Long Road Back
Running a business is not as simple as it seems. At least not in my experience. The beautiful part is that I'll be able to pass down this experience to those coming behind me...
Over the past year I’ve hit every bump the road had to offer and held on by the thinnest of lifelines. Unfortunately, a couple of months ago a perfect storm set in and set back my operations that had me on the canvas for a few counts. My site went down, orders became seriously delayed and my confidence to continue was crushed. Since that time I’ve had to sit uncomfortably with the state of RBGtees and the feeling of failure with a major case of shoulda woulda coulda’s.
At the inception of this brand, it was simply a side-hustle venture and the opportunity to learn something new and get my feet wet in the entrepreneur's side. I had no business experience and never built a website, but knew I could learn anything and believed in myself. I had a vision of what I wanted to wear and learned how to bring it to life piece by piece through Youtube primarily. I knew my market would be small, but enough since this was essentially an experiment. Besides, I wasn’t interested in making clothes for everyone, just folk that saw the world the way that I did. After releasing 4 designs I found my audience and was tapped into the frequency of the people just like myself.
5 months into my journey I quit my job and spent 20 hours a day learning as much as I could while fulfilling a stream of orders. Things were better than I could’ve imagined, but time for my family diminished and put major strains on all of my relationships. Unfortunately, the next 3 years went the same way, only coming out of my office to set up at an occasional event like an Umar lecture or festival. Even then, when I got back home I would have to double down on order fulfillment. All while still working out of my spare bedroom.
With all of my time being totally captive, I was prevented from doing the one major thing we MUST do in search of independence, diversify my income. I knew nothing about business credit or how to scale up, therefore created weight that I could not carry and put me in a perpetual state of catch up. Most of what business owners learn before going into business, I missed out on because once I started I was in neck deep and side hustle tactics don’t work when you’re a full fledged business!
NOW
Needless to say, I’ve been able to regroup, rebuild and revamp the way we operate to ensure sustainability and improve customer service. I see where the majority of my mistakes happened and put proper measures in place to avoid repeats in the future. One of my main missions while building was to respect our resources and ensure I would not be the reason anyone frowned upon doing business with a black owned company. I’ve failed a few times and am not happy about that but hope that I get another shot at becoming worthy.
As part of my restructure, my product offering will look different. Any items that were homemade and required hands-on involvement are no longer available. Partly because of the turnaround time and partly wanting to raise the quality of production (replacing iron on patches with more permanent solutions for example). They will become available on a limited basis as my ability and confidence to do so permits. Of course I’ll keep you posted via email so stay subscribed. Also, I’ve contracted professionals to help fulfill my orders, so you won’t get the overstuffed envelopes or boxes anymore. These measures will make RBGtees less profitable but more sustainable and accountable.
I will keep you all posted on the progress, wins and lessons as I continue to learn and grow the brand. Thank you all for your continued support and taking the time to read this. There was no way I could push forward without providing insight as I value all of you.
Much regards,
Henry
SALUTE
Over the past year I’ve hit every bump the road had to offer and held on by the thinnest of lifelines. Unfortunately, a couple of months ago a perfect storm set in and set back my operations that had me on the canvas for a few counts. My site went down, orders became seriously delayed and my confidence to continue was crushed. Since that time I’ve had to sit uncomfortably with the state of RBGtees and the feeling of failure with a major case of shoulda woulda coulda’s.
At the inception of this brand, it was simply a side-hustle venture and the opportunity to learn something new and get my feet wet in the entrepreneur's side. I had no business experience and never built a website, but knew I could learn anything and believed in myself. I had a vision of what I wanted to wear and learned how to bring it to life piece by piece through Youtube primarily. I knew my market would be small, but enough since this was essentially an experiment. Besides, I wasn’t interested in making clothes for everyone, just folk that saw the world the way that I did. After releasing 4 designs I found my audience and was tapped into the frequency of the people just like myself.
5 months into my journey I quit my job and spent 20 hours a day learning as much as I could while fulfilling a stream of orders. Things were better than I could’ve imagined, but time for my family diminished and put major strains on all of my relationships. Unfortunately, the next 3 years went the same way, only coming out of my office to set up at an occasional event like an Umar lecture or festival. Even then, when I got back home I would have to double down on order fulfillment. All while still working out of my spare bedroom.
With all of my time being totally captive, I was prevented from doing the one major thing we MUST do in search of independence, diversify my income. I knew nothing about business credit or how to scale up, therefore created weight that I could not carry and put me in a perpetual state of catch up. Most of what business owners learn before going into business, I missed out on because once I started I was in neck deep and side hustle tactics don’t work when you’re a full fledged business!
NOW
Needless to say, I’ve been able to regroup, rebuild and revamp the way we operate to ensure sustainability and improve customer service. I see where the majority of my mistakes happened and put proper measures in place to avoid repeats in the future. One of my main missions while building was to respect our resources and ensure I would not be the reason anyone frowned upon doing business with a black owned company. I’ve failed a few times and am not happy about that but hope that I get another shot at becoming worthy.
As part of my restructure, my product offering will look different. Any items that were homemade and required hands-on involvement are no longer available. Partly because of the turnaround time and partly wanting to raise the quality of production (replacing iron on patches with more permanent solutions for example). They will become available on a limited basis as my ability and confidence to do so permits. Of course I’ll keep you posted via email so stay subscribed. Also, I’ve contracted professionals to help fulfill my orders, so you won’t get the overstuffed envelopes or boxes anymore. These measures will make RBGtees less profitable but more sustainable and accountable.
I will keep you all posted on the progress, wins and lessons as I continue to learn and grow the brand. Thank you all for your continued support and taking the time to read this. There was no way I could push forward without providing insight as I value all of you.
Much regards,
Henry
SALUTE
SPECIAL NOTE
I am aware that before the demise of my last platform a few orders were not fulfilled. Unfortunately the way things unfolded, I lost access to all of my records and cannot fulfill those requests. Please request a refund through your credit card and all of your funds should be returned promptly. (Even if there was one or two items missing from your order, you can get that refunded as well)