. You have to invest in your company, persevere, and hold yourself accountable,” says Brittany. “Running a business is a roller coaster ride. Early on, I didn’t even realize how steep the ups and downs could be. ” She continues, “But it’s the best ride you’ll ever be on.”
Brittany Lorenzi is a student of entrepreneurship. She studies it for mastery and welcomes the opportunity to share what she’s learned. That commitment is evident as she expands her work with the EO to include serving as the 2017-18 Entrepreneurs’ Organization GSEA (Global Student Entrepreneurship Award) Chair and racks up countless volunteer hours with other entrepreneurial cohorts, like NAWBO and The Entrepreneur Center.