Amanda Hofman of Go To Market on leaning into your entrepreneurial spirit

Describe your business in a few words:

I am the Co-Founder of Go To Market, a marketing company that designs custom print-on-demand merchandise stores for businesses and individuals.  We specialize in designing inventive, fashion-forward, and sustainable merchandise in print-on-demand format.  Print-on-demand means no inventory, fulfillment, or high investment on the part of businesses.

Before creating Go To Market, I founded and ran a popular networking group for women in their 20s and 30s in NYC called Urban Girl Squad.

What was your background prior to starting your own business?

I started my events company, Urban Girl Squad, in 2009 and ran it until I sold it in 2014 … just two weeks before my second child was born!  I really enjoyed being home with my two kids for many years until they were in school full time.  Once they were settled in school, I very much wanted to run another business.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I was always my most successful when I was running my own projects but I didn’t connect this to entrepreneurship until several years into my career.  Once I connected the dots, though, there was no going back!

Take us back to when you first launched your business, what was your marketing strategy to get the word out and did it go as planned?

I started by offering our services to a small group of trusted friends and business owners who would give us honest feedback.  From there I started reaching out to more and more of our personal and business contacts.  That got us our first round of clients.  The first round gave me the confidence to start pitching new people and businesses.

What is the accomplishment you are the most proud of to date?

I’m most proud of the amount of clients we’ve been able to get in our second year of business.  Proving the demand for our business and keeping our clients happy has been super satisfying and rewarding.

Do you believe in work/life balance? What are some of your best tips?

Yes.  I didn’t have any of it before I had kids in my last business, so I specifically designed this business with that goal in mind.  Most of our clients are mom-owned businesses and they understand that, for example,  we can’t take calls after school pick up.  

But the critical thing is that this “restriction” doesn’t actually limit our ability to get the job done well.  Good work can happen around other life responsibilities!

What have you achieved recently that you'd like to celebrate with our community?

In September, we had our highest financial month yet!  We are very proud of ourselves and our work.

What's next for your business? What can we expect to see over the next few years?

We’re going one step at a time and we want to continue to grow slowly and steadily.  We hope to be able to hire a team down the road so we can take more clients at once.

What excites you about being an Entreprenista League member?

I have always valued women’s networking groups and women supporting women.  I went to Barnard and saw the magic of an all women’s environment for the first time there, and ever since then I have sought out that kind of support in my work.