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Interview: WeddingLovely.com Founder Tracy Osborn Shares Why Slow and Steady Wins the Startup Race

Learn how Osborn started her first venture (WeddingInviteLove) that led to the development of WeddingLovely and why she believes that “slow and steady wins the race.”

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Best Success Story:

I would definitely say our relationship with our vendors. It’s my goal to be the friendliest and most open person in the business, and I’ve heard over and over again that this is why vendors choose to work with me and interact with the WeddingLovely community.

It pays off dividends for the business—when we launch a new product, it’s so wonderful to have these enthusiastic vendors spread the word to their own wedding circles. I am so grateful to have so many wonderful wedding vendor friends, and that I’m able to work with them and improve their business day after day.

Biggest Startup Challenge:

I think that it’s always been time. [WeddingLovely is] a bootstrapped business. The biggest issue is that I want to keep the company profitable; I want us to grow on our own.

While [taking on outside] investment is a really great way to launch a business, I feel that I have unique ideas [within the wedding industry] and that I would like to keep the company under myself rather than have investors push us into growing too fast. Essentially, I want to keep the company under my own guidance. I’m really working on keeping the company bootstrapped and growing slowly and really provide a great service.

The problem with that is that we don’t have a large amount of capital, so WeddingLovely is just myself at this moment.  I run the blog, the design and development—so it’s my time, in terms of managing the directory, WeddingLovely.com and keeping the blog up and running with new features and profiles.

#1 Tip for Entrepreneurs:

Stay persistent and work on those small goals. Like I mentioned before I’m not a big fan of raising money, and I like the “grow slow and keep at it” approach.

I think a lot of people want to have success immediately, but sometimes success isn’t immediate; sometimes success comes over a period of time. So staying persistent and continuing working and watching something grow slowly is better than go big or go home.

WeddingLovely is working with over 1,800 vendors and things are going amazingly, but it’s not an overnight success—and I actually like that. It’s been really, really great; two years later, I’m still doing what I love.

Stay connected with Tracy on Twitter.

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Photo: Tracy Osborn

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