No salary? No problem. Here’s how Luxola’s CEO brought her startup through tough times.

“Behind every beautiful thing, there’s some kind of pain.” Taken from a Bob Dylan song, this line has got to be the most apt description for cosmetics e-tailer Luxola’s current success.

When Luxola first started, there were months where founder and CEO Alexis Horowitz-Burdick could not pay herself or her team, as there was no predictability and stability in the business at that point of time. In certain months, the company would earn only S$10,000 (US$7,720), and S$50,000 (US$38,600) in another. Being the CEO, she naturally felt responsible for her team’s well-being. Fortunately, her colleagues believed in the company and the vision, and were willing to sacrifice and forgo their salaries for the bigger mission.

The secret to achieving that? An innate sense of trust in the company’s upper management. Evidently, trust is the big word that infiltrates every aspect of the fashion startup’s operations – from adopting an open office environment where the senior management sits with the rest of the team, to its careful product selection so customers can shop without worrying that the product they want to purchase is a fake.

Alexis’ advice to budding entrepreneurs who have set their hearts on starting up a company is to embrace failure as part of the process:

Don’t be afraid of failing. It’s not a big deal. It takes most people multiple attempts to have a successful startup. So fail quickly and get yourself back up again.

Enjoy the video!

[Video production credits: OHBOY! Pictures]