First 100 Days in Business
2.29.2024
By: The Kléi
Starting a business is both exciting and hard work! Over the course of our first 100 days in business, we’ve learned so much, not only about how to run a business, but also how to value our partnership as business partners. Although we’re still growing and learning, these three things have helped us in our business journey thus far:
What we believe about our business matters.
Once we realized that God wanted us to do The Kléi together, it wasn’t just a “good idea” to us anymore, it was our “why”. Once we made this belief our foundation, it became a guiding light for us. Knowing that God entrusted this business to us helped us to stay aligned and work well together - even though we were learning a lot through trial and error.
Do what works for us.
It took time, but one of the biggest lessons we learned was that we had to find our rhythm as a team. We understood early on that we set the tone for what we do, what gets done and how it gets done. So, we knew that prioritizing consistency and intentionality were keys to developing our rhythm as business partners. Although this comes with time, these basic skills helped us:
Stick to a schedule.
Establishing times for meetings, postings, etc. all played a huge role in creating the consistency and longevity of the business.
Define roles & responsibilities within the team.
Acknowledging and leveraging our individual strengths helped with our workflow. We came to realize that our strengths complemented each other in a way that we could get more work done in a shorter amount of time.
Be open and honest in our communication.
It was important to address concerns at their onset but it was even more important in how we chose to do it. Choosing the longevity of our working relationship over any temporary feelings we may have had about a situation helped us to communicate more effectively.
Give ourselves and each other grace.
We had to remind ourselves that this was new to both of us. We are still graciously learning and figuring things out along the way!
Be consistent.
If we hadn’t been consistent from the beginning, we would have missed out on a lot of opportunities to grow individually and as a team in the first 100 days. We realized as business partners, when we grow together, our business grows as well.
Remember, success is best when it’s shared!
XO,
The Kléi
