Five years ago today, we had our first production day. We spent more than a year researching how to make labels, but when we finally had orders to fill – that was the real thrill! It seems hilarious looking back. Everything was an experiment. Our idea of “busy” was hilarious. We’ve definitely learned a lot. These are some of the things I’ve learned:
- If you don’t love it – don’t do it. If you don’t LOVE a design, a product, a sales pitch, a colour, a sentence, a photo.. anything – don’t do it! There have been times when we thought “I don’t really like this, but some people might like this”. Turns out – we are our best test market and we can’t stand behind anything we don’t love.
- Authenticity can’t be faked. We know this is true because as consumers we can spot it in other companies. Being honest, being true and being authentic has served us well.
- Sleep is a waste of time, but so precious. Should have learned this as a student. Should have learned this as a Mom. But babies + growing business brought us a whole new perspective on sleep!
- Women ROCK. We are still amazed, warmed and propelled by the power of women to support each other. Bloggers, journalists, our staff, teachers, friends, moms, mompreneurs, retailers, strangers… we owe everything to the power of Women and their kind word-of-mouth.
- Quality will get you everywhere. That’s just so obvious – but so many companies miss the mark!
- There is a lot of Karma in business. Can’t explain it. There just is. It works for us every day. This is a lesson learned for me, because I really didn’t understand Karma before starting this business and meeting with so many incredible opportunities.
There are many more things I’ve learned, but these are the things I need to keep learning and keep practicing (along with ‘how does Google work?’ and ‘how do I get on Oprah‘?).
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Happy Birthday Mabel!
Congratulations Julie, Julie, Trica and Cynthia. Five years is quite the milestone for businesses. (As in, many never last that long.)
“If you don’t love it – don’t do it.”
That says it all.
Here’s to 50 more!