When we started Charliemadison Originals in 2014, we had about $200, an Etsy shop, and absolutely no idea how much we didn’t know.

There was no big business plan. No investors. No MBA. No carefully mapped-out strategy for where we wanted the business to be in five or ten years.

There was an idea, some handmade jewelry, and a willingness to figure things out as we went.

And we did.

Over the next 12 years, that little Etsy shop grew into a business that has given us opportunities we never could have imagined when we started. We learned how to build websites, take product photos, market our products, manage inventory, work with wholesale accounts, collaborate with other brands and nonprofits, hire help, build a military family community, and navigate the million other things that come with owning a business.

Some things worked.

Some things definitely did not.

And after five years of Wendy running the business solo, Madison joined her and what started as a creative side project became the mother-daughter business we run together today.

We learned a lot about business during those years.

But we also learned something else:

We were really good at making business harder than it needed to be.

When Business Starts to Feel More Complicated

Entrepreneurship gives you an almost endless supply of things you could be doing.

There’s always another strategy to try. Another book to read. Another podcast to listen to. Another platform you should probably be on. Another course promising to teach you the thing you haven’t figured out yet.

And when you really care about your business, it’s incredibly easy to convince yourself that you should be doing all of it.

We certainly did.

We researched when we probably needed to make a decision.

We looked for more information when we certainly already had enough.

We spent too much time wondering what other businesses were doing.

We had too many ideas competing for our attention.

We waited to feel more certain before trying things that ultimately could only be figured out by trying them.

And yes, we occasionally spent an embarrassing amount of time perfecting something that probably would have been perfectly fine three versions earlier.

The longer we were in business, the more we began to recognize these patterns—not just in ourselves, but in conversations with other entrepreneurs.

So many smart, capable women weren’t struggling because they weren’t working hard enough or because they needed another business strategy.

Sometimes, they were simply getting in their own way.

What If We Made Business a Little Less Complicated?

After more than a decade of entrepreneurship, we’ve realized that some of our biggest breakthroughs didn’t come from finally discovering the perfect answer.

They came from trying something.

We would learn what we could, make a decision, take action, and see what happened.

If it worked, we paid attention to why.

If it didn’t, we learned something from that too.

Then we adjusted and tried again.

Over and over.

Eventually, we realized that this was more than just the way we happened to run our business. It was a way of thinking about entrepreneurship that had helped us navigate 12 years of change.

Learn. Take action. Pay attention. Adjust. Keep going.

That became the foundation for what we now call the LABS Method:

Learning → Action → Breakthrough → Sustainability

You don’t need to know everything before you start.

You don’t need to make the perfect decision.

And you definitely don’t need to follow every piece of business advice you find on the internet.

You need a way to move forward, learn from what happens, and use what you learn to decide what comes next.

That realization planted the seed for something new.

Why We Created Charliemadison Labs

For years, Charliemadison Originals has given us the opportunity to connect with women from all over the military community and beyond.

We’ve met women with incredible ideas, skills, experience, and ambitions. We’ve met women building businesses while raising families, caregiving, working full-time jobs, navigating military moves and deployments, or trying to figure out what comes next after a major life or career change.

And we’ve seen how easy it is to believe there is one right way to be an entrepreneur.

Open Instagram for five minutes and you’ll probably find a list of things you’re supposedly doing wrong.

You should be posting more.

You should have an email funnel.

You should build passive income.

You should find your niche.

You should launch.

You should scale.

You should automate.

You should probably be doing all of that before lunch.

It’s no wonder so many women feel behind before they’ve even really begun.

We wanted to create something different.

Charliemadison Labs is business education for women who want practical help figuring out what makes sense for their business and their life.

Not someone else’s.

We don’t believe you need a perfect plan before you begin. We believe action often creates the clarity you’re waiting for.

We don’t believe you need to consume endless amounts of information. We believe learning should support action, not replace it.

We don’t believe your business should require you to pretend the rest of your life doesn’t exist. Your time, energy, responsibilities, priorities, and current season all matter.

And we don’t believe our job is to hand you all the answers.

In fact, after 12 years in business, we’ve gotten much more comfortable admitting that we don’t have all the answers either.

What we have gotten much better at is asking the questions that help us find our own.

And that’s what we want to help other entrepreneurs learn to do too.

We’re Still Learning, Too

Creating Charliemadison Labs doesn’t mean we’ve graduated from entrepreneurship and moved over to the side where everyone has everything figured out.

We’re still running Charliemadison Originals.

We’re still experimenting.

We’re still changing our minds.

We still have ideas that don’t work.

We still occasionally chase shiny objects, overthink decisions, and make things more complicated than they need to be.

The difference is that we’re much better at recognizing it now.

And we’ve built tools and ways of thinking that help us find our way forward when it happens.

That’s what we’re bringing to Charliemadison Labs.

This isn’t a place where we’re going to tell you there’s one right way to build a business.

It’s a place to learn, experiment, ask better questions, take action, and build something that works for you.

Because after 12 years, there’s one thing we know for sure:

You don’t need a perfect plan. You need a repeatable way to test, learn, and grow.

And that’s exactly what we’re here to help you do.

Before you go, we’ll leave you with one question to consider and one small step you can take.

Consider this:
Where might I be making business harder than it needs to be right now?

Try this:
Think about one thing you’ve been researching, reconsidering, planning, or trying to perfect. Instead of looking for one more answer, ask yourself:

What’s one small action I could take that would give me actual information?

Then try it.

You might learn more from doing that one small thing than you will from another week of thinking about it.