Have you ever babysat, washed windows, dog walked, or mowed the lawn for money?
Or maybe even organized a garage sale.
Well then you've already been an entrepreneur.
Hi, my name is Renee.
Hi, I'm Kimberly.
And we'd like to help you get started on your next entrepreneurial adventure by checking
out some of the necessary steps it takes in starting your own business.
A person who owns her own business.
Over the next 20 minutes you're going to get to know three women entrepreneurs in very
different businesses.
You're going to see how creativity, determination, and vision made these women successful in
balancing risk with profits every day.
Jani Lane opened up her company, Respect, after studying film in college.
Now her company generates over one and a half million dollars a year selling hot trend products.
Well I thought, you know, I have to be my own boss.
I have to do it my way.
So I decided to start a company when I was 23.
And Respect is the result of that.
Rachel Hupka opened a bus company in inner city Chicago, a really tough neighborhood.
This woman has courage.
We're in the inner city in Chicago.
This is Rachel's bus company, bus terminal, and I'm Rachel.
And Wila Easton created Olmec Toys, manufacturing a line of dolls that reflect this country's
ethnic diversity because she felt that children of color should have toys that look like them.
I never planned to lose my job.
I was making a very good salary.
I got off at 5 o'clock and it was an easy job and I loved it.
And I only intended to do this after work.
And it began to consume my day.
True or false, in order to be called an entrepreneur, you must start a company all by yourself and
be at least 16 years old.
If you said false, you're good.
Actually, you can start a company with 10 other people.
You can be any age, but regardless, you will need passion, drive, self-reliance, creativity,
vision, leadership, a navel pierce.
Get real, girl.
Rachel, Jani, and Wila all have the basic characteristics of entrepreneurship.
They all believe in themselves.
And Rachel Hupka, she just won't give up.
I've never had an attitude that I couldn't do something.
In fact, the biggest challenge for me is for someone to tell me I can't do it.
And Jani knows when she needs help.
I think to be an entrepreneur, it takes someone who is curious, is curious, who asks a lot
of questions, who isn't afraid to ask for help.
Because when I started, I didn't know anything about business, so I really had to ask.
And Wila, she won't take no for an answer.
My basic belief, and perhaps it was because I was a reporter first year, is that no means
not now.
No doesn't mean no.
It means not now.
Nearly 8 million businesses in the U.S. are owned by women, and they generate close to
$2.3 trillion in revenues.
That is a lot of woman power.
Which one of these newspapers came to be nationally known under the leadership of a woman?
A, Boston Globe, B, The Washington Post, C, Chicago Tribune, or D, LA Times?
If you said The Washington Post, you were right on.
Did you know that women invented and hold patents for the slinky, the snuggly, the Kevlar,
Scotchgard, and even the hang lighter?
The idea, whether it be yours or someone else's, is the first step in starting your own business.
And ideas can come from anywhere, just from being observant, like Janai Lane, for example.
I was taking a shower, and I'm in the shower, and I look down, and you know that little
stopper that holds your tub, that holds the tub stopper on the end?
Well, I put that around my neck, and I thought, this would make a great necklace, and it was
ball chain.
So I went down to the hardware store, and I must have spent $10, and I designed my whole
first line, which was made out of ball chain and O-rings.
Or ideas can come from past experiences, things you do well, things you enjoy, like Rachel,
for example, who worked her way up in the busing industry.
I got into this business by working for another school bus company.
I started there as their dispatcher and worked my way up through the ranks of that company,
and became the general manager.
That company decided that they wanted to get out of the operations end of the business.
They had all those buses that they needed to put to work, and so asked if I would like
to start my own business.
Ideas can come from problems, wants, or needs, like when Wila couldn't find a black doll
for her son.
Well, actually, I got the idea to start the company from my son.
He was playing with his little white superhero toy, and just out of the blue, he said he
couldn't be like He-Man, which was the toy, because He-Man is white.
And I thought that maybe he's already limited himself because of skin color.
And I told him, well, when we get back to New York, I'll buy you a black superhero toy.
And got back to New York and couldn't find any.
Have you noticed that Wila, Rachel, and Janai all started companies in industries that they
love?
Thank you.
Kim, do you like cleaning your room?
Hardly.
Then don't start a cleaning company.
In fact, most successful companies reflect the values of the women who created them.
I think the biggest part is that we're actually doing something that matters.
When we came out with the game, which was our newest product, and we had people telling
us, oh, I didn't know blacks invented the golf tee.
You know, oh, I didn't know we invented the doorknob.
This is really great information.
I thought that by going into a depressed area of Chicago, there would be a great market
for school bus drivers.
There's high unemployment in this area.
And so I really thought, not only would that give people in this neighborhood an opportunity
to work, it would give me a new source of drivers.
Part of the philosophy of the company really is to create a new kind of business, a business
for the new generation, one that's socially responsible, that cares about the community
in which it operates.
The best way to figure out if your idea is marketable is to ask your A, mother, B, hairdresser,
D, mailman, D, friends, or E, all of the above.
All of the above.
Just ask, ask, ask.
Ask everyone who you think might be interested in your idea.
Yeah, because if you just go with what your mother says, you'll end up with a lifetime
supply of ugly necklaces.
Give me that.
This is called market research, and it helps you to identify your customer and refine your
product idea, and it's really, really important, because a business won't work if nobody wants
to buy your product, as I learned.
Then the next step is to go out and to ask your friends what they think.
That's what I did.
I noticed that when I made the jewelry I was wearing, I'd get a lot of comments.
Oh, that's really cool.
I really like that.
Where'd you get it?
And so then I knew it was something hot that just I didn't like, but my friends liked.
So then I took it to stores, local stores, and I said, what do you think it is?
What do you think?
And they said, yeah, I'd buy that.
Well, what would you pay for it?
And if it was something where I could make some money on it, I would sell it to them.
Jenai tapped into the $150 billion teen spent every year by developing products that they
think are cool.
But Wila, on the other hand, developed her own market.
She saw a need and proved with her own research that people would buy her product.
And then I started talking with other mothers in nursery school to find out what were their
sons playing with and found out that they were having a problem finding a positive image
toy for their sons to play with.
And they were quite disturbed by it.
At this point, it's essential to write a business plan.
And it isn't easy.
You have to figure out and put in writing a description of your product, your market,
your sales potential, your team, everything about your business.
I didn't write a business plan at the very beginning.
I started making jewelry and then selling it to stores.
But as soon as I got to the point where, hey, I needed some money, I needed to get some
money to finance this business, then I needed a business plan.
True or false, a rich aunt should never be considered a source of funding for a business.
True?
Actually, you've just cut yourself off from a very viable place to find money for your
company.
And without that initial money, you won't be able to market or develop your product.
My former employer, however, was very generous in introducing me to my banker.
So I really did go into these people with a lot of good reference, not only from my
former employer, but from the Board of Education.
And I had a good reputation in the industry for running a good operation.
I went to my bank, who I'd been with for six years, and I never had bounds to check.
And I said, I need some money for my business.
I have all these orders.
And they laughed me out the door.
And I went to five other banks.
And they all laughed at me.
I was 23, a woman with no business experience to speak of.
And they just said, no way.
And I eventually found money through a micro lender, a lender that gives lots of little
high-risk loans.
In fact, that same creativity that Janai had in thinking of product ideas came in handy
again.
Because there are many ways to raise money besides banks, like family members, women's
groups, or foundations.
So remember to follow up on all of your leads.
Usually the capital comes from many different places.
But sometimes that rich ant trick really works.
A first part was raising the money.
And basically, we were able to raise in one weekend $60,000 just from friends and family
with no more than the concept on the telephone.
Where can you learn the skills you need to start a business?
A, TV.
B, the web.
C, school.
D, summer camp.
E, all of the above.
So you got a great idea.
And your market research shows that people want to buy it.
And you just raised the money to get your project started.
Business skills.
You can't run a company without them, but they're the easiest part of the process.
There are many places you can go to get them.
So yeah, the answer is E.
Yeah, like you could go to the library, get on the internet, read books, go to summer
camp, go to school, and...
And mentors.
I found a mentor.
I found a woman who had started a business, and I could meet with her every couple weeks
and just pick her brain and learn everything that I could from them.
And that was probably the most valuable experience.
I've learned that I didn't know as much about the bus business as I thought I did when I
was running 425 buses for someone else.
When it came time to do the administrative part, learn what my financial statements meant
and how to use those to improve the business, I was a greenhorn.
I knew nothing about it.
So I had to go back to school and learn how to do some of those things.
Even if the classroom isn't your scene, get out into the community and talk to successful
business people and visit their companies.
By the year 2000, it is estimated that women will own what percentage of businesses in
the U.S.?
A, 5%, B, 20%, C, 34%, or D, 50%.
Women make up 50% of the population in the U.S., so it makes sense that we own 50% of
the businesses.
So, if you said D, you're right.
Hey, did you know over the last 20 years the number of women-owned businesses jumped from
5% all the way up to 40%?
Yeah, that's cool, but don't forget how much work it is to start and maintain your own
business.
It's not a free ride.
Jani told us a great story about what she had to do to get started.
Eventually, I was able to move out into a studio space, and it was in the back of a
retail storefront.
We had no windows.
It was about 400 square feet, and it was myself and my new business partner, and I had one
employee.
It was very hard.
You couldn't breathe back there, so every hour you had to go outside to get a breath
of air.
We did all of our packing and shipping.
I remember we got our first big order from Macy's, and we had to do it in the middle
of the night when the store was closed.
We had to shut down all the store and move all the fixtures and clothes out of the way,
and pack up this Macy's order the whole night through, get all the boxes out of the way,
and put all the clothes back before the store opened at 10 a.m. the next morning.
Having your own business doesn't mean that you're going to be rich, but it does mean
that you can be financially independent.
It means that you'll be meeting a challenge that will fulfill you, give you a sense of
self-accomplishment, and allow you freedoms that most people only dream about.
I think a part of the motivation was letters I was getting, comments I would get when I
would go out in the marketplace, seeing kids really happy about the toys, and knowing that
we were making progress.
We were helping change opinions.
I get a great deal of pride out of it.
I get pride out of seeing a new driver come in and going out the first day and doing the
route on time and encouraging them to stick with it.
It's fun.
What I love about creating Respect was it's really what I wanted in a company.
If I want to come to work in flip-flops and jeans, I can.
If I want to listen to my tunes on the radio all day long, I can.
If I want to bring my kitty cat to work, I can.
I love that freedom of being able to do what I want to do in my own space and creating
my own environment.
Wila, Rachel, and Janai are three women who use their creativity and their determination
to start three successful companies.
If you want to learn more about starting your own business, there's a whole bunch of information
in the credits as to where you can go and get help.
So good luck on your next entrepreneurial adventure.
I can't wait to see you in Fortune magazine.
That would be great.