In Her Words: Selia Yang shares advice and perspective on being an entrepreneur

This is the last installment of our February inFOCUS series! We have spent the last month learning from brilliant designer and entrepreneur, Selia Yang. We've talked about The Decision to "Go Bridal"; The Ingredients of Success; and The Importance of the NO-YES. & We are excitedly ticking down the days to our Soiree on Feb 24th!

For our last piece, we wanted to share with you some of our Q&A with Selia so that you could hear her advice and perspective in her own words!

* Who inspired you along your journey? Did you have any role models?

I feel fortunate. In my path I've had the opportunity in meet so many women from all different walks of life who have inspired me to strive both in terms of my career and in personal growth. My most immediate is my mother, who happens to be a great role model, amazingly intelligent, strong and powerful woman. Despite being an immigrant who barely spoke English, she was successful as a business woman and raised a family. Given my education, ability to speak the language and that I had no one else to take care but myself, it was important for me to become a person she was proud of.

* What advice would you share with other entrepreneurs?

There is an enormous amount of pressure and stress that comes with taking a leap as an entrepreneur. The odds of achieving your aspirations are stacked against you. I knew this and instead of this knowledge working against me, it has allowed me to focus on what matters the most, to enjoy and pay attention to the demands that came every step of the way. It takes courage and strength to follow what's in your heart. It is important to always give yourself a break when things don't go as expected. I would much rather be a failure making an attempt than not striving at all, never knowing what I could have been. You should be proud of yourself just for that.

* Where do you want Selia Yang to go from here?

As a designer and an entrepreneur, of course I would love to see my brand go all the way, to be recognize as one of the top leading fashion designers in America. However, I realize it takes more than ambition and talent to get me there. My company has grown and is at a point where it requires more than my own financial investments to fuel the ultimate goal and thus, I try to not focus too much on where I'm heading....

For now, I'm grateful to have made it this far. There is an honor and a privilege in creating something and in having the ability to sell it because it holds a value. Just last month, one of my gowns was featured in Saks window display and the funny thing is, I was more thrilled with the company of designers along my side than the feature itself…Monique Lhillier, Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Reem Acra.....and me!

A huge thanks to Selia for sharing such amazing insights with us this month. She is truly an inspiration!

Not too together; Not too alone: The best of both working worlds

We have been reading with great interest about the Inc magazine ‘going virtual’ experiment. We even solicited our members to share some advice with them about working virtually or from home. Now, of course, some things are quite different given that each of us here at In Good Company work for ourselves (Inc staffers have to worry more about virtual communication and collaboration; IGCers have to worry more about other business responsibilities like taxes, billing, marketing, sales, etc.), but there are many challenges and factors that are the same or at least similar.

Primarily the similarities reside in the isolation factor: working along all day often in the confines of your own personal space, sans the on-hand tech support of a larger organization, left to your own scheduling devices, and devoid of face-to-face co-worker interaction.

Last week, Inc Magazine enlisted expert Kate Lister (@workfromhomekate) author of Undress for Success, to talk about the pros of telecommuting. It was in reading this that I was really struck by home much I value my hybrid professional experience and my ability have what I consider the best of both worlds.

Kate talks about the vast ways in which our social landscape would change if all the people that could work at home did so. For example,

* Productivity increases up to $200 billion per year!

* Companies would save almost $200 billion as well!

* 150,000 fewer people would die in car accidents each year

* 84 million tons of greenhouse gases would be eliminated.

Those numbers are hard to argue with and I totally agree that these would be good things! Selfishly, I can’t imagine being confined to a traditional office schedule, structure, or environment. I love my flexibility, although I probably end up working more and perhaps making less.

YET…I also think about all these millions of newly-freed employees who may excitedly embracing tele-commuting only to find out that exclusively working from home is not all it is cracked up to be.

We started In Good Company for all those folks who could no longer stand working from home all the time. Who felt lonely and isolated. Who spent too much time reinventing the wheel because they didn’t have colleagues close on hand. Who missed brainstorming in person and the random opportunities that can arise from being in the same right place at the same right time.

I wouldn’t and couldn’t give that up. I know that I am happier and more productive because the ability to both work from home AND from an office, to spend days alone uninterrupted AND in the company of my peers. We designed In Good Company differently and built it on a flexible and shared model because when we did have a private office elsewhere, we found that trekking there only to shut the door and be alone again really didn’t solve our problems. I like having it both ways and think that other should be able to do that too.

I know that tele-commuting doesn’t have to represent one extreme. Kate and others like Cali Yost (@caliyost) write a lot about work life fit and how to give people the choices they want. I offer up myself and our community of women as examples of people who could decide what they want and how and decide to have both.

Maybe after Inc Magazine completes this one month experiment, they could do another where people had the option to both work from home AND from the office. In my opinion it is what I enjoy the most and what works the best.

For the rest of us, is it time you rethought where you work and how you work?

Are you getting the best of both worlds?

posted by Adelaide Lancaster

image courtesy of trulyvera

My Happiness Project Lessons and Lists

It has been no secret just how much I have loved reading The Happiness Project, or how excited we are for her to speak at In Good Company next week. This excitement only doubled last week, after finishing the final pages of the book, I decided to put rubber to the road and test-drive Gretchen's framework. I have started with two lists: my own Secrets of Adulthood and Personal Commandments. (I have included the description of these concepts below for those who haven't read the book yet.)

SECRETS OF ADULTHOOD - Remind yourself what you've learned!
The Secrets of Adulthood tool allows you to remind yourself of what you've learned with time and experience. What bits of wisdom do you have to share with other people?

Adelaide's Secrets of Adulthood:

* Everything in a house should have a home

* It feels better when things are straight

* Doing the right thing is usually not easy

* Good things feel right and comfortable even though they may be hard or take work

* What’s right for you isn’t right for all

* It only takes a little time to be thoughtful

* There’s almost nothing that is worth sacrificing a good night’s sleep

* The best way to get a goodnight’s sleep is to go to bed early

* Celebrate the romance of everyday life

*Honest and direct leaves less room for misinterpretation and hurt feelings

* You need much less than you think

PERSONAL COMMANDMENTS - Identify principles to guide your life.

The Personal Commandments tool prompts you to identify the overarching principles that you want to guide your actions and thoughts. Making a concise list of your Personal Commandments is an excellent exercise in reflecting and articulating what you think are the most important values.

Adelaide's Personal Commandments:

1. Be Adelaide

(straight from Gretchen’s list!) Celebrate your uniqueness. Accept limitations and dislikes.

2. If it’s your choice don’t hold it against anyone else

Occasionally I am guilty of participating in a decision or making a choice that I am later resentful about. I want to remember that if I had the opportunity to exercise my choice, it is no one else’s responsibility but my own.

3. It’s not worth it to get annoyed for anything that takes less than 15 minutes

This one is especially hard for me. A person who cuts me in line can put me in a sour mood for at least an hour. Breathe, refocus, and move on. The truth is 15 minutes really doesn’t impact anyone.

4. Give proper greetings and goodbyes

Energy spread, both good and bad. Don’t pollute someone else’s time or day with a sour greeting or goodbye. Recognize your impact on those you interact with.

5. Don’t feel guilty about your boundaries or limits

The point of a boundary is to protect your energy, time or emotion. It defeats the purpose to set a boundary and then feel guilty about it. What you’ve got is what you’ve got.

6. Don’t get hurt on account of things that are not about you

I have friends and family members with issues (we all do). They can frequently do predictable things that are at best not thoughtful and at worst hurtful. I can recognize their destructive behavior BUT it is not okay to let my feelings get hurt when the issue isn’t about me. Like a duck, let it roll off.

7. It’s ok to bitch about things, but close issues with a forgiving truth of the matter

I grew up in a place and time where as a girl, I was told to smile if I wasn’t happy and encouraged to focus on the positive. I value speaking the truth and being honest about feelings even if they aren’t ‘happy’. However, it’s important to give negative talk its time and place and to “close” the issue so it doesn’t linger. A forgiving truth of the matter statement does the trick for me. Ex. “The truth is that you can’t make everyone happy all the time.” or in reference to above… “Yes it is annoying but in truth it has nothing to do with me.”

Recently my mom had a bad visit with my grandmother. Historically there are bad feelings because my grandmother spends only very limited time with us and will dash out of a holiday after only a couple hours. These major snow storms turned a trip planned for 4 days into a week-long stay. It wasn’t pleasant and my grandmother was clearly over-extended in the social grace department. In talking with my mom, we acknowledged the bad. I wanted to close the issue on a positive note though. I said “Well, I am not going to get upset about short holiday visits anymore, she clearly has a limit on her pleasantness and we should be grateful that she is aware of those limits.”

8. Aim to be honest, kind, appropriate and helpful in your all your interactions

9. Posture!

Be aware of it! Improve it!

10. Open and Close work

Autonomy and work flexibility is a double-edge sword. Working from home requires discipline and self-regulation. My tendency, in part due to my blackberry, is to have a stream of work all the time. Even if the work is not taxing, they are distracting, and after a while this leaves me exhausted and is dire need of a “break”. Additional it short changes my ability to focus on other things that are also important and require time, concentration, and energy…cooking, reading, etc. Having clearly defined work times provides a better balance.

11. Non-verbal communication counts too, recognize it and give it the credit it deserves

I learned this from reading Esther Perel’s book, Mating in Captivity (speaking at IGC on April 6th!). I work hard to verbalize my feelings and prioritize that in relationships. My husband on the other hand was, when we met, pretty certain that “normal” was a feeling. Not only that it, but it was also a satisfactory answer to most questions. While that has certainly changed (for the better), Esther’s point that conversation and talking is only one form of communication, one language is a very valid one. Non-verbal communication carries with it lots of meaning and significance. It should be recognized, acknowledged, and credited too.

posted by Adelaide Lancaster

image courtesy of McYarnpants

The importance of the No-Yes: balancing boundaries and opportunity

This is another installment of thoughts and takeaways from our conversations with designer and entrepreneur, Selia Yang. We are focusing on Selia as a part of our inFOCUS series and are excited for the culminating soiree at the end of the month.

In addition to the focus on Business Direction and Goals (Selia’s decision to go bridal), and her keen awareness of her business values (‘Every dress that leaves here must be perfect to our capacity’), Selia talked with us about the importance of balancing boundaries and opportunities.

In particular, we talked about her use of the “no, yes”.

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The NO-YES:

Another thing we learned form Selia was the importance of the “No, Yes”. As a small but growing shop, Selia has had to juggle honoring her boundaries while creatively finding ways to expand markets and relationships.

We can certainly relate to this. There are always lots of things that we want to do and/or are asked to do but don’t have the resources, finances, or bandwidth. Often for us, a “no” is not really a negotiating tactic or a cop-out but instead an honest understanding of our boundaries and limits. And our boundaries and limits are important. They help to ensure we stay on track and aren’t too overextended. But Selia made us think about saying no differently.

Selia told us about the importance of saying “no, yes”- which is sticking to your guns while also finding a way to create some possibility or opportunity, even if it is different or on a smaller scale then first imagined. An example she shared was about a retail shop that wanted to purchase 7 of her dresses on net60 terms. Since this was more leverage than Selia was comfortable with in a new relationship, she declined and then suggested that they instead by 2 dresses at a time. They would take a little longer to build their collection but in the meantime the relationship could build and the company could perhaps adopt shorter terms since they were outlaying less.

What do you too frequently have to say no too?

How can you come up with a “no, yes” option or solution?

Can you think of times that you have successfully employed a “no, yes”? How did it work out?

The Ingredients of Success: Unique to each business

‘Every dress that leaves here must be perfect to our capacity’: understanding the ingredients of success

This is another installment of thoughts and takeaways from our conversations with designer and entrepreneur, Selia Yang. We are focusing on Selia as a part of our inFOCUS series and are excited for the culminating soiree at the end of the month.

In addition to the focus on Business Direction and Goals (Selia’s decision to go bridal), we really admired Selia’s very clear understanding of the ingredients of her success and what ultimately matters in the way she runs her business.

‘Every dress that leaves here must be perfect to our capacity’:

Like all small businesses, Selia Yang feels the 24 time crunch. There is always a lot to do and a limited number of hands on deck. We are always interested in how entrepreneurs task out roles. What they do themselves and what they hire others to do.

As the business grew, Selia knew she needed other people and staff to help support the business. She hired her brother to be in charge of manufacturing and her sister-in-law to run her east village showroom. This primarily left the roles of designer, pattern-maker, and fitter for Selia herself (in addition of course to holding CEO-type functions and all the other marketing, promotion, vendor relationship necessary to make Selia Yang as successful as it is!)

It is interesting that Selia has maintained the role of fitter for so many years. It creates quite a different experience from purchasing any other gown. Imagine…the actual designer of the dress takes the time and effort to make sure that it fits exactly the way it should on YOU! While Selia does love the customer interaction and enjoys the fitting experience, these aren’t the reasons that she participates in the fitting process. To date it has been important to her to maintain her role as dress fitter, despite the many other things pulling for her attention, because of the critical role that it plays in the outcome of the process. Selia told us that “no matter what people pay for a dress, when the dress leaves the store the customer needs to love the dress and to have loved the experience. It needs to be perfect to our capacity.”

Selia has wondered whether her participation in the fitting negatively impacts the perception of Selia Yang the business. Does it make the business seem smaller than it is? Less serious? Does it make the designer seem not as important? I, for one, felt exactly the contrary. I was honored that the designer took time out of her day to make sure my dress fit well and beyond that, it clearly demonstrated to me just how much pride Selia took in her work and her business. It enhanced the experience for me for sure, and of course it allowed me to meet Selia. Forgetting that I am an entrepreneur, who obviously has a great deal of interest in “the woman behind the business”, I believe that affinities and loyalty is strengthened when customers get to know a business in a more personal way. I’m willing to bet most customers felt as I did.

However, recognizing that her plate is only going to continue to get fuller (especially with the launch of the wholesale line), Selia has been training a fitter to take over these very important responsibilities. And being Selia, of course she didn’t just go out and hire someone who has credible experience and let them loose. Instead, she has had someone trailing her and observing all the fittings for months. Only after they have seen months and months of work and hundreds of dresses will they able (maybe!) to fill Selia’s shoes.

This got us thinking about how important it is to be clear on the ingredients that make your business a success and how businesses can set themselves up to ensure the desired outcomes.

What are the parts of your business that are most sensitive, that ultimately make all the difference, and really serve as the ingredients for our success?

How is your business set up to protect these ingredients and ensure your desired outcome?

How can you better protect them without taking on more yourself?

Advice on working virtually to Inc. Magazine staffers from In Good Company Workplaces

Starting this week the staff of Inc. magazine started an experiment. For the month of February, they will all be working virtually and then writing about their experiences.

We love this initiative! We asked some of the ladies of In Good Company to share their advice and tips with these newly untethered writers.

Posted below is what some had to say . Do YOU have advice for the Inc staffers? You can tell them here.

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1. I've converted all of my email to be accessed entirely electronically on any computer. I run my work email through gmail which sends it via my work email's pop server so that recipients can't tell that I'm sending it through gmail but I have the web accessibility (and endless storage!) that gmail provides.

On a personal and non-technological level, a key benefit of virtual working is minimalism. It made me recognize how few of the office supplies, papers and the other mountains of activity that used to accumulate on my desk I actually need. Now, the contents of my office are pared down to a couple of well-organized file boxes, a laptop, a moleskine notebook and a little nerd-sac filled with the bare bones of requisite clips, post-its and pens. I also have a redweld folder of stationery, folders and envelopes for sending packages. All of this fits into the equivalent of a small gym locker. And I can't remember a time in the last months where I needed something that wasn't contained in that tiny space.

Alexandra Machinist
Linda Chester Literary Agency

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2. I find that the best way to be productive working at home is to create an area at home that’s specifically for “work” only and block out a chunk of hours to devote to a specific project etc – so you’re not constantly distracted by the laundry you need to do or your sink full of dishes. Turn off email alerts if possible and get situated to crank out a few solid hours of whatever it is you’re working on. Creating a daily schedule for myself (coffee — and sometimes laundry breaks included), even when I’m at home, is beyond helpful!

I have also found that working virtually has definitely allowed me to be much more “green” without necessarily realizing it. I print less paper, have fewer file folders and am able to stay organized more effectively.

Working virtually and not being in an office or corporate environment with a computer guru on-hand can be a little daunting and often frustrating. One of the most helpful additions I’ve done with my business is to have immediate access to great computer assistance over the phone and/or online with Help with a Smile, a virtual or in person computer service. The guys are always available when you call and can jump into your computer virtually to solve any minor (and some major) problems quickly. Having a similar service is peace of mind if nothing else (and that means a lot when you’re working on your own!).

Marissa Lippert, Founder of Nourish Nutrition Counseling & author of The Cheater’s Diet (April 15th)

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3. If you've always worked in an office setting, having easy access to co-workers may be something you take for granted - until they're not there!
Think about your preferred ways of breaking up solitary work time throughout the day. If you are someone who enjoys and gets energy from socializing, brainstorming or grabbing a quick coffee with colleagues, working on your own can be a major adjustment.

If that's the case, make sure to build time into your schedule, whenever possible, to engage in some of these activities.
If you are working from home, experiment with whether virtual contact via email, phone or Skype does the trick. If so, great. If not, try to find a public space with WiFi where other solo workers congregate and where you can go if you start to feel as though you're working in solitary confinement. You never know who you might meet! Or coordinate breaks with friends / neighbors who also work from home.

If you live in an area where coworking opportunities exist, consider checking them out to see whether they appeal to you. Depending on the types of packages available and the community of people who congregate there, you could wind up satisfying your need for interacting with others AND building your network at a price that doesn't break the bank.

Eden Abrahams
Clear Path Executive Coaching

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4. Aside from setting a schedule, I think it is really important for you to get out of the house at least once each day. It could be for coffee, a walk around the block, a trip to the post office, a meeting, whatever. Sitting in front of your computer all day is a sure way to kill your motivation and creativity. Not only should you break up your day , but it is important for you clear your head and get a change of scenery. I find that it is during these “down” times that my best ideas can come to me.

Amy Abrams
Co-founder, In Good Company Workplaces

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5. I find that I need to be very careful about defining “working” and “non-working” times. It is hard when you work from home or virtually to separate your work day from a regular evening at home. Where I have run into trouble is times that I have finished up work for the day and will be enjoying my evening and then somehow find myself looking at my blinking red blackberry, reading emails that have come in and thinking about issues that need attention and adding up to-do list items. Since I am not really “working” I can’t take action on anything, but I am distracted and un-relaxed. When this pattern is repeated I start to feel as though I am never off and never have any downtime. This doesn’t mean that I can’t choose to work late some nights, or take a break and then return to work after dinner, but I try to be clear with myself about what time is what. Non-work time is spent far from the blackberry and with my outlook closed.

Also, what works best for me is to schedule like tasks together. I try to put phone calls back to back, and group accounting and detail work, and then carve out time for more thoughtful work like writing. I don’t work well when I do 15 minutes of one thing, followed up by a phone call, followed by 30 minutes of writing, and then back to another phone call.

Adelaide Lancaster
Co-founder, In Good Company Workplaces

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6. As a business owner I often feel like there are dozens of things I need to be doing at any given moment. This often leads me into super over drive mode which can only last for so long before my brain waves get jammed and short circuit leaving me with little fuel in my tank for business projects and tasks. I have luckily discovered the perfect solution for getting my creativity, focus, motivation and inspiration flowing again. And living in NYC definitely helps. I just go on a little adventure. That’s right… sometimes in the middle of the work day! Over and over, I find it’s the best thing I could ever do for myself and my business. When I take an hour or two out of my day for these little field trips, I get it back ten fold. Just last month, I turned off the laptop and went directly to the Museum of Art and Design for a 2 hour field trip. The Slash exhibit there features paper cutting artist unlike anything I’ve ever seen! Another favorite is Papabubble candy shop… I find their creativity very stimulating! Or take a tour at the Tenement Museum, it really puts things in perspective. A mid morning stroll at the Highline is down right exhilarating! Immersing myself in these experiences is just what my brain needs to reboot itself and the positive side effects on my business are tremendous.

Erica Ecker, The Spacialist

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7. Schedule time for fun and breaks, not just time for “work” I often block out time to be in “writing” mode, or “blogging” mode or “client service” mode, but then if I spend ten minutes on HuffPo or shopping on gilt.com I feel, well, guilty. So now I actually schedule short 15 minute breaks for guilty pleasures (snacks, online browsing, phone calls to friends) so I don’t feel so indulgent about doing them and then I’m more diligent about getting back to work. Building in breaks winds up being more efficient /productive / effective then having them creep up on me—in my world, three minutes on YouTube often turns into thirty minutes online, ten minutes on the phone and twenty minutes in the kitchen and next thing I know I’ve lost an hour.

Jodi Glickman Brown, Great on the Job


Share you thoughts & advice!!

Amy's Shopping Experiment: an update

So I kicked off 2010 with a New year No Shopping experiment that was inspired by a desire to see what I would do with all the time that I did not spend shopping. I made a commitment to myself that I would not purchase anything until my birthday, April 8th.

What I have found is that my experiment is really a tall order. Mainly because it feels like my goals of the experiment are a little all over the place (pointed out by Adelaide). Which lead me to ask myself, what are my goals? Is my goal not to spend any money? Is my goal to see if I could “shop my closet” – the current industry term for wearing what you have, figure out what’s in your closet that you really wear and not accumulate more?

Truthfully, those are all possible outcomes of the experiment – but they really feel more like byproducts. And truthfully, these are all outcomes (perhaps positive ones)that I was not totally focused on when thinking about the experiment. My main goal was understanding time. How I spend it, how I waste it how much shopping influences my choice of how to spend my time.

What I have found is that there is a part of me that really misses shopping (not necessarily consuming or purchasing) but rather being in the know, seeing what’s out there, discovering something beautiful and unique. I recognize there is a part of shopping for me that helps me tap into a part of my brain that loves fashion – from the point of view of fashion as an art, texture to garments, the use of color. And sometimes it is a really fun way to unwind.

I am continuing to pursue my goal but I will say I am finding that it is harder than I expected. I don’t miss the purchasing but I certainly miss the discovery.

posted by Amy Abrams