I am Alexandra Cristin, mom to my daughter, Ava, and founder of the hair extensions
empire, Glam Seamless. As a self-made business owner, motherhood
actually helped propel my career forward and helped me create an eight
figure brand in less than five years.
I grew up really poor.
I had a single mother and when I went to college, I saw my peers.
They had families that supported them.
They could just work and focus and pursue their dreams
and so I knew early on that I had to work differently.
I used to work as a plus-size model. I knew that, like,
modeling is not a forever thing
so, in 2012, with a thousand dollars, I started my business, Glam Seamless.
Our first year we did a hundred thousand in sales, which was unbelievable
because I was doing it as a side hustle.
I was 26 years old when I found out I was pregnant and I was completely shocked.
This is like the worst time to have a child because Glam was
doing $2 million that year.
"How am I going to run my business?
Be a good mother?" because I didn't want to do less than my
best in each one of those areas.
When I found out I was pregnant, I was working from home,
so I had two employees.
I had this midwife and I said, "how do you do this?"
And she said, "your child doesn't need you right now.
She will need you later in life."
And I just think the universe put my midwife into my life to give me
permission to continue to work and do what I needed to do as a mother.
At the time I was pregnant with my daughter, I had a nice life,
but I definitely didn't have as much money as I wanted saved
and so this is what drove me to grow my business really fast.
I was willing to do whatever it took in her early years to make sure
that we were going to be financially set for the rest of her life.
No one I worked with virtually for Glam Seamless in 2016 knew I was pregnant.
I thought that motherhood would be a deterrent to my success, but after I
had my baby, Ava, everything changed.
I want to leave her a great business that she could one day take over
and so I decided, you know what, motherhood and being a business
owner are just going to be part of my life and was able to realize
there's no shame here.
I made some early crucial decisions while I was pregnant to make sure that
I can continue to scale the business.
We are on our way toward $5 million per year revenue
and I knew that if I took my foot off the gas just because of pregnancy,
I would have lost almost everything.
So I decided that I was going to spend that money on a night nurse.
If I didn't, I would have never had the millions of revenue
that I got the next year.
I
opened up an office because I really needed to separate my work from home.
I was able to then also invest into other employees
because I needed more help.
I started working 50, 60 hours a week and looking back, it was only
due to the motivation from my baby.
That's the entire reason why Glam Seamless scaled as fast as it did, because when
I had her, I had these really big goals for my daughter.
I wanted to be able to have a couple of hundred thousand dollars set aside for
whatever it is she wanted to pursue.
Glam Seamless was acquired a year and a half ago. Through that acquisition,
I was able to reach all my financial goals, but if I didn't invest the
time or the money that I did into Glam, it wouldn't have become as large
of a business that it has become.
My suggestion to other mothers that are looking to be a great mom, but also
have an empire, is to invest in the early years on things that will
help you build your business faster.
Time is the most important thing.
Like I was told from my midwife,
your children need you later in life when they're going to remember, and those
investments in the beginning are going to save you all the time and actually
make you more money in the long run.
Financial freedom is having the ability to do what you want,
eventually. The more years of savings I have, the better. If I just one day want to
stop working because I'm burned out,
having that cash in the bank takes off the pressure. By running my business,
managing hundreds of thousands of dollars,
it really helps me with my family's finances. Having a savings, an
essentials and a splurge bucket,
those three things
are
what really helped me continue to be on track financially, because
then I know exactly what is going to be left over, based off the profits.
I know for a fact I would not have been able to achieve the success
I achieved if it weren't for my daughter.
When I had her, I became laser focused.
I started having other employees and I was able to be more understanding
as a mother because I know exactly what it's like to balance
work and motherhood.
So being a mother helps me be a better business owner.
I really hope that my daughter sees all of my sacrifices and she
takes away that if you really, really want something in life, you have to
be able to do what other people are unwilling to do.