Company

Kayleen Leonard is the founder of Coquette Couture, a Sioux Falls boutique featuring handpicked women's clothing of eclectic styles.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, find out how she started out with an ecommerce-only business (before it was cool), and why she was forced to open her own physical store despite the costs it would add to running her business.

Elizabeth, Patrick, Nina and Kelsey are the owners of Walls Need Love, a company that designs, prints, cuts and ships only the finest and freshest wall graphics.

In this episode of Shopify Masters, you’ll learn about the Pinterest strategy that drives the vast majority (93%) of social traffic to their online store.

Do you know what you’re going to post on Facebook tomorrow? How about next week?

Planning out your business’ content in advance is a key part of building a social media strategy that actually works. Unfortunately, for many business owners, content planning often gets pushed to the backburner.

To help you get organized, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to building a content calendar that engages, delights, and grows your audience.

The number of women-owned businesses in the US jumped an incredible 45% between 2007 and 2016. Why? We’re good at it.

A 2015 Centre for Entrepreneurs study of 500 UK executives and entrepreneurs found some surprising results with respect to gender’s impact on success and attitudes around running a business.

The women in the study showed more ambition and were better calculated risk-takers than their male counterparts. Most interestingly, were the findings on over-confidence: “62% of male entrepreneurs say their businesses are prospering compared to 42% of women, despite the fact that the female-run business in our sample report higher profit before tax.”

We reached out to a few of these inspiring female entrepreneurs. We asked them about their successes, the books on their shelves, and the women who inspire them.

Kevin, Garrett and Joe are the founders of Wax & Wick, a store that sells small batch, hand-crafted, 100% soy candles with wood wicks.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, find out how this trio of entrepreneurs managed to drive traffic to their store from Reddit: home of one the most notoriously marketing-averse communities online.

Matt Edwards is the founder of Moab Provisions, a brand that started off selling beef jerky with minimal ingredients and high standards before expanding to seasonings and apparel.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, find out how he made 6 figures by getting his products in front of customers the old fashioned way: going door-to-door with retailers.

In 2016, women are caught in a murky nomansland between a growing momentum of body-positive Instagram hashtags and Photoshopped lingerie billboards continuing to push impossible beauty ideals.

Companies like Victoria’s Secret, leaders in lingerie, continue to set the standard. Why? Lingerie is a $110 billion dollar market, dominated by just a handful of large companies who manufacture under several different labels. Manufacturing is largely done in Asia, and because of the technical intricacies of underwear and bras, special skills and expensive equipment are necessary. Breaking in as a small brand is like trying to sit at the cool kids’ table on the first day of school.

Catalina Girald ignored the “you can’t sit with us” message, and did it anyway. Today, she’s running Naja, a lingerie business with a staff of 23 people in two countries. Her team manufactures and ships ethical, eco-conscious, and women-first underwear worldwide every day.

Don Hejny is the creator of Nerdwax, a beeswax-based blend of all natural and certified organic ingredients specially formulated to keep your glasses in place on your nose.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, you’ll learn how (and why) he turned down 2 offers after appearing on Shark Tank and still went on to build a million dollar business.

Mike Macadaan is the founder of This is Ground, a store that sells leather tech and travel accessories.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, find out how he launched a full catalogue of new and original products in just 3 years.

What are you scared of?

If you ask most people, they might say public speaking. In fact, nearly ¾ of people are terrified of getting up in front of a crowd and talking.

As your business picks up, you’ll probably have to start facing your fears of public speaking more and more often. You can send as many cold emails and calls as you want, but big deals get done in person. From investor meetings to team presentations, business owners need to project confidence while convincing people to think their way on a regular basis.

I asked 13 professional public speakers for their advice. Here's what they had to say.

Zac Holzapfel is the co-founder of Mission Belt, a social enterprise that sells belts where a dollar from every sale goes toward fighting poverty.

On this episode of Shopify Masers, find out how Mission Belt donated $1 million to helping other aspiring entrepreneurs around the world.

Dave Andrews is the owner of the official Old Guys Rule online store.

Find out how he built a business targeting baby boomers by becoming a licensee of the already-established Old Guys Rule brand.