In my last post I covered why I got started. In this one I want to cover the other part of the equation; how.  I get asked this question a lot. I'm never quite sure how to answer it. I feel like no one wants to hear,

"Well, I needed a way to pay the bills, and this seemed like it could work."

That's not really the right answer anyway. I'd love to tell you that I come from a long line of leather workers, and that this was my destiny. That would be a lie. The truth is that I had never even picked up a leather working tool until about ten months ago. So how did I get started? The answer is really simple. I just started.

This isn't my first business. I spoke about Little Bird Ice Cream a little in my last post. What is really important about this story is why it didn't work. I spent years playing it safe. I did research. I doodled logos, stressed out about the perfect name, developed recipes. It never got off the ground because I wasn't really making anything. The perfect logo, a well organized business plan, and a masterful secret recipe don't mean shit if you aren't making or selling anything.

The textbook method for starting a business goes like this.

• Do market research and assess the needs of your target demographic.
• Develop a formal business plan. This includes listing the names of your marketing department, accountant, and lawyer (I actually read one of those business-plans-made-easy books where you fill in the blanks and end up with a successful business. I gave up when the author actually wrote "If you can't afford a lawyer and an accountant you don't have enough money to start a business")
• Sell this business plan to a bank (Here is where you stop being self-employed (the bank is now your boss) and get to play Russian Roulette with your credit score.)
• Invest all of your capital in overhead ( a lease, fax machines, custom letterheads, and a flashy website)
• Try to figure out why not enough money is coming in.

With Wright and Rede I tried a different approach. I got online and ordered an amateur leather working kit for $150. I spent the next month figuring out how to make a simple wallet. While talking with a coworker my new hobby came up and I showed him my wallet. He said he'd take one, and I sold him one for $35. I decided that if I could use my remaining materials and sell three more I would go into business. I sold three by the end of the month. I took my $140 and bought more leather. I was in business.

My point is that I didn't have a business name, a license, insurance, a series of goals, or even any experience. I just started making something. If you want to start a business then start a business.  Do not go get a loan. Start with $100 and figure out how to make money with just that $100. It doesn't have to be your dream job, just a way to make your own money. This way you can sidestep all of that daydreaming planning and start creating some momentum. When you have enough income to pay a graphic designer to create a logo for you, that is when you should worry about a logo. It's really a small risk. Wost case scenario you loose your $100. All the other things that are keeping you back are really just bridges that can be crossed when you get to them. 

I'd highly recommend the $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau  and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill  as good reads for starting your own business. You can gloss over the motivational parts if that's not for you, but there are some really sound ideas in here if you look for them. ***I am in no way connected to either of these authors and I am not profiting from recommending them in any way. (Besides, you can find both of these books at your local library.)

It  would be convenient to have a nice beginning for this story, but as tends to be the case with real life, there are no convenient beginnings.  So maybe I won't start with the beginning, but with a beginning.

Do you remember taking aptitude tests when you were in middle school? You would fill in little bubbles on the Scantron sheet to find out if you were meant to be an architect or a plumber.  I cheated.  The test were boring, so I'd create patterns in the bubbles. Sometimes I was supposed to be a park ranger, others a mechanic.  If only it were that simple. I progressed to being a high-school trouble maker. A's in Art, and D's in Math. I drifted though a few different colleges. I didn't know what I was doing there, but that was where you go when you finish high-school. Five-and-a-half years later I had a degree in photography and no idea what to do with it.

While I was in college my sister got me a job in the kitchen where she worked. I planned on working there for a year while I figured myself out. That was twelve years ago. Now, I have always been known for being equal parts clever and determined, both of which are great assets in the restaurant industry, and that made me successful. I worked my way up to running the bar (how I became a bartender is a great story I'll have to share some day.) I bought a house, met my wife, and managed to live a comfortable life. I wasn't happy. I was miserable. I moved to different restaurants hoping the change would help. It didn't.

The problem wasn't the restaurant. The problem was me. I've never been comfortable having someone else decide my fate. It chafes. So I decided to go into business for myself. I had planned everything out perfectly. I was going to start a gourmet ice cream company. I spent years designing logos, researching recipes, looking up rules and regulations.  All the while working at my regular job, telling myself that it was all worth it because I was on my way out.

I was wrong. I spent four years planning that business. In that time four separate ice cream joints opened around my house and I had to conclude that there was plenty of ice cream around. I spent so much time planning the perfect business that I had missed the chance to start one.

Then I read about a conference. This was a conference about entrepreneurship. The main speaker had an interesting proposition. He wanted everyone to take $100 and start a business with it. That's it. Don't follow your dreams, don't plan the perfect strategy, don't find investors, don't search for you dream job. Just take $100 and figure out how to make money with just that.

For $100 I couldn't start a food service operation. So my main area of expertise was out of the question. I had always had a slew of hobbies. I was currently on a leather working kick. I had made myself a nice simple wallet and when I showed it to a coworker he asked if he could order one. That was when my business started.

I didn't have any business cards, a vendors license, a company name, a logo, or any of that stuff I had stressed out about before. I did have a demand for one wallet though. That was September of 2012. I decided that if I could sell four items by November I'd have a go at it. I sold four in two weeks. So I had a friend design a logo, came up with a name that wouldn't limit me too much, and started selling leather goods. I never got a loan. I never had a plan before hand. I just figured out things as I went along.

Then one night it happened. I was standing around waiting for the restaurant to get busy. I was stressing out because I was rushing around all day trying to get leather goods in the mail and still make it to work on time. I was looking around at the empty tables and thought to myself "Is this really what I want to be doing with my life?". I had come to a crossroad. I could stay at the job I knew would pay my bills, but had no future in it, or take a risk and see what happens. I went home and had a long talk with my wife that night. The next day I went into work and told them I'd be leaving.

So here I am. Back at the beginning of this story. I quit my day job and took the plunge. I don't know if I will succeed and I don't really have a plan worked out. I do know that if you want something it won't come to you. You have to go out and get it.  So wish me luck.