Newbie needs help

[sweettreats]

Hi,

I am a long time viewer of the forum postings and I have found many goodies including recipes, helpful hints, and such. I am wanting to kind of jump start my business but I do not know where to start. I make all sorts of different candles, bath and body products, and just about everything for the skin under the sun and I need pointers as to how to really get out there and start selling stuff. I think my main problem is that I have confidence in my products, its just that I have issues with risk taking and rejection. I was wonderingin anyone could offer any help as to how to get the business side of my stuff going, b/c I have the creative element down to a science. Please help.

Thanks,

Allison

[Crafty1_AJ]

Maybe you could check out a couple of good books about sales/marketing from the library? Jeffrey Gittomer (sp?) has a Little Red Book that I remember thinking was good!

[RobinInOR]

The other thing you will probably need to do is focus. A business plan will help tremendously. When you're starting out, it's fun to learn to make a ton of different things, but it's hard to market. "Hey, I've got 50 different products in 20 different scents each, they're great" and watch customers glaze their eyes. You get more confident in your biz if you know "why" you're doing it, besides having lots of stuff on tables and shelves that you can turn into $.

As a start, how would you answer the question "Why should I buy your products instead of XYZ's?"

Business is a lot of rejection and risk taking. Sometimes just doing it helps get over it. My first fair, I'd cringe when anyone walked by without even looking at my stuff. I took it personally, how dare they! Now, I know I've got good product, so if someone does that now, or I have a horrible show, I don't take it personally.

Check out the web pages of the small business association, they've always got good tips on starting businesses.

[debscent]

See if there is a small business workshop in your community. You have no risk of rejection and will learn alot of important things that your "creative" brain may overlook. I find looking into your community to be the best resource as that is where you will be selling your product eventually. Good luck and don't look at rejection as bad, it's a learning experience.

[Jillybean]

You can also try to focus more by creating a catalog - I have one for customers and one for wholesale. You can get your line down go over costs pricing etc. start small - then add as you go and as you find what sells the best. Don't offer 100 scents at the beginning. Start with under 10 and then every few months add a new one. This way you can see what sells and adjust your line appropriatly.

I have now been in business for 5 years and I only add around 2 new scents a year.

Jilly

[sweettreats]

Thanks guys that really helped. Now I have another dilemma. When I first started out, I think I was thinking too big, and now I have all of this stuff that I am not using right now and I feel as though I should sell off. I know that with the money that I would bring in from selling my supplies alone, I would have about what I would need in order to get this business off to a great start, and then I can do as y'all have advised and take things one day at a time. And then once I get this business in the spot where I feel it should be, then I can branch off and do other things. My initial approach was do a little in each business and have them crawl along and build themselves, but I found out that does not work.

Thanks again for any input.

[eugenia]

Thanks guys that really helped. Now I have another dilemma. When I first started out, I think I was thinking too big, and now I have all of this stuff that I am not using right now and I feel as though I should sell off

Absolutely get rid of it if you are not using it. We all over bought one time or another.