10 Things I’d Do Differently If I Started My Small Business in 2024

hi friends welcome back to my Channel today we're going to talk about 10 things that I would do differently if I had to restart my small business in 2024 I wrote up a big long list last night and I think a lot of these are very very valuable so I hope you stay tuned for context I run a handmade art business selling my cute polymer clay creations and I started this back in 2020 when I was still in graphic design school because I had a background in graphic design I already had a lot of knowledge in marketing and storytelling so that really really helped me tell my small business however I was still a college student living with my parents and I had to learn everything by myself business-wise so a lot of these tips have to do with the logistic side of running a small business that I think other artists and other designers just don't have the knowledge of yet so if I were to make a new business in 2024 with the knowledge I have now here are the things I would do differently number one would be investing back into my business early on I personally come from a family where we prefer to do everything ourselves like all the the construction all the housework was done by my parents and I think a lot of other people can relate to this and there is Merit in doing everything by hand all by yourself sometimes that's just how you have to start because you don't have any money rolling in yet but once you do start making sales from your business invest that money back into your business in the form of better equipment better supplies eventually far down the road you'll want to invest in employees and these are all things that I just didn't do for the first year or two years of running my business a really easy example of this is when I bought my first label printer a label printer is about $100 depending on what brand or where you get it but I was so reluctant to spend $100 that I instead printed out every shipping label on my own printer had my boyfriend cut them all out and tape them onto each package and that easily took up hours of her time cutting shipping labels and taping them onto packages when I could have been using that valuable time elsewhere to make more sales for my business it honestly took me way too long to realize how valuable my time was how valuable my energy is so in summary instead of doing everything by hand once you have some sales rolling in use that money to invest in more equipment start Outsourcing your materials such as prints and stickers it will save you so much time and when you feel like you're able to invest in people helping you out as well and this brings me to my second point which is to ask for help and build a team as soon as you can you most likely won't have the money to employ someone early on but there were so many nights where I was just crying because I was so stressed I was too prideful to ask my family members my partner and my friends to help me out now 4 years later I realized that I've been surrounded by a community all along I was just forcing myself to do everything by myself and it wasn't a good use of my energy or time as well if you have a really independent mindset like I did I wish someone had told me yes you can do everything yourself but over time your business will not grow and it won't be sustainable eventually you will burn out and you will lose weeks or even possibly months or years to burn out because you didn't ask for help owning a small business is not just one big thing it consists of thousands of tiny little tasks that you can delegate to other people for example this year in 20124 I'm delegating more of the packing orders to my friend I'm paying her an hourly wage so that she can pack my orders and that frees up literal hours in my day so I can focus on other things or just save my energy so that I can keep creating in the long run you can also grow your team in other ways for example you can find someone to handle all your emails for you I personally work with an agency that handles all of my bra brand sponsorship emails so they can negotiate deals on their end and I can just focus on running my business the next thing I would do differently in 2024 is to sell directly through my own website instead of a Marketplace if you've watched my other videos before you know that in 2020 I originally started my business through Etsy Etsy and other marketplaces are a good place to start because they handle everything for you but just for me personally I would just skip the marketplaces all together I think having your own website from the get-go is well worth the learning curve because if you really think about about it you're still investing your time learning how to use these marketplaces you're still taking photos of all your products you're still making captions and listings and learning pricing and shipping all of that hard work that you're putting onto your storefront for Etsy or another Marketplace you're eventually going to have to transfer that all to your own website and to me that was just a lot of hassle that I would rather skip there is a caveat to this if you want to spend less time marketing yourself and you want the marketplace to advertise for you then Etsy is a way to go but if you are spending time marketing yourself through social media like Instagram or Tik Tok or YouTube which you most likely are then you yourself are pulling in all of your customers so you should have your own website to avoid paying fees to marketplaces because why pay them an advertising fee when you are the one bringing in most of your customers it's just something to think about when you're making your own website the other thing you have to think about is your domain a domain is basically the www.com or.net it's the name of your website and it is the first impression that customers get of your store after I switched over from Etsy I actually had the hardest time figuring out a website name I ended up with uncomfy co.com and that is another thing that I would have done differently this year in 2024 instead of getting aom domain I would get a store domain and why do you know store is the sponsor of this video if we follow by example Rihanna sells through Rihanna store Mr Beast also swapped out his for a DOT store domain and even Michelle Obama sells through a DOT store domain as well I know I'm geeking out but dot store domains actually help you sell more a deta study showed that dot stores attract 87% more visitors you also get double the visibility on Google and if you run ads on your store then a DOT store domain saves you 12% per conversion when you're first starting your small business cash is tight and Dot store understands that so when you opt for a DOT store domain you're unlocking access to exclusive discounts worth up to $2,500 of essential e-commerce tools these are discounts for major platforms like Wix for building your website ship station for streamlined shipping fista print for killer marketing materials mail chimp for email marketing and way more do store is also available through multiple Site Builders such as GoDaddy Shopify Wix Etc I'm so excited for this partnership because I've literally been waiting for the day for my website domain to expire and it's expiring this month March 17th so officially my website name is now called uncomfy do store and if you'd like to get a do store domain for your small business as well for a limited time you can get it for just 99 for the first year visit g. store use the code uncom at checkout and you're all set and thank you do store for sponsoring this video on to the next point the next thing I would do differently is to learn financial planning as soon as I could meaning as soon as I recognize that this business is something that I could do for the Long Haul I would open a business checking account right away to keep my personal expenses separate from my business expenses and then if I was able to I would get a business credit card as soon as I could this is one of my huge regrets is that I didn't get a business credit card guys I just did my taxes I spent well over $30,000 in business expenses this year and I didn't get a single credit card point for that like imagine all of the flights I could have gone for for free if I had been using a credit card for all of my business expenses obviously a business credit card really depends on your credit score and how comfortable you are with using lines of credit but the main things I would highly highly recommend to people is to learn how to track your expenses early on find a system that works for you whether that's an app like QuickBooks or writing in your notes app and putting that into an Excel sheet at the end of every single day or just analog like writing everything down our paper keeping receipts find a way that works for you because it will kick you in the butt come tax season if you didn't keep track of anything the next thing is a little controversial but I would learn how to embrace technology mainly I would learn how to use AI especially in 20124 there's no shame in using AI to help you with your small business obviously I don't stand by using AI to make art for you but I use grammarly AI to help me write my emails and I use chat gbt to help me generate a list of content ideas for when my brain is feeling a little foggy and this relates back to how time is money your energy is valuable there's no shame in using AI to help the day go faster I know AI is scary but also AI is not going anywhere so you might as well use it to your advantage like I said earlier it's great for drafting emails and it's great for a starting point for Content ideas this year in 2024 digital presentence is as important as ever so I would still put a lot of effort into social media but I would go about it a different way instead of curating the most aesthetic photos the most professional photos I would delegate all of my energy into making reals or Tik toks like short form videos because that is the most effective way to get your business out there no one actually cares about how professional your Instagram looks in fact the more curated it looks the more boring it is in a sea of other small businesses your personality is the only thing that is going to stand out amongst all of these other people so I would definitely Focus Less on being professional and more on being myself have fun with it make whatever you want don't focus on Trends and yeah number eight on my list is sort of related as well which is that I regret not documenting literally everything when I first started my small business back in 2020 my priority was marketing my radish Spirits I have a lot of photo shoots of these little things that I created but I barely have any pictures of myself making them I barely have any footage of myself or my Studio when I first started in 2020 and I just wish I had more things to look back on to see how far I've come your small business Journey can be one of the most valuable assets of your marketing strategy so being able to pull photos screenshots of your first website your first product launch is so so useful and I highly recommend documenting as much as you can the other thing I regret not doing more of back when I first started was I didn't spend enough energy creating a strong Professional Network for support and community on social media it's very very easy to just Silo yourself just post things and not engage with other people because you're just there to post your video and get out right on most days I think that's very healthy to just use social media as a tool for your business but also there's a huge community of small business owners that you can reach out to become friends with ask each other questions help each other out these are all immensely valuable parts of having a community that I just felt like I was missing for the first couple years of my small business because I simply didn't put the energy into talking to people now I can probably say that I have tons of small business friends I've even met a couple of them in person now and it makes this whole thing being self-employed so much easier because you know that there are other people doing the same thing as you and they deal with the same struggles okay we're finally on to the last point of the day which is that I would show my face and my personality as soon as I was comfortable in front of the camera I recommend showing the face behind your business when I think of the most successful small businesses I think of grumpy kid Studio I think of the sugar-free chamoy girl on Tik Tok I think of Emma Chamberlain what these people have in common is that they put a face behind their brand they put themselves and their stories out there so that people could connect to them with sugar-free chimoy it's not just a condiment now it is a loving project that a daughter created for her diabetic father this is also called story branding and when you add a story with a face people will naturally gravitate all right I think that is it for today thank you so much for watching this video and supporting my small business if you want a DOT store domain go to get dot store and start your small business Journey with me see you next week resty r on her shoulder I was cleaning her shoe when it clicked on the TR over in the Bright Morning Dew we brush and we braided dandes

Channel: Uncomfy

Views: 175,160

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Id: ObTLjOmCGXU

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2024