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

Renise, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

Taking vacations as a business owner is difficult because it requires you to shut off the “business” side of your brain, most of us can’t do that. I think about my business all the time, no matter what I’m doing, but I do take vacations from time to time. The only way to keep things going is having a good team in place so that the business functions without you. Now does it function 100% the way you would want it? Probably not. But it functions as best as it can with limited interaction from me. Most of the time my “vacations” are work trips, I travel to market to look at new product for the store and while those trips are work, they are so much fun!

Renise, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have built a career rooted in retail, beginning with major mall brands like Apple, Garage and Hollister, where I helped open the first store in the Netherlands. After gaining experience in corporate retail, I transitioned to locally owned businesses such as Scout & Molly’s and Duffield Lane, where I deepened my understanding of boutique operations and customer relationships.

Driven by a desire to create something of my own, I took the leap into entrepreneurship and opened Basic Bee Boutique in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. I recently celebrated four years of Basic Bee Boutique, proving that belief in oneself is the foundation of any successful business. The biggest lesson in entrepreneurship has been overcoming fear—because taking the risk is what makes the reward possible.