Ideas & Planning – Starting A Small Bussiness
At the moment I am in the planning phase for my own, small craft based business. Ever since I was a small child, I was not only good at creating things, but I was also very entrepreneurial. I remember having family garage sales where I would go across the road to pick flowers, then try to sell them to everybody who walked in for 20 cents each. When I was in primary school, I started making beaded jewelry to sell to my friends and by the time I was 13, I was selling my designs to local businesses. As much as I enjoyed making each piece, it was time consuming and the profit didn’t really cover the cost or the love I gave each creation.
When it comes to setting up a small business, it is not just about the product it’s self, but the planning behind it. Do you know how much it will cost to make your product? What about the time spent making it? And what about packaging and promotion? How will people know it exists? And then there is building an inventory, maintaining it and keeping records of sales… You can start to see how many people can easily get overwhelmed.
Here are a few tips that I am using myself while in my pre-planning phase:
- Plan your Product: How much will is cost to make your product and how long will each item take to make? What materials will you use and where will you get them from? Depending on where you live, buying your materials locally may actually cost you more than you think. Try searching online for wholesalers, or even browse through eBay – every cent you can save in production means more in your pocket later on.
- Come up with a Price: We would all love to create something and sell it for a fortune, but unfortunately that isn’t always the way it works. Take a look around at other products similar to yours and see what they are priced at. Is it a price you would be willing to pay? Do they sell a lot at that price and are they worth the price? Not only that, you need to take into consideration how much it has cost you to make. My personal rule of thumb is to take the production cost and multiply that by 300% before I make a firm pricing decision. Keep in mind as well that if you are selling on your items to other businesses for resale, that they too will be putting their own price on your product, usually around 100%.
- Product Packaging & Presentation: How you present your product can make a big impact on it’s success. Packaging can either draw the potential customers attention, or make them cringe. Try to come up with something that not only compliments your product and looks professional, but also does not cost you a fortune. There are many sites online that provide cheap, or even FREE business card or postcard printing which you can utilise in your product presentation. It also gives you the chance to add other details, such as a website where customers can view and order more goods. Alternately, you could always print your own.
- Marketing you Product: Getting people to know about your product is ofter the hardest part of a business, but thanks to the Internet, there are many options for you to get yourself known. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are are great examples. Creating your own website is also a fantastic way of show casing your items and also allows customers to purchase goods from you, no matter where they are in the World.
These are only a few starting points to keep in mind while planning. Over the next few weeks I will be posting a couple more articles that will be useful, from setting up a web page to traffic and promotion. So if you are not already subscribed to my blog, be sure to do so.
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Nice tips! been thinking of starting small comic book shop specializing in mature graphic novels.