Jansch - Dreamcatcher: an entrepreneurs journey from dream to success

Margaux on the rooftop of our home in New York City.

Copyright 2016 by Jennifer Jansch

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Annaminh Braun

Cover photo credit by Linda Alfvegren

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-1878-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-1879-1

Printed in China

Jennifer in the Bag-all store on Mott Street in NYC.

F ive years ago, my husband and I sold our home and all our furniture in Stockholm and said bye-bye to everything we had in terms of security in order to follow our dream of living in New York City. Many people thought this was incredibly irresponsible, especially since we have three daughters to provide for. Honestly, I agreed with them. In Sweden we both had great jobs, but in New York we had nothing. No contacts, no clients, no safety net. But I did have something: a dream.

Feel the FEAR and do it ANYWAY!

Susan Jeffers

My dream was this: to start my own business. Now, there was a slight problem with my dream; I had no idea what my business should be. I knew it had to be something environmentally friendly, and other than that my head was blank. It was a very bizarre situation where I knew I needed to look for something, but I didnt know what I was looking for. Imagine searching for a needle in a haystack without knowing it is the needle youre looking for. Even if you were to find it, you wouldnt know that was it . I felt very overwhelmed, lost, and full of fear of our uncertain future.

In that negative state of mind, I started looking for things that could take me out of this dark place and help keep me on my quest. I felt that reading about the stories of people who had made similar journeys was very helpful. There were always bits and pieces I could apply to my own life. I started collecting inspirational quotes. Whenever fear would take an ice cold-grip on me, I would look at these quotes and lead my mind to a more positive place.

I felt that regular start your own business books were not for me. They were technical, uninspiring, and, most important, based on the premise that you already had an idea. Which I didnt.

With this book, I would like to give the advice, tips, and inspiration I wished I had during this period. I truly believe that each and every one of us can and should follow our dreams in order to live a happy and fulfilling life.

Unfortunately there are many people out there who will give you all the reasons for why you cant follow your dreamor you might be telling yourself those same things. There are also plenty of people who think that things can only be done in one way. Well, I disagree. There are as many ways of following your dreams as there are people. A business can be started on a shoestring, just like mine was. Bag-all was built bag by bag, without financing. It can be done without any kind of business training and knowledge about production or selling products. It can even be done without an idea. But you do need to have one thing: a dream.

This is my journeymaking my dream come true. Hopefully it will inspire you to follow your own path.

W hen you decide to do something new in life, it often comes after a long period of thinking about change. I had a very successful career as a stylist in Sweden. I had worked in the fashion industry since I was sixteen years old and got my first job as a stylist for a teen magazine. I definitely had an interest in fashion all my life, but I always had a hard time taking it seriously. Honestly, clothes are not that important, but the people in the industry talk about fashion as if there really is some vital importance to the world whether pants are baggy or tight this season. So, although I was doing very well and supporting myself and my family for many years as a stylist, it did not give me a sense of purpose.

Becoming a mother also changed me. I started thinking about the environment in a more long-term perspective. This planet needs to last for our children and their childrens children My concern grew to a sense of urgency. I wanted to stop thinking about it and start doing something to improve it.

In addition to not feeling a sense of purpose, I wanted to be more in charge of my timenot having to be somewhere eight hours a day and having the freedom to live anywhere on the planet. I understood that in order to be free I needed to make more money.

I worked very hard for many years, creating value for other people. For instance, a friend and I had started a glossy magazine, Mama , for mothers in Sweden. She came up with the idea for the magazine and I packaged it as a glamorous oasis for moms drowning in diapers and baby food. Mama really took off and became a huge success. However, it was owned by a large publishing house, and I was only seeing my salary and none of the profits.

I knew people who were writers and singers, and I saw that they were selling their creations over and over again. Getting the benefits of royalties and reprints. Yet as a stylist, I would only get paid once for each job, no matter how much energy and creativity I poured into it or how many times my pictures were published. So I concluded that I needed to create some kind of product in order to capitalize on my creativity. Something that could be sold more than once.

You dont have to be great to START, but you have to start to be GREAT.

Zig Ziglar

Here is what I knew at that point:

1. In order to be happy I needed to do something that filled me with a sense of purpose.

2. In order for it to have a sense of purpose, it had to be something environmentally friendly.

3. In order to be free, I needed to earn more money and create value for myself rather than for others.

4. To capitalize on my creativity, I needed to create something that could be sold over and over again.

These realizations got me started on my next step: list-making .

My three girls, Celeste, Margaux, and Caprice, hugging it out in Big Sur, California. Becoming a mother made me increasingly worried about the future of our planet.

The first thing I wrote on my list was:

ECO-FRIENDLY