{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Breaking the Sex Shop Glass Ceiling with Searah Desaych","description":"Brian Thompson chats with Searah Desaych, the founder of feminist sex shop Early to Bed. For the past 20 years, Early to Bed has operated both as a retail store and as a safe place to explore sexuality. Searah founded the company to create the warm, women-oriented, queer and trans-positive environment she wished existed in the male-dominated sex shop industry. On the episode, Searah shares some of the hurdles she\u2019s faced in her two decades at the helm of Early to Bed. She also discusses how she\u2019s managed her anxieties around running a business and praises the importance of networking and being kind. Episode Highlights Mission-driven businesses sometimes make unprofitable choices. Early to Bed is a for-profit business, but it\u2019s also a mission-driven one, Searah explained. Searah will make a decision most in-line with the mission of the store -- even if it isn\u2019t profitable. In practice, that means Early to Bed holds raffles, donates products, and provides education to benefit the community. \u201cThe business is about more than profit,\u201d Searah said. \u201cSometimes I don\u2019t make a profitable choice. Sometimes, I make the choice that\u2019s best for my employees and for what I want to be in the world rather than making money.\u201d Follow a business plan -- when it makes sense. After dropping out of graduate school, Searah had a business plan she now says had no basis in reality. She quickly learned she had to ditch the plan and be flexible to make the business work. \u201cIf I had tried to use that plan to drive the business, I don\u2019t know where I'd be,\u201d Searah said. At the same time, Searah needs to make smart business decisions even if they\u2019re not what she had initially envisioned. For instance, she didn't like the idea of creating an online storefront for her business, but she realized it's a necessity in the modern era.  \u201cI\u2019m an idiot if I\u2019m going to stop people from Texas buying my products,\u201d she said. \u201cSo even though that wasn\u2019t part of my mission in the beginning, I decided to do that.\u201d The anxiety is always going to be there. About seven years into her entrepreneurial career, Searah asked a business owner when the worrying about running a business stops. The answer wasn\u2019t what she had hoped for. \u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, honey, never,\u2019\u201d Searah said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how long, you\u2019re always going to have those worries.\u201d Now that she\u2019s 20 years into running Early to Bed, Searah worries less than she used to. But she can confirm that the anxiety never fully subsides. \u201cI go to sleep pretty soundly every night, but it\u2019s always in the back of your head forever,\u201d Searah said. Resources + Links Early to Bed Searah\u2019s Social Media: Twitter, LinkedIn Brian\u2019s Social Media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook  About Brian and the Mission Driven Business Podcast  Brian Thompson, JD\/CFP, is a tax attorney and certified financial planner who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit. On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too. ","author_name":"Mission Driven Business","author_url":"https:\/\/btfinancial.com\/podcast","html":"