Meet Mom Boss Madeline!
Madeline is a true Mom Boss! She has three kids, and is owner of Colorful Cute, where she sells cute stationary, stickers, toys, and accessories that all fit the bill of both colorful and cute.
How We Met
I met Madeline when Leia was just a tiny baby. I wasn’t working, so I would scroll Instagram for hours at a time and watch tons of Downton Abbey between feedings and diaper changes. But, our first meeting wasn’t in person. I somehow found her online store on one of my Instagram scrolling sessions, and fell in love with all of the cute stationary.
Madeline announced she was going to have a popup shop right by my house. I showed up. Bought a bunch of stuff. Then, kept following her from popup to popup. When I started my business, I asked her to get together over crepes, so I could interview her for my blog.
You can read more about what inspired me to start this “Mom Boss Series” here.
Let’s learn about Madeline, and see which traits we can find in her that we might have, or that we can develop in us too.
About Mom Boss Madeline
Madeline has a degree in English, but worked in project management and currently works in business administration. At work, she found that there weren’t any cute office supplies that she could purchase here in Miami, so she took her passion for Japanese culture and merged it with her passion for cute office supplies and began importing and selling goods from Japan.
How Mom Boss Madeline Started Her Business
In 2007, she started an online store in html format, so that means coding her own site into existence to sell her colorful and cute stationary. That is passion and dedication.
What really motivated her to start her business was one day that she got mad at herself after her boss told her, “You make me look good.” This made her want to create a successful business on her own terms. She wanted to use her skills to make herself look good.
Fueled by her anger/passion, and the fact that through the years, it got easier to find Japanese distributors who would ship to the United States, she has created a well-stocked online store – Colorful Cute.
Madeline’s Business Now
Right now, Madeline makes most of her sales online and at popup shops.
She describes her business as, “Cute, whimsical, lifestyle, fun.”
The Mom Boss’ store focuses on “the woman in touch with her inner child. A woman who wants a break from the seriousness of life.” She describes her customers as fun women who are young at heart. “They’re hardworking, independent, badass cuties who know how to have a good time.”
Madeline’s Mom Boss Challenges
Her biggest challenges in starting her business were finding the money to start her business, and her biggest challenge now is finding the time to keep it going.
What Helped Madeline Build Her Business
She learned what she needed to know to start her shop from reading books, articles, and blogs; taking webinars; joining groups that focus on women in business; and by showing up. Her greatest learning experiences have come from from messing up.
What she has found most valuable in her business is meeting customers and talking to them. This is how she has learned what her customers want, and she strives to supply what they want.
From when she started to now, she plans more (long-term and short-term), and is more focused and consistent. Being consistent is more important than being organized. She finds that being consistent in such things as checking inventory, posting on social media, evaluating customer feedback, and checking her business’ finances have helped her the most in growing her business.
How a Mom Boss Sees Herself
Madeline describes herself as:
- Determined
- Stubborn
- Knows how to enjoy life
- In touch with her inner child
- Creative (not artistic)
- And a fast learner.
She would like to develop confidence to go into things she doesn’t know much about – she’d like to have “swagger in business.”
Her Motivations and Dreams
What keeps her motivated to keep going is that she wants to show that there are different ways to start and run a successful business, not just the traditional way. She wants to make a positive impact on the community she’s in because she believes that you don’t become successful on your own, the community is what helped you become successful so you should give back. Her long-term vision for Colorful Cute is to make it a responsible member of the community. She would one day love to have funds to give women money to start businesses.
The Future of Mom Boss Madeline’s Business
Where does she see her business in one year?
She plans on building on her online store and bring the sales and traffic up.
In five years?
Madeline wants to open a brick and mortar store.
In ten years?
Her goal is to have several brick and mortar stores.
Mom Boss Takeaways
My main takeaways were:
1. Show up.
And be consistent.
2. Mess up.
That’s how you learn the most.
3. Blaze your own trail.
Do business on your own terms.
4. Plan.
Make short-term and long-term plans.
5. Give back.
You don’t get to where you want to go on your own, so give back to the community who helped you get to where you are.
Madeline’s Impact On My Business
I did this interview with Madeline months ago, but life got busy, and I wasn’t able to post on my blog until now.
Since I did the interview with Madeline, I’ve been able to integrate everything that Madeline shared with me in building my own business. I’ve had several paying clients. I found them and successfully wrote copy for them by showing up and staying consistent. I’m happy to report that my business is doing well. I still have a lot of growing to do as an entrepreneur, but my interview with Madeline has helped me get my business off to a solid start.
I’m so grateful to Madeline for taking the time to talk to me. If you have a chance, click here to check out her Instagram; it’s full of exactly what it promises – Colorful Cute goods.
And I’m also grateful to you for reading this, lovely.
I have a couple of moms in mind for the next interview, so stay tuned!
Love,
