Realizing My Entrepreneurial Potential

Activist Hubs:

https://www.the-outrage.com/ - This is a US activist hub. Through community and fashion, The Outrage is an online hub that makes it easy and accessible for anyone to engage and support the cause of their choice. They share community programming and what some may refer as ‘educationals’ with special speakers sharing their techniques, and  protests & campaign plans. Their location is in Washington, DC so their main focused area in there and in Philadelphia, PA. The causes being supported vary and are created by the communities involved. Some examples include “Families Belong Together”, “Women’s March” and “March for Our Lives”.  This is a hub so to be part of this community you will need to become a member of The Outrage community.   I haven’t seen anything like this in Canada. Sure, there are activist hubs and apparel activist brands but they all seem to be cause specific. For example: https://www.homelesshub.ca/ - This is a hub for communities in Canada whose main focus is to prevent and end homelessness in Canada. However, this hub doesn’t have a store. …maybe they’ll sell their stuff on The Realized Potential Market… https://www.sectionthirtyfive.com/ or https://talkvegantomeclothing.com/ are online stores in the same field but with a very specific cause in mind. Section 35 is a street wear small business brand based in Vancouver. This is a brand that recognizes Indigenous and Treaty rights in Canada. There mission is to give a voice to people by sharing and spreading a message on a tshirt.  

Talk Vegan To Me Clothing, based in Calgary, is a company that sells pro-vegan graphics on items such as tanks, t-shirts, toques, totes, stickers, etc. This company also donates to local animal sanctuaries. What I like about them is that all of their clothing is made in Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) certified factories. (WRAP) is a non-profit dedicated to promoting safe, lawful, humane, and ethical manufacturing around the world through certification and education.

  On-line E-commerce websites: The most popular in my opinion are Etsy and Shopify, although Instagram ads are getting up there Both Etsy and Shopify are e-commerce on-line platforms that sell items from a wide range of categories.

Etsy (U.S.A.) is more focused on craft type, handmade items like jewelry, clothing, home décor. The Etsy app is free and customers can log in, search for a particular item to then having to choose the person or company to buy from. To sell on Etsy, you need a total of 2 Etsy apps; the other app would be for your store front.   

ComfyCanadianCo and ILoveFeminism are examples of the types of ‘shop profiles’ you would find on Etsy. ILoveFemisism’s mascot/logo is a mischievous looking ghost. Although the brand’s main focus, I can only assume is feminism, designs vary from messages of stopping the genocide of indigenous people to expressing one’s dislike of proud straight people. Their products seems to be geared towards adults as some items have profanity. They do sell a variety of items such as buttons, tshirts, tank tops, mugs…etc.   I believe it is also their own designs on the items.

ComfyCanadianCo is basically a print-on-demand service, disguised as a store front. I would assume with various suppliers as there are multiple items for sale, much like ILoveFeminism. However, ComfyCanadianCo doesn’t seem to have a ‘niche’ nor a brand that stands out. They just seem to print catchy short quotes in different types of fonts on different types of items.

Shopify (Canadian) is more of an e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale system. Shopify is where ComfyCanadianCo and ILoveFeminisim would have access to wholesalers and vendors or external print-on-demand services (contract out) to complete the final product. Etsy is more like a store front.  

  DIY Trends:

It has come to my attention that entrepreneurship is not for everyone. 

I have always envisioned being my own boss. Being able to make a comfortable living while influencing positive change in today’s society IS MY DREAM. It’s a pretty broad and open-ended dream but an obtainable dream, nonetheless.  The question is, do I have what it takes?

Today I will be reflecting on 3 skills every entrepreneur must have and do some self reflection to better understand my strengths and weakness. Here we go. Financial Planning –  I’ve planned things, financial things. I’ve created and worked with budgets before. I can confidently say I am most comfortable with short-term financial planning, which typically involve small budgets. For example preparing a financial plan to be able to take a vacation in the next coming months involves knowing the overall costs and working out how much I’ll be able to contribute weekly or monthly to reach my financial goal by the desired date of the trip. Long-Term financial planning may be very much a weakness only because it usually involves much larger funds, a much longer time frame  and possible numerous transactions that can over all become a bot more complex when trying to keep a clean book keeping. I would consider this to be a weakness.

Sales/Negotiations – I can be  influential and obtain sales from those that want and can benefit from whatever it is I am selling and also have the ability to ensure it is a win, win for all parties involved. I do not practise this enough to feel as if it is a strength of mine but I feel I know enough for it not to be a weakness. Despite this I would say that this is also a weakness as practise is required for me to confidently say it is a strength.

People Management – This is most definitely a strength of mine. I have managed people all my life. From my work life to my home life experience, I can confidently say that I have strong leadership skills and not only can I manage people, but lead them.