Starting a business the old fashioned way: one customer at a time
One of the most popular questions we get at StartupNation is about start up business financing: how to raise money to start a small business. We even have an entertaining and instructive exercise on StartupNation Radio called the elevator pitch where an entrepreneur pretends she is in an elevator for a 60 second ride with their dream financier. Complete with “elevator music” in the background a brave soul gives their pitch to a nationwide audience and then the Sloan brothers provide valuable critique.
But as I was stuffing, pasting on Greta Garbo postage stamps and licking 100 envelopes this past weekend (the Save the Date cards finally have gone out in the mail for our 1930’s art deco themed August wedding!!) I was reminded of all things old fashioned. Like postage stamps and blue mailboxes by the side of the road.
We tend to get so caught up in the latest & greatest technology as we start and grow a small business, that we lose sight of the basics sometimes. I was 24 years old when I started my small business, a recruiting practice. I used $5,000 in personal savings and another $5,000 I received from my grandparents’ estate to move to Michigan from Pennsylvania and start my dream business.
Within 30 days I had my first client and that’s how I paid the bills until I got my next client, and so on. That bootstrapping money raising strategy lasted 19 years until I joined the StartupNation team in 2004. I was definitely a poor risk for a bank loan, friends & family or angel investors. Venture capital? Forget about it – I wasn’t interested in building the next Google and wasn’t opening a capital intensive business like a restaurant. I just wanted to be self employed and be directly responsible for my own successes and failures.
All I’m saying is that you don’t have to necessarily let something like money stand in the way of starting a business. Grab a customer and get started.
There’s no better time than right now to start it up.
March 13th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Yay Joel…there are countless stories like yours…just watch Food Network’s "Recipies For Success" during which a small business owner talks about how they got started, how much money it took and how they managed to get the money. Fascinating.
I was lucky, I funded the initial concept and brand identity phases, while I was still employed by "bad company"…then I had to do the "elevator" pitch to my husband, who is one of the toughest critics I’ve had to face. He agreed Pet Set was unique, and now we work together. (He still works 9-5, poor guy) but he helps with our site and is our CFO.
I was all set to tend bar, or work at Starbucks…but he came through.
March 14th, 2006 at 10:18 am
You guys are both inspirations.
March 14th, 2006 at 11:05 am
No, you Matt…lol. It’s so easy on this site to find an inspirational place from which to opine…
March 14th, 2006 at 11:30 am
I also started my business while still working full time elsewhere. I won’t call it "bad company" - because it really wasn’t. But, I had started a few businesses (including the one I was working at) in my career, and decided that it was time to build something of my own. I had a few customers before I actually left full time employment and began to build my business on a full time basis. I didn’t get a lot of support from my family - I am a single mom and they worried about me giving up the "so called" stability factor of a steady paycheck. Having my oldest daughter just starting high school gave me the motivation. I figured I had 4 years before college tuition was going to be an issue and I decided once that happened, I may be too scared to give up the safety net.
Like many early entreprenuers, I’m sacrificing now and investing my own personal time and finances into building my busines. I believe in the product/services I offer and I’ve been setting up new customers consistently. I am not sorry that I am taking the risk.
I’ve learned too, that my customers success translates directly into more business for me. I’ve become quite good at networking and referring solid leads to my customers, which means they grow, which means my business grows. One strategy for building a business one customer at a time is to really get to know your customer, and what a good referral for them is - then try to help them grow! In return, they’ll do the same for you. It’s a win win situation!
March 14th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Good going, Linda.
I really do look up to you all for inspiration. I’m still at my day job and working on my ideas on the side, developing them on weekends, lunchtime, and after hours, until they’re ready to take off.
I’m also working with a couple of other start-ups helping them with idea concepting, writing, marketing, PR, etc.
I look forward to the day that I tell you I’m no longer a nine to fiver…
But, no matter what happens, it’s these little side projects that give me the biggest charge.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:59 am
> All I’m saying is that you don’t have to necessarily let something like money stand in the way of starting abusiness. Grab a customer and get started.
I agree with you, Joel.
Although a lack of capital will stem your businesses growth, there are plenty of ways around it. In my experience, just asking family members for a short loan is one method of gaining some startup capital. It’s quite often a free loan too! ;- )