When I finally made it back to the store well past my thirty-minute lunch break, the owner was there. I’d been perpetually late, perpetually grimy, and I’m sure that this had been a long time coming. She collected my key, gave me my final paycheck, and sent me on my way. This was actually the last time that I was fired. Seven years later, I can’t quit and no one can fire me.
Telling Someone “You’re Fired”
Generally I like other people to fire, because it’s always a lousy task.
—Donald Trump
Sadly, it wasn’t too long after I took Nasty Gal off eBay that I had to fire someone for the first time. When I first hired someone to oversee shipping, the business was still just Christina and me. We were twenty-two-year-olds managing a grown man who, on his third day of work, asked if he could leave early because it was “grocery day” for his family. Sweet, but no. It was also apparent that he had never used a computer before. He was completely stumped when a box popped up on the screen. “It says ‘Norton AntiVirus.’ What do I do?” Christina and I both screamed, “Oh my God, just click the ‘X’!” I started to panic, because I had hired this guy to make my life easier and it was clear that this was not going to be the case at all.
We also hired a copywriter who, in my weaker moments, I started to think was a spy sent by a competitor to sabotage the business from the inside—because there was no way in hell his mistakes could be for real. Time after time, I would say, “Please use spell-check and stop having so many typos,” but then everything he wrote looked like it had been done by my poodle who was pecking at the keyboard with her nose.
I knew he had to go, and it was tortuous for me. I read up on all the legal responsibilities of firing someone, and went through all the different scenarios in my head—if he said this, I was going to say that; if he asked that, I was going to explain it like this. When I finally, practically hyperventilating, sat him down and told him we were letting him go, he was totally calm about it. “Okay.” He shrugged. “No problem.” And he left.
The harsh truth is that not everyone you hire is going to work out. It’s impossible to know everything about a person’s talent, judgment, and character without actually working with him or her. In many cases, the people who don’t work out are people about whom I had second thoughts from day one. However, sometimes it is simply a matter of a fast-growing company growing faster than the people inside it. The person who was right for the job a year ago might not be right for the job a year from now. Don’t get me wrong: I’m loyal to every person I’ve hired. But my loyalty lies with the greater business, which means the hundreds of others whose jobs could be at stake if we have the wrong person in the wrong role. I know this sounds harsh, but it’s that level of objectivity that leaders need to have. And leading is, after all, what I’m ultimately here to do.
If someone who is working for you keeps screwing up, make sure you talk to her about it. There’s always the slight off chance that maybe that employee doesn’t know that she is doing anything wrong and it’s something that she can easily fix. Everyone should be given the opportunity to improve. But if you think you’re going to have to fire someone, start documenting everything. People who get fired love to say shit like, “The only reason I got fired was because that bitch didn’t like me.” Chances are that if you’re ready to fire someone, you probably don’t like that person. And that’s okay. Just keep your cool and be professional, because it’s not about that. It’s because someone sucks that you have to do this, not because you suck. If your company has a human resources department, make sure that they’re aware of what’s going on. If you can write someone up, write someone up.
Sadly, sometimes the ship can’t be righted. So when it comes time to actually do it, don’t pussyfoot about and don’t act like a baby. As Voltaire said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” If you want to be a boss and be treated like a boss, then firing someone is in your boss-size job description. Don’t ever try to impress upon the person you’re about to fire how hard the situation is for you, because that person is losing his or her job, so it’s obviously harder on them. Resist the urge to overexplain or even to apologize. Keep it as short and sweet as you possibly can, because the more personal you try to make it, the more personally your soon-to-be ex-employee is going to take it. However, it doesn’t hurt to take a few minutes to put yourself in their shoes, and consider how you would want to be treated if you were in that position. And if you both learn from your lessons, neither of you will make the mistakes that led to that situation again.
Hearing “You’re Fired”
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
—Steve Jobs
Though I was fired a few times, and usually from jobs I couldn’t have cared less about, I still was never like the copywriter who just shrugged and walked out the door. Getting fired was always a big deal to me. It’s a bit like having someone break up with you. Even if you know it wasn’t the right situation, and that you’ll be way better in the long run, it’s still rejection. And rejection sucks.
But getting fired, especially from a job you’re not actually that into, isn’t the end of the world. For me, getting fired from the shoe store was an opportunity to find a job with health insurance. And although I got the job at the art school primarily to fix my hernia, I ended up with a lot more than I bargained for: the inspiration to start something that led me to where I am today.
Getting fired can be a much-needed wake-up call, a push in the right direction, or an escape route. Or it can just plain suck. But no matter what the details of the situation, how much you learn from it is entirely up to you. It can also be the end of the world (or at least feel like it) if you’ve got zero savings. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck already, and all of a sudden there’s no more paycheck, that’s terrifying. I don’t want to get all “told ya so,” but the fact that you could get fired (and almost all of us could get fired) is all the more reason to consistently save 10 percent of those earnings. Instead of calling it a rainy-day fund, let’s call it an oh-shit fund. And you’ll be saying “oh shit” a whole lot less if you’ve got one.
Here is a list of things to not do if you get fired:
Call anyone a bitch or an asshole, or any variations thereof
Threaten to sue—if you do think you have a legitimate reason, talk to a lawyer before you do anything
Try to get your former coworkers to take your side (as sympathetic as they might be, they’re going to be worried about their own jobs)
Take to the Internet to complain or talk shit about your boss or your former employer; people have a lot of Facebook friends these days, and chances are you have a couple on your friend list whom you’ve forgotten about
Use the person who fired you as a reference without first asking him or her if it’s cool
Draw attention to yourself upon departure; flipping the bird to the executive team on your way out will not make things any better
Have your mom or dad call (yep, this has happened)
Now, recently fired #GIRLBOSS, get thee on with thy life!
PORTRAIT OF A #GIRLBOSS:
Christene Barberich, Refinery29 Editor in Chief
I always knew I wanted to be a writer and an editor. There never was a choice, it’s all I ever wanted to do. My first real publishing job was as an assistant at the New Yorker, but my editorial training happened at Gourmet magazine. In terms of striking out on my own and being brave in my convictions, I learned that mostly by being freelance. I don’t think you can truly know what you’re made of until you are in charge of your days. How you use that time, and the work you pursue, teaches you so much about who you are and what you can become.
It’s possible I figured out what I wanted to do by people telling me I couldn’t or shouldn’t do it. It’s really astounding how disc
ouraging people can be, especially if it’s something that seems particularly risky. But, you know, risk can be thrilling. I’ve often made hard career choices based on how scared I was of the opportunity. When the stakes are high—I’m talking cataclysmic-level change, success or failure—sometimes you just have to jump, screaming the whole fucking way. I don’t know if there is any greater feeling then proving you are your own biggest advocate. And all that noise out there is seriously just bullshit.
My mom is the hardest worker I know. She taught me that showing up is the most important part of any role. And, of course, my team inspires me hourly! It is because of them that I read a lot and never, ever take anything for granted. Simply by being so smart and curious, they inspire me to be an excellent editor, a courageous leader, and someone who motivates them to create cool and special stuff. When you’re collaborating with other people, it’s important to know what you don’t know and to find the best person in that area to teach you. Be a leader even in teams of one because in the beginning, there’s a lot of that! You have to listen, really listen, and root for other people’s success. That’s a big one. Because it won’t always be you, but eventually, it will be.
For me, creativity isn’t just in my work—it’s how I think and live my life. It’s not necessarily about always creating something new, but simply having the space and freedom to let something special happen. It’s how I bring beauty and joy into my surroundings and my relationships. I like to be challenged; seeing or reading something that opens my eyes or gives me chills is the whole point of everything. My advice to aspiring #GIRLBOSSes: As hard as it is, stop caring so much about what other people think. Find a way to hear what you want. Recognize what is your dream. And then put everything you have into that: your work, the relationships you surround yourself with, the food you put in your body. Everything you have control over in your world should feed that dream and make you feel like a #GIRLBOSS!
9
Taking Care of (Your) Business
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
—Abraham Lincoln
I never started a business. I started an eBay store, and ended up with a business. I never would have done it had I known it was going to become this big. I was twenty-two and, like most twenty-two-year-olds, I was looking for a way to pay my rent and buy my Starbucks chai. Had someone shown me the future of where Nasty Gal would be in 2014, I would have gasped in revulsion, thinking, Oh, hell no, that is way too much work. The name of the company alone should clue you in to this fact—who would have thought that a company called Nasty Gal could be so successful? I sure as shit never intended to be saying those two words all day, every day, seven years later.
There are different kinds of entrepreneurs. There are the ones who start a business because they’re educated and choose to, and the ones who do it because it is really the only option. I definitely fall into the latter category. I considered myself completely unemployable, and wanted to give one last shot at my ideal of being “jobless.” And boy, did being jobless work for me.
Nasty Gal would have surely failed had it been my goal to grow a business to the size that I have today. When you begin with the finish line in mind, you miss all the fun stuff along the way. The better approach is to tweak and grow, tweak and grow. I call it the incremental potential. In e-commerce, you have to get everything right—from the marketing to the product descriptions to the checkout process. Because I started small, I think I inherently did that from the beginning. Customer service was my number one priority. A lot of people run their businesses like their customers are dummies. This is a mistake. If you’re just out to take their money, they know it. But if you genuinely care about what you’re doing, they will respond. I knew my customers and knew what they liked, because I was my customer. And rather than dictating what I thought my customers should buy and wear, I listened instead. If I bought something and they hated it, I moved on. Rather than force my idea of what Nasty Gal should be on my customers, I let them tell me along the way.
Nasty Gal felt like the best-dressed girl’s best-kept secret—except that it was a secret she really wanted to share. As I mentioned earlier, one key to running a successful business is to know how to get free marketing. Rule number one? That’s simple. Just do a good job. Through the styling, photography, and voice of the brand, Nasty Gal was an exciting place to shop, but if our customers weren’t equally as stoked when they were holding one of our products in their hands, then that excitement lived and died on the Internet. I don’t take it lightly when someone buys something from me. I know there are a million places where people can buy a dress, a crop top, or a pair of shoes, so I want to make sure that if someone is buying it from Nasty Gal, she feels like it’s worth it. We’re dressing girls for the best years of their lives, so whether you drop $300 or shop the sale section, I want you to look and feel like a million bucks.
Rule number two: Keep your promises. When girls bought something from Nasty Gal, what they got in the mail was just as amazing as what they’d seen online. Customers became not only loyal, but also evangelical. They came back again and again, and shared their excitement with their friends—frequently on the Internet. It was the kind of natural word of mouth that can’t be bought.
Rule number three: Give your customers something to share. Social media is built on sharing, and Nasty Gal was giving girls something amazing to share each and every day. Whether it was a crazy vintage piece, a quote, or a behind-the-scenes photo, we have always worked hard to create the best and most compelling images, words, and content for our customers.
At most companies the person manning the Twitter and Facebook accounts is far from the top of the food chain. But at Nasty Gal, even though I’m not always composing every tweet, I still read every comment. If our customers are unhappy about something, I hear it first. At other businesses, it might take months for customer feedback to filter up to the CEO, if at all. Social media allows me to have my ear to the ground even when I’m out pounding the pavement. When Nasty Gal joined Snapchat, it meant that I joined Snapchat. I sent out a few Snaps, and our customers responded in force. There’s nothing more thrilling than sending private texts directly to a customer and seeing what she has to say in response.
Call me crazy, but I truly believe that Nasty Gal is a feeling. And though our community lives in many different places, it’s that feeling that unifies our customers and makes us about much more than selling clothes.
The Incremental Potential
Author Malcolm Gladwell believes that one can be an expert at something after putting in ten thousand hours of practice. Needless to say, my ten thousand hours are far behind me. Had I waited to finish a business plan, or waited for investors to validate my idea, my ten-thousand-hour clock might never have begun. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not knocking business plans. What I intend to illustrate is that just going for it can be much more rewarding. Business plans are just a starting point—the best entrepreneurs know to listen along the way and adjust things, including their business plan. This advice applies to life as well, dear #GIRLBOSS. Turn on the jets and ready, set, . . . listen.
Starting a business is risky no matter which way you look at it, but it’s much riskier when you have a ton of overhead and money guys anxiously waiting to earn a return on their investment. Starting a business also takes a lot of personal sacrifice. If you start a business, expect that you’re probably going to be broke for a long time. If you’re not broke, consider yourself broke, because as we discussed earlier, it is shortsighted to pay yourself a big salary too early. Dream big all you want—that’s what this entire book is about!—but know that the first step toward those dreams is probably going to be a small one.
Many people mistake the glamour of business for business. One of my pet peeves includes entrepreneurs who issue press releases about their new venture before making their first dollar. I waited until I knew for sure that I h
ad something to say before talking to the press—about anything—which took about five years. While media coverage can boost sales and garner attention from the business community, tooting your own horn too early can put you under the spotlight when you’re still figuring out the basics of running your business. I’ve seen many a start-up disappear after making a big splash in the press. Though I’m rarely surprised, it feels good to be the fabled turtle in this scenario rather than the hare.
I didn’t know anybody to turn to for business advice, and because of this, people ask me all the time how I figured it out. Well, I figured it out by doing what I think is one of the best strategies for learning anything anywhere: I Googled it. There is a whole wide world of free education out there for anyone who wishes to take advantage of it. Granted, a book might cost you $13, but that’s pennies compared with college tuition. When I needed to know what kinds of shelving to buy for the warehouse, I Google Image–searched “warehouse shelving” and spent an afternoon looking at pictures of shelves until I figured out which ones would be best for our needs.
I turned to YouTube to watch experts speak at conferences I wouldn’t have been invited to even if I had been able to afford to attend. I learned a ton about how to structure Nasty Gal by looking at similar businesses to see who they had hired and were hiring. I then viewed those people’s profiles on LinkedIn to see what type of experience it takes to do that job successfully. And while I took it all with a grain of salt, it got me far.
Nasty Gal is now big enough for me to be able to hire people who are experts in their respective fields. But don’t be fooled: I’m still calling the shots. I hate it when I’m in a meeting with one of our top officers and someone addresses her the entire time, assuming that the “adult” in the room must be the one making the decisions. Don’t you dare think that my shredded T-shirt makes me a sheep in wolf’s clothing. I, like every #GIRLBOSS, am a wolf in wolf’s clothing.
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