How Did You Start Your Business?

[needles]

My work is slightly different to most of you guys, i have very little time making new stuff, and even less time learning to carve, have done a few things but no where near like I would like to, however I do make my income from repairing leather stuff, be it, gucci / prada, mui mui handbags etc to leather furniture to auto interiors, etc etc. so I am not a craftmens like you guys, although would dearly love to be.

I started in the building trade and developed a love for leather and repairing such ( a lot in a childrens charity repairing leather furniture etc for them), eventually being made redundant, whilst agonising over what an old git like me is going to do to pay the mortage, wife said you've been making money at repairing leather for a good while, do that..... oh yeh why didn't I think of that...? your a bloke she said.... ha ha.

difficult making ends meet sometimes, and sometimes hard to find the right amount of drive, but I love it. and its still paying the bills, although only just sometimes. If i have a choice I wouldn't change it for the world....

as one said above if you can start without debt, way to go,

start small and build up your reputation, that will help big time to carry you forward, best advertisement ever.

try not to worry about what the competition is doing, otherwise it can become an all consuming obsession, and if you're actively competing even if they don't know it, your already losing, because you'll be under valuing your time and work....... trying to be cheaper, quicker what ever.

thats my take on it anyway

[ljwilliams]

I also fit into the no business plan model for starters. I stumbled into leather when I thought the sheath I wanted cost way too much. I set out to make my own sheath and found out the hard way exactly why high quality leather sheaths cost so much. I sell sheaths now that cost more than the sheath I originally wanted. Funny how things work out.......

Did they take out a loan, get a government grant?

Absolutely not.....

Do not build your business on debt unless you are a successful business owner and already know how to start up a business then rapidly grow it. I would strongly suggest you grow slow and organically until you are in the position to really capitalize on a small business loan. You shouldn't consider taking on debt to grow your business until you have a customer base and need to scale up to meet their demand.

You need to reinvest that profit into your business to grow it...not to pay off debt

Sell through the newspaper? locally?

I cut my teeth on local custom jobs but have moved to almost strictly online sales.

How much money did you start with.

I started with maybe $200 worth of tools in a storage shed behind my house. I cleaned it out and built a basic work bench. I kept reinvesting a majority of the profits back into my business until I had enough to build my actual leather shop several months ago. As much as I love my new shop and all the new fancy machines.....I would not appreciate it if I had not froze my ass off in that storage shed for a year making leather.

Also would like to hear of any things that you would consider beginner mistakes that you encountered.

Buy good tools that will last *an expensive tool doesn't equal a good tool*

Don't under value your products

Wait until you have the money to buy things....don't grow on debt

Breakthroughs in your business plan or in your thinking.

Don't constantly compare your product and price to competitors. What works for them most likely won't work for you. Worry about making the best leather product you can and getting the most you can get for it.

Don't be a stubborn know it all. I actually talk to my competitors and ask them questions about when they were at my stage in the game. It sounds absurd but some of the best advice I have got came directly from my competitors.

You will learn the most at your bench when you are actually working. It's great to come on here and ask questions when you are stumped but nothing beats getting your ass out in the shop and putting in work.

Follow up with your customers a few weeks after the sale and ask for feedback on your product. Customers can be brutally honest and that is exactly what you need in the beginning to iron out problems.

Never have I wanted a like button on this forum so much since I found this forum! I have done the same the same thing so many times, except I keep finding so mNy pretty things I just want to try to make my self And end up sinking another grand....one of these days though, I hope someone looks at the things that I make and say,"How does she do that!" I really hope when that day comes I remember my beginnings and smile and not get mad when they copy or try to emulate my patterns, because people strive to that which they look up to.

[Lobo]

44 years ago I left the US Army and joined the police department. I had a wife, 2 kids to feed, a mortgage and bills to pay on some pretty skinny cop paychecks. There were items of gear that I needed, and others I just wanted to have, but I had little ability to pay for them. I started making those things, learned as I went along, and purchased basic tools as I needed and could afford them. Other cops I worked with saw what I was doing and started requesting things for themselves. That brought in a little cash, started paying for my materials and other tools leading to more products as I learned more. Over time the word spread around the region and I was making holsters, belts, and accessories on a regular basis, and contributing to the household budget as well.

That is how everything remained for over 30 years. Basically a small sideline business serving a small regional market. Never enough to live on, but usually enough to prevent too much month left at the end of the money.

Retired from law enforcement, started building houses and running a roofing company while making a few holsters and accessories on the side. Hooked up with several insurance companies doing claims consulting and investigations while making a few things on the side. As the economy and financial markets (including the insurance companies) started circling around the drain in 2008 my regular business income started shrinking. I had been actively buying and selling in on-line auctions for several years, so I decided to start making a few holsters every week to offer on-line, hoping to make enough to help out with utility bills and health insurance costs. Within a few months I was receiving a steady flow of orders and had no time for anything else. My wife put her foot down firmly and demanded that I get all the materials, supplies, and other business stuff out of the house, so I leased a production shop and launched a website. A year later I moved into a larger shop and hired a part-time assistant. Couple of years later I moved into a larger shop. Now my part-time assistant has become the full-time\ manager handling the bulk of the production work, finishing, packaging, etc, while I handle the website and e-mails and focus on new product development.

Present capacity is about 40 to 50 pieces per week. We regularly produce 25 to 40 per week for customers in all 50 US states and 33 other countries so far. We offer 13 holster designs, with or without 4 common options, in 4 finish colors, left-hand and right-hand, for 162 different handgun models, resulting in some 84,000 possible variations. This "menu-style" product line allows each customer to customize a standard design to individual needs and preferences. Adding in the different belts, magazine pouches, cartridge pouches, and other accessories leads to over 100,000 products.

Other than the website costs I have spent next to nothing on advertising. Everything happens by referral and word of mouth (with the internet this can be huge). No walk-in customers. No phone calls. Everything is done via website and e-mail.

Never thought about a business plan. Never borrowed a dime for business. Never applied for any grants. Always paid for supplies and equipment when ordered. Always paid the rent, utilities, business insurance, and other operating expenses as incurred.

Now I am approaching the point at which I must start drawing on my retirement funds. My assistant has been with me for 5 years and is fully capable of running the business on a day to day basis, so she will take over with a continuing flow of business and no burden of debt. This will allow her to earn a good living while contributing a bit to my retirement comfort and security. I will stay on in an advisory capacity during a transition period of several years. After more than 50 years of full-time employment and running a business I can't imagine just sitting around without being productive. There are always a few ideas floating around in my head for new designs or ways to tweak an older design, so I expect to keep myself as busy as I want to be.

It has always been an interesting ride.

[moix]

Found this topic very interesting ,
Well first of all i would like to tell about my inspiration to start my e-commerce store.My friends started a little business of leather jackets , they kept the quality very exclusive and very quickly turned it into a profitable business. I thought to second my chances and as well , and i thought of starting my e-commer store on leather bags & accessories http://www.ucreedo.com . I am still very new to this field and have a long long way to go. But i find 3 defining building blocks of this businesss.

1. Store(E-commerce store , merchant bank acct , digital marketing and all the onlione stuff)
2. Production(Where you are going to build your stuff)
3. Shipping

Once we sort out all these 3 points we are ready to get set go. I have so far kept a low tune in terms of marketing.I want to drive traffic to my site now and get popular

As far as my categories are concerned , i have categories ranging from

1. http://ucreedo.com/bag-packs
2. http://ucreedo.com/shoulder-bags
3. http://ucreedo.com/professional-leather-bags

If you guys have any suggestion , it will be highly appreciated, cheers and have a good day

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

When I had my machine and fab shop we cash flowed the entire operation, I was 22 at the time. I agree that starting a business in debt is not a good idea. Start small, and grow the business as sales improve, don't get into a hurry. Too many want it, and they want it NOW! Unfortunately for them they were the ones that I purchased items from when the auctioneer was selling off their shops. I was buying machinery, and tooling for an average of 10¢ on the dollar for new.

As Dave Ramsey likes to point out, The borrower is slave to the lender.

My advice is to learn the skills to be proficient in what you want to do before you start offering them to customers,start small, and build the business on the profits. Too many also don't realize how much time the business side gets in the way of doing the work itself.

Advertising has changed tremendously since I had my shop back in the late 80's. Today I can sit here in DaBoonies and sell worldwide through the wonders of the internet. I know artists who sell through Facebook, and do quite well - $500 paintings sold in 15 minutes a few times. How many people still get a newspaper? I don't. Social media can be a tremendous boon to a business if it is used correctly.

[moix]

I have tried to handle the I.T stuff where as my friend is looking at the other 2 manufacturing and shipping. I am a complete newbie into this thing , but i am learning a lot and hope to bring my leather bags store on top one day. My aim is to provide best quality on affordable prices , i opted for 100% leather bags because i believe leather has the potential to be used for longer periods of times.

Edited February 9, 2015 by moix

[joecool911]

Business plan depends on size you intend getting. I'm a work for/by myself kind of guy who doesn't borrow money. Not much of plan needed. But if you intend financing and having employees, different situation.