How to Start a Small Business
- Set Realistic Goals
Your first goal should be self-sustainability. There is something like an 80% survival rate for small businesses in their first year, however, that number goes down to 50% after five years. Therefore, it should be your priority to get your feet firmly planted in the sand before examining ways to further grow your business.
2. Do Plenty of Live Shows
Of course the dream would be 100% sustainability from your online shop, but you have to do the work in person during your early days. This helps to establish your initial clientele while hopefully earning a few of those much needed reviews. Customers at in-person shows will give you valuable feedback and help you polish your craft into something unique.
3. Establish a Familiar Brand Identity
Your product needs to stand out. In our case, we needed a representation of our ‘fantasy-themed’ candles, and Harmony Hedgewitch somehow manifested creatively from that need for a character. We made the decision a long time ago to include her in nearly every label for our soy candles, and since then she has become recognized as the friendly face of our company.
4. Keep Existing Customers Happy
In small business and large business alike, it is something like nine times as valuable to keep an existing customer than to gain a new one. This suggests that customer loyalty plays a crucial role in the early development of your company.
5. Delegate
It’s fun to start a new company. It’s not fun to do taxes, learn social media, and create ads. Sometimes we small business owners believe we can do it all ourselves. This is never true and it leads to burnout.
6. Keep Detailed Notes
What works and what doesn’t work? When did you participate in live shows? Were they successful? Do you have a company credit card and a separate bank account? Your tax assistant will thank you.
7. Etsy or Shopify?
Both! But, it helps to start with Etsy while you are weighing your options of which level of Shopify to subscribe to. I recommend going the cheaper route because there isn’t much of a difference between Shopify’s expensive versions besides a few flashy pop-up blocks. Most people find those annoying.
8 Don’t Forget to Have Fun!
It’s very obvious who has created their company as a labor of love and who is burning out. Don’t forget to have fun with this. It is your ticket to freedom and could potentially make you a lot of money someday!
These are just a few of my observations, and I’m sure you have some you could share too. Feel free to leave comments below with advice for small business owners.