Brotherhood Spotlight : YourSash
Posted on June 7, 2009 by reachroland
YourSash.com is currently one of the highest volume, highest quality providers of Graduation Stoles and Sashes on the Internet today. Such a business would not be possible without its Distinguished Creators, Christian Vuong and Bond Tantisukarom of the Beta Chapter and Chance Downs of the Zeta Chapter.
As the ultimate plug, the default setting for the custom graduation stole is the Navy Blue Zeta Phi Rho stole! The following spotlight will tell us more about their story.
What Is YourSash.com?
Started in 2007, YourSash.com is a division of Define3 focused on providing quality customized graduation stoles and sashes at affordable prices. We believe in personal success and celebrating achievement. Our goal is to provide sashes and stoles that celebrate your uniqueness, whether you are in a fraternity, sorority, student group, pageant or just darn proud of your school!
Why YourSash.com? How did the idea of starting an internet business come about?
For us, the notion of starting your own business, being your own boss, and setting your own hours seemed so cool. Really, what college graduate wouldn’t jump at this idea? You hear of how Microsoft started in a garage, how Google was started by college dropouts, YouTube by three guys with an idea, and Facebook by a college student. With that said, it was probably a mix of this American dream but also because we felt we could fill a void in the market. While seniors in college, we experienced first hand a lot of vendors in the industry who were either overpriced, terrible with customer service, or provided poor quality products, and we wanted to fix this! We felt that as recent college graduates we’d be best at relating to our client’s needs, and well… that’s how this story began.
Did everything go smoothly at first?
Far from it. Like many start-ups, we ran into numerous hiccups on the way. We thought we had everything locked down, from the website, to order management, to actual production timelines, and quality control, but when we got our first order we started scrambling! The tricky thing with graduation stoles and sashes is that they are all individually made and hence a very time consuming task. Our OCD habits would not let us settle for anything less than perfection. I still remember the nights (yes nights) we spent perfecting our very first sash. I’m glad to say our production has since sped up and become much more streamlined.
What advice can you give to those interested in taking advantage of a business opportunity?
Know your customers, love your product and expect to lose a lot of sleep. If you are starting a business solely for money, it’s going to be tough to stay motivated day to day. You need to love what you’re doing because at the end of the day, you are your own boss, and if you can’t motivate yourself, nobody else will. Be honest about your goals and be honest to yourself.
What is that crucial link between the idea & the actual first sale that occurs?
Execution. Hardwork + Communication = Execution. This is exactly what many people lack. Every day, people talk about great ideas, but very few actually act on them. Making a business profitable takes a lot of work and as any business owner will tell you it’s no longer a “build it and they will come” world. Our biggest chunk of advice to entrepreneurs would be to set milestones. Whether you hit them or not is on you, but setting deadlines will help you benchmark your progress.
Furthermore, what is it exactly that keeps ideas from ever being reality?
Laziness and lawsuits. Don’t do something if it’s illegal! If you’re going to start a business, make sure you set it up legally. Another part would be the hard work. In the graduation industry, similar to weddings, live events and many other industries, you only have one chance to do things right. With YourSash.com we’ve come to live by the “do it right the first time” mantra because we can’t afford to make mistakes on our products or ship them out late. Graduation only happens once, and by embracing that reality of our industry, we believe it has contributed to our company’s growth.
Do you have any future plans for YourSash.com?
Many! We’re continually innovating and thinking of new ideas, styles, and products to align with today’s trends. Unfortunately we can’t share them here incase our competitors are reading.
Where do you see the business going in the next five years?
Like all businesses, we hope to continue to grow and not lose sight of our mission, which is to provide quality stoles and sashes at affordable prices. On the philanthropic side, it’d be nice to give back to the community. I think we’ll start this year.
