No one ever opened their own business because they thought it would be easy — at least no one who hoped to be successful. There are so many details to be covered, like production costs and time. When I decided to offer Dog Tired guitar straps, I had no idea of the time and money it would take to source materials and labor or to get marketing in place — all while trying to produce a quality product at a competitive price. Also, I’m a bit of an optimist. I generally see things in best case scenarios, so my ideas of how long it would take to get a product to market, how much it would cost, and how many I would sell initially were all skewed a bit too far north of reality.
That meant I had to work harder to make it happen. I didn’t chalk it up to being another idea never to be implemented, I figured out how to get it done. To compete in the market segment where these would live, I had to control costs. I worked directly with the production facility and called in some favors to get the straps produced more economically. I dealt directly with leather wholesalers to get the best price, and I figured I could save quite a bit of money per strap by buying my own leather punch die and press and making the leather ends myself. Now I’ll leave you with this quote…
“Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week.” – Lori Greiner