To some of you that title may seem a bit presumptuous, but I’m guessing many of my fellow boss ladies know that I’m actually referring to Sophia Amoruso’s book, #GIRLBOSS. After seeing this hashtag literally everywhere, this book came across my Instagram feed. I was intrigued and earlier this year I finally broke down and bought it. I have to admit, I love the title! It doesn’t pull any punches and puts it out there with confidence. That was definitely the common theme throughout the book and this jersey girl enjoyed Amoruso’s tell-it-like-it-is style.

Since one of my business goals was to read a couple of business-related books this year, I’m quite excited that I can finally check one off my list! In celebration of my mini-accomplishment, I thought I’d share some of my reflections from this book along with some insights from our first two years in business.

#GIRLBOSS Tip #1 – Start where you are.

Amoruso started her business from her bedroom, selling single pieces of vintage clothing on Ebay. Her goal was to make enough money to make ends meet after getting fired from one of many jobs. Ten years later, she has built her business into a $250M fashion empire. Ummm, yes please!

We got started in this industry with nothing but our love for each other and a passion for photography and business. As we enter into year three, we are checking off goals from year five of our original business plan! While we are nowhere close to building an empire, we are proud of what we’ve accomplished in such a short time and are excited about where we are going. None of this would have been the case if we didn’t take a chance on pursuing a dream. We started with this philosophy – start where you are. We have taken our time and learned to make smart business decisions. And to our amazement, our journey has taken us to a place that we never thought we would be!

#GIRLBOSS Tip #2 – Accept your failures as learning experiences and use them as building blocks to keep creating who you are and what you stand for in your business…

Ugh…I hate to make mistakes. In fact, I typically spend too much time, carefully calculating my every move just to make sure that I’m doing things right the first time. While that works for some things, we don’t always have that luxury in this business. Things are constantly changing and we are often faced with making quick decisions. As an added bonus, everything is out there on social media… published for the world to see!

Amoruso’s business grew so fast that a lot of her business decisions were trial and error. She had to grow a tough exterior and dust herself off more than once on her way to success. We have learned that your path may not be exactly as you expect it and that’s ok. Every success and failure along the way is helping to shape you and your business. Mistakes are going to happen, it’s how you learn from them that can set you up for future success.

#GIRLBOSS Tip #3 – Be yourself…

I have to remind myself of this one constantly. In an industry where appearances seem to be all that matters, it’s hard not to compare yourself to others. Our business isn’t growing as fast as some of our colleagues, our Instagram feed isn’t as pretty… some days I am lost in comparison and find myself overwhelmed and frustrated. Those are the days that I have to remind myself of the goals that are important to us in our business…what we stand for, who we are trying to serve and what we can uniquely offer to our clients. It’s hard and it requires constant reminders, but at the end of the day, I’d much rather be Alicia & Frank, than anyone else. So we have learned to believe in ourselves even if no one else does. We spend so much time putting limitations on ourselves or believing the limitations that others have for us. Fight to define what is uniquely yours and the rest will fall into place.

So there you have it, friends! Now, let me hear from my fellow boss ladies. What lessons have you learned along the way?