How to Hire the Right People to Take Your Biz to the Next Level With Founder and CEO of Rowan

ABOUT THE EPISODE

Ask any founder: When you’re running a business, hiring is tough. And hiring the right people to take your business to the next level even tougher.

On average, it takes an average of 36 days to hire a new employee. And filling a position doesn’t guarantee success. Nearly half of all new hires fall through within 18 months.

Thankfully, on this episode of WorkParty, Louisa Serene Schneider shares how she successfully hired the right people to grow her business—and how you can do the same.

The founder and CEO of Rowan, a piercing company that’s reshaping the industry, has hired a team of over 45 employees and has over 700 employees working in studios across the U.S. 

We about about how she built her impressive business, including her hiring strategy, her tips for retaining employees, and so much more

RESOURCES

• To join the WorkParty click HERE

• To connect with Louisa Schneider click HERE

• To connect with Jaclyn Johnson click HERE

• To learn more about Rowan click HERE

• To follow along with Create & Cultivate click HERE

• To submit your questions call the WorkParty Hotline: 1-(833)-57-PARTY (577-2789)

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

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5 Takeaways from This Founder's Path to Building a Rosé Empire

Rose Gold Rosé is the third evolution of my career. What I have learned over the course of my career is that passion trumps skill (well most skills, anyway). If you do not have passion for the business you are creating, what is going to push you to the next level? What is going to make you feel better when you miss your son’s football game? Your drive will persevere the challenges you will undoubtedly face as an entrepreneur. But it is ok! Everyday is about learning, developing your passion and earning the title of “expert.” 

You don't have to be an expert but you have to have the passion to become an expert. What started as a rosé to enjoy with my friends has turned into a lifestyle brand with distribution in fourteen states with over 11,000 cases sold and more coming this winter into the first quarter of next year. Throughout my path, I have been lucky enough to be inspired by so many female founders and the below are key takeaways from my experience and path to becoming a rosé boss. 

#1 Passion is a Skill Set

For me, the challenge of an industry I had zero background in — along with no experience in business or ever having been an entrepreneur — was a major mountain in front of me I had to scale. And I did it one step at a time. There was no map, no help, just figuring it all out as I went. There was no other choice — to figure out how to sell this wine or fail. I read everything I could get my hands on about how to start a small business, I have listened to tons of podcasts of female entrepreneurs over the course of the last three years, I have reached out to as many people that I could that were willing to try to give me advice or direction.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you to get it done. The lesson here is — you don’t have to do what your degree (or degrees) hanging on the wall says. You can reinvent yourself as many times as you want. It’s never too late to start over or start anew. I was a family nurse practitioner. Then I was a stay-at-home mom. Now I own my own business. It’s wild but you can do it if you really want to and have the passion to do so. 

#2 Surround Yourself with People Who Are Experts 

When I started Rose Gold, I knew what I wanted to create and knew how I could fill a void in the market space. What I didn’t know is how to buy grapes or how to produce a product with shelf appeal. Within the first few months, I surrounded myself with the industry’s best of the best. Together, we built a plan to create a classic dry Provence rosé with a beautiful pale pink in color with aromas of rich, fresh fruits, followed by hints of white flowers and minerals. When approaching the experts, be honest. I walked in with my hands in the air asking for help. What I have learned is that people are attracted to passion. The group we pulled together saw my passion and my drive to build a lifestyle brand centered around spending time with the ones you love and enjoying experiences. Also, take every networking meeting/coffee/phone call, because you never know what connections you’ll make or what small tidbit of information you could takeaway.

#3 Let The Answer “No” Be Your Driving Force 

Don’t be scared of the answer “no,” but rather let it be your driving force. Over the years, I have received valuable feedback and a ton of “no’s.” When I first started, I made a promise to myself to remain authentic in the process of building my brand. With every no, it has further contributed to staying the course. It is easy to get bogged down and discouraged when you are turned away from an opportunity that you thought could work - only use this as motivation to push past it and keep putting yourself out there. Don’t let that one “no” make you think everyone in that office/organization/industry feels the same way. You could easily receive a “no” from one person in the same place, and the next person you talk to says “yes.” Just keep pushing, do not limit yourself, and you’ll find someone to resonate with you. 

#4 Time is Your Most Precious Resource 

As a mother of three and building a business, I have come to realize that my time and schedule commitments are precious. It takes alot to raise a family and build a brand. A mentor once told me, it is ok if you do not get everything done in a day and strive for significance over success. I realized that if I was careful with my time and boundaries I could be significant in my day and then weeks. In order to be present with my kids in the morning, I now wake up an hour earlier. This is my most productive time. 

As a mother of three and starting my business from the ground up, I have come to realize that my time, schedule, and commitments are incredibly valuable. Building a brand and raising a family are not that different, as both require a lot of time, energy, and nurturing in order to be successful. To pass down some wisdom from a mentor, not everything needs to get done in a day and it’s ok to strive for significance over success. This helped me realize that if I’m more mindful with my time and boundaries, I can be more significant in my days, which carries into weeks, and into months. 

When it comes to time, sometimes it requires you and your goals to meet each other half-way. My personal example of this is waking up an hour earlier each day, which allows myself to be present with my kids in the morning. Oddly enough, this has now become my most productive time of the day. This just goes to show that every day is a constant reminder of how precious your time is.

#5 How to Become The Expert 

Building something worthwhile is a marathon, not a sprint. It won’t happen overnight and no one is going to hand you your big break. Just keep going every day and push forward — even on the days you want to throw in the towel, remember you are one-step closer to your goals. When I started Rose Gold, I talked to everyone and read everything. I was not an expert in wine, but more so an expert in what I knew I wanted to build. Don’t forget it takes time. Your empire will not come overnight, but rather soak in every opportunity to further your growth to expert level. I carry around a notepad in my purse and if anyone sparks an idea, it goes down on paper. I now have a collection of over a dozen notebooks all around my house. Write it down, learn your craft and the expert title will follow. 

About the author: Born and raised Texan Casey Barber is a lover of all things food and beverage-related. Falling in love with the South of France on a trip in 2004, Casey founded Rose Gold in 2017, with her first bottles launching to the consumer market in 2018.Casey is a single mother to three children – Sam (13) Charlie (11) and Gigi (9). Outside her love for rosé, Casey’s interests include culinary experiences, travel and tennis. 

5 Numbers to Consider When Launching a Coaching Business

Photo: ColorJoy Stock

The coaching industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors with the market size predicted to surpass $20 billion by 2022. (Calendar check, it’s already August.) And while this has left many frustrated and floundering in an overcrowded market, it has also jump-started thousands of budding entrepreneurs’ coaching careers. 

And as with any new career trend, along with all the commotion, there is a lot of information (and misinformation) floating around the internet. While click-bait Facebook ads often depict building a coaching business to look like a walk in the park and endless traveling, the reality can often look a bit different.

Rather than sitting on a beach, spicy margarita in hand, glancing down at your phone while yet another effortless sale hits your bank account, new coaches and coaching side-hustlers are often found drowning amongst a sea of other coaching connoisseurs, endless freebies, masterclasses, and promo threads.

If you are coaching curious, a coaching side-hustler, or looking to launch (or re-launch) a new coaching business, here are five numbers to consider to ensure that you’re setting yourself up for success, and profit, from the get-go (so that dream of sitting on the beach is a much closer reality.)

Number 1: Your Net Income 

How much do you want to make per year?

Have you ever taken the time to really think through the income that would sustain and fund your ideal lifestyle? If not, now’s the time! 

This number will largely differ based on where in the world you live, and what constitutes a dream lifestyle for you. For some, it encompasses travel. For others, it’s as simple as being able to afford childcare. Either way, the first number to get clear on, is how much money you need in your bank account in order to thrive.

Example: I need $75,000 a year in my personal bank account to live my dream lifestyle.

Quick definition from Investopedia: Net income (NI), also called net earnings, is calculated as sales minus cost of goods sold, selling, general and administrative expenses, operating expenses, depreciation, interest, taxes, and other expenses. 

Number 2: Your Total Cost of Doing Business

What will your expenses and taxes look like?

How much does it cost to run your business? If you have no idea what these numbers are, it’s time to PAUSE and do a little research. For business expenses, outline one-off costs, such as building a website build, and reoccurring costs like accounting software. 

For taxes, it’s going to largely depend on the type of business you file and what state you live in. However, for example, expect around 30% of your profits to go to the government. So, multiply your desired net income by .30 to get this number.

Once you know your one-off costs, your recurring expenses, and your estimated tax payouts, you can add them together to get to an estimated “total cost of doing business.”

Example:

One-off costs: $4,000

Recurring monthly costs: $2,000 ($24,000 annually)

30% of 75,000 (net income): $22,500 (taxes)

Total cost of business annually: $50,500

Number 3: Gross Annual Sales

How much does your business need to make?

Now that you have your goal net income, and your estimated total cost of doing business annually, we can add them together to determine what your business needs to generate in gross sales annually in order to support your net income.

Example:

Total Cost of Business ($50,500) + Net Income ( $75,000) = $125,500 = Gross Sales

Quick Definition from Investopedia: Gross sales is a metric for the total sales of a company, unadjusted for the costs related to generating those sales. The gross sales formula is calculated by totaling all sale invoices or related revenue transactions. However, gross sales do not include the operating expenses, tax expenses, or other charges—all of these are deducted to calculate net sales.

Number 4: Gross Monthly Sales 

How much do you need to gross per month?

If you were to work for a company, there are generally 52 pay periods in a given year. When you own your own company, you can either payroll yourself OR pay yourself out via owner’s draws. For “Number 4,” you can either divide your total annual gross sales by 12 months OR by 52 pay periods. 

When you’re starting out, let’s say as an LLC or sole proprietor, it’s more common to look at your expenses and sales monthly, thus we’re going to use 12 for this example. You want to know how much your company needs to gross monthly in order to deliver you your desired net income. So, simply divide your gross annual sales by 12 to learn what you need to gross monthly.

Example: 

Gross Annual Sales Needed = $125,500.00 / 12 = $10,458.33

$10,458.33 = Gross Monthly Sales Needed

Number 5 (Option 1): Total Client Load

How many clients do you need to take on to hit your income goal?

There are two different numbers you can choose to act as your key fifth number (a.k.a. Number 5). The first is your total client load. In this scenario, ask yourself, how many clients do you want to work with at any one given moment? Do you want to only work with three clients annually? Or do you want to work with 30 new clients a month via a group program? You might not immediately know, but pick a number to start out.  

From here, you will be able to determine how much you need to charge per client per. For example, if you identified you only want to work with three clients annually, then that means those three clients need to produce $10,458.33 of gross monthly sales for you. That means each client needs to be on a $3,486.11 monthly retainer.

On the flip side, if you have identified you want to go after a volume model, and you’ve identified you want to work with 30 clients a month every month, each client will need to pay $348.61 monthly in order to hit your gross monthly sales goal ($10,458.33 / 30 clients a month = $348.61). However, also consider that this means you need to sign a total of 360 clients annually (30 clients monthly x 12 months).

Number 5 (Option 2): Pricing First

How much should you charge for your services?

If you already know that you’re looking to create a very specific product at a pre-identified price point, then you can back your way into knowing exactly how many clients you need in order to hit your gross sales goals. For example, if you want to sell a $100 online course, then take your total needed gross sales and divide that by $100. This will indicate that you need to sell 104.16 (round it up to 105) courses a month to hit your sales goals.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, these five numbers are what you need to know in order to identify your ideal business model. Numbers 1-4 inform us of what we need in order to “play around with” Number 5. If you’re feeling stuck between high volume or high ticket, consider asking yourself this, which business model and workload is most conducive to your dream lifestyle? If you need a little more help breaking this down, check out our free masterclass here.

We’ll leave you with this, “living your dream life shouldn’t be just a dream.”

About the authors: Lexie Smith (pictured left), named “Brilliant PR Expert” and “Trailblazer Women Leaders in 2021,” is a PR coach, host of the “Pitchin’ and Sippin’ Podcast,” co-founder of Ready Set Coach, and the founder of THEPRBAR inc., an online coaching brand that empowers entrepreneurs to increase their influence, impact, and revenue through relationship-driven marketing and PR.

Emily Merrell (pictured right), as featured in Refinery29, Girlboss, Forbes, and Huffington Post, is the founder and community curator of Six Degrees Society, a professional speaker, host of the “Sixth Degree Podcast” business coach, and co-founder of Ready Set Coach.

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How to Professionally “Break Up” With a Client

Photo: ColorJoy Stock

As a business owner, your natural inclination may be to please clients, and it can be tempting to fall into the trap of taking any client that wants to work with you. The hustle is addictive. And the thought of saying “no” is scary, especially when faced with the uncertainty of when your next client will be locked down. But while cultivating and growing your clientele, your list of frustrations might follow suit.

PSA: There will likely come a time when you’ll want to cut ties with some clients. It might be something you’ve been considering for a while now as a result of clients behaving badly (hello, unpaid invoices), or maybe you’ve simply become too busy and need to edit your client base (high five, boss). Whatever the reason, it’s uncomfortable AF. And considering your reputation is on the line, you’ll need to finesse this difficult convo.

So to help you manage your business relationships and determine which clients are giving you good vibes and which ones deserve “goodbyes,” we spoke with Andrea Crisp, a life coach, host of "The Couragecast," and author of “Designed With Purpose.”

Is it time to break up with a client?

According to Crisp, here are six signs you are subconsciously done with a client:

1. You feel completely drained after having a conversation with them because you rehash the same thing over and over.

2. You work overtime trying to please them when it becomes apparent no one can satisfy them.

3. You find yourself watching the clock every time you have a meeting with them.

4. You believe there is no amount of money in the world that makes working with them worthwhile.

5. You contemplate going back to your 9-to-5, just to escape this client’s requests.

6. You stop billing them in the hopes that they don’t contact you again.

And here are six signs that a client is giving you life:

1. You are willing to put aside time to work on a project; in fact, you look forward to it, even on weekends or at 3 a.m.

2. You feel compelled by the cause and are passionate about the impact it is making.

3. You are fueled by every conversation. Every time you speak with the client you are motivated and energized and feel even more creative.

4. You think of ways to help them, even during your “me” time.

5. You are on the same wavelength and kinda want to be their BFF.

6. You are willing to go the extra mile for them, even though it’s not part of your mandate.

How do you break up with a client (and prevent it from happening in the first place)?

If you’re starting to feel the “cons” outweighing the “pros,” it’s time to release these clients—and release yourself in the process.

Here are some ways to do so:

Set boundaries right from the start

This not only helps you as an entrepreneur, but also gives clear guidelines to your clients as to when they can expect work to be done, and when they can expect you to respond to their emails, texts, and calls. So you avoid receiving emails on weekends (if that’s not part of your mandate) and avoid anxiety-inducing emails with subject lines that read: “Urgent: need this ASAP.”

“At the beginning of every client relationship, I outline a clear coaching expectation so that my clients are aware of how this relationship will work,” explains Crisp. “It has served me in so many ways. And, I have to constantly remind myself that even if I don’t think a client needs to hear my expectations, I need to say them. It keeps me in check and accountable to my clients, and allows them the freedom to ask the right questions.”

Know your niche

Your dream clients are ideal because you’re passionate about helping them, and your expertise matches their needs and vision. As soon as you take on clients outside of your niche, you have to work harder than ever to figure out what they may need. This becomes super frustrating, as there starts to be a disconnect between your “dream clients” and your “dreaded clients.”

Release yourself from the pressure

Crisp puts it clearly: “Release yourself from the pressure that you need to be everything to everyone. As entrepreneurs, we may want to have all the answers, have the biggest client roster, and have a strong social media following, but in the end, that does not produce results and only pushes us closer to burnout and fatigue. The biggest obstacle that stands in our way of making an impact as female entrepreneurs is ourselves.” Boom.

Give yourself a break, allow yourself to have a day off, turn off your phone. The world will not end. Trust.

Look at your numbers

If you know you simply can’t even with this client anymore, look at your upcoming projects and revenue. Can you afford to let this client go? If this customer is draining you of all your energy and not allowing you to perform at your best, then it sounds like letting them go will help open the window for other awesome clients. And, after all, good clients lead to other good clients. If the client is mistreating you, then you’re better off without them.

Have the difficult conversation

Don’t procrastinate; the longer you put off the inevitable, the harder it will become to have “the talk.” After all, there are times in every relationship, like with your squad, team, or clients that you have to tell the hard truth. This may involve being honest and vulnerable, which can be very difficult.

Face it head-on, take a deep breath and stand tall—you’ve got this.

Don’t look back

Once you make your decision and fire your client, don’t look back. See the situation as a key learning for the future. Upwards and onwards. Trust the process.

When is enough, enough?

The moment you start to believe that you need to fill your calendar with clients out of your niche is the moment you have to work double-time to accommodate their needs.

Don’t go there.  

When trying to determine “the last straw,” you have already passed the point of no return. This may sound counterintuitive, but the real question you need to be asking is: “Do you have the confidence and assurance you need to only take clients you want?’

TBH, it really is more about you than them. Ask yourself these tough questions and don’t become addicted to the hustle by taking clients that drain your energy and creative flow.

Another key point is that as you grow, your focus might narrow, which can lead to some clients no longer matching your brand. Recognize when this happens, too, no matter how lovely the client might be.

Remember, a client-supplier relationship is a partnership. And if you’re no longer satisfied with your end of the deal, it might be time to say, “K, bye.”

About the author: Karin Eldor is a coffee-addicted copywriter with a long-time love for all things pop culture, fashion, and tech. Ever since she got her first issues of “YM” (remember that one?) and “Seventeen” in the mail, she was hooked on the world of editorial content. She's a contributor to Forbes, Coveteur, MyDomaine, and more.

This story was originally published on November 28, 2016, and has since been updated.

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Is Upstate New York the New Silicon Beach? 3 Founders on How Moving From the City to the Country Benefited Their Biz

Upstate New York has always been a haven for creatives, and when COVID hit in 2020, many founders relocated from New York City to upstate out of necessity, desire, or both. Below are profiles of three entrepreneurs—Trinity Mouzon Wofford, the founder of Golde, Eliza Blank, the founder The Sill, and Hillary France, the founder of The Wylde—who made the move from the city to the country last year. Read on to discover how the change impacted these founders and their businesses.

Trinity Mouzon Wofford, Founder of Golde

Saratoga Springs, New York

During the summer of 2020, when COVID was surging, Trinity and her fiancé Issey, the cofounder of Golde, spent the summer in Saratoga Springs to gain some relief and safety from the intense situation in N.Y.C. They were going back and forth from Saratoga to Brooklyn, a three-and-a-half-hour ride each way, when Trinity had the realization that, for the time being, it made sense to return full-time to upstate New York to live and run their business. 

On one ride down from Saratoga during late summer, she remembers thinking to herself that she needed to go back; that perhaps running her superfood health and beauty startup, Golde, and paying rent in Brooklyn for too little space was not benefiting the growth of her business nor her own personal growth. On top of these challenges, Trinity and Issey are in an interracial relationship and, in the city, tensions were becoming palpable during the summer of 2020 in response to the BLM movement and the upcoming election. In a way, she felt as though the systems of the city were starting to fail her and she needed to actively change her surroundings for the benefit of herself, her family, and her business. 

Trinity grew up in Saratoga Springs. In fact, four generations of Trinity’s family have lived in the same house that she returned to, where her mother still lives. Returning to the house that her ancestors had lived in for generations felt very natural and provided a safe space to gain a fresh perspective. It’s allowed her to go deeper into outlets such as gardening and plant care, which, in her own words, have allowed for more creativity. Not surprisingly Golde has benefited from this positive energy and change.

During this past year, Golde has been lucky. The business hasn’t been negatively affected, and has, in fact, thrived. In January, Golde launched in Target, and one of the brand’s two new products scheduled for release in 2021, Shroom Shield, has launched. The team has always been remote so no adjustments were needed in order to keep the business running smoothly. The lack of pressure to be everywhere and do everything, something that anyone who lives in a big city can relate to, has allowed her to realize that she can’t predict the future. She can only think a few steps ahead, and for the first time, she is living in the moment and is fully enjoying it and the lack of pressure this brings. 

Eliza Blank, Founder The Sill 

Stone Ridge, New York

It’s a similar story for Eliza. Coincidentally, both she and her husband Steve grew up in more rural areas of Massachusetts, so the desire to feel the grass under their feet has always been there. She found herself at NYU for university, and although she loved the city, she always missed nature. It’s this love of nature that inspired her to start The Sill, an online plant nursery that delivers botanicals right to your doorstep. It also inspired her to buy her first home in Stone Ridge, situated in the Catskills, in 2015.

The paths to starting The Sill—as well as finding a house in upstate New York—were not straightforward ones. Eliza found raising money for The Sill to be challenging. Venture capitalists often want fast growth at all costs, and Eliza was committed to making sure her foundational economics worked, which, for her, meant slower growth with her eye on profitability from day one. After an arduous raise, she is confident they found the right investors for The Sill, and these investors have been by her side navigating the most difficult year yet. As was the case for most businesses, March 2020 was a very dark time. All five of The Sill’s stores were closed and the distribution center in California was forced to shut down. The bright spot is that sales didn’t suffer. As it turns out, people look to plants for emotional support, and since people could not be together, they found connection in giving small gifts of kindness in the form of plants to each other. 

In 2015, when buying their house upstate, Eliza realized that their mortgage would be less expensive than their rent in the city. Little did they know that five years later this house would become their permanent residence, sanctuary, and office for over a year. The past 18 months have led her to question if the social convention of the office is necessary. Does the team even need a five-day workweek? Eliza has started to hire permanently remote team members as far away as Hawaii and the business’s headquarters are now fully remote. For Eliza, she firmly believes that the space and closeness to nature their home provided them mitigated the extreme pressure and stress she experienced during COVID as a leader and also as an Asian American woman. Her home upstate became an oasis from what the world had become, or perhaps further revealed, that we live during a time of extreme unrest and racism.  

When asked what’s next for her and her business, Eliza responds that she wants to live a life well-lived. She wants her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to have the space to play and become independent. For the business, she wants to further realize the broad ways in which nature can be infused into our homes and what the brand essence of The Sill is, and how it can evolve to fit into this new space that we have all found ourselves living in. For Eliza’s family, they will go back to the city for a year in the fall and see how it feels. For right now, the country has allowed her to have creative breakthroughs and reimagine how The Sill can further help us maintain our well-being within our home as we spend more time there than ever before. 

Hillary France, Founder of The Wylde

Hudson, New York

Hillary had always thought she would make the gradual move from spending weekends in Hudson, New York to living there full time. What she could not have predicted was that this move would happen as abruptly as it did in March 2020. For seven years, through her company Brand Assembly, Hillary had been running trade events for some of the most enviable fashion brands. Her business had been thriving, and then, within the first month of COVID, the Brand Assembly’s trade show business was almost obliterated. 

She saw an 80% drop in activity and she soon found herself in the position of having to reimagine her whole business model. She immediately gave up her office, attempted to pivot but was unable to make it work, and slowly drained her resources. She had to accept that perhaps this almost fully offline and in-person event business was not an operation that could survive a pandemic. Not surprisingly, for the last year, her trade show business has been on hiatus (and the good news is that they are set to return in October of 2021), however, the backend operations piece called The Faculty is still fully functioning. This situation could have fully devastated Hillary, but instead, it pushed her to finally pursue a dream she had always had: to create a space for brands and community to convene in one place in Hudson. At that point, she had nothing to lose so she packed her bags, gave up her N.Y.C. apartment, and moved to her weekend house in Hudson to create what is now called The Wylde.

Hillary had spent nine years going back and forth to Hudson and saw an opportunity for a retail annex in this quickly growing city. In fact, Hudson was recently ranked the #1 metro area in terms of the biggest change in net migration. With the influx of people to the area, she figured there was more of an opportunity than ever to create a space where people could feel a sense of community and continue to be inspired by fashion and conversation. On April 17, 2021, Hillary launched the Wylde’s first outdoor market Summer Saturdays with a selection of handpicked vendors across apparel, accessories, vintage, and apothecary. Local N.Y. brands like M.Patmos, Hudson Hemp, and Lail Design are featured within the market while the permanent retail store that opened on April 30th launched brands like Rachel Comey, Dôen, Mondo Mondo, and more.

Is The Wylde solely an upstate dream? In Hillary’s mind, it’s not. When taking the Amtrak train down to the city she has daydreams of opening The Wylde up in another emerging market if she finds success in Hudson. Rather than feeling consumed by the fashion space she feels excited about how fashion, culture and even coffee (a Wylde cafe is slated to open in August 2021) can bring people together to create community and meaning. This evolution of the business more truly reflects the changes she has felt personally this past year and the community that she had always sought to be a more permanent member of. 

Melissa Grillo Aruz, Founder of Aruz Ventures

About the author: Melissa Grillo Aruz has been an active part of the New York startup ecosystem for the past 20 years having senior roles at Forerunner Ventures, Gilt Groupe, and more. She currently runs her own marketing and talent consulting business under www.aruzventures.net where she helps commerce companies scale their business. She currently splits her time between upstate New York and Brooklyn. Instagram and Twitter @melgrilloaruz.

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When COVID Hit, She Had to Close Her Restaurant—Now Her Products Are Flying Off the Shelves at Whole Foods

You asked for more content around business finances, so we’re delivering. Welcome to Money Matters where we give you an inside look at the pocketbooks of CEOs and entrepreneurs. In this series, you’ll learn what successful women in business spend on office spaces and employee salaries, how they knew it was time to hire someone to manage their finances, and their best advice for talking about money.

Photo: Courtesy of Ayeshah Abuelhiga

Ayeshah Abuelhiga was first inspired to open her own restaurant while working at local eateries in Washington, D.C. as an undergraduate at George Washington University. “It’s where I learned the value of a hard-earned dollar, where I learned Spanish, and where I saw people like me who didn’t necessarily have rich parents with white-collar jobs who paid their tuition,” explains Abuelhiga. “I saw the opportunity for restaurants to modernize, and ultimately, I knew that one day I wanted to own a restaurant." And after 14 years of climbing the corporate ladder, she did finally open the doors to her own restaurant, Mason Dixie, an authentic Southern comfort food hotspot, in D.C.

Although she had the make the difficult decision to close her restaurant after six years of serving the D.C. community due to COVID-19, she’s stumbled upon an even more impactful way to modernize the food industry. Like so many small business owners in 2020, she pivoted, identifying an opportunity to bring the wholesome biscuits that people would line up around the block for in D.C. into frozen food aisles across the county. Today, Mason Dixie has evolved into a clean frozen food company that makes biscuits and breakfast sandwiches that are available at over 6,000 stores, including Whole Foods, Target, Safeway, Costco, and more. And Abuelhiga is just getting started.

Below, the founder tells Create & Cultivate how she’s scaled her company sustainably, why she’s opted to raise funds from private investors (rather than through venture capital), and what major mistakes she’s made and learned from along the way.

You started Mason Dixie, in part, because you believe everyone should have access to affordable, wholesome food. Take us back to the beginning—What was the lightbulb moment for Mason Dixie and what inspired you to launch your business and pursue this path? 

I grew up poor. I was raised in low-income housing in Baltimore up until I was 11, but my parents did their best to instill the values of home-cooked, wholesome meals. We shopped at farmer’s markets and bought produce that was bruised, but we ate very balanced meals. I notice now looking back that the kids I still remember that I grew up with in Section 8 that ate out of vending machines are still in the system today, and those who had better access to food, are in better places. You truly are what you eat and I have always believed we deserve better. 

In that same vein, my immigrant parents owned a soul-food carry-out restaurant and convenience store when I was little and I got my taste for American cuisine from it. It was also a deciding cuisine when my Middle Eastern dad and Korean mother would disagree about whose cuisine would win out for dinner that night. I craved soul food even as I was coming of age in college, but I could never find homestyle, scratch-made comfort food, only fast food equivalents.  

Fast forward to college. I was the first member of my family to attend college and since my parents didn’t make a lot of money, I had to work to pay for school, so I worked in restaurants throughout my years at George Washington University. It’s where I learned the value of a hard-earned dollar, where I learned Spanish, and where I saw people like me who didn’t necessarily have rich parents with white-collar jobs who paid their tuition. I saw the opportunity for restaurants to modernize, and ultimately, I knew that one day I wanted to own a restaurant. 

So after working for 14 years in male-dominated industries, like tech and auto, and quickly climbing the corporate ladder, I realized I was an upper-level manager who was unfulfilled and had another 20  years to go before I could go after the only female C-level role that I didn’t even want. I was disenchanted and uninspired. So, I decided it was time to start my dream of owning a  restaurant. So in 2014, I founded Mason Dixie. I saw a huge opportunity in the lack of comfort food options available in the growing, better-for-you food space, and an even bigger opportunity making biscuits the focal point since there were no real, scratch-made biscuits on the market. I also saw an opportunity to make scratch-made comfort food affordable and accessible to the masses versus just doing better-for-you food in the fine dining realm by looking at the fast-casual scale and ultimately, grocery, as an even better avenue to do just that. 

You recently raised $6.3 million in Series A funding from investors—no doubt you’ve learned a lot along the way. What are three crucial elements everyone should include in a pitch deck when raising money and why?

1. Know the problem you are solving and how big the addressable market really is. Frequently I see founders who do not research the market space enough and show a $20M market opportunity. No investor gets excited about the opportunity to take up to 10% of a $20M market. If you make a seed oil and that segment is small, how big is the oil market in general? Sell the sizzle. It’s the opportunity size that gets early-stage investors going. But be realistic. Be able to defend the market size with real data. 

2. Know your sales performance and gross margins inside and out; it is ultimately how investors judge your worth. I cannot tell you how many founders I talk to that don’t even know what goes into a gross margin calculation, or where their strongest sales are coming from. This is important stuff you should be able to spat out on command. 

3. Know how you are going to use the funds. Don’t just say I need $1M. What is that $1M built from? Half to overhead/salaries, some to equipment, a third to working capital? Show in your projections how you get to that number. You will always be surprised after analyzing cash flow projections how much more you really need than you thought.  

You decided to forgo venture capital and instead opted to raise funds from private investors, many of whom are women. What advice can you share for entrepreneurs, particularly WOC, on partnering with the right investors, and what do investors need to bring to the table other than just money?

I say this until my face turns blue and people still look at me like I have three heads but choosing investors is like choosing a husband. They are almost identical on legal paper. They own your assets, you share financial responsibilities with them, and ultimately your relationship will be what allows you to succeed or fail. They are not a bank or a cash lender; they are meant to be business partners. 

You have to know the type of personalities you vibe with, what their values are, do you have the same humor even. It’s like dating. You have to ask yourself, “Could I be with these people forever? Are they my people? Do they really believe in me and what I am trying to achieve?” These are some of the top questions I ask of my investors when getting to know them and I highly recommend founders do the same when they go out to raise. This is why for WOC especially, it’s important to find your people. The check is secondary to shared values and work style. 

You launched Mason Dixie in 2014, and now the brand is available at over 6,000 stores, including Whole Foods, Target, Safeway, Costco, and more. What has been the biggest challenge in scaling your business and what lessons have you learned along the way? What advice can you share on how to scale a business sustainably?

The hardest part about scaling a fast-paced growth business is predicting growth. There are times when you get it dead wrong and over-project, and there are times you go gangbusters and hit it out of the park. Both scenarios are challenging to plan for. 

I think the way we have navigated our business growth best was by learning the hard way at first and then optimizing each year. At first, we sprinted and made some mistakes. We were lucky in that the sprint just qualified us for the next race, but we weren’t ready. We just happened to be the fastest runner in that first race. I would have preferred looking back to have trained and prepared for the second race. 

So with each misstep, we corrected, learned, and analyzed our weak points and then went in more cautiously. We chose better retailers, improved our product mix, then accelerated. I would always make sure to be cautious. If I could do it again, I would win strategically big and focus on making those wins bigger before going wider. It helps mobilize the team better, focuses your assets, and then allows you to move stronger into new markets. 

There are a lot of small business owners reading this interview who would love to have their products sold at major retailers like you. How can these founders follow in your footsteps? What advice can you share for getting a foot in the door with a big-name retailer?

Fair warning: the market has changed a LOT since we first got started. Anyone who started before a couple of years ago were the pioneers. You did a lot and asked for forgiveness later and people were more willing to grow/make mistakes with you. 

Now, the world has changed. There is a lot more competition—a lot more products out there—and retailers are getting smarter. Before you go pitch to a big retailer, you have to really know if you are ready. Do you have the marketing and trade budget to support the account? Can you keep up with the volume? Can you afford slotting fees? Do you have a sales support team to monitor and manage the account? 

Remember, these players have dealt with far more billion-dollar companies than they have thousand-dollar companies, so the rules are set for much bigger fish than you. 

Get educated, get funded, then jump into those waters with caution. Surround yourself with skilled and experienced advisors who have worked in the category/product type you are developing. Ask other companies in those retailers about their experience—both their successes and their follies. Get informed before you pitch. 

Where do you think is the most important area for a business owner to focus their financial energy on and why?

Being a founder/CEO means you need to know everything about your business—point-blank.  There isn’t one area that is more important than the other. It’s a living system and all parts of the system need to be financially healthy in order for the business to thrive. Now, this doesn’t mean you need to be the expert. Hire a great accountant or CFO early. Allow them to train your eye to see the dark spots and opportunities clearly. Focus on understanding your business over how to be a financial whiz. 

What was your first big expense as a business owner and how should small business owners prepare for that now?

People. People people people. They should always be your first biggest expense. Who is helping you to create your projections? Who is going to manage your first order, or even make it? Remember, you cannot do this on your own and the value of the people you surround yourself with will be invaluable in the long run. 

What are your top three largest expenses every month?

1. COGs – All of your cost of goods should and will be your largest expense. 

2. Trade expenses/marketing – In frozen, we invest a lot into trade since it’s not as easy for us to market and get trial by handing out free sample packs at a metro station or triathlon. Investing back into trade helps us grow and should be one of your largest expenses as you scale.  

3. People – Your people should be the best of the best and they deserve to be financially treated as such so they are spending 100% of their time worrying about their business and not if they will get paid. Remember – this industry is tough and financially risky. This is always on the minds of your people so make sure you can pay them on time, and in full. 

Photo: Courtesy of Mason Dixie

Do you pay yourself, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourself?

I didn’t pay myself for four years so that others might eat. I lived off of savings and credit cards for as long as I could to ensure I could snag the best people, finance the next purchase order, or invest in the next piece of equipment or manufacturer. I only started to pay myself once I knew I 

couldn’t cut checks big enough anymore to fuel the business and took in our first investment,  but even then I was conservative and only took what I need to pay rent and eat. As an owner, don’t forget you own the company and that is way more valuable than a salary. 

At first, conserve as much cash as you can otherwise you will burn through equity instead. Taking a big salary is a cash burn that will cost you more equity when you need to raise more money before the company has earned the valuation it deserves. So be frugal about what you need in the beginning until the business can afford to pay you. 

Would you recommend other small business owners pay themselves?

It just depends on that owner’s personal situation. If I started a business as a single mom with three kids and little savings to live off of, I probably would pay myself the bare minimum I needed to feed my family. But as a single woman with nothing to lose, I lived as bare as I could on what I had. In fact, I worked side hustles until the business could afford to pay for me. It really depends on your financial needs and situation—just be frugal is the biggest advice I can give. 

How did you know you were ready to hire and what advice can you share on preparing for this stage of your business? 

You are always ready to hire. No one is good at everything. I would have a hard look at your skills and experience, rate those against the different business functions your business needs,  and then hire for anything you didn’t rate yourself strongly for. When I took in a business partner, my COO, Ross, I knew I was terrible at operations and needed help. Similarly, when I  saw sales ramping up, even though I knew I was good at sales, I only had so much time so rather than spread myself too thin, I invested in the hires knowing that yes, I could still do it, but what was the opportunity cost?  

Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and setup? 

Yes. This should be one of your first hires. I rarely have ever met a founder who is an accountant/financially trained. These people are, you need them. Again, they will educate you about how to look at your business and ultimately help you finance it. They are a critical function. 

What apps or software are you using for finances? What’s worked and what hasn’t?

Every business can start with Quickbooks or any off-the-shelf software. In fact, there is a huge market opportunity for you software engineers out there to design scalable accounting software for product companies—hint hint! It’s been fine because of its ease of use and cloud-based 

access, but terrible for really using it as a business intelligence and decision support tool. At the end of the day, it’s accounting software, so decision support is still happening in Excel for us. I  don’t think there are better solutions until you advance a bit more, but I am always looking. 

Do you think women should talk about money and business more? Why? 

Yes, we are the biggest consumers in the world! We are business!! More decisions need to be made by the women who LITERALLY hold the purse strings. It can only happen with us talking out loud about it and informing the powers that be how we view money, business, services, etc.  The more we show up, the louder we are, the more we will be seen, the more will change. 

What money mistakes have you made and learned from along the way?

The funniest mistake was when I thought I was going to be Willy Wonka and open a biscuit factory in just a few months! It was actually one of the best mistakes I ever made. When we sold into Whole Foods our growth was so fast that we were getting requests for products everywhere. Naively, my business partner Ross Perkins and I decided to go after more accounts, particularly in the South because if these biscuits couldn’t sell down there, then we should just call this a good swag item and not further invest. Well, we got both Publix and  Kroger to buy our biscuits and were going to go from 100 stores to 1,000 stores in just under nine months. With no idea how to do this, Ross and I leased a drive-thru restaurant with a huge parking lot in the middle of nowhere so we could make pallets of biscuits and store them in a portable trailer freezer on the lot. 

We kept doing this for months and transporting the pallets, but the demand kept growing locally,  so we couldn’t even keep the inventory we had reserved for the new accounts. I thought we needed to build a bakery! A frozen dough bakery! In the middle of DC! I spent a ton of money on fully engineered plans for this biscuit factory that was also going to have our restaurant attached for the full Ghirardelli experience until we were about to pull the trigger on this huge spiral freezer. Turns out the freezer requires either ammonia or freon—which in DC—are banned in the quantities we needed to fuel this machine. So, we were dead in the water, and we had to pivot to find a way to make biscuits within four months. 

I say it was the best mistake I ever made because I ended up being fluent in frozen biscuit production—I knew exactly the equipment I needed, the process, the cost of things—so when I went on the hunt for the facility that would ultimately make our biscuits, I knew everything I  needed to know to make the search easy. Because I failed at building a factory, I succeeded in finding the best co-manufacturer out there for our biscuits, and that is what ultimately allowed us to scale and has brought us to where we are today. 

What is your best piece of financial advice for new entrepreneurs?

Learn about venture capital and investing before you start. It’s way more complicated,  personal, and nuanced than anyone tells you. I did my best to read and research but only as I  was hearing no’s during our initial raises. I even did a killer pitch where every investor in the room asked for follow-up discussions. But sometimes it’s not just about your business track record. Sometimes it’s about the color of the money on the table or how much more money is needed and it’s hard to stomach when you think everything else is A+ and you still can’t close the deal. 

Anything else to add?

Whenever the going gets tough, ask yourself, what have you ever failed at that you tried your absolute hardest at?  

I can’t think of a single time when I put my all into something where I didn’t succeed, so I know if  I keep trying, anything can happen. I realized if I didn’t stop trying and if I continued to persevere and stop putting a period at the end of the task, I would ultimately succeed. It’s been the driving statement that through every bad turning point in the path to getting Mason Dixie where it is today, and it is 100% effective.

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LLC vs. S Corp: Which Is Best for Small Business Owners?

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

As a small business owner, you’ve probably heard the words LLC and S Corp floating around. And you probably need to decide which one to form. And while legal structures aren’t the most exhilarating topic, picking the right one is essential for your business. 

Deciding if you should go LLC or S Corp starts with knowing the differences between the two and how each one will impact your business. Read on to learn everything you need to know about LLCs and S Corps. 

LLC vs. S corp: The basics

As a small business owner, the two legal structures you’ve probably heard the most about are single-member LLCs and S Corps. Before we talk about the difference, we got to get one technical thing straight. 

Technically, an S corp isn’t a legal entity but a tax election. It’s confusing but bear with us. 

The IRS assigns every business structure a default tax treatment...which is just a fancy way of saying that the IRS decides how each business structure is taxed. 

Single-member LLCs are automatically taxed like sole proprietors unless they ask otherwise. That’s where the S corp election comes in. 

You can ask the IRS to tax your single-member LLC as an S corp, which means that the IRS won't tax you under the rules of a sole proprietorship; they’ll tax you under the rules of an S Corp (which we'll talk about later). 

To keep things simple in this article, we will be referring to:

• Single-member LLC as an LLC

• Single-member LLC electing to be taxed as an S Corp as an S Corp

Taxes

The biggest difference between an LLC and an S Corp is how you’re taxed.

An LLC and S Corp are both pass-through entities. That means that all the profits from the business are passed on to the owner’s tax return. Unlike a C Corp, which has to pay corporate taxes, your business doesn’t pay any taxes. Instead, you, the owner, do. 

How LLC taxes work

The IRS automatically taxes an LLC like a sole proprietorship. Under this tax treatment, you’ll pay two types of taxes:

• Self-employment tax - 15.3% of 92.35% of your profit. Self-employment tax goes towards your Social Security and Medicare. 

• Income tax - Varies based on your tax bracket.

You probably know that self-employment tax is a killer, and it’s why taxes feel so much higher when you’re a small business owner than an employee. 

When you’re an employee, your employer pays for half of this 15.3% through payroll taxes, and you pay the other half, which is deducted from your paycheck. 

When you’re a small business owner, you pay for all of it yourself.

How S Corp taxes work

When it comes to S Corps, there’s one major tax difference: S Corp owners don’t pay self-employment tax on the business’s profits. They only pay income tax on the profits. 

It sounds great, we know. But there’s a catch. S Corp owners are required to pay themselves a reasonable compensation via payroll. And your employee wages are subject to FICA payroll taxes.

FICA payroll tax is 15.3% of your employee wages. Yes, that’s the same amount as self-employment tax. But, the difference is that your business pays half of that (7.65%) through employer payroll taxes, and you pay the other half (7.65%), which is deducted from your paycheck. 

You pay the equivalent of self-employment tax, but only on your employee earnings. 

There are a few other things to know about S Corp taxation:

• Your payroll taxes and the salary you pay yourself are a tax write-off, which lowers your taxable profits. 

• There’s no federal guideline for reasonable compensation, and we recommend chatting with a tax professional about how much to pay yourself (p.s. Collective can help with this!).

• You’ll also have federal and state income tax withheld from your paycheck. 

• Your income tax will include your employee wages and the profits from your S Corp. 

Tax savings: LLC vs. S corp 

Let’s do an example to compare the taxes a small business owner would pay as an LLC and S Corp. We’re basing this example on a small business owner who earns $150,000 annually in profit and, who as an S Corp, pays themselves a $50,000 salary. 

In this example, the business owner could save $15,350 by switching to an S Corp! Keep in mind that these tax numbers don’t include income taxes or state taxes, which will vary based on your tax situation.

If you want a personalized comparison of how much you could save with an S Corp, check out Collective’s tax savings calculator.

Additional costs

S Corps cost more money to run than an LLC. Here are some of the additional costs associated with an S Corp:

Payroll service fees

You 100% don’t want to do manual payroll yourself. Manual payroll involves many percentages, tax calculations, quarterly and annual forms, and ongoing payments to the IRS. If you calculate your payment wrong or miss a deadline, you’ll be subject to a penalty and pay interest on underpayments that you made. 

Trust me. It’s way more work than you want to deal with. Instead, you can use a payroll service that runs payroll for you and takes care of all your tax payments and paperwork. Our favorite payroll service is Gusto, which is perfect for S Corp owners. 

But like most magical things that do all the work for you, Gusto isn’t free. Gusto will cost you $45 a month to run payroll (unless you have a Collective membership, which includes a free subscription to Gusto).  

Bookkeeping costs

The days of doing your bookkeeping via a shoebox full of receipts are over. As an S Corp, you’ll need to get serious about your bookkeeping and use a legit accounting program, like QuickBooks Online. The most basic QuickBooks Online subscription will cost $20 per month (Collective members also receive a free subscription to QuickBooks Online). 

Tax preparation fees

When you’re an LLC, you report your business’s income and expenses on your personal tax return, and you only file one tax return. 

As an S Corp, you’ll file your personal tax return plus a corporate return called the 1120-S, U.S. Income Tax Return for an S Corporation. Filing this extra return will set you back several hundred dollars. 

Annual state registration fees

Depending on where you live, you might have to pay a yearly registration fee for your LLC and S Corp. Fees range from $20- $800 per year. 

Cash Flow

S Corps require steady cash flow. 

Cash flow is the money that comes in and goes out of your business in a given period. While cash flow includes your income and expenses, it also includes transferring money to your personal account, debt payments, and savings. 

Sometimes, businesses are profitable but don’t have enough cash flow to sustain their operations because too much money is going out to cover debt, taxes, or owner pay. 

With an S Corp, every time you run payroll, you pay a portion of your taxes in real-time, both as the employer and employee. This means you need to have the money available for your salary and payroll taxes every month. 

Liability protection

The good news is when it comes to liability protection S Corps and LLCs offer the same level of limited liability protection to their owners. That’s because an S Corp is an LLC taxed under the rules of an S Corp. 

Limited liability means that if your business is sued or can’t pay its debt, creditors and claimants can’t go after your personal assets, like your house or car. While there are some exceptions to this rule, generally, this is the case. 

Which one is best for you?

The truth is, the less you earn, the less beneficial an S Corp will be for your taxes. Even if you have some tax savings, the additional costs might eat up all your tax savings. Then you just have more work to do with no payoff. 

Our general rule of thumb is that you will benefit from an S Corp if:

• You’re earning more than $80,000 in profit each year

• You can pay for the additional costs of running an S Corp

• You have the cash flow to make regular payroll runs 

Now that you have all the deets about LLCs and S Corps, you can make an intentional decision about which entity to form. Still not sure if an S Corp is right for you? Check out Collective’s tax savings calculator and see how much you could save with an S Corp. 

C&C readers can enjoy 2 months of a Collective Membership at 50% off with this exclusive sign-up link.

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About the Author: Andi Smiles is head of content at Collective. She started her career as a small business financial consultant, teaching businesses-of-one to take control of their finances to build more authentic and sustainable businesses. She’s helped thousands of self-employed folx organize and understand their business finances while also uncovering their emotional relationship with money.

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This Founder Never Felt Represented or Celebrated by the Beauty Industry—So She Decided to Do Something About It

We know how daunting it can be to start a new business, especially if you’re disrupting an industry or creating an entirely new one. When there is no path to follow, the biggest question is, where do I start? There is so much to do, but before you get ahead of yourself, let’s start at the beginning. To kick-start the process, and ease some of those first-time founder nerves, we’re asking successful entrepreneurs to share their stories in our new series, From Scratch. But this isn’t your typical day in the life profile. We’re getting into the nitty-gritty details—from writing a business plan (or not) to sourcing manufacturers and how much they pay themselves—we’re not holding back.

Photo: Courtesy of Alisia Ford

Alisia Ford was working as an attorney when she launched Glory Skincare, but the business was always more than just a passion project for the first-time founder. As someone who never felt celebrated or represented by the beauty industry, Ford was determined to build a platform for women of color who, like her, had also been overlooked by major beauty brands and retailers. “I wanted to find skincare that worked for women of color and fulfill that huge hole in the beauty industry,” Ford tells Create & Cultivate. “It was almost a moment of, ‘If not me, then who?’ and that’s when I knew I had a responsibility to create this space in beauty for ‘her.’”

But Glory Skincare is more than just a platform to shop clean skincare. “We carefully curate products with dermatologists and chemists with specialties in skin of color and even work with psychologists so we can positively build up the relationship between skin and mental health,” Ford explains. “I prioritize making sure that women are creating self-care rituals based on what they really want, not what marketing agencies want them to buy.” And her conscientious approach has gained the attention of two of the most influential names in beauty, Beyoncé and Sephora. As a brand that’s been featured in Beyoncé’s Black Parade Route and graduated from Sephora's accelerate incubator program, Glory Skincare is a beauty brand to watch in 2021 and beyond.

Ahead, Ford tells Create and Cultivate how she bootstrapped the business, what she learned from the Sephora accelerate program (mentorship is everything), and why it’s important to invest in the future success of your business.

Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you were doing professionally before launching Glory Skincare?

Before Glory Skincare, I had a long career as an attorney. Most recently, I was an attorney for Apple’s advertising agency, but I’ve also served in various roles at premier organizations, such as Nike, Fox Sports, and Disney, across a broad range of industries. I’m so glad that I took the leap to leave my attorney days behind me and launch Glory Skincare. Being a woman in business has been so rewarding because I’m always surrounded by other incredible and supportive women.

How did you come up with the name Glory Skincare? What are some of the things you considered during the naming process?

The naming process for Glory was pretty easy but there is always a lot to consider when naming a company. I needed something that would be easy to recognize, but also reflected the vision and values of the brand. I wanted this company to be a community where women of every color and background are celebrated because, for many years, I never felt represented or celebrated by the beauty industry. It has taken me many years to find a sense of peace and belonging. This journey to self-acceptance has been a gift from God and the name glory is a personal reminder of this opportunity. Glory means great beauty and splendor which is how I want my community to feel in this new kind of beauty movement.

What were the immediate things you had to take care of to set up the business?

After I had the initial plan for Glory, I wanted to jump right in but I knew it wouldn't serve the business well to rush into things. I started out by writing a detailed business plan that helped me to understand the values, mission, and goals for Glory. Part of writing this business plan was also spent doing a lot of market research. Glory is intended to be a reflection of what my community wants. I dedicated a lot of time connecting with women of color about their skin to listen and understand the top concerns and problems they all face. Luckily, my background in the legal industry prepared me well for all of the paperwork you have to do for trademarking, finances, etc. Other immediate things I did were setting up the Glory Skincare domain and social media channels, hiring a team, and working on the marketing and design elements of Glory. 

What research did you do for the brand beforehand? Why would you recommend it?

Because Glory Skincare is meant to create a space for women of color that changes our relationship with beauty for the better, I made a decision from the very beginning to be very mindful about every aspect of our actions that could affect the women in this community. Even though my own experience as a Black woman helped me make the initial realization that a community like Glory was necessary, our adherence to this standard meant that we had to do additional market research, learn from dermatologists, and work rigorously with psychologists.

How do you find and identify the brands that you stock? What do you consider during this process and why are these factors important to you and your business? 

Glory Skincare is a community for women of color, and all of the brands and products on our site reflect that. We carefully curate products with dermatologists and chemists with specialties in skin of color and even work with psychologists so we can positively build up the relationship between skin and mental health. I prioritize making sure that women are creating self-care rituals based on what they really want, not what marketing agencies want them to buy.

How did you identify the manufacturer you work with to create Glory’s line of products? Are there any mistakes you learned from along the way and what advice can you share for aspiring entrepreneurs on finding the right partner to create a product?

When looking for a manufacturer, take your time and don't settle for something you don't want. Bringing on a team of people you trust and work well with is essential if you want the business to succeed. As a people person, it was really important to me that I had a good relationship with the manufacturers. The key things I looked for in the manufacturing company we hired were attention to detail, flexibility, problem-solving, and dependability. I am really lucky to work with a great manufacturer and I think this is because I really took the time to do the research and find the right company that aligned with my vision and goals for Glory. 

How did you fund your business? What were the challenges and what would you change? Would you recommend that route to other entrepreneurs? 

At the beginning, I was bootstrapping the business but I knew we would need to begin fundraising in order to grow the business to where I wanted it to be. It was challenging to be launching a business with such little funding available but it pushes you to be resourceful and work as efficiently as possible. We managed to raise a pre-seed round of capital but recently, my time and energy have been devoted to our seed funding. Fundraising is challenging and feels like a full-time job itself but it's been rewarding to have investors really connect with the brand and believe in the mission of Glory. 

Photo: Courtesy of Glory Skincare

How big is your team now, and what has the hiring process been like? Did you have any hiring experience before this venture? If not, how did you learn and what have you learned about it along the way?

We’re a small but mighty team! Right now, we have about five people on the team full-time but have a board of dermatologists, a team of manufacturers, and a PR team that we work with as well. Hiring during a pandemic can be difficult. It's hard to really connect with someone when you are interviewing over Zoom. I did not have much experience with hiring before this so there has been a lot to learn along the way. During an interview, it's important to ask questions pertaining to the job but I think we often forget it's important to also ask questions to help get to know the candidate on a more personal level. Someone might look great on their resume, but if you are bringing them onto your team, you also want to make sure they are someone you can trust and get along with. 

Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and setup? 

I do have a financial team that helps with investments, deposits, financial planning, etc. Since I do not have a background in finance, I knew I needed to hire an accountant to help with the financial side of the business. Just like with any member of your team, it’s important that you trust this person with the success of your business. Find someone who aligns with your values and believes in your company as much as you do.

What has been the biggest learning curve during the process of establishing your business?

This may sound a little cliché, but the amount of time and energy that goes into a business is something you can’t really anticipate. Every day is a new challenge and my toughest but most important lesson was definitely flexibility. 

How did you promote your company? How did you get people to know who you are and create buzz?

Shortly after we launched, we were featured on Beyonce's website in the Black Parade roster of Black-owned businesses. That was such a highlight of this whole journey and really ramped up the business. Last summer, I hired a PR team to help with securing press coverage for Glory. From product placements to founder interviews, their team has really helped get the name of Glory out into the media landscape. 

You recently graduated from Sephora's accelerate incubator program—congratulations! What was the experience like for you and how has it impacted your business? Tell us everything!

It’s been such a great experience and an amazing opportunity that I’m so thankful for. The program has been extremely helpful. We’ve received advice on everything from financial statements, to branding, to operations and fulfillment. As a cohort, we've created a bond as all founders of color and every individual in the program is someone I respect and value. I am beyond grateful for the experience! The program was intense and we all dedicated many hours to attending seminars, workshops, and meetings with various industry experts and professionals. I was pushed outside of my comfort zone but in the best way possible. The future of Glory is brighter than ever before thanks to the program. 

Do you have a business coach or mentor, and would you recommend one? 

I have a handful of really incredible mentors and advisors that I have met along the way. I am a part of several entrepreneurial groups and programs that have put me in touch with other founders that I have been able to lean on for support and guidance. I recently graduated from the Sephora Accelerator program which introduced me to people who are experts in their respective fields. As a brand founder, it's easy to forget that we are not experts in every aspect of the business. Having mentors, coaches, and leaders to go to for advice and support will help you make more educated decisions that will benefit your business greatly. I am grateful that I have a space to learn about what it is like to start a business, share ideas with other dreamers, and get encouragement to take a leap of faith.

What is one thing you didn’t do during the setup process that ended up being crucial to the business and would advise others to do asap?

Don't try to do it all alone. When I first launched Glory Skincare, I was fired up about my idea and tried to manage and oversee every element of the business. This wasn't sustainable and I quickly realized that I was burning myself out. Having a team is everything. Everyone can bring their unique talents, skills, and experiences to the table and build each other up in a really inspiring way. 

What is your number one piece of financial advice for any new business owner and why?

Invest in the long-term success of your business. At first, it’s hard to see so much money going into development, branding, marketing, operations, etc., but these investments will pay themselves off in the long run. If you set yourself up for success, it will come with time and effort.

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These Founders Are Bringing Fair Labor Practices, Artisanal Jobs, and Economic Development to Tunisia

You asked for more content around business finances, so we’re delivering. Welcome to Money Matters where we give you an inside look at the pocketbooks of CEOs and entrepreneurs. In this series, you’ll learn what successful women in business spend on office spaces and employee salaries, how they knew it was time to hire someone to manage their finances, and their best advice for talking about money.

Photo: Courtesy of Fouta Harissa

When Alia Mahmoud and Lamia Hatira met, they felt an immediate kinship. “We each have a Tunisian father and an American mother and our lives were sort of mirror images,” says Mahmoud. “Lamia was born and raised in Tunis and spent time in Seattle growing up, while I grew up in New York City and spent summers in Mahdia, Tunisia,” she elaborates. Although both women live abroad today—Mahmoud in Miami and Hatira in São Paulo—their families still live in Tunisia, and the textile brand Mahmoud and Hatira founded, Fouta Harissa, is their way of investing in their “tiny but mighty Mediterranean country,” Mahmoud tells Create & Cultivate. But they’re not just investing capital, they’re investing in fair labor practices for the country’s artisanal community.

By working with Tunisian artisans to craft high-quality, hand-loomed textiles, the brand is dedicated to preserving artisanal weaving in Tunisia while also contributing to the country’s economic development. “Unfortunately, Tunisian artisans are generally undervalued and underpaid as the custodians of our cultural heritage,” explains Mahmoud. “We want to change that by bringing the world a modern take on handmade artisanal products that also support fair labor practices, use sustainably sourced materials, and contribute to economic development in Tunisia,” she notes. Not only that but each of the artisans they work with is employed in a full-time position at the brand’s partner workshop and paid an above-market rate that exceeds the living wage.

Ahead, Create & Cultivate asks the co-founders all about how they self-funded the socially-driven brand, why they recommend hiring an accountant ASAP, and what money mistake has taught them the biggest lesson.

How did you fund Fouta Harissa? What were the challenges and what would you change? Would you recommend your route to other entrepreneurs? 

Lamia Hatira: We started with a small friends-and-family investment of $20,000 which helped us start our entities in both Brazil and the U.S.A. We are definitely still working on a small budget. It’s challenging because you don’t have the resources to do everything you want to do right off the bat, but it’s also kind of wonderful because you learn what really matters for your business and how to make the most of what you have. 

Each experience is definitely unique, but if you have an opportunity to get seed investment from friends and family at the initial stages, embrace it. Just make sure you’re on the same page with your investors about how active a role they will play and get in writing in your operating agreement.

The most important thing is to do what you’re comfortable with. We knew we weren’t ready to take out a huge loan or ask for a larger amount at the beginning because we didn’t want to owe anyone money or give away too much equity before we knew more about the intricacies of our business.

Three years later, we are now ready to take on more investment because of everything we’ve learned and because we know what works and doesn't work for Fouta Harissa at this stage. 

What was your first big expense as business owners and how should small business owners prepare for that now?

Alia: Legal fees to register our business and write an operating agreement, as well as placing our first major product orders with our manufacturer were definitely our first big expenses. I would advise taking the time to build a business plan in order to price out these early costs to the best of your ability, from there figure out where that money is coming from. A great way to generate some early cash flow is to do a friends-and-family sale before your product launches officially. This can help you raise some money and generate buzz.

Lamia: Beyond your most basic costs, make sure to include the other expenses that will ensure that your first customers get the experience you want them to have when they receive their product. This not only includes the product itself and its shipping, but the packaging, the marketing, the communications—they add up. 

What are your top three biggest business expenses every month?

Alia: Beyond paying for production, our biggest monthly expenses include the shipping costs to send our Foutas to customers, digital ads on Facebook and Instagram, and investing in regular digital marketing and PR.

Do you pay yourselves, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourselves?

Lamia: Not yet! We’re working on it.

Would you recommend other small business owners pay themselves? 

Alia: Absolutely. When it’s your business, you’ll work harder than you’ve ever worked on anything else before. Your time is valuable. Your effort is valuable. Build it in from the beginning. One thing we didn’t take into consideration, that we wish we had, is the employee taxes a business incurs in order to draw a salary. Even as founders! So until you’re making enough profit to distribute in those early years, build a small salary into your costs plus taxes.

How did you know you were ready to hire and what advice can you share on preparing for this stage of your business? 

Lamia: You don’t have to go from being a founding team to hiring a staff of full-time employees. We work with a lot of brilliant people, mostly as independent contractors. At this early stage in our business, it gives us the flexibility we need to try new things, learn, and try again. We’re so grateful to the talented people who believe in Fouta Harissa enough to devote their time to growing this business with us. 

I think you know when you’re ready when you realize you don’t know how to do everything, and that’s okay! We’re still in the process of learning exactly what our strengths are as co-founders and when and where it makes the most sense to invest in a new skill versus finding an expert who can help. We look forward to the day when we can have full-time staff on the team. 

Did you hire an accountant, and if so, would you recommend hiring an accountant to other small business owners? 

Alia: 100%. We recommend hiring an accountant as one of the first things you do. They can even advise you when you’re registering your business. We asked around and got recommendations from other female business owners until we found ours.

What are some of the tools or programs you use to stay on top of your business finances? 

Alia: Quickbooks has been a lifesaver. It’s a worthwhile investment and makes your accountant’s life a lot easier come tax time. We also use Square for offline payments and inventory tracking. And of course, Excel—a classic—where all the planning and projections happen.

Where do you think is the most important area for a business owner to focus their financial energy on and why?

Lamia: I’d say focus your energy on product quality and your people. Your product has to be the best possible thing you can put out into the world. At the end of the day, if you don’t have a great product, you don’t have a business. Just as importantly, invest in relationships. They are everything, especially at the beginning. You might not always be able to pay everyone you want to but be creative. Find ways to uplift them, involve them in decisions, consult them, and barter with them.

Do you think women should talk about money and business more? 

Alia: Definitely. We’re always worried about speaking up because we think everyone else has it all figured out. When you’re a small startup, you think there’s no way others have made the same mistakes that you have. But if we can talk about it more openly, with no shame or pretense, then we can really support each other to make the best and most savvy money decisions. 

The reality is, without good finances, there is no good business, and some of us can really use all the help we can get. 

Do you have a financial mentor, and do you think business owners should have one?

Lamia: We have two. One on the more day-to-day financial management who helps us build spreadsheets, come up with pricing strategies, and analyze reports; and another one who advises more on visionary planning and fundraising. Both are women and both are total badasses.

Business owners definitely need a financial mentor, or more. Find as many quality mentors who care about you as possible, and cultivate those relationships.

What is the biggest money mistake you’ve made and learned from along the way?

Alia: Underestimating the cost of digital marketing. As an e-commerce brand, we definitely did not anticipate the challenge of competing with companies putting in $10,000+ into social media advertising every month. When you’re just starting out with limited budgets for digital ads, it can be hard to compete. This became even more acute during the pandemic because everyone became an e-commerce brand and doubled down on digital. My advice would be, plan for a bigger budget for ads early on or find creative ways to not rely on them like collaborations, partnerships with brick and mortar stores, and investments into your most loyal customer base to encourage repeat buys.

What is your best piece of financial advice for new entrepreneurs?

Alia: Whatever price you’ve determined for your product, double it. Seriously, there are so many costs you don’t even know exist, beyond your COGS, when you launch a new product. All of those should be built into your MSRP. And do as solid a financial plan as you can. 

Anything else to add?

Lamia: If finance is your thing, use it to your full advantage and help others out. If financial matters don’t come naturally to you, make sure you learn the basics of your business finances to always know what’s going on, and surround yourself with people who know what they’re doing and who you can learn from.

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The Entire Beauty World Is Watching This Zero-Waste Haircare Brand Started by Two Industry Veterans

We know how daunting it can be to start a new business, especially if you’re disrupting an industry or creating an entirely new one. When there is no path to follow, the biggest question is, where do I start? There is so much to do, but before you get ahead of yourself, let’s start at the beginning. To kick-start the process, and ease some of those first-time founder nerves, we’re asking successful entrepreneurs to share their stories in our series From Scratch. But this isn’t your typical day in the life profile. We’re getting into the nitty-gritty details—from writing a business plan (or not) to sourcing manufacturers and how much they pay themselves—we’re not holding back.

Photo: Courtesy of Everist

As alums of major beauty brands including Revlon and L’Oreal, Jessica Stevenson and Jayme Jenkins saw from the inside that the beauty industry has a major plastic waste problem. “Before we even had a business plan or a product idea, we were committed to finding an innovative way to solve that problem,” Jenkins tells Create & Cultivate. “We had multiple aha moments or pivots along the way including, Why are we shipping large, heavy beauty products full of water and excess packaging around the world? Why do we need water in haircare when we’re already showering in water? We just knew there had to be a better way.” 

And, as the co-founders of Everist, a zero-waste haircare brand, it’s safe to say Stevenson and Jenkins have indeed found a better way. The brand’s inaugural products, a Waterless Shampoo Concentrate and a Waterless Conditioner Concentrate, boast silicone-, sulfate-, and preservative-free formulas made without any water and 99.7% pure aluminum recyclable packaging. The brand also uses recycled packaging for shipping, opting out of any plastic packaging and shipping materials, and has partnered with Climate Neutral to offset carbon emissions.

Ahead, the co-founders tell Create & Cultivate how they launched an industry-disrupting haircare brand, including the mistakes they’ve learned from along the way.

Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you were doing professionally before launching Everist? 

JESSICA & JAYME: We’ve both spent over a decade in the beauty industry in various roles and categories, most recently as a general manager (Jessica) and a VP of marketing (Jayme) for the beauty brands Nude by Nature and The Body Shop, respectively. Prior to that we both led marketing for some of the top brands from L’Oreal to Revlon and learned from some of the brightest minds in their fields.

Did you write a business plan? If so, was it helpful, and if not, what did you use to guide your business instead and why did you take that approach? 

JESSICA: We did eventually when we had narrowed down the idea, but in the beginning, we cycled through dozens of different concepts and did an exploration to see if they made sense. Was it profitable? Scalable? Was it even possible to bring to market? Was it a product or service that we would personally use? It took us a while to zero in on the right idea. Once we had our winning concept we did write a thorough business plan to give our early investors confidence in our idea and approach. It served as a great starting point, but things are constantly changing in startup-land and you need to stay flexible throughout the whole process. We view our models as live working tools to strategize vs a one-time exercise.

Photo: Courtesy of Everist

How did you come up with the name Everist? What are some of the things you considered during the naming process? 

JAYME: We wanted a brand that would be named after our customers; they are the Everist. They are the ones making small eco-conscious choices in their daily lives that together add up to a big impact. We exist to help them by making eco easier and without compromise. We also wanted a name that didn’t sound too “crunchy” but had the connotation of mindful consumption; an Everist thinks about their forever impact on their two homes: their body and our planet.

What were the immediate things you had to take care of to set up the business? 

JESSICA: We had to have a chemist and a manufacturing partner to help us create the product first (which ended up being a very long process since we had such a “blue-sky” brief). We also needed to find a sustainable packaging partner. Once we made some headway on that, we got started on our incorporation, trademark, domains, social handles, and in our case, patent process.

What research did you do for the brand beforehand, and would you recommend it to other founders? 

JESSICA: Coming from the industry, we did bring with us a great deal of knowledge to set a solid foundation. Although not essential, starting in a space where you already have some expertise, will give you a good head start. From there we did do a thorough competitive analysis and whitespace mapping, followed by continuous formula experimentation and business model profitability analysis to ensure our idea was viable to scale. In the end, the most important advice we can give is to always start with a large enough customer need and quickly test a bunch of solutions to find the one that best meets that need for market fit versus developing a product and trying to force-fit it to a customer.     

How did you find and identify the manufacturers that you work with? What was important to you during this process, and are there any mistakes you made and learned from along the way? 

JAYME: We wanted a manufacturer that was local for environmental reasons and also so we could be very involved in the process. We wanted a partner that believed in our ideas and was committed for the long run to help us bring them to life. It’s not always easy, but a strong partnership can help you move mountains.

How did you fund Everist? What were the challenges and what would you change? Would you recommend your route to other entrepreneurs? 

JESSICA: We started self-funded, like many entrepreneurs, as we were solidifying our idea, but we soon realized we would need more investment for inventory, brand building and to scale quickly. We attended events and casually met as many people as we could to learn and develop relationships. During one of those events, we were lucky enough to find the right strategic partner to lead our pre-seed raise and bring on other like-minded investors who could add value and believed in our long-term vision. To us, the right strategic fit was everything, especially early on as you need to have people on board who believe in you and support all the twists and turns that will inevitably come.       

Do you pay yourself, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourself? 

JESSICA: We don’t currently pay ourselves, but we plan to after launch. This is a personal decision based on both the founders’ and the company’s financial position and equity growth prospects. Cash flow is the company’s lifeline, so we will definitely not be taking our past corporate salaries, but enough to cover some living expenses. However, as the company grows, we do believe in founders taking a reasonable salary for their position.   

How big is your team now, and what has the hiring process been like?

JESSICA: We are currently a small team of two who have embraced the gig economy and have brought on amazing freelance and vendor partners to help us scale while remaining flexible at this early stage. Most of our partners have been brought on through research and referrals. That said, we are both seasoned people managers coming from big beauty and believe in developing diverse talent for long-term success. Therefore, we look forward to growing our team soon!

Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and setup, and are there any tools or programs you recommend for bookkeeping? 

JESSICA: Since we are both business grads, we had a baseline of knowledge to build our own financial models and were able to handle our own expense reporting through QuickBooks pre-revenue. However, as we were preparing to launch, we knew we needed to bring on experts to set up a solid foundation for growth. Therefore, we hired an outsourced accounting firm that specializes in bookkeeping and controller services that scale with the needs of the business. Other systems we explored were FreshBooks, as well as inventory management through a system such as SOS Inventory or QuickBooks Commerce. Once you have sufficient scale, a fully integrated ERP platform such as Oracle NetSuite could be useful.

Photo: Courtesy of Everist

What has been the biggest learning curve during the process of establishing your business? 

JAYME: Everything? That’s really what’s made this experience so exciting (and at times overwhelming). We have been hands-on in every area of the business where previously we were more specialized or leading a team of specialists. Learning clean chemistry, web platforms, fundraising terms, IP law. It’s been a wild ride. 

How did you promote your company? How did you get people to know who you are and create buzz? 

JAYME: Our first marketing investment was bringing on a great PR team. We knew that part of our uniqueness was that we had an innovative product with a great story to tell and we wanted to make sure we had help getting it out there. We’re also believers in creating a strong social community, encouraging reviews, partnering with like-minded influencers and brands, developing valuable educational content, and A/B testing digital media campaigns.  

Do you have a business coach or mentor, and if so, would you recommend one to fellow entrepreneurs? 

JESSICA: We don’t have a formal coach or mentor but have been fortunate to be surrounded by great industry experts, inspiring entrepreneurs, and investors who have also become valuable advisors. It is definitely helpful to have a strong support network around you for your entrepreneurial journey. If that doesn’t happen organically then there are many organizations or accelerators that you can join to connect you with a relevant mentor. However, it can take several tries to find the right mentor-mentee fit, but when you do it can add tremendous value.

What is one thing you didn’t do during the setup process that ended up being crucial to the business and would advise others to do asap? 

JESSICA: Register your business name and international trademark early. It’s not necessarily one we didn’t do, but it’s something we hear as a stumbling block all the time. Especially for brands, you don’t want to be forced to change your name after you’ve built up awareness once you find out there is someone else already using the same name in your local market or another important international market.

For those who haven’t started a business (or are about to), what advice do you have? 

JAYME: There are a million problems and to-do’s vying for your attention every day, so be laser-focused on what your priorities are and keep moving forward.

What is your number one piece of financial advice for any new business owner and why?

JESSICA: Managing your cash flow is critical. In a past side hustle, I’ve been in the situation that I had to personally finance a retailer PO when I was already deep in student debt. It quickly teaches you how real a cash flow problem can be versus numbers on a financial statement in business school. Make sure you know your burn rate and have a plan A, B, and C to extend whether through self-funding, an equity raise, or a loan. It can also be a good idea to have a working capital line of credit ready as a safety net to cover inventory costs before revenues can be collected. 

If you could go back to the beginning with the knowledge you have now, what advice would you give yourself and why? 

JESSICA: It will take longer than you expected, so enjoy the process. When a problem arises, get the right people in a room (or virtual room) and keep asking clarifying questions to uncover the root of the problem that needs to be fixed. Then, focus all your attention on the solution as people can be very creative when they are open to new possibilities and stay positive. The end result might look different, but often better if you’re open to it.

Anything else to add?

JESSICA: There are always going to be reasons and risks that can feel like now’s not the right time, but if you’re passionate about your idea—you just have to jump in. Best to ensure you have a solid support system around you and then be as flexible as possible to learn and pivot as you go.

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Eunice Byun Started Material as a Side Hustle While Working 9-to-5 at Revlon—Here’s How She Did It

You asked for more content around business finances, so we’re delivering. Welcome to Money Matters where we give you an inside look at the pocketbooks of CEOs and entrepreneurs. In this series, you’ll learn what successful women in business spend on office spaces and employee salaries, how they knew it was time to hire someone to manage their finances, and their best advice for talking about money.

Photo: Kirsten Francis

Eunice Byun launched her cookware company Material as a side hustle while she was working full-time as an exec at Revlon. But she knew she had to quit her day job when she kept waking up with new ideas for Material and couldn’t shake that feeling of “I’ll pinch myself later on if I don’t just do this now,” she tells Create & Cultivate. “It did help not having to worry about how I would financially make it by ironing out a lot of the vision for the business on nights and weekends, while still getting paid for my full-time job,” she adds about the decision of launching a business while working from 9-to-5.

Although the slow-and-steady approach was right for her, the entrepreneur admits it’s not for everyone. “If you’re the type of person who needs to jump in feet first and throw everything you’ve got at the business, then my approach might have been too cautious,” she says. “For me, I needed some assurance that what my co-founder and I were dreaming up was compelling enough that we could secure funding so that we could build the product and our brand right from the start.” And it’s safe to say that strategy has more than paid off. In fact, she had a number of investors who were interested in working with her before she even had a product (no big deal!).

Ahead, Byun explains what it took to launch a business while working full-time, how she secured funding before producing a single product, and why it’s important for founders to be compensated, regardless of the actual dollar amount printed on the paycheck. 

Your résumé is so impressive. You started your career in finance as an analyst at Goldman Sachs and later served as vice president of global digital marketing at Revlon. Can you tell us about your professional background and what you were doing professionally before launching Material? 

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a pretty diverse career to date. After graduating from Northwestern University, I went into finance at Goldman Sachs. It’s a great place to start your career because you learn a lot of transferable skills—presenting information, time management, people management—at an early age. Ultimately, I knew that I couldn’t see myself in finance long-term and wanted to move into something more consumer-focused. 

From there, I spent the next chapter of my professional life in the consumer and start-up worlds, soaking up as much operational knowledge as possible. I learned about forecasting, merchandising, managing a P&L, operations, PR, and communications. Although I didn’t know it at the time, I was accumulating bits and pieces of know-how that would serve me well with my own company, Material.

Right before launching Material, I was in the beauty industry, deep in digital storytelling, community building, and influencer-focused marketing, much of which has informed our current marketing strategies. 

What was the “lightbulb moment” for Material? What inspired you to start your business and pursue this path? Did you always envision yourself becoming an entrepreneur?

I was that kid growing up who never knew how to answer the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As I got older, I eventually realized it came down to surrounding myself with talented, driven people (who I could learn from), and building something that people cared about. That rubric served me pretty well as I navigated through a few different industries. 

But it wasn’t until I had my daughter that I realized there had to be something more. I wanted a place where I didn’t have to leave parts of myself at home, especially as a new mom. When my co-founder and I started piecing together the concept of Material, we envisioned the idea of our company but also the type of place and people we wanted to spend our time in and with. We felt there was a need for our company to exist (e.g. to bring more beautiful, high-performing designs to the home cook), but we also knew we wanted to build a company with values that matter and motivate us and our team. 

You had a number of investors that were interested in working with you before you even had a product. What were some of the challenges you faced in raising funding pre-product and what would you change? Would you recommend your route to other entrepreneurs? 

Product is central to our business, as we aren’t a one-product-shop where we focus solely on a singular item. In our case, we launched with a collection of seven items, so raising a pre-seed round was necessary in order to deliver the quality of products we envisioned. However, we made sure not to take too much money from the beginning as we didn’t want to automatically put us on the hamster wheel of raising more and more capital as quickly as possible. We also were specific on having a diverse set of initial investors, which proved to be one of our best decisions. With a mix of venture, angel investors, and houseware industry experts, we’ve received different opinions and guidance which has allowed us to chart a growth plan for Material that feels more dimensional and sustainable.

What was your first big expense as a business owner and how should small business owners prepare for that now?

Public relations and communications. We invested right from the start in a top-notch, start-up-focused PR partner. The way we saw it was we only had one company launch moment, where we could come out and tell the world who we were and what we are about, so we wanted to make that moment count. What we’ve found is that many of those press hits quickly got our name out and generated buzz, but longer-term populated our branded search results and filled the pages with articles. These still pay off for us years later. 

What are your top three largest expenses every month?

Payroll, fulfillment, and platform-related costs (e.g. processing fees and hosting). We used to spend a lot more on top-of-the-funnel marketing but have found that our lower-cost acquisition tactics are more effective and produce more loyal, long-term customers.

Do you pay yourself, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourself? 

Yes. One of our early investors advised us from the start to pay ourselves what we needed to focus on the company, and not how we’d make ends meet. That being said, my co-founder and I believe in hiring the best talent we can so we allocate our funds to the team (meaning we make less than other team members).

Would you recommend other small business owners pay themselves? 

Yes. It’s important to feel compensated for the work being put into the company, regardless of how much that dollar amount actually is. 

Photo: Kirsten Francis

How did you know you were ready to hire and what advice can you share on preparing for this stage of your business? 

An angel investor of ours broke this down for me once. He said there are two buckets of hires: superchargers and doers. You need both and you’ll eventually hire for both. 

Superchargers are those that you bring in slightly earlier than needed—and might overpay for at the time—but they are meant to exponentially grow your business. They might have done it before elsewhere or they have some experience that will immediately add value. 

Then there are the doers, where you hire them when you’re essentially past the breaking point. They help make processes move more efficiently or allow you to go faster, but you can afford to drop some balls here and there and not have it affect the business in a significant way. This ensures you aren’t building up a team too quickly and spending too much before it’s needed. 

What are some of the tools you use to stay on top of your business financials? What do you recommend for small business owners on a budget?

Excel. My co-founder and I look at spreadsheets daily as things are shifting quite regularly. We also have an outsourced CFO who we can tap into with more specific questions or analyses, as we’re not quite at the place where we need that skillset full-time.  

Do you have a financial mentor? Do you think all business owners need one?

I have different people whose opinions I seek out on various financial matters. I like speaking with other operators and founders about budgets because while investors may have a POV, I want people who are sitting with spreadsheets and making hard decisions on where you can spend your money and where you can’t. For fundraising matters, I like speaking to a number of people—not just one—because there’s more than just one path forward on how you finance your company. 

What money mistakes have you made and learned from along the way?

Inventory can help and hurt you. Too much, and you’re stuck. Too little, and you can’t grow fast enough. We recently invested in an inventory management system to help us work through these growing pains, as we try to be as capital efficient as possible and not have too much tied up and sitting in a warehouse.

Where do you think is the most important area for a business owner to focus their financial energy and why?

Know your pathway to profitability. There used to be an overabundance of focus on top-line growth, no matter the costs. Nowadays, the focus has shifted towards profitability which is important because it means you have greater control over your financial future if you don’t always have to rely on bringing in funding. 

Do you think women should talk about money and business more?

Yes! The number of times I’ve walked into a meeting where a potential investor focuses marketing questions to me and financial questions to my male co-founder have been absurd. The fact that my gender leads one to believe that I may not know much about my company’s financials is an antiquated perspective. ANY business owner should be well-versed in how their company will grow and what it’ll take to do so.

You’re a mom and a co-founder/CEO! How has being a mother changed your priorities and your focus in terms of your career? Do you think motherhood has made you a better business person? 

It deepens my reasons for why I do what I do. Having my daughters see that they too can write their own narrative and build something of substantial value is important to me. 

What is your best piece of financial advice for new entrepreneurs?

Get comfortable with it and don’t let someone else take the reins because they “know more about finances than you.” Your financial statements are simply a different way of telling your company’s growth story.

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5 Marketing Mistakes Too Many Small Businesses Make (and How to Avoid Them)

Photo: ColorJoy Stock

If you are a small business owner, you are likely juggling numerous tasks to keep the business afloat. Although the goal of many owners is to sell more products or services, very few know how to effectively do so through marketing (on top of everything else).

According to Investopedia, one of the most common reasons businesses fail can be attributed to poor marketing and internet presence. It is no longer enough to have a website or social media page. You must ensure your marketing reaches the right people at the right time with the right message.

While there is no marketing rule book that will guarantee virality or increase customer retention, there are, however, many marketing mistakes that can hinder your chances of growth. Here are the five common mistakes I have seen during my 10 years working as a marketing strategist, and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1: You don’t know your ideal customer.

The first step in any effective marketing campaign is knowing your ideal customer. While many new business owners think of their ideal customer demographically (i.e., age and gender), many do not have a deep understanding of who their customer is psychologically (i.e., interests and desires). Thus, making it challenging to find and target them through marketing.

How to Fix It

Form a detailed description of your target customer; this is also known as a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a fictional person who embodies the characteristics of your ideal customer. To help build a strong buyer person, conduct market research from your customer base through surveys and interviews. 

The goal of this market research is to deeply understand how and why your customers make certain buying decisions. These findings will help you create detailed content and messaging that appeals to your target audience.

Mistake #2: You ignore your competitors.

No business can operate in a complete bubble. However, many business owners prefer not to look at their competitors in fear of losing focus or becoming a copycat.

How to Fix It

Running a competitor analysis can help you understand your competition’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to your own. Tools such as Facebook Ad Library and SpyFu allow you to view your competitors' marketing campaigns. 

Analyzing your competition will help you better understand your market and how your customers are responding to it. You can use these findings to run more effective marketing campaigns online.

Mistake #3: You focus too little on brand awareness.

According to Small Business Trends, making money is listed as the top concern for many business owners. However, if your ideal customer does not know who you are, how can you make more sales? Many business owners spend too much time focusing on bottom-funnel marketing activities (i.e., purchases), that they forget to establish trust and credibility through brand awareness.

How to Fix It

Focus on building brand awareness through public relations, influencer partnerships, and social media advertisements. Use this opportunity to establish your brand voice, build relationships, and inform your target customer that you are a credible solution to their needs.

Mistake #4: You are not focused on retaining customers.

On average, it costs six times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. According to a McKinsey study, repeat e-commerce customers spend more than double what new customers spend. So, why are business owners unable to focus on customer satisfaction and retention?

How to Fix It

Ensuring customers stick with you throughout your business life cycle will not only increase profits but yield higher positive word-of-mouth referrals (hello, free marketing!). 

To achieve customer loyalty, prove your customers are important to you through rewards, social media shoutouts, and personalized communication. Customers that trust companies they do business with are more likely to purchase again in the future and recommend to others.

Mistake #5: You don’t look at your analytics.

Marketing analytics helps you understand how well your marketing campaigns are working and assists you in recognizing what adjustments need to be made in order to achieve success. However, many business owners complete their marketing campaigns without ever analyzing the data.  

How to Fix It

Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) before running any marketing campaign. KPIs are specific, numerical marketing metrics that businesses track to measure progress toward a defined goal. Example KPIs can be digital marketing ROI, conversion rates, and traffic. Set aside time every week to track the results of your marketing. Take note of what is working versus what is not, and use that information to inform your next marketing initiative.

“Many business owners spend too much time focusing on bottom-funnel marketing activities (i.e., purchases), that they forget to establish trust and credibility through brand awareness.”

—Allyssa Munro, Founder of Meg & Munro

About the author: Allyssa Munro is a marketer and published writer with a decade of experience building strong brands for top retailers, organizations, and business leaders, including Lord & Taylor, Dolce & Gabbana, Buxom Cosmetics, and Bare Minerals. Allyssa holds an MBA from Baruch College, Zicklin School of Business, and is certified in marketing research by The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Allyssa founded Meg & Munro, a digital-first marketing and communications agency for beauty and lifestyle brands and the creators who lead them. The agency specializes in public relations, social media, and content creation. Learn more at www.megandmunro.com or follow @megandmunro.

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How My Experience as an Investor Prepared Me to Be a Founder

Photo: Courtesy of Naomi Shah

It’s difficult to think of anything in my life that has required a wider or more dynamic skill set than founding and running a company. Unlike the way founding is sometimes described in pop culture and media, you can’t just have great ideas for products and services. You have to be capable of building a healthy company culture, understand how markets evolve, and anticipate what consumers will want in the future. Personally, the last year and a half have honed a higher tolerance for uncertainty, an irrepressible curiosity about our market and users, and the ability to communicate exactly what the company is trying to achieve to inspire all of our people. 

While there’s nothing quite like running a start-up, I’m grateful that I had an opportunity to work at a venture capital firm before taking the helm of my company Meet Cute. Because VCs work directly with founders every day, they need to be capable of seeing the world from a founder’s perspective, which means identifying gaps in the market, crafting the right narratives about promising companies and ideas, gathering a lot of information from disparate sources, and making informed decisions in the face of incredible uncertainty. Due diligence is the central task for VCs, but they also have to be willing to take risks on the companies they believe in. 

Investors and founders are on the same team. The best partnerships are often described as a marriage. That analogy rings true especially because of the ups and downs of founding over the years, which requires an intense trust in the people you work with that they will be there when you need it. Aligning on the direction of the company, personnel, and emerging market opportunities is critical. Ahead, I’m sharing some of the many lessons I learned as an investor that have also served me well as a founder.

Lesson #1: It all starts with curiosity.

Successful VCs are always on the lookout for companies that capture and hold their interest and users’ trust. Founders should want to work with investors who have thoughtful questions about their products and services, understand their industry, think differently, and believe in the founding team. It isn’t just a matter of cutting a check and hoping for a quick return. In turn, VCs should add value by thinking creatively about what the market will look like in the future and advising the company. I learned from shadowing partners at USV that the best VCs were also the best listeners, and think of VC as a service industry. 

This starts with genuine curiosity about what a company does and what impact it could have on the world with the right guidance and resources. The average holding period for VC investors is eight years. This is a reminder that investors need to be mission-aligned as they will work with companies over the long term and are investing in the sustainable success of their portfolio companies. 

VCs and founders should establish open lines of communication right at the outset. I’ve never been afraid to ask questions or contact experts who know more than I do about a subject, and these skills served me well as an investor and a CEO. 

When I was at the VC firm, the best way to learn about early-stage companies was to work directly with them on forecasting, marketing strategy, fundraising, and other issues and consult with experts outside of the company to bring new perspectives to the table. The same collaborative mentality is an essential part of the culture at Meet Cute today. If we need to talk to an expert about something specific, we are not shy about asking and learning. Time and time again, smart people in the industry who we look up to make time for those who are genuinely curious. 

Lesson #2: Make the best decision possible with incomplete information.

Early-stage investing offers unique benefits, such as the ability to identify innovative companies before other investors, help steer those companies in a positive direction, and ultimately secure more growth over time for taking on a much larger risk. These are all reasons why it’s no surprise that early-stage VC investments have surged over the past decade from $14 billion in 2011 to just over $47 billion in 2019. Early-stage investing is on pace to set a record this year. The first quarter alone saw greater deal value than the entire year in 2011.  

Early-stage investing also comes with quite a few obstacles, and a lack of information is one of the biggest. Early-stage investors don’t have as much data about a company’s growth, operational efficiency, etc., so many of their decisions are based on pattern recognition and intuition. The founders of early-stage companies face similar constraints. There’s no playbook for what many of these companies are doing, so we have to be comfortable making decisions with limited information. Just as investors need to accept the fact that they will sometimes make the wrong call, founders should be willing to fail. If everything is going too smoothly, you should ask yourself if you’re scaling ambitiously enough. 

All of that said, founders and VCs should be as fastidious as possible in their research. Due diligence as a core focus means putting in the time to learn and develop opinions and perspectives. But due diligence always has to be placed in the context of the realistic constraints you face, especially in building something completely new, and knowing what level of risk you’re willing to tolerate. 

Lesson #3: Always tell your story

A company’s story is integral to its identity, and it serves as one of the most effective ways to reach your audience and let them trust our brand, galvanize employees around a common message, and attract the best investors. As an investor, I frequently told stories about innovative companies to convince my colleagues that we should back them, often in the form of an investment memo or a short and sweet presentation in a team meeting. I also helped start-ups craft their stories when they launched fundraising rounds or needed to prepare for board updates. Storytelling is the most powerful tool we have as humans and we know that the emotions of a story are remembered far better than facts.  

Moreover, I’ve realized how sharing your story internally is vital to improving morale and helping employees rally around a consistent set of values and objectives. Gallup reports that only 27 percent of employees strongly believe in their company’s values, while less than half say they strongly agree that they understand what the company stands for or what sets it apart. By telling the company story and vision often and consistently, the team can rally around what they’re working toward and why it matters. 

Reflecting on the last year, there is a significant overlap between my experiences as an investor and a founder. By making a conscious effort to understand how my experiences tie into and bolster one another, I hope that I can show where founders and the VC firms that support them can build stronger relationships and thereby more unique and impactful products in the world. 

Photo: Courtesy of Naomi Shah

About the author: Naomi Shah is the founder and CEO of Meet Cute, a venture-backed media company that has produced over 300 original light-hearted romantic comedies in podcast form. The company celebrates human connection and the full spectrum of love with the core mission of having every person feel like they are reflected in Meet Cute stories. Since its inception in February 2020, the podcast has had over two million listens across over 150 countries and has been featured in the top 10 of Fiction on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 

Before starting Meet Cute, she was a member of the investment team at Union Square Ventures, a technology venture capital firm in New York, where she spent most of her time talking to companies in the consumer and well-being space. Prior to that, she was a macro equities trader at Goldman Sachs and studied mechanical engineering and human biology at Stanford University.

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5 Clean Beauty Founders on Instagram Who Will Inspire You to Level Up Your Beauty Routine

Welcome to 5 for 5, where we spotlight 5 women in 5 minutes or less.

From an innovative founder who’s gained the attention of Vogue, Into the Gloss, and Beyoncé by redefining what it means to be a sustainable skincare brand to an Estée Lauder and Ipsy alum who’s centering South Asian beauty, these must-follow founders are transforming the clean beauty industry.

1. Gloria Noto

Former makeup artist and founder of Noto Botanics, a sustainable and ethical skincare and beauty brand, Gloria Noto is a must-follow for anyone who believes that self-care is a radical tool for resilience.

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2. Priscilla Tsai

Priscilla Tsai is on a mission to bring more transparency to the beauty industry through her clean skincare brand, Cocokind. Follow her on Instagram for brand updates and launches (and very relatable baby content).

3. Abena Boamah-Acheampong

With recognition from Vogue, Into the Gloss, The Cut, Essence, and Beyoncé (NBD), Abena Boamah-Acheampong has solidified her space in the beauty industry with her sustainable skincare brand Hanahana Beauty. Stay ahead of the curve by following the industry leader on IG.

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4. Priyanka Ganjoo

After working at Estée Lauder and Ipsy, Priyanka Ganjoo stepped out on her own to launch a clean makeup brand, Kulfi Beauty, that centers and celebrates South Asian beauty. Tap “follow” to keep up with the up-and-coming clean beauty founder.

5. Giovanna Campagna

As the founder of the buzzy skincare brand Joaquina Botánica, Giovanna Campagna is bringing Latin America’s best-kept skincare secrets to the masses. Hit “follow” on her IG feed for skincare tips and tricks (not to mention adorable pics of her baby).

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This Former Scuba Diving Instructor Is Reducing Single-Use Plastic Waste, One Beeswax Wrap at a Time

You asked for more content around business finances, so we’re delivering. Welcome to Money Matters where we give you an inside look at the pocketbooks of CEOs and entrepreneurs. In this series, you’ll learn what successful women in business spend on office spaces and employee salaries, how they knew it was time to hire someone to manage their finances, and their best advice for talking about money.

Photo: Pink Palm Media; Courtesy of Evan Guiton

Before Evan Guiton started Bee Kind, she was on a very different career path. “I was working as a scuba diving instructor on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and all I wanted was to spend as much time as possible hanging out with humpback whales,” she tells Create & Cultivate. But she couldn’t ignore the devastating effects of plastic pollution on the ocean. “As someone who was spending significant time underneath the water, I had a front-row seat to the suffering and destruction ocean plastic pollution was causing,” she explains. “Every single dive I went on I would encounter a fish or marine animal who was having some sort of interaction with a piece of plastic.”

After a while, it became hard for her to reconcile enjoying the ocean without being a part of the solution, which is how the idea to launch a business that reduces single-use plastic, came about. “I wanted to educate people about the seriousness of the problem and empower my community to become more sustainable in their everyday lives,” says Guiton. “By creating trendy, accessible, and affordable products that could replace everyday plastics, I knew I could bring zero-waste into the mainstream,” she explains of the concept behind Bee Kind. “Shortly after this revelation, I quit my job as a dive instructor and flew home to Canada to begin working on my first beeswax wrap prototype.”

Here, Guiton explains why she decided to bootstrap her business, shares the money mistakes she’s made along the way, and offers her best advice for entrepreneurs.

How did you fund Bee Kind? What were the challenges and what would you change? Would you recommend your route to other entrepreneurs? 

I bootstrapped Bee Kind from the ground up, which means I never took any funding or investment. In the beginning, I spent a few thousand of my own dollars fleshing out a website, a logo, production supplies, and raw materials. I was lucky enough that I was able to make a profit almost instantly through local craft markets which encouraged slow but steady momentum forwards without digging much further into my own wallet.

While I am grateful I did it this way (as now I am happy to say I still own 100% of the business), it was a financial balancing act for many years. Without funding, I had to completely rely on company profits to slowly grow, in addition to being hyper-specific when it came to forecasting the purchase of raw materials. When you make these bulk purchases, your money is tied up in these raw materials for approximately four months before you begin to turn it around in sales of finished products. Knowing this, I had to be incredibly accurate when forecasting our growth.

What was your first big expense as a business owner and how should small business owners prepare for that now?

The first time I purchased our custom printed fabric I was horrified to learn about MOQs and the amount of customized product I would have to commit to upfront. I had very limited dollars to play with at the beginning, so I had to make compromises in what we could afford while still ensuring we created a really special product. 

I recommend that business owners do A LOT of digging into any big purchases they are about to make. Is there a better deal out there? Are you absolutely sure that you need to spend money on this? Is there a better (or just different) way to achieve the same result? The more you can think outside the box in growing your business, the more you can help your bottom line. There are a million ways to achieve the same result, so don’t feel like you are cornered into throwing money at a problem. 

Photo: Courtesy of Bee Kind

What are your top three largest expenses every month?

Payroll, raw materials, and our photographer on retainer /social media content creators.

Do you pay yourself, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourself?

I’m four years into the business, and to this day I prefer to pay myself just enough to cover my bills and necessities. Putting as much money as I can back into the business so it can grow is my best investment. In all honesty, there came a point in time where all I wanted was a new production warehouse, and that meant infinitely more to me than having extra personal pocket money. The decision was that simple.

Would you recommend that other small business owners pay themselves? Why or why not?

I think business owners need to cover their bills and be comfortable so that they can mentally and creatively show up for their business every day. However, when they choose to start properly paying themselves completely depends on their personal situation. I think they also need to realize that putting money back into the company, in the beginning, could create much higher returns later on, and that might be worth it to them in the long run. 

How did you know you were ready to hire and what advice can you share on preparing for this stage of your business? 

For many small businesses, the founder is the accountant, the maker, the marketing specialist, the delivery person, and everything in between. While this was a stressful way to go about running a business, it was the only option financially for me for the first couple of years. I hired someone to help me make the beeswax wraps when I physically could not keep up anymore. Once I realized that hiring help was in fact not a financial burden, and instead, a fast track to growing the business, I was much more relaxed in adding more people to the team.

I knew that I had a lot on my plate as a business owner and that I absolutely did not want to add “becoming a manager to a team of people” to my to-do list. From the beginning, I clearly defined my employees’ roles as independent, self-starting, and with “choose their own schedules.” To this day, I have never written out a staff schedule and my team is there on any given day because they want to be, not because they have to. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Photo: Courtesy of Bee Kind

Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and setup? 

If I had one piece of advice to small business owners it would be this: hire a bookkeeper from the beginning. You don’t need anything fancy, but where it comes to your books, you want a professional keeping them straight. When you get bigger, you can look at getting a CPA, but at the start, a budget bookkeeper is all you need. For too long, I thought I could do it myself on Quickbooks online, and it was a giant learning experience.

What tools or programs are you using to manage your business finances? What’s worked and what hasn’t?

Quickbooks online and a great filing cabinet system are what I swear by. What hasn’t worked? Going at it alone without an accountant.

Do you think women should talk about money and business more? Why or why not? 

Absolutely! As someone in charge of hiring new employees, I have often been in a position where I didn’t know what I should be offering in terms of compensation simply because no one likes to talk about what they get paid. If wages were talked about more casually, I think everyone would also become more ambitious in achieving salary milestones.

What money mistakes have you made and learned from along the way?

Every opportunity that involved us providing free (or almost free) product in exchange for “exposure” has been a hefty disappointment. In my humble opinion, the majority of companies that promise you exposure so that they can make money off you or your product should be approached with a great deal of caution. Put your time and efforts into organic engagement and creating genuine connections with your followers.

What is your best piece of financial advice for new entrepreneurs?

If you have a good idea and a blossoming business, you will get approached ALL the time for investment opportunities. If you’re thriving, people will want a piece. While this is incredibly flattering and exciting (especially at the beginning), the people you want on your team are not the ones asking for a piece of the pie during their first conversation with you.

Also, save money for a rainy day. Opportunities will come that you want to take advantage of which you need money for RIGHT NOW. Keeping a nest egg is an incredibly wise decision as it allows you to make big moves.

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How to Triple Your Revenue in 2021

Photo: Smith House Photo

Let’s talk about revenue.

Building a business means setting aside time to map out revenue goals and growth strategies. Which can be a daunting task if you’re a dreamer with big financial goals for your business this year.

For those of you looking at your current balance sheet and wondering how in the world you’ll get there by the end of the year, I’m breaking down a few simple, proven strategies you can implement to see massive growth in hitting that bottom (or top) line.

1. Raise your prices.

Want to know the #1 way to increase revenue without adding additional work? RAISE YOUR PRICES.

Spend an afternoon doing a little internal audit of your services, products & pricing. Determine how many clients you need to book or products you need to sell this year to reach your stretch revenue goals. If it’s a lot...as in, that amount of work will leave you completely burnt out, it’s time to start charging more.

For example, if this year’s annual revenue goal for your design agency is $100,000 and your average service costs $2k, you will need to book 50 client projects this year to reach your goal. However, if you start charging $10k for that same package, you only need 10 clients. And if you book 50 clients, you’ll make $500,000 in revenue. Simple. But hugely profitable.

If you’re wondering if it’s time to raise your prices, here are a few things to consider…

What is the value of your product or service?

The first thing to look at when deciding to raise your prices is the value your service or product holds for your customers. Will your offerings allow them to raise their prices? Sell more of their products? Book more clients? Reach new audiences? Gain new opportunities? Automate their processes? The list goes on.

For example, we have seen our clients double their revenue and quadruple their client roster after working with us. We've seen them go from being a brand nobody has heard of to an iconic leader in their field. The websites we build for our clients have the potential to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. We've helped our clients organize and effectively present information that's saved them time and money answering emails or hopping on long sales calls.

Your prices should reflect the value and ROI your product or service brings.

Are you presenting your brand in a way that LOOKS as valuable as it is?

How you present & position your offerings is EVERYTHING. Presentation adds perceived value. There is a reason why beautiful things cost more - they look more valuable.

Your potential clients and customers probably don't know how good your product or service is yet. All they have to go off of is the way it looks.

So ask yourself...

If I knew nothing about my brand, would I pay top dollar for what I'm selling?

Do my offerings look as high value as they are?

Do I stand out and compete with other brands in my industry?

If you answered "no" to any of those questions, it might be time to consider investing in a rebrand. You are probably leaving a lot of money on the table, purely because you don't look like the high-value brand or expert that you are.

What does the experience feel like for your customers?

What happens after the customer buys? Will their experience after purchasing reinforce their decision to buy from you? Was the experience one that will make them want to buy again? Will they tell their friends or colleagues about you?

The customer experience after purchase is just as important. For service-based businesses, this comes through in your client process, the way you communicate, how well the client feels taken care of and how your service is ultimately delivered. For product-based businesses, this is your unboxing experience, the culture you're creating, on-going customer exclusives and how you're building brand loyalty.

Oftentimes, the customers you already have are your best customers. How are you taking care of them and making them feel valued after they’ve purchased?

2. Invest in education.

New skills can help you reach more people, uplevel your current offerings and better establish yourself in your industry. If you want to increase revenue, you should continually be learning and developing your skills.

Start by identifying areas of your business that you wish you knew more about. Or think about services that would complement what you currently offer to offer clients and customers even more support.

Here are a couple of great needle-moving skills to invest in learning…

• Marketing & Sales

• Facebook Ad Management

• Brand Strategy

• Copywriting

• Basic Graphic Design

3. Outsource and invest in support.

If you see growth in your immediate future, you will need to invest in additional support. As your business scales, so should your team. And as scary as it feels, you need to hire help before the growth comes so you’re ready when it does.

Start making decisions as your next-level self. This will allow you to grow faster, become more efficient, and handle even more growth in the coming year.

4. Develop content & products for a new audience.

Spend 20 minutes this week scrolling through your social media followers. Get to know them. Are your products or services for them? If 20% or more of your followers aren’t your ideal customer, you are leaving money on the table.

Take some time to think about a new product that you could offer. These people are clearly interested in something you currently do. But you haven’t given them an opportunity to convert.

Never underestimate the power of simply listening to what your audience is asking for. It’s probably something completely different than what you think you should offer. Or servicing a new audience entirely. But it will be the most aligned thing you ever do for your business.

Increasing your revenue means trying new things, taking new risks, and learning more than you ever have had before. Step into your next-level self and create a scalable path to revenue growth.

“New skills can help you reach more people, uplevel your current offerings and better establish yourself in your industry.”

—Ariel Garcia, Graphic Designer and Founder of ByAriel

Photo: Clarin J Photo

About the author: Ariel Garcia is a self-taught graphic designer and founder of the creative agency, ByAriel. She is committed to pushing the boundaries of creative innovation and carries that into each project, campaign, or brand she’s a part of. She also mentors graphic designers on developing their own unique style and artistry. Ariel’s typical day consists of several cups of coffee, logo designing, collaborating with clients, styling products, and planning her next adventure.

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How Samara Walker Launched Auda.B While Working Full-Time as a Senior Financial Analyst at Amazon

You asked for more content around business finances, so we’re delivering. Welcome to Money Matters where we give you an inside look at the pocketbooks of CEOs and entrepreneurs. In this series, you’ll learn what successful women in business spend on office spaces and employee salaries, how they knew it was time to hire someone to manage their finances, and their best advice for talking about money.

Photo: Courtesy of Samara Walker

"Balancing a full-time job and a start-up is extremely demanding and requires a different level of patience, organization, and ability to challenge yourself," Samara Walker, the founder and CEO of the luxury vegan nail lacquer brand Àuda.B, tells Create & Cultivate. “Time is of the essence because every minute counts when you have to delegate between your 9-5 and your startup,” she explains. But Walker was more than up to the task of managing her minutes and balancing her full-time role as a senior financial analyst at Amazon with building her beauty start-up. And for good reason.

Walker launched Àuda.B because women of color aren’t often represented within luxury beauty. “Oftentimes, luxury beauty brands omit the celebration for women of color,” she explains. “I was truly inspired to launch Àuda.B to create a brand that reflected women of color from A-Z. Through product curation, branding, and marketing, I knew that I wanted to build an inclusive brand that kept women of color top of mind,” she adds. And major retailers have taken notice. Earlier this year, Àuda.B launched on Nordstrom, becoming the first Black-owned polish brand to be sold by the retailer.

Ahead, Walker shares when she knew it was time to quit her job at Amazon and go all-in on Àuda.B, what the biggest challenges in scaling her business have been so far, and how she’s pushing the beauty industry forward and making a difference.

You started Àuda.B while you were working full-time as a senior financial analyst at Amazon. Would you recommend starting a business while working a full-time job? 

As I reflect back, I would recommend starting a business while working full time because this allows you to put your passion and work ethic into perspective. Having a stable income allowed me to invest in my business by relying on my paycheck and helped me bootstrap my company to the next phase. Working a full-time job while starting a business put my life into perspective and really encouraged me to go after my dreams!

How did you know when it was time to quit your job at Amazon and go all-in on Àuda.B? What was your strategy for making the transition and what, if anything, do you wish you’d done differently? 

The day I signed my partnership agreement with Nordstrom, I knew I had to prepare myself to leave Amazon. As a small start-up, I had to manage and develop the supply chain strategy for the business and onboard new systems to become compliant with the retailer, which is no small undertaking. The demand for Àuda.B became overwhelming (in the best way!) between the influx in orders and the partnership with Nordstrom. I was tasked with the decision of pouring my energy into Àuda.B or Amazon, and the decision was not difficult at all. I had worked tirelessly for this day to come, and I was prepared to put all of my efforts into it! 

As a founder, I positioned myself from the very beginning to save aggressively because I knew that bootstrapping would allow me to have total control while building my company until we eventually secured an investor. I made strategic moves such as setting up direct deposit from my Amazon paycheck to the Àuda.B business account each pay period to build our business account for expenses and to budget for part-time contractor payments.

It's important to build out a real plan between personal and business expenses in order to set realistic expectations of what your savings should reflect to allow you to step away from your full-time job. Founders need financial security in order to operate from a healthy mindset—shelter and food shouldn't be optional. I wish I had the ability to establish this plan earlier on in my career, but I am thankful that I finally had the courage to fully step out and embrace the abundance of Àuda.B.

Photo: Courtesy of Àuda.B

Earlier this year, Àuda.B launched on Nordstrom, becoming the first Black-owned polish brand to be sold by the retailer. What has been the biggest challenge in scaling your business and what lessons have you learned along the way? What advice can you share on how to scale a business sustainably? 

The biggest challenge in scaling has been producing enough inventory to keep on-hand, as well as implementing systems to scale with limited cash. I've since learned how to prepare your business for the next phase and have strategies and plans in place to anticipate the arrival of growth. My advice would be to plan your business for the next phase before the growth actually impacts your company. Research potential partnerships to help scale, whether that's a 3PL or EDI system to manage your growth and scale effectively. 

How did you fund your business? What were the challenges and what would you change? Would you recommend your route to other entrepreneurs? 

I bootstrapped my business by funding through my full-time salary and personal savings. Some of the challenges I faced were not having enough cash on hand or the ability to order new inventory to keep up with customer demand. Managing expectations is important. Having a well-balanced inventory is essential to keep up with customers’ needs and demands. 

At first, we didn't have the ability to expand our color selection or significantly increase inventory without the guarantee of customer’s purchasing. I would change the way I handled inventory by ordering more to create a surplus for an unexpected increase in sales. I would highly recommend bootstrapping your business until funding is secured via an investor if that's the route you decide to take. Bootstrapping gives you the grace of building at your own pace and learning all aspects of your business from the ground up.

What was your first big expense as a business owner and how should small business owners prepare for that now? 

Our first big expense was hiring a lawyer in order to apply for our trademark. Small business owners should create a list and prepare for start-up costs that can be accomplished over time but are necessary for the business’s growth. Putting aside a few dollars that are dedicated solely to start-up costs will help prepare business owners for anticipated expenses. 

What are your top three largest expenses every month?

1. Part-time contractors

2. Monthly business systems: EDI and catalog systems for retailers

3. Influencer agency

Do you pay yourself, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourself?

I don't pay myself as of yet. 

Would you recommend other small business owners pay themselves? 

Depending on revenue and personal finances business owners should pay themselves. It's important that founders sustain themselves while building a business.

How did you know you were ready to hire and what advice can you share on preparing for this stage of your business? 

I knew that we were ready to hire when I couldn't meet due dates for deliverables and there was an increase in revenue which allowed us to dedicate additional income to part-time contractors. I didn't have the bandwidth to complete deliverables on time, which is a clear sign that additional help is necessary in order to scale.

What apps or software are you using for finances? Are there any tools or programs you recommend for bookkeeping? 

I personally use QuickBooks to manage our finances, which I would highly recommend. It also has a feature that allows you to manage and pay contract workers, so that way all of the information is synced and saved in one place.

Photo: Courtesy of Àuda.B

What are some of the tools you use to stay on top of your business financials? What do you recommend for small business owners on a budget? 

I set time aside both weekly and monthly to review our expenses and revenue. The weekly meetings are used to review expenses and log receipts. Monthly meetings are focused on reviewing P&L statements and detailing expenses for the month. I recommend that small business owners review their expenses and create a quarterly budget in order to efficiently manage cash flow. 

Where do you think is the most important area for a business owner to focus their financial energy on and why? 

Decreasing expenses upfront and being “lean”. It’s important to focus on increasing revenue without having to increase expenses.

Do you think women should talk about money and business more? 

Absolutely, I believe women should talk about money and business more. Only 2.4% of venture capital funding goes to women, according to CrunchBase. There is clearly a gap within the industry due to the lack of support and knowledge for women business owners. It’s vital that we share information with one another to encourage women despite the many hurdles we may face.

What money mistakes have you made and learned from along the way? 

Paying for expensive tradeshows without building a strategy and being under the impression that sales would cover expenses. Tradeshows are very expensive, and it’s not just the booth rent. There are a lot of hidden costs on the logistics side for both the business and the tradeshow. I've learned that market research and case studies can come in handy when evaluating new business opportunities. 

What is your best piece of financial advice for new entrepreneurs? 

Build personal savings before starting your business, if possible. Create a budget from the beginning and start using personal funds to save for the desired budgets if your revenue doesn’t cover expenses. Keep all logistics in-house until your business has scaled!

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5 Women in Beer Who Are Inspiring Us to Crack Open a Cold One on Instagram

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Welcome to 5 for 5, where we spotlight 5 women in 5 minutes or less.

It’s no secret that craft beer has a diversity problem. According to a recent survey conducted by the Brewers Association, only about 7.5% of brewers are women and a staggering 88% of brewery owners are white. Ahead, we’re spotlighting five women in beer who are inspiring us to crack open a cold one on Instagram.

1. Beny Ashburn

As the co-founder of Crowns & Hops Brewing Company, a Black-owned craft beer brand and brewery based in Inglewood, California, Beny Ashburn is out here proving that Black people love beer (which just so happens to be the name of one of the brewery’s signature beers).

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2. Jessica Martínez

Shortly after winning the first-ever amateur brewers competition she entered, Jessica Martínez launched her own microbrewery, Malteza Cervecería, in Mexico City. Follow the brewer on Instagram to find out which refreshing craft brews she’s currently sipping on.

3. Hannah Gohde

The head brewer at Naked Brewing, a craft brewery located in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, Hannah Gohde is a self-proclaimed #lipstickbrewer. On Instagram, she shares a behind-the-scenes view of what it’s like to brew beer from start to (sometimes) messy finish.

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4. Brienne Allan

In addition to being a production manager at Notch Brewing in Salem, Massachusetts, Brienne Allan is using her platform to call attention to what it’s like to be a woman in craft beer, bringing the #MeToo movement to the craft beer industry. Something that’s, quite frankly, long overdue.

5. Alisa Bowens-Mercado

Noticing a lack of craft lagers on the market, Alisa Bowens-Mercado founded Rhythm Brewing Co., a New Haven, Connecticut-based beer company specializing in unfiltered lagers, which is something of an homage to her grandmothers, who were both beer drinkers.

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7 Low-Cost Strategies for Small Businesses to Acquire (and Retain!) Customers

Photo: Smith House Photography

Ready to grow your business from a seedling into a forest? Introducing The Growth Hacking Bundle. Designed to walk you through the ins and outs of SEO, content creation, and making waves in the digital space, this downloadable bundle is packed with essentials for acquiring and retaining customers and seeing your small business thrive.

Ready to become a growth hacker? Ahead, we're outlining some creative, low-cost strategies—from SEO to digital media optimization—to help small businesses acquire and retain customers, expand your audience and see it thrive. Keep scrolling for seven important growth-hacking channels to go after when building your user base, and add The Growth Hacking Bundle to your cart for more tips.

#1 SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Hire a good engineer to build your site in a way that makes your company show up at the top of search results. If that isn’t in your budget, then sign up for a website that has all of that included in the backend like Squarespace or WordPress. Include popular search terms in the copy, tag, and meta-tag all assets on your page, and include hyperlinks out to other sites whenever possible. Download our SEO 101 guide in Insider’s inventory and teach yourself or someone on your team.

#2 SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Find out what are the most common search terms related to your company, and buy them on Google Ad Words. This is the best-paid strategy to help your business and its URL show up higher in search results.

#3 Product Management

The intersection of user experience, technology, and business. Product management involves closely monitoring user experience/behavior, and editing the technology in response to this behavior in order to best achieve the desired business goals. Google Analytics is the most accessible product management tool.

#4 A/B Testing

Offering your customers two versions of a product and monitoring which one they prefer. Once you find which version they prefer, you can accelerate your marketing efforts to get more bang for your buck.

#5 Facebook/Instagram ADS

Facebook has the capability to track activity across multiple devices (phone, computer, tablet) and best target the users for your product, Facebook ads may seem annoying, but they are the most effective for converting fans into paying customers. Facebook can almost guarantee you customer acquisition, it is up to you to determine whether the price of acquisition makes sense for your business.

#6 Email Capture

Capturing an email from a customer is a sign that they are willing to engage with you beyond just passively observing. Capturing emails allows you to deepen the relationship with your prospective clients through survey questions, distributed content, and calls to action that drive them back to your site, or convert them into paying customers.

#7 List Building

Break your fans and customers into differentiated lists so that you can target them differently from one another, and more accurately play to their preferences.

Ready to take things to the next level and grow your business?

Add the Create & Cultivate Marketplace The Growth Hacking Bundle to your cart, or get unlimited access to our entire library of downloads and videos when you join Insiders.

This story was published on May 6, 2020, and has since been updated.

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This Former CFO Turned Entrepreneur Doesn’t Believe in Failure (and Neither Should You)

Photo: Courtesy of Kathleen Pagan

Walking away from a 9-to-5 job with a steady paycheck and health benefits to start your own business isn’t easy. To help you to take the plunge, we’re introducing a new monthly editorial series The Case for Quitting where we ask self-employed women all about how they successfully struck out on their own, from how they balanced their side-hustle with their full-time job to how much money they saved before handing in their two-week notice. This month, we chatted with Kathleen Pagan, CEO and founder of the homewares company Endlessly Elated. Ahead, she shares how she transitioned out of finance and into home goods, what it really took to quit her full-time job as a CFO and pursue her dreams as an entrepreneur, and why she doesn’t believe in failure.

What was your major in college and what did you want to do when you graduated? 

I obtained a B.B.A. with a concentration in finance upon graduating college. I had an interest in business and thought a financial role at a corporation would be the right fit for me.  

What did you actually do after you graduated? What types of jobs did you apply to and what industry were you looking to break into?

Funny enough, very early on, I subconsciously knew that what I thought I should do, wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to do. I snuck in applications at the Food Network and Martha Stewart Living. Anything that would get me closer to what I secretly loved: the home space. Given my degree and work experience, I had an internship at Morgan Stanley throughout college, I didn’t quite land any of the ones I secretly yearned for. Although the Food Network CEO did respond to an email I had directly sent her, and it was certainly a highlight moment. Ultimately though, I landed a job at Citigroup in personal banking.

How did you get into the homeware space and interior design more broadly?

My journey has been anything but linear. As far as I can remember, my interests in the home space began at an incredibly early age. I remember being about eight and extremely interested in designing my own bedroom, cooking meals with my mom, and entertaining every chance I got.

While carrying out the duties of my demanding career, I nurtured my passions as a home cook and self-taught interior designer (I recently enrolled in classes at Parsons). I created a virtual destination via a blog by the same name, inspired by the beauty of home. From interiors to recipes, I consistently connected with a community of about 20k home aficionados like myself and in doing this, I realized there was a gap in the homewares space.

A gap that did not emphasize celebrating everyday moments, did not provide those thoughtfully designed conduits we all dreamed of, and certainly did not invite the consumer to have a seat at the table. After 37 years on earth, I finally listened to that eight-year-old little girl within me. Twelve months in development, a five-figure investment derived from my own savings, and amidst a global pandemic, I launched Endlessly Elated. My very own homewares company.

And as they say, the rest is history.  

How did you know when it was time to quit your full-time job and strike out on your own? What was your strategy for making the transition?

I spent seven long years strategizing my exit. Exhaustively planning every detail. Saving every dollar. All in preparation to strike out on my own. I even went as far as writing my resignation letter and keeping it in my purse for years in case, as I would tell myself, “Today is the day.”

However, the fact was that no matter how much I prepared, I simply didn’t take the plunge. As they say, I spent years allowing fear to drive the car. Crippled by the idea of failure. It wasn’t until I decided I was worthy of my dreams, worthy of living a life by design that I actually resigned. So, whenever I’m asked this very question, I say, “Yes, you should prepare. Make sure you dot your I’s and cross your T’s, but never and I mean never, stop pursuing your dreams. Find a way to live out your purpose. To share your gifts with the world.” 

How did you prepare for the transition before quitting your full-time job? What, if anything, do you wish you’d done differently?

I think the transition looks different for everyone. For me, it was mostly ensuring I was financially stable while I pursued my dreams of entrepreneurship. I wanted to be able to creatively work on my company without any financial stress.

However, for anyone reading this I say to make a list of what your needs are and prioritize them. That might be paying for daycare or contributing to your mortgage or simply being head of household and needing to pay for it all. Whatever that is, map out a plan that realistically gets you in the vicinity. 

Nothing turns out perfectly planned, so take that pressure off yourself. Trust that you are responsible and know that you will plan to the best of your ability. And once you do, GO FOR IT. Resign, put your head down, and gloriously work through all the things that you have been wishing for. It won’t be easy, but it will surely be worth it.

Knowing what I know now, the only thing I would have done differently was having the courage to believe in myself and my innate abilities sooner, but then again, it’s easier said now that I have made the transition. I believe in the right timing and in the end, the transition occurred at a time when “preparation met opportunity.”

Were you worried about money? What advice can you share for people who are worried about leaving a steady paycheck to start a new career? 

This was my number one fear. The steady paycheck narrative. But here’s the thing, is the paycheck really steady? Yes, it might be regularly paid but is it firmly fixed? We all know someone who has been put in a room only to be shocked by the news that restructuring was occurring, and they would be laid off. 2020, was a culmination year of this very situation. Unfortunately, so many individuals were furloughed or completely laid off. So, I ask you, is anything really steady?  

I will never tell you entrepreneurship (or starting a new career) is easy. It is the HARDEST thing I have ever done. At times, it can be scary and lonely, but it is also the most rewarding. Doing your life’s work. Living on purpose. Living a life by design is all worth the journey of taking the leap.

Did you save up first or did you just jump in headfirst?

I am definitely a planner, so I did not jump in headfirst. In 2012, the year of my dad’s death and ultimately the reason I had my “am I living a fulfilled life?” epiphany, I started saving every dollar. Maxing out my 401k, investing in the stock market, and skipping out on as many shopping trips and vacations that I needed to. 

By the time I resigned in 2019, I had saved the equivalent of two years worth of my CFO salary between my liquid savings and investments. This also included a five-figure investment for startup company costs. It took me seven years to do this, lots of sacrifices, but I did it. I was intentional and ultimately walked away feeling empowered that I had set myself up to be financially secure.

What's the most important thing you have learned from making a big change in your career life?

That I am worthy. Yes, that is a full sentence because anything more would give the sentence a justification and it simply doesn’t need it. You are worthy because you are.

When you look back and reflect on your previous career do you have any regrets or are you still really happy with your decision?

I absolutely have no regrets and know for sure that it was the best decision, the most rewarding one I’ve ever made.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunities and lessons that my career taught me. Looking back, the dots always connect. If it weren’t for my finance career, I wouldn’t have had the knowledge on how to manage my business finances, make solid financial decisions, create budgets and inevitably scale my company. It is important to remember that we all learn from our paths no matter how disconnected they may seem from what we ultimately desire. 

Going after what you deserve in life takes confidence and guts. Does confidence come naturally to you or did you have to learn it? What advice can you share for women on cultivating confidence and going after their dreams? 

Confidence is something that I can truly say has come with age and wisdom. There are aspects of my life that I’m extremely confident about and there are others that I sometimes have to remind myself of my “badassery” (my favorite Shonda Rhimes’ word). I’ve learned that when fear, the killer of confidence, creeps in, to give myself examples of things I’ve achieved. Examples of times I have succeeded. This inevitably boosts my confidence and serves as a reminder that I can do anything I put my mind and efforts on.

So, cultivate your confidence by constantly reminding yourself that you are a force to be reckoned with. That before this very moment there have been plenty of instances where you have overcome obstacles. That believing in yourself, having that confidence is what got you here and it will certainly get you to your next chapter.   

It’s easy to celebrate the wins, but how do you handle failure or when something hasn’t worked out for you?

My idea of failure has had a complete makeover over the years. My theory is simple, I don’t believe in it. See, failure can only occur if you stop trying. The only way you can literally say you failed at something is if you gave up. If you don’t, if you get up every single time you are knocked down, then you can’t fail. Ask any successful person how they’ve achieved success and they’ll tell you they never stopped moving. They did whatever it took to get them to their goal. So, failure doesn’t really exist. It’s simply an obstacle in disguise. 

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made and learned from along the way?

Ahh, I’ve made plenty. It’s part of everyone’s journey, right?

But, I would say that my biggest mistake thus far was not listening to my own intuition as it related to my career. Not trusting my own instincts and ignoring my gut, which always proved to be correct. It’s hard to look back and know that at times I chose a different path simply because I didn’t believe my inner compass. That if I had just listened, my life may have looked very different. Although I don’t regret much, I can certainly say it was a huge disservice to myself. A mistake I am very cognizant to not repeat. 

What is the #1 career or money book you always recommend and why?

“Year of Yes” by Shonda Rhimes is definitely a must-read. This is neither a career book nor a money book, but I do think it is one that inspires you to go after your dreams. To believe that if you simply say yes to everything that scares you (usually you are only fearful of the things that secretly make you tick) your life would completely change, and you too could live a life full of passion and purpose.

What advice can you share for someone who is thinking about leaving their current gig to pursue their side-hustle or passion?

As Nike’s slogan says, “Just do it.” I used to be extremely afraid to tell people to pursue their passions, for the fear that if something didn’t work out I would be to blame, but the truth is that most of us are responsible for our choices, and not telling you to go after what makes you tick is not only a disservice to you but also to those gifts that have been embedded within you. Simply imagine if Oprah had asked us and we told her to stay the “safe and steady” course. To continue her career as a local news broadcaster. Today, we wouldn’t be witnesses to all of her greatness. Don’t let anyone do that to you, but most importantly don’t do that to yourself. The moral of the story is you only have one life, so make sure to make it count.  

Anything else to add?

Yes. We must remember that saying yes to things that are out of alignment with what we know to be true for ourselves is inevitably swaying us away from the very things that make us who we are and who we were meant to be.

Photo: Courtesy of Endlessly Elated

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