Member Monday: Featuring Eva Chiou
Eva Chiou, Founder of The Wedding Pantry
1. What is your business?
I am the founder and owner of The Wedding Pantry. The Wedding Pantry is the spot for stylish brides and vendors. We sell specialty wedding accessories and we rent office space for vendors that are tired of meeting clients at coffee shops. I want my customers to utilize my boutique as a resource for brides and vendors alike.
2. Why did you launch this business?
As a wedding planner, my clients would always ask me for resources for specialty wedding items. The only place I could send them was to online stores or 15 different supply stores to find the right pieces. I then realized that the industry needed a resource where brides could inspect tangible products before making a big purchase.
3. What gives you your greatest pleasure in your business?
My greatest pleasure is when I can help my customers find the perfect accessory for their wedding and connect them with vendors that they wouldn’t have found on their own.
4. Where have you run into challenges in your business?
Knowing when to let go and work ‘on’ the business instead of ‘in’ the business has always been a challenge for me. It’s always been easier for me to do it all on my own but I’m starting to learn that the only way I can grow is to delegate.
5. What is a key resource that has helped you and might also help other business owners?
Honestly, SMARTY has been my one key resource in building my business. It’s a comfort to know that I have a plethora of experts at my fingertips whenever I need advice or a connection. I know I can count on a Peer To Peer workshop to get my creative juices going when I’m losing my steam.
Member Monday: Featuring Carly Harrill
Carly Harrill, Co-Founder of Healthy Bitch Daily
1. What is your business?
I am the co-founder of Healthy Bitch Daily, an online lifestyle resource and daily email that educates women on the things we are putting into our bodies, and how we can be better to the planet. Created with Kim Barnouin, the co-author of New York Times Bestseller, Skinny Bitch, HBD touches on insightful topics in nutrition, beauty, style, fitness, eco-consciousness and in a tongue-and-cheek format. Ladies (and gents) can get their daily tips by subscribing to the free newsletter at www.healthybitchdaily.com.
2. Why did you launch this business?
We wanted to pick up where Skinny Bitch left off, and show women the importance of a healthy lifestyle across the board. While food can have such a powerful impact on your health, you also need to consider the harmful effects of the toxins and chemicals in your skincare products, makeup, deodorants, household cleaners and more. HBD wasn’t designed to scare women, but open their eyes because labels do lie . . .
3. What gives you your greatest pleasure in your business?
Knowing that we have the courage and opportunity to change someone’s life for the better.
4. Where have you run into challenges in your business?
Two words: time management. We are wearing a lot of different hats as a three-person company, so we’ve had to prioritize, delegate, and assess how much time we are spending on specific projects and if they are actually making an impact or a dent in our success. If not, drop it and focus on something that is. I’m realizing our time is much more valuable than that.
5. What is a key resource that has helped you and might also help other business owners?
SMARTY has been extremely helpful in connecting us with independent, motivated, like-minded women. Another place that has been great is CoLoft in Santa Monica. It’s a shared work space where we’ve been able to focus and get more work done while collaborating with other creative minds in similar industries (. . . definitely beats working from home). I also think significant others and friends in general have been a great resource. Bouncing ideas off of others helps you see internal obstacles that might be blinding you.
When Seth Talks, I Listen
Last month we read Seth Godin’s Small is the New Big for Business Book Club. I emailed Seth to tell him how his book affected me, and in our email exchange (yup, he wrote back), I realized that he doesn’t just espouse marketing brilliance, he lives and breathes it. By replying to a ‘fan’ like me, with hundreds of other emails he must be handling, he inspired me to write this blog, which is now reaching thousands of you with a positive message to buy the book. A few clicks of his keyboard created a grassroots marketing campaign. Smart(y) guy!
One thing I loved about this book is that it made me feel good about my “size”…no, not that size! As business owners we continually strive to be bigger but what if instead we really leveraged our smallness? SMARTY isn’t big in the sense of millions, but we, as a community of small business owners, are incredibly influential. And who really wants to be big when you can be powerful instead? Does that resonate with you, too? Are you small but mighty? Do you make a play in your market and people listen? Don’t feel bad about where you are in your business. As I told someone the other day, if you went from zero to sixty in your business you’d have know clue what to do when you GOT to sixty. You have to do 20, 30, 40 and 50 first to avoid missing opportunities or looking like a joker. Highly recommend this book…good beach reading, too.
Mary Morrissey Schools Me On Sales
It started out like any morning .. chasing my daughter around to feed her breakfast, workshopping a business idea with my husband for his company, Indo-Row (shameless plug .. www.Indo-Row.com), and throwing on my work uniform of Levis and a Lutz & Patmos cardigan. Then, at 9am, I got on the phone with Mary Morrissey, one of our June Master Event speakers. And guess what? She called me on some of my crap. I was sharing something with her during that call that has bothered me for a long time, but which I’ve never fully addressed as part of my own personal and professional growth. Want to know what it is? The hard sell. Having been to many events where I’ve felt constantly “sold” to, and as the recipient of dozens or more emails that constantly feel sales-y, I have inadvertently created a “story,” as Mary put it, around what selling means when it comes to my own business. Instead of standing behind this community (all of you!) and this service (SMARTY programs and offerings) and this movement (women taking control over their financial futures), I’ve been “soft” about how I present the Membership, not wanting to offend anyone’s sensibilities. But the truth is, I do believe in what we’re doing and I do believe SMARTY changes lives and Mary came right out and said it. She said, “Amy, if you believe in it, get over that sales story. Make a decision – even though you don’t know how or when it’s going to happen, just decide you’re going to be finished with it.”
Overacheivers All Have This In Common
I read a newsletter and blog called Philosopher’s Notes by Brian Johnson. Really fun daily quotes and ideas from a pretty regular guy who encourages “successful” thinking. I like him. He’s kinda dorky/cool/sweet/smart. This video has some great tips once you get past his awkward and sort of long-winded intro. Good book reviews, principles and examples from great historians, icons, visionaries…check it!
