[Music]
>> My name's Elayne Crain.
I'm the founder of Austin Sugarworks,
where we make handmade all natural sugars
for use in beverages.
[Background music]
>> I've always been a little bit of a frustrated manager.
I guess that's part of my personality,
but it's also part of my training.
You know, I went to business school for both my undergrad
and my, you know, for my Masters.
And so, you know, all those classes are
about how you manage, you know --
it's how do you make these tough decisions?
How do you prioritize?
And it's hard for me not to do that.
And so when I was in positions where that wasn't, you know,
a job requirement of mine I did find it frustrating.
>> Most entrepreneurial spirits will be dissatisfied --
unfulfilled working for somebody else.
Most entrepreneurs want to see if they can create on their own.
>> So in that way this has been, you know,
a dream come true really.
I mean, what I feel now is, you know, I am getting to try
out all these crazy harebrained schemes and ideas that I had.
Responsibility can be kind of liberating, you know.
The feeling that it's important what you're doing.
And so I kind of thrived off that so far.
We'll see, you know, at some point down the road
if the responsibility becomes too much I may not be
as chipper.
[Laughing] But right now I'm really enjoying it.
[Background music]
>> If you want to work for yourself then you want
to be a bootstrapper because the minute you get venture capital
money you now work for them.
>> I kind of look at boot strapping as cutting costs.
I kind of looked at what I thought my strengths were
and made sure that that kind
of stuff was the kind of stuff I bootstrap.
Can I do my own website?
Yes, I can.
Can I do, you know, social media outreach?
Yes, I can.
You know, my own PR kind of stuff.
>> The ideal entrepreneur is good at lots of things.
They'll bring in people to optimize the company,
but all by themselves or with their team they can get the
job done.
>> Having said that --
that doesn't negate the need for money.
You're still going to have some stuff you have to pay for.
Permits -- there's not way to work off a permit.
>> How much money does it cost you to live?
Let's use massages as an example.
If it costs somebody $30,000 to live -- how many massages,
at $100 an hour, do they have to do a week -- a year --
a month to create $30,000?
So, I mean, that's the first kind of reasonable test.
>> For me partly because I left a job that was lower paying --
another benefit is I don't have to make so much money
to be quite happy -- with this enterprise, you know,
I have a pretty low bar to hit to be just
as well off as I was before.
[Background music]
>> Once you're past the fear of failure I think most
of the stresses in a start up are related not to you,
but to the people that you live around.
The spouse of the entrepreneur has to be a very patient,
understanding person because that spouse is no longer first,
the business is.
>> My family's been incredibly supportive.
I can't stress enough how important that has been
because that was never really a concern of mine.
My spouse has been so relieved because he was just sick
of hearing me talk about it for so much -- how much, you know,
I wanted to do this thing.
And he was just sort of like -- "so do it."
And I think he had reached the conclusion long before I had
that I need to pursue something different in my line of work.
And having this idea already cooking just sort of fed
that entrepreneurial fire I guess you would call it.
[Background music]
>> There's been so many things I love
about having started my own business finally.
But one of the ones that kind
of affected me personally the most is seeing my little boy
basically playing at being an entrepreneur.
You know, he's four years old and, you know, now when he gets
out the Play-Doh he's making sugars
and trying to sell them to you.
And it's just really, really cool to see that kind
of empowerment happening from him
from just seeing me shift roles into something
that he finds interesting enough to mimic.
It's kind of a little, you know, self pat on the back situation
that I've really, really enjoyed.
[Background music]
>> It's challenging and exciting and frustrating
and wonderful just like any, you know, committed relationship is.
So there's nothing bad to be said about growing and learning
and -- that's what I'm going to be doing a lot of.