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October 13, 2004

Diary of a Start-up

Diary of a Start-Up: Redwagon

Posted by Victoria Keddie at 11:05 AM

This is the first in an series of weblogs from one of the owners of redwagon, a business that makes and sells hand-crafted fashion accessories and clothing. Check back often for more from-the-trenches viewpoints on starting and building a business.

This week's entry: Where Do We Go Next?

We are a company made up of four gals, three in NYC and one in LA. We started this company with the idea that a girl doesn't have to get knee deep in debt to have some quality hand-crafted clothing and accessories. So we founded redwagon in January 2004, specializing in accessories, jewelry, and clothing. We ventured from boutique to boutique, offering our line in a fully stuffed vanity suitcase. Luckily both our idea and our products began to take notice.

Hear we are nine months later, with orders, a website, and our line of merchandise in boutiques spanning LA, NYC, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Needless to say, we are a little overwhelmed and in over our heads with the business aspects of the company: Do we incorporate? Do we copyright? Do we enlist manufacturers and investors? We bought Incorporate Your Business for Dummies, and got a vendor's license and retail certificate, and that's as far as we've gotten at the moment.

With the company growing as it has, it seems that now the four of us have slightly--and not so slightly--different views of what the company should be. What began as randomly creating excellent pieces from moderately priced fabrics and scrap leather for appliqu�s has turned into a highly tailored line of all leather. This has put redwagon in a position of losing lead-time to get the merchandise into the boutiques as well as losing our value prices.

What happened to that idea that we started this company for? Instead we are emulating a high-end fashion house with absolutely no budget or time to make the items we have designed. So now the customers we intended to sell our fashions to cannot afford our line. At this point we need to figure out where we're headed and what steps will be right for our company's success--and what kind of success we're actually looking for!

3 Comments

Posted by: Chuk at October 15, 2004 7:05 AM

You sound like someone that knows exactly what you want to do! You definitely have a clear vision, and expectation. What I think you need to do is sit down with your partners (and friends if I am not mistaken) and answer the questions you posed in your last paragraph especially. It may help for you all to talk about it first, sleep over it, and then meet again to finally spell out your vision and mission. Hopefully it would put you all on the same page and direction.

It may also help to decide beforehand how to vote for you final decision: consensus, majority wins, or what I call "vote to vote" - a hybrid of the two. You all agree to vote by consensus, and then use the majority wins system. Good luck, and I hope this helps :)

Posted by: kirsten at October 15, 2004 11:25 AM

CONGRATS GALS! Chicks helping chicks succeed is a powerful concept...even though it is still somewhat of an outlier even in small business. When you have the time, wander on over to re:invention's blog - http://reinventioninc.blogspot.com or our company site www.reinventioninc.com. Exclusively for women entrepreneurs such as yourself. Waiting to hear what you four do next.

kindly,
kirsten
CEO and KCC ("kinda cool chick")
re:invention, inc.
"marketing services for women-led businesses"

Posted by: Timothy at October 21, 2004 2:48 PM

This is indeed a very serious issue. Letting the market dictate the direction of your company has its pros and cons.

Please do let us know the direction of the company after you gals have figured it out.

Timothy
http://www.bunjara.com

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