Women's Initiative: Where Dreams Become Thriving Businesses

Dead In The Water? or Down, But Not Out!

So, for the past three months I’ve been saying “OMG, I’ve got to sell more stuff!  I’m on the brink of bankruptcy!  I’m almost out of money! HELP!” I got my first shipment of hardcover books back in January and since then I’ve been working to get them into stores around town. I figured let me do as much of my own distribution as possible and then look for a national distributor to go after retailers out-of-state. 

I’ve been slowly making contact with different companies I’ve targeted as potential good fits, while doing my version of an Avon Lady.  The first store I walked into was Spectator Books on Piedmont Avenue.  I walked up to the counter and asked if I could speak with someone about carrying one of my books.  A salesperson, let’s call him “Bill” to be nice, told me to come back on a Tuesday when the manager would be there. I penciled that in and went to the next store, a little more self-assured. I’d approached Walden Pond Books back in September when I thought my books would be ready and the staff there – sooo friendly! – had very warmly encouraged me to come back and talk to the manager, told me what day he’d be in, the best time to stop by, and even added that he was especially receptive to local authors. Yeah!   

When the books had finally gone to print and were due to arrive shortly, I tried back, but it was December and the reception I got (from staff, not the manager) went something like, “Are you completely daft?  It’s Christmas! We can’t look at anything new! Call back later, you nit-wit!” So, even though I knew when to go and the manager’s name, I was a little nervous of hitting some other inappropriate retailer’s nightmare. But, I sucked in my breath and went in anyway.

Not knowing the protocol, I stood in line with those buying copies of this or that and at last stood in front of the manager with a bag of books and a hint of hope that he’d take all of them. I had over 1,600 copies to unload and I was – just in case you forgot - running out of money. The manager looked over my book, complimented me on the design and professionalism of the printing and asked how many I wanted to sell to him. I was thinking 50!  25! And then 5?!?  But I asked if he’d take 25 and he agreed to take 10. Okay, it’s a start, I thought. 

Since then I’ve gotten into Pendragn and Sweet Dreams on College, Spectator Books on Piedmont Avenue, and sent out proposals to a handful of national book distributors. I’ve got a lot more to do to reach my goal of 20 local and 100 national bookstores and/or retailers by the end of 2008. But just when I feel the most urgency to keep the promotion train rolling, I’ve come face to face with my rapidly evaporating finances. 

It’s no longer, “I’m on the brink of bankruptcy! I’m running out of money…” I’m out of money and scared to death. 

After months of trying to make my business profitable enough to carry itself, I started looking for work. At first, I had no intention of doing anything full-time. My party line went like this, “I need to make enough money to cover my expenses, but I’m not going to work more than full-time for anyone else! I have a business to run.” Three months later I still had nothing in the works. I thought, “I can handle being on a budget, but how much can my business or I grow if I have no budget!”

Desperately, at the 10th ½ hour, I placed an ad to contract myself out on Craigslist. I applied and applied to jobs – full-time, part-time, permanent, temporary, contractor, whatever!  And I waited, but nothing was happening!  By the beginning of March, I had one month of expenses left and nowhere to go. I’d tapped my IRA and my savings as much as I could; I was DIW – Dead In the Water!  And then…

I had a talk. You know, The Talk. The talk that goes, with or without tears in your eyes, “Listen Universe, I am doing everything I can. I am Out There. I am looking and applying. I am being proactive. I am doing everything I can think of and it isn’t working. If there’s something I should be doing, tell me. I cannot do this alone. You have to help me! Are you listening to me?” I had The Talk in my crowed bedroom-office, one sunny afternoon, and I searched myself for anything that could be blocking me. At that point, there was nothing left. The fear of losing my hold on my entrepreneurial dreams, of being sucked into a “real job” with all the “security” that seems to provide, was past me. I couldn’t afford a box of paper clips and that was the reality I was facing. I would take the best job offered to me and somehow I had to believe that I would keep my business alive.

The next day I got a response to my ad on Craigslist. The following day a friend sent me a link – not uncommon for her – to an interim position at a local gallery. I sent the most earnest and well-crafted cover letter I’ve sent in eons with my application. I’d posted and reposted my CL ad several times and on the first run I got response from a woman looking for help in setting up her self-publishing house and I’d dismissed it because I thought it wasn’t enough hours. I’d sent her an email to see if she was still interested and the second day after my Talk, she replied that she was. In the week following my talk I had three interviews and got hired by all three individuals! So instead of one all-consuming job, I have three (sometimes four) very manageable projects that use a lot of what I know as a writer and publisher. 

So, the title of this chapter of my life is definitely Down But Not Out. In my next installment, I’ll probably talk about learning to manage multiple contracts and keep your business thriving. That’s a work-in-progress.

Much success to you!

Tracy Watson, Publisher Our World Books – books that inspire falling in love with your life.
(WI grad ’06)

Business or Boyfriend?

It’s been a while since I had a serious relationship.  Now I do and it’s  a little tricky to manage both.  Well, for one thing, it’s long-distance, so my morning is his evening and his morning is my way-too-late at night.  For a while we were meeting up around 11p.m. and talking until 2am.  It was super romantic, and, well, at that time of night, kind of hot!  But, after a few months, I found that the cost was pretty high.  Even though I have a work-at-home business and set my own hours, the lack of any kind of “normal” schedule was starting to get to me. 

My schedule became like this, waking up around 10a.m., doing my morning routine, having breakfast, checking email, and getting down to business at around 2p.m.!  By then, I was super-stressed because I only had three hours to contact people on normal office hours, if I had to contact someone on the East Coast, I was rushing to get to them before they left for the day, it just really set me off behind the gun so to speak.

So, eventually, I started shutting down at 1:00a.m., then 12:30a.m., 12:00a.m. and yeah, my boyfriend wasn’t too thrilled.  See, he was at work, and had the kind of gig that allowed him to IM me with impunity.  In other words, it was convenient for him, especially since he didn’t have a computer at home. 

It was really tough to make the call, since not talking with him during his mornings meant maybe days before we’d meet up again.  But, when I heard myself say, “You know if you respected my work, the way I respect yours, you would be more understanding of my need to have real business hours…”  I sounded so whiny!  And it was pretty clear that I needed to respect my business, not my boyfriend.

So, bit by bit, I’ve gotten back to a real schedule.  I’m up at 8:00a.m., I start work at 9:00a.m. and the best part is I don’t feel like I have to make up for the late start by working until 10 at night!  I’ve also started to have real weekends.  One or – gasp! – two whole days off!   I feel more refreshed in the morning and I get way more done; I guess it really does work to get your work done during the day. 

It wasn’t easy making the call, but I believe a happy businesswoman is a better girlfriend!

-- Tracy Watson (WI grad ’06), Our World Books – Books that inspire falling in love with your life.

Holiday? Get Marketing!

Now that crazy Valentine's F – e – b – r – u – a – r – y is over, I'm taking stock:

lots of pink and red candy boxes, hearts, funny to raunchy gag gifts (see edible panties), sappy movies (some classics, some duds), high hopes or no hope at all for some corny-cheesy-but-oh-so-wonderful expression of love. 

But I have the feeling that you are like me and that you want something a little more substantial than this – something that will last. 

Diamonds? 

Better! 

I’m going to give you the best post-Valentine’s Day gift a small business owner can get: down-and-dirty marketing tips – that work!  I had a lot of fun taking the strategies so pervasive in V-Day campaigns of big companies and putting my little, indie, DIY*, spin on them.  I hope you enjoy them, too!

Tracy’s Guerrilla Marketing List for the DIY business woman:

Materials:

• Postcards and or flyers that promote your company
• Printable labels that fit nicely on one side of the postcard
• Attitude

1. Design your campaign content, (for Valentine’s Day, I came up with a “’buy one, get one free’ throughout February” pitch that I printed on lables and and stuck on the back of about 500 postcards
2. Identify key locations to distribute your cards

Suggested locations:

• Local Weeklies (newspapers) – they come out every Wednesday or Thursday
• Cafes
• Bookstores
• Giftshops
• Community Centers
• Colleges
• Anywhere where people post postcards or flyers

Strategic tips:

• If you get up and get to the newsstands early, you can get your materials in them before readers pick them up.  Target neighborhoods with shops you want to sell in and/or people you want to sell to (for example, I’m promoting my book “be seduced! (the cheeky guide to being happily single)” – so I put flyers in cafes and weeklies in neighborhoods that seemed to have a significant number of singles).


• Most cafes rotate flyers out on a regular schedule.  Find out when they rotate them out, so that you get the most out of your time/effort – and – so you know when to re-post them


• Many bookstores have bulletin boards that are pretty open to any content – look for those that seem to serve your target audience and post regularly


• See the angles – populate a calendar with holidays and other significant dates and then plan your GM (guerilla marketing) strategy to capitalize on them (i.e., next month has International Women’s Day – how about offering a special in honor of it or something for the ladies?)

And did you know?...

If you have a Washington Mutual Small Business account, you can put up an advertisement on a 6” tall easel spotlighting your business for one whole month at select locations?  (For Free!) (I have one up now at the Lakeshore branch.) The easel has a shelf where you can put postcards, business cards, or whatever you like, which is a great way to get people to look at your site, visit your shop and/or get in touch with you about your services.

Got GM tips and successes? Post a reply, share them with us and let’s keep the momentum going!

Best and best!

--- Tracy Watson, Publisher – Our World Books – books that inspire falling in love with your life!
(WI grad ’06)

* Do it yourself

A Retailer Decommercializes Christmas

I remember smiling wryly when I became old enough to understand Charlie Brown's dismay over the selling of Christmas.  Old enough to resent the predatory-lending tactics of credit card companies and the profane abuse of all things St. Nicolas by department stores.   I remember when I began to bristle at the way Christmas was foisted onto the haunches of Thanksgiving . and then, when that failed to sate the titan appetites of the mighty retailer, onto Halloween.   Did they pay their employees overtime, I wondered, to strip all the Halloween decorations and replace them with Christmas ones in one unhallowed night?  Grrr!

But, many years later, I have come to accept that Christmas and commercialism are inextricably bound.  Anyone who listens to the radio, watches TV, or dares to leave their house during the month-and-a half leading up to The Day knows this well.  And what of we small business owners?  How do we respond to the onslaught that is the Holiday Season?   We get in there and fight like the rest of them!  Sale, Sale, Sale!

Yes, I confess to tacking on a "Holiday Special" to my shopping cart and hoping to get in on the biggest online shopping day in years, but it seemed almost like sleeping with the enemy to do so. 

And so to cure my commercialism-malaise, I gave myself a dose of the classics, "It's a Wonderful Life", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", and of course, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown".  If you've seen these, you know that they are strong medicine against getting-for-the-sake-of-getting, dog-eat-dogitis, and other varieties of capitalist disease.  Or to put it simply, they are just plain old good medicine for what ails you, be that bills that need to be paid, the threat of having to return to a 9-5 job to pay them, or what have you.

Do you remember the line in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", where the narrator says [to paraphrase], "It came without presents.  It came without bows..Maybe Christmas means just a little bit more."? Darn that Dr. Seuss!  That one really got to me.  Now that I am in the world of business, of customers and clients, now that I am a purveyor of goods, what does Christmas mean to me? 

The chicken in me wants to focus on the way I celebrate Christmas in my personal life and to exempt Our World Books from the question.  Chicken Me says, Why should I have to hold myself to some noble standard in all things when there's shoppers to be caught and money to be had?!? 

I acknowledge that being a business owner is not easy and a principled one even less so.  But I can't shake those immortal words of Dr. Seuss and Linus' speech of the true meaning of Christmas - something about peace on earth and goodwill toward men, I think - and I can't separate who I am in business from who I strive to be in everyday life.  A person of decency and honor.  And although I allow that I will not always meet all of my expectations, on this year, the first full year of my life as a business owner, I've decided to make the foundation of my company about contributing value to society. 

So, I sat back and thought about what I could contribute this holiday season through my business.  What can I give?  Last year I was able to make a significant donation to two charities I strongly believe in www.WorldofGood.com and www.ProliteracyWorldwide.com , but as of now my money's way too funny to do that.  So what then? 

Like many of you, I came to owning a business after a bit of life experience, and sometimes being financially limited is the best way to remember that we have much more to offer than just money.   Time, experience, wisdom, compassion, advice, these are free to give and priceless to receive. 

After some reflection, I remembered an article on pursuing dreams that I'd wanted to post on my site for some months.  It was one of the many offerings I saw myself providing to any and all who visited my website www.ourworldbooks.net.  And in thinking on it, I recalled that in my business plan I'd mentioned making life-affirming, uplifting, educational and entertaining content a regular feature on my site.  I'd forgotten.   That's what I'd contribute, I decided.  And if you go to the lounge tab on my site you'll see my gift to all of you in the form of 15 Action Steps to jump-start your dreams (of course owning a business is only one of a zillion!) and a questionnaire you can use to help clarify your dream(s) and focus your actions towards realizing them. 

I am delighted that I started this new tradition for Christmas this year, one I will cherish and renew in the years to come.

Much continued success to you!

---Tracy Watson, WI grad '06 and Publisher, Our World Books - Books That Inspire Falling In Love With Your Life!

Contractor/Vendor Relations: 101

If Experience is the best teacher, it is also the most impartial. It doesn't care if the tools are a friend, a foe or completely foreign to you, Experience will find a way to show you what you need to know. 

Lady Experience doesn't really want to see you suffer, although it may feel like it, and if she could assume the warm fuzzy voice of your High School nurse, she would probably say to you, "Alright now, this might hurt a little bit!  But it's for your own good."

The Friend-or

They say "Never do business with friends." and after my experience, I wondered if they were right. But the truth is the lessons I've learned from doing business with a friend were more than worth the burn. 

My Mistakes, er, Life-Lessons:

• There was no contract - I placed an order for 50 units on the phone, sent my specs by email and confirmed the deadline, without once asking for a contract. 
• I paid for the entire order up front - I wanted to put my friend at ease, and assumed that meant paying for the entire order before a single product was produced. 
• I didn't ask what their refund policy was! - I didn't think I'd be returning anything, this was my dear friend, and of course everything always goes off without a hitch when it's a friend!!! 
• I didn't check the order before I took possession of it, so it wasn't until I got home that I found out that 3 out of 4 of the units were damaged - YIKES!  Which meant .
• I had a very unnecessary battle to remedy the problem. 

Without a clear contract or a refund policy, I had no leg to stand on, and friend or not my friend did not opt to refund me for the damaged product.  Turns out "damaged" is a very subjective term that can often be confused with "artistic".  After several discussions, in which solutions were proffered and then retracted, he offered to refund part of the cost and replace the rest.   But to say that our friendship was strained for the month leading up to this, would be putting it mildly.

The New Vendor

That Hadda' Hurt!:

• Keeping my mouth shut - When I saw that my deadline for a project I had contracted out was approaching and the project seemed to be nowhere near completion, I thought, "I'm sure it will be done in time.  I don't want to insult them by asking about it." 
• I didn't get the deadline in writing - I told the principal of the firm my deadline for the project, that contracting them was contingent upon their ability to meet this deadline, to which he agreed, and I thought that was sufficient. Wrong! When the deadline passed and they were still working on the job, I brought it to the project manager's attention and asked if they could rush it.  They replied, "Is the deadline in writing anywhere?" They denied all knowledge of the deadline and promptly dropped the job mid-stream!  Oh, bloody hell!

The Offshore Contractor

Wake Me When It's Over:

• I didn't ask what forms of payment they would accept - doesn't everyone accept Paypal?!?  Apparently not.  It wasn't until we had been working out the details of the job for two excruciating months, that this oh-so-déclassé point came up!  Oh, bloody hell! 
• The prep work alone had taken about two months of blood, sweat and tears on all sides, but for me, a huge hunk of money + wire transfer + new/offshore vendor = a seriously risky proposition!  Eventually we reached a concession and they agreed to setup a Paypal account, but ...
• Just because a company or an individual has a Paypal account doesn't mean they can transfer funds from it to their bank. If they try to receive money from you via Paypal and it doesn't go through (as in this case, where their bank didn't accept Paypal transfers), you could end up paying a fee for a transaction that was never completed, which is what happened in this case.

What I Learned and Live:

1. Assume nothing.
2. Get all the details of any order or contract in writing and make sure your important clauses and stipulations are included, like the project deadline, what penalties they will pay if they do not complete the job on time, at all, or as you specified, etc.  If they have a template, and you decide to use it, don't hesitate to scratch things out and pencil things in - make it work for both of you! 
3. Never pay the entire contract amount before the order is done and checked for quality.  The most any contractor should ask for is a 50% retainer or deposit.  Only agree to payment terms that sound right to you.
4. Ask what the refund policy is up front and don't do business with people if their policies aren't in writing and/or if they don't suit you.
5. Don't take possession of your product from a contractor without checking the quality and never let anyone strong arm you into to accepting something that isn't what you agreed to or paying for something that isn't right.
6. Speak up.  If you have a concern, it's your job to make that concern known.  Doing business with people isn't a popularity contest - it's a transaction and you are the best person to make sure that it goes according to your plan.
7. Don't do business like a charity, putting your money out there and hoping it'll come back to you!  In business, everyone's equal, the same standards for contractors/vendors apply to strangers and friends alike.
8. Be clear how your vendor/contractor expects to be paid before you invest precious time and energy on a project.
9. Know your non-negotiables and if a contractor or vendor can't accept your terms, don't hesitate to walk away, there are plenty of folks out there who want your business and can work with your terms!  Better to spend a little extra time up front finding the right person than a whole lotta time doing damage control with the wrong one.

The moral of my story: whether it's a friend or a perfect stranger, follow these golden rules of good business and everyone will be happier in the end! I hope this cautionary tale will make you laugh, make you think, but most of all, I hope you'll stop laughing at me and take notes - this stuff is priceless!

Much continued success to you!

-- Tracy Watson, Publisher, Our World Books (WI grad '06)

A Graduate at the WI Business Conference

Getting ready for the trade show, I worked straight through the night. 

But my mom and I arrived chipper and ready to bring home the bacon at 6:15a.m. on the dot.  It was dark outside still.  Mom and I worked like garbage men, unloading our boxes into the Marriott lobby.  Susan, our fearless tradeshow coordinator, looked like I feel--tired, but preternaturally determined.  She flitted up to me, took me to our designated spot and moved quickly on to the next task. 

The table taunted me.  It was stark and expectant.  Well?  Show me what you've got! its blank black cloth said.  I stepped back and looked at it.  I'm not afraid of you, I thought.  Then I got to work.   Somehow, the cloth and the boxes, the stationary and the books, the t-shirts and so on, all came together.  By 7:28, we were done and ready for action.

I was signed up for the breakout session on Quickbooks, but mom was so tired that I had to send her home for a nap.  Maybe this wasn't a bad thing after all because I had a steady stream of traffic and even if she had been there, it might've been a strain for her to be there alone.  I met so many awesome individuals and it was wonderful to get instant feedback about what people thought of our products and company.

By lunchtime, mom still hadn't made it back and I was STARVING!  Luckily, WI posted ambassadors down the corridor so that we could leave our booths! That was a brilliant idea, because I paid for mom to go to the whole thing so even if she had been there, I would've wanted to have lunch with her, not in shifts.   

I made a fatal error at lunch: I did not fill out the bingo questionnaire!  Always, ALWAYS, fill out stuff at WI functions.  As a result of not filling out this form, I didn't get to enter to win a ton of cool prizes. Arrrgh!

Anywho, all in all the day was a tremendous success.  The contacts I made were tremendous and we didn't do too bad on the sales side!  But the crucial thing was getting to put my face to my company and my website - that's key. I've tracked the hits to my site since then and there was a definite spike in the days following the show. 

Before the end of the show, I strolled around and talked with some of my fellow exhibitors.   I was so impressed with the elegance, the style and the charisma of their presentation and their products.  I am honored to know these women, to be a part of their community.  They are amazing. 

Ladies, let's keep this circle of inspiration going, let's meet and share our experiences and our insights.  Until next time, much continued success to each and every one of you.

-- Tracy Watson, Publisher, Our World Books (WI grad '06)

(Photo of Tracy at the Conference by Kali Kraum at Oakland Magazine.)