Note: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13.

Launching a new business is not easy, never mind bringing to market an entirely new product or service.

In this series of articles, we gathered 100+ successful female entrepreneurs to share their stories and tips on building a business from scratch.

Lou Cysewski

Founder - coolperx

Q: What inspired you to found Coolperx and what were the main challenges you faced?

I couldn't understand why companies who wanted my loyalty were trying to give me useless plastic junk that promptly gets thrown away. I saw a huge opportunity to help companies build meaningful relationships with stakeholders through a more targeted and less wasteful approach.

Since I'm the first "order taker" to attempt to consult busy buyers (mostly executive assistants and administrators who have the busiest jobs I've ever seen), and often steering them in an environmentally responsible and more effective "less is more" direction, I complicated the ordering process for my clients. I would try and explain why their Coolperx orders were impactful to affecting climate change when they didn't have time to even consider this extra factor. They appreciated it, but didn't need to hear about it. Now, I have taken a more direct approach and all of our orders pay for our clean energy initiative without our clients having to think about it. It's now included as our standard.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I was introduced to the promotional products industry through my husband, who had been working in the space for about 10 years. He still works with me. When I founded Coolperx, he offered a lot of insight. But, it wasn't always smooth. His habits of fulfilling whatever the client asked for created initial tension. It took a little while for him to see me as a leader and appreciate what I was doing in the promotional product space and for the planet. Now, we build more on each others' skills.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Coolperx is a Social Purpose Corporation. As the first B2B Social Purpose, climate-neutral marketing and merchandise agency, we are both novel and leaders in the sustainability space. This attracted a lot of attention. All of my clients have forwarward facing sustainability missions, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Amazon, they're all trying to figure it out. We've figured out a huge piece of the puzzle for them. And, since that solution is baked into our services, our revenue has grown 300% annually and continues to grow during the pandemic.

Kat Hawley Cook

Co-Founder - Market My Museum

Q: What inspired you to found Market My Museum and what were the main challenges you faced?

I studied art in college for a while and even picked up an Associate's Degree in Art and Design as I went along. So with art in my background, I've always been in love with museums. My now husband, Ryan, actually took me to a museum on our first date. He is also the one who introduced me to the marketing world. I was immediately drawn to advertising because of its focus on people. While being an artist wasn't my calling, I found that I could combine my love of art and advertising to help support these underrated organizations. Museums are often non-profit organizations so they don't have a lot of extra cash. Advertising is, unfortunately, low on their list of priorities. This is one of our biggest challenges at Market My Museum. Especially during these economically challenging times, museums are just trying to keep their doors open and their employees paid. Relaying to them the importance of online exposure is the key to our work. They often don't realize that investing in online marketing is exactly what they need to do to improve visitor numbers, ticket sales, shop sales, event bookings, etc. The way we have overcome this challenge is to offer museums a one month free trial. This allows them to experience the benefits of online advertising without putting any money down. Once they see the difference it makes in all areas of their museum, they are happy to continue our services as they watch the ads pay for themselves.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

As I mentioned, my husband, Ryan, is the one who introduced me to the business/marketing world. He and I started Market My Museum as co-founders. It was very comforting to have my husband as my partner. Our communication and trust is excellent and we have the same dreams for the company. Of course it has been a little nerve wracking for us to rely on a startup for our family income, and we have to be careful to separate business things from our personal relationship. However, it has been the most wonderful adventure. Sharing this experience with him has been incredible. We have complementing abilities that help move the business forward and I cannot think of anyone I would rather build this dream with.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Our business model, from day one, has been, "How can we legitimately help museums succeed?" While revenue is essential to keeping the business--not to mention our family--afloat, we never wanted to dip into a place of greed or deception. We offer museums a 30 day free trial to test our services with no strings attached. We do not take any payment information until they are ready to sign with us. We also do not do long term contracts. Every agreement is month to month, and museums can cancel at any time without penalty. This forces us to consistently be winning the love of our clients. As long as we are bringing in results, they stay. If we ever drop below our expected results, they can leave at any time. At Market My Museum, there will never be a client stuck in a contract and dissatisfied with their results. We are constantly researching what the museum scene looks like and what they are looking for so that we can provide the most specific and effective services possibly.

Lindsay Braun

CEO, Founder - Emblem Built Furniture

Q: What inspired you to found Emblem Built Furniture and what were the main challenges you faced?

I worked in custom commercial furniture for over a decade, but was always two or three steps removed from the end user. I loved the products, the creativity, and the people, but I was frustrated by the game of “telephone tag” that was required to keep a project moving along. It was so inefficient! I found that business owners and interior designers often shopped online for lower-quality furniture, rather than purchasing higher-quality, commercial-grade furniture through the traditional third-party channels. Even though the cheap, online furniture often didn’t last more than a month in a commercial setting, it was easy and quick to buy. Seeing this trend increasing in recent years, I decided to start a new kind of furniture company. I was inspired to give furniture buyers a direct, easy, quick way to source unique, commercial-grade lounge furniture. My husband has been a furniture designer for almost 20 years, and we had already worked on a few design ideas together, so I brought those designs to a factory that I had worked with in the past. The furniture prototype process took about six months.  During that time, I also hired a graphic designer and website developer and began putting the framework in place to launch Emblem. I funded these initial efforts by doing some consulting work and depleting our family savings. My husband and I also negotiated the sale of a previous line of furniture he had designed. It’s been scary at times, but I have continued to stay scrappy and self-funded during the past two years. It was important to me to stay true to Emblem’s mission and to truly understand the needs of our customers before we pursued a steep growth pattern.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I started Emblem alone, but my husband (Jeffrey Braun) joined me full-time about a year ago. He’s a furniture designer and helped on the initial product concepts for Emblem. With Jeffrey on board, we are expanding the line and taking on more custom furniture projects. We have two young children, so I feel lucky that our young business can support our family.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

We design our own products and manufacture through a furniture factory in California where we spend a lot of time.  We sell our furniture both wholesale and retail, primarily B2B, but we are hoping to grow our B2C sales. Our long-term focus is on selling our quick-ship lounge furniture, but we also offer custom furniture design and manufacturing. The custom furniture revenue stream has enabled our company to remain stable (and even grow!) through the hardships of the COVID-19 shutdowns. We’ve also just started hiring our first sales representatives. We build our customer base through cold-calls, affiliate partnerships, Linked-In, and emails. We’ve found very limited success with online ads, so we primarily focus on organic reach through our social media, SEO efforts, and our blog.

Meredith Moore

Founder and CEO of Artisan Financial Strategies

Q: What inspired you to found Artisan Financial Strategies and what were the main challenges you faced?

At 23, I never expected to be an “empire builder,” but straight out of Georgia Tech, with an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering in hand, I knew I had more of an entrepreneurial mindset than most.  In 1997, the tech entrepreneur space wasn’t a “thing” and the idea of entrepreneurship was opening a Subway franchise.  After interviewing for jobs (as every good undergrad is supposed to do), I felt I was being undervalued, based on compensation offers, given all of the leadership roles I had while at Georgia Tech.  I always felt I “could build a better mousetrap” than most, but didn’t quite know where to look. I had no desire to stay in academia or even go and pursue a MBA at that point.  

Thankfully and sure enough, the financial services industry came calling and walked me through what a career trajectory would look like.

After working many high paying engineering internships through college, I had questioned my impact on society trying to analyze the quality control of aluminum ingot, or run projects for a well-known oil company on overseeing the removal of lead based paint on various gasoline storage containers. The concept that I would have a greater impact on families and help guide them through key financial decisions, milestones and help them create a financial legacy for their families resonated with me much more.

In 1998, I began simply as a life insurance agent with licenses to sell investments and other products. It didn’t take me much time to realize that I would be insanely bored if I didn’t move to a more comprehensive financial planning model. By 2000, I became a financial advisor, and started charging fees to do financial plans. To this day, my core belief is that, without a centralized core financial plan to help guide all financial decisions and create guardrails, it’s very difficult to make smart financial decisions without this.  

Over time, I have been able to slowly iterate, grow my support team, constantly innovate around marketing, in order to attract the right kind of client that I wish to work with. This past year, I changed the name of the practice and “took my name off the door” by changing the name from Moore and Associates Wealth Management to Artisan Financial Strategies. In order to scale, I knew that I couldn’t be the only advisor. After mentoring him for 2 years, I brought on my first junior advisor last year.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

Yes, I started alone, but over time hired support staff and now have an additional junior advisor.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

We are a financial advisory firm, with a core focus on being planning centric and a belief that very few financial actions, including investment management should occur without a centralized clear financial plan. We have grown revenue through additional clients through planning fees, assets under management, and life, disability and long-term care insurance products.

Gulya Hartwick & Sasha Gorskaya

Co-Founders of Noble Objects

Q: What inspired you to found Noble Objects and what were the main challenges you faced?

Gulya: “When COVID-19 first hit and our ballet production company had to temporary shut down, we kept ourselves busy by planning tours for the future in 2021 and 2022. However, as the pandemic progressed and we found ourselves in a holding pattern with the rest of the world, we revisited another love of ours that we finally had more time to explore for the first time in a while—reading. It was always a source of inspiration for us, so it was great to revisit books that left impressions on each of us years ago.”

Sasha: “We were inspired by classic books particularly—books that have survived the test of time and left impressions on generations of people before us. We noticed that these classic titles were an artform themselves—with illustrations by famous artists spanning over centuries. We wanted to bring this feeling of comfort and creativity to people’s homes, along with a gentle reminder of the lessons these books have taught us throughout our lives. So we founded a very high quality home goods collection of curated candles animated with first edition book covers. Like a good book, the soothing aroma and aesthetics are meant to linger and enhance one’s home—and life.”

Gulya: “Our advice for anyone looking to start a business that has not before—don’t be afraid, just go out and do it. With us, main challenges that arouse were due to not having started an e-commerce brand before. Simple yet unexpected challenges, such as shipping rates or strategy surrounding pre-launch, were some of our main hurtles. But we didn’t let it stop us.”

Sasha: “There are so many platforms available out there for small business owners and entrepreneurs—from dedicated groups on Facebook, to word of mouth networking through friends, we have taken each step forward in small strides, addressing each task at hand by maximizing all of our resources. The key is to anticipate challenges as much as you can in advance, but to be able to quickly pivot when unavoidable conflicts arise.”

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

Sasha: “Gulya and I have been in business together for many years—we actually met in 2013 at Moscow Fashion Week. I was running an entertainment production and PR company at the time and was asked to present a fashion collection of the designer in which Gulya was a part of the team. We realized then how well we worked together and have since had many business ventures—including creating and producing the Russian Ballet Theatre company.”

Gulya: “Our strengths really play off of each other, too, and I cannot stress enough the importance of picking a business partner that will constantly challenge you and your business to be and do better. If you cannot attain a business partner, or simply prefer to work alone, there are other great resources to act as a soundboard for almost any business questions you may have—from Facebook and LinkedIn groups, to (virtual) networking organizations, and more—that are relatively easy to find through a simple Google search, and can also provide great insight!

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Gulya: “We are exclusively an e-commerce retailer at the moment selling at NobleObjects.com. Recently launched in August, our current plans to increase revenue include expanding our line of curated candles inspired by first edition classic book to an even wider variety of classics—and popular contemporary titles—to keep up with demand. As we grow, we will eventually look to expand to bookstores, gift shops, and more. We also intend on utilizing affiliate marketing and partnerships to enhance each other and increase ROI.”

Sasha: “Listening to our dedicated customers is an important part of what we do. As a result of listening to their feedback and desires, we are also developing an exclusive scent for each book candle, as inspired by each respective book. For example—War and Peace will smell like leather and powder, while The Little Prince will have a sweet rose scent. We believe that this will also increase ROI as it will inspire consumers to try more than one product and begin purchasing in higher quantities.”

Aditi Pany

Founder - Qalara

Q: What inspired you to found Qalara and what were the main challenges you faced? 

Having worked across both social and business sectors, I was itching to do something that married the idealist in me with my pragmatic side. I desired to 'find my life's work' - one that would make a lasting social economic impact while building a scalable sustainable business. I also wanted to leverage the skills I had picked up throughout my decade-long professional career. Easier said than done! I do believe that in Qalara we have many of those ingredients that inspire me. One major ingredient is beautiful, soulful artisanal crafts that have been a part of my childhood growing up in a home where my mom was a furniture designer. Like me, she was inspired by the centuries-old crafts that surrounded us in India. Qalara also has the ability to leverage the power of many small to mid-sized businesses via a digital platform that aggregates the relevant elements of the value chain to enable economies of scale for all participants. Another key ingredient is design innovation, especially the marrying of beauty and form, which is something I picked up while completing an intensive course at Stanford Design School.  And of course, the possibility of using technology and data to help producers and buyers make better business decisions is core to our company.

The opportunity really came when I noticed the supply chain was broken and has been for a long time. I knew I wanted to focus on handmade crafts, since this is a segment that is fragmented and in need of resources to better connect it with global buyers. Many of our partners have great design skills, materials sourcing and maker techniques, but lack the visibility and connection needed to reach buyers and compete on a global scale. That is where Qalara comes in as a digital platform that offers value to the supplier via online catalogs, profiles, and tools to easily field RFQs and communicate via video across the globe. This is especially timely and relevant during the pandemic. We also provide order aggregation, shipping, importing and logistics services which benefit both sides. On the buyer side, we vet every supplier, step in to manage the production process, ensure quality and delivery and offer secure payments. All of these were solutions to something that was missing in the supply chain for handmade goods. I also saw that the trend toward digitization that we saw in B2C was really making meaningful headway into the B2B space, with the pandemic accelerating the need. It really inspired me to be able to provide value on the business side, and marry that with the social component I mentioned: uplifting local communities and propelling the local handmade economy forward. My vision for the company is for Qalara and its partners to drive meaning consumption around the world. That mission inspires me every day. 

Covid hit us very early, which meant that a lot of our team formed and grew remotely. Also because of Covid, many of our new suppliers have been onboarded remotely. We managed our logistics with precaution and faced high freight charge volatility. At the same time, we have seen an accelerated mindset shift to digitization owing to Covid. We have also seen the 'Home' sector become central to our lives, which is our core category offering. Though Covid has brought with it many challenges, these two consequences of the pandemic have made Qalara’s services timely and relevant.  

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

Yes, technically I am a solo founder. However, I was very, very fortunate to have the kind of backing I did, in principle, even before I started my venture. I worked for nearly a decade with Reliance Industries, a $150 billion company that has recently seen over $10 billion in investments from Google and Facebook. When I told the company's leaders and founders that I wanted to build Qalara and make an impact to small buyers and producers at a global scale, they committed to back my dream, despite Covid. There are also tremendous synergies that as a startup we are able to leverage with such a large company.

Q: What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Our business model is very much like a two-sided marketplace, where we enable supply and demand to reliably engage in business, while we charge a transparent commission for enabling discovery, mutual verification, secure guaranteed payments, product curation, quality inspections, and production monitoring and logistics. We also charge our sellers very affordable annual subscription fees for listing on our platform and availing of our services. Our product selection has grown to over 20,000 and is expanding daily. Our buyer base already spans over 33 countries in a very short period of time. Further, the cancellation of Trade Fairs around the world has definitely given startups like ours a unique opportunity to build traction during these times. ‍

Ashley Harris

CEO and Co-founder of LoveBug Probiotics

‍

Q. What inspired you to found LoveBug Probiotics and what were the main challenges you faced?

Shortly after the birth of my son both of us started to get sick. I had digestive issues and my son was constantly crying and developed a skin condition. After a little digging and a lot of tests, I found that the culprit was bad gut bacteria. Armed with this information, I started looking into solutions and that research led me to learn about the wonders of probiotics which helped us get back on track and ultimately led to a dramatic turnaround in our overall health.

The probiotic category and supplements in general is incredibly competitive.  We compete against huge companies with seemingly infinite marketing budgets. Luckily for us, we have incredibly effective products. Customers feel a difference in their health after taking our probiotics and become very loyal to our brand. Additionally, my personal story of a groupB strep diagnosis during pregnancy and a large amount of antibiotics during labor resonates with so many other moms out there who have faced similar issues but couldn’t find a solution until now.

Q. Did you start the venture alone?

My husband and I co-founded LoveBug together. He has an MBA and in his day job looks at companies' risk and debt all day. When I approached him with my idea, he instantly thought of all the things that could go wrong, but I said we have to focus on all the ways this could work and take it one step at a time. I told him we’d figure it out as we went along and that’s exactly what we’ve done.  

Q. What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

We started selling online on Amazon and our own website back in 2015. Over the next few years, we grew into brick and mortar retailers. But over the last 18 months we’ve concentrated our focus on our online channels which has been very fortunate given how much the retail world has changed due to COVID. Our product portfolio has also grown significantly and we now have award winning probiotics for everyone in the family.

Maria Yuan

Founding Executive Director of IssueVoter

Q: What inspired you to found IssueVoter and what were the main challenges you faced?

I was working on a campaign in Iowa, a state known for its voter engagement. (Side note: I always say, if you want to meet famous politicians one-on-one, don’t go to D.C., go to Iowa.) It was so frustrating that there was no way for voters to answer what should be a simple question: “Is my rep actually representing me?” year-round, when the real work that affects our lives gets done.

In Iowa, just like everywhere else, people are super engaged during election-season, and disengage during the off-season. You would never pay and promote an employee without seeing all of their work, yet that’s what we do when we re-elect our reps!

Iowa taught me that I did not want to work in politics: 1) Like most of us, I didn’t agree with either party 100% of the time. 2) Politics and campaigns completely overshadow what’s important – policy.

So, I watched the civic tech space for nearly 10 years and saw either (1) for-profit civic tech that ultimately becomes polls to sell data or petitions to be ignored by congress or (2) websites to research policy requiring one to already know what they’re looking for and hours of reading.

Since there was no easy way to make your voice heard and keep congress accountable, I created it, and IssueVoter launched the day after the 2016 election, answering the question, “You just voted, now what?”

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I am a sole founder (rather than a co-founder), and at the same time, validation came when it was easy to recruit volunteers to join this journey. I’m grateful to have thoughtful mentors, hands-on advisors, and a dedicated, hard-working team. Together, we are experienced, results-oriented, and diverse.

Q: What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

IssueVoter’s funding has come from individual supporters who make donations, and right now, we are looking for 150 individuals to give monthly, at any level. IssueVoter is also supported by foundations, fellowship programs, grants, and nonprofit tech accelerators and incubators. Finally, we offer bespoke research and partnerships to nonpartisan organizations, companies, and collectives or communities. Our partnerships all take a unique shape and form, and might include hands-on webinars, a customized issue platform, or a co-branded landing page for civic engagement!

Catharina Nilsson

Co-Founder - onePRgroup

Q: What inspired you to found onePRgroup and what were the main challenges you faced?

The main reason behind founding onePRgroup was that I have always wanted to start my own company and be my own boss. I think that working for someone else becomes boring and unmotivating in ways after a certain period of time, and I have always wanted to pursue my own path without having to follow the conventional way of getting work done. This is especially exemplified in the traditional way that we continue to work in the U.S. by having a 9-5 work week. Due to COVID-19, this way of life has definitely been contested and is already starting to change because companies are now realizing that their employees can be even more productive when they work remotely and have greater flexibility in their work hours/days. Overall, I wanted to create a business that would allow for a more modern approach to working, on top of providing excellent & high-quality PR and branding services using my own, as well as my partner’s, strategic prowess.

Moreover, onePRgroup was the brainchild of myself and my partner, Irina Gedarevich, who started her own marketing agency, eSEOspace, a little over a year ago. Due to the pandemic, I ended up being laid off, and immediately started consulting for her marketing agency to help her build out the PR side of her business. After a few months, I realized that I wanted to pursue a greater challenge and create my own business that I could control, while giving more attention to clients that purely wanted PR and branding services. Thus, onePRgroup was born. Both onePRgroup and eSEOspace act as sister agencies, lending both resources as well as Irina and my own expertise to our client strategies.  

In the beginning, I would say the main challenge we faced lied in just taking the plunge and starting the business. I believe most business owners would say that their main reservation in starting a business was just getting the courage to launch. It is a rather daunting venture, particularly when you haven’t launched a business before, that takes a lot of time and resources, and I had no idea what steps I needed to take. Luckily, I had Irina and her knowledge of launching a business which definitely helped when we initially were getting started. I also would say another ongoing challenge we have faced is in establishing client relationships, which take a long time to cultivate. As a new agency in the PR industry, it can be tough for other companies to trust you at first, particularly when you don’t have a long record of credibility or examples of other clients that you have worked with just yet. Our main focus now is garnering as many reviews as possible on reputable platforms so as to show that we produce high quality work that will help potential clients build and grow their brand.  

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

No, I started this venture with my friend and business partner, Irina Gedarevich.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Our business model for our PR services is a subscription-based model, meaning that we charge a recurring fee each month that includes all time and effort invested into outreach as well as any content creation needed to garner said coverage (e.g. bylines/guest posts, press releases, etc.) Otherwise, we also offer a la carte pricing to help create a customized pricing model for our clients who may not have the funds to pay a recurring fee, particularly for startups and small businesses.

In tandem with that, we also offer website design/development services, which I spearhead from a branding perspective, which we also charge a flat fee for per project. Thus, our PR services, combined with our branding projects, are what has helped us to grow our revenue for onePRgroup.

Lindsey Christianson

Founder - Elderberry Queen

Q: What inspired you to found Elderberry Queen and what were the main challenges you faced?

I founded in my business because of my desire to help my children. There was nothing available on the market that met our needs, so I decided to start a business hoping my products would help  others to fill that need as well. The biggest challenge I faced was the difficulty between spending time being a good mom and spending time working on my business. It was definitely difficult taking time away from the family to build my business, but in the end it has been so beneficial for our family. I have been able to bring my husband home from his full-time job and he now works for Elderberry Queen. Especially during this challenging time, we are both home and have the freedom to take care of our kids as well as run our business.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I started this venture alone and spent many hours, even in the middle of the night working on building my business. I had the full support of my husband, but he was busy working his full-time job and had the burden of taking care of our family’s needs. As it grew, he was amazed by my success and was so proud of what I had accomplished. It’s amazing to think that now my husband is helping me run my business and we can work together as a family toward a common goal of sharing our elderberry syrup with families across the country.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Our business model is simple. We fulfill the needs of our customers and we care 100% about getting it right. It wasn’t and hopefully never will be about profit. It’s about helping others to achieve health for their families. I believe that that core value has shown through to our customers. They were able to see that our intentions were pure and good and we just wanted to help others, not help ourselves. We put a lot of effort and investment in advertising across social media and that has worked well for us. We see a direct correlation between our ads and sales on our website and Amazon. With a sales background, I have also invested a lot of time contacting retail stores and have secured multiple grocery chains that also carry our products. We have been very fortunate in those areas.

Catherine Hinz

Founder - Beyond Words Co.

Q: What inspired you to found Beyond Words and what were the main challenges you faced?

As a new mom, I went through a long grief journey upon discovering infidelity in my marriage and embarking on a divorce process. I was fortunate to have the support of my friends and family and they got me through the hardest of times. Our care packages at Beyond Words Co. were born from the idea that visibly and practically supporting others through grief is important, despite many people shy away from supporting others through difficult times because they don't know how to help. Beyond traditional flowers or greeting cards, I wanted to make it easier for people to show they care, and I knew we could do it in a way that was helpful to the healing process.

I started the business not only in the midst of learning how to be a single mom to a 9-month old, but also through divorce process, a move, and the start of a new full-time job. I got through those challenges by leaning on my mission and setting my sights on what I wanted to accomplish with Beyond Words Co., that no one feels alone through life's hardest times. I had to depend on my "lived experience" of pulling from other areas in my life (motherhood, former professional roles, homeownership)  instead of formal entrepreneurship training or expertise. That lived experience carried me through the operational challenges of learning how to set up the business, set pricing and organize finances, and conduct marketing outreach. As I did in my personal grief journey, I relied on advice and help from those around me to get the business up and running, especially for things not in my wheelhouse.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I did start it and fund it alone, but with plenty of outreach to family and friends for advice along the way.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Beyond Words Co. runs almost exclusively online through e-commerce. We offer both pre-designed and custom care packages at various price points. While the majority of our sales are "friends and family" orders, we are seeing a significant increase in workplace and corporate giving as organizations seek new ways to better support employees and clients through hard and uncertain times. We've been in business since 2018 and have grown sales nearly 200% year over year.

Note: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13. Stay tuned for more articles!