STARTING AN ONLINE BUSINESS- LUXE B PAMPAS GRASS
Are you potentially looking to start your own online business? My online business Luxe B Pampas Grass, certainly didn’t start overnight!
I am a self-taught entrepreneur and spent hours researching how to grow my business. If you are new to E-commerce, I wanted to go over the tips that helped me along the way. Google, YouTube, and the passion to actually want to learn will be your best friend getting through this, but I’m also here to help steer you in the right direction!
Below are my tips I swear by:
1) Validate your idea. If you have an existing business or are looking to launch a new business, I recommend first trying to sell it on Facebook marketplace or Instagram. Take really great pictures and test the general reaction you get from your audience before mass-producing your item.
2) If you wish to sell a specific or niche product, I love Etsy as a validation tool. They have millions of people on this platform searching all day for products. If you have great photos to provide credibility, you can test the Etsy selling channel since it has such a low fee to start. It is under a dollar to list a product.
- Amazon has a low monthly subscription fee, but you have to spend money on advertising. It could potentially cost you a significant amount of dollars to get your product to appear at the top of anyone's search. We use Amazon and love it, but this is a platform you would want to pursue after being up and running for a little bit.
- Building a website is undoubtedly one of the most important things you need to do. We use Shopify and can’t say enough good things about this platform. Shopify has a low monthly subscription fee but makes note you will have to advertise on social media or Google to get people to find your website. Some of the biggest E-marketing companies in the world use this platform. It’s also an outstanding company for smaller businesses as well.
3) Logos can be made easily and for free on canva.com. I really love their templates. I also use a website called fiver.com; on this website, you have access to thousands of freelance graphic designers. I highly recommend this website; It’s a great place to make your logos.
4) Set up an email funnel. This is known to most of us avid online shoppers as “clickbait” and offers a return to the potential customer in exchange for their email, such as the classic “save 10% off your first order”. That way, you can have your customers subscribe to your list for future email marketing.
- We also love SMS funnels. This is done with text marketing. I’m going to chat about this more in my next blog post, so please stay tuned.
5) Again, I can’t say enough good things about Canva.com. This website does have a free version available. This is the user-friendly version of adobe photoshop in my opinion. I’ve used it for many years. If you can stay consistent in using your brand colours and fonts, you will be surprised at the fantastic things you can make for your marketing. You can also use their templates, or we have had an amazing experience buying templates for Canva.com off of Etsy.com
6) Posting photos of your products does connect you with people. If you are a restaurant and you take pictures of food, people can't really see the experience at the restaurant. It would help if you shared photos in the restaurant's ambiance, whether people having fun on your patio or staff members smiling and engaging customers. This is important with any product or business. Put people and faces, or even better, put yourself in the marketing. It makes your brand more relatable!
7) Video is Key. Most people are visual learners and need to see things for themselves before purchasing. Since most people have smartphones these days, it can be as easy as standing by a window with great lighting. This is an easier and more cost-effective way to capture your product in video format before investing in using a videographer. You can make many quick videos on the app SPLICE, which allows you to edit and add light music. This has always been a really great tool for us.
8) Re-invest in your brand. As the old saying goes, you’ve got to spend money to make money! If you can only spend $5 a day on your business, it's a solid start. With advertising, if you can spend 1 and make $5 in sales, you will see the value and keep scaling up your advertising budgets. I started by just boosting my Instagram post for just $5 a day.
9) Repurpose your content on multiple platforms. We thrive on the Gary Vaynerchuk approach. When we shoot a video, we also have a photographer taking pictures, and that way, we can use this content for multiple platforms.
Our Videos and Photos are edited for:
- You Tube
- Instagram Feed
- Instagram Stories
- Instagram Reels
- Tiktok
- Email Marketing
- Website Listings
10) My biggest tip is to take a chance. Just leap in and do it. There is no dress rehearsal for life. You are living right now, and you have to do it!
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You are also welcome to connect with us at info@luxebpampasgrass.com
