14 years. Nearly $3M in revenue. And a whole lot of lessons learned the hard way.
In this episode of the eCommerce Maven Podcast, I'm getting personal and sharing the five things I wish someone had told me before I launched Encircled — from the cash flow mistake that almost broke us during a high-growth period, to the PR agency I hired too soon, to the mindset shift that changed everything about how I show up as a founder.
If you're thinking about launching a product-based business, or you're in the early stages and still figuring it out alone, this one's for you.
Listen to the Episode
Listen to 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started My eCommerce Brand on your favourite platform:
Cash Flow and Profit Are Not the Same Thing
This is the number one thing I wish I had understood before launching Encircled — and it's one of the most common blind spots for founders coming from a corporate background.
In my previous career in brand management and strategy consulting, I had exposure to profit and loss statements. But cash flow? That was a finance problem, not mine. So when I started Encircled, I assumed that profit meant money in the bank.
It doesn't.
You can be profitable on paper and still not be able to pay your bills. In a product-based business, the timing gap is brutal — you're often paying for inventory months before you sell it, while other costs keep accumulating in between. I share a real example in this episode of how a $20,000 Facebook invoice on net 30 terms can completely change what you think you have available to invest.
The key takeaway: start cash flow forecasting from day one. Find a simple template — even a Google Sheet — and get into the habit of knowing when money is going out and when it's coming in. It will change how you make decisions in your business.
You Can't Outsource Your Brand
Early on, I hired a PR agency. It worked — instantly. I got placements, I got sales, and for about two months, things were cooking.
Then it died.
Because a PR execution is not a marketing strategy. It's one tactic, and it amplifies what's already there. When there's no underlying strategy holding it together, the momentum disappears as quickly as it came.
The lesson here isn't that agencies are bad. It's that they're accelerators, not foundations. Before you bring in outside help, you need to understand your customer, your story, and how you want to show up. You know your brand better than anyone else ever will — and putting that in someone else's hands too early is a mistake most founders regret.
Build the foundation yourself first. Then bring in support to scale it.
The Mental Game Is as Real as the Skill Game
Nobody talks about this enough in the eCommerce world. There's so much noise about tactics, ad strategies, and revenue milestones — and very little conversation about what it actually feels like to run a brand day to day.
Your mindset as a founder is not a soft skill. It is infrastructure. If you are constantly burned out, spiraling, or checking Shopify obsessively, your business will reflect that energy.
In this episode I talk about what this looks like in practice — from managing your emotions while leading a team through uncertain times, to understanding that your self-worth is not your revenue. I also share why finding a mentor, community, or coach matters so much — not because you're weak, but because you need somewhere to process the hard stuff that isn't your team.
Invest in your mindset with the same seriousness you invest in your marketing.
Every Level Gets Different, Not Easier
I spent years assuming that once I hit the next milestone, things would get easier. I asked my mentor directly — when does business get easy? She's been in business for over 30 years and her answer was: never.
The problems don't disappear. They just get bigger and more complex.
Under $100K you're figuring out product market fit. Scaling past $500K you're solving operations. At $1M+ you're managing team, cash, and leadership. The categories of challenge stay the same — growth, margin, brand, finance — but the stakes get higher at every level.
Stop waiting for easy. Start getting comfortable with different. Every new challenge is evidence that you're growing, not evidence that you're failing.
You Are Either Your Own Best or Worst Boss
No one is going to tell you how many hours to work. No one will regulate your weekends, your breaks, or your vacations. In the beginning, that feels like freedom. Over time, it can become a trap.
I went from taking spontaneous surf trips when I first quit my corporate job, to working more hours as an entrepreneur than I ever did in corporate — often for less pay on an hourly basis. The perfectionist, type-A archetype that made me successful in corporate did not serve me well as a founder.
You have to learn how to be a boss who is supportive, flexible, and compassionate — with yourself. That means building a schedule that works with your energy, taking real time off without guilt, and celebrating wins instead of immediately moving to the next problem. The to-do list is never done. Something will always be adding to it. The skill is learning what to take off.
Treat yourself the way you'd want to treat an amazing employee — because you probably are one.
Final Thoughts
Most of these lessons I learned the hard way across 14 years of building Encircled. The founders I work with now get to know them before they launch — which changes everything about how they build.
Hiring a coach can be a shortcut to knowing what you don't know. And in eCommerce, what you don't know is often the most expensive thing.
If you're pre-launch or early stage and looking for support, I have a couple of spots open. Book a free discovery call through the link below — I'd love to help you build it right from the start.
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