Keep up with Elise and her story of becoming a successful entrepreneur:
Elise has made arrangements for a loan. She does not know how much money the loan will be for, as the non-profit, small-enterprise booster that promised the loan has not yet called her back with details. Her mentor, Dave, conservatively guesses the loan will be for five to six thousand dollars – one fifth of Elise’s goal.
“Now what?”
“Fundraising is depressing, hateful stuff. Just let it go. Take the time you have, between now and that phone call, and start on some of the fun stuff. Go buy a bunch of magazines and price your furniture and display racks, we have only been guessing until now. Start looking for your storefront. There is that place on Main that we were using for an example, but maybe you can find something closer to the campus.”
Elise rolls her shoulders uncomfortably, “I donno how fun that will be with this cloud hanging over everything. I hate not knowing how much I will get. I hate not knowing if any of this will ever happen.”
“Heh, you’re going to have to get used to a little uncertainty.” Dave pauses a moment, pursing his lips in thought. “Ok, the thing about business, especially starting your own business, is that you often have to walk many paths at once.”
“Sounds awfully Buddhist.”
Dave laughs. “It is, after a fashion. You have to get used to multi-tasking, to doing some things with the expectation that the other things you are doing are going to happen — that the other balls in the air are going to land. You can’t pull this off as a totally liner thinker, always trying to close one project before opening another.”
“I hear you,” Elise says. “But what if they call up and say I get nothing.”
“As long as you have not spent any money you don’t have, there is no harm done. What’s the old saying, ‘expect the best and plan for the worst’. It doesn’t cost much to make up a shopping list for your furniture. You don’t need to have any money to shop for store sites. Just act like you have the money, and the landlords will happily show you the vacant spots. If all else fails, sow. You said yourself that you could expand your starting stock if you actually finished up a bunch of the open sowing projects you have at home. That doesn’t cost a penny.”
“True, I guess.”
“Finally, and this is important, chat. Talk with your friends about the store. Talk with your parents, your parents’ friends, the folks at the club. You may make new contact who can help you out. Just as valuable, you create free buzz. These people are you target customer base, make sure they know what you are doing. Try to get them excited about your store. There a lot of things you can do to help your store happen without spending any money. When you have money, spend it, when you don’t, don’t. But if you live and breathe your store, literally always looking for ways to improve it and support it and build it up, the time is not lost.”
So she did.
Next week: Serendipity
Read some related articles:
- What Do You Know…? It is story time. Every Friday I will tell another piece of a growing story centered on one or more fictional young entrepreneurs. Throughout the...
- Education It is story time. Every Friday I will tell another piece of a growing story centered on one or more fictional young entrepreneurs. Throughout the...
- Just Notes Of course, Elise had thought about financing for her store. In some ways, money is all she had thought about for days. No solution had...
- Neither Borrower Nor Lender Be Elise is excited. Literally bouncing up and down as she walks, she turns to her mentor, Dave, and exclaims, “This is it! They are really...
Recent Comments