Small businesses face many challenges when getting started and trying to scale. Many things need to be taken into consideration from the beginning, like developing a product, establishing a brand, hiring a quality team, creating a positive company culture, setting up payments, establishing a physical or digital storefront, developing distribution channels, forging strategic partnerships, attracting customers, expanding internationally and growing sales.
Luckily, there are partners who can help businesses with many of these things. Partners like
Shopify and
PayPal can help small businesses by providing the building blocks for success.
Still, no matter how many great partners you may have, building a business will always present its challenges. So it’s important to take tips and lessons from those who have successfully done it before.
For the past six years, Shopify has hosted its Build a Business competition. To participate, entrepreneurs need to
develop a new business idea, open a Shopify online storefront, enter the competition and begin selling. At the end of the competition, five new businesses that have the highest sales over a two-month period will win a once-in-a-lifetime trip with mentors and business leaders.
Shopify’s seventh annual Build a Business competition will open in September 2016. Start thinking of your business ideas now so you’re ready to launch your business when October rolls around. And when you’re ready to sign up for the competition, when you sign up for Shopify, you can get 20 percent off if you
sign up through PayPal. Terms apply.
But before you start coming up with product ideas and building your business, heed these tips from
Shore Projects, and
Leesa, two PayPal merchants who won last year’s Build a Business competition.
Neil Waller, co-founder of
Shore Projects, a business focused on creating timeless, quality watches that can be worn everyday, shared his advice about spending time to build awareness around your brand.
“The biggest challenge you'll face when starting your own business won’t necessarily be the creation of your product, but instead building your brand awareness and making those first few sales. I'm sure there are many people out there with really cool products that haven't succeeded because they did not get that initial sales momentum going and took a 'if I build it they will come approach',” Waller said.
“So, my advice would be to give almost as much thought and time into how you're going to launch your product as you do to building it. For Shore Projects, the initial success all came from our focus on influencer marketing. Done well, a brand uses influencer marketing to collaborate with a relevant online influencer, tapping into both their creativity and engaged audience, to build brand awareness in an authentic, organic and very cost effective way. Think of it as when you’re recommended a holiday destination, a new online shop or something as simple as a face cream by a trusted friend. That’s what influencer marketing is – targeting an audience of likeminded people that follow an influencer because they trust their opinion, share similar interests and often are inspired by their posts,” Waller advised.
Matt Hayes, head of marketing at
Leesa, a firm helping people sleep better with a beautifully designed and crafted matress, reminded that ideas are easy to come by, but execution and scalable, profitable growth is what’s most important.
“If you have entrepreneurial aspirations or you want to turn your ‘big idea’ into a business, there are a few things you should know. First, ideas are a dime a dozen – execution is what matters. Focus intently on building an amazing product that solves a big problem and impacts peoples’ lives in a meaningful way. With Leesa, we did that by creating a luxury mattress that ships direct to your door, competing with mattresses three times the price. Second, understand that the market and competitive landscape is constantly evolving – so be ready to adapt and iterate your product to deliver what your customers are looking for. Without achieving product-market fit, you’ll never be able to scale and reach a critical mass of customers. Third, growth is important – but profitable growth is key,” Hayes advised.
“To grow profitably, you have to do two things with your marketing: First, implement small tests, monitor the performance, and quickly scale what works. Second, measure everything, including your customer acquisition cost, cost per lead, conversion rate and profit margin. Continually focus on achieving a profitable cost per acquisition and measure channels against one another to identify where to scale your spend.
“Finally, build a strong team. When building your team, surround yourself with people who are better than you, who supplement your weaknesses and who you enjoy spending time with -- because you’ll be spending a lot of time with them,” Hayes said.
Check the Shopify site in September to learn more about the upcoming Build a Business contest and don’t forget to
sign up through PayPal to save 20 percent. Terms apply.