Founder and #girlboss, Kelli Jones has been on a start-up crash course for the last 2 years while she’s launched her DIY repair patch business. While she’s leaned on experts in business, manufacturing, marketing and finance and others who did it before her, she has plenty of tips of her own to give out.
Make your plan out of rubber.
Write a plan (even if it’s on a napkin) but understand it will change. If you get lost, it’s a map you can go back to. If you got lost because you followed the map, change the course. Flexibility is one way I got Noso Patches off the ground.
Bean Counting
Learn how to read financial statements and understand the basics. A few reports to learn:
•Income Statement aka Profit & Loss
•Balance Sheet
•Cash Flow
•Budget
If you decide to do your own accounting, take a class. It will save you money and a very big headache in the long run.
Make a list. Check it twice.
There are hundreds of tasks in business that are rote. I call mine “Protocols” and protocols are dope. They’ll save you time and brain damage later when you hire 3 people at once and you just have to get the patches out the door.
Clean up your scene
If you have a omnichannel biz, consult an accountant right away, so your Chart of Accounts (COA) is set up properly. It’ll help you can keep your finances neat and tidy.
No one else knows what they’re doing either.
Set goals, be resilient, and stay the course. Think long term and try to not sweat the details…too much. You’ll notice the tiny mistakes, missteps or shouldawouldcouldas, but no one else will bat an eye.
Working the puzzle
Running a biz is just solving problems, so don’t take everything so seriously. There are a gajillion answers to every problem. If it’s meant to be and you have the passion to make it happen, it will happen. I’ll leave you with a quote from Mary Poppins: “In ev’ry job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! the job’s a game.”
Watch for Part Deux of this blog post in June when Kelli gives you tips on how to tell your story and stay sane doing it.
XO Team Noso
#2
Founder and #girlboss, Kelli Jones has been on a start-up crash course for the last 2 years while she’s launched her DIY repair patch business. While she’s leaned on experts in business, manufacturing, marketing and finance and others who did it before her, she has plenty of tips of her own to give out. This is the 2nd of 2 blog posts where Kelli reveals the deep, dark secrets of the start-up world! Not really, she’s just trying to help you avoid mishaps. Missed the first one? Check it out here <link>
Enlist your tribe.
Plan & attack your “Go to Market” strategy. If you need feedback in the early stage of biz development, invite friends over for pizza and wine parties, call your mom, call your sisters, go on walks with your girlfriends, strategize with your partner. Your tribe will think of things that never even crossed your mind.
Open up and say AHHHHHH
Use your voice & know what your product stands for. If you don’t know your voice, get help identifying it. Journal, talk to a therapist, get your star chart read, consult a biz coach, see a medium. Find a method that works for you. Practice your pitch on hiking trails, backcountry ski trips, or even sing it in the shower. Yes, I do all of these things.
Little help?
Ask people for help, don’t do it all. Hire the most talented people you can find and then let them work their magic. Find out what you like doing the best in your business and delegate the rest.
The Fine Print is important
Make sure to have contractors and employees sign formal work for hire agreements or service agreements. Ignore the eye rolls and hand them a pen. Protect your company and your reputation.
Is there anybody out there?
Many entrepreneurs start out working by themselves. If you work by yourself all week, make sure to schedule lunch dates, and mandatory happy hours... they don’t always have to be cocktails. Other kinds of happy hours = yoga, walks, or bike rides/ski dates with friends.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Working Girl (yes, the 80’s movie) “You want to be taken seriously, you need serious hair.”
XO Team Noso