Early Days
When I was younger I spent my days going to school, kicking a football at lunch and playing with numerous toys. They were good days and I think most people over the age of 21 would happily go back in time and relive those days.
Unfortunately, those days have passed and at some point some bright spark decided it was time for me to go out and get a job.
Anyways, no point in dwelling on that side of things, I’m here to help and encourage you come up with that excellent business that is all yours and you can be your own boss – that’s why you’re here, right??
Starting your own business
Ok, so you want to start your own business and be your own boss etc, etc.
Good, but first you need an idea. Something not necessarily new (although if you do and it works - great!) but something that people are interested in, need, want, and most importantly going to spend money on. If you don’t make money your business will more than likely go tango uniform.
You may already have an idea, which is excellent – it’s a start. Now we have to take this idea and execute it. Make sure you explore your idea to the max.
Do some research! Make sure there is a demand for your business. Take your time when it comes to this. I don’t mean spend the best part of 5 years researching your idea but think it through properly, discuss it with friends and family and get their views on your idea(s).
Sit there for a few hours and brain storm some of your ideas and if possible create a business plan. It doesn’t need to be neat and tidy and perfect, but its good to have these things written down somewhere.
Executing your idea
So this is it. You have done the ground work, you are pleased with your idea, and think that it can actually work. Ok, so what do you do now?
That depends. Depends on what your business idea is. I myself am a salesman, of course there are many ways in which to make money from your own business but I went for the salesman role. The main reason is I started selling on eBay back in April 2001 and I loved it – still do! I had a lot of old and rare toys that I had collected from my youth so I started selling these. I then also started selling to private collectors and for a while was my niche you could say. Since then, I have gone on to sell pretty much anything and everything If your idea is selling then I would recommend eBay if you haven’t already tried it.
After that I decided to get a bit more adventurous and look into building my own website.
I have limited knowledge of how to build a website so I decide to use http://www.350.com/ which makes building a website very easy. It is also fairly cheap to start-up, build, and maintain.
The reason I decided to build my site (http://www.fleamarketfrenzy.com/) is because it would give me an option to sell to a wider audience. Selling on sites such as eBay are good but you only target the people who use these kind of sites. With a website you can reach out to anyone who has internet access really.
Much like I said early on, if you are going to build a website to sell goods then you should really brainstorm a few ideas, come up with a design layout and possibly consider having logo for your site made. If you have some ideas but aren’t too sure about them you should ask your friends and family what they think. Discuss it over beer down the pub and see what feedback you get.
You need a name! You need to register a domain name if you build a site. It can be anything – within reason. Before you start spending money on logo designs and business cards make sure your name is available. I use http://www.123-reg.co.uk/ to check available domain names but there are lots of sites out there who can do this too.
The reason I chose the name http://www.fleamarketfrenzy.com/ is because my site sells pretty much anything, a bit like a flea market where you can pick up anything from toys to sporting goods. Pick the best name you can that accurately describes your site and what you are selling.
If on the other hand you are able to build a website all on your own then that is excellent and probably more cost effective too.
Up and Running – but no sales
Yep, you have this great idea, a brand new flash website, spent some hard earned cash on your goods but you haven’t sold anything. Yep, most of us have been there. What do you do?
Well, there are a number of things. You do have to try and market your product(s)/website to reach out to your potential customers. Marketing doesn’t have to cost a fortune, little things can help.
A few ideas:
Posting in message boards and forums. I find this can be very good way of promoting your site. Make sure you have your web address in your signature so it is visible each time you post. Ideally you should really post in forums that are relevant to your product.
Don’t spam the forums. This will get you banned, people won’t want to visit your site and will give you a bad name. Spamming is a big no, no!
Auction listings. If you have a few items for sale on eBay then why now put your company logo in the description. Anyone looking at your auction will see your logo and may be tempted to visit your site.
I post auctions regularly on ebay and I always put my site logo into the auction.
Here is an example:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Action-Man-Red-Ninja-Figure-GI-JOE-Excellent-condition_W0QQitemZ330345368818QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ToysGames_ActionFigures_ActionFigures_JN?hash=item4cea1e4cf2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1683%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50
There lots of ways you can do this but this is very simple and easy and seems to get a few people looking at the site.
Flyers. Hand them out, put them in items you are sending out, on cars, you get the idea.
Business cards. Same idea as the flyers, hand them out to who everyone you can, leave them in pubs, restaurants anywhere.
If you have a bit more money to spend look at advertising on websites, newspapers, magazines. If you are paying for advertising then make sure you are paying for something that gets viewed by a lot of people.
Another option (although I have never tried it) is getting things like pens, key rings, magnets, sticky pads etc made up with your companies name on it. Please note that companies doing this will normally have a minimum order quantity of maybe 500 minimum items so it may not be that cheap.
Generating traffic to your site
This is what I find hard but maybe you are more experienced and will have more success than I did when starting out.
Just having a website will not really get you much traffic. You want good traffic and you want people to keep coming back so there has to be something on your site that keeps them coming back.
Generating traffic:
- Summit your site to search engines. Google, Yahoo, MSN are just a few but they are very popular.
- Key words are also very good as search engines pickup on these
- Good content
- Create a blog
- Backlinks/Link exchanges
Working from home
Sounds good doesn’t it?!? The idea of not having to get up early, rush your breakfast, feed the cat/kids/dog/goat, then sit in the rush hour traffic to go and sit in an office for eight hours a day with a load of people who you don’t really care that much about while the aircon blows around that terrible cough that the old dear across from you has really does sound great.
Like everything there are pros and cons, below there are few.
Pros:
-Can work the hours you want
-Can work where you want. The bedroom, bathroom, garden, the local pub if you want
-No rushing to work or traffic jams
-No more shirts and ties. You can work in your pants if you want
-More chance of spending time with your family. Especially if you have a young family and they are in bed when you leave for work and are in bed by the time you get home – not much fun.
Cons:
-Easily get interrupted by your family and friends
-Things like the TV and the Internet can become a distraction
-Not ideal if you have a customer wanting to meet you.
There are others but I think these are the main ones that are an issue.
You are in charge!
This is it, you are the boss. Nobody to tell you what to do, what to wear, when to take lunch, when you can have holiday, you are in charge!
Just remember, if you are just starting out you will make mistakes and it won’t always be easy but hopefully in the long run it will be rewarding. You are building up a business that is all yours where the effort you put in gets rewarded.
No more worrying about missing the train on a damp morning or not getting that report done for your boss in time. You call the shots and hopefully running your own business form home will make you happier and give you more time with your family and friends while still making a living.
All the best,
Andrew
(http://www.fleamarketfrenzy.com/)
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