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Picture this: You’ve finally taken the big step to start that company you’ve always dreamed of. Maybe it’s a local bakery where you’ll sell the treats your friends have always raved about. Perhaps, it’s a blog where you’ll share your best interior decorating advice. Or maybe–like Anne Read Lattimore and Cassandra Cannon–you’re starting your own clothing line. This week on The Everygirl Podcast, we’re talking to these two badass cofounders to get all the details on how they manage their busy lives.
Lattimore and Cannon founded LAKE Pajamas in 2014 and found immediate success with their casual pajama designs and baby-soft pima cotton. However, entrepreneurship hasn’t always been a breeze. When they first launched LAKE, they were both balancing different career paths and new babies. They had to work to scale their business, set boundaries between their work and home lives, and consistently grow their brand after such a successful launch. Read on for three tips that Anne Read Lattimore and Cassandra Cannon have for preventing burnout as an entrepreneur. Plus, listen to this week’s episode of The Everygirl Podcast to find out how they grew their business and get more career tips from the power duo.
1. Hire kind people
When Lattimore and Cannon first launched LAKE, they were slow to hire. They spent the early days of their business working together at home, babies and all. Once it came time to grow the LAKE Pajamas team, the pair decided to hire jack-of-all-trades workers to help out with their business. “The quality of our internal team here is really what has helped us grow,” Lattimore said. “We have made a conscious decision, both of us, to hire kind people all along the way.” Looking for a team-player mentality in potential employees when hiring has always been a part of the LAKE founders’ business model. As Cannon advised, a great attitude is far more important than a lengthy resume.
When it comes to starting your own business, consider the fact that you probably won’t be the only one doing all of the work for long. Think about what values and skills you want your employees to have when you bring them onto the team: What kind of attitude is going to best shape your workplace environment? As Lattimore and Cannon mentioned, building a great team of coworkers can make all of the difference in having a healthy work-life balance as an entrepreneur.
2. Set boundaries between work and home
As Lattimore and Cannon experienced when they first launched LAKE, working from home can throw a wrench in your work-life balance. “In the beginning, we were a little too ambitious in thinking that we could work with babies around us,” Lattimore said. Now, both cofounders are much more conscious of having totally separate work and home lives in order to prevent burnout. They maintain flexible schedules, but they prioritize setting aside time blocks for both work and family. “After working with kids at home, I now appreciate so much having separated time,” Cannon said. “That means being able to get everything done at work so that when I come home to my kids, I can fully focus on them.”
Setting strong boundaries between your work life and home life is essential for preventing unproductive days and long nights as an entrepreneur. As Lattimore and Cannon emphasized in the interview, this doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on big moments in either area. However, it does mean that you’ll feel the benefits of drawing those boundaries and blocking out your time. Additionally, your business will likely benefit from your ability to turn off work mode from time to time.
3. Stay confident in your product
As an entrepreneur, impostor syndrome can be intense. Lattimore and Cannon credit a huge portion of their success as a brand to their ability to stay confident in their designs, even when they had little prior experience in the clothing industry. They knew that they were filling a demand in the market, which helped them stay on track with their vision for their company. “Our initial sets had some recognizability. They were different than other pajamas that were on the market, and they were a good giftable item,” Lattimore said. The pair knew that the quality of their pajamas would be a huge draw for consumers. Cannon credits their confidence in the product as a critical factor in their low-stress mindset about LAKE.
Entrepreneurship may feel intimidating at times, but as Anne Read Lattimore and Cassandra Cannon emphasize, being confident in your business can go a long way. When you know how great your brand is capable of becoming, you can avoid the impostor syndrome that often leads to burnout when you’re first starting out. Treat each new business venture as if it’s going to sell like 2014 LAKE pajamas, and maybe it will.
Source: Cosmo Politian
