Excerpts

#3: Unlock Your Passion

What makes you tick? What is your passion?

I’ll never forget how I started my business. I always knew I had an eye for purchasing. For trends. I loved buying gifts for people. So when I finally decided that I wanted to sell gifts for a living, my family looked at me and said, “That’s what you want to do with your life? Sell picture frames?” But I knew that I didn’t just want to sell one picture frame. I wanted to sell 1,000 picture frames, 100,000 picture frames. I knew that taking my passion, my hobby, and turning it into my career, was the perfect choice for me. My dad said, “With your personality, why don’t you consider selling insurance? Insurance salespeople make a lot of money, and it will give you the flexibility in your life you will want down the road as a mother.” But my passion for selling insurance was about as strong as my passion for sardines...not very strong.

The other male figure in my life is my wonderful, supportive, and loving husband. I was just 24 years old when I started my promotional products business. Being the impulsive woman that I am, I simply woke up one morning (after deciding that I wanted to go into the corporate gifts business) and QUIT MY JOB. Just like that. My husband was away in New York on a business trip at the time, or so I thought. He called me from New York and asked, “How’s your day, honey?”

I answered, “Great, I just quit my job, I’m gonna start my own business after all!” (Another character trait of leading entrepreneurs: they make decisions and stick to them. No one can hold them back or distract them from their vision.)

I couldn’t understand why he was stuttering and fumbling on the other line. I hung up disappointed. Why didn’t he believe in my dream? Well, the thing I didn’t know was that he was there buying my engagement ring, and he was counting on my salary at the time to live on. I was not only giving up my current salary but then was going to have ZERO income for who knew how long? Today we look back and laugh. We were young and naive.

The point in all of this is NO ONE could have talked me out of my decision. All the haters who told me I was entering a competitive marketplace that had no room for me were proven wrong. Moreover, it was the passion that made me never doubt myself. Find yours, unlock it, and in the words of my grandfather, “LET ’ER RIP!”

#13: What's Your Edge? Chances Are You'll Need Some Funding!

Remember economics? We all learned a term: USP (Unique Selling Proposition). What are you selling that is so unique? What’s your edge? This is crucial knowledge for your bank, and it’s crucial knowledge for you as well. Unless you’ve saved up a ton of money, you are a trust fund baby, or have a wealthy husband, you’re going to need a line of credit. Someone has to believe in you to take a chance on you. If you have no edge, if you come on like just another fish in the sea, good luck getting that start-up capital.

Your business plan should also be tailored to who is going to be reading it. Your audience will shape it. For example, are you going to venture capitalists or a bank for the money? A business plan for investors is typically 15 to 30 pages in length, whereas one for a bank is typically 10 to 15 pages in length. Investors want to see potential return on investment (i.e., a chance to make some money with your business), whereas a bank just wants to make sure its loan is repaid.

That being said, you need to have an edge to lure in the money guys. When I started my promotional business, I didn’t want to be just another person with a catalog. I called my company Unique Corporate Gifts. First, I wanted the word UNIQUE to be there. People love uniqueness. Secondly, I decided I was going to be the “go-to” person for everything corporate gift-related. So I wasn’t just going to sell you caps, pens, and mugs with your logo. I was going to get your best customers front-row seats to the best sporting events and a signed Michael Jordan jersey for your other great client. My angle was one-stop-shopping for all corporate needs. And it worked.

Coming in paperback soon to a bookstore near you.

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