RizzoTees.com

This is the first of what I hope to be many Interview with Entrepreneurs….

I met Chris of Rizzo Tees somehow on Twitter and instantly began to like his humorous tweets (those are microblog posts for those who don’t know twitter) but more so liked the fact he coupled his light hearted spirit with his entrepreneurial spirit. Rizzo Tees is quickly emerging as a niche designer of funny t-shirts, I’ve been through the designs and they are quite hilarious. Below is my interview with him:

Background….

1. What did you do before Rizzo Tees? I am actually still doing it – I am a CPA and work as the CFO of a St. Louis organization. As I’m still gainfully employed and enjoying that as such, I must decline to say the name of the company. Lois Lane doesn’t even know my secret.
2. Did you like what you were doing in the past, work wise? I do enjoy what I do as a day job, but I dream about t-shirts. Rizzo was and is a blank slate – everything it becomes, every stumble it takes, it’s all me. It’s humbling, scary, and awesome. I wish there were ten of me right now, but I’m enjoying every minute of it.
3. How was Rizzo Tees born? I came up with the idea for Rizzo Tees in October 2007. We had just had our second child, and life was just crazy. My birthday is in October, and so I told my wife I’d just take care of my own birthday present, for which she was very thankful. I bought shirts from Busted Tees and SnorgTees and upon receiving them, “the light bulb” went off in my head. I started planning immediately.
4. Anything you want to add about your background that is unique or special that you want to share with others? I lived in Moscow for 6 months back in the ‘90’s, and I found it to be rather cold there.

On Personal Development….

1. How did you mentally decide you wanted to take the jump from Rizzo Tees being a concept in your head to making it a physical reality? I have always had the entrepreneurial bug. My grandpa and 2 partners started a window manufacturing company in 1949, right after WWII. The only problem was, I couldn’t decide what kind of company to start. At first, it was a dearth of ideas. Then, the ideas I had were either too expensive to implement, or they didn’t offer the promise of fun. T-shirts allow me to have fun, express myself, connect with people, and make money. Once I decided it was a good idea, I talked with my wife, and she supported me all the way. It was at that point that I started planning and writing checks, the latter of which really made it a physical reality.
2. You seem to have a laid back and humorous approach to life through your presence on twitter and facebook, a lot of people especially now are getting stressed with the current market and economy. How do you keep stayed focused on the positive and not on all the negative bullshit in today’s media? I could not care less about the bullshit in the media. Everyone’s got a story to tell, and axe to grind, a newspaper to sell. The media is such a wall of noise now. I don’t really give a shit what Cramer is saying, or which party is in power. It’s funny that you mention Twitter and Facebook here – that’s how to stay focused, believe it or not. With both, I can fine-tune my information intake, get done what I need to get done in a day, and have fun while doing it. As far as market and economy-related stress, it’s out there and it’s real. I personally know many people that have been laid off, folks approaching retirement with a decimated portfolio… I almost feel privileged in that our family had very little to lose to begin with!
3. All successful entrepreneurs have a unique mindset in which they embrace constant change and variables as they rise to the top, can you comment on how you have personally grown amidst the troubles start-up entrepreneurs face?Starting every business has its challenges, but another one of the reasons I picked t-shirts is that it’s a pretty easy business to run. I don’t want to downplay the number of hours I work, ‘cause when you combine both jobs, it’s a lot. But it’s fun. Couple that with the fact that my family is not currently relying on the income from Rizzo (of which there is none yet LOL), and it eliminates most of the stress. I do sometimes get a little antsy, wishing I had more time to work on Rizzo. Just as I was preparing my answers to this interview, I was thinking about my next tee, a bacon-related tee, and my mind was racing in all directions. That’s not necessarily stress, but sometimes I do have to stop and prioritize. I work off lists to keep from flying off on Internet tangents.
4. How do you continue to grow as a person? I try to learn something every day, and this is largely accomplished on the Internet. It’s rather hard to imagine life before it.
5. Any advice on how to develop the mindset of an entrepreneur? Work for one. Work for several different entrepreneurs – that’s really the way to do it. I will say that there is a certain “born to do it” aspect – that’s not me patting myself on the back, but you know the people…. Had their own paper route, sold lemonade, babysat kids, cut lawns. I was out in my backyard every Saturday selling golf balls to the golfers on the course behind my house. Maybe I shoulda been doing homework, but instead I’d go out in the golf course woods, find golf balls, and sell ‘em back to the golfers. More than one golfer saw the irony in that.

On connecting with clients/customers…

1. I somehow found you/connected with you on twitter and then on Facebook, how does social media impacted the way you connect with people? Facebook, and especially Twitter, are huge! Twitter has been a godsend to me. I am able to approach like-minded people, people that tweet about tees, and introduce them to my product. Once someone buys, you can stay in contact with them. The thing to note here: I would be on Twitter even if I didn’t have a business. I do plenty of non-business Tweets – man, they practically wrote Twitter for me! Funny t-shirts involve the quick expression of an idea – sound like any super-popular social media sites we frequent? Now, Twitter and Facebook are not without their perils. Just like in your personal life, where you have nice people and knuckleheads, there are those on social media sites, the “haters,” that will not hesitate to throw their ePunches at you. This is not unlike our families, our places of work, bricks and mortar businesses, and Internet businesses. As much fun as it must be to run a restaurant and create the most wonderful dishes that wow your patrons, there is always that one complete jerkoff that rolls in and just ruins your night. Is that really a reflection of the viability of your business? Unless your restaurant is horrible, the answer is no. Therefore, as much as it hurts to do so, you just have to discreetly deal with Mr. Jerkoff and just pray that the table turns over as soon as possible! It’s the same thing with Twitter and Facebook, only the damage to your business can happen so much more quickly. At my day job, we’ve had employees do Facebook updates saying they’re bored fucking stiff, AFTER they had friended their boss. Twitter and Facebook are mighty powerful, but you have to use them to enhance your brand, not damage it.
2. How do you go about relationships with your customers? It seems as if you have a loyal fan base that loves your products- how did that develop? I have seen advice from social media experts that say, on Twitter, you need to “bring value.” I understand that, but I tweet about a lot of random, nonsensical stuff too, and I don’t feel I’m doing anything wrong, or tweeting astray. We all need to be ourselves – my life is a mixture of family, friends, work, play… I think Twitter can and should be that way too. Otherwise, it just doesn’t work. I hope people can feel this from me, but I feel a deep gratitude to anyone that buys from me. This has been a labor of love for me, and any time someone parts with their hard-earned money, it validates all the hard work and the vision I had when I created the tee. Selfishly, that feels good, and I just can’t express enough how much I appreciate it. So I love to stay in contact with my customers on Twitter, and Facebook to a lesser extent.
3. Do you consider what you do branding yourself/Rizzo Tees or is it more you are providing a product you think your customer would like? It is definitely both. I just be myself and let the chips fall where they may. I am a one-man operation – I never try to fool people into thinking I’m some huge, established brand. So when I wrote my “About Us” page for my site, I just told the truth – it’s me, I do it at night, I love it, it’s my passion. I am hopeful people will see the “real me.” On Twitter and Facebook, I also do talk about my business in a way that will hopefully gain fans and ultimately help me sell some tees.

On goal setting …

1. Obviously start ups and businesses don’t start without a plan. How did you initially develop a plan for Rizzo Tees? How did you monitor and adjust your progress to achieve what you wanted? I am a serial planner – it’s a little scary. Frankly, Rizzo Tees might have gone live much earlier than November 1, 2008 if I hadn’t planned so much. The first thing I did was study all my competitors. There are so many great ones out there, from all different tee genres. I read so many news stories, blog posts, studied so many sites. I researched things thing in and out. I wrote a business plan (even though I had no partners or investors), I prepared spreadsheets, I hammered friends for advice. I even emailed tee companies for advice, and sometimes received responses. I actually plan on printing everything and posting it all over my basement office, just as a reminder that this was a helluva lot of work! I use lists to try to ensure that I don’t forget anything. There were times I deviated from the plan (like spending more to start the business up than I had planned!). The most important part of the plan was deciding what I was going to sell, who I was going to sell to, and how. No store, no partners, just me and a website. Not deviating from that plan means I stay on track and have time to spend with my family, too. My advice to entrepreneurs of all stripes is to put your business plan through ten grinders, shine it, fine tune it, and then love it. Don’t deviate just because someone emails you with a can’t miss proposal.
2. Do you have a daily ritual/practices to get you focused for the day? Coffee – 365 days a year. I’d be toast without it.
3. Any recommendations on books, seminars, programs that helped you? I read Fortune Small Business, Fast Company, Inc., Conde Nast Portfolio, Wired, and Automobile magazine, the last of which is my favorite!

Last question- if you could start all over again, having the knowledge you have right now, what would you do differently? I would have ordered less inventory. I was so damn sure I was gonna sell a ton of tees… and I feel that I still will. But generating traffic to your site in an economical way takes time. The upside is, I have tees in stock and ready for immediate shipment!

Thanks to Chris and Rizzo Tees for a great interview. If you want to see out his funny t-shirts, check out Rizzo Tees at aaaa