Page 206 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

asked repeatedly for partnerships. I was curious about this decision, so I sent
Tom and Darcy an email later to ask for more input. Here’s what they said:

We chose to be our own manufacturer and direct retailer initially because
it’s more interesting. We get to march to our own drummer, so to speak. If
the goal is simply to make money, well, that’s just boring. We wanted to
make a cool business, with cool products, cool customers, and cool
employees; we wanted to build a brand and a long-term place in the world.
To sell to mass-market retailers may or may not be lucrative, but it does
little for brand identity. It can also tie your fortune to a company over which
you have no control: If they go down, you may go too. Our future is tied to
what we do, decisions we make, and that’s wicked good fun.

Marching to your own drummer is certainly interesting, and as Tom pointed
out in another conversation, it may be a better business model as well. Cash flow
for their business comes from many individual customers, so they never have to
worry about one big store dropping their inventory (or defaulting on their debt).
Because there’s only one source, Tom Bihn bags are well positioned against
being perceived as a commodity. Tom and Darcy are able to charge a good price
for the bags and ensure that they can continue to support all the employees.
When asked about any bad days or negative experiences in the business, Tom
said something I’ve been thinking about ever since: “All the bad days have two
things in common: You know the right thing to do, but you let somebody talk
you out of doing it.”
At least in this case, Tom never let himself get talked out of what was clearly
the right thing for him.

Option 3: Split the Difference
Sometimes the choice between small and big has more than two answers. A
creative individual can learn her lessons about the wrong kind of growth and
then apply them to the right kind. Meet Jessica Reagan Salzman, owner of a one-
person bookkeeping shop in Attleboro, Massachusetts. I knew Jessica was a
numbers person when she provided estimated income for the next year of exactly
$110,899. Many entrepreneurs are lost in the bigger picture and aren’t certain
about their finances. They tended to answer my questions about income
projections with statements like “Uh, about one hundred, maybe one-fifty or so.”
With Jessica, there was no need for follow-up.

Ironically, Jessica started the business after an unsettling experience at a new