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Amy Mokris, Founder and CEO of <a href="http://lecoeurwatches.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=young-entrepreneurs-amy-mokris-of-le-coeur-8671" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Le Coeur watches</a>, can look back at the past five years and point out exactly when the path to her present was established.

&ldquo;I moved to Paris on whim,&rdquo; says Mokris. &ldquo;I had the intention to stay there for three months, but I lived there for a year. A lot of the best experiences I&rsquo;ve had in life were because I was naive enough to believe they&rsquo;d work. And then they did.&rdquo;

After college, she landed jobs in Paris and in Chicago focused on branding and product development. &ldquo;That was kind of the pivot point for me because it got me thinking about the brand approach,&rdquo; says Mokris. &ldquo;I was working with clients based on their specific marketing and branding needs and I really loved that directed approach.&rdquo;

In Chicago, Mokris found herself on a marketing team with serial entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis, who became her mentor. His influence continued to get Mokris&rsquo; wheels turning about becoming an entrepreneur herself. But then she had to decide what that would look like.

In 2015, Mokris launched Le Coeur, a watch company striving to make beautiful, quality and minimalist timepieces. To raise money, she created a Kickstarter campaign in April 2015, which raised over $10K in just two days. The consistent marketing and social media plan Mokris and her team had worked on throughout 2014 created a buzz and insistency around her watches. Then, seemingly overnight, her hard work had paid off and she had a product people wanted.

As is the case for most entrepreneurs, Mokris&rsquo; business idea was born out of an unmet need. She couldn&rsquo;t find watches she liked, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.

&ldquo;Le Coeur was really just a side project for me,&rdquo; says Mokris. &ldquo;I started doing watch development and design because I couldn&rsquo;t find any with clean and minimalist designs. As I began building the brand, I wanted to incorporate things I felt the industry was missing.&rdquo;

Mokris sites having mentors as one of the most important things you can leverage as an entrepreneur. Now that Le Coeur is her full-time gig, she&rsquo;s made it a point to remain close with Lemonis and the entire marketing team they worked with.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s incredibly important to have a trusted network you can turn to,&rdquo; says Mokris. &ldquo;Even with launching Le Coeur, every single project I think won&rsquo;t have any flaws always has something unexpected happen that I learn from. I always view things that go wrong as learning experiences. And knowing that I have the support of my mentors makes all the difference.&rdquo;

Others&rsquo; willingness to help anyway that they can&mdash;to have all hands on deck when you&rsquo;re trying to&nbsp;grow something you love&mdash;has been incredibly inspiring to Mokris as she gets her business off that ground.

&ldquo;People are so willing to help you achieve your dreams,&rdquo; she says.

For other entrepreneurs, especially newer ones, Mokris&rsquo; biggest piece of advice is this: &ldquo;Let the love drive you, and not the money. The money will always come. Working on Le Coeur never feels like work for me. It&rsquo;s a part of me that I want to be doing at all times. Money is just kind of a pleasant side effect.&rdquo;

People don&rsquo;t work 60 to 80 hours a week just to make money, Mokris points out. Something else must drive you.&nbsp;

Photo courtesy&nbsp;Natalie Probst.

Young Entrepreneurs: Amy Mokris of Le Coeur 

1851 Franchise

Le Coeur Founder and CEO Amy Mokris explains why she lets passion drive her business. 


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