Today we’d like to introduce you to James Grasty.
Thanks for sharing your story with us James. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have been an entrepreneur since high school, I used to sell burned CD’s that I painstakingly downloaded off Napster and burned on a Sony 4x burner. It took hours and hours and I probably would have made more at McDonald’s, but it was fun. I started my first legit business when I was 18 (when I could do so legally) selling car audio and performance parts out of my parent’s garage.
Fast forward five years later to 2007, a year out of college, I started my first successful business, a designated driver for hire service that drove drunk people and the cars home. Like any entrepreneur, I got bored with it after a few years of grinding and driving drunk people home. I worked out how to cut myself out of the day-to-day operations and moved to Ventura County to get my MBA and pursue greener pastures.
There in my MBA program, I met who would be my future business partners and ran into the idea for my next business.
The BroBasket all started out as an idea back in 2013 in our Entrepreneurship class over at the MBA program at CSUCI. A few of us liked the idea so much we worked over the next year to take the concept and make it a reality. We struggled the first year or so, almost running out of money, but with the help of some money from family, friends, and former classmates, an SBA loan, and a lot of work we found our niche and made the business a success. We took it from nothing in late 2014 to over 1 million in sales by 2016 and 2 million by 2018.
Now I have sold my old designated driver for hire business after 12 years and am focusing on the future of our current business as well as looking for new business opportunities again as I am getting the itch!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all, let me list some of my pitfalls from past failed businesses;
– Have a good business plan.
– Try to have management-level experience in the business you are going into.
– Make sure the business is 100% legal.
– Even if you are cool with people smoking weed, hiring stoners is not a great ide.
– Be willing to pivot your business model when things with that original one are not working out.
– Get into the business for the right reasons.
– You might want to avoid going into business with friends because if something goes wrong, that can hurt even the best of friendships.
– Bootstrapping a business is cool and all, but all businesses need money at some point to grow, don’t be too afraid to take on debt to do that if you are confident in your business model and have proven it can work.
The BroBasket – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
TheBroBasket.com specializes in alcohol themed gift baskets geared towards guys. We are one of the few businesses out there that can send a drinkable arrangement to their doorstep. We are also one of the few websites that allows you to customize a gift basket from scratch.
I am proud that we have made it this far and built our business up from an idea to what it is now, its an awesome accomplishment.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Taking The BroBasket from nothing to over a million in sales in two years and running a successful business for over ten years.
Pricing:
- BroBaskets range from as low as $24.95 to over $300
Contact Info:
- Address: 651 Via Alondra
Suite 702
Camarillo, CA 93012 - Website: https://www.thebrobasket.com
- Phone: 844-446-2443
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: brobasket
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BroBasket/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/brobasket
Image Credit:
All Photos Taken by Evan Link of Link Photography
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