Women are always asking my advice on how to start a business of their own. I always reply: do what you love, believe that you are the best, stay focused on it and you will succeed. Then this summer one of my face book friends posted the following quote from Will Rogers which said what I say even better: "If you want to be successful, it's just this simple: Know what you're doing. Love what you're doing. And believe in what you're doing."
I started my business 6 months after my daughter Daniela was born in 1992. Don't ask me how I came up with the idea, but I started designing birth announcements of my own and handing pregnant women in Central Park my business cards. Every birth announcement was printed in my apartment,layered, hand embellished and bowed. My husband pointed out at the rate I was going I was probably making 25 cents an hour. As much as I hated to admit it - he was right. So I stopped doing the work myself and I started selling other companies stationery and invitations. My business grew at the same rate my family did. After my fourth child Gabriela was born in 2002, it was getting harder to work out of my home studio. One night I was watching an episode of "The Apprentice" and Donald Trump fired a Harvard graduate just because he said he did not like to take risks. In that moment I decided it was time to take a risk and I open a small 350 sq ft. store front. My business grew within that first year beyond what I expected and I moved to my present studio which is 1000 square feet.
All these years I have been relentless in focusing on growing my business - loving what I do all the way. A natural extension to selling invitations was event planning, so that became a part of my business as well. I have taken many risks along the way and they have paid off. I now have a full time graphic designer extraordinaire on staff, Alison Leibowitz, which allows me to have full control of the design process for our clients from their invitations to their centerpieces! I have come full circle now and although I still sell invitations from over 60 companies I would say that 90% of my invitations are completely custom just like I was doing back in 1992 - the only difference is that I now hire someone to layer the papers and tie the bows!!
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A business does not start big outright. We really need to have a full conviction in setting our goals and meet them. Pouring in our passion for what we love doing will guarantee us success. It's not at all risky to do things like securing a loan to start a business or, to go all out in marketing, and others. In the end, if we aim for success, then we're destined to be there.
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