Reflecting on 10 Years of Henné: The 6 Key Lessons I’ve Learned
I can’t believe that Henné Organics is 10 years old!
From the humble (and messy) beginnings in our home kitchen the initial years to now having our own Henné HQ in beautiful Wilmington, NC, there is so much that I’m grateful for.
With gratitude also comes reflection. I’ve learned a ton over the past decade at Henné, from things we did right and even more so from the mistakes.
Below are 6 key lessons I’ve learned from running Henné. I hope they will help you avoid some of the pitfalls I've found myself in a bit too often over the years!
Fast forward to today, Henné Organics is primarily a lip care brand with only a few non-lip offerings. It was undoubtedly tempting at times to branch out more (I still have a megalist of potential future product launches and lots of prototypes that haven’t seen the light of day), but I’m glad we stuck to our guns.
I think this lesson can be applied to a variety of areas in life. Whether it’s starting a new business, job, hobby or another big life change, staying focused on your core ethos and not spreading yourself too thin can help you hone in on what really matters to you, which will hopefully boost your chances of success as well.
I’m glad to say that I’ve been able to improve on shifting focus away from the lose-lose comparison game immensely in recent years. The one mindset shift that worked the best for me personally is to aim to be more objective by comparing myself to how I was in the past and writing down my past milestones and wins. For example, if it’s business growth, I compare how things were at Henné when we first started out in 2015, not where another brand founder was at when they started out.
When it comes to writing down past wins or milestones, I’ve learned to write down ones big and small and to not just focus on business. For example, some non-business related ones I’ve written down are moving to a new city, having our first child, my parents moving closer to us, living a much more holistic lifestyle compared to 10+ years ago.
I do my best to not compare myself to others, and of course still I fall prey to it from time to time, but I do it far less often than I used to, and that’s made all the difference.
While I can’t predict or control unexpected things from happening, what I’m working on doing instead is how I respond to these events. I’m certainly not perfect, and sometimes my reactions don’t garner the outcomes I was hoping for, but I’m learning to adapt and alter the way I respond to life’s unpredictable events so I can embrace the joyful moments and cope better with the woeful ones.
Since we decided to bootstrap from the beginning (and are still 100% self-funded to this day), we were sort of forced to be extremely fiscally conservative from the get-go. Of course we still got tempted by some ‘huge’ opportunities that looked shiny and appealing at first glance, but they would have put our business at quite a big risk…and ultimately most likely would have put us straight out of business altogether. Being more calculated with risk + remaining self-funded did make it easier for us to turn down most of these potential financial landmines.
We kept that scrappy, bootstrapping mindset over the years, and when COVID hit, we were thankfully able to weather the storm and make it through.
With the recent tariffs and all of the uncertainty at the moment, I’m once again reminded why saving for a rainy day is so important. No, it might not cover everything, but it at least gives us a bit of a buffer against a lot of unforeseen occurrences.
In general (and of course there are exceptions), our family and close friends mean well and want the best for us. But sometimes their advice can do more damage than good. I think it’s a part of our human nature to sometimes project our own insecurity or fears onto others, even if it’s not on purpose. You might have a family member or close friend who cares about you yet try to deter you from going for your goals, not because they honestly don’t think you’re capable, but maybe because they themselves have failed at something similar in the past. Or perhaps they might not be able to think outside the box in those terms and therefore they’re uncomfortable with anyone else doing it.
Not all advice is obviously bad advice, but one thing I’ve learned is that if you trust your own gut and intuition and truly believe this is what you want in life, sometimes it’s best to just politely listen but then GO FOR IT anyway.
These days, I take a lot more initiative to create small personal and business milestones and celebrate them once they happen. Sometimes that just means having a lunch out to celebrate in the middle of the week or getting extra yummy goodies that week for our Henné team, but I make it a point to acknowledge them often.
I also make sure to share business goals - both big and small - with our team so we are all on the same wavelength and striving for the same things. We also ask our team regularly what their goals are (personal and work related) so we make sure that they feel fulfilled with their work and their path here at Henné.
While I wish we would have implemented this much earlier, I know it’s never too late to change, and I’m so thankful that we have.
Whew! I thought I was going to keep those 6 lessons learned a bit more concise, but they turned out longer than I expected. I actually had 10 on my list, but the other ones should probably be shared at another time.
I hope this email provided some useful and interesting insight into both the inner workings of Henné and of myself. We have such unique individual life experiences and lessons that we’ve learned, and I’m always eager to learn from others. Do you have a lesson (or lessons) you’ve learned over the years that you’d be open to sharing? If so, I’d love to hear from you!
I also want to thank you for being a part of why we are still standing today. Your love and support mean the world to me, and I can’t wait for us to flourish together in 2025 and beyond!
With love,
Laura
From the humble (and messy) beginnings in our home kitchen the initial years to now having our own Henné HQ in beautiful Wilmington, NC, there is so much that I’m grateful for.
With gratitude also comes reflection. I’ve learned a ton over the past decade at Henné, from things we did right and even more so from the mistakes.
Below are 6 key lessons I’ve learned from running Henné. I hope they will help you avoid some of the pitfalls I've found myself in a bit too often over the years!
1. Focus
We first launched Henné Organics with one product: our Luxury Lip Balm.Throwback to when we finally received our first Henné lip balm jars in 2015
A few months after we launched and started gaining a bit of traction, it was back to the drawing board with what type of product to launch next. My list of potential new products was lengthy to say the least, but after a lot of discussion with my hubby/business partner Axel and some great guidance from other entrepreneurs who I trusted and respected, we made the decision to focus on lips and lip care. Become known and trusted for something instead of hardly known for a bunch of things.Fast forward to today, Henné Organics is primarily a lip care brand with only a few non-lip offerings. It was undoubtedly tempting at times to branch out more (I still have a megalist of potential future product launches and lots of prototypes that haven’t seen the light of day), but I’m glad we stuck to our guns.
I think this lesson can be applied to a variety of areas in life. Whether it’s starting a new business, job, hobby or another big life change, staying focused on your core ethos and not spreading yourself too thin can help you hone in on what really matters to you, which will hopefully boost your chances of success as well.
2. Compare Yourself to Your Past Self, Not to Others
It’s all too easy to unfairly compare ourselves to others these days. Social media is obviously a big culprit, but even just walking around in our daily lives, it can be difficult to avoid the comparison game. This is something I used to struggle with a lot.I’m glad to say that I’ve been able to improve on shifting focus away from the lose-lose comparison game immensely in recent years. The one mindset shift that worked the best for me personally is to aim to be more objective by comparing myself to how I was in the past and writing down my past milestones and wins. For example, if it’s business growth, I compare how things were at Henné when we first started out in 2015, not where another brand founder was at when they started out.
When it comes to writing down past wins or milestones, I’ve learned to write down ones big and small and to not just focus on business. For example, some non-business related ones I’ve written down are moving to a new city, having our first child, my parents moving closer to us, living a much more holistic lifestyle compared to 10+ years ago.
I do my best to not compare myself to others, and of course still I fall prey to it from time to time, but I do it far less often than I used to, and that’s made all the difference.
3. You’re Not Fully in Control…and That’s Okay
As someone who is very much Type A, it hasn’t been easy to accept that there are a plenty of things that happen in business (and in life) I have no control over. From COVID to exciting new retail opportunities to pregnancy ER visits to the birth of our beautiful daughter to sudden family losses, the positive and negative events that have affected my life the most are ones I never anticipated.While I can’t predict or control unexpected things from happening, what I’m working on doing instead is how I respond to these events. I’m certainly not perfect, and sometimes my reactions don’t garner the outcomes I was hoping for, but I’m learning to adapt and alter the way I respond to life’s unpredictable events so I can embrace the joyful moments and cope better with the woeful ones.
4. Save for a Rainy Day
Everyone has a different appetite for risk, but as someone who is a super calculated risk taker, I was never comfortable with taking extreme risks when launching our business. Of course, it can pan out exceptionally well for some people, but for others, it can also go bust. Fortunately, the combination of my cautiousness + my hubby’s larger appetite for risk results in a happy median, where we do actually take risks but not the kind of risks that would give me never-ending anxiety.Since we decided to bootstrap from the beginning (and are still 100% self-funded to this day), we were sort of forced to be extremely fiscally conservative from the get-go. Of course we still got tempted by some ‘huge’ opportunities that looked shiny and appealing at first glance, but they would have put our business at quite a big risk…and ultimately most likely would have put us straight out of business altogether. Being more calculated with risk + remaining self-funded did make it easier for us to turn down most of these potential financial landmines.
We kept that scrappy, bootstrapping mindset over the years, and when COVID hit, we were thankfully able to weather the storm and make it through.
With the recent tariffs and all of the uncertainty at the moment, I’m once again reminded why saving for a rainy day is so important. No, it might not cover everything, but it at least gives us a bit of a buffer against a lot of unforeseen occurrences.
5. Don’t Let Others Stifle Your Dreams (Even When It’s Family)
When the hubby and I told our family and friends about launching Henné, it was received with a mixture of excitement, encouragement and some not-so-encouraging words. Some said they believed in us and that they knew we were going to succeed, while others looked at us like we were crazy and warned how risky being an entrepreneur is, how unstable it is, etc etc.In general (and of course there are exceptions), our family and close friends mean well and want the best for us. But sometimes their advice can do more damage than good. I think it’s a part of our human nature to sometimes project our own insecurity or fears onto others, even if it’s not on purpose. You might have a family member or close friend who cares about you yet try to deter you from going for your goals, not because they honestly don’t think you’re capable, but maybe because they themselves have failed at something similar in the past. Or perhaps they might not be able to think outside the box in those terms and therefore they’re uncomfortable with anyone else doing it.
Not all advice is obviously bad advice, but one thing I’ve learned is that if you trust your own gut and intuition and truly believe this is what you want in life, sometimes it’s best to just politely listen but then GO FOR IT anyway.
6. Celebrate the Wins Together
This might sound a bit cliché, but I’m working on celebrating the wins along the way, both big and small. My default Laura setting in the past was to only focus on the big goals and claim that I was going to do celebrate them after we reached those goals. This ended up making me more miserable because I didn’t acknowledge the smaller wins along the way, and lo and behold, once we reached our big goals, I hardly celebrated those as well and had a more “onto the next!” mentality, or even worse, I didn’t celebrate them at all.These days, I take a lot more initiative to create small personal and business milestones and celebrate them once they happen. Sometimes that just means having a lunch out to celebrate in the middle of the week or getting extra yummy goodies that week for our Henné team, but I make it a point to acknowledge them often.
I also make sure to share business goals - both big and small - with our team so we are all on the same wavelength and striving for the same things. We also ask our team regularly what their goals are (personal and work related) so we make sure that they feel fulfilled with their work and their path here at Henné.
While I wish we would have implemented this much earlier, I know it’s never too late to change, and I’m so thankful that we have.
Whew! I thought I was going to keep those 6 lessons learned a bit more concise, but they turned out longer than I expected. I actually had 10 on my list, but the other ones should probably be shared at another time.
I hope this email provided some useful and interesting insight into both the inner workings of Henné and of myself. We have such unique individual life experiences and lessons that we’ve learned, and I’m always eager to learn from others. Do you have a lesson (or lessons) you’ve learned over the years that you’d be open to sharing? If so, I’d love to hear from you!
I also want to thank you for being a part of why we are still standing today. Your love and support mean the world to me, and I can’t wait for us to flourish together in 2025 and beyond!
With love,
Laura
