I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 30 years, and believe me, I’ve tried a little bit of everything. In 1995, my husband and I opened a small gift and party store. When a well-known grocery chain in our shopping plaza started carrying some of the same products we sold, we decided to move. Unfortunately, our new location wasn’t the answer either. So we closed the store, went home, and decided to try something completely different. My husband taught me how to build websites using Dreamweaver, and I spent weeks creating my first two websites. We started with products from vendors we’d worked with in our retail business, including personalized gifts and chocolates with company logos. We had no idea where this would eventually take us.
Then came a phone call from a woman representing a relatively new crystal company. She asked if we’d be interested in selling personalized crystal gifts online without having to carry inventory. That sounded pretty good to me! I added her products to our website, and within a month or so, orders were coming in. Then, just before the millennium, a customer asked if we could put her company logo on champagne buckets. Up until then, we’d mainly been selling crystal with names and monograms. So I called our supplier and asked if that was even possible. Her answer? “Oh yes, we have an entire corporate promotional products division.” And I’m thinking, why didn’t anybody tell me this sooner? That one conversation opened the door to what would become decades in the corporate gift industry.
Looking back, some of my biggest opportunities came from things I never planned. I’ve made mistakes, changed directions, learned new technology, and figured out plenty of things as I went along. And that’s really why I created Najla Furgason Official. I’m still curious, still learning, and still looking for ways to do things differently. These days, I’m exploring how technology and the experience we’ve already gained can help us create new possibilities without spending every waking hour working. You don’t have to know everything to begin. Sometimes you just have to be willing to try something new.
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