She Owns It

Celebrating, Connecting, and Supporting Women Entrepreneurs

How to Make a Side Hustle Work by Jackie Burke of #tiniluxjewelry

by Leave a Comment

by Jackie Burke | Featured Contributor 

I started my business, Tini Lux, as a side hustle.  Tini Lux is the first line of fashion jewelry made with metals that are compatible with the human body. At the time, I had not worn earrings for years because they caused extremely painful reactions.  I really wanted a pair that I could safely wear but couldn’t find anything. After some more research into jewelry materials and the current market I decided that I would start my own line!

I was working full time as an engineer when I made the decision to start my business. I had no business background, or jewelry background, but I believed in myself and my idea. I had some money saved and wanted to my business to be self funded. However, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving my job completely because I had no idea how long it would take for the business to reach a healthy revenue or to be profitable.

Not only was I working full time with Tini Lux as a side hustle, I also moved to a different state AND was planning a wedding during the first nine months after I launched. During this time period I learned a lot about time management and what it really means to be “busy.” There were some days and weeks when it all seemed manageable and others that I thought I was going to lose my mind.

Since I’m a little bit removed from that crazy time period now, I have had a chance to reflect on the side-hustle skills that I learned then. Here’s my advice for making a side hustle work without going crazy.

Block Time

The best decision I made was to set aside specific days and times during the week to work on my side hustle. Two days a week I came home from my day job and worked on my side hustle until it was time for bed. I also worked during the day every Saturday.  Blocking off these times every week allowed me to be very focused while I was working on my business and also not feel guilty when I was not working on it.

When I started blocking out time I really realized how much time I used to waste on mindless activities. I used to love coming home from work a catching up on anything on Bravo or E!. But once I started my business I did not get as much joy from watching TV or scrolling Instagram because I knew it was taking time away from productive work that I could be doing.

Prioritize Your Life

My non-work priorities had to seriously shift when I started blocking out my time. I used have plenty of time in the morning to hit the gym and after work to go to dinner or catch up on social media and TV.  For better and for worse those activities were put on hold when I started my side-hustle. I wish I could say that I maintained my five day a week fitness routine but that definitely did not happen.  I try to fit a workout in whenever I can now, but I have not gotten back to my previous schedule. I don’t beat myself up about my fitness routine slipping though because I know I building something meaningful and that is my top priority right now.

Don’t Procrastinate

Whether it’s making a dentist appointment or answering a business email, get it done right away. When you put off doing something it just continues to take up space in your brain and on your to-do list. I also find that my anxiety around doing those things just builds and builds when I put it off. If something will take less than five minutes to do, I have gotten in the habit of doing it immediately or as soon as possible so that it does not linger and grow in my mind.

Accept (and Appreciate) Slower Growth

As I said before, I did not have a business background or jewelry background when I started my business. I had A LOT to learn when I started my business. At first I was frustrated that I could only put in a few hours a week of work on my business and knew that it was preventing me from growing the business as quickly as I wanted. Looking back now though, I appreciated the slow growth in the beginning because it gave me time to learn business skills and improve my product.

If you are thinking about starting a side business or have already done so, let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear your business ideas, your thoughts on side-hustling, and any tips you have picked up along the way.

What I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Business by Jackie Burke of #tiniluxjewelry

by Leave a Comment

by Jackie Burke | Featured Contributor 

When I started my business in 2017 I didn’t know anything about running a business.  I did as much research as I could before I launched, but that is no substitute for real-life experience.

My business is Tini Lux, a digitally native, direct to consumer jewelry brand that specializes in jewelry that is compatible with the human body.  Before launching my business, I studied engineering and worked as an engineer.  I had never launched a business, worked at a startup, or studied jewelry design or the jewelry industry.  Additionally, I went to a college where the majority of the students studied in a STEM field, so most of my friends and my network also work in engineering and tech.

Since my experience and my network is so concentrated in STEM fields, I did not know or have any connections in the field that I started my business in. I also didn’t know anyone that had recently started an e-commerce or fashion business. For all these reasons, I really did not know what I was getting into when I launched my business and I did not have anyone to lean on for advice.

Looking back now, it is easy to see what would have been useful to know when I first started down this path.  Just to scratch the surface, I wish I had a better understanding of marketing, advertising, SEO, SEM, inventory management, and taxes.  All of those subject areas are tangible and mostly well defined though.  Once I recognized that I needed to understand those business areas, I was able to find a plethora of information about them.

What I want to talk about here is not the tangible subject areas that can be easily researched online. What I want to talk about are the intangible things that I wish I had known before starting a business. I want to talk about the feelings and stresses and anxieties that I didn’t know I would have to deal with everyday. Here they are:

Uncertainty Is A Constant…

Uncertainty is constant as an entrepreneur.  When I started my business I believed in my idea so much and had no doubt that it would be successful. I thought that belief in the product and the idea would be enough to carry me through the day to day of running a business. What I did not realize, is that there are hundreds of other things that make me uncertain on a day-to-day basis. I have constant uncertainty about things like where and how to invest my advertising dollars, which product categories to focus on, which influencers and media outlets to work with, whether to hire outside help or do things in house. There is no right answer for any of these things, so the uncertainty can be crippling.

…So Is Anxiety

If you are already prone to anxiety, entrepreneurship may not be for you.  I have constant anxiety that a customer may be unhappy, or that sales will dry up, or that my business will fail.  In my years working as an engineer I have never had anxiety like I do as a business owner. When you are in charge, you can’t make excuses and you can’t push the blame on some outside force. It is your sole responsibility to make things happen, and that pressure is intense.  Anxiety can really take a toll on a founder and a business. I try to acknowledge my anxiety as it comes and recognize what caused it.  From there I try to understand what it is I am worrying about and come up with a plan in case it happens. It makes me feel better to know that I can face any challenges that pop up.

Patience Is A Virtue

About a year into my entrepreneurial journey I was feeling like my business wasn’t growing as fast as it should be. One day I met a woman who recently sold her successful e-commerce business that she founded and ran for 10 years. I explained to her that my SEO and marketing efforts seemed like they were growing too slowly. She said “Keep going, it takes a long time to show up on the internet.” Her response made me feel much better about my slow growth and realize that my experience was normal. I now am seeing the fruits of my labor show up in terms of organic traffic and conversions, I just wish I had known when I started how long it would take to see results.

Budget? What’s that?

When I founded my company I had a budget in mind.  I knew that I wanted to self fund my business and certainly did not have unlimited funds to work with. I knew how much my initial inventory and packaging would cost, and I though those would be my main expenses. It’s almost laughable now that I thought I wouldn’t need to spend any more money after my startup costs. From the first month expenses popped up constantly. First, there was the monthly advertising spend, then I decided to work with influencers, attend a trade show, get professional photography,  and improve my website.  All of these things cost wayyy more money than I initially thought I would spend. Many businesses fail because they don’t anticipate these types of costs and run out of money. I continued to work as I grew my business so that I would still have money to put into my business. If I had known in the beginning all the costs that would come with starting a business I may have reconsidered.

IRL Networking Is Important

As I mentioned above, my business is digitally native (meaning it was born online and the majority of my sales are done online). Despite the fact that it was, and is, meant to be an internet-based company, IRL networking is still extremely important.  There are SO many brands and people on the internet, but when you meet someone face-to-face they will have a personal connection with you and your business. That experience cannot be replaced by interacting with someone on Instagram or Facebook.  If you want to be an entrepreneur you need to meet as many people as possible and tell EVERYONE about your business. You never know who is a potential customer or who can help you with your business or career.

I know as my business progresses I will learn even more things that haven’t even occurred to me yet.  Let me know in the comments if there is anything you have learned on your journey that you wish you had known when you started!

My Fast Class in Business Law by Jackie Burke of #tiniluxjewelry

by Leave a Comment

by Jackie Burke | Featured Contributor 

This month was one of the most challenging and exciting months I have had as an entrepreneur. I had a fast class in business law and realized that I had been burying my head in the sand for too long.

Here’s the backstory: I launched my company, Tini Lux, in November 2017. My company is the first company to sell fashion earrings designed specifically for people with sensitive ears and metal allergies. It has truly defined a new category in jewelry. Prior to Tini Lux, earrings were given labels like “hypoallergenic” and “nickel free,” both of which were essentially meaningless because there are many reasons why earrings can reactions. Now, Tini Lux is a go-to, trusted source for people who want to be 100% sure that their earrings will not cause painful reactions.

When I launched my business, many well meaning people (without business experience) told me that if I could not patent my idea then I would never be successful. I believe this myth comes from watching Shark Tank, where the Sharks regularly ask the entrepreneurs if they have a patent on their invention.

My brand, while innovative and category defining, was not patent-able. That did not deter me though. I could list thousands of brands that do not have patents that are still very, very successful. I knew that the challenge was to build a brand and a destination that people could trust, and if I could do that then the success would follow (and it has).

What I did not realize though, is that although a patent might not be necessary for my company, there were other legal considerations that I was ignoring, like copyrights and trademarks. This all came to a head when I found out that my exact designs were being sold by another designer at Nordstrom! When I found this out I felt frustrated, disgusted, and violated. I am an avid follower of Diet Prada and The Fashion Law had read many articles about designers being ripped off, but I never expected it to happen to me.

I did my research and learned that from a legal standpoint what happened was a copyright infringement.  Jewelry designs are considered artwork under US copyright law.  A person becomes the owner of the copyright of original artwork the moment it is published. So, since my designs were original, I technically owned the copyright and both Nordstrom and this other designer were infringing on it.  Although I did own the copyright technically, in order to bring legal action against these other companies, I needed to officially register my copyright.

I immediately registered my copyrights for all of my original designs and trademarked my business name for my category of goods (jewelry). I contacted both companies with cease-and-desist letters and fortunately my copyrighted designs were removed immediately.  Although it is frustrating that they profited off of my work, I now feel more prepared and am more motivated to continue my efforts.

Now, on top of being a legally registered LLC, I have a registered trademark and copyrights for my original work. Hopefully this will deter other potential copy-cats, but if something like this happens in the future I will now be ready for action.  I am also choosing to be flattered by another designed copying me rather than be angry. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Four Steps to Launching a Successful E-commerce Site by Jackie Burke of #tiniluxjewelry

by Leave a Comment

Four Steps to Launching a Successful E-commerce Site

Photo by bruce mars from Pexels

by Jackie Burke

So you’re thinking about launching an e-commerce site? That’s great! Now, where to start?

There is so much information available for launching a business. The excess information makes it so difficult to know what to pay attention to. It also makes it hard to focus your energy on individual tasks. It can feel like you have to do a hundred different things to be successful. The truth is, you really should be focusing all of your energy on just a couple things when launching your site.

I launched my site, Tini Lux, in late 2017. Tini Lux is an DTC brand specializing in hypoallergenic earrings. My background is in systems engineering, so launching an e-commerce jewelry site was not in my wheel house. I had to learn a lot in a short amount of time.  I was overwhelmed by information and gave myself a to-do list of about 50 different things. It was really difficult to gain traction on my site when I was spreading myself so thin and not properly prioritizing my efforts.

My business really started to grow about 8 months in when I started to focus my efforts on just a few things.  Here is my simple formula for launching a successful e-commerce site. It is really important to follow these steps in order. If you already have an e-commerce site and things aren’t going well, start at the beginning of this list! Nail each step before moving onto the next one.

These are my four steps and focus areas for launching a successful e-commerce site:

  1.  Optimize your website. Your website needs to be ready to convert. It needs to be easy to use, nice to look at, have a clear message and branding, and have all of the information available that someone might be asking themselves as they shop. I have broken this down into four subtasks:
    1. Message/Story: Your story is the most important part of your business. This is what will draw people in and convince them to buy from you instead of someone else. Your customer needs to see themselves in your story. You will do much better if you tell them how your business or product will benefit them rather than what the features of your business are. Your story needs to be easy to see or find on your website. The mission of your business should also be clear and should be featured prominently on your site.
    2. Branding: Your website should be clearly branded. You need consistent colors and fonts, a nice logo, and a consistent voice in all of your content and wording.
    3. Images: This one is especially important if you a product based company. People need to see what they are purchasing. It is worth it (I would even say absolutely necessary) to spend the money for professional product shots.  Your customers also want to see the items in use and imagine themselves with your product, so lifestyle photos are very important. Your photos need to be high resolution, high quality, and have a consistent look or aesthetic.
    4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): I suggest doing so more research into SEO when you get to this step because there is really good information out there. I will sum it up to say that you should optimize all the portions of your website that you can.  Include your relevant keywords where ever possible, in your messaging, copy, alt tags, meta data etc.  Some parts of your website need to be optimized for humans to read and some for algorithms to read. Know the difference and tailor them accordingly.
    5. Call to Action (CTA): It should be obvious that you want people to make purchases. CTAs like “buy now” or “add to cart” should be clear. Make sure your CTA is visible and the checkout process is simple and painless.
  2. Emails: Make sure your website is set up to capture emails or ask visitors to subscribe. Your email list is one of the most valuable parts of your business. If someone is signing up to receive emails from you then they have already shown interest in your product. Set up an automatically generated welcome email, or series of emails, to give your subscribers more information about your brand.  Send regular emails to your subscriber list to keep your brand in their mind.
  3. Content: Producing content for your website is very time consuming and is an ongoing effort. Before you launch you should be sure to have some content available on your site to educate your visitors and keep them interested. Your content is where you can continue your SEO efforts by adding keywords that are relevant to your brand.
  4. Ads: Finally, you can start running ads. Ads can be very expensive, especially if your website is not up to par. That is why you need to go through all the other steps before your start spending money on advertising. At this point your website is ready to convert and you are set up to capture emails and keep your visitors interested. Now you can start running ads and driving traffic to your site.

There is no magic formula or shortcut to having a successful business. All of these steps will take time, effort, and money. It is really important to go through them in order and be patient. Good luck!

Finding Your White Space #tiniluxjewelry

by Leave a Comment

What is White Space?

You may have heard the term “white space” in the context of art and design meaning the portions of the painting or other art form that are left blank. It is a very important concept in those fields because often the white space is what makes the piece flow.

When I talk about white space here, I mean white space in business. White space is a catchall term for the portions of the market that are not being catered to, the products and services that don’t exist, the place where needs are not being met. White space is what does not already exist or what does exist but could be better.

Entrepreneurs are set apart from everyone else because they are always looking for white space.  Just to be clear, being an entrepreneur does not mean you have to start your own company. There are plenty of opportunities within your current job to find white space and meet an unmet need.

Whether you are a business owner, an aspiring business owner, an employee at a company, or still a student, you can benefit from shifting your mindset towards trying to find white space. You don’t need a revolutionary new invention, all you need to do is find the white space and seize the opportunity. When you start to think like this you will see opportunities everywhere.

Let me give you a couple examples: 

Chill House

You may tell yourself, there is already a nail salon in my town so I can’t open one. But consider founder Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton, she wanted not just a place to get her nails done, but also a place where she could grab a nice coffee or tea, shop self care products, and feel completely relaxed. So, she created Chill House, a 360 degree self care haven. There were already thousands of nail salons in New York City, but she saw a white space for people that wanted a full relaxation experience and she made it happen.

Tini Lux

My company, Tini Lux, was born out of an unmet need in my life and the lives of friends.  I had stopped wearing earrings in college because I had developed an allergy to the highly reactive metals that are generally used in fashion earrings. Because of that, every pair of earrings I tried on (even the ones labeled “hypoallergenic”) caused a painful reaction. I finally realized that there had to be a solution out there, but when I couldn’t find one, I decided to create my own.

I designed a line of earrings that were made with pure metals that do not cause allergies or reactions in humans.  So, I could have told myself that there are thousands of earrings on the market already so I shouldn’t bother.  But I understood that there was a white space there because although earrings already exist, there were none that worked for the 20% of the population with metal allergies.

As an Employee:

Before I launched my business, I worked for a very large company as an engineer. As a new engineer I had a lot to learn, but the training process was lacking and I constantly felt confused. For a long time I kept quiet because I thought I was the only one who was struggling. However, a few months later we hired another young engineer and I could see that he was struggling to find the resources he needed too. At the same time, many of the more experienced engineers were getting ready to retire and we feared that a lot of knowledge would leave with them.

At that point I came up with a plan to create a knowledge sharing and training program. My goal was that all the new engineers would have the resources they needed and the more experienced engineers would be able to pass on their knowledge more efficiently.  The program has been very successful in bringing engineers up to speed faster. It also resulted in a living training repository that every new employee will benefit from.

In Summary:

  • White space is unmet and under-served needs.
  • Ignore the notion that once something exists there is no white space left. There may be room to innovate on the idea and do it better.
  • Don’t tell yourself that the market is too saturated. There is always room for quality.
  • If you already own a business, reach out to your customers, what do they want to see? What do they feel is missing?
  • If you want to start a business, think about the pain points in your life or the things you, your friends, your neighbors regularly complain about or wish for. Is there an opportunity there?
  • If you are an employee, what is your biggest complaint? What about your coworkers? Your customers? How can you make it better?