Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Gabriel Klemm, CEO of Sweets Kendamas, located in Minneapolis, MN, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We show the world what kendama is and what it does and make them available online and in stores for people to find the benefits and joy that we experience ourselves. Kendama is a game of strategy and skill, similar to golf, because you must know the strategy to meet the goal.
It teaches you that failure is a part of the process and that you can do anything you want to if you set your goals and don't give up. Our customers are people who love games and enjoy strategy and challenge. Anyone over seven years old can enjoy kendama.
Tell us about yourself
I couldn't decide on a major in college and settled on Economics. While in school, I was waiting tables at night and doing construction during the day to pay bills, and a friend showed me a kendama and asked if I thought it could be a business. I had never seen it before, so I said probably, but when I tried it on my own, I found it hard and wondered why I would spend the little time I had outside of jobs, school, and other hobbies to learn it.
He asked me what I could do with it and where I got stuck and then taught me the strategy. Then I was hooked. It was like chess in that I had to plan my moves, and like golf in that my brain could know what to do but was my body able to do what it wanted it to? I am tenacious and love a challenge.
I knew then that kendama must be given to the world alongside the strategy/tutorials on how to use it. Since we started the business, I have been motivated by the people I share a passion with, the learning I get daily from running a business, and the legacy we will leave behind so that more people in the world will experience kendama for generations to come.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
A beautiful community is built through a shared love of kendama and spreading it to the world. We are proud of the community that we helped create. It is welcoming, helpful, and tight-knit. Kendama connects people, and now I have friends all over the world.
We meet through competitions and events, and one day we aim to make kendama an Olympic sport. My biggest accomplishment is sticking with it, no matter how much of a struggle it is. Something I learned through kendama itself.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
One of the hardest things about being a business owner is that things take more time than you want them to. That growth is hard to accomplish without capital to fund the growth. We started from a garage and just had to reinvest every step of the way.
We are a business that relies on hard goods and inventory, so cash flow management is paramount to keeping the company healthy through tough times and changing market conditions.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Three tips Id give anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today are:
- You can't buy passion. Find people who are passionate about what you are trying to do and connect with them. Get out and meet people. You can't do that if you don't escape your comfort zone and put yourself in the room with the people you are trying to get to know.
- Try to be strategic, but try not to make decisions that are based on fear. Fear will keep you from taking the leaps you need, and the first leap is deciding to take a risk on yourself and your ideas.
- The better you can dial in your idea before you start, the better chance you will find the help you need along the way. Ask for advice, and take help when it is offered.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://sweetskendamas.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sweetskendamas/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetskendamas/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sweetskendamas/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabe-klemm-32519265/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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