We were lucky to catch up with Dere Hney recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dere, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
Back when I first launched my brand The Chosen Ones or TCO, I was also running a publishing company at the same time, on top of working on my doctorate degree and running another online business. To say the least, I was beyond over my head so I did what I thought was the most logical thing and I hired an assistant. I didn’t game plan for it. I went on Upwork and put out a request on the job board. After a week of sorting through resumes, I made my first hire!! I was so excited. I felt like an actual business owner for the first time.
Maybe a month into hiring this assistant, my store was building up traction, and I landed my first client who wanted to publish their book. Together we spent countless hours working on my businesses. From social media, to coming up with landing pages, consultation formats, developing a system of things etc. Before I knew it, it was time for my assistant’s first paycheck. The first month I was able to get them their check- barely, but It was done and I figured that for the next few months we would just need to work harder and double sales so I could afford my assistant. However, by the time the third month came around one of the invoicing platforms I used to collect payments from clients, unexpectedly suspended my account. and a week after they closed the account and would not release any of the funds. Which meant I didn’t get paid. I was big on putting my profits back into my businesses. Because I didn’t have a backup plan for that, the money I didn’t receive was supposed to pay for the manufacturers of TCO. Losing a month’s worth of my paycheck drastically shifted me financially. I was embarrassingly late at paying my assistant to the point that I had to let her go. After completing the clients book, I had to shut down my publishing company completely and take a 6 month hiatus from my clothing brand because items were delayed up to 3+ months due to finances. When the new year rolled around, I was in a bad financial hole.
Looking back, I’m grateful for this mishap because it showed me that being an entrepreneur is more than being a “boss.” It’s about setting a foundation not just for me but for everyone and everything in my business. I learned and still learning how to become a better decision maker as well!
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
As someone who is sort of a control freak with the redeeming quality of recognizing I don’t know it all, Shopify has allowed me to be very hands on with my online store all while providing me with the tools and support for the things I don’t know.
I love that Shopify’s overall platform provides an effortless and easy navigation system that gives you access to solution-based softwares and marketing tools like Klaviyo, Avada Joy, and Mail Chimp. As for the times that I have had technical issues, I’ve been able to get support within 5-10 minutes.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://shopthechosenones.com/
- Instagram: @missdere_