Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in clothing but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mason Dirlam, Founder of Beegl., located in Saint Joseph, MI, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
With a shared love for the game and a big heart for man's best friend, four best friends became inspired to create something that combined the two—Golf's Best Friend - Beegl. By incorporating our lifestyle into each design, we've focused on bringing you apparel that is against the norms of golf. The traditional, overdressed, and outdated elements of the game are slowly disappearing. Welcome to a new era of the game.
Tell us about yourself
From a young age, I've had a burning passion for the game of golf. Growing up a tall and skinny kid, many of the knit polo shirts with floppy collars, khaki cargo shorts, and baggy raincoats just never seemed to fit my body type. Along with the dissatisfaction with my attire, I always knew I wanted to get my hands on the creative process so that I could bring my visions to life. Although it took many years, I decided to share these ideas with my friends in the fall of 2021 during an employment transition. By the time the sun had set that day, my ideas had a name, a website, and a plethora of hand-drawn logos. Day by day, we found ourselves continually carrying out these visions and creating branding color schemes, professional emails, digital-marketing campaigns, and before we knew it - we fell in love with creating a company to share our ideas. It wasn't until a year before I took a moment to realize our accomplishments over the previous 365 days. The motivation I have to grow Beegl. into a household name in the apparel industry derives from the memories of my 12-year-old self sitting in class drawing and dreaming about wearing a hat with one of my own logos. I have no better advice for anybody who has an idea than to just take the first step, whatever that may mean. For me, it meant sharing my ideas with my friends. The best part about the entire story is that it is truly just the beginning of the ideas we've shared with the world. Our team has never been one to rush the process or cheat the system; we intend to share our ideas organically solely because we've fallen in love with what we've created.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
As a business owner, I celebrate every accomplishment. Every item we sell, every dollar we donate, and every memory we create deserves to be celebrated. To choose one accomplishment over the last year and six months of this entrepreneurial adventure, however, is easy. Again, I go back to taking the first step. Without speaking my ideas to fruition, none of the other accomplishments would have been possible. Literally. The lesson I've learned from simply sharing my ideas has been incredibly impactful not only for the birth of Beegl., but also for myself personally and in life in general. Did I know that my friends would take an interest in what I had to say? I actually thought quite the opposite. And that lesson is one that I will carry with me forever and will always implement into pushing my ideas through the means of apparel.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
While being a business owner is a freedom for expressing my creative side, there are many challenges that my team and I have faced. For starters, there is no clear-cut way how to successfully build your idea into an operating business. Everybody you ask will have a unique story of how they fell into their position. With that comes a lot of adversity and problem-solving to do in order to take each step toward launching the ideas. For myself personally, the hardest challenge I've faced is believing others have the same ambition for my ideas as I do. I've learned not to share my ideas immediately with the world on our platforms before they have been thoughtfully and logically organized. To excite yourself about an idea is easy; however, to excite a community of people takes a deeper connection. To bring this all together, this situation has been my biggest battle with creative freedom - the eagerness to share my ideas with the world.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
If I were to give three tips to anyone looking to start, run, and grow a business today, it would be these: For starters, take the first step and share your ideas. Secondly, realize that nobody who started a business truly knew what they were doing when they first started. They, too, had to make mistakes in order to get to where they're at. And thirdly, never fall out of love with what you're doing. If it starts to make you unhappy or you begin to lose interest, go back to the day, you shared your ideas and think about the feelings that you felt and the way you expressed the ideas. The success comes from being able to do what you love, not by any other measure.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://beeglgolf.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beegl.golf/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-dirlam-9a48041a1/
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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