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What does it take to run a super successful eCommerce business?

Listen to our Interview with Dorian Howard, Co-Founder of MilkandHoneyShoes.com to find out!

Dori left a very comfortable corporate job as the Vice President of Paramount Pictures to start her company with her sister. All she knew was that she loved to shop online and she loved the custom made shoes her sister would bring back from her work abroad. Launching and building an eCommerce business is not for the faint of heart and in our interview with Dori, she speaks candidly about how it started, how it’s evolved and what it’s like working with her sister.

Dori’s Kick-A$$ Quotes:

Comfortable is something we all crave, but I equally fear it. I think it leads you to make some very scary decisions.

I think if you have a difficult time delegating, then you haven’t hired the right person.

Being an entrepreneur is somewhat of a drug. You make irrational and ridiculous decisions. There is a bit of psychosis that’s involved in thinking that you can do the virtually undoable. Can you execute the impossible? If you can, you’ve earned the right to be an entrepreneur.

Katie’s Favorite Take-a-Ways

Test Your Idea

For the first few months after starting their company, Dori and her sister held “Booze & Shoes” parties so they could test if women wanted to buy their shoes online, if they even wanted to design them and if the company would actually be able to fulfill and order and deliver exactly what the woman wanted.

Marketing On a Shoe String Budget

In the early years, Milk and Honey Shoes had a super small marketing budget.  In order to get the word out about their shoes, they leveraged a few different strategies that were free or very cheap, including social media, promotional partnerships with other products and services that dealt with their target market and donating shoes to charity events that just happen to get their shoes on the feet of celebrities (which Dori made sure to feed to the press).

Dori’s Favorite Business Books

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely

Want some shoes?  Click below to start designing!