Happy Birthday, Milk + Honey!
“Good morning! Want to launch our business today?”
It’s our birthday month! I’ve never been the type to celebrate my own birthday with much fanfare. But in just a few weeks, on April 20, Milk + Honey will turn FIVE, and that is a big deal. It’s worth celebrating, so I’m going to take you on a little history of Milk + Honey (and also toot our own horn a little bit).
Six years ago, on April 20, 2018, I texted my friend and business partner, Meghan, and said “Want to launch our business today?”. It was all very anticlimactic, honestly. We had been planning and prepping our business launch for about 9 months at that point. There is A LOT that goes into a new business launch. A. LOT. We worked together on a lot of it, but also had to divide many of the responsibilities, according to our own strengths and weaknesses. We still do this today–hence why I don’t make any jewelry myself… because that would be a weakness of mine LOL. Most of Meghan’s responsibilities included testing milk preservation methods and designing our initial small collection–so much trial and error! The few months leading up to our launch consisted mostly of me filing for a business license, designing a logo and finalizing branding, taking photos of our jewelry, and creating and designing an e-commerce website. I had this long to-do list of everything that needed done before we could launch, and I would tape it to my wall next to my desk. I would just go through one thing at a time and check them all off as I completed each task. I actually surprised myself on the morning of April 20, when I checked the last one off! I was so focused on just completing each task that I wasn’t quite aware of how far I’d come.
I checked the last to-do list item off, and even though we hadn’t planned to launch that day, I figured, WHY WAIT IF WE ARE READY?! So I sent the text, and then officially pushed “public” on our social media pages, shared them all for the first time with the world, and waited. We didn’t tell ANYONE we were planning to start this business, so it was actually really fun to see everyone’s surprised reactions that we already had a whole business up-and-running. If you know me, you know I like surprises, and I am also very private. In my pregnancy 4 years ago, I didn’t tell anyone I was pregnant unless they saw me in person and figured it out. It was fun to announce her birth to the world, because no one knew she existed until she was in my arms 🙂
Ironically, the same day that Milk + Honey was “born”, I got a call that my doula client was in labor, and rushed off to attend her very quick and beautiful birth! So Milk + Honey shares a birthday with my client’s daughter. Happy early 5th birthday, Margot! Want to hear something beautiful? After she had given birth to her daughter like a total bad@$$, little Margot was crying on her chest, so she started spontaneously singing “You are My Sunshine” to settle her. It was beautiful. To this day, anytime I hear that lullaby, I think of MIlk + Honey’s birthday, and of that sweet moment that I had the honor of witnessing.
Can you believe we actually received an order on DAY ONE that we launched? I was thrilled to see that email come through: “Order Confirmed: Order #00001”. We didn’t receive another order for 26 days. And then not again for another 17 days. And get this: Order #00001 STILL hasn’t sent her milk in so we can make her necklace! HA! If you’re out there and reading this… we will still make your raindrop necklace if you mail us some milk!
Over the years, there have been SO many ups and downs. COVID, new babies, new employees, new systems, moving our studio, growing faster than we anticipated, shortages and issues with supply chain, and a billion other things. I’m so proud of us that we stuck it out and continued to push forward, even when business nearly knocked us down so much that we could barely get back up.
Did you know that 90% of online businesses fail in the first four months?
We started slowwwwwwwly, and we weren’t profitable in the first four months. But we didn’t give up. We kept putting ourselves out there.
And get this: 97% of online businesses fail within 5 years. We are in the 3%!!! And we genuinely believe that is something to celebrate! We’ve had the honor of creating custom keepsake jewelry for over 15,000 people now! WHOA.
If you’re considering purchasing a piece of jewelry or adding to your breastmilk jewelry collection, I hope you’ll sign up for our emails so you won’t miss it!
Xo,
Maria, Meg, Terri, Alaina, Ashley, and Stacy
