Starting a business is risky no matter which way you look at it, but it’s much riskier when you have a ton of overhead and money guys anxiously waiting to earn a return on their investment. Starting a business also takes a lot of personal sacrifice. If you start a business, expect that you’re probably going to be broke for a long time. If you’re not broke, consider yourself broke, because as we discussed earlier, it is shortsighted to pay yourself a big salary too early. Dream big all you want—that’s what this entire book is about!—but know that the first step toward those dreams is probably going to be a small one.
Many people mistake the glamour of business for business. One of my pet peeves includes entrepreneurs who issue press releases about their new venture before making their first dollar. I waited until I knew for sure that I had something to say before talking to the press—about anything—which took about five years. While media coverage can boost sales and garner attention from the business community, tooting your own horn too early can put you under the spotlight when you’re still figuring out the basics of running your business. I’ve seen many a start-up disappear after making a big splash in the press. Though I’m rarely surprised, it feels good to be the fabled turtle in this scenario rather than the hare.
I didn’t know anybody to turn to for business advice, and because of this, people ask me all the time how I figured it out. Well, I figured it out by doing what I think is one of the best strategies for learning anything anywhere: I Googled it. There is a whole wide world of free education out there for anyone who wishes to take advantage of it. Granted, a book might cost you $13, but that’s pennies compared with college tuition. When I needed to know what kinds of shelving to buy for the warehouse, I Google Image–searched “warehouse shelving” and spent an afternoon looking at pictures of shelves until I figured out which ones would be best for our needs.
I turned to YouTube to watch experts speak at conferences I wouldn’t have been invited to even if I had been able to afford to attend. I learned a ton about how to structure Nasty Gal by looking at similar businesses to see who they had hired and were hiring. I then viewed those people’s profiles on LinkedIn to see what type of experience it takes to do that job successfully. And while I took it all with a grain of salt, it got me far.
Nasty Gal is now big enough for me to be able to hire people who are experts in their respective fields. But don’t be fooled: I’m still calling the shots. I hate it when I’m in a meeting with one of our top officers and someone addresses her the entire time, assuming that the “adult” in the room must be the one making the decisions. Don’t you dare think that my shredded T-shirt makes me a sheep in wolf’s clothing. I, like every #GIRLBOSS, am a wolf in wolf’s clothing.
Entrepreneurialism Is an Eighteen-Letter Word
All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.
—Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn
I think everyone should tap into their entrepreneurial spirit. However, I don’t think everyone should be an entrepreneur. Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson famously defined “entrepreneurship” as “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.” I give a “hell yes” to that definition—you should take that spirit with you to whatever job you’re doing or whatever project you’re undertaking.
When I was twenty-two, the thought of rising up within an organization was completely incomprehensible. To me, office jobs were like school, where the best way to get along was to show up on time, not ask questions, follow all the rules, and not make a fuss. Again, not my jam. However, that accepted paradigm is changing, and faster than ever. As Seth Godin points out in his book Linchpin, our society’s existing ideas of education and employment are held over from a time when most jobs were in factories. People were trained to do exactly what they were told, and only what they were told, in order to keep things running smoothly. Following the rules without question was precisely what got someone promoted. Thankfully, though, this is changing, and in Linchpin, Godin elaborates that “it’s becoming clear that people who reject the worst of the current system are actually more likely to succeed.” If you need proof of that, well, hi. Here I am.
What I’m getting at here is that you can be entrepreneurial without being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial people are passionate about what they do, comfortable with taking risks, and quick at moving on from failures. These are all things I look for in the people I hire. I want problem solvers who take nothing at face value. I want people who fight for their ideas, even fight with me. I want people who are comfortable with disagreement. And I need people who sometimes, after all of that, hear the word “no” and get right back up to work even harder. There are a lot of companies changing the way they do things right now. It’s a pretty exciting time to be in business, but only if you’re surrounded by exciting people.
The Nasty Gal Philosophy
Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.
—Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO and author of Delivering Happiness
At Nasty Gal, we have something we like to call “Our Philosophy.” It’s a set of directives that align us to stay focused on what really matters. We designed them really nice and pretty, and have them posted up around our offices as a little daily reminder of why we’re all here. Even if you never land that coveted buying job in our headquarters, these ideas can be applied to any career path you choose:
Nasty Gal Obsessed: We keep the customer at the center of everything we do. Without customers, we have nothing.
Own It: Take the ball and run with it. We make smart decisions, put the business first, and do more with less.
People Are Important: Reach out, make friends, build trust.
No Assholes: We leave our egos at the door. We are respectful, collaborative, curious, and open-minded.
Learn On: What we’re building has never been built before—the future is ours to write. We get excited about growth, take intelligent risks, and learn from our mistakes.
Have Fun and Keep It Weird.
On Investors
When I lived in San Francisco, my friends and I existed far outside the tech scene that made our rents so expensive. Broke as a joke, drinking Amstel Light and disco dancing in dive bars, we couldn’t have been further removed. VC might as well have stood for Velveeta cheese, for all I knew. I just wondered who all of these people were, walking around in their hoodies with their white earbuds. Little did I know they were the reason some of my favorite burrito joints had become extinct.
When the time came for me to grow familiar with the concept of investors, it was still pretty intimidating. My first meeting with venture capitalists was scary: for one, I had never been in a boardroom. And it didn’t take me long to realize we were speaking completely different languages. I felt like a little kid who had no place at the table. For about a year after that, whenever anyone reached out about investing in Nasty Gal, I just didn’t respond.