There is love behind the Scrappy Face brand. A love for entrepreneurs. A love for people who do what they are passionate about and succeed in life. A love for truth and adventure. And a love for people – all the people that make a startup happen.
It isn’t easy having a startup.
But it is totally invigorating and a journey that explains how this world works and puts you to the ultimate test. You quickly find out what you’re made of, and the things you love about yourself come out in your business. What else in life gives us this experience?
What about having kids? That analogy has always been there, and I think to some degree it is true. Both are all-consuming and demanding of your resources and you. But my feeling is that having your own business is more selfish than having children. (It’s important to note that I have currently have no children – just three “scrappy” dachshunds you’ll see peppered throughout this website and on my Twitter profile.) Egos can fly, and businesses are very fragile things. Not that kids aren’t – but a change in the market, a wrong strategy, a bad employee – and you’re out. Out of the game with your tail between your legs.
You’ll hear me talk a lot about how much “noise” is out there and the importance of standing out.
We are at a time when the cost of starting businesses is low, and it is very attractive to do your own thing. You have more flexibility, creativity, and there’s potential to have a great lifestyle. So there are many of us starting businesses – all of us telling people how great our product is.
But the problem is that people don’t listen to traditional marketing anymore. They’ve learned to tune it out. And there are too many options out there. So instead of paying attention to ads and traditional media, they listen to friends, websites and blogs, and their Twitter feed.
This means that while it can be inexpensive to start a business, making it work is hard and the demands on your time are overwhelming. If you’re doing it right, social media alone is taking at least five hours of your week. Yelp wants you to advertise with them. You need help with your website. Your employees and contractors are not doing what you want them to do, the way you want them to do it. And Groupon keeps calling wanting you to do a special offer with them. It will get people in the door, but is it worth it?
AHHH! It’s enough to make your head explode.
That is why I built Scrappy Face.
To give you direction on all these demanding matters; to give you guidance on how to get things done effectively and on time; and, to be a source of information for you, so you don’t waste time figuring it out alone.
Tasks that seem simple – like building a website – really are not that simple. And if you’ve never done it before you really don’t know why it’s not as easy as it should be – no matter who you hire. And fixing an employee or contractor issue is difficult – after all, you wouldn’t have hired the person if you didn’t like him/her and want him/her happy with you.
I learned all of this the hard way. I built a complicated tech startup (think iPhoto book for recipes) when I was just 24. I worked on it for 6 years after running out of money two weeks after the banking crisis in 2008. Since then, my team has consulted with many types of businesses. We’ve seen a lot. But the one thing that has been the same is this…
You must build scrappy!
There is a way of building, managing, and doing things that will guide you to success. I built Scrappy Face to share this with you, to guide you through your small business hardships, and to help you get the work done. We will explain as we go, while bringing you the information you need to know, when you need to know it.
In the meantime, call us if you need help with your small business. We’re scrappy and we can help.
Stay scrappy,
Kate
