We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Phillips a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Amanda, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My dad, he always does what is right and I always remember him going to his 9-5. Put those things together, I always strive to do what is right, especially related to my work responsibilities.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I founded BeWell after a hospital visit for a Crohn’s flare. My husband was running an ecommerce business and that caused me to think, if he can run one, so can I. While in the hospital, I started designing products with the idea of a Crohn’s store in mind. I asked myself, what do I wish I had available to me when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s. The IV Zip Hoodie idea came about in the hospital because of how cold I was. I felt so bad calling the nurses for a blanket. What I love the most is helping people like me. I have received so many heartfelt emails thanking me for my products and it really hits different when you are helping people in that way. I also love the design aspect. I loved making a hoodie into a comfort item for infusion day. I loved taking the way I packed pills for vacation and turned it into a reusable product. So far, I have been able to put 100% of profits back into BeWell. This means I get to design more products to make life easier in more ways.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Commitment. I can see how easy to is to not post every day, how easy it would be to not pack orders as soon as they come in. Anyone can improve on this by doing what they love and prioritizing it. It is easy to do something that you want to succeed at. Accepting failure. I have had a manufacturer stop communicating. This cost me time and money. Not everything you try to do will be a success. There are failures. Do not let it stop you, keep going. Just because you lost the battle, does not mean you lost the war. Willingness to learn new things. When starting a business I had to wear different hats. I had to understand how to use the store platform and pack orders, how to source products, how to process returns, how to take professional photos, how to post on social and more. If you are bootstrapping, you have to be willing to do things outside of your comfort zone.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
My husband. He has had an entrepreneur spirit as long as I have known him. He has tried and failed at multiple products. His most recent one is doing well. That gave me inspiration that I could make this happen too. He pushes me to do more things with the business. He had to teach me how to use the platform, he pushed me to post on social more frequently and more. It also helps to know I can learn from him, and am not always completely on my own.
Contact Info:
- Website: wearebewell.com
- Instagram: wearebewell
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareBeWellforIBD?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Image Credits
BeWell owns all rights to all photos.
