Starting your own online jewelry business can be an excellent way to make money doing what you love. When you approach it with the right strategies, it can prove to be a lucrative, sustainable endeavor. That said, it’s essential not to make the same mistakes as many other small business owners in the early stages Here are 5 thing to keep in mind when starting your new company:
1. Make a business plan
One of the most common mistakes new business owners make is failing to create a business plan. This document should outline your company’s goals, strategies, and an execution plan. Here is a guide on how to create a business plan. While a business plan will evolve with your business over time, it is important to get started with one so you and your team have some direction during the early days.
Start with the basics: Write out who your ideal customer is, what they need (their pain), your solution to solve that need.
Next, write out how you plan to reach them and what you plan to charge – this is your starter marketing plan.
2. Leverage technology
There’s a wealth of technology available today that can help you run your business more efficiently. Take time to research your options, including:
- Accounting software e.g. Quickbooks
- Social media management tools e.g. Buffer, SocialPilot
- Email marketing software e.g. Mailchimp, Klaviyo
- …many more. Look for apps to help simplify manual tasks
Choosing technologies that align with your business goals can help you run your company more efficiently, get customers and increase your profits. Not taking advantage of these tools can make it much more challenging to grow your business.
3. Hire right
Hiring the wrong employees can be a costly mistake for any business owner. Not only will it lead to lower productivity, but it can also create a negative work environment.
When you’re hiring for your business, it’s essential to take the time to find candidates that are not only qualified but passionate about what you’re hoping to accomplish. They should also be trustworthy. It’s tempting to hire anyone who seems interested and is willing to work for low pay. But this is often a recipe for disaster!
4. Spend wisely in early days
Another mistake many new business owners make is spending too much money initially. You must be mindful of your budget and not overspend on unnecessary things.
There are many ways to cut costs in the early stages of your jewelry business without sacrificing quality, such as:
- Learn to DIY as much as possible instead of hiring people. There are YouTube tutorials for almost anything you need to get done.
- When you do need outside help, work with freelancers instead of full-time employees e.g on sites like Fiverr or Upwork.
- Focus on creating content like blogs and videos to get customers. Placing ads during early days can drain your budget and rarely leads to ROI. Consider ads when your business is a bit more mature and has revenue coming in.
- Working from home or in a shared office space instead of leasing
5. Content marketing
Marketing is often one of the areas where new owners make mistakes. Many small businesses rush to spend on ads. Instead, , start by writing content to engage your audience. Use this content to distribute via social networks, email and optimize it for SEO.
- SEO: Focus on writing blogs and creating videos and using social channels to distribute them. Good content will help drive traffic via SEO so you don’t have to continuously spend money on ads.
- Email: Collect email addresses on your site so you have an audience to talk to when you launch new products or have new content to share.
- Social media: Use tools like Buffer to schedule your social media posts. Constant posting with relevant hashtags can help you drive traffic to your site.
Wrapping Up
Launching an online jewelry business can be lucrative. By leveraging technology, learning to DIY in the early days, and being mindful on how you’re spending your limited budget, you can set your business up for success.
This is a guest post contributed by Courtney Rosenfeld. Courtney started Gig Spark to be a resource and the first step for people who are looking to join the gig economy, either to supplement their income or as a way to fulfill their dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.
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