Starting your own business is tricky. There are a lot of things to take into consideration and, oftentimes, aspiring entrepreneurs don't have any idea on where to start.
"The Cambridge Satchel Company was born to fulfill a need, I needed to make enough money to pay for my children to go to a great school," Julie Deane of The Cambridge Satchel Company told Forbes. I needed to make my children's lives better and I had a limited budget with which to do it: £600."
Deane, via Motto, shared four tips on how to jumpstart your business from scratch. These tips were lessons that she learned from building her business from her kitchen.
1. Know your niche. What product or service would you want to share to the world? Deane, for her part, started out with 10 ideas for her business. She then ranked them according to several factors to figure out which best suits her budget and needs. This was how Julie Deane was able to create The Cambridge Satchel Company.
2. Be persistent. "I have to say, one of my strengths is that I can nag and grind people down," she wrote. "It can be an annoying trait but also be a useful one." While she was starting out, she relentlessly bugged a school uniform outfitter to tell her where she can find a manufacturer. She succeeded, revealing that "thick skin and determination" are needed "to make things happen."
3. Focus on what you can do. Knowing that selling in Cambridge was not enough to make enough profit for her children's education, Deane decided to sell online. She studied basic coding over three nights and was able to make a functional website from scratch. Focus on what you need to do and do everything you can to get there.
4. Create opportunities for your business. Deane's first bulk order was for "Harry Potter," which was filming in Cambridge. She called Pinewood Studios and told them that she would supply satchels to the characters. She was referred to the props person and got an order of 10 bags. She did not wait for the opportunity to come, Julie Deane decided to put her business out there and make it known.
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