We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kara Duffy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kara below.

Kara, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I am SO happy as a business owner. I do miss having a bigger team and having projects show up that I haven’t caused or created, but I never start wondering about going back to a ‘regular job’. Instead, I’m always thinking about the next opportunity I can create for myself or my clients.
Most business owners who are thinking about going back to a ‘regular job’ should call me first! Usually it’s a sign that your systems, team, sales pipeline or something similar are not set up to optimize you. There are a million ways to make your personal entrepreneurship journey more enjoyable and work better for you. That’s why it’s so important to build your business for you first. This is one of the many things I help my clients do every day.

Kara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an entrepreneur, speaker, investor, business coach & consultant who uses my Have Your All Method™ and A Ridiculous & Extraordinary Life™ philosophy to help business owners become Extraordinary CEOs and organizations to scale. I’ve worked with 100’s of businesses and brands across the world to show them how business can be more successful, more fun, give you more freedom and be more impactful. My unique background of being an entrepreneur since age 9 and also working for 20 years in corporate streetwear, skateboarding, and fashion saving misfit product categories means I knows how to build something from nothing and where to borrow from best practices for your unique business. My other businesses include media company Powerful Ladies, where I’m also the creator and host of the Powerful Ladies Podcast and fashion brand Olivet, where we are making the only garment bags on the market for fashionable, travel loving women.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

All of my businesses thus far have been self funded from savings, maintaining my day job while I started, and when necessary credit cards or small business loans. In fact 78% of all small businesses are self funded. I have worked with my clients to go down the VC or angel funding route and so far it hasn’t been for my personal businesses. Most small businesses are spending too much money in areas that don’t actually matter to give them growth and scale. In fact I often get anxiety seeing how recently funded businesses are using that money! There are key moments when investment can make all the difference – usually tied to inventory optimization, and there are ways that can happen through small business loans, lines of credit, event credit cards, that can often get a small business through those moments.
It’s so important to be working with a coach or business financial advisor to help you make smart, strategic decisions when it comes to investment and spending in your business. There are always solutions to spend less and get a greater reward if you know where to look.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Yes, I manufacture products for our Olivet brand and I support many clients in their manufacturing process as well. I spent 20 years working in footwear and apparel making products. This included traveling to work directly with factories, sourcing strategies, operations, logistics, as well as strategy, design and consumer research. While I could have gone to my network directly, I’ve often chosen to work with a sourcing agent. This allows me to focus on all the other parts of the business and have a dedicated person or team who is focused daily on sourcing, new vendors, new countries of origins, etc.
Working with a sourcing agent still means I have to take care of all the development, sourcing strategy, pricing negotiations, etc, however I’m doing that with the sourcing agent vs directly with the factories or vendors. It allows me access to more one stop shopping.
For people who are new to manufacturing – GET AN EXPERT! This could include a coach like myself who has years of product creation experience and/or a souring agent. There are so many steps, hurdles, costs, and hoops to jump through, especially this year with all the tariff drama. Whatever you pay that expert it will save you 10, if not 100x. Also, the earlier you bring in such an expert, the sooner you can have your product come to life and actually be a profitable business -which is what we all want.

Contact Info:

• Website: karaduffy.com / thepowerfulladies.com / shopolivet.com
• Instagram: @kara_duffy / @powerfulladies / @shop_olivet
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karawduffy/

Image Credits

Talia Clair Photography
Take Out NYC Photography