So I am now in the fourth month of my daring move to quit my job and swim with the sharks. While sharks are born swimming, they do not become expert swimmers on day one. In the same vein, launching Enrich My Brand has been no walk in the park as I am attempting to build a veritable full-service digital marketing agency from scratch. The truth is, I had no seed funding, business loan or line of credit when I ventured out on my own. However, what I did have was my passion, experience, and savvy for brand storytelling. All of those intangibles and skills, combined with positive relationships with my former employer and associated connections, enabled me to get off to a decent start regarding my client base.
Nevertheless, as with all startups, challenges abound for Enrich My Brand. With incremental progress in new client acquisition due to a negligible marketing budget, getting to a sustainable revenue/cash flow positive phase remains an uphill battle. Now, I recognize that the seemingly straightforward solution might be to secure a business loan or line of credit or solicit seed funding. However, tempting though it might be, I believe that course of action to be premature at this point.
From the onset, I believed I could build a low cost yet top performing boutique agency servicing the needs of the niche demographic of entrepreneurs looking to either create or optimize their brands, without giving up equity in exchange for seed funding or acquiring debt. I still hold the fervent belief that Enrich My Brand can fulfill that mandate and become cash flow positive, with revenues generated from my clients serving as working capital for the business.
To that end, I have elected to stay the course, trust the process, and grind away, one day at a time. For me, Enrich My Brand is not a pet project, or social or business experiment. Instead, it is the culmination of academic and professional investments, years of trial and error, several failures as a would-be entrepreneur, and the opportunity to apply myriad lessons learned and finally get it right. I believe that this passion-driven endeavor of mine will succeed, not because I have all the answers to building a profitable and sustainable business by myself, but because I know I will not give up on myself, no matter what.
In conclusion, I am committed to the long-term journey while content with making incremental progress along the way. After all, my mantra in building this boutique agency is, “One client at a time.” Rome was not built in a day, and neither will Enrich My Brand. So, as I will every day until I have achieved Enrich My Brand's goals, I gladly rise and grind.
Yours truly,
Kenny, Chief Wordsmith
