I'm from England and I have a part time e-commerce business which has grown from a bedroom operation to what it is now in a short space of time.
I also have another monthly subscription business start up and I work full time for the family businesses (for now) I do okay. But the family business isn't my dream so I'm working on the fast lane businesses.
What Happened In 2015?
In 2015 my business went from just me in my spare bedroom to a commercial unit and a part time employee dealing with all orders, enquiries, fulfilment etc. As it stands now I deal with the website, new products etc etc. All the orders, product adding, fulfilment is handled by my employee and a lot of our products are sent by distributors so we can scale quite large before needing more staff.
We went from $5000 per month to $30,000 per month (turnover) mostly organically, with a bit of help from eBay and Amazon.
This happened between October and December 2015, and only because I stepped outside of my comfort zone.
2016 Targets
To pay for my current lifestyle (without my slow lane job) we need to maintain (or improve) our margins and turn over approximately $45,000 per month. So our target is currently $75,000 per month (turnover).
What I'm Doing?
I'll keep it simple here, and post in more detail as I get them done.
Add value - guides, blog, pictures, reviews, advice, knowledge centre, e-book (already written)
Add interaction - more social, instagram, ability for customers to add their own pictures, generate more reviews, case studies, get more content on the website
Be More Proactive - this year we're going to be going out looking for customers... trade, installers, home builders, etc etc. Maybe do some exhibitions again (tried before with no luck)
Site Improvements - a few extra features, fix duplicate content issues, improve SEO, write bespoke product descriptions for all important products, improve speed and continue to improve search rankings.
PPC - I really struggle with PPC, I read stories that people can put an add up and make sales in minutes, I seem to drink money. Need to learn more on PPC and keep trying to make it work.
That's it for now. I'll post as and when things get done and let you know what affect they have on the business.
Any advice welcome.
I also have another monthly subscription business start up and I work full time for the family businesses (for now) I do okay. But the family business isn't my dream so I'm working on the fast lane businesses.
What Happened In 2015?
In 2015 my business went from just me in my spare bedroom to a commercial unit and a part time employee dealing with all orders, enquiries, fulfilment etc. As it stands now I deal with the website, new products etc etc. All the orders, product adding, fulfilment is handled by my employee and a lot of our products are sent by distributors so we can scale quite large before needing more staff.
We went from $5000 per month to $30,000 per month (turnover) mostly organically, with a bit of help from eBay and Amazon.
This happened between October and December 2015, and only because I stepped outside of my comfort zone.
2016 Targets
To pay for my current lifestyle (without my slow lane job) we need to maintain (or improve) our margins and turn over approximately $45,000 per month. So our target is currently $75,000 per month (turnover).
What I'm Doing?
I'll keep it simple here, and post in more detail as I get them done.
Add value - guides, blog, pictures, reviews, advice, knowledge centre, e-book (already written)
Add interaction - more social, instagram, ability for customers to add their own pictures, generate more reviews, case studies, get more content on the website
Be More Proactive - this year we're going to be going out looking for customers... trade, installers, home builders, etc etc. Maybe do some exhibitions again (tried before with no luck)
Site Improvements - a few extra features, fix duplicate content issues, improve SEO, write bespoke product descriptions for all important products, improve speed and continue to improve search rankings.
PPC - I really struggle with PPC, I read stories that people can put an add up and make sales in minutes, I seem to drink money. Need to learn more on PPC and keep trying to make it work.
That's it for now. I'll post as and when things get done and let you know what affect they have on the business.
Any advice welcome.
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