Replies

Sometimes (not always) it’s possible to start with what you already have. My sewing business started with a sewing machine that had been in the family for ages, and a costume shop owner who was willing to supply the fabric.

I was lucky, though.

When I was 17 I tried to start a lawn care business. I was a natural at it and I had a great client base, but I was using equipment rented from a family member at a very low rate. When the summer season was over the equipment owner decided not to rent to me any longer. (My fault entirely-long story.) The cost of buying the equipment was more than I could afford, borrow or finance, so after my senior year I went to work for "the man".

But it was grand while it lasted!

Your experience is like ours. We began as craftspeople, doing street fairs. Finally, we made the products that had wholesale appeal, so we went to wholesale trade shows.

People need skills and tools. Today, with the Internet, you can market online and to targeted markets.

I know someone with a business similar to yours. She began making re-enactment clothing for herself and friends and now sells at a couple of large Western or Rendezvous-type shows, on the Internet and out of her own shop.

Yes, you live out of the cash box and maybe have no employees except one or two other talented folks to help out when there is a rush job or one too big for one person. But you can make enough to live on or to supplement a day job and if you are good at what you do, the clientele will follow, mostly through word-of-mouth, which is the best and cheapest advertising in the world.