Posts tagged with “entrepreneur”

Until You Ask For Money, You Don’t Know How Serious They Are

Saturday, 25 February, 2012

The title of this post is from a conversation this week at a Reddit Denver Business Owners meetup/meeting. When I first heard it, I nodded my head in agreement, but today when I was speaking with my accountant about my failed business, Survival Gift Shop, she said, “Did you make any money from it?” The sad answer to that was no.

I’m not terribly proud of this fact, especially since I sunk $700 in product, fees (PayPal and Shopify), and advertising, not even counting my time (because really, what startup actually places a price on their time in the beginning). Results? Not a single person clicked BUY over the 6 month period where it was heavily marketed and even got some organic search traffic. At the very end, I even tried unloading them at cost on ebay and still no takers over two 7 day auctions. Now I grant you, a wise woman who loved the idea and built a Lady’s Personal Survival Kit of her own once exclaimed that it was more of an impulse buy, so the method of delivery was possibly wrong (not the idea), but I didn’t have the capital or the faith to try it again.
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Getting Started Requires a Working Motor

Wednesday, 4 May, 2011

This isn’t a story of building all the parts before you have a working product. No, that would be obvious. This is about needing a working motor before you can even get started on the trip. After years of going into an office, accomplishing tasks from 9-5, and trying to fit in the other priorities of my life around that timeframe, it’s tricky to build out a day and a schedule where you can balance all those priorities in your own way. Read the rest of this entry »

The Adventure Begins: Level 1 Entrepreneur

Thursday, 28 April, 2011

I thought I would let everyone know that after just shy of 3 years with SurveyGizmo as a customer support rep, sales engineer, technical training manager, and business development manager, I’ve decided to pursue my own interests and become a self-employed, poor for a little while, entrepreneur. I tried this three and a half years ago with limited success, but thanks to personal learning efforts and the wealth of knowledge I’ve gained from my coworkers at SurveyGizmo, I’m 5x’s as knowledgeable and capable as I was back then.
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