Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mirfie Chan, founder of Love The Chans, located in New York, NY, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Love, The Chans is a love letter to everyone with who we share this beautiful planet we call home. Launched as a blog in June 2019, the vision is to normalize diversity at home. We believe that this is a vital ingredient as we are raising future leaders of the world. The role we see ourselves playing is to help convert diverse cultural education into an experience we can fall in love with. We bring the beauty in the diverse cultures to you in the comforts of your home and provide solutions that make it easy for anyone to action, welcome and live in diversity on a daily. What makes us different is that we focus on a holistic aspect of someone's everyday living. We hope to be known as the hub for everything you need to infuse the vibrant colors of the world into your life. To give more specific examples, here is what we do:
- We share global recipes so you can delight your tastebuds and bring the world to your table.
- We re-tell historical stories and cultural practices of other countries to help expand the conversation even from the comforts of your living room.
- We work with artisans who make these incredible handmade heritage-rich products so you can have a tangible reminder of just how breathtaking each of our cultures are.
Yes, this is a lofty goal because every guru will tell you to pick a lane and stick with it. This is what is needed, though, and anything that's game-changing is not going to be easy for the people who dream them up to reality. Our family was built for this challenge!
Tell us about yourself
While I've lived in NY for over two decades now, I was originally from Singapore. Having spent my childhood and early formative years in a country that has four national languages, multi-cultural living is a way of life, as organic an instinct as taking a breath. The event of recent years has highlighted how critical it is to educate and instill a love for all. We've all witnessed how conversations around diversity and inclusion are led, publicized, and championed by big corporations and politics. While this is most certainly necessary, my childhood experiences clearly demonstrated a critical differentiator - the constant presence, education, and nurturing of this love for diversity at home. In hindsight, it is no surprise that my passion was centered around sharing the beauty of world cultures with anyone who would listen. My hope is to help others fall in love with the rich, diverse heritage, history, and crafts of the humans that we share this world with.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
We live in a world where we are judged by numbers in every aspect of our lives - from how much money you make to how much you weigh! Our biggest accomplishment as a self-funded, minority women-owned business is in having the courage to not succumb to external pressures. When I first started the company, there was a great focus on growing your IG followers. What is that anyway? First, I feel like we need a better word than "followers," don't you? I'd like to know who decided that was a great word, right? Haha! I want a community of ambassadors, leaders, and champions, and that's what we have managed to build. We have a small but mighty community who genuinely want to be there, are engaging with me over private messages, chats, etc. I love the conversations we have around their own experiences. I love how I know multiple family members who are customers of ours simply by word of mouth. I love it when I get a message that tells me they've learned something new and exciting from reading our blog or stories. This is what keeps me going. Knowing that despite all that’s going on around the world, goodness truly does shine brighter - they just don’t get as much airtime.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Gosh, there are just so many things, haha! I would say, though, that it comes down to two things:
First comes the confusion that is the byproduct of the amount of information that comes at you while you're doing research, gathering feedback, going to courses, etc. After you've made what you feel is an educated decision on the next steps, you're then struck by the speed with which self-doubt creeps in. Why? Because once again, we have been trained to attach our worth to numbers, and we're surrounded by images of what looks like an overnight success. So, when you're not seeing the results you want to see immediately, you start to question everything. I'm glad that more and more entrepreneurs are starting to pull the curtains back so we can all be kinder and more patient with ourselves.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
I actually have a list that I started a few months into the business! I always ask myself what I would do differently if I knew what I knew today.
- I would invest in researching and deciding who my business mentor would be. I would narrow it down to one person who you think is going to be able to grow with you or at least up to your first major milestone. I made the mistake of taking too many courses from different people and companies that I think ended up confusing me more than it helped.
- Determine how you're going to measure success in your milestones as part of your process in everything you do. Deciding how long you're going to let something run its course before shifting your strategy is critical in managing the self-doubt and anxiety that will actually get in the way of your success simply because you didn't give it enough time to run its course.
- Trust your instincts. You have to be able to bet on yourself before expecting someone else to, so take advice (including mine) with a grain of salt. This is especially important if you're trying to do something different. A quote from Jim McKelvey (the cofounder of Square) perfectly summarizes my beliefs around this. "If you're about to do something that's never been done, there is no way to rehearse it."
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
A big part of our why is to give back to communities at risk and create opportunities where possible. Because of this, we give back a portion of our proceeds to Uplift, a non-profit organization that seeks to help women and children in crisis through agile giving and grassroots philanthropy. Part of the proceeds from our "Cinta Collection" from Indonesia goes to Connect Indonesia, a volunteer-based organization that works to support the artisans with tools and training to help them build a better livelihood for their families and communities. In June, our contributions went towards planting the first batch of tree saplings of the Morinda tree, responsible for the natural red dye the artisans use to make their batik. Part of the proceeds from our sales from the Prem Collection from India goes to the Wabisabi Project, run by a husband and wife team whose research and work support the preservation of the dying art of block printing in Rajasthan. p.s. Fun fact: Cinta and Prem mean "Love" in the native language of the countries where the artisans are from =)
Where can people find you and your business?
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.