Lauren Conrad, co-founder of nonprofit fair trade shop The Little Market, admits that going into the process of starting a business, she and Hannah Skvarla didn’t know what they didn’t know. “It might have been a blessing because starting a non-profit is very overwhelming and it could have been intimidating in the beginning,” she explains. “This way we tackled problems as they came.”

Rather than being crushed by a mountain of problems, Lauren and Hannah took things one step at a time, taking the advice of experts in the industry. “It takes a while to start a business or a non-profit, and we were able to take our time and grow the business organically.” Being forced to move slowly, Lauren says, turned out to be a big benefit, giving them the time to learn about their customers, and grow at a sustainable, manageable pace.

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