Lauren Conrad: Don't Be Afraid to Learn as You Go, Entrepreneurs! The co-founder of The Little Market says it can be a benefit to not know about every problem you're about to face.

By Dan Bova

Lauren Conrad, co-founder of nonprofit fair trade shop The Little Market, admits that going into the process of starting a business, she and Hannah Skvarla didn't know what they didn't know. "It might have been a blessing because starting a non-profit is very overwhelming and it could have been intimidating in the beginning," she explains. "This way we tackled problems as they came."

Rather than being crushed by a mountain of problems, Lauren and Hannah took things one step at a time, taking the advice of experts in the industry. "It takes a while to start a business or a non-profit, and we were able to take our time and grow the business organically." Being forced to move slowly, Lauren says, turned out to be a big benefit, giving them the time to learn about their customers, and grow at a sustainable, manageable pace.

Presented by Mastercard. Learn how Mastercard is helping bring local businesses into the digital economy at Mastercard.us/digitaldoors.

Dan Bova

Entrepreneur Staff

VP of Special Projects

Dan Bova is the VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com. He previously worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live, Maxim, and Spy magazine. His latest books for kids include This Day in History, Car and Driver's Trivia ZoneRoad & Track Crew's Big & Fast Cars, The Big Little Book of Awesome Stuff, and Wendell the Werewolf

Read his humor column This Should Be Fun if you want to feel better about yourself.

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