Money Date With Marie Mae
/Every Friday I recommend having a money date…with a mimosa. Hence the name of my blog, Money & Mimosas.
Your money date is your special time to review your finances, celebrate your wins, and reflect on how you used your money to make a difference. Feel free to do it alone or with your money buddy. If you’d like a step-by-step guide for your money date, click here to download your free checklist.
In these money date articles, Money & Mimosas features small to medium-sized businesses that practice ethical sourcing and giving back to others. This week we’re featuring Marie Mae, an innovative corporate gifting service that helps make an impact with dollars businesses are already spending.
I caught up with founder and CEO Jillian Ryan about why she chose to start Marie Mae and how 2020 has affected her business.
What was the moment you decided to leave your role as an international business consultant and devote your full-time energy to growing Marie Mae?
It actually happened a lot more gradually than that - which in hindsight - was perfect for me. Because if you had asked me previously, I would have NEVER said I was entrepreneurial or brave enough to start my own business. So I originally left my full time consulting position to do freelance geopolitical risk consulting. And then while doing freelance consulting, I decided I wanted the opportunity to work with this one sewing cooperative in Rwanda I had crossed paths with. So rather than go after a government grant - because I am a stubborn Texan and also had no idea how to do that - I decided I would just launch a little side hustle to pay for the business boot camp I wanted to do. During my consulting days helping big Fortune 100 companies go into emerging markets, time and time again, I would see them wanting to do good and work with local partners, but a lot of the local partners didn't have the business experience or knowledge to know how to operate efficiently and at scale with a larger company. And I wanted to help change that. It was after our first very large order - to the tune of 300,000 boxes of stationery - and a feature in Buzzfeed that I realized it was time to focus on this and grow it to it's potential.
What advice would you give to another woman who is thinking about elevating her side-hustle to a full-time business?
I will preface this advice by letting you know a little more about what I did in my previous career. I helped large companies go into "risky" markets and helped them think through every possible political/economic risk they may face, and help them figure out a plan to mitigate that risk. So it was literally my job to think through everything that could go wrong. So for me, the thing I need most to elevate my side-hustle into a thriving full-time business? Stop thinking and start doing. As an entrepreneur, you can't figure out all the risks beforehand. You have to take action and then constantly tweak things and fail fast and build that parachute on the way down.
Can you describe your company's process for sourcing ethically-made products?
We adore working with small family owned and artisan based businesses both here in the US and in countries around the world. Once we locate a group or company that we think we may want to work with, we have three things we take into consideration: 1. can they scale with us? 2. do their quality standards match ours? and 3. can they produce the product at a cost that the market will bear while taking care of their employees?
What is the biggest lesson that 2020 has taught you?
You can't stand still and wait for "normal" to return. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we had our entire global supply chain both here in the US and in countries such as Rwanda, Haiti and Uganda shut down overnight. We started experiencing hyper-growth in Q4 of 2019 accelerating through until the week before things shut down - so we were sold out of almost everything - which is normally a good problem to have. Until you can't get more products. So the first few weeks were so scary. As a leader, I had never been under that amount of stress before to try to figure out how to not have to lay anyone off or have orders cancelled on us - all while having no products to sell and was not making any inroads to accessing the government assistance that was supposed to be there. It was so tough that I found myself starting to hide. We were getting new client inquiries, but I didn't know how to answer them - so I dragged my feet. And then my business coach stepped in and posed the question, so what can you sell? Who can you help? Which got me to thinking - who did I know that DID have products we could source? So many of my small business owner friends had their demand dry up overnight, but we were having the opposite problem. Our demand was skyrocketing, but we had no products. So I called up other small businesses, asked what they had on hand, and put together some new gift box options - such as our At Home Wellness Kit and At Home Productivity Kit. We've sold out of those twice now, have had our best month EVER for custom corporate work, and was able to help so many other businesses out in the process. So the moral of that story is...don't hide. Pivot.
How do you define being a rich woman?
One of the greatest joys in my life is being able to do the amazing work that we do through the Marie Mae Business School - without having to fundraise. It was very important to me from day one that we be forced as a company to find a product and a niche that people love in order to provide a sustainable avenue to create impact. And we've done that. That is what rich is to me.
Want to support Marie Mae in using business as a force for good? Visit their website.
Money & Mimosas is a financial education resource created by Danetha Doe. It is now enjoyed by readers in over fifty countries.
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