We recently connected with David Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

David, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk about keeping costs under control when growing. How have you managed to keep costs from getting out of control?

Bootstrap Bootstrap Bootstrap. The biggest thing I learned taking on new business development was how to make big moves without spending big dollars, and there is absolutely an art to it. The first thing to note is that in order to do this successfully you need to take a hard look at yourself. Your pride, your dignity and your ego are like three giant iron balls that are chained to your ankles when you get started. It will make you stronger in the long run, but at the beginning you must cast them aside to make headway from the start. You get dirty, you will cry, you’ll ask for favors, you’ll definitely work for free, and you will scream at the heavens why non of it is working. Until it does.

If you were to substitute money for any thing to have, it would be consistency. That is your strongest asset. You keep showing up, you keep talking to people. Buy 1 thing and spend 3 weeks showing every single person that one thing. You don’t have to buy a bunch of things and try to sell them to everyone you meet. Odds are no one cares about your product yet. Get people excited, let them try it, post pictures about it every day, get opinions, make adjustments, try again. Get it exactly right before you invest. It will save you lots of money in the future.

David, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

VoidRabbit Apparel was born from a love of all things fast and has evolved into a performance-driven leather jacket brand. Our clients range from casual weekend cruisers to pinback street fiends, and our jackets sport armour, vented leather, and high viz accents.

We take pride in keeping our quality as high as possible while avoiding generic trends at all costs. You cannot find our jackets on Temu, and you never will. We work directly with our factory, sourcing only the finest cow hides and applying as little processing as possible.

I am proud of the steady progression VoidRabbit has made. I design all of the jackets myself, do all of the marketing, find sponsors, enlist riders in our community to represent the brand, and am finding more and more companies in the area that want to be a part of what we’re doing.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

People preach that social media is the best place to market yourself, and at a certain point that is true, but at the very beginning you need to find your fanatics. Most successful businesses often target a niche, and the best way to find your people is to spend time with people. Go out, attend events, be present, meet people. As you consistently meet people and talk about what your doing and showcasing your work, people will gravitate towards you. Once you’ve established communications, keep those people in the loop, encourage them to tell their friends what you’re doing, go to their gatherings. It is this organic reach that creates lasting interest, lasting support and eventually lasting customers.

It’s easier to turn a customer into a friend than a friend into a customer.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met the love of my life and my business partner on a reality tv show called The Blox. This show is for entrepreneurs to pit themselves against other small business owners in friendly combat to see who has the skills and experience to come out on top. I brought my leather jacket business, and Taysia, my girlfriend and business partner, brought her baking businesses.

We hit it off under high pressure circumstances and in the middle of struggling through life outside of the Blox, and I ended up making a huge life pivot that landed me 2000 miles away in northern Idaho. It’s been a wild experience but we’ve been doing great and haven’t looked back since.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.voidrabbit.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voidrabbitapparel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VoidrabbitApparel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djsketchlingo/