Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Severiano Saiz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Severiano, appreciate you joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

Scorching hot take but I wouldn’t change a thing. Learning happens from mistakes, failures, difficulties. Sure, I have learned a lot of hard lessons that way… but those lessons is what we are after.

I started the business with one credit card, a Shopify storefront, and a subscription to Adobe. If I had a ton of resources from day 1, we probably could have skipped a ton of steps along the way– but I never would have learned the critical lessons that came with having to figure it all out. Those lessons are what guide me today, and will continue to inform my choices and direction moving forward.

I am a huge believer that the process is the most important part of any business. You can throw money at things or get help to speed things up. But if you never drill down into what your business is, what you create, and how you achieve that– you’re not gonna get much out of it. At least in terms of life lessons and experiences, which is what makes it worth it to me. I have been content to take the long way to where I am, and I will always continue to do that. Long term thinking and gradual success is far more rewarding than a quick burn and flip.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Severiano Saiz, I am a NYC-based small business owner. My business is called Course Maps – we sell prints of golf course layouts — think landscape architecture blueprints of a course. They make for great wall art in the home or office. We can make these for any golf course, anywhere in the world– and since starting the business in 2019, I’ve mapped out about 3,500 golf courses worldwide.

Golfers are extremely attached to their favorite golf course, and for 99% of people, their favorite course is probably not very well known. Maybe it’s a little municipal course or small country club that is off the radar. Course Maps started because those courses are deserving of the high-quality golf memorabilia like what you might find for golf’s most famous courses.

Our business has two verticals– direct to consumer and wholesale. DTC we do a ton of business around Father’s Day and Christmas– we can put together a custom order for any golf course, which makes for an awesome gift item. The very first one I ever made was actually a gift for my father!

This year we’ve been doing a lot more wholesaling directly to golf courses and country clubs. The clubs will then sell our prints in their pro shop or use them as a gift for the membership. This is a growing part of our business and is a brand new side of things to explore– we have a team of sales reps now which is a pretty surreal step in our growth.

I have a small studio in Greenpoint with an industrial large-format printer. I’m in there most days fulfilling orders and cranking on our marketing efforts. Social media has been a huge part of getting the word out about Course Maps. I make general golf content on Instagram which is great for brand awareness. I find the approach of “less is more” is great for sales. I never sell our stuff directly on my feed. I just make short videos about golf courses I’ve played, my golf game, and other stuff that I’m interested in. We’re up to about 25k followers now which has been a really fun part of the journey.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Course Maps basically cost no money to start. I think I got a free trial to set up a shopify store, and the adobe subscription I already had was maybe $15 a month. The first thing I spent money on was setting up an LLC which was few hundred bucks.

Everything else was basically just grinding it out and learning how to do things myself. I spent hours on Youtube watching tutorials on how to set up the online storefront. I got an instagram page up and running and tried my hardest to market the business organically at first without having to spend on ads. At first, I was working out of my apartment, so I had to find a print shop to do my fulfillment, which took a getting a few different samples before I settled on one. But after that, I was only paying for fulfillment after an order was placed.

Long story short– starting the business and getting it off the ground required almost no capital– just a ton of work. I always encourage people who are interested in entrepreneurship to start small like that. There are plenty of businesses with high potential and low start-up costs– if you are smart about the product and how you position yourself, you can unlock so much value. Trying to get into entrepreneurship with a capital-intensive project is really daunting and I think prevents most people from getting started.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Do the right thing, no matter no what, no matter the cost. Don’t ever cut corners or chase a cheap buck. I have always seen Course Maps as a customer service business first and foremost. I think most businesses would be smart to do the same. I have made a huge point to answer every single customer email, message, or phone call myself with an extremely high level of service and care. I will always do everything I can to accommodate every single customer request, no matter the cost or time required, because that’s what the business is about.

When I was in high school, I had a retail job and they made me read a book “Hug Your Customers” as part of my training. The TL:DR of the book is that if you bend over backwards at every step of the way for your customers, regardless of cost, it will pay dividends down the line. Doing everything we can to go the extra mile for our customers has turned a lot of them into advocates for our business. When people feel like they receive top-notch service, they want to tell their friends and family about it. And then those people turn into customers and the cycle continues.

But perhaps the most important part of it all– beyond the business side of things, nothing feels better as a small business owner than making someone’s day. And it’s so simple to do, but so immensely rewarding. Yes, I am trying to make a living and achieve financial success through my business. But the self-actualization of feeling like I am providing a great product and service that makes people happy is what I am most proud of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.course-maps.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coursemaps/

Image Credits

Main photo + photo of the grey print being rolled up into tube: Gabe DeSanti

Photo of me with golf bag: Arccos Golf