Episode 17 - Scaling A Membership Business While Juggling Motherhood with Rachel Rouhana

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE:

We can't wait for you to listen to this episode with our amazing guest: Rachel Rouhana. Originally from Lebanon, Rachel is an inspiring entrepreneur and founder of Haute Stock, the very first styled stock photography membership platform for women in business.

Rachel founded the business in 2015 and has grown it into an annual seven-figure business using the membership model. In this episode, Rachel shares how and why she became an entrepreneur and her journey to deciding to launch Haute Stock. Danielle and Rachel also discuss how she juggles her business while raising 3 kids!

 

Key Takeaways:

  • About Rachel and Haute Stock

    • Started her first business creating chocolate favours for weddings, but it wasn’t her passion

    • Pivoted to starting another business that did party printables on Etsy

    • Pivoted yet again and started Haute Stock at 9 months pregnant with her second son

    • Haute Stock is a style stock membership and visual content library for female entrepreneurs

  • Did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

    • After working a regular 9-5 job she quickly realized running her own business is what she wanted to do, having that freedom

    • But she kept stopping herself from starting, but finally pushed herself to start when she had her first child deciding to put them in daycare or start her own business with flexibility

  • What was your motivation to grow and scale your business?

    • Haute Stock was the 3rd or 4th iteration of her running her own business, which was great to know what worked and didn’t work being an entrepreneur already

    • She had the confidence at that point because she had taught herself graphic design prior, so when she knew she needed to have photography to do this business, she taught herself that as well

  • What contributed to your ability to take action?

    • Being a mom has hugely contributed to her motivation

    • She loved the membership model to scale

    • She knew clients would want continuous access to beautiful photos for their businesses

    • Launching her business right before having her second child was a deliberate decision because she knew if she didn’t do it then, she never would. She knew what it would take and stopped doubting.

  • What is daily life like?

    • She has help! There is no way she could do this alone

    • In the beginning, she worked during nap times and after bedtime, but it’s what needed to happen at the time

    • It’s all about having a team, whether a personal team to take care of the kids or a business team to support

    • She loves the flexibility of entrepreneurship so that if her kids need her attention they have it, and if her business needs her attention she can tend to it.

    • Everyone needs to figure out what works for them and where they need to pull help in

  • How did you build up Haute Stock and get it out there?

    • In the beginning, it was the first style stock photography membership, so it was new and needed

    • They grew through organic traffic and word of mouth

    • They didn’t start doing any paid advertising until last year which was 5 years into the business

    • She always knew what she wanted it to be and the experience for their clients

    • It became different over the years as more style stock memberships have launched, but the majority of their members come from word of mouth

  • Are there any new strategies that you’re starting to do from here?

    • 2 sides to growth:

      • Attracting new members

      • Retention of current members

        • Haute Stock focuses a lot on retention

        • How do we get people to us and STAY?

    • It goes back to creating a strategy of retention

    • What kind of experience can you create that’s unique and different that makes your customers really feel like you understand them

    • There’s definitely a time and place for paid ads, but referrals are a lot more likely to sign up quickly and be a high-quality lead

  • Challenges

    • Every year that passes as an entrepreneur you learn that you can overcome challenges

    • The biggest challenge is time

      • She loves what she does and could work 24/7

      • But she has other responsibilities and needs boundaries: business time and family time

    • Always sets lofty goals to push herself

    • She wants to work on celebrating her goals

    • How much does she actually want to grow her business? How big of a team does she actually want? What does she want?

      • At every stage of your business, you’ll hit a ceiling where you figure out what’s next or if you’re happy staying there

      • Look at it from the perspective of creating the lifestyle that you want and being aligned with the original reason you started a business

      • Don’t grow just for the sake of growth if it’s not grounded in what you really want

  • Advice for people who are just starting out?

    • Small tweaks really make a difference

    • Know your numbers

      • Understand your numbers, what are your key metrics?

      • What does growth mean for you?

      • If you don’t know your numbers you can’t make good decisions

      • Look at revenue, profit, leads, conversion rates, etc

    • Make sure you know what your audience wants!

      • Ask them what they want to see and what they need

  • How has community played into your journey?

    • Customers and her team are a huge part of that

    • Finding other entrepreneurs that are at the same stage as you has been a game-changer

    • Joining a mastermind group, going to events, etc

    • Getting to brainstorm with other female entrepreneurs that have encouraged and supported her has been very impactful

  • What are you most proud of?

    • Having created a business that supports other female entrepreneurs

Show Notes:

Danielle Wiebe