Emily didn’t begin with an aim to start a big, risky, business. She thought the idea of taking a big jump wasn’t smart.
Instead, she did it her way – learning from other business owners, beginning as a side hustle, and building a low-risk model.
Then her business tripled in one month when she found her true target customer.
Regardless of your interest in the fashion industry, pay attention to how Emily started. Learn how she found a target customer (hint: only after she started), unlocked her big traffic source, and built a business on her own terms.
Who are you and what business did you start?
I’m Emily Herbig, I’m the owner and founder of MyEllement Boutique.
My Ellement Boutique is an e-commerce apparel company focusing on helping women build their wardrobes around their unique ‘colors.’
Women discover their colors from a House of Colour consultation. This is a stylist who helps women understand the shades of color that best showcase their individual skin and hair tones.
Our apparel is organized on the House of Colour system. We make it easy for women to find the shades that help them feel confident, beautiful, and in their element!
Since we started in 2017, we’ve passed $4.8 Million in sales. This month we moved into a big new warehouse space (which is exciting and scary), and continue to grow.
Most importantly, I’m a mom to three kids and an employer to 14 amazing women who work for me in the business.
What is your background? How did you come up with the idea?
I had no interest in being an “entrepreneur” or starting a business.
In high school, I took an entrepreneurship class and I was turned off from the idea of being an entrepreneur. Every business owner we looked at felt like they took a big risk to get started.
It was very unappealing to me. Taking a stable job seemed like the smart thing to do.
Entrepreneurship reframed
While I was in college, (I went to the University of Nebraska, go huskers!), I was unintentionally exposed to entrepreneurship in a new way. This was through the Engler Entrepreneurship Program, a college program that taught entrepreneurship and had a community of people interested in starting small businesses.
Instead of seeing business ownership as a huge risky undertaking, the program framed entrepreneurship as a vehicle to solve problems.
Starting a business was a noble thing to do – it was a way to actually add value to people’s lives. This appealed to me.
A college project
MyEllement started as a college project.
As I took some entrepreneurship program classes, I needed a business idea to work on. I landed on the idea of an online boutique because, well, I liked shopping! I was already often shopping at boutiques and wanted to do something I liked!
I wasn’t thinking about lucrative industries or new tech, I wanted to work on something I enjoyed.
An online boutique is a fancy way of saying, selling clothing online. It’s a simple model, you buy clothing from a large distributor and then sell items on your own branded online store. In the classes, I built a simple business plan and imagined what it would be like to run the business.
Actually starting
My Ellement almost never went beyond just being a college project. Even though I had taken entrepreneurship classes, I wasn’t motivated to start.
Getting up enough confidence to actually start, and take those first steps, didn’t come easy.
None of my friends were interested in starting a business, it was a different pathway.
Being a part of the entrepreneurship program helped with this issue. I was surrounded by other people who were starting enterprises – that community kept giving me an inward push to start something of my own.
Right before I graduated, the program took a trip to Silicon Valley. We spent five days touring tech startups and spoke with many early-stage founders. Something finally clicked for me on that trip – if they could do it, I could also start.
What were your first steps to starting the business and coming up with the product?
I didn’t know where to begin, so the first thing that I decided to do was learn from people who were already doing this. The first thing I did was call five online boutique owners and interview them.
This was a huge help. They gave me an inside look at how they each run their business – where products are sourced, what marketing looks like, how they make decisions on what to order, and the licenses required to sell.
I learned I needed a retailer’s license. I have an Aunt who runs a hair salon, and she helped me get one.
I learned about the places to order products from, and the minimum order requirements.
After these calls, it was no longer a mystery how to run an online boutique – but I was still worried about wasting money. What if I bought a bunch of clothes, and no one bought any?
The Pre-Order Model
That changed when I found a way to get started without risking much money. While I was interviewing boutique owners, I spoke with a friend’s mom who had a low-risk way of selling.
I remember thinking, I don’t think she has much money in this business. I learned that she sells everything on a pre-order model.
Instead of ordering a bunch of inventory upfront, she would only order items when customers had committed to purchase. She would advertise products she wanted to sell, her customers would say which items they wanted, and only then she would order. She never had inventory sitting around.
She showed me how she has a private Facebook Group, collects payments, and creates shipping labels.
Yes, this model can be limiting since people had to wait to get orders, but is a low-risk way to get started.
Facebook
So I learned from other owners how to source products, and I had a business model focused on pre-sales. It was time to actually start.
My first step was to let people know I was doing this. Being an online-only business, I didn’t have much of a grand storefront opening – I made a post on Facebook.
And for a while it was crickets.
I started a private Facebook group, where I would advertise clothing orders, and I invited a few friends to join, but not much was happening.
I knew I needed to get more people in the group, so I asked friends and family members to share that original Facebook post. Slowly, the facebook group and word of mouth grew, and it gave me a foothold to keep going.
Scarcity Model
One of the things I did in the early days was to post about a new product at the same time, every week. Friday at 10 AM, I had a post scheduled in the Facebook group that would showcase the new product that I was selling.
These were limited sales, and I would take just enough pre-orders to reach my minimum order – 2 smalls, 2 mediums, and 2 larges.
On the post people in the group would commit to buying that garment by commenting their name and size on the post. Once the pre-order was met, that item was gone.
This created a scarcity effect. People were actually setting a Friday 10 am alarm on their phones so they wouldn’t miss the next item dropping. It created a great urgency to buy.
Eventually, I grew from this model to carrying more inventory, but it was a great way to get started and created a loyal community.
How did you go about validating the business idea? How did you know there was a need?
At first, I didn’t really think about validating the business idea. I wasn’t necessarily doing anything new – I was just copying what other online boutiques were doing, and selling to my friends and family.
The things that helped me were starting small, and being able to do pre-orders.
I had a full-time job when I started, and I focused on my boutique in the evenings and on weekends. It was a side hustle to begin with, but I’m glad that I started in an area that I was personally interested in.
For a while, I was a pretty small business. I grew to larger orders, more pre-orders, and eventually built my own website.
But things changed when I found a unique need in the online boutique space.
What does your business do uniquely in the market? How did you grow?
So I had heard about this ‘colors’ thing from some friends, and I thought that people were crazy.
But when I went through the House of Colour consultation myself, I found it genuinely valuable. The consultation gives you confidence in a set of colors that highlight your unique features; I saw it almost immediately. I quickly updated my own wardrobe.
I had friends buying based off of their colors. I remember one of them saying to me, “You should really do something in your business with this.
Finding My Unique Market
At the time there was only one other business that focused on the colors market.
I found signs in my own business people were shopping post-color-consultation. I would randomly get a large order on my website and all the clothing would be in the same shades of color. I could tell that someone was rebuilding their wardrobe around the ‘season’ they received from House of Colour.
I wanted to be sure, so interviewed customers who were doing this. I called and asked why they were making these bulk purchases.
My assumption was correct. They were redoing their wardrobe around the House of Colour consultation.
So I started experimenting with it on the side. How can I make my website feel at home to people interested in their colors? What colors do I not have offered? I felt like instead of being like every other online boutique, this might be an opportunity.
It was a win-win. I was the first website recommended to people who just finished their color consultation, and it created a new source of revenue for independent color consultants.
After I focused on this, my sales tripled in one month.
This was when I felt like my business turned into a real business. I always wanted to figure out how to ‘make money in my sleep.’ Instead of working so hard to get a single sale, using the consultant affiliate model was bringing constant customers to the event.
What were some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned along the pathway of building? What would you tell new business builders?
Don’t Give Up
I have had many people reach out to me who are trying to start their boutique. I got started by asking others how they did it, so I’m always happy to explain things,
I normally give them advice to start small, like I did. Unfortunately, I’ve seen so many of them just sorta die off.
It’s not easy to start something, but I’ve seen too many stop trying really quickly. One of my biggest lessons is to not give up. You can build something spectacular if you keep going.
Don’t quit when you feel like no one is watching, keep going.
Find your Target Customer
When I was starting, I built an online store that looked like all the others. And it made it hard to get sales. I felt like I had to work really hard for every sale.
When I found a unique niche and marketing channel, my business changed. Instead of selling to a friend or family member, I had someone specific I wanted to have as a customer.
I changed everything to focus on this target person – how I talked on social media, the photos I used, what my website looked like, etc.
I adopted a mindset that when someone came to website site, they should feel at home. People should feel so at home, that it actually might scare my non-target customer away.
And this did happen. People who were repeat customers in the early days, stopped buying from me as I pivoted around color consultations.
That was hard, but it has changed my business for the better and made sales much easier.
Make informed decisions
It’s almost like I follow the same process every time I start or do something new in the business. I interview people.
When I wanted to get started, I interviewed online boutique owners.
When I was curious about color consultations, I interviewed people who had done it.
When I was trying to figure out how to grow, I interviewed the color consultants.
Each time I’m considering a change in my business, I don’t make gut decisions – I seek out and learn from my market. It’s how I’ve learned to make low-risk decisions and keep the business growing.
Did you ever have any, Oh Crap, Moments? When you thought the business might not make it?
Fortunately, I never have quite had a moment like that, but it may be coming.
As our business is growing, we are starting to take more risks. We just purchased a much larger warehouse space. I’m excited to have the space, but it is a bigger risk than we’ve ever taken.
One of the things that has really really helped me was to have a great accountant partner. Our accountant keeps a constant eye on our inventory levels and financials. He advises me as we grow and has been crucial to our success.
When you reflect on building your enterprise, how has it changed your life? Positive or negative?
I find that I continually question myself.
Is this business really worth the time?
Is this helping me grow as a person?
Is it helping me become a better mom?
And then I eventually end up here: If I didn’t have this business, would I be better Mom? Would I be better for my kids?
An arena of growth
What I’ve come to understand, is that this business is helping me grow. It’s the effort that is helping me grow in virtue.
This is especially true as I employ others.
I have 12 women who work for me. When you have to lead other people – if you are self-aware enough – you quickly find that leadership will expose your flaws. It allows me to ask, how can I be better? How can I better solve problems in front of my team?
Whenever I feel tension between the team, it helps me reflect on how I could have done something different or better.
The business helps make me a better leader, Catholic, Mom, and person. It’s been a challenging experience, and I’m often feeling too busy, but it has helped me grow.
It’s also very satisfying to provide others with jobs and meaningful experiences. I’ve had many of my team members tell me how ‘fun it is to be a part of something that’s bigger than us.’
Building something together with a team has been a rewarding experience.
What are some of your favorite books, classes, or resources that have helped you?
- The Woman School – The program has really helped me think and dream about my life and business.
- Tony Robbin’s Business Mastery Course – The program set me up with a coach and has been really valuable to help me upgrade my business.
- Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership Book – Has helped me think about how I lead in my buisness.
- Manifest Mastermind by Tara Austin, Ruthie Grace, and Josh Orr from Capital Commerce – Great training for anyone interested in running a botique and e-commerce company.
Where can we learn more about your business?
MyEllement Botique Website
My Ellement Instagram
Breakdown
In this section, Humble Starts provides a summary of the main lessons from Emily’s story. Hopefully, you can apply them on your own journey towards enterprise building.
Learnings from Emily:
1. Not sure how to get started? Learn from those who have done it.
Starting a business is not like following Google Maps – there’s not a single, pre-determined, or ‘correct’ pathway to follow. There’s a set of directions to look up. Sometimes it feels like a daunting journey to undertake. The pathway becomes less cloudy when someone shows you the way. If you aren’t sure how to get started – ask someone who already has done it. Emily interviewed boutique owners to learn about their businesses. Her first steps were a replication of what they were doing. If you show that you are humble and ambitious, you’ll be surprised to find how many people are willing to share. Find a business you’d like to have, and then interview owners to clarify your path to get started.
Pick a business you would enjoy starting/owning. Commit to calling and interviewing five current business owners. Ask them how they got started, and what it takes to get into the industry.
2. Start simple.
Emily started as a side hustle and figured out how to get in with almost no money down. Starting to build an enterprise does not have to be a huge first step. Start as something you can do with a full-time job, and see if a pre-order model can fit your product or service.
Pick on business that you’d like to pursue. Brainstorm ways that your initial product or service could be operated on a pre-order model. It could also be derisked by getting a deposit up front, event if its not the full amount.
3. Get into the industry, then find your unique niche.
Emily started small. Her business changed dramatically when she found a unique, valuable, and niche problem to solve. But she only found this niche, after she had already started. Instead of looking like almost every other boutique, she found a way to provide a lot of value to a more specific customer. She built her store around customers seeking color-specific wardrobes and found her reliable traffic source using color consultants as affiliates. She’s using this to grow from a side hustle to a true business that’s providing unique value. She would have never found this niche unless she was ‘in the game.’ She started small, building something she was interested in. By running her online store day-to-day, she was able to find a much bigger value. When we first start, we need to just get off the ground. But by not giving up, and working each day, we can find a greater problem to solve and build a sustainable company. But we have to start moving, get a business started, to be able to find it. We can’t think a way to find the unique value. Take action, and then we discover it.
Write down an ideal customer you’d love to serve. Ask yourself, what do they need? Make a list of things they need, and evaluate if there is a business that could solve that for them.
