It’s been over 18 years since I left the corporate world and began with my entrepreneurial journey. It’s been challenging, but definitely full of learning and absolutely rewarding.
So today, I thought I’d share with you how I got where I am now, and what lessons I learned along the way.
It all started with a customer’s search for an imprinted towel
I held a management position at Chelsea Piers from 1998 to 2001. We organized team-building activities and golf outings. That gave me an idea that I could entertain these clients around corporate outings.
In one of the corporate golf events we’ve organized, somebody asked me for an imprinted towel and at the time, I had no idea how to do that. Eighteen years later, all we do is merch an apparel. We do not run corporate golf outings anymore.
We were getting some really good
clients who ordered year after year
through Global Golf Events, but
they thought of us as a golf
company. So in 2004, we started
on pushing on the apparel side, t-shirts,
uniforms and our customers
then knew that we’re a lot more than just golf.
Because there was no business in the 4th and 1st quarters, we have to adapt. We realized that by doing one order a year, we were pretty much doing their corporate branding and logoed apparel for their organizations.
How we built our presence in the early days
In the early days, we just made a lot of cold calls trying to introduce ourselves to potential clients. I also used my network, which I made at Chelsea Piers, to try to get me started. What really helped us was early SEO when we built the online store. SEO was a lot easier to navigate back then. It’s not anything like that today, but that’s how we promoted our companies in the early days.
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