Getting Legs Under My New Business

[Trapp]

Hello all,

I’m new to this group and want to learn and how to be a great retailer. My business name is 757 Printer Inks (757printerinks.com) … products are compatible and remanufactured cartridges. I decided to go e-commerce because I’ve had some success locally. Now I have to learn all the avenues of how to scale up to get my business recognized. I’m open to all good suggestions on how to be a successful business.

[CareyJo · Accepted solution]

Hi @Trapp!  Welcome to the Community!

As a entrepreneurial trainer, my first advice to any new business is always to do things right.  Success is not simply measured by how much you sell and what your net profit is.  Success is also measured by how many steps you've taken in the process to open, operate and grow a business.

Do you have the proper licenses for your city/county/state?  There are multiple licenses to consider, depending on what is required in your area.  For example, in MT, we have to have a state license to own our business name, we have to have a city operating license for each city we do business in and we have to have an ICEC to operate as a contractor, without employees.  All of that, in addition to insurance, permits and an IRS filing for ownership.  But again, this is based on our type and location of business.  I am aware that Ecommerce businesses are handled differently by state, but you still need to make sure that you're properly licensed.  It's not just about following the laws but being reputable and protecting your investment.  If you want customers to take you seriously, they need to see that you're reputable and doing things the right way.

Once you've gotten through all of that, then you can begin looking at how do I grow this thing?  How do I get from one customer to a million customers?

A marketing plan, advertising, networking and pounding the pavement are all a part of the initial start up and growing the business.  You've sold some stuff and you're off to a great start, but you want to get noticed, you want people to find you and have the orders come flooding in.  If you don't have a physical location then it is definitely a lot harder to drive that traffic.  You have to focus a lot of time and energy into getting the traffic to you.  Spending time on social networks, getting your website linked to other services, getting pop-ups for your site, etc.  A lot of that costs money.  Not everything is free in the social world and it takes a lot of time and research to find the connections that are free.

If you've got a physical location, then you can do less expensive options like handing out flyers to get people in store, you can post on socials when you're going to have an event in your store.  You can use socials daily to drive traffic in.  It just depends on what you have and what you'd like to do.

If I had to give only one piece of advice, I would say NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK.  Word of mouth, shaking hands, actually talking to people.  Discussing what you do and how you do it with people who are potential customers and/or those that know potential customers.  Focus on your demographics.  Who is your target market?  Where can you find those people?  How can you connect with them?  What do you need to connect with them?  What are they looking for?  What is your branding and how can you utilize it to reach those people?  Join the Chamber in your area.  Join any business group you can become a part of, in your area.

I would also recommend some books that will help you really get into the meat of your start up.  Day Trading Attention is going to be a big one for you.  It's all about the socials and marketing and Ecommerce.  The other good ones for a new business owner would be Profit First and Worth Every Penny.  They are all available on Amazon.  I highly recommend these reads.

I would also recommend that you know you're "Why".  Get out some paper, if you haven't already, and write down everything that comes to mind.  Why are you in business?  What is your purpose?  What are your goals?  Where do you see this business in one year, five years and beyond?  Once you've figured out your "why", works backwards from it to create your business plan.  Make sure that you're creating a plan that benefits your customers FIRST, not yourself.  If your "why" is to make money, you're in business for the wrong reasons.  Your customers will see through you and they will likely not shop with you.  But if your reason is to fill a need that customers have and you put those needs first and offer them Unreasonable Hospitality (another good one!), then you will benefit from the success that naturally comes.  The biggest misconception is that business owners will automatically be successful just by selling their product.  That is absolutely not true.  There are tons of big businesses out there that have not been super successful because they put their priority in the wrong place.  I learned at a very young age that when supply and demand meet in the right place and under the right circumstances, the business grows.  That's money.  And it's not wrong.  But when you put the purpose of serving others in some capacity first and you make the customers your priority, not your bottom line, that's success.  I didn't know it at 19 when I became self-employed for the first time, but I was building businesses based on serving others.  Helping them with a need or a want.  Every business I've owned has been in that capacity and I've always focused on helping the customer fill the need (or want) with what I have to offer.  I make their life easier, better, smarter, etc.  And I'm not a car salesman.  It's not about convincing them they have to buy.  It's not a push.  It has to be authentic and come from a place of integrity.  When you start your business from that place and continue to carry it forward, it will grow, but don't lose sight of it!

I know this was long, but I hope it helps.  I wish you great success and let me know if you have more questions!

@TheRealChipA got anything to add?

[CareyJo · Accepted solution]

Hi @Trapp!  Welcome to the Community!

As a entrepreneurial trainer, my first advice to any new business is always to do things right.  Success is not simply measured by how much you sell and what your net profit is.  Success is also measured by how many steps you've taken in the process to open, operate and grow a business.

Do you have the proper licenses for your city/county/state?  There are multiple licenses to consider, depending on what is required in your area.  For example, in MT, we have to have a state license to own our business name, we have to have a city operating license for each city we do business in and we have to have an ICEC to operate as a contractor, without employees.  All of that, in addition to insurance, permits and an IRS filing for ownership.  But again, this is based on our type and location of business.  I am aware that Ecommerce businesses are handled differently by state, but you still need to make sure that you're properly licensed.  It's not just about following the laws but being reputable and protecting your investment.  If you want customers to take you seriously, they need to see that you're reputable and doing things the right way.

Once you've gotten through all of that, then you can begin looking at how do I grow this thing?  How do I get from one customer to a million customers?

A marketing plan, advertising, networking and pounding the pavement are all a part of the initial start up and growing the business.  You've sold some stuff and you're off to a great start, but you want to get noticed, you want people to find you and have the orders come flooding in.  If you don't have a physical location then it is definitely a lot harder to drive that traffic.  You have to focus a lot of time and energy into getting the traffic to you.  Spending time on social networks, getting your website linked to other services, getting pop-ups for your site, etc.  A lot of that costs money.  Not everything is free in the social world and it takes a lot of time and research to find the connections that are free.

If you've got a physical location, then you can do less expensive options like handing out flyers to get people in store, you can post on socials when you're going to have an event in your store.  You can use socials daily to drive traffic in.  It just depends on what you have and what you'd like to do.

If I had to give only one piece of advice, I would say NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK.  Word of mouth, shaking hands, actually talking to people.  Discussing what you do and how you do it with people who are potential customers and/or those that know potential customers.  Focus on your demographics.  Who is your target market?  Where can you find those people?  How can you connect with them?  What do you need to connect with them?  What are they looking for?  What is your branding and how can you utilize it to reach those people?  Join the Chamber in your area.  Join any business group you can become a part of, in your area.

I would also recommend some books that will help you really get into the meat of your start up.  Day Trading Attention is going to be a big one for you.  It's all about the socials and marketing and Ecommerce.  The other good ones for a new business owner would be Profit First and Worth Every Penny.  They are all available on Amazon.  I highly recommend these reads.

I would also recommend that you know you're "Why".  Get out some paper, if you haven't already, and write down everything that comes to mind.  Why are you in business?  What is your purpose?  What are your goals?  Where do you see this business in one year, five years and beyond?  Once you've figured out your "why", works backwards from it to create your business plan.  Make sure that you're creating a plan that benefits your customers FIRST, not yourself.  If your "why" is to make money, you're in business for the wrong reasons.  Your customers will see through you and they will likely not shop with you.  But if your reason is to fill a need that customers have and you put those needs first and offer them Unreasonable Hospitality (another good one!), then you will benefit from the success that naturally comes.  The biggest misconception is that business owners will automatically be successful just by selling their product.  That is absolutely not true.  There are tons of big businesses out there that have not been super successful because they put their priority in the wrong place.  I learned at a very young age that when supply and demand meet in the right place and under the right circumstances, the business grows.  That's money.  And it's not wrong.  But when you put the purpose of serving others in some capacity first and you make the customers your priority, not your bottom line, that's success.  I didn't know it at 19 when I became self-employed for the first time, but I was building businesses based on serving others.  Helping them with a need or a want.  Every business I've owned has been in that capacity and I've always focused on helping the customer fill the need (or want) with what I have to offer.  I make their life easier, better, smarter, etc.  And I'm not a car salesman.  It's not about convincing them they have to buy.  It's not a push.  It has to be authentic and come from a place of integrity.  When you start your business from that place and continue to carry it forward, it will grow, but don't lose sight of it!

I know this was long, but I hope it helps.  I wish you great success and let me know if you have more questions!

@TheRealChipA got anything to add?

[Trapp]

Thanks for the advice and words of encouragement.

[CareyJo]

You're most welcome!  I hope it was helpful!

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Hey there @Trapp.. Welcome to the brave new world of eCommerce.  @CareyJo has given you some great suggestions, and I hope some of them help you.  I'd like to add a specific one geared to starting up your first eCommerce venture.

Many sellers make the mistake of thinking that if they "build it, people will come."  That's never the case, I'm afraid.  We need to first get our websites/stores noticed and indexed by the major search engines -- Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go, etc. That way your site will end up in search results.  But that's just the beginning.  Then you need to get those search engines to realize that you should be listed higher in their search results.  That is a huge undertaking that requires you to either learn and master SEO or hire someone who can help you do this.  A few suggestions.

First, read this Square Ultimate SEO Guide.  It's a great primer on the subject of all things SEO.

Second, get your website linked to by other websites.  I did that by taking advantage of free listings on local business group sites, local online media (sometimes with small advertising fees), and by hiring a local marketing firm to help me get the word out.  The more times that search engine bots see that other people are sending web traffic your way, the higher your ranking with them becomes.

Another thing that helps a lot in a retail store like yours is to have good SEO at the item level. Square gives you tools to do this so that when people are searching for, say, "black remanufactured HP ink cartridges" when they type that the search engine will have found your products that match that search and display them.

As you can imagine, at the beginning this is a lot of work and takes time.  But trust me when I say it is more than worth it.  I'm in my 13th year in my shop (ice cream) and these days when folks search for ice cream near me (to name one common search), I'm always at the top of the list, even if I'm not exactly "near" them in terms of feet or miles.

One last things -- if you can see your way clear to hire the help of an SEO specialist, then I would definitely recommend that.  Check with your local business coalition/group and see who is a member of their organization and might be able to help you.  Also, Square has a directory of specialists which include marketing specialists that should be able to offer insights (for a fee, of course).

This is a lot of general information.  Take time to read it and get back to me/us if you have any further specific questions -- about these topics or about others!

Good luck.

[doc_choc]

Hi @Trapp welcome to the community. You are in a great place to chat with likeminded people many of whom have setup their own business and have experienced some of the same if not similar to what you will. As a general point its easy to say very difficult to do but never stress over things, you will always figure a way forward and the community is on hand to help out.

Scale up. I would say scale up is always a challenge, whether its production capacity scale up through to retail outlet scale up, never under estimate the challenges. We opened a second shop a few years back and massively underestimated everything. I thought from my previous life I had this, but I underestimated pretty much everything from stock levels, to production capacity to new shop staffing requirements (and much more!). I would say gentle managed scale up is a nicer approach, be aware of what you may need as sales volumes increase and be ready with a plan to transition over i.e. more cartridge fillers needed, warehousing, extra packing hands etc. It is a difficult balance as you don't want to over burden yourself with excess cost of capacity, storage and staff, but you will know when the time is approaching as you will be tripping over stock and working way too hard. You will feel your way through the dark and adjust accordingly.

Good luck with the business and remember to have fun and enjoy the journey!