I remember my first business venture, I was six years old.
At the time my dad owned a small bakery and would dazzle my sister and I with his creative baking skills. He would treat us to super-sized ladybird buns, gingerbread men (and ladies), piglets made of white chocolate eggs, making up their quirky faces and squiggly tails with icing. His cakes were quite a spectacle and one of my favourite cakes he made was called the Princess Cake. The Princess Cake was made out of a doll encircled by a massive, dome skirt made out of flowers with layers upon layers of icing. My dad would use a cheaper “Made in China Barbie Doll” version instead of the trendy looking R150 Barbie Dolls that were in stores.
I got my hands on one of these dolls and realised how much more fun they were than the real Barbie, it was fun cutting their hair and doing kiddie-like graffiti on them. I could never do that on the R150 ones, my mum would threaten that if I dared ruin their perfectly painted faces or chopped off their beautiful long hair, the doll would never be replaced and will remain ugly, forever… The idea and horror of an ugly Barbie… Ugly Barbie would never capture Beach Barbie Ken’s eye on Summer holiday, which meant never getting married (Wedding Barbie), never have babies (Pregnant Barbie) and will never embark on a fruitful career as a show jumper / lead singer in a band / fashion designer come top model. he will never get to live in the dream house with the lift and walk-in dressing room, sports car, horse and swimming pool! Pretty Barbie just deserved better…
I think I enjoyed these second-class dolls for the lack of perfection pressure and at playtime noticed the other girls in my school liked playing with them as well. So I took a couple of these el cheapo dolls from my dad’s storage section in our house and I sold them for R2, which meant I made a 100% profit! I loved my job and the extra pocket money, I was also providing a service and making people happy, I liked the exchange. I was a go-to person. I am pretty sure I even sold one to my younger sister who could get one for free, this was due to my unique selling point, the fun of a Barbie Doll that you could mutilate and neglect. We were all in fact CHEATING on Barbie and all the crazy that came with maintaining, competing and having to provide for her perfect life of fashion, the lifestyle of luxury and leisure and accessories for her and for me.
Until my dad confronted me about my moral decay, I had a thriving, exciting business, this was my first taste of the entrepreneurial adventure and I loved it!
My small business Soulshine Cards is in its first year, still in its infancy, and I am proud to say that they are selling in 11 stores, 1 beauty salon, and have been featured in South African magazines and blogs as well as circulating the Cape Town markets. Below is what I have learned from my first year having a small business:
1. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as good debt (as long as you plan to pay it back). Fear of not having money or owing money motivates you to work harder.
2. Ask for help. It is in our nature to want to help people especially those who take a leap of faith for a dream and make themselves vulnerable to the big world out there. I even have store managers giving me ideas for new products.
3. Every contact is an opportunity, even a mishap could turn into a massive opportunity – so before you throw your toys, tap into the opportunist in you.
4. Your true friends will go out of their way to help and support you. Being a referral or a kind word, fortunately I have many true friends (*-love-*).
5. Everything is your responsibility, everything. If you blame others and look for excuses for your setbacks you will never grow or learn from your mistakes.
6. You have to start somewhere. As a graphic designer when helping my friends out with their own businesses there is this idea (or fear) that everything has to be “perfect” before you start. Chances are it won’t be and you will change the name, web domain, blog address, contact details as your business grows, it is a journey and sometimes it is an organic one.
7. Intention. Be honest with yourself around why you want to embark on this business journey. If your intention is money (lovely), however you may not see it for a while. You need to be passionate about your product or service, or at least believe in it, people want to help people and buy products that people are passionate about. Attraction.
8. Record everything, from the get go, I kind of did but still had to take a whole work week to figure out and put a system in place and to catch up on the lack of structure in the beginning, that is why recording everything is important, slips, suppliers, contacts, EVERYTHING because you never know what you are missing.
9. Some people will not believe in your product and will belittle your hard work in front of you, they will tell you everything they don’t like about it and why it will never do well. Can you imagine being negative about a positive South African product! I now smile at the irony, but at the time I was devastated and questioned my venture. Thanks to all those negative vortexes out there that have made me a fighter, you rock!
10. There is always a niche for something, think out the box and just to prove it see below.
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Tags: soulshine cards, tatum cochrane
November 30, 2010 at 8:00 am |
I like. I started my first entrepreneurial adventure when I was 12 years old. My brother was the Video Camera man and I would drum up the business. Long after that I am still always looking for the next big investment and you are right, you gotta believe in what you do! Nice post!