Making Something From Nothing: Sydney Sherman de Arenas Of Montie & Joie On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Know your limits. What are you not good at? Hire that person first, ask for help in that area, or ensure it’s not the make-it-or-break-it to your ultimate success. It is incredibly important to know our limitations and blind spots. Everyone has them, so why not be aware of them and plan for them?

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sydney Sherman de Arenas.

Sydney Sherman de Arenas is the CEO and Founder of The Etho, an online marketplace connecting conscious consumers with ethical brands and artisans. While at The Etho, Sydney started Montie & Joie, a clothing and home goods brand she now runs with Terrell Sherman. Montie & Joie supports artisan women around the world. Sydney is a founder of Rocket Closet and also a founding member of The Helm, actively investing in female entrepreneurs. Sydney’s first business, Admin Boutique, is still operating and links administrative assistants to start-ups, nonprofits, and individuals across the U.S.

As of 2020, Sydney and her husband became involved in the hospitality industry through their eco-hostal and luxury eco-hotel on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, their beach property in Monterrico, Guatemala, and their numerous restaurants. Sydney has been featured on 6 podcasts on ethical consumption and business, spoken at conferences on social impact in business, technology, and fashion, and made Mogul’s list of the top 1,000 companies with the strongest female leaders. She has volunteered with environmental and wildlife conservation organizations in Cambodia and throughout Texas and Mexico. She also mentored high school students through ChickTech, a non-profit dedicated to increasing the number of girls pursuing technology-based careers, and Restore, supporting human trafficking survivors who want to start businesses in New York City.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was raised by entrepreneurs in Houston, Texas. We had a ranch, so I grew up riding horses and dirt bikes. I preferred horses, but can still ride a dirt bike if I want to! I dream of having horses again and have been looking into rescuing some in our town in Guatemala. I always played sports and starting in middle school I played volleyball very competitively. I was supposed to play in college but realized in time that I had lost my passion for it. Recently I have enjoyed playing again, which has been really fun. I was shy and still am, although I’ve been told it’s hard to tell. I loved reading and was always interested in other cultures. I studied in Spain and Austria, eventually traveled to 40 countries, and now live in Guatemala with my family.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Trust but verify,” and “This too shall pass,” are two quotes that I have lived and think about often. “Trust but verify” is something that I have had to learn the hard way. My dad has always said it, but naturally, I am very trusting. When I had a really bad business experience during the pandemic with my former business partner, I learned to live this quote. I like being able to trust people, but it’s important to first verify that they are trustworthy. It’s a great way to avoid being paranoid but to protect yourself at the same time. “This too shall pass” has always been a constant, but with a one-year-old, pregnant, and with 6 businesses between my husband and me, I have to remind myself often that “this too shall pass”, normally related to my extreme exhaustion! Life can be challenging, so when you remember that whatever you are dealing with will shortly be behind you, it can ease some of the temporary pressure, even if just mentally. The only constant is change anyway!

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I listened to a podcast a while ago called Women and Money by the Life Coach School podcast. I haven’t heard another of her podcasts and I don’t even really remember what was discussed but I walked away with a feeling that was important to me. I was raised by business people so discussing money isn’t uncomfortable to me at all, I actually enjoy it. I feel strongly that women should discuss money with other women more regularly. We should know what our friends are making and have money goals that are big and brave. Yet most people shy away from this conversation and even think it is rude or inappropriate so listening to this podcast encouraged me that yes, it is important to discuss it more because, without it, we are at a disadvantage for many reasons within our societies and cultures. And this goes for nearly every culture including places like where I live now in Guatemala.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle to take a good idea and translate it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

Starting a business is extremely time-consuming and normally requires spending money instead of making money for the first bit of time. I have a whole list of business ideas and a few that may be really good, but there is a reason I haven’t acted on them yet. We need to evaluate thoroughly at this stage to see:

1. Is now the best time based on customer interest and other market factors?
2. Do we have the resources it takes?
3. Can we spend the amount of time it will take to set up this business?
4. Do we have the right relationships to support us?
5. Do we LOVE this business and will we enjoy thinking, talking, and working on it constantly?
6. Are we the right person for the job?
7. Are there real customers that are truly interested in the product or service?
8. How are you different from what already exists in the market?

These are a few of the questions we should ask ourselves before getting started and we should really reflect on the answers to be honest with ourselves. If you have trusted people in your life to discuss this with, ask them for feedback. It will be important to have trusted mentors once you get started, so start looking for these people in your life now.

For The Etho, there were a few areas where I didn’t answer these questions as I should have. For one, I did not have the resources I needed to create it. To do it like I wanted to before I started, I would have had to have access to tens of millions of dollars, which I did not. I also did not have the right relationships and was not yet the right person to build it! Now keeping this in mind, I started anyway and was able to pivot and learn. I will continue to pivot until I figure out the right model for my skillset. It is okay to not say yes to every question on the list and still move forward, but it is always better to be aware of our and our businesses’ faults before we step into something. It was a particularly hard lesson for me to learn that I wasn’t the right fit at that time for The Etho that I wanted to create. I cared more than anything, but I didn’t have the right experience to deal with the challenges that were coming up. Because of that, I made decisions that I would have made differently had I seen my faults before.

Once you are sure now is the right time, you are the right person, the right resources are available, and the right customer set wants your offering, you can get started lining out your business plan. Don’t feel overwhelmed yet. At some point, especially if you are raising money, you will need a formal business plan, a deck, and projections, but for now, you just need to get the basics out. Write out your 10-year goals, your 5-year goals, and your 1-year goals, and then break them down by the quarter you are in and then the week you are in. Also, write out some basic back-of-the-napkin math on what you think your business can achieve financially. Numbers must be a part of the goals you are writing out. At this stage, things will change often, so you don’t need to aim for perfection. You just need to get clear on your idea and your goals. Start there and each week write out what needs to get done so that you can stay on track. The weekly goals must tie to the annual goals, which will tie to the 5 and 10-year goals, which will all tie to financial goals. That is how you will know you are moving towards the future you envision.

This process should help you feel prepared to start a business. Breaking the massive to-do list into pieces prevents the immense feeling of overwhelm that can keep you from moving forward. Just remember to take it one step at a time and focus on only what is essential to success.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it, saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

Researching is very important. Before you get started, you should do a market and customer analysis. I have started 7 businesses and some of them are not that different from existing businesses; they just take a different angle with customers or there are enough customers that aren’t being served that as long as I am serving them well, I have a place in the market.

I would start with competitor research. List out your competitors and find common themes between all of them. From there, nail down how you are different or what you offer alongside them so that you will have a secure place in the market, too. I would spend a significant amount of time on this to be really sure. My brother started a business once and didn’t know a competitor existed. Shortly after raising funds, he realized the competitor could put them out of business. . Luckily he was strategic and sold his company to that competitor before they developed the product he was working on. Not everyone can do that, so make sure you look at competitors that might not seem like competitors at first. Who could easily create your product or service and put you out of business? What areas might you pivot towards in the future that could create a new segment of competitors? Once you are sure you have a place in the market based on competition, research what the market needs and how big your market is. For our hostal, we are one of many in our very touristy town in Guatemala. However, we are the nicest option at our price point. This secures our spot in a relatively small market with a lot of competition. We are vastly different from the current offerings. It’s not that we have a never-seen-before-idea, but we just execute on it differently than others have until now Your idea doesn’t need to be original, but you do need enough customers to grow, to only produce high-quality work, and to price correctly.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Follow the above exercises (ask yourself questions, develop your goals and back-of-the-napkin math, and analyze the market) and even expand on #1, those aren’t all of the questions that you could ask yourself before getting started. Once you have done that, you will have a good idea of what needs to be done every week. For all of my stateside businesses, I have started with legal formation, legal documents, and my online presence. This involves registering the name of the company, opening a bank account, finding a website, setting up social media accounts, contracting an accountant if necessary or opening a Quickbooks account, opening credit cards, and so on. Some businesses need insurance, an attorney, and policies to get going. There are many resources online that can help you determine what you need to do to start your business. I would read a few resources and make a list using your best judgment (i.e. not including every single thing). For many of my businesses, I did not contact an attorney or accountant and did all of the registering myself. I even found contracts online for my first hires for Admin Boutique. It essentially cost me nothing but time to start that company, which was great, because I was 23 and didn’t have funds to invest in my business.

Once you feel like you have what you need to formalize the business, it is time to focus on what is most important for your particular industry and business. For example, Montie & Joie needed suppliers to start producing products to sell to customers and generate revenue. Finding the producers was challenging. We had the original artisans we met and started the project with but expanding our producer groups once we were actively running M&J as a business wasn’t easy. We are a sustainable and ethical brand, so we had to ensure fair wages and safe environmental production practices. We also needed high-quality work and solid response rates. For whatever you are looking for, make sure you have a list of your deal-breakers and nice-to-haves. If this is clear to you, you will know how to weed people out much faster, as you speak to producers, manufacturers, employees, etc. Of course, it will still require trial and error, as some people know how to pass a test but not deliver on their promises, so another good policy is to hire slow and fire fast. At Admin Boutique, we like to run tests with people before they’re officially hired to ensure a good fit before investing too much time and money.

Once you are clear on what you need before committing to a relationship with a producer, you will go into production and after that, you will focus on sales. At Montie & Joie, we first used social media, our website, and a paid marketing agency to try to drive sales. We had some success with SEO, but not enough to keep it going at the price point. Now we are working with a highly experienced sales representative to place our products in stores and we are hoping that is our ticket to sales. For you, it may look different. Come up with a plan on how you intend to get your products into your customers’ hands as well as a backup plan. Make sure you give it enough time, which can take anywhere from 1–6 months, depending on what you are trying. If your initial plan doesn’t work, pivot quickly to your backup plan, so that you don’t waste too much time and money.

After trying digital marketing and starting to sell through wholesale, we have discovered that we need to shift our product focus so again I am looking for producers. I do a google search, post in groups I am a part of, and talk to my network, and then once I find producers that could be a good fit I set up a call to have a conversation. For me, I do little tests along the way. How long does it take them to reply? Do they have the answers to my most important questions? Can they send a calendar invite? These might seem silly but after many years of working with contractors through Admin Boutique, I found that these seemingly minor accomplishments say a lot about how the business is run. Next, I will visit them all in person and get samples of what we are looking for before making my decision. Make sure you know in advance what your strategy is.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

I am sure I read these somewhere or someone gave me advice related to each one before I started my businesses, but they really sank in once I was actively leading my companies.

1. Less is more. There are a million ways you can connect to customers in today’s digital world. For example, I can focus on email marketing, PR, connecting with people in small groups, social media marketing, SEO, product demos, markets, etc. Decide what will have the ultimate impact and stay focused on that until it is either not working or you have reached the limits of that one thing and have the capacity to add something else in. But remember, the more you start to do, the less focused you will be on each initiative, which normally means a lower success rate.
2. Know how to prioritize. Once you get started, you will most likely have so many things to do that you just keep your head down and try to tackle your to-do list item by item. It is much smarter to stop regularly and evaluate the most important things you should be doing and remove or delegate everything else from your list. I do this every Monday for Admin Boutique & Montie & Joie. Sometimes things still feel important, but when I reference my goals there is no real connection. Learn to cut those things early.
3. Ask for help. I am terrible at this! Now that I have so many businesses, a baby, and a baby on the way, I have no choice and I realized I should have implemented this a long time ago. Have your core group of friends and mentors and ask them for help when you need it. Hiring recommendations, industry connections, pitch practices, etc. are all great ways to invite your tribe into your journey and to also get feedback and the support you need to make big things happen. We are better together.
4. Know your limits. What are you not good at? Hire that person first, ask for help in that area, or ensure it’s not the make-it-or-break-it to your ultimate success. It is incredibly important to know our limitations and blind spots. Everyone has them, so why not be aware of them and plan for them?
5. Spend money like you don’t have any. This is the best advice I can give anyone starting a business. It doesn’t matter how much money you have to create this business, as you could always use more than you are given. Even if you are a millionaire, a business is only successful if it can make more than it spends, so start with this mentality and spend wisely. Being financially savvy will be immensely powerful for your ultimate success.

Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

I have never invented anything from scratch. If I were about to try it, I would follow the steps above on starting a business. I would focus on talking to real customers to figure out if my efforts are worth it. Do customers really need what I have? I like to educate myself as much as possible, so I would then probably research steps to take before inventing a product and talk to people in my network who have done it before. If I didn’t have anyone within my network, I would ask my network to reach out to people in theirs. I love running tests, so I would get something out as soon as possible and see what the market says before going through all of the trouble of legal work and product perfection. I imagine this is not a good idea for some inventions, in which case you may need to speak to an attorney first.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I would always suggest talking to customers before hiring someone who might tell you what a customer is thinking. Keep in mind that a customer doesn’t always tell the truth or know themselves well enough to give an accurate answer, but if you talk to enough of them, you will know what to look for and get the answers you need. There is the famous Quickbooks story where they followed their customers to their homes to see how they were using the product. Because of that, they adapted the product to service small business owners who didn’t have accountants and became the company they are today. You may not be able to follow your customers home, but how can they interact with your invention in a way that would be truly telling on whether or not it fits their true needs? I would start there, and if you still feel like you need a consultant after that, then go for it and try to find someone who is recommended to you. Consultants can be great, but in my experience, the good ones are hard to come by.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

I would always start with bootstrapping when possible. The Etho raised capital and it was really time-consuming and the money always seemed to go faster than we anticipated. With both The Etho and Rocket Closet, we raised from friends and family and haven’t gone to venture capital opportunities yet. However, at both companies, we started speaking with VC firms immediately when we started raising our seed rounds in order to form relationships with the right people. We send them our quarterly investor updates so that they can keep an eye on the business and see our management style and progress over time. I can’t advise on what to do past the stage I am in, but I know that it is expensive to raise money, both in time and equity. If you can prove your concept first, you will be able to raise more and give less in exchange. It will also take less time to raise the capital, as people will have more confidence in you and your idea. With The Etho, I ended up giving away a lot of equity because I needed the capital to prove the concept. I didn’t have another choice and I don’t regret it, but it is important to understand that the earlier you raise capital, the more diluted you will be in the end, as everything comes with a price. To know which path to follow, I would determine if you can make progress without the capital. If so, nothing is holding you back! I would also consider your network. Women have a harder time raising capital than men, especially women of color, so if you don’t have the right network and support, it might be a dead end, no matter how amazing you and your business are, so this is something to consider. Investors also like to see that you were willing to ask your friends and family to support you. It builds confidence that you believe in your business. So when you do need to raise capital, start there. There are other factors to consider, but for me, these are the most important.

Now for some final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Making the world a better place is baked into all of my businesses. I believe business can and should be a force for good in and of itself. We pay fair wages and focus on the environment in one way or another through all of my companies. Through our hostal, Moon & Sun, we go above and beyond by also focusing on community initiatives outside of our business like cleaning up the lake and helping the stray dog community. My family and I also have initiatives that we give to every year. We are generous and understand that we have been given a rare opportunity to have what we have, one that not everyone is privy to.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I would ensure every business pays fair wages to its workers. We have room to grow in the developed economies, but ideally, I would focus on the developing ones. Most people don’t truly understand this issue, but very literally, people are not paid enough to feed themselves or their families. If we could eradicate extreme poverty, we would have more brains contributing to a better world. When one lives in extreme poverty, they are not able to contribute beyond basic survival in most cases, and this is a massive loss of human potential.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in business, VC funding, sports, and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I think Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus would be fascinating to speak with.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

---

Making Something From Nothing: Sydney Sherman de Arenas Of Montie & Joie On How To Go From Idea To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.