The wild ride began two Augusts ago, when Ginny Ferguson, 41,
and Denise Brown, 38, strewed premiere issues of Bikes &
Spikes--their sassy Minneapolis-based motorcycle magazine
geared toward women--all over the tables of motorcycle industry
execs at a Sturgis, South Dakota, press party. They were too green
to know it was inappropriate for the occasion. But by night's
end, they were signing autographs.
Describe your publishing experience prior to starting
Lipstick & Leather Publications.
Denise Brown: I produced newsletters, wrote employee
manuals and edited legal briefs as an assistant for a law firm.
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Ginny Ferguson: I was a regional manager for TJ X
Corp.
Did you ever expect to publish a bimonthly magazine?
Brown: Understand, we rolled out that premiere magazine
for fun. We didn't plan to be publishers--we just thought,
"Let's see what happens." We gave [issues] away in
Sturgis, and at the beginning of the week, no one knew us. By the
end, we were a little bit famous. When we came back, we had two
weeks to write the next issue. So Ginny quit her job in August
[1998], and I quit in October. Then we just hit the road and
literally sold the magazines out of the trunks of our cars.
How did you bankroll the venture?
Brown: We used credit cards; I refinanced my house and
bike; Ginny refinanced her car and truck, and used her stock
options and 401(k) account.
Ferguson: We took the Band-Aid approach, raising enough
capital to keep printing one more magazine. After the fifth issue,
it became unbearable to raise $40,000 every two months, so we
decided to get other people involved and raise enough capital to
take this magazine to the next level.
How do you boost publicity?
Ferguson: We leave a magazine wherever we go. You have to
start in your hometown, then go regional and nationwide.
What are the drawbacks to being women in this
testosterone-driven industry?
Brown: Initially, it was like, "Aren't they cute?"
Men [were constantly giving us] verbal pats on the head. It takes a
lot of nerve to do what we've done--we've orchestrated
meetings with sophisticated businessmen without having a true sense
of what to do. But we're fast studies.