today’s first biz ladies post comes courtesy of artist, craft inc. author, and modern economy founder, meg mateo ilasco. meg will be joining us every month to share her small-business advice and today she’s starting at the beginning: how to start a business in tough times. she’s created a fantastic 5-month plan for getting your business momentum going that’s easy to follow and perfect for those of you looking to start a business despite the less-than-desirable economic climate. i hope it will be helpful and remind everyone that it’s always a great time to start your own business- as long as you plan ahead.
CLICK HERE for meg’s full post after the jump!
With every media outlet announcing the apocalypse of financial ruin, I can only imagine how hard it must be for someone to consider starting a business now. I think it’s natural for people to shy away from taking risks in a “bad economy” and to equate a “good economy” with being the optimal time to launch a new venture. Though it’s sensible to be wary of economic conditions—for me, there is simply no good or bad time to begin a business. If you are excited about your ideas and motivated to put in the legwork, then the time is now!
So let’s all collectively snap out of the debby-downer spirit—reboot, and start fresh with a new perspective.
For one thing, I think it’s a pretty good time to start a side business. If you’ve been laid off, this misfortune may really be an opportunity for you to jump into your dream business. Or if you’re a new grad on the job hunt, you probably have plenty of extra time you can dedicate to a business. Or if you’re currently employed, considering it’s probably not the best time to ask for a raise, starting a side venture can be a great way for you to earn some additional income.
The good thing about starting a business during a down economy is that you will do it with DIY ethos based on a foundation of frugality. Building a business foundation based on excess is never good—just look at a majority of those dot-com businesses back in the day. And when the economy finally rebounds, your business will be in great shape to handle all the opportunities and challenges that come its way.
So let’s say you want to start a creative manufacturing business on the side. This would be my kick-off plan for you in the next five months (yes, you are starting today!). And you can accomplish all this by simply devoting only a couple hours a day.
April: Create your product line.
Start with a few of your strongest products (between one and five) because we don’t want to commit limited funds to too much inventory right now. Strong products would be ones that reflect your signature style, as well as products that have editorial range and depth. By editorial range, I mean a product that would fit into a variety of publication categories (for instance, a wooden mobile could fit into at least three categories: home décor, lifestyle, and children). Editorial depth means that it helps if your product has a story to tell. And of course, don’t forget to ask people, whom you trust and respect for feedback on your products.
May: Photograph your products and create marketing literature.
After you’ve made prototypes of your debut line, study how products like yours are styled in catalogs or magazines. Practice styling your products and spend a good amount of time taking and re-taking pictures. (If your photography skills are weak, you can consider bartering with a photographer, or finding a student photographer interested in pro bono work to build their portfolio.) Use these images to create a catalog for wholesale orders, as well as product information sheets for press kits.
June: Create an on-line presence.
Build an on-line storefront or company Web site to feature your products. Spend time creating some inventory to fulfill orders.
July: Marketing outreach.
Tell everyone about the great stuff you’re working on! Create a list of five target blogs and five target magazines in which to feature your products. Do your research—read publications and blogs to find out which ones would be a good fit for your product. Begin contacting them one-at-a-time, and carefully put together emails and press kits to send out.
August: Store outreach
Choose three shopping districts, at least two from metropolitan cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or Los Angeles in addition to a city close to you. Create a list of about ten stores (look in magazines and on-line shopping guides for store names) in each city where you could see your products being sold. Contact each store for the buyer’s name and address and send them an email or package introducing your business. Make sure to include links to products or a copy of your catalog.
These are just some of the basic guidelines you will need to jump-start this endeavor. If you want more in-depth information about press kits, catalogs, and how to go about contacting editors and buyers—and of course, the licenses and paperwork you need to file in order to be a legal business, check out
37 Comments
A big Thank You for posting this!
this is exactly what i need. thank you, thank you, thank you!
Wow! I think it’s meant to be. I’ve been dreaming of starting my own business for a while now. Time to do it. Thanks for the motivation. I’m going to go check out that book of yours now!
This is amazing and perfect timing. Thanks sooooo much! Dd
This is just the push I needed – thanks! I picked up the book from the library last week and can’t wait to dive into it tonight!
this is awesome! Sadly but HAPPY i was laid off in Feb, so I got to start my dream. This is amazingly helpful and puts everything in perspective and is so motivating. I think im just about on the last step, getting some business!
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7020309
Thanks for the tips! Even as someone who’s been at this for awhile, it’s invigorating to be refreshed with the basics. Craft Inc. was such a great resource for me in the beginning and I can’t wait for the Craft Inc. Business Planner!
I will be starting today! I have been dragging my feet for the last nine months but I have all the tools and this post has motivated me. Thanks!
It’s good to see a book to help people who are optimistic about our collective economic future. It’s always a good time to start a business… if you have a plan. Nice.
I think this 5month plan is a really clever way to start arranging all our ideas and avoiding all the chaos when you are a newbie on the subject… we will do that, starting NOW!
:)
Thank you so much for the help! Describing it this way doesn’t make me feel so overwhelmed by the whole process.
I have your book, and love it, but this is a very concise, effective and motivating summary! Thank you! You could also say that putting in the legwork during a soft economy allows you to be poised to take off when it turns back up. That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway. :)
Can’t wait to finalize my business plan and get cracking on opening my own store! Thanks for the encouragement – we all need a little sometimes and yours came at the right time!
Fantastic article!
thanks meg! you’re rad!
How perfect is this? A sign? I’m halfway through her book, and graduate from college in May.
Today, I’m going for it.
excellent. thank you.
i love this blog. and normally i prefer the post with the pretty pictures. but this new edition is really great and and informative. cant wait until i have a little business of my own.
Thanks for sharing. As always, great tips.
Seriously, perfect timing! I was laid off in February, too, and have been trying to get a small business going: I’m marking your plan down in my calendar as check-points to make sure I stay on target!
Thank you so much for this article! I’ve been vaguely preparing to start a business of my own, and this gave me a clearer idea of what I should do next.
thank you so much!
O.K., so I am not a woman. But this is one of the first blogs that I have come across that seems worth its weight. I recently started a business, Adam’s Basket Case, and these suggestions are very similar to the ones that I paid to get. Some additional things that I found helpful, which are free, is the use of http://www.freekeyword.wordtracker.com . This will allow you to see how many times that your idea is being searched, plus give you other related ideas. The use of directory submission, free directory submission, such as http://www.addurl.nu, will help get your business to appear in Google and other SEO friendly directories.
I hope that you don’t just discard this because I am a man. I am just someone starting a business and trying to get as much helpful information as possible.
Thank you,
Adam B. Ludwick
Man this was good!1-2-3-4-5!
Thank for breakin’ it down like that, will certainly look for your other posts & writing now.
What a wonderfully inspiring post! I work full-time and have been struggling to get my side business really up and running. My only problem is that I can’t make things on a mass scale (I sew handbags and accessories). So if I got tons of orders, I’m not sure how long it would take to fulfill them. Also, selling to stores at a wholesale price seems out of reach. I feel like what I would have to charge as my wholesale price to make up for my time/materials would be too high for a retail store to then resell to customers. Am I wrong?
Based on the end goal here of getting into stores (month five, August), the process should be refined a bit. For one thing, in month four (July), one is directed to approach magazines to feature one’s products (note: magazines will shoot their own photos) but magazines rarely feature products unless a company is selling retail either on their own or via retail (month five). Among successful companies, the process is thus:
Two months for product development. I agree keeping inventory to a minimum is optimal. Ideally, you carry no inventory. You only produce samples. Once prototypes are finalized and simple line sheets are created (glossy sales collateral is unwarranted at this stage) you go direct to stores or via sales reps to drum up interest in your product line. You take orders for delivery 4 to 8 weeks hence and then you spend that time producing the items to order. If you have no money, this is the best way to do it. You don’t have an inventory problem because you’re only producing what’s sold.
Whether my advice is popular or not, companies that grow and thrive follow this model. Too many lose their shirts overspending on sales and marketing strategies when they have no discernable way to know if the products are a match for the marketplace.
kathleen, you’ve brought up some good points. but actually, the “end goal” is not getting into stores, it’s just the last goal in this 5-month plan. the main goals of the plan are 1) getting started, which people have the hardest time doing, and 2) building energy and momentum behind your ideas and business.
i agree that magazines will not feature products unless you have a retail site–which is why in month 3, i recommend building an online storefront and month 4 is marketing outreach.
as for product development, once you’ve already started a business, certainly two months or more of product development is warranted. but in my experience, people who want to start a creative business have already been sitting on their ideas and formulating rough product plans for months or even years! so essentially, this first month is about taking these ideas and just making them real….finally.
note also that it might be difficult for a new creative manufacturing business to even get a sales rep without any endorsements from stores or press. so i wouldn’t recommend getting a rep until a bit later when you’ve done some legwork on your own.
this is absolutely a low-budget, grassroots approach to getting started. there’s no need to have any glossy sales collateral. certainly, catalogs and linesheets can be made and printed simply. and built in to the plan is a way for you get an understanding of whether your products are a good fit for the marketplace. if you do get a decent response from blogs and magazines and rack up some online orders by month 4, you’ve probably got something good going on!
One more little tip, but it’s worth its weight in gold:
When thinking about your online presence, make sure to pick a domain name that is easily remembered and spelled correctly. That way people won’t make mistakes when they type it in to their browser. They’ll get to your site quickly and avoid the frustration of trying to find you. If you can find your domain name in a .COM, even better!
But what about all the steps that take place before you even reach step 1? Examples include: registering a company and all the legal issues involved, accounting and tax issues. And creating a prototype seems so difficult – contacting manufacturers, accepting bids, non-disclosure agreements. I appreciate any new guidance on starting a business, but the problems I have faced to date all take place before step 1 occurs. Any advice?
beginner
we’ve touched on some of these topics before- please see past biz ladies columns. other topics will be covered in the coming weeks…
grace
Great advice!
Thank you-
Thanks Meg & Grace
These posts are wonderful! Thank you so much Grace for doing this on your blog & Meg, I love your book! All are so helpful especially right now!
I just opened my Etsy shop last week (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5309855). I really like what Meg said about a product line. For me, with photography, it could translate into having groups or even just one group of photos that go together, that are my best work, that I want to represent my business. I like that idea, and I think I’ll get to work on that.
T H A N K Y O U so much for this post! (Even the comments were helpful)! I’ve “officially”started my business some months ago and this is exactly the info I needed at this moment! It also served as a great extra boost. Thanks again. =)
http://papersquid.etsy.com
This was great! It came as a I was suddenly overwhelmed with all of the things that need to be done.
Fantastic advice and this from one who just launched a new website in December! Thanks so much!!!
Thank you so much for this – I’m just starting up and am flitting from one thing to another at the mo.
Producing inventory…
Designing my website…
Deciding where to specialise…
Taking cusom orders….
Finalising packaging….
Getting business cards….
Sourcing other promotional stuff…
It seems I’m not actually getting anywhere so I love this systematic approach.
I’ll put it into practice and try and be a bit more focused – thank you so much Meg! :o)
Elle x
Great Post, but at the end you mention “If you want more in-depth information about press kits, catalogs, and how to go about contacting editors and buyers—and of course, the licenses and paperwork you need to file in order to be a legal business, check out” and it ends there. I was hoping to find a link to check out whatever it was you were directing us too. Hope this can be added. Thank you for the wealth of information. :-)
Mercedes
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