Day 2 - Find funding. Day 367 - find customers.
(go go generic startup picture!)
1 Year Ago - 0$ made, 0 events held, 0 products designed, 0 twerkflows (templates or workflows) made. Applying to a local startup course with a $10,000 grant possibility.
Today - $6,642 made, 16 events held, 5 products designed, 40 twerkflows made. Making sales calls to find buyers for my 2019 lines.
Though I had little idea of how I was going to execute on creating an import company with an innovative business model, I knew I needed money to start it.
I had unwisely burned through my savings in the past year exploring Asia, visiting friends in the U.S. and working for free in a bunch of different spots. Overall, the gear-down and experimentation from that year were critical to finding this business idea, but my wallet was hurting from it. Turned down by the bank for a loan, I was able to find one from a local community development org and they linked me up with a once-a-week startup course that ended in a pitch competition where businesses were vying for 10 grand.
Back then I needed startup capital. Now I need customers. Flash forward to today and my bank account is drained again, but this time it's due to my last purchasing trip in Asia and a big re-supply order of materials for my February events. The great side of this is that I have customers that want my products and people who want to take my workshops.
Half the risk is gone, half the uncertainty with it. But the difficulty level is up. Now it's not just drawing business models on a white board and asking people for loans. Now the pressure is on how to make a crafting workshop a unique experience and hopefully something that is the highlight of someone's month. Working in a small town means that word gets around...and if your events suck you're going to find yourself standing at the front of some empty rooms in the near future.
Check out my few other posts on Steem @
- https://steemit.com/startup/@almostfitz/the-day-it-all-started
- https://steemit.com/startup/@almostfitz/experimenting-with-the-bogo-3-0-business-model
- https://steemit.com/startup/@almostfitz/why-this-business-data-confidence-and-shit-testing
- https://steemit.com/startup/@almostfitz/why-this-business-set-your-anchors-deep
- https://steemit.com/travel/@almostfitz/tourists-pull-your-head-out-of-your-ass
- https://steemit.com/worst/@almostfitz/the-potential-freedom-in-being-the-world-s-worst-entrepreneur
- https://steemit.com/storage/@almostfitz/the-self-storage-industry-feeds-off-laziness-save-money-by-organizing
- https://steemit.com/business/@almostfitz/open-for-business-11-pictures-about-launching-a-startup-speak-11-000-words
- https://steemit.com/shark/@almostfitz/i-binged-5-seasons-of-shark-tank-and-got-something-out-of-it
- https://steemit.com/dnn/@almostfitz/dnn-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-on-how-to-create-a-decentralized-free-news-platform
- https://steemit.com/writing/@almostfitz/free-writing-cage-that-monkey-mind-and-get-creative
- https://steemit.com/data/@almostfitz/stop-wasting-time-168-hours-tracking-system
Check out my posts on my other blog on my Shopify store @