10 Successful Business Owners Pass On Insight They Wished They Had When Starting Out

Malene Barnett

Bold colors and eye-catching designs have always fascinated Malene Barnett, who studied textile design at FIT in New York City. After graduation, she worked as the design director for Afritex, designing African print fabrics. She moved on to Nourison Rugs, one of the world’s largest importers of handmade rugs, as their first in-house designer. By 2003, she had the entrepreneurial itch, but her focus was on creating innovative bedding designs for the home-furnishings industry.

By the summer of 2008, Barnett decided to focus on her real passion, carpet design and launched Malene B. Barnett’s carpets are inspired by her international travels and her African-Caribbean heritage (her father is Jamaican, her mother is from St. Vincent). Her first carpet design for the Malene B collection was Wolof, which celebrated the Wolof people of Senegal.

What she wished she knew:

“I wish I’d known the importance of keeping business records. I recently started using quickbooks to keep track if my transactions and financial records. It has made a huge difference in processing orders, tracking expenses and making business decisions on how to grow.”