Up in My Business

The start to the 2023 has goal setting at the top of mind for many people to focus on being the best version of ourselves. You may have goals to save more money, get up earlier, or be healthier and Badass Habits is a fun place to start.  Badass Habits by Jen Sincero is a fun read about how to take overwhelming concepts and chunk them down into approachable actions that you can foster into healthy habits. Jen's voice as a writer is humorous and empowering as she highlights psychological barriers that could be blocking you from creating your most desired habits.  Her belief is that our habits reveal our self-perceptions, our beliefs about what's possible, and our general sense of reality. Throughout the books she interviews various successful people and ways they've strengthened their discipline backbones. Sincero then takes this information and walks you through her 21 day step-by-step habit guide to help her readers actualize these concepts.  Aware about your complainin...

Shoe Dog is a must read for business owners from all walks of life. It is the story of Phil Knight entrepreneur and founder of Nike and the empire he has built in just 80 short years of life.  Key Takeaways: Overall, Shoe Dog is a page turner! I think I read the whole book in two days! Fear does not have to stop you. During his journey Nike was a crazy idea. Blue Ribbon.. reselling Japanese shoes. Running was anything but popular. People thought you were nuts. You have to been the one to see things through.  You don't always have to have a perfect vision, but you need to be willing to figure it out! You just need to start!  If you're going through hell...keep going... you are going to be so knocked down. So tired that you can barely think strain, but you just keep putting one foot in front of the other.  The use of environmental factors as catalysts for company growth and expansion. Japan with globalization. The internet with Google!  The downside that can come ...

I guess in the end, it's natural to think about the beginning.  5 years ago today, I opened the Voxn flagship in downtown Boise. I still remember my very first customer--It was my neighbor's wife and her friend. I remember exactly what was bought. I remember what we talked about. I remember her ice cream earrings. I remember how red my face got because I was overthinking how to look natural and what to do with my hands. I was an official entrepreneur.  I remember meeting one of my first team members at a coffee shop when Voxn was chicken scratches on notebook paper and napkins inside some puppy binders. I bought the puppy binders because I thought that they were cute, they were on sale and I was ready for my idea to be taken seriously. I'm pretty sure we both thought I was crazy, but she was in. We rallied those in the community who were as excited about fashion as we were. Our first fashion show was a shot in the dark. We had no idea what we were really doing, but we survi...

"It's getting bad here. People are dying. The government is closing our doors. We have to stop all production and we are running out of medical supplies. I will let you know more as I know. Please take care of yourself, Erica. God bless."  A frantic email sent from on of my international manufacturing partners warning me of the severity of Covid-19, early January 2020.  Partners I have created great relationships with, spent years of business with. Respectable, hard working, never complaining. Then, a frantic email out of character followed by... radio silence.  Like most people, I was scared. Listening to the news and reading as much as I could, scavenging the internet. There was nothing. nothing. Thinking back to my relation to the BioTechnology field, it made sense why masks were backordered and harder to come by. What is going on with the Supply Chain? I fished out an old medical mask and took measurement on it. My intent was to send them overseas. They need help....

Love. People have a natural biological and psychological desire to feel acceptance and community through love. That’s why, even with so much independence to this day, people are still dating.  Oh, dating.  I was having a conversation with a friend the other day who loves the show the Bachelor. They were filling me in on all the details (which were juicy), but ended the conversation with a hypothetical, "Would you date the Bachelor?" Anyone that knows me well could probably agree that I am a decently laid back person. I am very go with the flow and see where life takes me. I am open to learning new things and new ideas, but I have my few things I have strong opinions that I won't wavier on. As a business owner of a growing company, finding time to switch gears from a packed schedule to slowing down and enjoying the moment with my partner is difficult. Personally, I do not like dating. I have never liked it. It takes so much to get me out on a date because I am not attracte...

Technology. An efficient advancement in society, yet a scary field to navigate when it comes to security, web/software customization and intellectual protection.  I'll be the first to admit that I am not an absolute expert in technology. However, I do know enough to take a company website and email down during a c-panel data migration by pointing all the name servers to a different host and changing the DNS MX Records to a 24 hour TTL propagation during a peek period. (So, enough to be dangerous. Very dangerous.) But, that's a story for another day... and don't worry, I'm much better now.  If starting a business hasn't been hard enough in the past, revolutionary inventions like the internet have come to present us with new terrain to navigate. Whether you are an online commerce or only brick and mortar, having and protecting your online presence is crucial in the world we live in today and can deem equally as important as your physical locations.  While this may see...

Did you know that anytime economic crisis hits, there are some companies who see no economic impact simply because of their customer? One of my favorite examples is the fashion icon Prada. Prada's customers is wealthy and values the finer things in life. They typically have a sound financial setup to afford luxuries. This may have been inherited, gifted or built. When markets waiver due to national or global economic hardship, (aside from catastrophe) Prada doesn't typically see much fluctuation in revenue. Why? Prada's customer has build a strong loyalty and is fixated on their products. Their customer has made their product a priority in their expenses and will actually make lifestyle adjustments to continue to afford those products. This can include things like deciding to walk more places versus taking a taxi or skipping the morning coffees to save for what they value more.  If you know me personally, you know that I am not a collector of material things. I am not a sh...