December 13, 1989, 9:00pm EST, New York City: We are in our college dorm, eating take-out Chinese and getting ready for yet another episode of "Thirtysomething." We watch together every week and talk late into the night about our dreams for the future, wondering where we might find ourselves at thirty-something.
In our twenty-something years, we earned our experience in the fashion and lifestyle industry with companies such as J. Crew, Levi's, Williams Sonoma, Henri Bendel, Old Navy, Estee Lauder, Bloomingdales, Carolee, Nike and Patagonia. Despite success, professional fulfillment was yet to be discovered, we each knew it was time to move on.
June 15, 1999, 4:00pm PST, Los Angeles: We sit at the Coffee Bean on Sunset Blvd. and begin to make our dreams a reality. After five lattes and several legal pads, we begin to answer the questions we asked over a decade ago. We moved back to NYC and launched nedandshell inc., a retail and wholesale co-op of emerging female designers.
In the ensuing years we watched so many of the women we were working with embark on the entrepreneurial process with little or no sense of how to navigate the road ahead, and it became obvious to us that most just needed some entrepreneurial therapy. We began to identify a need for an innovative approach to launching a business. We knew that a great business plan did not make a great business and wanted to offer our experience of what not to do as well as what to do.
The result, Sixteen Weeks to your Dream Business: A Weekly Planner for Entrepreneurial Women published by McGraw Hill. Our weekly planner will take you step-by-step through the process of launching your dream business. From carefully planning out a bullet-proof business model, to marketing your business and finding a customer base, this planner helps you track your progress and nail down all the details that will make your business thrive.
And now nedandshell.com has morphed into a companion website to Sixteen Weeks... offering content and community to creative, entrepreneurial women. Whether you're ready to launch or already running your own business nedandshell.com wants to inspire and inform you on your mission to make your professional dreams a reality.
So, what are you sixteen weeks away from?
xo - Ned & Shell