时尚达人的创业经

    最优秀的企业家总能发现并填补市场空白，莫娜•比乔尔就是其中一位。她发现了时尚界的空白，然后创办公司填补了这一市场空白。在今天纽约时装周开幕之际，我们借机分享莫娜•比乔尔的成功经验。现年34岁的比乔尔获得了巴特利风投公司（Battery Ventures）及其他天使投资人提供的总计225万美元资金，现正致力于为精品店和各时尚品牌打造在线女性时装买卖平台——JOOR。比乔尔的长期目标是把这个平台建成时装产品批发行业的“易趣”（eBay）。我们一起来听听莫娜的故事。

    我小的时候，每当母亲拿出电话簿打算求助时，我总是把脸藏进沙发靠垫里。

    母亲却不慌不忙地对我说：“莫娜，寻求帮助不是什么难堪的事。”

    她在电话黄页中查找，然后拿起电话，随意拨打一户人家的电话号码。她没有说英语，而是用古吉拉特语问：“请问附近哪家印度餐厅最好？”

    要知道，当时可没有Zagat或Yelp这类餐厅点评服务，所以母亲只能冒昧地向陌生人求助。

    我的父母后来从印度移民到了美国，成了小企业主。我在成长的过程中从父母那里学会了许多聪明的方法，例如挖掘不可能的资源、寻找答案、迅速解决问题。他们告诉我，一旦找到了A与B之间的最短距离，就能以最快速度获得自己想要的东西。

    我不确定在创业过程中我是否找到了捷径，但是有一点可以确定，我学到了很多东西。

    1. 找到内心真实的召唤。我的母亲以前总是这样问我：“你为什么不当一名皮肤科医生？他们的日子可比企业主好过多了！”我的父母与很多第一代美国移民一样，希望我当一名医生。我在宾夕法尼亚大学（the University of Pennsylvania）就读时选择了经济专业。大学毕业后，我开始进军时尚界，因为我知道，这才是我的兴趣所在。当今的时尚界是一个大型的多元化市场：有成千上万个品牌，市值高达800亿美元。我如饥似渴地研究着它的一切——市场参与者、经营方式及供应链的运营方式。靠着一份热情和沃顿商学院（Wharton）的MBA学位，我为艾利•塔哈瑞（Eli Tahari）、香奈儿（Chanel）、Ann Taylor等品牌提供咨询服务。丰富的经验和对事业的激情最终引领我迈向了一个伟大的创业目标。

    2. 放手去做，特别是当自己不知道该如何下手时。二十世纪九十年代初期，在布法罗市的郊区，我的父母有一套并不被看好的投资性房产。当时，经济形势低迷，房地产市场也面临着诸多风险。父亲为了考验我（和市场），让我给这套房子找两三个潜在买家。他拿话“激”我：“你有什么好损失的？”我只好硬着头皮去做了。就这样，在没有父母的帮助下，我卖掉了这套房产。从这件事中，我收获了一条经验：即使只有12岁，但只要有足够的信心和鼓励，几乎可以成就一切。

    The best entrepreneurs see a gap in the market and fill it. Today, the start of Fashion Week in New York, is a good time to share lessons from Mona Bijoor, who spotted inefficiency in the fashion industry and created a company to fix it. With $2.25 million from Battery Ventures and angel investors, Bijoor, 34, is building an online marketplace for boutiques and brands to buy and sell contemporary women's clothes. Longterm, she wants JOOR to be an eBay (EBAY) of wholesale goods. Here's her story.

    When I was a child, my mother would get out the telephone book and I would hide my face in the couch cushions.

    "Mona, asking for help is not an embarrassment," she would say to me, unfazed.

    She would dive into the Yellow Pages, pick up the phone, and dial the number of some random Indian family. Switching from English to Gujarati, she would ask, "What is the best Indian restaurant in the vicinity?"

    With no Zagat or Yelp on the scene back then, my mom resorted to cold calling.

    My parents immigrated together from India to the United States, where they became small business owners. Growing up with them exposed me to clever ways to tap unlikely resources, find answers, and solve problems really fast. My parents told me that you get what you want fastest when you find the shortest distance from A to B.

    I'm not sure I took the shortest route to entrepreneurship, but I learned a lot along the way.

    1. Find your true calling. "Why don't you become a dermatologist?" my mom used to say to me. "They have better hours than business owners!" Like a lot of first-generation Americans, my parents wanted me to become a doctor. When I arrived at the University of Pennsylvania, I chose business. After college, I went into fashion because I just knew it was what I wanted to do. The contemporary fashion industry is a large and diverse market: $80 billion, with thousands of brands. I studied it voraciously--the players, how they distribute, how supply chains work. Armed with a passion and a Wharton MBA, I consulted for brands like Elie Tahari, Chanel and Ann Taylor (ANN). My diverse experience, along with my passion, would lead me to a big entrepreneurial goal.

    2. Do it, especially if you don't know how. In the early 1990's, in the suburbs of Buffalo, my parents had an investment property that wouldn't sell. The economy was bad; the real-estate market was treacherous. To test me (and the market), my dad asked me to pitch the property to two or three prospective buyers. "What have you got to lose?" he said, daring me. So I just…did it. I sold the property without my parents' help. I learned that with enough confidence and encouragement, you can do almost anything--even at age 12.