Cakes Body is a small operation. The e-commerce retailer, which makes nipple covers, has roughly 30 employees who work remotely across the U.S.

Even so, the team recently enjoyed a full month of paid time off around the holidays — and co-founders Taylor Capuano and Casey Sarai hope to make it a twice-yearly occasion.

The twin sisters, 32, kicked around the idea after each went on maternity leave for three months in 2024, yet their business grew nearly eight-fold from $10 million in annual sales to $75 million in annual sales.

"We wouldn't have been able to achieve this level of growth without a team that was very dedicated," Capuano the company's chief creative officer, tells CNBC Make It.

The extended break and continued growth "requires a lot of trust in your team. We only have A-players," she adds. "So it feels very natural to be giving them time off."

Signs they look for to hire 'A-players'

Capuano and Sarai say hiring the right people allows them to do more work in less time.

One of the biggest things they look for in a new hire is someone who is proactive.

"The thing that stands out to me about our team is nobody needs to be managed," says Sarai, the company's CEO. The business does have managers but has a pretty flat hierarchy, she says, "and that's why they can move things along so quickly."

Put another way, the two look for "someone who's going to make your problems their problems," Capuano says.

She gives an example of when Cakes launched on TikTok Shop in early 2024.

"Most brands couldn't win on it because they couldn't even set up the platform, because there were so many bugs and headaches and challenges," Capuano says. "The woman that really like dug in and made it her problem — she was actually doing legal contracting for us for 10 hours a week."

When she learned the company was having trouble getting on the platform, "she just rolled up her sleeves" and "cracked the code on it," Capuano says.

That employee successfully got Cakes Body set up on TikTok Shop, and Capuano says that allowed the business to make $15 million in sales for the year.

'Do what has to get done'

Given her hiring strategy, it makes sense that the best career advice Capuano ever received came from her father, who said: "If taking out the trash is going to help the salesperson sell more, your job is to take out the trash."

"It was just the lesson of: Do what has to get done," Capuano says. "And that can be extremely valuable to the organization."

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