“I heard the word ‘no’ a lot in the first couple of years, I had to keep giving myself pep talks,” says Sara Blakely. In 2012 Blakely became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire after building up her business around her invention – Spanx, the figure-shaping undergarment - so those pep talks clearly worked. But once upon a time she was dealing with the rejection and the uncertainty that all new entrepreneurs face.
“I’ve always had moments of doubt. I used to spend a lot of time second-guessing myself,” she adds. “I don’t want anyone to think that the people who made it did so because they didn’t self-doubt. It’s just that successful people learn to check that dialogue and keep it at the door, they give it its proper place.”
Setting out with $5,000 in savings 18 years ago, Blakely, who’s originally from Florida, spent her nights working on the Spanx prototype and kept her day job selling fax-machines. Not in a position to spend money on lawyers, Blakely took a DIY attitude and decided to write her own patent with the help of a law textbook. Meanwhile she travelled from factory to factory trying to persuade them to agree to manufacture the product. It was another uphill battle to get Spanx into shops, but eventually she she got a yes and she set up her business in Atlanta. She says her business took off after her “Oprah moment” the year Oprah Winfrey featured Spanx on her show as one of her ‘favourite things’ of the year.
“It’s really important to be resourceful and scrappy – a glass half full mindset,” she recalls. “Running your own business is a series of obstacles that you turn into opportunities. You have to be resilient because there’s so much coming at you as an entrepreneur and you usually have very limited resources.”
How did she persuade people to like her idea? “I put my own butt on the line - literally!” she says, “I used my own picture as the before and after picture wearing Spanx. And that was part of saying ‘we’re in this together I created an undergarment for myself, let me share it with you and tell you why it’s in my wardrobe’ – a personal touch was important.”
The idea for Spanx was born when she cut off the feet of her control tights and wore them under white jeans to a party. She recognised she had the germ of an idea for a product that other women would appreciate.
By focusing on PR and the canny use of humour and eye-catching packaging, Blakely set about trying to make sure the brand was able to have an impact without paying for advertising. “Getting the product made is always a big challenge for entrepreneurs but next it’s how to get the word out on a limited budget. Spanx is now 16-years-old and has never formally advertised, it’s a real word-of-mouth brand.”
“Part of my strategy was leading with my story as that connects people with what you’re doing. As an entrepreneur it’s more about the ‘why’ rather than the ‘what’.
Blakley was recently in London to judge the finalists for Virgin Media’s Business Voom 2016 competition which sees entrepreneurs battle for the chance to win funding and mentoring. Asked for her best pitching tips, she says: “Keep it very simple and differentiate yourself quickly. You have about 30 seconds or less to really simplify your message but also explain clearly what is in it for the audience, you to explain ‘the why’ part of plans.”
“Also it’s important to show personality and smile – smiling is really an inexpensive asset, people are drawn to enthusiasm and confidence. It’s about saying things like ‘I know this is going to be a great solution’ rather than ‘I think this is going to be good solution’.”
Blakely describes what it was like when her own business started to take off. “When I started I didn’t have other products up my sleeve. When I launched I had one product and I loved this one product and I couldn’t wait to share it with the world. But when I did I was speaking with consumers all day and they were giving me my next best idea.” As a result extra products were developed over time , she says.
But she says that being flexible, keeping a constant eye on the changing market and what the consumer wants is key to keeping on track.
Blakely’s final piece of advice though, is all about a business name. She firmly believes that without “Spanx” she would be telling a different story, but she put a lot of time into getting it right. “I spent about a year thinking about my name, writing them down on scrap pieces of paper, I thought of Spanks when sitting in traffic. Later I went home to trademark it online using my credit card – at the last moment I changed it to end with an “X” because I’d read that made up words do better than real words, and they are easier to market.
“Until that point my runner-up name was Open-toe delilahs - I don’t think you’d be interviewing me right now if it had been called Open-toe delilahs! The name is pretty important!”
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