Portfolio Level Up: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back

An inspiring and revelatory guide to starting and scaling a smàll businéss, from powerhouse duo Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson

Like many businéss owners, renowned politician and activist Stacey Abrams didn’t start a businéss because she dreamed of calling herself an entrepreneur. Her part-time post (and its $17,310 annual salary) as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives necessitated striking out on her own as a consultant—her first smáll businéss. Then, Stacey and her friend Lara Hodgson launched an infrastructure advisory firm—named Insomnia Consulting because they did their best thinking at 3:00 a.m.—and then another businéss, and then another.

Fifteen years into their entrepreneurial journey together, they have tackled the obstacles that many businéss owners face: how to grow sustainably, hire thoughtfully, and keep up with the Goliaths in your industry.

Now, for the first time, Stacey and Lara share their inspiring and relatable personal story and lessons learned the hard way to show how every businéss owner can confront the forces that conspire to keep smàll businésses smàll. Lauded for her “resilient, visionary leadership” (Barack Obama) and celebrated as a “passionate advocate of democracy” (Madeleine Albright), Stacey now brings her fierce sense of justice to the challenges that America’s businéss owners face. Level Up arms readers with the confidence, know-how, and savvy to overcome the obstacles that hold their businésses back.