We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lauren Alexander a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

For as long as I can remember I had always wanted to be a business owner, and I didn’t like the idea of waiting until I was older and knew more about what that entails.

At age 17 I decided I was going to start my business. It was my junior year of high school and I desperately wanted to sell my art at my local farmers market. It was halfway through the season in 2019 and applications were long closed. I didn’t take no for an answer though, I relentlessly emailed and DM’d my local farmers market until finally after weeks and weeks they allowed me to set up a booth.

I gathered all my products and displays and set them up for the remainder of the market season. I fell in love with owning a business, I had no idea what I was getting into, and to be honest I still don’t. I’ve dropped out of college, twice. School was never for me and I would never say no to my growing business. I learn more every day about how I truly jumped into the deep end, and each day the pool keeps getting bigger. I am constantly thankful to 17-year-old Lauren for taking the jump.

Being a young business owner came and still comes with its challenges. Originally my mom had to get a vendor’s license for me because I was under 18 and there was no option to buy one underage. The support of my family, fiance, and friends has truly encouraged me daily to continue in the business world, even if I’m still the youngest in many areas, getting to be successful in chasing my dreams at such a young age has been an incredible blessing!

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?

Lauren Alexander Designs creates handmade reusable products that replace the most disposed products in your home. I am passionate about keeping our earth beautiful, animals off the endangered list, and cutting back humans’ drastic effects on our environment.

Products you use every day like paper towels, napkins, sponges, and cotton pads were made disposable and humans are wasting millions of TONS of these products each year. Lauren Alexander Designs creates reusable solutions that work above and beyond any disposable product.

For example, our reusable paper towels which can be rolled up on a paper towel roll, are more absorbent than your leading paper towel brand, dry quickly in between uses, and are extremely soft yet durable. Not to mention, we have super cute prints and we handmake each one.

Did you know plastic kitchen sponges are killing our environment? They leak microplastics into our waterways and into our bodies, they also break down quickly and not to mention smell horrible. We offer washable sponges that you can throw in your washing machines, they last months, not weeks. They are mildew resistant and hypoallergenic. The insert is made from recycled plastic and the rest is made up of durable cotton. Cute and functional!

We’re not a judgemental sustainability brand, we believe everyone is on a journey and everyone working together produces more change than a couple of people doing everything perfectly. So take the pressure off of yourself, change small habits in your daily routine, and let’s all make a step towards a cleaner earth.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I am a kid of the social media generation, I was raised on it and Instagram really helped me build my brand and nurture customers. I have a love/ hate relationship with social media. It is the cheapest, most accessible form of marketing one can get, but it can be incredibly addicting and I don’t agree with that.

Social media is one of the most important pieces of marketing in todays world, TikTok will soon surpass google as the go-to search engine. Building a brand on social media is critical.

To keep up with it, you have to study it. But you also have to build it.

First, study what’s new and what’s doing well. Whatever is trending and high quality will be pushed to viewers’ front pages. Stay relevant, and be around people that use social media daily, what are they saying? Make trends your own, whatever the app is pushing hop on and start doing that. Give into the ever-changing algorithm and your content will perform well. Post good and high-quality content, watch what does well, and make it your own. Don’t be discouraged when posts do poorly, keep at it.

You have to build an audience, an active audience. How are you grabbing people’s attention? Make sure your followers have a “why” behind following you, most likely they will start to interact with your posts and you will start building customers. Connect with other brands and people who are interested in what you’re about. Connect with people daily, ask questions, comment on others’ posts, and reply to people on your own posts. Build friendships and maintain connections.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My family’s biggest hope was that I would graduate college. I could do anything and be anything I wanted but I HAD to go to college. I hated that idea. I didn’t think I needed four years and a piece of paper to be successful. To honor my family I tried, I completed a few classes, some at a community college and others at an art school. I was a good student, but I hated it. I felt trapped in school, and I hated that feeling. I could never shake the feeling of being somewhere I knew I wasn’t supposed to be.

In 2022 I made my final attempt, with a growing business right in front of me, I didn’t want to leave it and complete my education. I said goodbye to school and the hopes of finishing a degree and went on with my business. Since making that decision 7 months ago, LAD has gone from being in 5 retailers to 15. I am working on this business full-time now and will soon have to look for help. So, right now I’m pretty happy with the decision to leave higher education behind.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurenalexanderdesigns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenalexanderdesigns/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurenalexanderdesigns