Guest Post by Hannah O’Rourke:

Noticing my passions

I have always loved being creative and making beautiful things. As a kid, my mom gave me an old hamper that was filled with a mix of construction paper, old recycled notepads, felt, and many other random craft supplies. I would spend hours making all sorts of creations from Disney costumes 100% out of paper, a skirt for our cat, paper dolls, paper houses, and everything in between. Once I even made a pair of high heels for our cat! They were pretty sweet and my little kid brain thought he needed shoes for his back feet since cats look, they walk on their tiptoes and should need the additional arch support.  However, to my disappointment, he did not appreciate them.  

I grew older and I often would focus my creations on clothes I saw in magazines, pillows, or gifts for loved ones at Christmas time. As a family that had little money, we were not short on creativity and scrappiness. My parents raised me to believe if you see something you like and can’t afford there is always a way to make it yourself. So I would often cut out pictures in magazines and create my own sketches and try to figure out how to piece it together to make it myself. 

So of course, when prom came around in those formidable high school years, we couldn’t afford one of those fancy expensive prom gowns from one of the fancy stores. My mom gave me $40 and set me loose in Joann Fabrics for an hour. I had already dreamed up my design and sorted out a rough idea of how to put it together. Luckily my mother had taught me to sew at a young age so I was able to cover the basics of putting something together. Come Junior Prom I was so proud to be wearing my own creation. It wasn’t anything crazy over the top and honestly, it had some less-than-ideal craftmanship but it was a dress and it was my own.

Detour: pursuing a “responsible” career

Unfortunately, as life sometimes does, my path as God had laid out, veered off course and I ended up going to college for a more “responsible” career as a mechanical engineer as my family advised.  All in all, it wasn’t a terrible career and I was pretty decent at it. And I was fortunate enough to meet my husband while I was attending a collegiate engineering competition. (That’s another LONG story for another day! Haha!) Since I was a first-generation college attendee and graduate, I did all the things I was told to do. 

Keep good grades to keep your scholarships. 

Get a good internship. 

Get a good job before you graduate. 

Stick it out to get a good J.O.B. 

Work your way up to make lots of money. 

Achieve. 

Achieve. 

Achieve. 

The whole time I just kept thinking, this isn’t my passion, I’m missing something. There is something else out there for me.  

The shift: starting my business

Fast forward to the start of the pandemic and I am working 60-70hrs at home with a toddler running around and I was looking and searching for something. I had toyed with the idea of starting my own business and had tried a few over the years with little to no success. I tried multi-level marketing, I made wooden signs, I tried being an all-around crafter if you will but nothing ever stuck or had any structure or dedication on my part.  So, in April 2020 I join the Christy Wright Business Boutique Academy with the idea again to start my own business.  

I ended up doing a lot of thinking and praying on what business this would be. I ended up settling on starting with a clothing boutique with the hopes of one day making enough money to get my own designs made and eventually having a clothing line. I did a bunch of research on the different ways to start one and the different methods. Drop ship, carrying inventory, where to source materials, store values etc. I settled on carrying inventory and shipping items out myself. I was so excited and got to work right away figuring out a name, designing a logo, applying for the naming rights, and getting a website, all the easy stuff. 

Battling fear and doubt about my business

BUT then fear and doubt set it and I dragged my feet and made-up excuses so many times on getting the rest of it going. I didn’t want to do the website because I had no idea. What if I don’t have the right legal pages and policies set up and someone sues? (Mind you I don’t even have product or a website) Ugh, all the internal talk was exhausting and distracting. 

It ended up taking me all of 2020 to get everything done and in place to finally officially launch my website in January of this year (2021).  We launched as a women’s clothing boutique carrying comfy and classy clothes that were only made in the USA. Sounds great right?!  

Right away, we/me made a few sales, mostly by family and friends but then nothing. For a couple of months. If I am being honest, I wasn’t making the time to truly work on it and it showed. So then I decided to connect with a local salon with extra space to get my shop in front of people in real life. This again helped but then it slowed as well. 

The value of reflection and pivoting

As I was expecting baby #2 in September of this year I made the deal with myself that I needed to either make the time and do the work or give up on this idea. Over the last 2 months, I have spent more time slowly getting out of my shell and trying new things for my business and on social media.  There have been so many moments where I have to have the real talk with myself that I need to just try and get out of my comfort zone. I have also had to really sit and reflect about what is working and what isn’t. One recent tough conversation with my husband and best friend (so thankful for my amazing support!) was that I am going to have to pivot and carry more brands that aren’t solely made in the USA. 

My top priority to my customers truly is quality pieces that are comfy and classy. Unfortunately there just isn’t a ton of suppliers and vendors that offer that at a reasonable price point. This really made me realize that I need to take more opportunities to really assess my business and determine what’s working and what’s not then be willing to pivot and try new things.

Giving myself grace in my business

As a mom of an almost 3 yr old and a brand-new baby, I am learning to really listen and trust myself and God more.  This means more honest conversations with myself about my values, priorities, and goals in life.  This also means learning to give myself grace to be okay with building a business slowly in the season I am currently in with my little ones.  This last one is the hardest and still a work in progress. No promises that you won’t find me still trying to Achieve, Achieve, Achieve. 

As a special thank you to Sarah and her amazing tribe, I am offering a 20% discount to all if you use the code SARAH20 at checkout. 

Meet the Author: Hannah O’Rourke