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Name: Coral Talavera
Business: VETTA Magazine / VETTA Homes Magazine, Austin-based lifestyle magazine
Industry: Arts & Entertainment
Location: Austin, Texas, U.S.
Reason for starting: I started the magazine because a few days after I moved to Austin I became pregnant. I immediately realized that my biggest desire was to start a business that would allow me to be home with my 4 year old, my husband and another baby on the way.
Related: Read about another lifestyle magazine entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? It definitely isn’t money! This first year was tough! To me success has been truly measured in the trust that my team has placed on me even through financial hardship, working non-stop for a common goal after having known me and my project for just months.
Biggest Success: The biggest success was seeing the most intimidating competitor we could ever imagine come and go without shaking our determination, while our magazines (we launched two titles in less than a year) continue to thrive and get thicker and thicker.
I want to be able to financially support my family and the families of my team members is my biggest priority. Everyone in the VETTA roster is extremely passionate about our magazines and it’s very important for me to show them my appreciation for their hard work, the incredible potential the magazines have – thanks to them – and to keep them motivated, so that I never lose their support.
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What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? Overcoming self-funding challenges. Having not borrowed any money and building everything organically was an incredible challenge, but we pushed through it fearlessly by cold calling over 1,500 different businesses and doing 90% of the work ourselves. These prospects have recently started to come around and recognizing the fruits of our labor.
Being pregnant motivated my desire to take on this new venture, but it also made it incredibly complicated. It wasn’t exactly ideal to go see clients with my gigantic belly and it was hard to time my labor with the delivery of the issues.
Who is your most important role model? I don’t have a specific role model, but I have surrounded myself with amazing mentors, from people who have launched very successful businesses, Austinites who have been here forever, even competing publishers! It is crucial to maintain a student mentality and to never stop learning.
[box_light]Website vettamagazine.com
Twitter @vettamagazine
Facebook www.facebook.com/vettamagazine[/box_light]
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Edited by The Story Exchange