SDH 009: Building Businesses, Changing Lives with Michelle Blue

Bené is an online collection of scarves, inspired by the culture where it all began and committed to providing an education to girls in Ghana by sponsoring tuition, books, supplies, and the uniforms for the girls to continue their education and fulfill their dreams. Michelle and her cofounder, Sasha, began building the business while in college and have moved ahead, full-force, after graduating to make their dream a reality. Bené partners with Sista Works to provide and support 5 girls through secondary school. “We believe we are our sister’s keeper. We believe in empowering women by making investments into their lives, natural abilities and gifts to enable them to be self-sufficient. Our pieces are inspired by the cultures we build into.” – benescarves.com Most excited about: Bené just launched their Spring/Summer collection of scarves. It’s a brand new collection that is beautiful as a beach cover-up or just everyday life. New prints + New Styles + Learning about the girls Bené helps support. “How can I make a sustainable difference in these girls’ lives?” In the interview Michelle shares her story of how she was inspired to create a business that would help support and empower girls in Ghana. We dive deep into the actual back-end of the business and what it took for her and her partner to get started. “In the beginning we were so caught up in all of the ideas and trying to plan for the unexpected” Immediate Implementation: It’s not necessarily a bad thing to flesh out ideas, but there is a time where you have to focus and just start executing.  Sitting down and focusing. Everything is not going to be perfect. You’re not going to have the resources to do everything that you want to in the beginning. But start small if you have to and then you can build upon that and continue to grow your business. Start with what you have and use the resources around you.