Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Aborn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Emily, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My husband and I opened a luxury boutique retail shop, selling mattresses, in New Hampshire in 2014.

Three years after opening, we were struggling to market our store and reach new clients. We had great customer service, did lots of print advertising, I was networking in a few places, and had a strong search-engine-optimized website. But it was still slowing down significantly.

As a result, our revenue was also steadily dropping. In an effort to spark business back up, I connected with a mentor who gave me the advice of “meeting new faces”. I started collaborating with others and networking with people in and outside of my industry voraciously.

I met EVERYONE I could! I took coffee dates, I collaborated with people on radio shows, podcasts, and Facebook Lives. I hosted events and happenings in my store, sponsored events, and more.

In my travels and connecting, I met so many local women business owners and entrepreneurs who shared a lot of the same struggles I did. I was surrounded by women entrepreneurs who had no real place to go to share with others, grow, and talk about what they were going through.

I decided we needed something to bring everyone together and get inspired and connected in a big way! I wanted to create a positive impact in our local community, so it could ripple out.

Me and a friend hosted a She Built This event at a local winery where we featured three women entrepreneurs and gave them a chance to share their stories and inspire the audience. We attracted over 150 local business owners to that first event and as I was standing there in the room, surrounded by the buzz and energy of all these women, passionate about what they were building, I knew I was onto something.

From there, I created an online group for us all to stay connected and began offering other events and resources in varying formats. The community grew and blossomed from there and now we’re over 1800 members strong and from all over the world. The She Built This podcast is an offshoot of the community and features stories, resources, and inspiration for women entrepreneurs. It has a loyal and consistent listenership. People use the community every day to make connections, get visible, find referrals, and meet lifelong friends.

What I was offering and am still offering is a truly authentic and genuine connection for women entrepreneurs. A space that welcomes people in to be themselves – good, bad, ugly, messy, happy, and sad. We go through the ups and downs together and keep a positive, change-oriented mindset.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been an unofficial entrepreneur since I was six years old. As soon as I could write a full paragraph, I was delivering my own handwritten newspapers to all the houses in my rural New Hampshire neighborhood. You know, with riveting headlines like you’d expect, “Baby Brother Takes First Steps”.

From there it was lemonade stands, gopher services, dog walking, babysitting, “antique” popups, concierge services, book sales, jewelry making, and so much more!

I’ve been a writer and in love with writing, since I was even younger! In highschool, I started a blog long before blogs were cool!

I studied Health Education in college and yet, nuts and bolts of the human body aside, I always found myself as the marketer in the health and wellness companies I worked for. I was the accidental content writer, everywhere I went.

Today, I’ve leaned into and owned my strengths as a content writer and now serve to help women entrepreneurs bring their message and voice to life through their websites, blogs, social media, welcome packets, ebooks, and anything else they get writer’s block on!

I’m a champion and resource for women entrepreneurs and love helping them solve just about any problem they face. If I don’t know the answer, I know someone who does!

What sets me apart is that I’m FUN, loyal, and creative. I have consistency and follow-through, a great system of organization, and I’m extremely reliable!

I’m most proud of believing in myself even if no one else did or understood my vision. My ambition and belief that I was meant for MORE are why I am where I am today! I love bringing that to life in others as well and cheering THEM on to realize and achieve their dreams.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My Content Writing business started on accident when we were closing our retail shop!

As we were looking to transition from our retail location, I got my real estate license -thinking that was my next move. After I showed a few houses and started practicing, I realized that it wasn’t the best job for someone like me. I enjoyed the process of getting licensed, and the marketing piece, but that was about it!

I started applying to jobs to find my next step and as I did, I was approached by a real estate team at the office I started with. They asked me to do their marketing. I realized I was onto something and started sharing that I help people with marketing and content tasks. It quickly grew from there, and I had five paying clients in no time. I’d work on my marketing clients while I wasn’t helping customers in the store and on my days off.

When we finally shut the doors to the retail shop, I had a full docket of clients and decided to give it a go! From there, it took me about two years to pivot and niche down. And I haven’t looked back since!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

When we first started our business, we sought out help from People’s United Bank to get a $100,000 loan. I put together a business plan and demonstrated where the funds would be allocated. At the time, I had unpaid debts and a terrible credit history. A family member gave me a private loan for $12,000 which I used to settle some of my debt, and my husband helped me to get back on track with the rest. It didn’t fix my credit overnight, of course, but we were able to get a loan together for the full amount, backed by the SBA.

The loan process was long and arduous and a lot of “yes” “maybe” “no” “we don’t know” until finally it came through and we could start building and outfitting our store.

When we closed the store, we were able to pay the entire remainder of the loan back, and I’d long since paid my family member back in full, as well as gotten myself out of debt!

Both of my current businesses didn’t require initial capital, they’ve been an organic build and I’ve been able to invest back into them as I grow and pay myself more and more each year. It’s a pretty big contrast and a great example that no matter how you choose to fund your business – it just has to be right for YOU and take your individual needs into consideration for what you want to build.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.emilyaborn.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyaborn/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/shebuiltthis
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyaborn/

Image Credits
Trayce Gregoire Photography Cheetah Design Studio: Lindsey Masterson