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| News Articles | How to Start a Business |
It's nice to hear that so many of you are interested in starting your own business. We love to hear from new entrepreneurs!
Some of you have written to ask us for advice on how we got started. Here's the best advice for beginning your own business that we can give you - stick with it. There will be lots of days when you feel like throwing in the towel, believe me. We started Gooseberry Patch in 1984, each investing $5000, and did not get a paycheck for three years! Our first catalog was in the mail by August 1985.
Be original and true to yourself and your dream. Change with the times. Keep up with the trends and give your customers what they want and more. Be ready to spend long days, nights and even weekends. When you own your own business, there is no such thing as working 9 to 5! Love it with a passion. We can honestly say that we still love our business as much today as we did in the beginning, maybe even more. We hope that shows through our catalogs and books.
After a few years, we did hire a catalog consultant. The Direct Marketing Association in New York can be very helpful in linking you up with someone in your specific field. Also, we could not have started the business without the support of our husbands and families. Our original mailing list of 300 names came from a retail store-definitely not mail order shoppers. Because we advertised in a national magazine, Country Living, we began to develop our own mailing list and our customers came from all over the country. It was 5 years, however, before we got a toll-free number.
We depended upon our gut instincts rather than abundance of research to begin the business. There were a few other catalogs out there selling products like ours, but not many. There was room for us and it worked. Bookstores and libraries are great resources for information on starting and growing your business. Read, read, read! Our products are selected at national gift shows in Chicago, Dallas, New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles. They are wonderful resources. We have gathered some very informative articles here on our website, which might be a good reference for you.
We wish you the best of luck!
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© Gooseberry Patch 2008
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