DALLAS — Did you know? Your sleep style is how you wake up and not how you fall asleep.
Connie Babikian, who owns The Pillow Bar says to pay attention to how you wake up in the morning and that is your true sleep style.
Babikian says she makes a pillow for every sleep style; she leads an all-female team making custom, hypoallergenic pillows and her business strategy might help people sleep better.
"We have a product that makes people happy and healthy and that's special, so there's a purpose to what we're doing here," says Connie Babikian.
A purpose is what Connie Babikian was searching for when she made the leap from finance to purchase The Pillow Bar.
"It was an opportunity that arose at a moment in my life where I was really focusing on how I wanted to spend my time, trying to be very intentional. Every minute I spend here is a minute I'm not with my son or daughter," says Babikian.
Her small team is like family and they’re all hands on deck. Making pillows may be delicate, but scaling any business can be rough.
"My grandfather says this, he gave me this piece of advice when I was moving into a totally new business; He said, 'Hire the right people, hire people you can trust that are talented and then get out of their way,' and that's something I try to do both at work and at home," says Babikian.
Babikian admits, entrepreneurship is an adjustment. As a financial analyst, there’s a precise calculation; as a leader, you’ve got to be willing to take risks and make a mistake.
"There's always something that is going to come up, you have to just act, you can't freak out. There's not always going to be a perfect neat answer to everything, and you just go with it," says Babikian.
Connie and her team launched a new product to grow her direct-to-consumer portion of the business; the gamble paid off – the robe sold out!
"We have an awesome team of women from various walks of life, various ages, various stages of life, and we talk. We all have lunch together every day and we sit around the table, and we talk about things," says Babikian.
A built-in customer base right in the building. Connie says her success is tantamount to listening – to her team and customers.
"We answer the phone when you call, one of us is picking up. We forward the phones at night so that each person on our team takes them at night when we talk to our customers," says Babikian.
Daybreak Anchor Kara Sewell asked Babikian how often you people should get a new pillow. Babikian says, "Think about your favorite button-down shirt, if were to wear it 8-hours a day, every day after one to two years it would be time for a refresh. So, my rule of them is about one to two years."