I see you over there, you are just busting at the seams with a business idea and you are waiting to dive in! Do you know where to start? I didnt either – there really is no shame in that friend! I’m here to give you a little encouragement and a few pieces of advice that will leave you feeling motivated and ready to dive into the entrepreneurial world!
Do your Research! Find your Niche
Before we dive even further.. is there a niche that you can tap into with your business? Does your business solve a problem, or attract a certain type of ‘client’ or person? This is crucial to know and understand exactly what your product or service is going to solve out in the world. Are you going to teach someone how to perform a craft? Are you going to make a product that people want to display in their home like furniture or art? Make sure you have a niche! See below for a definition of a Niche.
Niche ; denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population. (Straight from Google!)
When I first heard of this phrase when creating my business, I didn’t really understand what I was hearing until I was already knee deep in my business. I now understand that it is crucial to think you are only talking to a SMALL and I mean SMALL group of people out in your corner of the internet. If youre trying to please and attract EVERYONE in the world – my friend you are going to fail. You have to know exactly who you are speaking to, creating for and working for. I know you want to attract everyone and make millions, but my friend you aren’t McDonald’s or Apple. You need to foster your own community of clientele before we get there!
Can this product or service make you money?
This is a big one and a piece of the puzzle that I feel a lot of people ignore or ‘they’ll figure out later’. But this is your bread and butter… I know its easy to say just follow your heart and the money will come… but friend, thats a big risk and I dont want you to take that risk. I want you to know and 110% truly believe that you can sell your product or service, and really make a go of it. And if you have this weird feeling in your gut that youre not sure if you could sell your product or service – start knocking on some doors to see. Ask your family, friends, friends of friends, a stranger on the street.. anyone who will listen to you and just say hey, would you ever buy this product or service if it was presented to you? Or if you needed it? If that answer on average is no, friend it might be time to go back to the drawing board. But I have full confidence that you have found your niche, done your research and you know your product or service is going to sell and do well!
Can your Lifestyle handle a small business?
Okay one more quick note – make sure your lifestyle or schedule can fit in a small business.. one thing that owning a business has taught me is its a 24/7 job… you cant really put a 9-5 label on it at first! So just make sure before you dive in that you can work this into your every day schedule!
Okay.. now the fun part!
1. Brainstorm the Brand
Rather then thinking of a name for your business, I want you to think bigger. Think of a brand. Something that can be at the top of your umbrella rather then building your brand backwards like I did. You can find more about my struggling with my brand here. Try to not make the same mistake I did! For example, if you are making a product based business. Let’s say I’m making oh I dont know, wind chimes. I want to name my business ‘Samanthas Chiming Creations’. Let’s say down the road.. I want to make garden art too. Could that fall under the same business name? Not really.. its two different things! But, if I was to name my business or brand, Samantha Belsey or Samantha Belsey Creations… theres a lot more I can fit under that ‘umbrella’ of a name. Do you what I mean now? Try to think broader picture when naming your business brand.
2. Choose your platforms
Under this topic I’m talking about your host for your business online, and your social media platforms. The very first thing I want you to do before we dive in, is search under your chose Brand name and assure that you are the only one out there! This can get frustrating and discouraging, but you want to make sure that when you are ready to declare your small business and add social platforms, there your name isn’t already taken out there! You could get into Copyright issues and so on. My suggestion is to head to godaddy.com and see if your domain has been taken. You can also search instagram, facebook etc to see what handles are still available with your brand name.
So, lets say you are a service like photography. Well, if I’m selling my services as a photographer, I’m not going to need a Etsy shop like I do with Krieger Customs. (I’m going to do a separate post on how to start an Etsy Shop soon!) Instead, I may want to start a website or a blog to host my portfolio! There are SO many options out there… weebly, square space, wordpress.. the list goes on. And they are very easy to navigate through yourself. So let’s say I’m going to chose WordPress to host my website for my photography business. Now maybe you are tech savvy and want to learn about website building, or maybe you want help. If you want help, I think there are some really affordable people out there that will be your saving grace. You just have to source them out. (Think of local startups organizations in your city!). In my experience, build your site and your platforms BEFORE you announce or launch your business. Seems like a no brainer right? Well friend from starting a Facebook page as my ‘host’ and starting an instagram months later… I can tell you first hand I should of built everything first and then launched. I could of directed people to a place to view my work and order my products right away. But it was tough as I wanted to build a portfolio first. And you may be thinking the same thing.. well Sam I actually want to be a photographer but have no photos to show for it. Go out and just shoot. Do it for free. Ask people to do free couples or family sessions. Friends, families, neighbours. Just go out and get some work to fill your website and socials. Now socials, pick the best ones for you and your future business. Now in my opinion Instagram is king these days, with twitter and Facebook next best. So I would tell anyone to hop on Instagram first. Start learning about hashtags, captions, filtering your pictures the same to create a ‘flow’ within your instagram and start following! Follow people in your niche, outside your niche, your ideal clients, etc. You have to start somewhere with Instagram. The more engagement you put out, you will receive back in no time.
3. Set up your Financials.
This seems like an odd thing to talk about right? But it is OH so important. I’m telling you guys all my mistakes so hopefully you dont make the same. There’s kind of two parts to this note – ill try to make them all quick and painless!
If you plan on taking etransfers, Cheques, or credit payments – set up your own business email domain. For example: info@mybusiness.com – not your grade 9 hotmail account you’ve used forever and has some crazy wording in it. I used Google domains for my emails, and the annual fee is super manageable (Like $5 a month!). Head there now and set up your own domain with your brand name so when you do start accepting payments, you look very professional. AND it can help keep the money under one roof. Now into my next point…
Have a separate bank account for your business. Go to staples and buy a $12 ledger book, and start writing EVERYTHING down that comes in and out of that account. If you want to do it all online, QuickBooks is a great tool to use, but it is a paid service. At the beginning I was a pen to paper gal, that really helped me stay on top of things rather then having to fire up my Mac every time. Within my bank, I didnt have to purchase a business account, I just hooked it up to my Client Card account under ‘Savings’ and use a day-to-day banking service for that account. Super cheap, yet lets me keep things separate, but is easy to pay for supplies and expenses when I need to. I didnt do this until 1 year into my business.. I know.. terrible on my part.
4. Set up Email Marketing
Okay okay… so this one I dont really know a lot about yet. I’m still learning myself… But if all the big time marketers out there are saying ‘its all in the list’ well… I’m going to believe them! You can start accepting emails manually and then just create a contact group for you to eblast maybe once a month or so. Or you can start using resources like MailChimp that is a free service to start. Lots of different providers out there, but I find MailChimp super simple to use!
5. Start networking
Start viewing other instagram pages in your niche, start tagging local business that might use your service/product. Just do whatever you can to get your name out there. Start a referral program too! That is simply how I built my business. Word of mouth and social media. It’s a pretty cool feeling when someone approaches you that you have no direction connection with! The power of word of mouth is a beautiful thing!
Are you ready?
Okay my friend. How does all that sound? Are you up for the challenge? I know it seems like a lot, but if youre passionate and ready to tackle this new challenge, you should be chomping at the bit! Just take everything one step at a time, dont overwhelm yourself. But most importantly, have fun with it & just know youre going to make mistakes along the way. Just make sure you learn from them!
Talk soon, Sam xx
