One of the real shockers for me in starting my own company was the level of stress it created. The minute I got the financing all organized, bank account open and the money deposited, my stress levels went through the roof. It took me several weeks to get the stress under control, to a level I can manage. I really did not expect this to happen - before getting the company going, I was simply excited about the whole thing.
It is true that, since about last September, I have a dual workload. My responsibilities at the university haven't slackened - if anything, they have picked up speed in several areas, and, at the same time, I have to keep a company on track, designs rolling forward from the worktable into production, setting up the production and the marketing and... the list goes on. Just to get a sense of my own time management, I've started to keep track of the hours I spend on each task. I have found that my week at the university is roughly 40 hours - certainly a drop from where it has been in the past, but still above the legal commitment to 35 hours a week. I'm also spending 30 to 35 hours a week on the company business, and that is since I hired an assistant and started delegating a number of tasks! My relaxation hours, which I've also been keeping track of, seem to be around 15 hours a week - not many, all things considered. I don't include sleep in my relaxation time, or eating, just doing things to distract myself or calm myself or, indeed, relax.
I'm not sure how long I can keep this level of time commitment up - I expect that after a year or so it will start to wear mighty thin! For relaxation, a friend gave me some tips that have been useful, and I try to get out and walk a bit more than I used to, and to see friends and/or cultural events, but I must say that most evenings I'd sooner crash than go out.
I've got to do something more active to manage the stress, but I still haven't figured out what is right for me. Exercise, yes, almost certainly, but under what circumstances still remains to be seen. I also realized that I have to engage in some sewing projects that are not within the purview of the company, as I find sewing to be particularly relaxing - it's one of the reasons I got into it in the first place!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Plans within plans
While I'm in the process of moving my designs forward to final versions in readiness for production, I have been doing a number of activities on the side to keep the ball rolling. This includes taming the twitterverse so that my company can develop an internet presence, on the one hand, but also putting down on paper a series of preliminary versions of policy documents.
As a researcher with a reputation for "out-of-the-box" thinking, I have long recognized the value and importance of planning, and writing down one's plans. Twenty years ago, as I was entering the academic world as a young professor, I set down on paper my long term plans, which at the time consisted of developing a cogent linkage/platform between the arts and the sciences. In 1990, this was a radical goal - academia was a long way from welcoming such a prospect with open arms. Even today, although there are many more venues where collaboration between the arts and the sciences is taking place, there is still a great deal of resistance to this program. So it seemed unusual and daring at the time.
Mind you, I didn't proclaim my goals up and down my department, but I did quietly work away at them, so that, 20 years later, I achieved what I set out to do.
Over the course of those years, I was involved in setting up a major and well-funded research network as well as managing a research centre and initiating an arts-science business venture. I learned how to write a business plan, and initiated and led several large-scale consultation exercices aimed at developing strategic plans. So I have a good deal of knowledge and savoir-faire about how these things are done.
For my fledgling company, in order to solicit a bank loan, I had to write a business plan. These last couple of weeks, using the business plan as a basis, I have started to set down on paper my understanding of where gdotmoda's marketing efforts need to go - i.e. a marketing plan. Right now, the company consists of only me, but within the next few weeks I shall be hiring an assistant as well as a number of production seamstresses/seamsters. For the assistant, at least, I need to work out a clear approach to marketing. But even simply for myself, writing down my understanding as it develops through voluminous reading is an important task. There are so many things to remember, that a clear set of plans to steer by seems to me, essential. My marketing plan has two major sections, one for internet marketing and one for local marketing. These two subareas have very different marketing needs, and require almost separate marketing plans.
As a researcher with a reputation for "out-of-the-box" thinking, I have long recognized the value and importance of planning, and writing down one's plans. Twenty years ago, as I was entering the academic world as a young professor, I set down on paper my long term plans, which at the time consisted of developing a cogent linkage/platform between the arts and the sciences. In 1990, this was a radical goal - academia was a long way from welcoming such a prospect with open arms. Even today, although there are many more venues where collaboration between the arts and the sciences is taking place, there is still a great deal of resistance to this program. So it seemed unusual and daring at the time.
Mind you, I didn't proclaim my goals up and down my department, but I did quietly work away at them, so that, 20 years later, I achieved what I set out to do.
Over the course of those years, I was involved in setting up a major and well-funded research network as well as managing a research centre and initiating an arts-science business venture. I learned how to write a business plan, and initiated and led several large-scale consultation exercices aimed at developing strategic plans. So I have a good deal of knowledge and savoir-faire about how these things are done.
For my fledgling company, in order to solicit a bank loan, I had to write a business plan. These last couple of weeks, using the business plan as a basis, I have started to set down on paper my understanding of where gdotmoda's marketing efforts need to go - i.e. a marketing plan. Right now, the company consists of only me, but within the next few weeks I shall be hiring an assistant as well as a number of production seamstresses/seamsters. For the assistant, at least, I need to work out a clear approach to marketing. But even simply for myself, writing down my understanding as it develops through voluminous reading is an important task. There are so many things to remember, that a clear set of plans to steer by seems to me, essential. My marketing plan has two major sections, one for internet marketing and one for local marketing. These two subareas have very different marketing needs, and require almost separate marketing plans.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Keeping the books!
I know these blog entries don't seem to have anything to do with sewing and design, but as someone who is going through the motions of developing a fashion design business, I think someone may find this useful, as I'm not the only person interested in doing fashion as a business who began with very little knowledge of how to do this! After a quiet time over Christmas as I spent time more with my family than with the project, I started the new year flat on my back with a bad cold. It's only in the last two days that I've started to feel better.
I've started to systematically organize my research effort. Hence one of the tasks I will need to do soon will be to identify my most likely sources of fabric. I've still not made all my decisions in this regard, for example, off-shore versus fabrics produced in Canada or North America - right now, I'm trying to cost it all out and find good quality fabrics at prices that make sense. As I started to make lists of potential fabric sources, I realized I really needed to organize these into a database - my company will need to manage its sources rather more systematically than haphazardly. After some time looking into database software, I decided that what I really needed was to start looking into financial management software, since the fabric sourcing is intimately tied to many of the financial issues, and to develop the sourcing files simply as contact lists, using AddressBook on my Mac.
As a result, I spent time over the weekend reading up on reviews of accounting software for small businesses with a particular focus on MacOS-compatible software. Despite some discussion about a possible Peachtree version for Mac, I was not able to obtain any direct demo for this - instead I downloaded a demo version of AccountEdge (formerly MYOB).
My efforts to understand this software were hampered by my lack of experience with basic accounting principles. But as I struggled with the software, I kept telling myself - "hey, you're a senior academic, this isn't rocket science, tons of people work with this all the time, you just need to 'catch the trick' and you'll be fine". And when I stepped back to read some basic texts about accounting 101, I did finally 'get it', and from that point on, I've been able to use the software with only a few teething problems. The "trick", no doubt obvious to all and sundry who are familiar with accounting, is that you have to double up entries on the Debit side with entries on the Credit side. To some extent, the software does this for you, but until I understood the principle, I was producing nonsense.
Other teething issues were the realization that I needed to turn on "multiple currencies", since many internet purchases are in US$ (or even Euros) and not just in Canadian $, and then I had to figure out how to modify the default exchange rates to something like where they are now. I'm still not at home with invoicing, but I do feel that I am beginning to get a handle on how to use the accounting software to stay abreast of the financial management of my company. At this point, I'm not managing much more than some of the early financial outlays, but even for these I now have a cumulative figure of how much I've paid out to deal with a range of "start-up" issues as well as some ability to understand how these costs distribute across different categories of purchases.
I'm still waiting for the provincial registration papers to come back with tax numbers assigned, while in the mean time moving forward with finalizing the prototypes so that when the start-up money clears, I'll be set to get the production machinery in motion!
I've started to systematically organize my research effort. Hence one of the tasks I will need to do soon will be to identify my most likely sources of fabric. I've still not made all my decisions in this regard, for example, off-shore versus fabrics produced in Canada or North America - right now, I'm trying to cost it all out and find good quality fabrics at prices that make sense. As I started to make lists of potential fabric sources, I realized I really needed to organize these into a database - my company will need to manage its sources rather more systematically than haphazardly. After some time looking into database software, I decided that what I really needed was to start looking into financial management software, since the fabric sourcing is intimately tied to many of the financial issues, and to develop the sourcing files simply as contact lists, using AddressBook on my Mac.
As a result, I spent time over the weekend reading up on reviews of accounting software for small businesses with a particular focus on MacOS-compatible software. Despite some discussion about a possible Peachtree version for Mac, I was not able to obtain any direct demo for this - instead I downloaded a demo version of AccountEdge (formerly MYOB).
My efforts to understand this software were hampered by my lack of experience with basic accounting principles. But as I struggled with the software, I kept telling myself - "hey, you're a senior academic, this isn't rocket science, tons of people work with this all the time, you just need to 'catch the trick' and you'll be fine". And when I stepped back to read some basic texts about accounting 101, I did finally 'get it', and from that point on, I've been able to use the software with only a few teething problems. The "trick", no doubt obvious to all and sundry who are familiar with accounting, is that you have to double up entries on the Debit side with entries on the Credit side. To some extent, the software does this for you, but until I understood the principle, I was producing nonsense.
Other teething issues were the realization that I needed to turn on "multiple currencies", since many internet purchases are in US$ (or even Euros) and not just in Canadian $, and then I had to figure out how to modify the default exchange rates to something like where they are now. I'm still not at home with invoicing, but I do feel that I am beginning to get a handle on how to use the accounting software to stay abreast of the financial management of my company. At this point, I'm not managing much more than some of the early financial outlays, but even for these I now have a cumulative figure of how much I've paid out to deal with a range of "start-up" issues as well as some ability to understand how these costs distribute across different categories of purchases.
I'm still waiting for the provincial registration papers to come back with tax numbers assigned, while in the mean time moving forward with finalizing the prototypes so that when the start-up money clears, I'll be set to get the production machinery in motion!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
g dot moda inc.
Well, the company is now incorporated under Canadian law as "g dot moda inc." The incorporation process consists of having an official name search done for the proposed name and any likely variants (the idea is that the name must be distinct from those of other businesses so as not to cause confusion), preparing the Articles of Incorporation, then paying some fees and submitting the application for approval. This used to take several days, but this time the approval came back the same day. It turned out that there is already a "C.G. Moda Ltd" in Canada, and I know there is a G. Moda in New York (a furniture company), so going with "g dot moda inc." is much more distinctive and is what my website address is anyway!
I now have to have the company Registered under Quebec law - the Quebec government will give the company a unique taxation number and the name will be recorded in the Quebec business registry. The paperwork has gone in the mail for this - unlike the feds, this still has to be done the old way.
So g.moda is now officially incorporated, which means I am ready to set up a bank account for the company, as soon as I get home in January. I'm leaving for Victoria later today for the Christmas holidays, to spend time with one of my brothers and his family, as well as old friends.
My priorities when I get back are to finalize the design of the g-zip garment line (my first line) and get the company's finances into order. I have decided to focus my effort more towards the first garment line, to at least get that off the ground ASAP, before focusing more on the second planned garment line, g-eode. I have ideas about several other lines - these ideas are firming up over time.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I now have to have the company Registered under Quebec law - the Quebec government will give the company a unique taxation number and the name will be recorded in the Quebec business registry. The paperwork has gone in the mail for this - unlike the feds, this still has to be done the old way.
So g.moda is now officially incorporated, which means I am ready to set up a bank account for the company, as soon as I get home in January. I'm leaving for Victoria later today for the Christmas holidays, to spend time with one of my brothers and his family, as well as old friends.
My priorities when I get back are to finalize the design of the g-zip garment line (my first line) and get the company's finances into order. I have decided to focus my effort more towards the first garment line, to at least get that off the ground ASAP, before focusing more on the second planned garment line, g-eode. I have ideas about several other lines - these ideas are firming up over time.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Moving forward
Well, the bank approved my application for a loan, so I'm good to go, to set up my company and move the project forward! This morning I couldn't keep still, I was bouncing up and down so hard!
I've a website up and running, too - the address is "www.gdotmoda.com". My company is called "g.moda" - "g" for my name, and "moda" for fashion, although you could also interpret it as "g's way". The "dot" is a kind of bridge between the design and the production. The website is kind of a "placeholder" site right now - nothing is really revealed, but you get a glimpse at some of what is being planned. Essentially, the first two garment lines are described in fairly general terms. As the company moves towards its inaugural event, I plan to slowly reveal a bit more, just to keep prospective clients interested, with the big reveal happening at the inaugural event and its online equivalent. The website will be transformed into a sales site, where you can purchase garments directly online.
There is, however, a ton of stuff that has to be done to get to that point. More later!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Incorporation Mysticism
I thought of calling this blog entry "Incorporation Blues", but it isn't really a downer - on the contrary, it's incredibly exciting! But it is rather mysterious...
I have actually been through the incorporation process three times before, so it should be no great mystery. I was a shareholder in a company a couple of my friends created way back in the 80's - I sold my shares back to my friends when I realized I couldn't participate as fully as I had originally expected, and eventually one of them took over the whole company and that was that.
Then, for four years, I was Associate Director and later Director for a large pan-Canadian research network with an incorporated Business Centre. That was the second time, but it wasn't me who actually drew up the paper work, even though I learned by the seat of my pants how a CEO with no vote on the Board still has to manage the Board and how much power a non-voting member can still have. A very interesting experience, with a budget in excess of 25 million dollars, so not small fry at all!
Finally, I co-owned a small business with my collaborator and business partner of long date, Marie Louise Bourbeau. Here I really learned the nuts and bolts of incorporating, setting up shareholders meetings, a Board of Directors, and so forth. However, our company didn't actually make any money! We incorporated before we knew where we needed to go with the concept (my fault actually, I was the one who jumped the gun!) and we ended up funding most of the things we wanted to get done through my research grants at the university. We did remarkable things at the edge between the sciences and the arts .... but it wasn't really a business. It was also a constant nightmare trying to keep separate my business for the company from my contributions as a researcher, so as to avoid conflict of interest situations. We finally decided to close down the "business" last year since we were still not making any money and had no idea how we were going to!
So this is my fourth venture, albeit the first really commercial one based on my personal initiative. Nonetheless, the other experiences give me background and a certain amount of experience with the mechanics of setting up a business, including developing a business plan (we developed business plans for both the research network and the arts-science initiative), developing Articles of Incorporation, developing a logo and brochure, etc.
My business coach in Toronto tells me that my number one principle for spending money (or doing anything at all), is "lead with revenue" - that is, make sure that there is a direct line between what I'm doing/spending and how this is going to generate revenue! It seems such an obvious thing, somehow, but I find it really useful to review all my expenditures in light of how they relate to income!
So after reviewing all the choices (do I incorporate or merely register as a single-person business? do I incorporate under provincial law or federal law? does the company offer a single type of share or more types of shares? how many shares should I issue, and of what value? how many directors do I need on the Board? etc.), and consulting with some people with good knowledge of what is appropriate, I am moving forward to the next stage. Still, the process still seems mysterious and somewhat heady - one is making a rapid series of decisions that will set in place many of my activities over the next umpteen years!
It turns out that I may need to contact the bank initially before incorporating, as they may have some requirements regarding the Articles of Incorporation. These could always be accommodated later, but I'd have to pay another chunk of money to have an amendment made, so it makes sense to do it all in one go (I think!).
My workshop is ready - I shall be posting some photos of the space shortly. I've been working on a business card, and I am starting to look into creating an initial website. And the sewing still has to happen as well!
I have actually been through the incorporation process three times before, so it should be no great mystery. I was a shareholder in a company a couple of my friends created way back in the 80's - I sold my shares back to my friends when I realized I couldn't participate as fully as I had originally expected, and eventually one of them took over the whole company and that was that.
Then, for four years, I was Associate Director and later Director for a large pan-Canadian research network with an incorporated Business Centre. That was the second time, but it wasn't me who actually drew up the paper work, even though I learned by the seat of my pants how a CEO with no vote on the Board still has to manage the Board and how much power a non-voting member can still have. A very interesting experience, with a budget in excess of 25 million dollars, so not small fry at all!
Finally, I co-owned a small business with my collaborator and business partner of long date, Marie Louise Bourbeau. Here I really learned the nuts and bolts of incorporating, setting up shareholders meetings, a Board of Directors, and so forth. However, our company didn't actually make any money! We incorporated before we knew where we needed to go with the concept (my fault actually, I was the one who jumped the gun!) and we ended up funding most of the things we wanted to get done through my research grants at the university. We did remarkable things at the edge between the sciences and the arts .... but it wasn't really a business. It was also a constant nightmare trying to keep separate my business for the company from my contributions as a researcher, so as to avoid conflict of interest situations. We finally decided to close down the "business" last year since we were still not making any money and had no idea how we were going to!
So this is my fourth venture, albeit the first really commercial one based on my personal initiative. Nonetheless, the other experiences give me background and a certain amount of experience with the mechanics of setting up a business, including developing a business plan (we developed business plans for both the research network and the arts-science initiative), developing Articles of Incorporation, developing a logo and brochure, etc.
My business coach in Toronto tells me that my number one principle for spending money (or doing anything at all), is "lead with revenue" - that is, make sure that there is a direct line between what I'm doing/spending and how this is going to generate revenue! It seems such an obvious thing, somehow, but I find it really useful to review all my expenditures in light of how they relate to income!
So after reviewing all the choices (do I incorporate or merely register as a single-person business? do I incorporate under provincial law or federal law? does the company offer a single type of share or more types of shares? how many shares should I issue, and of what value? how many directors do I need on the Board? etc.), and consulting with some people with good knowledge of what is appropriate, I am moving forward to the next stage. Still, the process still seems mysterious and somewhat heady - one is making a rapid series of decisions that will set in place many of my activities over the next umpteen years!
It turns out that I may need to contact the bank initially before incorporating, as they may have some requirements regarding the Articles of Incorporation. These could always be accommodated later, but I'd have to pay another chunk of money to have an amendment made, so it makes sense to do it all in one go (I think!).
My workshop is ready - I shall be posting some photos of the space shortly. I've been working on a business card, and I am starting to look into creating an initial website. And the sewing still has to happen as well!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Setting the Company Up
Well, my logo is done, as is my Business Plan, both in English and French. My next steps are to look into the incorporation process and to set up a meeting at the bank.
The logo turned out to be a fascinating experience. I have done work with local graphics companies in the past, and was not looking forward to a reprise of the difficulties encountered. But before I could even think about that, my business friend and coach showed me the "crowdspring.com" website. This is essentially a kind of online brokerage for doing graphics design. The site claims to have nearly 70000 graphics design individuals available. You prepare a "creative brief" describing your project - about 70% of the business on the site seems to be logo development, but they also do website design, printed documents, stationary and business cards and so on as well - then post it and pay your money. The cost of the service is incredibly cheap - 200$US minimum for a logo (actually, it's a bit more, because the crowdspring site charges a 39$US fee to use the service, and a 15% overhead, and they also offer several options to improve your chances or gain greater control over the process). I spent 390$, including the option of having my brief sent to the "50 best creatives", which turns out to mean the 50 designers who are the most productive. You also determine a length of time for the submissions with a closing date - they suggest 7 days for a logo, which I followed.
Now, get this - I had 199 submissions for my logo over the week interval! With so many submissions from nearly 60 different companies, I had no trouble selecting a winning design. So within 10 days and 400$, I have a logo for my new company. The last time I worked with a company in town, it cost me nearly 1000$ and 6 months to get a logo!
At the same time, working with my business friend/coach (actually, I'm going to promote her, she's a really savvy real estate agent in Toronto - her web site is Just Call Jane - but she used to run her own company doing marketing and graphic design, so she's very knowledgeable about business as well), I drafted and then completed a business plan. This week, I used a Quebec City translation bureau to have it translated into French.
In the mean time, I've completely re-organized my home. I live in a three storey town house looking north down the "falaise" or cliff between upper and lower town, hence a view of the city and the mountains to the north. My bedroom, for the past 8 years since I moved in has been the top room at the front, the one with the view and the incredible light, and my sewing room has been a small room at the back of the house (south side). So I've switched them - my bedroom is now the small room at the back, and the front room at the top has been converted into a full scale designers workshop!
Next steps are to start moving my designs forward again as well as pursuing the funding efforts. More to come!
The logo turned out to be a fascinating experience. I have done work with local graphics companies in the past, and was not looking forward to a reprise of the difficulties encountered. But before I could even think about that, my business friend and coach showed me the "crowdspring.com" website. This is essentially a kind of online brokerage for doing graphics design. The site claims to have nearly 70000 graphics design individuals available. You prepare a "creative brief" describing your project - about 70% of the business on the site seems to be logo development, but they also do website design, printed documents, stationary and business cards and so on as well - then post it and pay your money. The cost of the service is incredibly cheap - 200$US minimum for a logo (actually, it's a bit more, because the crowdspring site charges a 39$US fee to use the service, and a 15% overhead, and they also offer several options to improve your chances or gain greater control over the process). I spent 390$, including the option of having my brief sent to the "50 best creatives", which turns out to mean the 50 designers who are the most productive. You also determine a length of time for the submissions with a closing date - they suggest 7 days for a logo, which I followed.
Now, get this - I had 199 submissions for my logo over the week interval! With so many submissions from nearly 60 different companies, I had no trouble selecting a winning design. So within 10 days and 400$, I have a logo for my new company. The last time I worked with a company in town, it cost me nearly 1000$ and 6 months to get a logo!
At the same time, working with my business friend/coach (actually, I'm going to promote her, she's a really savvy real estate agent in Toronto - her web site is Just Call Jane - but she used to run her own company doing marketing and graphic design, so she's very knowledgeable about business as well), I drafted and then completed a business plan. This week, I used a Quebec City translation bureau to have it translated into French.
In the mean time, I've completely re-organized my home. I live in a three storey town house looking north down the "falaise" or cliff between upper and lower town, hence a view of the city and the mountains to the north. My bedroom, for the past 8 years since I moved in has been the top room at the front, the one with the view and the incredible light, and my sewing room has been a small room at the back of the house (south side). So I've switched them - my bedroom is now the small room at the back, and the front room at the top has been converted into a full scale designers workshop!
Next steps are to start moving my designs forward again as well as pursuing the funding efforts. More to come!
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