After 5 ½ years, I’m shutting down the first company I ever started. 

The story of Arma Shirts reminds me of the informal beginnings of many entrepreneurs I’ve come to admire. 

Those champions of business who got their humble beginning slinging candy in the 3^rd grade lunchroom.  Or maybe it was baseball cards, or selling pizza by the slice.

That’s my Arma Shirts.

The Tale

In the Spring of 2004, Show-Me Tickets was humming along as a leader in the ticket broker industry.  I ran the SEO (“Links Department” we called it), and along with a new batch of hires came Tom Kissell.

Tom’s the type of guy who controls a room, either by sheer strength of personality or by being the loudest.  Not many people are like that. 

Even at 20 and 21, I quickly knew that he and I had a similar outlook on life and business – dream big, exude confidence, and get off your ass and do it.

We also had complementary traits – that’s important in a business partner.  If you’re both exactly the same personality, I think you have less chance of success. 

Start a Business

After a few nights of beers and hundreds of hours pouring through the internet and chatting, it was time to start a business.  I don’t think it mattered what type of business. We wanted the experience and an outlet for our energy.

Tom had an uncle who’d done custom printing in the past.  He even had silkscreen equipment and a ‘t-shirt oven’ in his basement. 

I’d been screwed over by local Columbia companies twice in ’03-04 on getting shirts made.

This was also on the tail end of that ’02-’05 “Look at my t-shirt, it says something ironic on it phase”.

We’re creative.  We’ve got some hookups in t-shirts.  We want to start a business.  Done.

You Always Change Direction

Most companies I’ve been a part of don’t end up doing what they first set out to do.  This has been confirmed in much more serious ventures, like VAMC. 

We originally drew up a bunch of humorous custom designs and tried to sell them online.  There were also a few weeks of sitting in Tom’s uncle’s basement with us and Tom Nolte actually screening and cooking the shirts.  Gotta smile about that.

Among those 2 early hiccups, we spent a lot of time and didn’t make a lot of money. 

We found success through Tom’s connections to the greek community on campus doing custom printing jobs for sorority parties and MU clubs.  Funneling the jobs to a supplier in Southern Illinois, we took the labor out of our process and instantaneously improved our quality.

You Always Get Sued

My sage advisor Brant will tell you, start a business and you’ll get sued within a year.  Check!  We got sued by the Collegiate Licensing Committee in ’04 for some M-I-Z F-K-U shirts.  Good times.

The Point was in the Journey

I wasn’t drawn to starting Arma to make millions.  A few breaks one way or another, plus some more motivation on our end, might’ve made it more likely.  Who knows?  But we just wanted the experience of starting and running a business.

Stating “I have a business” feels good.  You’ve already jumped past 90% of the people out there who ‘talk about awesome business ideas’.  Those people will never even learn how to register with the SOS, let alone take a shot at success.

Tom and I learned a lot, had fun, and had something to call our own.  That’s all that matters, and all I ever wanted out of Arma. 

Here’s to the young and the aspiring – Remember to Love the Journey.