Meet Rebecca, an Austin native and founder of Earth + Hand, a health and wellness company offering locally produced soaps made from all natural ingredients. She started making soaps for her family and friends in 2011 with the goal of eliminating chemicals and toxins from her everyday routine. Having a child on the spectrum, she was especially focused on creating products with aroma and texture sensitivity in mind. Although she was hesitant at first, her friends loved her products and encouraged her to start a business. Today Earth + Hand products can be found online and at local markets around Austin.
Rebecca shares her experience as a business owner and how EGBI can help you grow your business too.
Hi Rebecca! To get started, would you mind telling us what inspired you to start your business?
I experienced sensitivity to a lot of skincare products and was worried about my son who’s sensitive to certain fragrances and dyes. I wanted to create a product that minimizes toxins while using sustainable and renewable ingredients.
What makes your business unique?
We take a general wellness approach by combining wellness with everyday life. Our soaps are thoughtfully made and produced by hand in small batches. We’ve also started selling sage and crystals to encourage self-care for both the body and home.
What are some obstacles you feel like you have encountered in starting or growing your business? How did you overcome this?
Our biggest obstacle was the shift with the pandemic and no longer being able to sell our products in person. Our soaps are very aroma centered, with a focus on aromatherapy, so it’s been difficult not having an in person experience. Moving online was especially difficult because I’m not the most tech savvy person and had to learn everything from scratch. I’ve overcome this by being persistent and intentional. The most important thing is to keep trying.
What workshops/business coaching have you done through EGBI?
I was so excited when I found EGBI! I started doing business coaching with Barbara and Joni, where we focused on formulating my business and kicking it into high gear.
How has EGBI helped you?
EGBI helped me turn my passion into a sustainable business. My mom was an entrepreneur and having a personal background in real estate I knew a little about selling services; But to sell products I needed a completely different approach. It’s amazing how after one coaching session I knew exactly what steps I needed to take in order to get my business off the ground.
Want to work with EGBI? Contact us to find out how you can get started.
Royal Arms Cleaning services specializes in cleaning commercial spaces for various industries, including, but not limited to offices, schools, retail, medical, industrial/manufacturing, restaurants, dealerships, religious facilities, event venues, etc. The company offers full cleaning services in the general night clean: vacuum, sweep and mop, garbage/recycling removal, kitchen/breakroom, restroom, etc. Additional services provided: day porter, deep clean; make-ready (move in/move out) service, post-construction clean up, window cleaning, carpet cleaning, water extraction, floor maintenance (strip and wax, machine scrub and recoat, and spray buff), power washing, and disinfecting (fogger). They use hospital grade disinfectant products that help to eliminate viruses, germs, and more.
We were proud to have a conversation with Anne Hardin, coowner of Royal Arms Cleaning, LLC about their entrepreneur journey, challenges during COVID-19, how EGBI has assisted them through coaching, and much more. We were also joined with our supporter Cristina Valdés, local realtor with Realty Austin.
Lucero was born and raise in North Mexico and now happily living and raising my little family in Austin, Texas. She created Lucero Photography due to her passion of digital photography. She does professional headshots, family photos, and product photography.
We were proud to have a conversation with Lucero Valle-Archuleta about her entrepreneur journey, challenges during COVID-19, how she has pivoted her business, how EGBI has assisted her through coaching, and more. We were joined by Allison Lujan with Moody Bank as moderator. Thank you ladies for the great conversation.
Interview with Lucero Valle-Archuleta of Lucero Photography below.
f you ask entrepreneurs why they started their businesses, motives spread all over the place, from following passion and wanting to turn a hobby into a business; being personally unable to hold an office job and needing to be its own boss; all the way to just “I saw an opportunity”, “I saw a market”, “I saw room for improvement”. After this, conversations often go into the “I wish I knew” topic, and that’s where pain starts talking by itself. You will hear stories about sleepless nights trying to solve operational problems and lost business opportunities due to lack of experience or not knowing where to find an answer. Thus, it always helps to have resources to learn from and reach out to in times of trouble.
The learning chance that helps one become a better business owner often comes as a result of a previously failed business. When the business owner is busy putting out fires day and night, it is only after failure that one will take the time to do a postmortem and understand what went wrong. Thus, it is important to stay on your feet, listen to your business, and make timely changes if/when needed.
A quick google search will get you to hundreds of “10 things I wish I knew before starting a business”, “7 things to know before opening your business”, “5 things I learned from running a business” and similar results. Of course this experience will be very different for people running different businesses and with different lifestyles, but here is a list of selected quotes I found quite relevant for most entrepreneurs:
Running the business takes 24/7
The biggest difference between a 9-to-5 job and being a business owner is the total lack of a fixed schedule. There is always the possibility for your client to have an issue with your product at an inconvenient time, or a supplier to have trouble in the middle of the night. Consider these possibilities, have contingency plans to address your customer’s needs, and organize responsibilities among your employees to ensure resiliency.
Optimize, outsource and automate everything you can
We at EGBI take our time to explain “The Four Roles An Entrepreneur Must Take” (Product Manager, Organizer and Manager, Marketer and Salesperson, Financier), and we emphasize that the entrepreneur must focus on the roles he is best at. Start by wearing many hats, but as soon as you have some traction, consider the best use of your scarce time will rely on dedicating your full attention to what you’re best at and outsourcing or hiring for other activities.
A part-time gig gives peace of mind
Once you give up a regular full time job in place of a business, you will be subject to the whims of seasonality and economic ups and downs. You can plan for these risks either by building a strong savings lung, or having a part-time gig to supplement the varying income from the business. This resiliency will give you peace of mind.
At the beginning everyone is excited and ready to help. When help is needed, it’s hard to come by.
People want you to succeed, and as soon as you start will get excited for your success. However, not everyone is willing or available to help you when you’re in such need for help. What should you do? Find access to reliable resources to help you through the hard times, find mentors, find a business coach.
With all this in mind, you should now know that you will face unexpected challenges, and learn from every opportunity you have. These common challenges I mentioned are not the end of the world, and do not mean that running a business is impossible. Challenges and obstacles are there for you to improve yourself and your business, and once you get to such a point in your entrepreneurial adventure, you will be more than welcome at EGBI for training, coaching and support.
Una de las
primeras preguntas que le hago a un cliente nuevo es “¿Cuándo quieres abrir tu
negocio? Dime una fecha”
Con
frecuencia mi cliente me da una mirada incierta. El “No lo sé” es inaceptable.
Nos sentamos juntos y decidimos una fecha; porque
al establecer una fecha hace que las cosas caigan en su lugar.
Una vez que
mi cliente ha dicho la fecha en voz alta, muy seguido su rostro se llena de
emoción y terror todo al mismo tiempo. De emoción porque ahora suena real y de
terror porque no sabe cómo hacerlo para que esto suceda.
Sin embargo,
una vez puesto el objetivo podremos comenzar a hacer el plan. Inmediatamente
hacemos una lista de lo que se tiene que hacer primero antes de que la fecha
llegue. La lista comienza por decirnos que otras cosas necesita comprar y cuánto
dinero necesita para comenzar. Si la fecha se tiene que cambiar, está bien. Solo
necesitamos tener un objetivo para iniciar con el proceso.
Metas
Las metas
son destinos anhelados. Las metas no son lo que tienes que hacer. Las metas son
para hacerte saber cuándo ya has llegado. Las metas te dicen POR QUÉ estás
haciendo lo que estás haciendo.
Los planes
de hoy son el mejor acierto de COMO alcanzaras tu meta. Existen muchas formas
“casi perfectas” para llegar a ella y casi nunca existe la “forma perfecta”
para lograrlo. Existen formas “horriblemente malas” para llegar a ella. Las
formas horriblemente malas a menudo son las mejores historias para una fiesta dentro
de cinco años.
Las metas
te dicen el destino de tu viaje, pero el viaje solo será divertido si te
mantienes flexible durante el recorrido. Si esta es tu primera vez en este
viaje, hay muchas cosas que ver y hacer durante todo el camino. Así que para
que no andes con prisa por alcanzar tu meta, prepara tu viaje.
Cae rápido,
cae seguido y cae hacia adelante. No puedes comenzar algo nuevo sabiendo cómo
hacerlo.
El mejor asesor
seria alguien que lo ha hecho anteriormente. Ya que puede contarte todos sus
errores para que tú no tengas que cometerlos también.
Tiene que estar
bien el cometer errores. Así es como aprendemos y crecemos.
Investiga, Planifica y Marcha
Hace algunos
años, mi esposo y yo nos mudamos al campo. Para nosotros fue un ambiente muy
extraño ya que la mayor parte de nuestra vida la vivimos en la ciudad. Pero
Juntos teníamos un sueño, de tener nuestra pequeña parcela y ahora aquí
estábamos. Muy pronto nos dimos cuenta de que no sabíamos como hacer todas las
cosas que este nuevo ambiente requería. ¿Cómo construimos un gallinero? ¿Cómo
arreglamos un techo con goteras? ¿Cómo mantenemos a los bichos fuera de la
casa?
Diez años después,
está es mi recomendación para enfrentar cosas nuevas:
Investigación: Encuentra gente de la localidad
que sepa más que tú; y utiliza el internet para preguntar.
Planeación: Haz un plan, incluyendo cuánto te
va a costar.
Acción: Sólo hazlo.
Por ser
perfeccionista, el último punto ha sido el más difícil para mí. Ya que no
quiero comenzar algo si no sé exactamente cómo hacerlo. Afortunadamente, mi
esposo y yo desde un principio hicimos un pacto: No íbamos a permitir que el “no
saber” no nos permitiera “hacerlo”. Nos dimos permiso para fracasar.
He aprendido a empezar con lo que sé, cometer muchos errores y hacerlo de nuevo. Ahora vemos alrededor de nuestra propiedad y nos sentimos muy orgullosos de todas las mejoras que le hemos hecho. También te puedo hablar de las historias de lo que no funcionó, pero muchas veces tuvimos que hacerlo mal antes de lograr hacerlo bien.
This is one of the easiest ways to keep track of your books. Pen and Paper are materials you could find anywhere. I have clients who are not comfortable with technology so showing them an easy system with paper allows them to see their business transactions. Although I do try to push our clients to become more comfortable with technology, I realize people are starting at different stages. I tell all our clients, regardless of whether they’re using technology, to have 12 manila folders to keep their physical receipts, invoices, and other documents by month. Then, I ask clients to have a dedicated notebook to track their expenses and income. Clients need to track the date the transaction was made, where it’s from, the amount, and their income. The client will need to manually calculate their monthly net profit as compared to using a computer that does the calculations for you.
2. The Spreadsheet Way – Excel or Google Sheets
Using spreadsheets will allow our clients to electronically enter your transactions and share it with someone online. With spreadsheets, graphs and reports can easily be created from their entered transactions. This allows our clients to make business decisions based on their actual numbers. If you are not familiar with spreadsheets, you can search for local resources in your area that can teach you how to use it for your business purposes. A local nonprofit focused on helping business owners or the small business program of your city can be a great resource for finding help and support. For our clients at EGBI who are past the pen and paper stage but are not quite ready for an online accounting system, I show them how to use a simple spreadsheet tracker that tracks the date, amount, vendor/supplier, and income. This is an easy way for them to see how their business is doing on a monthly basis.
3. The Online Accounting System Way – QuickBooks Online
For clients that find using a spreadsheet to
be cumbersome, an online accounting system like QuickBooks Online makes their
lives easier and it can also be shared with someone else. It’s easier because
they won’t have to manually document each transaction because QuickBooks Online
automatically connects to their bank feed. But it’s harder because the client
will need to learn how to correctly use the system so that their financial
reports aren’t riddled with errors. Errors can be fixed if you know what you’re
doing, but I ask our clients to come in and have a chat with me so I can show
them the correct way to set up their QuickBooks. If your QuickBooks is set up
incorrectly, it will cost the client more to retroactively fix their books. So,
it’s always better for clients to search for local resources that can teach
them how to correctly use QuickBooks if watching YouTube videos and reading
QuickBooks tutorials wouldn’t work for them.
