The mp3 audio clip is at the end of this article.
Kim Lavine, the president of Green Daisy used the same business approach in starting and running her company to snare a book contract for Mommy Millionaire, How I Turned My Kitchen Table Idea Into a Million dollars and How you Can too!
Wuvits, a “personal spa therapy pillow,” started out as a gift Kim made for family and friends at her home on a bulky $100 sewing machine. But then her husband lost his job and Kim……with two small kids…..out of the marketplace for five years….and needing $2,000 for monthly mortgage payments….. decided to take action and become an entrepreneur and start her own business. As the company grew, Kim faced expansion, debt, bankruptcy, and a few other challenges.
Each step of the way, Kim had to learn business procedures and add to her knowledge of marketing and then research who would buy her product. She compiled information for a business plan to obtain a loan by relying on a myriad of free resources found on the Internet. The business plan provided specifics on competition, projected growth, and demographics. It showed investors the need existed for her product and that it would be a success in the marketplace.
The plan was so through that a friend remarked it had enough information to be a book proposal. Figuring other women could benefit from her experience of combining a business and a family—without having any business experience herself—Kim reworked business plan into a proposal and sent it off to publishers.
Kim had a book contract by the end of the week. Since she had spent so much time developing the business proposal, Kim had an outline on how to proceed and what information to include right in front of her when she began to write.
She wanted to make the book helpful to other women entrepreneurs who would have the same family challenges she faced: kids, lack of business experience, and a looming financial crisis.
So, she incorporated her own personal story in the book and then held her breadth to see if it was what editor wanted. It was a gamble since the editor would only read the book when it was completely finished. Kim acknowledged that adding so much personal information was a risk from a privacy standpoint and a publishing standpoint as well. But she figured her personal story would be the one that others would want to read.
The gamble paid off. The editor liked the manuscript and Mommy Millionaire was published. Kim’s spirit shines through in the book and in person. Many times, as Kim told an audience at a recent appearance at the Printer’s Row Book Fair in Chicago, she just had to “suck it up” and get on with what had to get done. There are always setbacks, Kim said. But if you have the interest and the dream, just keep going. Who knows how it will end?
I was reading Kim’s book as I was preparing to edit the audio tape and write the story of our interview. Kim was extraordinarily patient and generous with her time during the numerous L trains rumbling by during the interview and my request to tape during the presentation.
When I sat down at the computer to put it all together, I found most of the tape was empty and what did remain sounded like a herd of cicadas had joined us. I finished Kim’s book and set down to reconstruct a portion of the audio and write down what was possible to recollect from our discussion.
Even though things may not turn out exactly as you had planned—or in this case, not even close—you suck it up, as Kim says, and keep going.
That’s the spirit she used when trying to get in touch with a buyer or to make a visit at a store.
Here’s Kim Lavine talking about the art of the pitch and integrating family and life while on the path to success:
http://media.switchpod.com//users/chrisatwriterswebcast/episode4.mp3
Thanks for the motivating story, Kim, and the reminder on the importance of a business -like approach.
