ep. 047 • You've Got Big Goals, But Do You Have The Proper Foundations?

Chelsea: So often as business owners, we look to build the thing that excites us the most. We want to have the things ready, be it our website or our logo or our branding. We want to be out there in the world showing up as our best selves and we want people to buy in and book now, right? And yet, with all of these lofty goals, oftentimes, we fail to make the decisions that are necessary in order to build a solid foundation for something that is both profitable and sustainable inside of our business and it causes us to really miss the mark.

Recently, I had a conversation with my eldest child about a business idea that he has and you'd be surprised by how similar the concerns and the thought process that he had around building that business is to things that I hear from hennapreneurs every single day.

In this episode, I'm sharing some of the inner workings and some of the mistakes, honestly, that business owners make when they're looking to build a business out and aren't yet prepared with the foundational pieces that are necessary for their own success. If you've got big, audacious goals that you're chasing right now, and you're finding it hard to reach them, this episode is definitely for you.

Welcome to the Hennapreneur podcast – the exclusive podcast of its kind dedicated to giving you an honest look at the realities of making a living as a henna professional.

I'm your host, Chelsea Stevenson, at tea-loving, shoe collecting mother of three in constant search for the most popping pair of earrings and the perfect shade of red lipstick.

I'm also a professional henna artist and business strategist who went from barely being able to piece together a fluid design to being the owner of the most celebrated henna boutique in my city.

I'm on a mission to help henna professionals, to harness their skills and grow vibrant, profitable businesses that they absolutely love.

If you want to make more money with your art, you are definitely in the right place. Let's get to it!

Hey, hey, hennapreneurs! Welcome back to another episode of the Hennapreneur podcast. This week, I want to talk to you about something that actually perhaps might ruffle feathers and I hope that that's not the case. This is actually me bringing some very real, very specific tough love. And I know that it's tough love and I know that it's love, specifically, because this is actually birthed from a conversation that I had with my son, um, and it mimicked, and it reminded me of many conversations that I've had with hennapreneurs over the years, as they, you know, have expressed to me their desires around building their businesses and so forth. And recently, I have this conversation with my eldest, which prompted me putting together this episode for you today.

So, let's kind of take a step back. I want to talk to you about your goals. I want to talk to you about your goals. I want to talk to you about the business that you're building, the life that you are building, and I want to talk to you about what that building looks like, but first, let me tell you a short story about how this all kind of came up.

So my son, at the time of this recording, he's 11 years old. He's about to turn 12 and he has found that he has a very deep and sometimes for me, confusing love for Pokemon cards, okay? And so, he very much enjoys collecting cards. He enjoys, you know, going to the store, finding new packs, identifying what Pokemon is this versus that one, and he loves learning about each of these things. And because my son is my son, he also has a... this like natural sort of desire for business, right? He's always grown up in a household where, you know, he's always seen me run my own business and this is something that kind of comes to him as second nature.

And of course, you guys may be familiar with him by way of Alex's Cone Shop, which is his online business. He sells henna. He sells henna cones and henna supplies and, um, and that's great. And also, he's found that with this new passion that he has for Pokemon cards, that he is interested in starting a business selling these cards, right? As a distributor. As a reseller.

And so, we had a conversation recently where he was sharing with me about his goal for creating this shop and how this actually was prompted was because I found him building a new website. I found my son building a new website. And when I started to ask him questions about the website and what he was doing and whatnot, he explained to me that he was doing this work because he wanted to have a site where he could sell the Pokemon cards that he'd collected. He wanted to, you know, build this new business and he's really excited about it. And he was really excited about it. He is very excited. And me being who I am. I'm like, "So, you know," like, "All right, let's sit down with this," right? "Let's sit down with this before we continue building a website, let's sit down with this before we build out like social media pages and all of this, because this is a lot of work that you're about to get into. You know that already. You've done that with the Cone Shop. Do you really want to get out to juggle two businesses?"

So we started to have a little bit of conversation. And my son is actually very insightful when it comes to his goals and his wants he's very much like me. He's very good about identifying what he wants and how he wants it. And so he already had did some market analysis. So he'd already done some comparison between what he was wanting to do and what already exists in the market, he kind of had already found like his angle. He'd already made the decision that he didn't want to sell his Pokemon cards on these other platforms that are already existing, because why do that when you could have a platform all of your own?

And, I mean, he really, he was thoughtful. He was very thoughtful and in all of his excitement, he was ready to build this new place on Beyonce's internet for him to sell his cards.

And I was really excited to hear the excitement in his voice and to hear what his goals were. And also, immediately, I found holes, right?

So, for me, as a business strategist, I am someone who can hear about a business, even if it's just in casual conversation and immediately my brain starts to configure and reconfigure pieces. I immediately can identify where there are gaps, where are things that are being overlooked, where there are things that might show up later as a problem. Strategic thinking is actually my top skill in terms of strengths, right?

And so is something that comes very naturally and very easily to me. And when, as it relates to strengths specifically, I lead with strategic strengths and then my secondary strengths are all in the executive realm. So, as it relates to execution, actually taking that strategy and building a plan, that's actually my second greatest strength. For me, as my son is telling me about what he's planning to do and how he's building this website and what he's, you know, what he's got up his sleeve for his Pokemon reselling thing, I am listening and identifying pieces that are missing and identifying pieces that are out of place and that might catch him up and that are going to leave him frustrated or are going to get in the way of him reaching the goal that he actually has.

And he and I, you know, I asked him "Are–" you know, "Would you like my input? Would you like my feedback around what you're sharing with me?" And he said, "Yeah of course," you know, "Tell me, mom! Like, what should I do? What do you think?"

And so, I was able to give him some very specific feedback around everything from the business model, to the platforms that he was planning to integrate, you know, from a tech perspective to the way that he would need to work out his profit margins to... I mean, you name it, I was in there.

And I was really happy to be able to have this sort of conversation with my son, right? Like these are very unique experiences that he and I have together where we get to bond and share and learn together. And I love being able to hold space for him in that way, and also to be able to mentor and guide him in that way.

And he left the conversation feeling excited, still, about his goal, still excited about what he was wanting to build, and also, he left with some very specific homework from me about the things that he would need to research, investigate, play with, and make some adjustments on before moving forward.

And what kept coming up in conversation, as I was speaking with him was, you know, these are the things that I talked to my students. These are the things that, you know, I teach my clients, that I teach my students inside of my program. These are the questions you need to ask. These are the angles that you need to observe, that you need to look for, look at, question. And once I, you know, had that exchange with him, I knew that I would have to come and record this episode and I would have to share this little story with you because there's so much learning that's here.

And it may sound like, "Well, okay, Chelsea. You're talking about an 11-year-old kid with a business idea." And let me tell you what, I'm talking about on an 11 year old kid who has an existing business. A legitimate registered existing business and is wanting to open a second business. And who has a life of experience watching businesses be born, grown, strategized. And so he– I don't want you to discount what I'm sharing because, actually, the way that he approached wanting to build his new business idea is very, very similar to what I find when I begin working with clients and when I begin working with students inside of my program, Hennapreneur PRO or inside of consulting with me by way of virtual VIP days, or in-person VIP days, what have you.

And so, what does this look like? Oftentimes, what this manifests as for us as hennapreneurs–or even for those business owners who I consult for outside of our industry–oftentimes, what this looks like is that we name our goals, which is important. It is so important for you to know your goal. It's so important for you to have it very clear in your mind what you'd like to do.

And so when you have that goal in mind, we need to have milestones kind of mapped out for what that's going to look like, what you're actually working towards.

If you are someone who is just kind of getting serious about your business, or if you're someone who's wanting to just kind of formalize and solidify your business now, then this would be a great place for you to start.

You need to know your goal. You need to name your goal and you need to define what that would look like. What would a successful milestone be for you inside of that goal?

And then, what we need to do is understand – and this is where it becomes a little bit frustrating – this is where it might ruffle some feathers and so forth. But again, I bring this to you with all of the love and respect and humility, and also a very stark reminder: when you're building a goal, by definition, when you're reaching a new goal, you've never been there before. And because you've never been there before, you don't have the knowledge, insight, perspective, experience to properly prepare for that goal.

It's like, if you were to build a house, anyone can look at a house from the outside and say, "Wow, you know, this home has beautiful curb appeal and I would love to build a house that looks like this."

Then you could invest all of the time and money and energy in building the house that looks beautiful on the outside. And even perhaps on the inside, you might have pieces that you've carefully selected and curated. You've got, you know, the wonderful crown molding and you've got these beautiful, you know, appliances and the sinks look beautiful and the knobs on the cabinets and the paint colors that you selected are great. And all of these details, right? All of these details that are for all intents and purposes, external, those can all be placed in order in a way that feels and looks really great to you.

And also, because you're not an architect and because you're not a builder and because you've not built a house before, and because you don't have the knowledge and insight and perspective and experience building a house, even if you were to manage to get all of those pieces to look beautiful on the outside and perhaps even, even so on the inside, what happens with the structure? What happens with the foundation? Did you properly level the ground? What happens when things shift over time and the house settles? Are you going to have cracks on the walls? Will that crown molding fall out of place? This is exactly what happens inside of businesses. And it's exactly what my son ran to do and it's exactly what I see. So many hennapreneurs and other creatives do when they're wanting to build this.

They name their goal. And then they set out to build the goal or to work towards the goal, but they don't have the structures in place to support those goals if and when they're able to reach them.

And so what happens often is that they become very frustrated. They become burnt out, or alternatively, they reach the goal and then they're unable to sustain the goal because they don't have the foundation in place that is going to allow for them to be able to sustain that growth and sustain that to the longevity of the building that they've done.

And that also is very frustrating, right? It's also very upset for anyone, then especially for us who, you know, we're working to build these things oftentimes from the ground up.

And so, this is a major, major mistake. Recently, I had a conversation with a hennapreneur. It sticks out to me and it very much applies to what I'm sharing here with you today.

Recently, I had a conversation with a hennapreneur who was asking about mentorship. She was interested in working with me and she shared that her goal is to open a henna boutique. She wanted to open her own studio, her own brick and mortar, and she wanted to know if this is something that I could help her with. And I explained that, of course, this is something I can help her with. Not only do I have a brick and mortar, I've actually had two separate locations. And many of my students who work with me inside of Hennapreneur PRO do open up their own space.

Now, around–. And I'll get this number totally wrong and that's okay. When we pulled the statistics for the program a while back we found that it was somewhere around 60%, if I'm not mistaken, 60% of hennapreneurs who go through Hennapreneur PRO do open up their own location. And that's, you know, for some of those people that is for them to be inside of, you know, if that's inside of their home or if that's outside of the home, but I, what I will say is at the time that we ran that study of our participants, 41% of our engaged participants of Hennapreneur PRO open their own brick and mortar location within a year of working with us.

So within a year of working with me, this was something that they were able to achieve. And so, I told her, you know, very certainly, "Absolutely! This is something that I can help you with. You know, I've helped many other people to do that."

And she said, "Wow! Okay, well, what does that look like?"

And I was explaining to her about the program. You know: well, you'd want to join PRO, and this is what it looks like, and it's a 12-month commitment.

And she asked, "Is there anything else? Is there any other way that I could work with you? That's not 12 months?"

And I said, "Well, sure. The reason why my program is a 12-month commitment is because this is big work, right? This is big work opening, a brick and mortar is no small feat." Actually, to be honest, opening the brick and mortar is the smaller piece. That's the easy part. If you want the truth, that's the easy part. Sustaining the brick and mortar is the harder part because before you can, you know, before you're able to open the doors and maintain doors open, you need to have systems in place that are going to allow for that brick and mortar to not absolutely consume you, one. So there's the time piece. There's also the financial piece.

And this hennapreneur, you know, when she reached out, she did share with me, she's actually, you know, she's doing well for herself. I believe, if my memory serves me, she's making somewhere around $2,000 per month in revenue, which is great. And also, as a business strategist, and this is no shade, but these are numbers that don't yet impresse me. I'm not, like, shell-shocked by that. And the reason why is because I know that the majority of business owners look at revenue as profit and the two are not the same. And this is a prime example.

If you are in a place where you have this goal, you're wanting to build this thing, you're wanting to open a brick and mortar, for example, and also, you sense that you're headed in the right direction–. And this hennapreneurs absolutely, of course she's headed in the right direction. The things that she's doing are working well, but does she have the systems in place and the strategies in place and the failproof sort of pieces underneath her [and] underneath her business, the catch-alls, do those things exist that are going to streamline her business and allow for her to be not only super effective and efficient in serving her clients, but also that are going to allow for her to build a business that she actually loves and that doesn't consume her and become you know, overwhelming/

And so, going back, even to that story, you know, I shared with her, of course, you know, if you'd prefer to work for a shorter term, you can certainly work with me in the capacity of a VIP day. That can be in person or that can be done virtually and I, you know, shared those details with her.

But the truth of the matter, and the fact for me is that I always prefer to see my hennapreneurs work with me inside of PRO first, because it gives us a container, a 12-month container in which we can really get into the nitty-gritty of their business. We can really get in and figure out what's working. What's not working. What's sustainable. What's not sustainable. Where can you make more money? Where are you leaking money? Where are the things that are going to save you time? Where the things that are going to save you energy?

You know, recently I had a PRO share that she made her first–. She surpassed $4,000 a month in revenue and she worked 25 hours with clients for the month. How is she doing that? She's doing that with the systems that were built inside of that program, right? And this is actually a Hennapreneur who's been, she'd been working with henna for quite a long time. She'd been working with henna. She'd worked as a face painter. She had other services, also, that she offered. So we're not talking about like a business owner who was brand new to business, you know, three months in and just figuring it out. No, this is someone who had a lot of experience and then came into the program, was exposed to different methodologies, different systems, different strategic measures, then she began to implement them into her business and she's seeing these incredible results.

And actually, just earlier this week, she shared that for the month of September, and we're not even complete with the month of September as of yet, and she shared that she's surpassed that again. She's already made her $4,000 in revenue for the month of September also. And so, now it's just, it's just up from there, right?

And so, this is like a prime example. This is what it takes to have a business. It's not just making it pretty on the outside. It's not just having the website. It's not just having the nice Instagram. It's not just having, you know, beautiful designs that you're creating for your clients. It's not just having the keys to the brick and mortar.

The worst thing would be for you to do all of these all, you know, all of these things, to reach all of these milestones and then for you to not have the systems in place that are going to allow for you to have the appropriate amount of profit, the appropriate amount of time for yourself, for your family, for those things that are important to you, the appropriate amount of flexibility for you to actually live in addition to running your business. These are things that matter. And if you have not yet reached that place inside of your business, right? You're reaching towards this new goal – this goal that you've not yet touched. You don't yet have the know-how to be able to integrate those sorts of structures and you need to have support.

And so these are one, you know, these are some of the mistakes that people make. We waste time, we waste money, we waste energy building unsustainable things, and then we're frustrated and we're disappointed and we're sad and we're, you know, scared, even, to try it again because it's like, 'man, well, I failed by the time it didn't work' when it's not that it couldn't have. It's just that you didn't have the things that you need in place to allow for it to work.

And so this is where I, I try to encourage you, one, obviously, again, know your goal. What is your goal? What's the goal that you have for yourself? And once you have that goal, get very specific about what that means. You know, what are the steps? What are the milestones?

And that's where having a good mentor comes in because a good mentor is someone who's been there. A good mentor is someone who can give you perspective. Who's going to see the things that you're missing.

When I was having this conversation with the hennapreneur about opening her brick and mortar. And I shared with her, you know, opening the brick and mortar really is the easier– that's the easy part, it's everything goes before the brick and mortar, that should be done before the brick and mortar. It's thosee things that lay underneath of the brick and mortar. That's where the heavy work is.

And I'll be honest, many times when I say that to people, I feel that it falls on deaf ears and I hope, listeners, that you do not have deaf ears in this way. I hope that you're open to what I'm saying. I hope that you're open to receiving this advice because it's advice that will save you time and money and energy. It's worthwhile for you to invest in getting the systems right. Getting the framework right. Getting the structure right. And you can make everything pretty later.

I would so much rather for you to have a janky website, but with sustainable profitable systems in place, than to have a beautiful website and systems in place in your business that are all willy-nilly, that are not going to allow for you to have the experience that you wish for, and that are not going to allow for you to serve your clients with excellence while also honoring yourself and your own needs.

I'll go so far as to share this with you, there is a hennapreneur who's inside of the pro program right now, who I know does not have a website set up and yet she is booking clients. Strangers are contacting her. They are making their appointments. They're paying her in full. They're not asking questions. They're not, you know, in her DMs harassing her about 'can they pay when they see her'. Like, these are things that are not happening. And again, there isn't even a website. She literally just has a booking system set up.

Why does that matter? Why does that work? Well, how is it even possible? It's because she's built the sustainable systems that I teach, right? She's built them for herself and the pretty stuff she gets, the ad that later she gets the add that when she has the time to do that, she gets to add that when she, you know, has the space for it. And right now she's dealing with lots of other things. She has young children in her home. Her time and her energy it's also dedicated to those things and those things are also important to her.

And guess what? She's still having wins because she has a system that works and that, my friends is my point.

I hope that you take away from this episode, a small lesson, perhaps from hearing about my, son, perhaps from hearing about the hennapreneur who I spoke with recently, perhaps from hearing just from the experiences or about the experiences you know, of my students inside of the program. I hope that in hearing this, you can identify places where perhaps your goals are undefined. Maybe they're a little bit too gray. Maybe they're a little bit too flexible. And if that's so, then I want to encourage you to get very specific, know what your. Okay. And then I want you to ask yourself how you can make it possible for you to bring in to employ those people, things, systems, support that are going to push you and elevate you towards that goal, to propel you towards that goal in a way that also is going to give you the structures that you need, right?

We don't need just a pretty house. What's the point? What's the point of a pretty house if it won't withstand the storms, if it won't withstand the test of time, if it won't withstand even just your sanity, right? Who wants that? Nobody wants that.

With that in mind, ask yourself not, you know, not, 'oh, I can't. There's no way.' No, there's plenty of ways. There's plenty of ways for you to find what you need for yourself, for your business. And obviously, of course, if you know, if joining Hennapreneur PRO makes sense to you, reach out to our team, we'd love to chat with you about it, but do what you must to save yourself the time and the money and the energy building something unsustainable. Save yourself from that. Work with a mentor, invest in learning, learn how to set the structures in place, learn how to set the foundation, then you can work on all of this pretty things that make us really excited, like the website and the Instagram and all these things that make us smile. The logo. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. Oh goodness. I know. So many of us are guilty of that.

Fun fact: my son was guilty of that. He actually, he told me, "Yeah, mom. So I even designed my own logo." And he did. And actually it looked– it was pretty cute for what he's trying to do. And, um, and I laughed and I told him, "You sound just like some of my students." and it's just funny. It's just funny. These are lessons that we must learn as we're building businesses.

And so I want to leave you with that little bit of insight or that little bit of advice if I can, and I hope that it lands and I hope that it encourages you also to look for ways that you can fortify your business, um, in the ways that are meaningful that matter, and not just in the ways that make it look nice from the outside and don't fulfill you on the inside as well.

With that said, I'll wrap up for today. I do want to take a second to invite you to join me over in the Hennapreneur Community, where I'd love to know: have you been building the outside of your business, right? I'd love to know: have you been so focused on, you know, the shutters and the paint and the landscaping that perhaps you haven't spent time really looking at leveling the ground and making sure that the foundation was right. If that's, so let me know also what's one piece of the foundation where you could use some. Let me know that. I'm interested to hear, you know, what comes up for you as you've listened to this episode and as you kind of roll these questions around moving forward.

As always, if you have questions about Hennapreneur PRO you're welcome, you can send them over to our team at support@hennapreneur.Com.

And I'd love to invite you also to tap in. We've got a number of different resources available to you that will help with building your foundation. One of those is the 5-Figure Foundation masterclass. That is a masterclass that you can check out at any point in time. And there I share with you how I've built a system for sustainability. What's required to have a foundation that allows for a thriving and sustainable and functional and profitable henna business where you are making those five-figure revenue points, whether that's that you'd like to have, you know, a higher five-figure annual revenue or if you want to be like me, and you're making five-figures per month with your art, like this system works and this system is something that you're able to scale. So, if you haven't checked that out already, you definitely make sure that you do, you can check that out at hennapreneur.com/foundations. And yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing from you over in the Hennapreneur Community. And I'll talk to y'all later. Bye for now!

I've got a serious question for you, hennapreneur. 

Are you ready to stop playing small with your art and to take your business to the next level already?

Are you tired of feeling like you're doing it all to grow your business, but you just aren't seeing the results and the success that you're looking for?

Perhaps you've got clients here and there, but you know inside that your potential expands far beyond what your business is generating today.

You may know that you're a solid artist, but you can't seem to crack the code on the business side of things, and you may find yourself wondering, "What gives?!" 

If any of this sounds like you: listen up, because I've got some really great news for you!

I've got a free, on-demand masterclass called 5-Figure Foundations where I'll teach you my framework for how to build a profitable henna business.

During the masterclass, you'll learn things like how to position your henna business for success -- even if you don't have any background and practical business management. You're going to learn the critical steps you need to take in order to get your budding business started off right or to correct the broken one that's burning you out. You're going to learn why you need systems, not feelings, to make more money and to expand your business. We're going to get real clear, real fast about how you're likely getting in your own way right now and how you can remove the frustrations that are holding you back.

I'm also going to share my tried-and-true framework for establishing a profitable, sustainable business, and I'm going to tell you all about how my students are continuing to grow their businesses and celebrating some pretty big wins in the process -- even through those everyday challenges that you might expect, like juggling work and home and even those massive challenges that you might've never seen coming, like navigating a pandemic while being a business owner.

At the end of the masterclass, you'll no longer be in the dark. You'll know exactly what to do and what to avoid to build a solid foundation for your own profitable henna business as well. 

To register for the masterclass and to watch it instantly on-demand, visit hennapreneur.com/foundations.