![]() I practice a concept called "Amor Fati," which means to love one's fate. The first step is to flip your mentality - I try to look at every challenge as an opportunity to grow and expand as a business owner. In the early stages of growth, it was incredibly discouraging at times when I was exhausted and felt full of self-doubt. I've learned to let my intuition and genuine passion lead my buying. The products that do well are the products that I use myself. I listen to my gut and only choose to carry products that I love. I set Elevate Jane apart from the crowd by not listening to the crowd. On the flip side, I know from personal experience that sometimes you can kill a passion when you make it your full-time "work," but you won't know until you try. Mou says being productive helps her stay inspired as an entrepreneur.īefore taking the leap, make sure your business is something you want to do every day. On 4/20 we launched our first Elevate Jane original piece, Mimi. ![]() Last year we had two products that did really well for us. I've also aligned my business with a lot of like-minded progressive brands, and I feel welcomed with open arms as a woman of color in the cannabis space. I feel like there was a shift in 2016 or 2017 when it became much more acceptable for women of color to be involved in the cannabis industry. New businesses had the opportunity to emerge and be influential. It was at the very beginning of the "Green Rush," when we started seeing millions and millions of dollars being funneled into the industry. I feel lucky to have launched Elevate Jane in 2017 - and in Los Angeles, where it was a special time right before recreational legalization of marijuana. One of the things I hear consistently is that timing is everything. Every year is a new set of challenges, but I'm grateful because they've all helped me grow and learn about the business. At the same time though, having to make every decision myself can inhibit me from completing certain things. Often I can get things done more easily on my own. In some ways, it's so much easier to be a solopreneur than to have partners. ![]() It's a mix of being meticulous with schedules, but also going with the flow. I'm dedicated to a paper planner as well as lists and white boards. Over the years I've honed in on what helps me to stay organized. I like being involved with every aspect of the business. I shoot all the photos myself, so my workday is a mix of content creation, order fulfillment, purchasing, product development, and marketing planning. I work out of my living room, and I have three employees - one full-time and two part-time. I wanted to create a one-of-a kind experience completely different from walking to your corner smoke shop.įrom the beginning I always wanted Elevate Jane to be an online store, and COVID-19 really pushed us to focus on that. I went to the trade shows, I saw the distributors, and I saw what I wanted to bring to the industry with my business. I spent $10,000 to launch my business - $4,000 for buying inventory, $2,000 for legal fees, and then another $4,000 for setting up logistics, packaging, marketing costs, etc.Įarly on, I did all of the traditional smoke shop things. I grew up in Southern California, and I've been smoking weed since middle school. In 2017, I was taking a break from a hotel company that I was working for in New York and figuring out what I wanted to do next, including moving back to LA. Before Elevate Jane, I'd worked in tech, hospitality, e-commerce, and marketing. For two months I worked nonstop, and then launched Elevate Jane in July 2017. I applied for all the necessary licenses including a reseller's permit, and then I built my website and Shopify site. Once I'd found 10 or so pieces that I wanted, I started looking around for pop-up markets in LA. So I pretended to be a smoke shop in order to receive wholesale pricing info, like line sheets and minimums. To get started, I wanted to figure out how much it cost to buy the pipes and how much I could sell them for. ![]() This story is available exclusively to InsiderĪnd start reading now. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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