Nothing inspires business owners more than the success story of an enterprise whiz kid known as Eric Bundholz. He is the person who made a fortune just from listening to his community. Eric ensured that he engaged in a business that he had for many months researched and also wrote about it in his blog. By being a member of the beard community and attending beard related events including studying the men around town, he discovered a niche that was explored by only a few in the market. So how did he make it?
Proper Market Research
Apart from passion, apt market research is important. Scrutinize what you are about to risk in and ensure that you go for it only when the coast is clear. Eric launched his wholesale company Beardbrand first as a blog before he decided to deal with the products. This helped him have the much-needed experience to venture in a business that he knew a lot about judging from the web content he generated for more than a year. Immediately after attending a major beard and moustache competition, he saw the need to contact some manufacturers who then agreed to work with his company in supplying some excellent beard oils and other products.
Social Media Marketing
Due to the fact that most people nowadays at least spend an average of 25 minutes in social network each day. This internet technology forms the best platform to not only share your products or services but also source ideas from other sites such as Tumblr. Working with other partners is vital since they come with the unique experience to add value to your product. Take an example from Beardbrand; Eric has worked with small but quality companies to market the products with his trade as a designer helping in developing the product designs and labels.
Create high quality videos when posting on YouTube because people love to see clear high quality images when searching for products. Spending some dollars on Facebook adverts is also recommended so as to expand your target market. It is for these reasons and more that the official Beardbrand page is receiving several visitors each day.
Business Promotion
Having reputable organizations sell your product will definitely add the zeros to your revenue. This is because people look up to these companies when they are making choices on what to use or wear. Beardbrand was lucky to have its story featured in New York Times during the first months of its inception in the industry. This, Eric said, was a nice boost to the business which resulted into pages like Yahoo as well as celebrities celebrate the beard care products. A public relations manager would also play a bigger role in ensuring that your product is known out there.
Outsourcing
As mentioned earlier, partnering up with different expert companies will help expand your business to greater heights. By partnering with PR companies, including shipping companies, you will have the time to specialize in developing the end product and focus on more important aspects of your business. Outsourcing is important because there is no way that you will be able to master everything on your own.
Software Tools and Resources
For the purpose of staying connected with both the vendors and the customers, software applications such as Podio and Google Apps are super handy for this. To make shipping easy for you, the ShipStation app for Shopify has proven to be reliable – this is according to Beardbrand. Eric also advises startups to explore Reddit Enterpreneur subreddit, which has been a great resource for the company.
No Regrets
Part of starting a business is taking the risk, and without taking the first step you will not know whether you will fail or succeed. Whatever the case; as long as you learn from it then it is not a bad move at all. Nothing is a waste of time or money unless you fail to learn from it!
You can find tools, apps and suggestions that you need all over the CodeCondo blog, I’ve written extensively about social media tools, about marketing tools that can help us to make better choices in the future. This little review from our friends at BearBrand just goes to show that anything is possible, so as long as you dedicated yourself to the cause.
