We know how daunting it can be to start a new business, especially if you’re disrupting an industry or creating an entirely new one. When there is no path to follow, the biggest question is, where do I start? There is so much to do, but before you get ahead of yourself, let’s start at the beginning. To kick-start the process, and ease some of those first-time founder nerves, we’re asking successful entrepreneurs to share their story in our new series, From Scratch. But this isn’t your typical day in the life. We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty from writing a business plan (or not) to sourcing manufacturers and how much they pay themselves, we’re not holding back.
Photo: Courtesy of Witty Rentals
What would you do with $700? For most of us, especially right now, it would go into savings or paying bills, but it could also the beginning of a new business. Wait, what? Yes, you heard right. Chelsea Bradford and Tiffany Garcia only had $700 each when they had the lightbulb moment to launch their event rental company. Now, Witty Rentals is a super successful (and profitable) business—you’ve probably seen a lot of their stylish furniture at our Create & Cultivate events. Of course, it didn’t happen overnight but first, let’s give you a quick recap on how it all began.
After meeting as teenagers through a growth group, the pair became fast friends. Even with Garcia leaving to study abroad in her homeland of Sweden, and Bradford moving away for college, the pair kept in touch as long-distance pen pals. They were eventually reunited when they got married and served as each other’s bridesmaids. Now, fifteen years later, they have three little ones between them and a successful business between them.
Want to hear how they did it? Read on to hear more about how these best friends started their business from scratch with just $1400, the lessons they learned along the way, and advice for new founders on how to start a small business from scratch—because good news stories are exactly what we all need right now!
Photo: Courtesy of Witty Rentals
On their lightbulb moment…
Chelsea Bradford: When we dreamed up Witty six years ago; Tiffany had a bit of experience in the event industry working for a coordinator and saw a gap in the market she wanted to fill: modern furniture rentals in the San Diego area. I, on the other hand, had zero experience in the industry. I had a Fine Arts degree in ceramics and had my own small business of ceramics, but was interested in design so with our powers combined and a whopping $700 investment each, we started collecting furniture in the garage of Tiffany's parents' house and by some miracle, people actually rented our stuff.
On writing a business plan…
Haha! This would have been a great idea, but we were very ignorant about what starting a business actually meant when we started. We can say with 100% certainty, that we were winging it! I don't think either of us expected it to grow to what it is today, but we have been so happy with the slow and organic growth that we've had. Never taking out loans or taking on investors... the growth came as we were ready for it. Since we didn't have a business plan or any help in the first few years, the "take it as it comes" approach was what kept us sane.
On coming up with the name…
Tiffany found the name in a book and something about it stuck with her. I loved the name immediately, it was playful and unique at the time. Now there are a lot more “Witty” companies in the industry, but my advice for choosing a name now would be to try and be unique, do your research, and make sure there isn't something similar in your area—and try to stand out!
“We can say with 100% certainty, that we were winging it!”
On setting up the business…
The first thing we did was create an email address and it was definitely a Gmail account because we didn’t know any different. Instagram came next. I think we started with @w_i_t_t_y… haha not super professional. Next was probably a domain, website and business license. There's so much you learn during this process that no one tells you such as having to list your fictitious business name in the paper and random things like that.
Other than those few things though, we didn't do much else in those early years besides collecting furniture. If I could give a word of advice to a business just starting out, it would be to present yourself as a real business early on even if you don't even remotely have your shit together. The way you present yourself in the early days will help create the client base that will get you off the ground.
On doing the research…
We researched other rental companies in our area, there was really only two other boutique event rental companies at the time, so we reached out to both of them and visited their warehouses. We talked to them about how and when they started and got some great advice. We wanted to offer something different from what was available in our area, so being able to see what these companies offered helped us shape the direction we wanted to go, as well as build some valuable relationships for the future. One thing we’ve loved about this industry is that there’s plenty of events to cater to which makes it less competitive and we love how friendly our “competitors” have been.”
On finding the right space…
We started collecting in a two-car garage with $0 overhead which is really the only way we were able to start. After about a year and a half, we moved into our first warehouse, 2,200 sq ft, which felt massive. Scared of the cost, we asked some florist friends of ours (hey Bloom Babes!) if they wanted to split the space with us and they were happy to do so—it ended up benefiting both of us greatly. We eventually outgrew our portion and had to take over the whole thing and luckily the Bloom Babes were ready for their own space as well, so we split ways on great terms. Two years in that space and it was time to find something bigger. Now we're in about 6,800 sq ft and looking for another space! The growth has been fun yet sustainable which is the pace we needed.
“The two of us didn’t have huge aspirations or goals in the beginning and so starting small and slow is what we were capable of keeping up with. ”
On self-funding and boostrapping the business…
We were able to start Witty with a total initial investment of $1400 between the two of us and then two years of reinvesting everything that we made, not taking a cent for ourselves. We knew this would give the business the best opportunity for growth and we’re positive we wouldn't be where we are today if we would have tried to pay ourselves early on.
As for what we would recommend to a startup... this is such a personal decision based on what your goal is for the business. The two of us didn't have huge aspirations or goals in the beginning and so starting small and slow is what we were capable of keeping up with. On the other hand, we have friends in the industry who dumped $100K into buying inventory and they have far exceeded our growth in a short period of time.
From the beginning they have had different goals for their companies and that path has worked to help them meet those goals. Really digging deep and asking yourself what you're hoping to achieve, how fast are you wanting to recoup that investment, and what your overall long term goals are for the business will help shape this decision.
On paying themselves a wage…
After two years of not paying ourselves anything, then a year of only paying ourselves for the deliveries we did, we finally started paying ourselves... get ready... $1,000 a month. I know, we were loaded (please pick up on that sarcasm). After about six months of realizing that the business was still okay, we bumped it to $1500, then $2000, then $2500. At this point, we felt like we had really made it! We could justify paying ourselves a collective $5K a month, plus paying rent and paying our handful of employees… just out here living the American dream!
We've since increased our salary slightly but in full transparency, we still believe that making sure the company has the liquid funds to function is far more important than having more dollars in our pockets and the company becoming business broke. We've never put a percentage on it, we decide the number based on what we feel the business can offer as well as what our families can live on without struggling.
Photo: Courtesy of Witty Rentals
On hiring the right team…
We are a team of five, including Tiffany and myself. Neither of us has ever been a “boss” before, so this has been quite the adventure trying to learn how to hire, fire, and manage. To be honest, we don't like it, but it comes with the territory I suppose. We have been fortunate to have incredibly patient employees who give us grace through our struggles communicating, organizing thoughts, managing... and we are so incredibly fortunate to have them. A bit of advice we recently learned from an industry friend is to hire slow and fire fast. Meaning take your time with multiple interviews, then have a working interview... make sure the employee is a good fit with your existing team before bringing them on. Then if you feel that someone isn't a good fit, don't wait around, find someone else.
On hiring an accountant…
We have been incredibly fortunate in that Tiffany's mother-in-law is a CPA (certified public accountant) and has done our bookkeeping and taxes up to this point. She is an actual angel on earth. As of 2020, we have switched our bookkeeping over to Bench.com to take a bit off of her plate and it has been a great resource for us, super user friendly and great customer service.
On the biggest learning curve…
The biggest learning curve has been knowing where to spend money. Something that we've struggled with for a long time (and still do if we're being honest) is knowing that just because something is pretty or we like it, doesn't mean it will rent. We have to think about every item in our collection as if it is paying rent to be in our warehouse, so if it doesn't pull its weight, it's got to go! When sourcing, we try to keep this in mind: Will clients have a use for this? Will they like it? Does it fit with our existing aesthetic? If the answers are yes, then we can pull the trigger and purchase the item. And if not, well then we can admire it from afar.
“Save, save, save. Then you can really invest in what’s going to make a positive financial impact on your business.”
On having a business coach…
We've never had a business coach, but this is something that we have given some serious thought. I think it would help us in so many ways; from employee management to big picture goals, finances and budgeting. We do think it could help us organize all of the important things that race around our heads on a daily basis and implement ways to get each thing accomplished.
On PR and marketing…
Instagram. I mean, seriously... what business doesn't rely on that platform these days. Instagram is definitely how we got started, but then the dreaded algorithm had to go and eff everyone up. Among other avenues, we now rely a lot on word-of-mouth and testimonials. Reviews can do wonders for a small business so we've put a lot of effort into having overwhelmingly positive experiences with clients and requesting feedback from them after their event. We look at it like this—when was the last time you bought something important and didn't read the reviews on it? And if you did read the reviews, which ones helped sway you to purchase that item? Those are the reviews we hope to get from our clients and we feel like they have absolutely helped sway interested clients into booking with us.
On the one thing, they didn’t do (but wish they had)…
We did everything the hard way. You'd think that the first thing two lanky young girls would do when having to move insanely heavy furniture all the time would be to invest in some dolly's or some kind of straps to make our lives easier... but no. There's that cute saying "work smarter, not harder", let’s just say it took us a long time to work smarter. Another perfect example of this is it took us four years to implement canned responses in our emails. That’s four years of writing the same email over and over and over again, wasting countless hours when the answer was so simple. Our advice? Find ways to simplify and automate processes within your business. You'll thank yourself later.
Photo: Courtesy of Witty Rentals
On their best business advice…
Chelsea: We've learned over the years that it's not in our nature to be business owners. I am an introvert, I love my downtime, I can confidently say that I'm lazy by nature, it's hard for me to self-motivate, I procrastinate—give me four seasons of a show and a bag of chips and I'm your girl (as two loads of laundry currently sit unfolded in the basket (I'll get to them later, okay?). But I didn't let that stop me. I just found the perfect counterpart. Someone who encourages me and motivates me to be a better version of myself. And I hope she'd say that I balance her out in all of the right ways as well.
My advice would be, don't try to do it alone. Whatever it is you want to start, have a partner, find someone who has strengths that you don't have—the yin to your yang. I know for a fact that we wouldn't be here today if just one or the other of us started this alone. We've relied on each other heavily every step of the way and we still do today.
Tiffany: Yes, I agree. Finding a business partner who has different strengths and qualities than you is crucial. I would say that I am more of a dreamer/visionary type. I love to think about big picture ideas or steps we can take in the business to encourage growth. Put a spreadsheet in front of me and I literally shut down inside. This is why Chelsea balances me so well because she could create spreadsheets all day long and they bring her so much joy.
I also think part of why our business relationship works are because neither of us is super stubborn. If we disagree on things we are both willing to communicate and comprise easily. If you are considering starting a business I think it's important to take your time and be very selective with who you go into business with. Also, creating a partnership agreement and specific roles for each other is crucial so that you are both in charge of separate roles within the business.
On their one piece of financial advice…
Use your savings account. You never know when you'll have an unexpected expense or need to make a big purchase. One example for us was buying a large number of chairs unexpectedly. If we had to put $20k on a credit card that would have been our absolute last choice, but luckily, we had saved for just that. Save, save, save. Then you can really invest in what's going to make a positive financial impact on your business.
Oh, and another thing would be to charge for your services. Don't offer a discount just because you think you should. Make sure you're charging enough, not lowballing the market or being taken advantage of. Do your homework and see what others in your industry are doing around you, and hey even if you want to charge a bit more because that’s the quality of your work, go for it. You're worth it.
Photo: Courtesy of Witty Rentals
On the advice, they’d give themselves…
Save more! Our long term goal has always been to buy a property and be able to store our collection there instead of dumping thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars down the drain for rent. If we were really motivated, we could have done it already, but we haven't given it our all, so we're still renting.
On working with a co-founder…
Tiffany: People say never go into business with friends or family. I can understand why people say that—you don't want your relationship to crumble if the business does, or maybe you'll start to hate each other down the road—and trust me, I've seen that happen in this industry specifically. But for us, it's been all about communication. Our partnership is just like a marriage, you have to work at it and make sure that things are talked about and your feelings are being seen and heard. Again, this is where our differences have helped us monumentally. Chelsea despises confrontation.
Chelsea: Yeah, I'll do anything to avoid it, and it's in my nature to sweep it under the rug. Tiffany has been our saving grace in this area, forcing me to share how I'm feeling, telling me point blank if I've hurt hers. And because of that, we have been able to maintain a friendship above and beyond the business.
Tiffany: That’s true, but at the same time Chelsea's ability to compromise prevents us from getting into needless conflict, so she really does help us balance each other out. She’s definitely more than a business partner, like my second life partner, haha.
Visit Witty Rentals and learn more about their unique furniture rental company at wittyrentals.com.
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