This 35-year-old turned her side hustle into a $141 million company—here’s the business plan she used

In 2014, I walked away from my $35,000-per-year job in insurance sales to grow my e-commerce side hustle with my husband Chris.

We had been experimenting with selling clothes and accessories on online marketplaces, including eBay and Facebook. Our online community of friends and customers quickly grew from a few hundred members to over 10,000 in a very short period. I realized that I could combine my passion for affordable clothing and relationship-building to help women to feel confident in their fashion choices.

Without funding or assurances of what was ahead, we took the risk and set ambitious goals. I focused on leveraging my sales and social media knowledge to grow our outreach while Chris incorporated his finance expertise to structure operations.

Today, we run our online fashion retail business, Pink Lily, full-time. Last year, we made $141 million in sales and sold an average of 11,000 items per day.

Whenever aspiring entrepreneurs ask for my advice, I tell them that the most important step we took early on was creating a business plan.

Your business plan doesn’t have to be perfect, and you should expect to make changes along the way. Here are the five essential elements of the business plan we used to ensure success:

1. Value proposition and key competitors

2. Ideal customers

3. Strongest differentiators

4. Preparing for rapid adoption and growth

5. Social media marketing strategy

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/04/a-35-year-old-who-turned-her-side-hustle-into-a-141-million-business-shares-the-business-plan-she-used.html