My approach to business wasn't learned from theory. It was built through experience
ALWAYS EVOLVING
My Experience
I became an entrepreneur at 18, at a time when entrepreneurship wasn't the path it is today, especially for young orthodox women. I saw a gap in the market and built a business to fill it.
Over the next 21 years, while raising two children, I grew the business into three retail stores and a manufacturing operation.
The business never stayed the same for long. Every season brought change. I was constantly adapting to the market, evolving what we offered, improving how we operated, and looking ahead to what was next. Staying status quo was never really an option. I was always asking: What are we learning? What needs to change? What can we improve? What's the next opportunity?
Over those years, I worked across every area of the business: product development, sales and customer experience, hiring and training, systems and operations, data and analysis, strategy, and growth. That gave me the ability to see how the different parts of a business connect and how a decision in one area can affect everything around it.
Today, I bring those 21 years of experience into helping other businesses solve problems, uncover opportunities, and continue evolving.
Hadassah Spilman
My Approach to Business
A few examples of the principles that shaped how I built, operated, and grew my business.
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Look at the business as a whole, not just the performance of its individual parts.
I learned to look at how different areas of the business affected one another and continually evaluate where our time, money, and resources could create the most value.
Our casual department was profitable, but it required an entirely different side of the business: outside vendors, separate inventory, and a significant amount of time, attention, and resources.
Meanwhile, it was taking focus away from developing and scaling the eveningwear we designed and manufactured ourselves, which was uniquely ours and had become our specialty.
I chose to close a profitable department and redirect those resources toward what we could multiply and grow, eventually expanding into additional locations.
I wasn't only looking at what was making money. I was looking at what we were trying to build and where our resources could take us further.
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One of the most valuable skills I developed through business was learning not to mistake my first impression for the full picture.
Customers who appeared unlikely to spend much sometimes became my best customers. Others who seemed ready to spend freely turned out to be the most difficult. Employees who looked excellent on paper didn't always perform as expected, while others surprised me with what they were capable of.
Even customers' style preferences often challenged what I assumed based on how they looked.
Through these experiences, I learned to question my assumptions, stay curious, and pay attention to what people actually showed me rather than what I expected to see.
The more I looked beyond the surface, the more information I could recognize, and the better equipped I became to understand people, make decisions, and see opportunities I might otherwise have missed.
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I learned that identifying a problem doesn't necessarily mean understanding what's causing it. Rather than jumping to a solution, I would break situations into their individual variables to understand what was actually happening.
If a garment wasn't selling, was it the fit? The fabric? The design? Where it was placed on the racks? The season? Or how the sales team was presenting it?
If an employee wasn't succeeding in a role, was it a skill they needed to develop? Something in my approach to them? Or were their strengths better suited somewhere else?
Looking beneath the surface helped me address the actual issues rather than make assumptions. And every problem became an opportunity to gather information I could use to make better decisions throughout the business.
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Data & Business Analysis
I learned that collecting data is only valuable when you understand what you're looking for and what the information actually means.
I had custom reports created around the questions I wanted answered. But I never looked at the numbers without considering the circumstances behind them.
If ten of the same item sold, did ten different customers buy it? Did one customer buy ten? Or did one salesperson particularly like the item and know how to sell it?
The numbers told me what happened. Understanding the context helped me recognize why it happened, what I could learn from it, and how to use that information to make better decisions.
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Sales
Great sales start with understanding, not convincing.
Sales became one of my greatest sources of information about the business. Every conversation gave me an opportunity to understand what customers were looking for, what mattered to them, and what we could do to serve them better.
The more I listened, asked questions, and paid attention to the circumstances behind their requests, the more I understood what products to create, what needed improving, and where opportunities existed.
That information influenced far more than sales. It helped shape our designs, inventory, systems, customer experience, and business decisions.
I learned that the more I understood the people I was serving, the better I could build a business that actually met their needs.
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Systems & Operations
I learned that effective systems need to be built around how the work actually happens, not just what looks good in theory.
I created systems across virtually every part of the business, from sales, hiring, and training to inventory, receiving, merchandise transfers, and daily operations.
I often did the jobs myself to understand where time was being wasted, what was creating unnecessary friction, and how the processes could work more efficiently.
As the business grew, I learned the importance of clearly defining roles and responsibilities so multiple things could happen simultaneously without everyone needing to do everything.
The result was a business that could operate more efficiently, consistently, and with less dependence on any one person.
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My mission and values weren't just words written on a wall. They were what I genuinely believed in, and they guided everything I did in my business.
They shaped how we sold, served customers, trained employees, created policies, made decisions, and developed the business.
When making decisions, I didn't only consider what would be most profitable or easiest. I also considered whether those decisions aligned with what we stood for and the experience we wanted to create.
For me, our values had to be reflected in how the business actually operated, not just in what we said we believed.
What Came Next
One of my greatest accomplishments was having the strength to sell the business I had spent over 20 years building, a business I loved and was part of who I was.
Not because it wasn't successful or because I wanted to stop working, but because I recognized that when business partners are no longer aligned in their vision and approach, continuing together can destroy both the business and the people behind it.
It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. It took me a year to mourn what I had built, but I knew it was the right decision because I could see what the alternative would cost us both.
Throughout my years in business, I continuously studied business and personal development, fascinated by how people's thinking and perspectives influence their experiences and decisions. This past year, I explored coaching and logotherapy more deeply, which led me to begin developing a nonprofit initiative offering a new approach to personal development.
I also continued investing and creating, including developing a short-term rental property and its guest experience, from the overall concept to the smallest details.
Through all of this, I've become even clearer about where my strengths lie: seeing possibilities, looking beneath the surface to understand the deeper meaning behind things, connecting ideas, solving problems, and turning concepts into reality.
I now want to focus my energy where my strengths can create the most value, working alongside purpose-driven business owners who are passionate about what they're building and want someone who can help them see more, think bigger, and bring their ideas to life.