The Tin Shingle Blog

A recent NPR business story by Sonari Glinton piqued my competitive spirit one evening while I was feeding dinner to my baby. The story looked at Hyundai's steady climb vs Toyota, and how they are doing it. The reporter likened that rivalry to the two lead characters in the 1950's movie, All About Eve staring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter. In that movie, Eve (Anne Baxter) is Bette Davis' assistant, and eventually overtakes her.

The report focused on Hyundai's start-up nature, youthful energy in an old good-old-boys environment, and how they have been aggressively ramping it up to be in front of new customers. I was left with the following business building thoughts:

Being deeply in tune with your people (aka customer).
I'm referring to your customer or client as "people" because that is what they are. Glinton refers to Hyundai's marketing campaign that promised that if you bought a Hyundai car and lost your job in that year, you could return the car. Hyundai studied their consumer, and realized that the consumer was afraid of making an investment in a car that they couldn't finish paying off if they lost their income. One of Glinton's sources thinks that only a handful of people actually returned their car, but it was a message that psychologically relieved Hyundai's consumer, and made the purchasing decision easier.

The start-up mentality is high-energy and quick-moving.
To call Hyundai a start-up at this stage of the game, compared to a start-up who doesn't have numerous production facilities established yet, signals to me that even a large business can shift into a start-up mentality. This approach encourages an aggressive strategy, and one that is deeply in tune with the needs of your consumer. As a start-up, you are closer to $0 than you are to $1,000,000, which makes you hungrier. And if you want to catch your profit, you have to be in tune with the needs and fears of your audience.

Watching and learning from your competition.
Sadly for your competition, they could be a great model for you to learn from. If they are going through a communication blunder, keep your eye on it (don't gloat or do a dance of joy), and watch how consumers respond to their crisis. This way, when you are making a business move that could result in the same fate, you can be on the offense in building an effective strategy.

Go Go Go.
Companies, from start-ups to bigger guys like Hyundai, have to be persistent in business building. Which can be overwhelming if you have a lot of ideas and only so much time. You can still go go go if you plot out a list of goals you want to accomplish. This could be reaching out to a new prospective promotional partner to discuss terms of a deal you are working on together, or writing a blog post for your business. Keep pushing yourself to balance the small things with the large things, but know that every step you take a step to a stronger business.

Having the mind of a start-up can be exhausting and trying on your family life, if you want to be working out your ideas, but also want quality family time. Our Tin Shingles are doing that every day, just like you. Some of them have opened up their daily challenges to us in our Diary of a Small Business series. Hook up to it in your RSS feed or follow it on Twitter at #smallbizdiary or just watch for it in our newsletter. You'll see similar entrepreneurial drives, achievements, frustrations and more. After all, the start-up is an exhilarating and exciting business approach!

When it comes to finding inspiration - you never know what might strike you! As I was contemplating going to a Weight Watchers meeting this morning, I started thinking how we could all learn a thing or two from Weight Watchers about starting a new business

1. It's going to take some time. Change doesn't happen overnight
Just like all the extra poundage that we put on - it doesn't come off all at once. And a business doesn't usually start overnight. It takes work and planning and persistence.

2. If you work it, it will work.
If you make your list and map out your plan, you can accomplish your goals. You just have to keep at it and tick the baby steps as they come. Same with weight loss. Each pound is an accomplishment

3. Surround yourself with like-minded people for support.
I think of those WW meetings like group therapy sessions, everyone in the same boat learning from each other. So find yourself a support group for entrepreneur's. For me, that's www.tinshingle.com which is a great community of people just trying to make it happen

4. If something works, don't f*k with it, but if it's stagnant, take a new look.
WW hasn't made any changes to their Points system in 10 years until this last year with their new version. And, it's getting people excited again. Same with business. Once you get going and are on this great trajectory its amazing, but when things start to slow and then grind to a halt, take another look and see if there's some 'tweaking' that can be done

5. If at first you don't succeed...
Did you know that the average WW member has tried WW three times. Same with starting a new business. We all know that a lot of good ideas and businesses fail. The idea though is to pick yourself up and start again.

So get out there - every day is a new day and a new opportunity to make a difference. Go get 'em...

Fresh off of her amazing showing in this year’s Sports Illustrated SwimSuit issue, we caught up with Whitney Andressen of Bikini Thief to ask her a couple of questions about her business, how she dreamed it up and who inspired her along the way;

A cute maternity swimwear line is such a great idea! Who inspired to you to develop it?

I myself have never been pregnant but i have 2 beautiful nephews and SEVERAL of my close friends on Martha’s Vineyard (where i grew up) have babies. The Vineyard harbors an amazing community of women who are strong, empowered, beautiful and whom I've always seen celebrate pregnancy as this incredibly beautiful time, which it is! I wish all pregnant women could feel beautiful and sexy when pregnant.

When I was 7 months pregnant, my little sister got married on the beach in Key West FL. I dreaded going bath-suit shopping – even more than I usually do. So, I wore my old string bikinis, which while they worked, because I could tie them differently, I didn’t feel very attractive in them! What were you hoping your maternity wear could help us preggers do differently?

Most of my friends wore their own bikinis throughout their pregnancy too because cute maternity wear is so hard to find. I wanted to create comfortable, functional maternity tankinis that were still flattering and were sexy in the details. For instance, St. Barts is sophisticated in its color and prints, but i love the sweetheart neckline that shows off amazing cleavage. I mean, why not!? And the fun color and prints are flirty, get you noticed walking down the beach, but really comfortable too. So I guess I tried to find the balance between comfort and style in a market that is finally coming into its own. I don’t think our mothers had half the choices women of my generation have. I want to help take it a step further. I want to design Maternity Bikinis next! But with Tankinis you can brown your belly or cover it up - whatever you’re feeling that day.

Where do you look for design/fashion inspiration? How did that impact what you ultimately developed? 

As far as my desire to do a maternity collection my upbringing has been my inspiration. I have had the most amazing female rolemodels in my mother, my older sister, and the women who I have watched become young mothers on Marthas Vineyard.

For fashion inspiration, New York inspires me everyday. Its everywhere you look on the streets, in windows, museums, stages, subways, everywhere. For this collection I combined that with the inspiration I received in my travels to beaches around the world like Thailand, Greece, Costa Rica, etc.

And since this was my first collection, there was a lifetime of inspiration that I just poured into doing whatever I wanted, definitely didn’t follow what was trendy or "colors" of the season. I just had FUN!

And when we talk inspiration, we have to talk your business crush… Is there a business that you have a little crush on? How have they shaped what you've done with Bikini Thief?

I've always loved Letarte swimwear. It was started by 2 sisters, Michelle and  Lisa who lived in Hawaii at the time. Besides the obvious island parallel, they just have a great Bohemian, surfer girl style and colors that i have always loved. And I love that 2 sisters started it together and built it from the ground up! In addition when they were still relatively small (maybe 2nd year in business when they were still a little company) they got one of their suits selected for the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition – every swim designers dream! When I was dreaming of starting my company, I always thought, if they can do it, I can do it too. And actually we were just featured in Sports Illustrated, (not the cover) but in the magazine and on the website, and we have only been in business for a year, so they helped inspire my drive for that.

For more on Bikini Thief – check out member Jess Zaino’s blog on Glamour Magazine’s Young & Posh Blogger Network or to shop Bikini Thief’s sultry line of swimwear, check our their site at www.bikinithief.com

Last week we promised new styles and this week, we have one! The Hold Your Haunches capri style was released to much acclaim. The release of the capri served to remind us what we know, but always like to have reinforced-our pants are friends to all who try them; we've really got something here!  After announcing the availability of Hold Your Haunches capris, we had an influx of orders placed. The majority of orders were from women who already have the original bootcut style!

Customer and Brand loyalty are essential to success, and while we are small, to see Brand loyalty for Hold Your Haunches has put a definite spring in our step. The leggings are moving along in the prototype phase and should be available for purchase sooner than later. We hear you Ladies!

With Mother's Day having just passed, there has been a lot of dialogue about balancing being a small business owner/entrepreneur and an engaged and available mom. Every woman in this position knows it is a juggling act involving prayer that no balls get dropped. We Head Haunchos love our product and love our families and are working on balance and integration at the same time. Next week, we are going to Dallas to show and SELL at the Ultimate Women's Expo. We have decided to take 2 of our daughters with us and make it a "girls' trip". 

The girls will get to have time with their moms, visit an exciting city and hopefully be empowered by seeing what hard work and and nerves of steel can do... you can execute what is a superb idea into a business of your own and still be present for those you love!