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

Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

The truth about being a small business owner is it is really hard sometimes. You don’t have a big corporation to fall back on for funds, time, inventory, supplies, etc. You are the person/team deciding what your business will be. It can be a lot to do everything all at once, all the time. Keeping up with making products, ordering the right supplies, finding funds to make the products, and social media, which seems to be a full time job alone. I have always been a workaholic so I’m used to the abuse of working for months at a time with no days off up to 14 hours per day. I have learned the hard way that burn out is no joke. It has caused me so much stress over these past few years, and managing it has been a struggle. Our best selling products take a lot of time to make. We have recently gone viral a few times and that has brought a lot more demand for these products. It has been a struggle and a blessing. Getting so much attention so quickly has been an eye opening experience. It has also brought a lot of negativity into my life. The internet can be a brutal place and it is important to take breaks when you feel overwhelmed.
These last couple years have been the hardest of my life, from loss of loved ones, to keeping up with my business. I threw myself into working and haven’t looked back.
There has been countless times when I realized I could work a “real job” and make more, but that would mean giving up my business as it would not be possible to be both. This thought crosses my mind at least once a month. I want to quit and go back to living a “normal life”. The truth is, it sounds good in my mind, but as soon as I do get a real job to make this change happen, I regret it immediately. I see how much the workforce wears on me more than the stress of running a business. I have to always remind myself of all the pros of working for myself. I get to work as little or as much when I want, I don’t have to get permission to have a day off, I get to create and have fun making products, and I get to spend time with my partner more and we have been better than ever.
Although running a business can bring a lot of stress, it can also bring amazing opportunities and help you discover yourself in ways you didn’t know were there.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We started out in 2020, as most small businesses did. Covid helped us make this possible. We were working jobs that were draining the life from us and we took the opportunity to make a change. We decided to try a bunch of different products using a lot of different mediums. This is why we chose the name Conflicted, as we couldn’t choose a niche. We started out by following the trends and had little luck, and were not happy making the same things as everyone else. My partner (Cameron) bought a ton of leather and we started experimenting with projects and ideas. I fell in love with leather work and made my Pumpkin bag pattern by myself as one of my first leather projects. There are a ton of other pumpkin bags out there, and I worked hard to make it different from others on the market. The past year has grown our business so much! We have had so many amazing opportunities and have met so many new amazing people. We appreciate our support community so much, My “Pumpkin Fiends” are the most supportive and kind people. It has been a rough couple years, but we are finally to a spot that is making our dreams a reality. Customer service and high quality products are what we pride ourselves on.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Social media has been a great tool in growing our clientele. I had no idea how to be successful on social media and I did my research, tried to do the trends and followed others content as a guide to make videos. This never really worked for me. The most viewed videos are our behind the scenes videos. People love to see the process of you making their products! It also gives you the opportunity to inspire others and let your clientele see the Behind the scenes. This has brought us so many amazing people that are making a Pumpkin bag with our pattern and selling out drops within minutes.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We sell our items on 2 separate sites. We use Square as our main site (shopconflicted.com) and we also sell on Etsy.

Etsy gets a bad rap, but it’s a great site if you are starting out. It has a giant built in audience and is very easy to use. There is also Affiliate marketing you can earn commissions and pay per link clicks. Yes the fees due tend to get high, but if you factor shipping and fees into your pricing, it is definitely worth it. I would suggest Etsy to anyone starting out, because marketing is hard at first and getting your products seen. Etsy is a great way to start your business and get your foot in the door. A lot of people have said that Etsy is “oversaturated”, but with a count of 95.08 million buyers in 2022, there is always a way to grow your business and find your customer base on Etsy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopconflicted.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedgifts/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Conflictedgifts/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Conflictedgifts
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@conflictedgifts