I love to hear actually people’s stories!! As obvious as that sounds, I, personally, have sat through too many presentations by agency folks (and the like) who have never started a business telling me or my friends how to start a business. Of course, there are some basics that are true in any circumstances, but hearing from the real people who are out there doing what they teach is so much more interesting and helpful, in my opinion!!
Such is the case with my industry friend, Andreea Ayers. You may know her as the gal that offers the Product Marketing Breakthrough Program every winter. Well, this last winter, she started up a new product based company with her mastermind folks and here are some of the lessons she has shared with us:
Starting a business – ten things I learned
- You’re never fully ready to start …. Well, interestingly enough, I never really felt fully ready to launch this new business. I kept thinking that next month would be better than this month and the month after that would be even better. So I waited and waited for months… and then one day I decided TODAY IS THE DAY and I got the ball rolling. Did I feel fully ready? Absolutely not? Did I start anyway? Yes…
- Don’t try to do it all yourself….You know, the one where you do EVERYTHING – the manufacturing, the shipping, the marketing, the social media interaction, the press release writing, the website design, the packaging, and so on? I’ve been there and done it all and it resulted in FAST BURNOUT. This time around I decided to do what I enjoy most and what I do best – publicity and wholesale – and hire other people to help me do the rest…
- It sometimes takes more money that you think to launch your brand …. when I needed to step it up and “go pro” my designs weren’t cutting it. So I invested in a photographer & designer to help me….
- Packaging matters …. You can’t deny that people buy products because the packaging speaks to them. Sometimes it’s not even about the product – it’s about the packaging…
- Finding your niche is more important now than ever …The more specific you can get in WHO you want your ideal customer to be, the more likely you are to attract him/her…
- There will be setbacks … Those are a natural part of the process and if you have embrace them instead of letting them defeat you…
- “If you build it, they will come” is a myth … “Maybe this isn’t going to work…” was constantly going through my head. Until I decided to change my attitude and shift from “If you build it, they will come” to “If you market it, they will come.” Or, better yet, “If you build relationships, they will come.” …
- Pricing right is tricky, but critical … There are a lot of people out there who will pay what you are asking if you position yourself correctly and if you believe that your products are worth that much…
- It’s OK to have doubts – but don’t let them hold you back … it’s easy to thing that things might not work out. But the secret to success is to do something about it instead of letting it defeat you…
- Focus on the things that are going well and don’t take things personally … if you keep on focusing what’s not working instead of what is working, you’ll get more of the things that are not working…
Make sure to read the entire article on Andreea’s website … it is so good that I have nothing to add except thank you, Andreea, for being so honest with all of us!!
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