Start Up Kids Line

ready to jump in?

June 25th, 2010

Come on in, the water’s nice. It’s work. It’s hard work. It takes more self-motivation than you imagine you have the ability to produce. But if you have been blessed enough to discover your passion, you darn near have an obligation to jump in and after it. I think I jumped in at the wrong time – maybe I wasn’t as ready as I should have been. But what else would I have done? Not jumped? Ha ha ha ha

So, right now, I write for additional money while I’m raising my business and my family out of a recession. But we are still here – and growing. Finally growing. I don’t think I’d be half the business owner I am now without the recession. I lost a lot of kindred spirits through it – I watched some throw in the towel early with an “I-see-the-writing-on-wall-and-I’m-outta-here”. They closed their doors before I really wanted to see, or believe, that we had launched at the brink of a sinking economy.

And they kept surrendering, so many shutting their doors – just facing the fact they weren’t going to pull through. And in turn we lost a lot when so many closed their doors.

A certain amount of bull-headedness saw me through times I logically should have thrown in the towel. But tsk-tsk -tsk, in spite of all the craziness, I kept persistent and I learned. I learned how to love my business again, I learned what a blessing it is to be brave enough to follow my passion, but, most importantly, I’ve learned to run a much tighter ship.

Recession Lessons

1. It doesn’t matter how much I love a product – if that product is not selling, must cut the fat. As hard as it is, or as much as I KNOW it’s an incredibly fabulous design, it’s best to learn to let go from the beginning. Plus, it makes it easier to walk into a retailer’s super-cool boutique, put your designs on the table, and take an onslaught of comments with a grain of salt.
2. Location matters and sometimes it’s better to be selective – it really doesn’t matter if you have umpteen boutiques under your belt if those boutiques aren’t producing for you. Focus on the retailers who are jazzed about your product, give it fair shelf space, and reorder and reorder and reorder. ***I say this over and over again, but it goes both ways, your product better DESERVE shelf space
3. Watch every dime, plan, and never let up - always true; but I tell you I’m a lot better at it after the pain of the last two years.

My point here is that yes, you are likely to go through incredibly stressful times too, just like me, but what’s the other option really? You have your gut, your guardian angels, your dreams – all telling you this is your passion and you’re going to hold back? The time is going to pass anyway, you might as well walk to the path you were born too. It’s a lot more painful to live a life that is a lie – right, you hear me?

Honestly, I feel like I’m rebuilding a business from the ground up, so build one with me. Start talking OUT LOUD about starting your own line, start sharing your designs, think of the perfect name and commission  a logo design, get your business license – start taking the doggy-paddling steps that will gear you up for jumping off the diving board.

          

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