Top: c/o Lush Clothing | Denim: c/o Revolve | Shoes: c/o Ego Official | Hat: Lack Of Color

1. DO IT YOURSELF

One of the classic mistakes and biggest wastes of money when starting a business is getting ahead of yourself and thinking you shouldn’t be the one doing the monotonous tasks like filling orders. Until you can comfortably pay for staff to do tasks like this there is absolutely no reason to go into debt for something you can do yourself. That also goes for other things like web design, photography, etc. People can spend tens of thousands of dollars on these types of things, but since I’m frugal AF, I didn’t want to pay full price for web design, so I had my web guy do the bones of our website and I learned how to do everything else myself including any updates that we do throughout the year. Same with photography, there was no way I was able to pay for shoots every other month so I invested in a good camera and started doing all the photography myself. It forces you to learn new things and thus become a better equipped business owner and human overall.

2. GET CREATIVE

When you first start a business there are a lot of big expenses, but there are also a lot of minor expenses that add up to big expenses. Things like plastic mailers, stickers, business cards, hang tags, tissue paper, printer ink, postcards, etc. etc. And frankly when I have to drop hundreds of dollars on something like hang tags, well, that does not sit well with me. It’s like having to buy grown up things like tires – no fun. The first time I ever did hang tags I went through a local print shop and had I think 500 of them made up and they were suuuuper expensive.. I can’t remember exactly how much I paid but I remember it was unjustifiably expensive for what they were. Then, it was actually my sister’s genius idea of ordering business cards from vista print and using those as my hang tags – the paper quality was way better and they were .0001% of the price. I also love utilizing the dollar store for things like tissue paper, twine, craft paper etc.

3. BABY STEPS

Go big or go home has definitely not been my business model since starting MACCS – it’s more like, slow and steady wins the race. I know some people really like to hit the ground running and start their business as if it’s a big corporation, I guess trying to manifest that that is what it will become. I’m the opposite – I think it’s best to start small and as money starts to flow in and awareness builds then take your business to the next level. A small example is going all out on branded boxes/bags etc. Even though it looks great, 99% of the time that stuff is thrown right into the trash. Not to say you shouldn’t eventually invest in such things, but when you’re just starting out, there’s no need to blow a huge chunk of your budget (and storage space) on custom packaging. You will do just as great with a plastic mailer, some tissue, twine, a branded post card, and maybe even a hand written note – all costing a fraction of the price of custom. Another example which I’ve written a bit about here is working out of your home vs. renting an office. Until your orders and stock are taking over your life, start in your home – I filled orders from my parents mudroom for the longest time. Start small, and as your business grows, grow with it, don’t blow your budget before you even start.

4. ASK FOR HELP

We all have a friend of a friend who works in that field, or knows how to do this, or went to school for that. Utilize your connections and ask for help from friends. Being in the millennial age, we’re lucky to have unlimited connections to people who are knowledgeable in these types of fields. We’re also lucky to be able to find someone who’s in that field and send a quick email asking questions. Anyone I’ve ever approached with a question has always been super helpful and open to giving me any knowledge they can. So if you’re stuck, there is more than likely a friend of a friend who can help, as opposed to paying someone big bucks to do it for you.

5. CONTRA DEALS

Oh how I love contra deals. Contra is basically an exchange of goods or services without using cash. Anytime I’m able to do so, being able to pay in product is the absolute best. I already have the product there and being able to use it as a currency of sorts not only saves me cash, but clears out stock, and helps to spread brand awareness. Whenever I’m working with a model, makeup artist, photographer, I always offer a contra exchange first. It also works out better for them because I’m able to gift a way higher dollar value than actual money. This is also great for marketing. Sending free product to your ‘it’ customer to promote on their social – amazing for exposure.

I hope this post helps any future business owners / entrepreneurs. And please let me know if you have any other questions in the comments below!

xx

Tessa