TL;DR
MJ's post resonated with me and I realized I learned all of the lessons in trying to get my bow tie company, Chringle & Co., off the ground.
-----
I read MJ's article "9 "Slap-Your-Face" Lessons You Need to Learn from this Shark Tank Success Story..." today and...wow, is he right!
Like many of you, I've had a number of ideas over the years. In fact, I just went to my Google Drive folder that houses most of the fleshed out plans. There are 42 different ideas/plans in various forms and stages since 2009. And that's just in this folder. If I pull out notebooks, sketch books, note-taking apps, etc. I am sure that number would easily double of triple.
The first problem is I often violated the #1 rule as listed in the article (rules are MJ's):
"#1: Everything Starts With A Need - Not with 'How Do I Make Money?'"
I seem to be pretty good at coming up with clever concepts and ideas that "can make me rich" but do little in the way of solving an actual customer pain point. I'd then lock in on these ideas and think about websites and setting up systems but not on the most crucial thing - Who & Where are my customers?
"#2: Needs Are Uncovered by Engagement - Not By Sitting on Your a$$."
With the first 41 ideas, I had not engaged the marketplace. I did some cursory web searches, checked for available domain names and other wantrepreneur activities. It was not until I started wearing bow ties and tried to build a collection that fit my style did I stumble into #42. Without having a personal itch to scratch, I would not have been able to get started. I now provide casual bow ties at a reasonable price point for people like myself.
"#3: Needs Can Be Solved Inexpensively, But Not Necessarily Easily."
Initially I thought it would be easy to make my bow ties. After all, there are dozens of tutorials online and local sewing classes. So, I bought a sewing machine for a couple hundred dollars and was prepared to invest even more on classes and hours learning how to use it. I figured it'd be easy, but that turned out to be wrong. Not only did I not have the time to devote to learning the basics, I realized that I'd need to put in my 10,000 hours to be at a level where I could create something worth selling.
After that realization, I decided to rethink my approach. I had wasted 6 months and several hundred dollars on what seemed like the easy route (we always think we can just do it ourselves). Following the reboot, I found a professional seamstress on Craigslist who was looking for freelance work. After an initial meeting, one trip to the fabric store and about $70, I had the first two ties of my inaugural collection in less than two weeks. By thinking about the problem differently I was able to get going much faster (see rule #9).
"#4: Not Everyone Likes Coffee"
Obviously, bow ties are not for everyone. Self-tied bow ties are for an even smaller subset of people. Then, considering I was going with cotton versus the traditional silk or polyester-blends, I knew I was further limiting my initial market. Doing so required focus and blocking out the "you should do this" comments from friends and others with opinions, especially when they were not bow tie wearers.
"#5: The Grass Isn't Greener..."
The fashion+style world is driven by trends and it's hard to ignore what you see on other websites, Instagram pages, etc. and not want to quickly introduce new product lines to capitalize on market interest. I've had to remind myself that throwing things at the wall to see what sticks is not the way to go. In fact, I've adjusted my strategy - though the first collection has 8 ties in it, each subsequent collection will be cut in half. It takes focus to do something really well and if I have my team jumping from project to project in order to chase trends, we'll quickly lose the momentum we've built thus far.
Additionally, I'm determined to become a full-time entrepreneur. It's easy to see bloggers and speakers and other company founders and think that's something I can do in order to create more time to work on my bow tie business. However, I have to recognize that the most successful people have put in the time and work to get to that status. The best thing I can do is execute on the single thing that I have validated to this point.
"#6 Those Who Give-Up in The Desert Go Thirsty"
I got a positive response to my soft launch in June. People checked out the landing page and liked my posts on Facebook but only a few people actually subscribed to find out more (even with the enticing offer of Free Shipping For Life!). Instead of letting low conversions get me down, I focused on the most part at the moment: fleshing out the production process in order to make more ties in a repeatable fashion. I soon learned that when I did that, I had actual inventory to show people, to let them touch and truly visualize what I had been talking about.
The time from Sale 1 to Sale 2 was significantly less than time from Sale 0 to Sale 1 because I finally had an MVP that was compelling enough for people to see the value right away.
"#7: You Don't Need to Own a Tech Company to Make a Fortune"
I interpret this rule as "You don't need to be a wizbang programmer to make a fortune." I make this distinction because if you plan to sell online you are, in fact, a tech company. The difference is that lots of smart tech companies have solved many of the technical problems you face in getting started online. My initial landing page was built using Weebly. We've since migrated to Shopify for their more robust ecommerce functionality but there's something to be said about Weebly's easy drag-n-drop functionality.
One way I can differentiate from my competition over time is by creatively employing technology to improve the customer experience with my brand. However, I can only do this once I truly understand our processes and which pieces create the value. In other words, it's important to first do things that don't scale.
"#8: Overnight Success Can Take 3 Years"
I'm now about 4 months into officially launching my bow tie company, Chringle & Co., 9 months since the reboot, but it was something I started talking about almost 2 years ago. With the exception of school, I've never put this much consistent work into a single effort. While we are on track to hit our 2014 goals, we have a long way to go before someone might mistake us for an overnight success. The initial signs are positive though, and serve as fuel to get us to that point over time.
"#9: Without Scale and Time Detachment, Wealth Will Elude You."
My business partner and I talk about 5 years from now. Where are we trying to take the business? He's been selling online for many years now and is a large proponent of systemization and automation. Chringle & Co. is certainly an asset that I am looking to grow and use as a vehicle for wealth creation. I recognize the need to put processes and channels in place that will allow us to eventually scale the business.
MJ's post resonated with me and I realized I learned all of the lessons in trying to get my bow tie company, Chringle & Co., off the ground.
-----
I read MJ's article "9 "Slap-Your-Face" Lessons You Need to Learn from this Shark Tank Success Story..." today and...wow, is he right!
Like many of you, I've had a number of ideas over the years. In fact, I just went to my Google Drive folder that houses most of the fleshed out plans. There are 42 different ideas/plans in various forms and stages since 2009. And that's just in this folder. If I pull out notebooks, sketch books, note-taking apps, etc. I am sure that number would easily double of triple.
The first problem is I often violated the #1 rule as listed in the article (rules are MJ's):
"#1: Everything Starts With A Need - Not with 'How Do I Make Money?'"
I seem to be pretty good at coming up with clever concepts and ideas that "can make me rich" but do little in the way of solving an actual customer pain point. I'd then lock in on these ideas and think about websites and setting up systems but not on the most crucial thing - Who & Where are my customers?
"#2: Needs Are Uncovered by Engagement - Not By Sitting on Your a$$."
With the first 41 ideas, I had not engaged the marketplace. I did some cursory web searches, checked for available domain names and other wantrepreneur activities. It was not until I started wearing bow ties and tried to build a collection that fit my style did I stumble into #42. Without having a personal itch to scratch, I would not have been able to get started. I now provide casual bow ties at a reasonable price point for people like myself.
"#3: Needs Can Be Solved Inexpensively, But Not Necessarily Easily."
Initially I thought it would be easy to make my bow ties. After all, there are dozens of tutorials online and local sewing classes. So, I bought a sewing machine for a couple hundred dollars and was prepared to invest even more on classes and hours learning how to use it. I figured it'd be easy, but that turned out to be wrong. Not only did I not have the time to devote to learning the basics, I realized that I'd need to put in my 10,000 hours to be at a level where I could create something worth selling.
After that realization, I decided to rethink my approach. I had wasted 6 months and several hundred dollars on what seemed like the easy route (we always think we can just do it ourselves). Following the reboot, I found a professional seamstress on Craigslist who was looking for freelance work. After an initial meeting, one trip to the fabric store and about $70, I had the first two ties of my inaugural collection in less than two weeks. By thinking about the problem differently I was able to get going much faster (see rule #9).
"#4: Not Everyone Likes Coffee"
Obviously, bow ties are not for everyone. Self-tied bow ties are for an even smaller subset of people. Then, considering I was going with cotton versus the traditional silk or polyester-blends, I knew I was further limiting my initial market. Doing so required focus and blocking out the "you should do this" comments from friends and others with opinions, especially when they were not bow tie wearers.
"#5: The Grass Isn't Greener..."
The fashion+style world is driven by trends and it's hard to ignore what you see on other websites, Instagram pages, etc. and not want to quickly introduce new product lines to capitalize on market interest. I've had to remind myself that throwing things at the wall to see what sticks is not the way to go. In fact, I've adjusted my strategy - though the first collection has 8 ties in it, each subsequent collection will be cut in half. It takes focus to do something really well and if I have my team jumping from project to project in order to chase trends, we'll quickly lose the momentum we've built thus far.
Additionally, I'm determined to become a full-time entrepreneur. It's easy to see bloggers and speakers and other company founders and think that's something I can do in order to create more time to work on my bow tie business. However, I have to recognize that the most successful people have put in the time and work to get to that status. The best thing I can do is execute on the single thing that I have validated to this point.
"#6 Those Who Give-Up in The Desert Go Thirsty"
I got a positive response to my soft launch in June. People checked out the landing page and liked my posts on Facebook but only a few people actually subscribed to find out more (even with the enticing offer of Free Shipping For Life!). Instead of letting low conversions get me down, I focused on the most part at the moment: fleshing out the production process in order to make more ties in a repeatable fashion. I soon learned that when I did that, I had actual inventory to show people, to let them touch and truly visualize what I had been talking about.
The time from Sale 1 to Sale 2 was significantly less than time from Sale 0 to Sale 1 because I finally had an MVP that was compelling enough for people to see the value right away.
"#7: You Don't Need to Own a Tech Company to Make a Fortune"
I interpret this rule as "You don't need to be a wizbang programmer to make a fortune." I make this distinction because if you plan to sell online you are, in fact, a tech company. The difference is that lots of smart tech companies have solved many of the technical problems you face in getting started online. My initial landing page was built using Weebly. We've since migrated to Shopify for their more robust ecommerce functionality but there's something to be said about Weebly's easy drag-n-drop functionality.
One way I can differentiate from my competition over time is by creatively employing technology to improve the customer experience with my brand. However, I can only do this once I truly understand our processes and which pieces create the value. In other words, it's important to first do things that don't scale.
"#8: Overnight Success Can Take 3 Years"
I'm now about 4 months into officially launching my bow tie company, Chringle & Co., 9 months since the reboot, but it was something I started talking about almost 2 years ago. With the exception of school, I've never put this much consistent work into a single effort. While we are on track to hit our 2014 goals, we have a long way to go before someone might mistake us for an overnight success. The initial signs are positive though, and serve as fuel to get us to that point over time.
"#9: Without Scale and Time Detachment, Wealth Will Elude You."
My business partner and I talk about 5 years from now. Where are we trying to take the business? He's been selling online for many years now and is a large proponent of systemization and automation. Chringle & Co. is certainly an asset that I am looking to grow and use as a vehicle for wealth creation. I recognize the need to put processes and channels in place that will allow us to eventually scale the business.
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