An Ask for Help Is a Sign of Strength
Top image: Candice Luter, Founder of Candice Luter Art + Interiors
In this issue’s Working Woman feature, Iowa-based designer, artist, and single mom Candice Luter has made the call for help an empowering part of her small business success story.
Luter launched her business, which specializes in freelance design and small batch manufacturing of custom furniture and home décor, during the pandemic after being laid off from her full-time job. It started as a creative outlet in her garage after work was done and her daughter was in bed, and by 2021, she was named the global grand prize winner of Etsy’s Design Awards. She had the opportunity to design a home décor collection for Target as part of Black History Month and now has partnerships with major retailers such as West Elm, Bloomingdale’s, All Modern, Perigold, Lulu and Georgia, and Wayfair.
“Working on the creative side, I had no business running a business. It is the hardest thing for me because I am not wired that way,” she said. “I had receipts in a shoe box, no business plan, and then retailers started reaching out.”
Today, Luter is humble about her quick rise to success and credits much of it to the help she sought along the way.
The Crybaby Video
Luter never set out to own her own business. “When I was young, ‘entrepreneur’ wasn’t a word. We were told you had to be a police officer, a school teacher, a nurse,” she said.
When her side hustle took off during the pandemic, she realized she couldn’t keep up and posted a call for help on social media, which she calls her “crybaby video.”
“Working on the creative side, I had no business running a business. It is the hardest thing for me because I am not wired that way,” she said. “I had receipts in a shoe box, no business plan, and then retailers started reaching out.”
The response she received from that vulnerable call for help is what allowed her business to meet demands and grow, and she credits that to the people who showed up, aligning their skill sets with where they could help.
Luter poured what she earned back into her people, and it took a full year before she paid herself. “If I didn’t have my employees, I had nothing because I couldn’t do it on my own,” she said.
She credits the experiences that gave her greater self-knowledge as what helped her become a better businesswoman. “I understand myself better. What I thought were flaws, I can now see as strengths,” Luter said, while commenting about recognizing her own limitations and how that empowered her to seek professionals to help with human resources and the financial side of the business. “You can’t wear all the hats, so you have to trust people,” Luter said.
To better understand her business success is to hear her talk about “failing hard.” “The women who work beside me in my warehouse see me succeed. They see me struggle, they see me laugh, they see me cry,” she said. “I have already failed more than I have succeeded, so I am not afraid to fail again. That mindset gives people the vulnerability to allow the people around them to fill a gap when they don’t have the energy.”
Luter is not alone in her collaborative approach to her business. Engage’s 2024 State of the Majority Summit featured a panel on empowering women entrepreneurs, where several of the speakers attested to the importance of asking for help. “Women, we have ideas, we have thoughts, but not only will we go out and get it done, we’ll go out and ask for help,” LaJuanna Russell, President and CEO of Business Management Associates, Inc., shared with the audience. The panel discussion touched on the importance of women entrepreneurs having their own “kitchen cabinet” who will respond to their “crybaby video” — a team that could include a first boss or even a teenage son who knows more about AI than they do.
