TL;DR: info about me, context, SBA loans, the difficulty of funding a business, my attempt at making an alternate strategy for funding, networking, email acquisition on LinkedIn, and general thoughts on entering entrepreneurshipForewordFirst off, this is a throwaway account. I’m neither doing this for self-promotion nor karma. All I want is maybe to spark a single conversation- or help a single budding entrepreneur. That would make me more than happy.So then… Who am I? What do I do? Why am I journaling my business?Good questions, you read my mind. I’ve been a long time lurker of this subreddit, and when I began the process of envisioning a business, I noticed that a vast majority of posts were tech or surrounded SaaS (software as a service). Well, I aimed to do something entirely different. I’m trying to start a fashion company that is also involved in nightlife and consultation. Crazy.In terms of motive, I'm not being entirely truthful. Yes, altruistically, I want to share my journey, mistakes, and process. But I also know one important thing: having a journal is a great way to commit to progress, and it’s a great way to reflect on your ideas. Hopefully, this will be as interesting for you guys out there as it is also useful/entertaining for me.Okay. Let’s go.Prologue__________About 5 months ago, I was visiting a store I used to work at. Once upon a time, I worked as a sales associate there. My boss was a mentor-like figure. A hustler from the Bronx, he built himself from a kid who did sketchy club promotion, to a pretty well known manager in the retail circuit. He had the unique ability to take underperforming stores and unfuck them. I learned so much from both him and the job were, but eventually got an opportunity to move up in the world. While visiting the store, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia, but also the memories of a younger version of me. I fundamentally believed there was something novel and unique I could do, and was a niche I had to fill. In that moment, I decided to start a business.The next 3 months were conceptual. I've worked and interned in sales and branding, so those are where my strengths lie. I started by conceptualized the idea and writing a business plan draft. Pitched it to a couple willing friends and family, then workshopped the idea and its execution. You see, just having an idea is fine and dandy. “Oh, I want to start a fashion company”. Cool. But how are you going to make it appealing? That question was loaded as hell, so I got to grinding. I wrote a 40 page business proposal that covered everything from marketing, philosophy, design concepts, potential profit projections, and more. At this point, I realized that I needed to fill in gaps in my skill-set. To start with, I can’t design clothing. It may seem crazy that someone who is starting a fashion company can’t do that, but bear with me. It's my belief that as the company's leader, my time is better suited to conceptualizing how the company will succeed and executing that. Of course, I'm not just the idea and marketing guy. I studied art in college, so I actually can contribute to the artistic development of the company.With that in mind, now I needed a team and money. A lot more than I had.The Grind for Funding__________I'm lucky to know a decent amount of people from my college days who are designers, architects, painters, and artists. Fast forward past a couple phone calls, a glass (or two) of whisky), and a brunch- and I had my team. These people are as passionate about art as I am about business, so when I presented them with an interesting concept, they latched on to it. I communicated that I couldn’t pay them much at first (yes, I am paying them), but with the help of a lawyer, we put into legal wording their expectations, ownership of the company, and the division of future money.None of them really care about money or expect it to go anywhere. Something tells me, if I prove them wrong, they probably won't mind too much.Now, what about money? The gargantuan and Olympian task that so often befalls titles and discussions in the sub. At this point, I was on a damn role in my head, and was hellbent on doing this my way. Did some research, and decided an SBA loan was my best bet. (foreshadowing: it probably wasn't). I finished up a business plan, and like a 7 year old on the way to their first day of school, began hippity-hopping to banks asking for loans.Quick interlude. For those who don’t know about SBA loans, here’s how they work. The Small Business Administration (SBA), works with banks to subsidize startup and small business lending. This allows banks to take risks with first time business owners and smaller establishments because they are backed by the bank.Here’s the catch- The SBA isn’t who determines how a bank decides eligibility.Back in the day, you used to have to apply to the bank, and then apply to the SBA. Now, the SBA partners with certain big banks (think HSBC, Chase, etc) and trusts them to determine lender eligibility. So one bank may have one set of requirements, and another bank wildly different ones. The one universality is that you will be expected to cover 5-10% of the loan you are asking for. So, let’s say you ask for 100k$. You’ll get a 90-95k loan and have to cover 5-10k yourself.I spoke with about 10 banks in two weeks, and quickly realized that there were only 2-3 within reach. Most of them wanted serious skin in the game, like a house. Unfortunately, I have neither a lot of money in my bank account, nor a house, nor a business with 2 years of profit. The few that I could actually apply to are going to be hail Mary’s, to say the least. Regardless, I needed to incorporate to apply, so after a few weeks wait, I was registered and began the process of applying to said banks. (It’s a headache that namely involves my tax returns and other legal identification, but I will update you guys more on the process as it goes through.)Nothing was really panning out, so while sick with the flu for a wee, and in an Advil induced delirium, I realize that I was missing a key ingredient. A strong business network. My parents always told me growing up:“It’s not what you know, but who you know.”Well, I hate to admit it, but they were right. These banks are most likely going to deny a young, low-net-worth, first time business owner. Especially considering how much I need. I immediately began trying to develop a network. At first, my strategy was blindly using Apollo to message investors on LinkedIn. If you don’t know Apollo, it basically just figures out peoples emails and phone numbers on LinkedIn. There are some other options, like Lusha, but I prefer Apollo. Hunter.io is another good tool that gets emails of people associated with a website. Good stuff. (Not sponsored btw)Anyway, after popping off almost 20 emails with no response, I had to get smarter. Nobody was going to respond to a blind pitch. So I narrowed my scope, and began using Mixmax- a tool to track email opens/clicks. I decided reach to investors who were alumni of my college. This failed miserably, so heeded the words of the age old adage:“If you want advice, ask for money, if you want money, ask for advice.”Well, it kind of works. I began asking for advice instead, and got more opens, but not a single response. After exhausting most of the investor alumni from my school, I began emailing people who were involved in finance or were business owners. All alumni. My emails began to be a lot less forward, and more of a request for mentorship. After about 60 total emails sent, I got two responses. Sadly, non panned out, but I learned another harsh lesson.Networking was even harder than I thought.Adjusting My Strategy__________This was going to be a struggle. It was humiliating and and slow. While I expected this to be really really really hard, I was not prepared for a grind of this nature. I had to adjust. I needed to meet people. I began researching on reddit how to network, and most of the advice surrounded meeting people at conferences. If you didn’t know already, conferences cost 500$ and up. That wasn’t going to be a viable strategy for me, not when the conferences were few and far in between. (I am going to be attending one next month, but that’s yet another Hail Mary.)It took me a few days, but I slowly came to understand that my success was largely dependent on a total reimagination of my strategy. Failure to do so would leave me asking for money indefinitely. No matter how good my product, idea, or team was, I needed something more.**drum roll**This is what I came up with:Research <-> Networking <-> Exposure <-> MVPThis is my strategy for the upcoming months. It looks way better in the little notebook I drew it in, but it’s basically a circle in which my different "zones" are codependent and supplement each other. Here is how it works.Research: This is meant mainly to supplement networking and the minimum viable product (MVP). What I’m doing in this quadrant is, on a daily, seeking investment first, angel investors, and other such establishments that I could ask for money. Additionally, I am researching better ways to network and events worth attending. From a fashion perspective, I’m using this daily time to look at fashion trends, read art blogs, and discover my competition more closely.Networking: There are three categories here- business, financial, and artistic. Business networking involves speaking with other business owners on a purely advisory level. This is about learning from others. I’m primarily using LinkedIn, meetup, and Bumble Biz for this (yeah, I know, fucking weird, but I heard one of you redditors recommend this so I’m sending it.) Financial networking involves potential investors and financial advisors. For now, just LinkedIn. Hopefully my research finds me better opportunities. Lastly, I’m going to be using Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to link up with artists and designers.Exposure: The one I’m most excited about, Largely because it’s right up my alley! It's all about creating a following with little to no capital or product. My strategy is going to be marketing ourself as a fashion company, but its online presence is more social and lifestyle. This means that if I have compelling content online and a well promoted online persona, I can generate following for my content. Eventually, these followers will be converted to prospective customers. To begin with, I made a website. It’s not finished, but it will be the home of a fashion blog. There will be an instagram which mostly contains projects we are working on. A twitter (and potentially TikTok) will be the primary space for short-form/meme-esque content that makes comments on fashion and jokes around. Lastly, I will be starting a podcast that talks about art and fashion through the lens of interviewing different people with different perspectives.MVP: minimum viable product. This is going to be an ongoing struggle in which I work with my team to create a basic line up of clothing. It won’t be perfect, but in tandem with my online presence, it will hopefully get people excited. More importantly, if I speak with investors and financial institutions, I predict it will be helpful to have some physical showcasing.Wrapping Up__________This kind of got longer than I expected, but I hope there's a lesson buried in there somewhere for prospective business owners. This is a grind. It’s long and hard. There’s a lot of thought- and I haven’t even seen my first dollar yet. I realized that I’m gonna have to be really tenacious if I want to see this happen. I have a salaried job outside this business that pays decently, so I decided to take a more aggressive budgeting strategy to save every penny I can. My hope is that I'll be able to invest those savings into the company.This venture current state is in refocusing my strategies to target what I think will be the most likely way to success. And then banging my head against the wall until something sticks. I will update you as this progresses, hopefully with smaller walls of texts.Alright, I’ve run my suck enough, see y’all in next post. Or when I inevitably respond to every comment I get.Pce see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
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