I get a lot of questions about how I started my business or comments about how people wish they could start their own business. I really believe anyone that wants to start a business can. Several people think they lack funding to start a business. When I look at every business I started it has been with virtually no money. Sometimes people also say they don’t have any creative ideas on what to start. My best advice is to copy another idea or business. Most of the best businesses aren’t original ideas; they are improvements on ideas others had.
Here are a few of the crazy businesses I have started, maybe they will inspire a new business–
When I was in 3rd grade, I started selling earrings that I made out of old necklaces I found at our house or at garage sales. They were pretty hideous but I was pretty good at selling them. I figured out that everyone has 50 cents to buy a pair of earrings, and since my parents bought the supplies I was making pure profit. (makes me laugh now, my parents were great business partners!) I did pretty well and it was really exciting to be able to buy sweet stuff (whatever it was a 3rd grader thought was cool). My parents allowed me to spend money I made on whatever I wanted and it was pretty much awesome.
In high school I started cleaning houses and offices with my mom. This continued through college. Definitely not the most glamorous job (ok it completely sucked at times), but I made good money doing it and it helped pay my tuition. People are always looking for cleaning people. These sort of businesses are great! You can do as many or as few houses as you want, quit at any time, and earn extra money! I also had a boss that scooped dog poop at nights.
While I was in college my sister and I realized textbooks that weren’t necessarily being used the next semester at our school were still being used at other schools and that we could sell them on eBay. We spent finals week two different semesters grabbing books basically out of the trash that other students thought were worthless. We even drove to another town to get books from that college. Within a couple of weeks we made enough money to pay for summer tuition and expenses. My favorite story from this is one day when I went to work out, saw a book on the top of a trashcan, dug it out and listed it online at the computer at the rec center, and when I was done working out it had already sold for $40. It was like money was just being dropped from the sky. Not every college kid would dig through a trashcan but hey a dirty $40 is still $40.
After college I took sort of a break from being an entrepreneur and went to work for corporate America. While working I was never really satisfied. I felt like everything I did was paying someone else too much for my efforts. So, I thought maybe law school was the answer. After passing the bar exam, God blessed me with a year of struggling to find a job which landed me living in the basement of a family friend. Long story short I came up with another idea to start a business. I decided to start selling apparel and headbands at youth sports tournaments across the Midwest. I had seen this work in another part of the country and at larger tournaments. So, I copied the model and started my own business, BAD Sportz. (You can check out our stuff at BADSportz.com.) Without being able to get a bank loan because of all my student debt and no job I had to be creative. I was able to work with people to buy items on consignment until I was fully able to have my own line printed. I spent days and nights emailing and calling people trying to get into their tournaments. My mom, the most creative person I know, was a huge help in coming up with items to sell and offering opinions and ideas. My parents and friends jumped on board and have been amazing with helping make this business a success. With just a $2,000 loan from my parents and the amazing support and encouragement of my parents and friends the business sold over $250,000 in the first year. We were also able to raise over $30,000 to youth sports teams all over the Midwest.
This past year I started the Totally RAD 80s Run and Omaha’s Great Pumpkin Run. Several people ask how I was able to just start a 5k. It is actually pretty simple. I watched what other races were popular, what they are doing well, what they can improve on, and what might be missing that I could fill a need for. I had researched this idea for quite some time when I was down in Phoenix and knew I had found a great idea based on runner reaction to a similar race that takes place along the west coast. I decided to bring a similar race to the Midwest. I had paid attention to what other races had done well and knew I really needed to market this race right. With the help of Facebook marketing and a Living Social deal I was able to get close to 1,400 runners registered for my first event. This was done with no money out of pocket. I planned out what expenses I might have based on what I had found online with my venue, shirts, timing, insurance etc., and then based the price of registration on this. Registrations paid for marketing and everything else I needed to buy along the way.
What I have learned from these businesses is that it is rewarding to work for yourself, and completely possible for anyone willing to put in the work to start their own business venture. It doesn’t have to be a full time gig, but it can definitely turn into that. You don’t need a ton of money to start, just a passion about what you do. Pay attention to what others are doing, keep your eyes open for opportunity, and bring your own creative twist to an old idea
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