22/52: Bittersweet
#CapitalAtRisk
The 2010s was the decade of the Entrepreneur.
The 2020s will be the decade of the Investor.
“No. And don’t call again”
Anon
Merch, I’m all about the merch
I'm going through old boxes of photos and other rubbish to look for something (which of course I can't find, but actually that's quite fitting — more on that in a later post), but I did find the photo above.... 📸
What you see in the photo is day 1 of my t-shirt empire. In 1997 I thought it would be a good idea to start a business that embroidered logos onto t-shirts for staff, customers, merch etc. Big money-making opportunity, right?! 🤑
So I bought an embroidery machine, quit my job and got going 🧵
It was....
🧪 Experimental
I had no customers, no money and no clue. But that meant I had to do stuff. I cold-called businesses of all types. I hated that and made no sales 📉
📠 Technological
Having had zero luck cold-calling I bought a typewriter, borrowed a stack of Yellow Pages from my mate Justin (this was 1997 remember) then typed and sent letters to 20 different companies per day. A few months later I bought a new-fangled PC and printer so I could send out 100 letters per day 📈
🍺 Enlightening
Eventually a few pubs called me wanting some t-shirts with the pub name embroidered onto them for their staff. Ah-ha! So after that I got all the Yellow Pages for all of London and wrote to 100 pubs per day 👨💻
🎤 Surprising
In that windowless, heatingless, occasionally damp basement in North London I'd come in early in the morning and have to tiptoe past some scruffy people sleeping in the entranceway. They used to really piss me off because they'd play loud music in the afternoon and evenings. Turned out it was Richard Ashcroft and his band, The Verve 🤩
💩 Shit
Most days were shit. Most of the time I'd be miserable because the phone wasn't ringing off the hook. But then it did. I remember getting such a big order that I laid out the £10 and £20 notes on my desk (which I eventually bought) and they were overflowing onto the floor1. Those days made up for the misery 💰
The fall of empires
🏢 My t-shirt empire didn't last too long — after grinding away for a year or so, and despite the occasional success, I was pretty fed up. But were are some lessons that stuck with me. Doing cold-calls badly, chasing invoices successfully, being super-skint and super-rich in the same day, and unknowingly having to think about market segmentation, distribution, cash-flow, and how to unpick embroidery mistakes are surely life-long lessons 🎓
Oh, and I heard ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ before anyone else 🎸
In other news
🍻 The 9others Summer Party will be on Thursday 10th July in London. This is when everyone who has been to a meal with 9others, plus other good folks, to meet and help each other out. Details and signup here.
📞 I occasionally do consulting work where I really dig into what makes people, businesses or investing tick. I have some availability until the summer so if you’re keen to get more dedicated time with me you can see what I offer startups, corporates and investors here. Just hit reply.
More from me?
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#CapitalAtRisk
I took a photo of the scene but can't find that one, sorry.