Building Our Company (One Little Feather at a Time)
Without a doubt, we know starting a brand new company is risky. Quitting the jobs we loved, also risky. Having no source of income for several months, incredibly risky! But running the risk of a lifetime of disappointment over NOT TRYING? The risk of regret would be too great. We had to go for it. Here's the tale of how two friends and kindred-spirit colleagues founded a company with absolutely no experience in business...
“Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.”
It started with an idea. What if we founded our own company creating college prep curriculum to sell to school counselors and college access programs? What if we combined our years of experience and expertise to design classroom-ready materials? How would that work, exactly? We discussed for hours the pros and cons and worst-case scenarios. The idea was presented to friends and family (whose whole-hearted, enthusiastic support certainly helped sway our decision). But in the end, the potential to do what we love while simultaneously helping students and college access programs...it was just too tempting. Plus, it felt right on a deep-down, gut level. Sometimes the best thing to do is stop overthinking and trust your gut. And so we did.
Our company name... just add LLC. And a tiny little TM.
What to call our new company? We sat for hours consuming bowls of chips and queso, washing it down with margaritas, getting sillier by the minute with our laundry list of possible company names. None of them felt right. After weeks of deliberation, spiritual inspiration struck (thanks to Aimee's Native American roots) and we decided on a company name that felt like coming home: DreamCatcher. It has symbolism and meaning and conveys what we do all in one swoop.
Once we had the perfect name, it was time to get schooled. That's where the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center (ASBTDC) comes into the story. Together we took classes on Starting a Small Business in Arkansas, How to Write a Business Plan, Website Design, and Social Media. The ASBTDC hooked us up with contacts for attorneys and accountants, plus met with us to discuss marketing, sales, and business strategies. Thank goodness for this free resource (although the classes did have a fee, it was minimal).
Next came the most grown-up part of the venture to date: meeting with attorneys. We consulted with not one, not two, but THREE different attorneys to get this show on the road. Since our business is all about intellectual property, we needed IP experts in copyright and trademark laws. In addition, a small business attorney set up the partnership and operating agreement, registered our licenses and made certain we covered all of our bases. Those various attorney meetings were a stark reminder of just how REAL our venture had become. Someone pinch us! This is happening!
“There will be a few times in your life when all your instincts will tell you to do something, something that defies logic, upsets your plans, and may seem crazy to others. When that happens, you do it. Listen to your instincts and ignore everything else. Ignore logic, ignore the odds, ignore the complications, and just go for it.”
Let's skip ahead to the fun stuff: creating our products! After YEARS of designing college prep curriculum for Talent Search (not to mention our collective backgrounds in the field of education which included creating lesson plans), this work is our favorite part. We had to start from scratch with all new designs, wording, and creations. Fonts and graphics had to be purchased for commercial use and then (finally!) we could start writing the curriculum. We gave ourselves a deadline and got to it. Design (albeit fun!) can be laborious and time-consuming. Hours spent in front of the computer nudging text boxes and graphics, constantly changing wording, switching fonts, colors, and layout... it can take FOREVER. But we didn't have forever, we had only WEEKS to be ready for our first big event: Texas TRIO's TASSSP conference in Galveston, Texas.
And now a word about the most important part of curriculum design: REVIEW. It doesn't matter how cute, fun, and visually appealing your material may be, if there is a typo or grammatical error, it nearly ruins the whole enchilada. And here's why: in creating college prep curriculum for college access programs, the implication is that our materials represent COLLEGE. Setting a collegiate example for students is imperative. Plus, it's the worst feeling in the world for students to find errors and point them out in a workshop. CRINGE! Because nobody is perfect and mistakes happen, we recruited a whole army of friends and colleagues in the biz to proof our work. These dear proofers (many former TRIO Talent Search colleagues who understand the importance of a fine-tooth comb in editing) not only reviewed our work, but offered incredible advice, suggestions, and feedback. God bless these dear peeps! We are utterly grateful for their expertise and attention to detail.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. And it’s the not knowing that makes it interesting.”
Not to yadda, yadda, yadda over the best parts, but there were myriad little details in starting this company; listing every aspect isn't exactly riveting reading. I guess the bottom line is that we want to provide products that can help first-generation, low-income students achieve their dreams of a college education. That desire happens to outweigh our fears about owning a business. We ARE winging it because this IS our first rodeo (see future posts about actually attending a rodeo!). Along this journey, things have frequently fallen into perfect place as if guided by unseen hands. Those times make us smile and wonder aloud how it happened. Native Americans don't really believe in coincidences, by the way. Our path in life is predetermined and guided by spirit. And right now, for us, DreamCatcher is simply part of the path. Perhaps if you're reading this, it may also be part of yours in some small way. Who knows what might happen next? #followthatdream
