Starting A Retail Business

Posted on January 29, 2008 | Filed Under Business Marketing, Logo Design, Print Media, Smart Business

Smart Business Becoming a small business owner can be very exciting! Keep in mind that it’s not an “overnight” accomplishment, and it takes some thought and planning before-hand, as well as persistence and patience in the first several years.

Before you start your business, you need to decide on a name…..and maybe design a logo (that can be saved for later, if you want). The name will be the most important. Think about what your business will offer, and what kind of first impression you want to give. Write down ANY words that come to mind when you think about your new business….the name you choose will come from those words. Use nouns and adjectives, use words that have caught YOUR attention when you’re shopping.

Don’t try to put your business in a category just yet. Name it first, call it retail for now, and you can specify a more direct target market later, after you’ve been out there a bit.

Next important thing…..VERY important thing…..write a business plan. It can be simple to start, that’s fine….but the important thing that this does is it puts your goals and ideas down on paper so you can refine them, and LOOK at them! I didn’t do this when I started, and I regretted it TERRIBLY. You don’t have to write a plan that’s suitable to present to banks, or anything like that (at first), just something to organize your thoughts! Your business plan should include a Marketing Plan. If you don’t sit down and think about how you’ll advertise and market your business, you won’t succeed.

Remember that it’s easier to add products than it is to take away….so start with a small inventory of favorite items (use friends and relatives to determine what those are…they won’t mind) and then add products as you go. Once you have an established website for your products, you can create polls for new items…to see what’s most desirable. Read more

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Basic Writing Tips for Marketing and the Web

Posted on January 8, 2008 | Filed Under Business Image, Print Media, SEO

-Write Conversationally-engage your visitor as if you were speaking directly to them.

Business Image -Make your writing “Skim” Friendly – remember that surfers/visitors will skim your pages, and write accordingly, using bolded text, headlines, and separators between thoughts. Sometimes you may need to edit what you’ve written, to make it more of a “summary”.

-Use Bullets when Listing-this makes your list stand out, and calls more attention to it.

-Use positive “Action Verbs”-pleasantly invite your reader to “do something”.

-Be Descriptive-instead of using a headline saying “Christmas Decorating”, use something more thought provoking such as “Home for the Holidays-Decorating for Christmas Cheer”.

-ALWAYS spell check your work!-there’s nothing more embarrassing for a professional business, than to have misspellings in your website!

-Be sure to double check your grammar and punctuation as well as your spelling.

Give your visitors a reason to come back-on the web, content is king, provide an information source, and you give visitors the desire to return!

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Success

Posted on January 2, 2008 | Filed Under Business Image, Smart Business

The American Heritage Dictionary defines success as “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted”.

Along that vein, continued success would require that you adjust that “something” as you reach it. To truly be successful as a business owner, you must set goals that are attainable…and then as we achieve each of those goals, we must set new ones to move forward. You should be able to reach short term goals more easily, and with a little less effort than long term ones. Long term goals should be things that require extended effort, and will give you a strong sense of accomplishment when achieved.

Realistic Goal setting is a very important aspect of becoming successful in life…whether it’s success as a business owner, as a Parent, or just as a Person.

What kind of goals have you set recently?

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