I have been entrepreneurially minded for as long as I can remember. For example, as an elementary student, I noticed that table football (the game where you flick a little triangular piece of paper across the table with your fingers) was growing in popularity during indoor recess (during an exceptionally rainy spring). Instead of jumping in to play with my classmates, my first reaction was to start making the paper footballs to sell to those obsessed with playing. I knew that plain white ones were fairly easy to make, so I wanted to do something to stand out from the crowd. I started designing the sides with popular NFL football helmet designs– they sold amazingly fast! I “stocked out” almost immediately and I remember having to shift to manufacturing in secret during class time. Mrs. Edmondson would be teaching long division, and meanwhile I was scrawling fancy designs on paper footballs under the cover of my desk. Next thing I knew, another kid in the class started selling specialty designed paper footballs, as well. I had competition! I began going on “sales calls”, and focusing on my biggest customers. I asked what changes they wanted to see and what I could do to make their games better. I changed up my designs to keep up a fresh look, and I started helping with building brackets for tournaments according to my customers’ requests. I increased my product portfolio, locked in market share, and continued innovating on my current designs. I made snack money for the entire summer from that exceptionally rainy spring! Unfortunately summer was less rainy and sales disintegrated to nothing. Fun outdoor activities popped up to take over my classmates’ attention. My paper football business folded, but only after a summer’s worth of snack money was piled into my coffers!
I can recall a number of other entrepreneurial situations like this throughout my life. In each instance though, I lack the desire to make anything last for the long-term and I don’t have a plan for the longterm. Now things are going to change.
I am going to record the process of starting my own company. I am going to record my progress through blogposts which I will link to the bottom of this page. I will attempt to be as open and transparent as possible so that others can learn from my experiences, while also encouraging all to offer their advice and guidance. At the end, regardless of outcome, I hope to have a record of my successes, failures, transitions, and learnings. I need this to also act as my source of “accountability” so please feel to give me some shit if I lag behind or start hesitating on making decisions.