The Creative Family Feature is a monthly blog series featuring women & men in the C@H family who are building community & education right where they are. We’re inspired by the big things our family members are doing and love being able to celebrate alongside them!! Whether it’s through hosting their own educational experience, building a community-driven team or fostering education with their industry peers, they’re making big dreams happen all over the country!

 

This month’s Creative Family Feature is alumni, past sponsor and Creative 24/7 member Shaundra Howard!  

 

 

Tell us about your story! How did your business begin? We want to celebrate the highs & lows of your biz journey with you!

I started out doing graphic design over 10 years ago. That’s what I went to school for. While finishing school, I actually started working at a jewelry store and eventually became a full time bench jeweler and manager in addition to doing tons of freelance graphic design work. I mostly designed logos, filters and print ads. About 3-4 years ago, I took on a client to do some t-shirt designs and really enjoyed working with her. Shortly after, she posted that she was looking for some help from a techie person to build out her pages, website, and handle the backend of her business. The rest is history! I fell in love with being able to combine my creativity with my analytical brain. I started working with clients during launch season and found my groove. The many years of management and operations experience plus the decade+ I’ve worked on line has given me a huge insight to how the success of a launch can truly be affected by the launch process (or lack of). Once I started managing online businesses, I realized how burned out I was with design work. It was sad to kind of put that part of my life on hold, after being used to designing for so long, but now I get to use my creativity in a fun, new and exciting way with launch mapping! So it’s been fun to see my path unfold over the years.

 

My favorite thing about building my own business is:

Being able to pivot and shift in ways that feel right for me has been amazing. Aside from that, building a business online allows me to reach and help SO many people and learn from others. It’s invaluable.

 

If I could give one piece of advice to another entrepreneur it would be:

When launching or creating systems in your business, always keep your impact goals in mind. During busy seasons, it’s easy to forget about the impact we ultimately want our business to have on our lives, our families, and our clients. Keeping this at the forefront will totally change how you make decisions for your business.

 

In 2020, I’m most excited about these things in my business:

I’m most excited about leaning more into launch mapping! Instead of speniding weeks helping a client map out their launch, we get it done in a 4 hour intensive where they walk away with a plan the whole team can follow. This is exciting to me because with this process, I’m able to help more amazing entrepreneurs eliminate the typical crazy-town stress that is launching.

 

Since joining the Creative at Heart family, this has happened in my business:

I’ve made the most genuine connections with such kind women! I’ve spoken at a summit, wrote an article for a major blog, and landed clients I never thought I would! Business relationships are made and cultivated at C@H, but more important than that, the immense support is unmatched. I’ve also become more clear on what I want to do and who I want to work with.

If I could have coffee with anyone, it would be:

This has NOTHING to do with business, but I think it would be so fun to chat with the YouTuber Evelyn from the Internets. She’s hilarious!

 

Connect with Shaundra:  IG//Website