Taking a business online. Is it worth it?

[Zooman009]

So I recently found my first small success in a company that I've been taking to local farmers markets, but my issue is that it can only do sales on the weekends that I'm running the stand. I'm a college student and with this fall, I won't be able to travel as much for this business. The product consistently sells well at the markets, though I think part of that might be my pitch.

I was mostly just curious if anyone else has gone through a similar situation and what they did to take sales online?

I'll do my best to stay active on this thread.

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

So I recently found my first small success in a company that I've been taking to local farmers markets, but my issue is that it can only do sales on the weekends that I'm running the stand. I'm a college student and with this fall, I won't be able to travel as much for this business. The product consistently sells well at the markets, though I think part of that might be my pitch.

I was mostly just curious if anyone else has gone through a similar situation and what they did to take sales online?

I'll do my best to stay active on this thread.

If it's selling offline, it will sell online.

What's stopping you?

 

[Zooman009]

I have absolutely no clue how to build an online store.
I own the domain and I actually have been messing around with the shopify tools on the website. But whenever I go looking for tutorials on youtube, it's always "BEST DROPSHIPPING STORE IN 15 MINUTES!!!!!"
Have any clue where to find reliable resources for building stuff like that?

 

[Ksawery]

Nie mam pojęcia, jak zbudować sklep internetowy.
Jestem właścicielem domeny i faktycznie bawię się narzędziami shopify na stronie internetowej. Ale za każdym razem, gdy szukam samouczków na youtube, zawsze jest to „NAJLEPSZY SKLEP DROPSHIPPING W 15 MINUT!!!!!”
Masz jakąś wskazówkę, gdzie znaleźć niezawodne zasoby do budowania takich rzeczy?

Gdy nie wiedziałem jak budować sklepy internetowe zakupiłem mini kurs za 47$. Kilka nagrań później wiedziałem jak to zrobić krok po kroku. Ale pojawił się kolejny problem, nie wiedziałem jak reklamować ten sklep. Więc znów zakupiłem kolejny kurs 47$ o reklamie na facebooku. Kilka dni później już nie stanowiło to dla mnie problemu. Mam nadzieję,że chociaż trochę pomogłem Ci połączyć Twoje kropki.

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

I have absolutely no clue how to build an online store.
I own the domain and I actually have been messing around with the shopify tools on the website. But whenever I go looking for tutorials on youtube, it's always "BEST DROPSHIPPING STORE IN 15 MINUTES!!!!!"
Have any clue where to find reliable resources for building stuff like that?

Use Shopify's tutorials themselves to get started! no reason to invest in a course or anything to get the basics done

 

[Zooman009]

Use Shopify's tutorials themselves to get started! no reason to invest in a course or anything to get the basics done

Thanks! you have a fair point. I gotta also learn marketing. I'm thinking I might do influencer marketing would work cause it's pretty niche. But maybe running FB ads would work. It's getting expensive these days though.

 

[pickeringmt]

Dude I started a beard oil company years ago and it was a similar story. The difference was that I leveraged an online store from day 1. You can find the story in my content, I think the thread is called Chapter 1.

Fear is ultimately rooted in uncertainty. If fear is stopping you, it just means the weight is on the unknown side of the scale. Just check out some tutorials and build your knowledge to put some weight on the known side of the scale. If you sign up for a developer account on shopify, you can build an entire store without paying anything until you launch. Just set your goal to work on it for 30-60 minutes a day no matter what. You will have a store up in no time.

One huge benefit here is that people can start referring friends to you and sharing your product. That alone can make a huge difference. Just get some stickers made with your logo and a web address on it and you will have customers doing your marketing for you.

 

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[Johnny boy]

Take the stuff that's selling at the market, offer it as a subscription in some way, show it to people on local neighborhood facebook groups, put people on a recurring billing plan and now you have a business.

 

[biophase]

So I recently found my first small success in a company that I've been taking to local farmers markets, but my issue is that it can only do sales on the weekends that I'm running the stand. I'm a college student and with this fall, I won't be able to travel as much for this business. The product consistently sells well at the markets, though I think part of that might be my pitch.

I was mostly just curious if anyone else has gone through a similar situation and what they did to take sales online?

I'll do my best to stay active on this thread.

You haven't mentioned the important parts. Is it easy to ship? Does the product spoil? What's the price point?

 

[Keeton]

So I recently found my first small success in a company that I've been taking to local farmers markets, but my issue is that it can only do sales on the weekends that I'm running the stand. I'm a college student and with this fall, I won't be able to travel as much for this business. The product consistently sells well at the markets, though I think part of that might be my pitch.

I was mostly just curious if anyone else has gone through a similar situation and what they did to take sales online?

I'll do my best to stay active on this thread.

How would you feel about finding people who have booths at the farmers markets and sending them your products? You could give them a commission for what they sell. Mail your product to the people that way you don't need to travel to hand off the product to the vendors. I'm sure people will gladly set up your product next to yours if you give them commission. Or you could just sell your product to the actual booth owners and they would sell to the people at the markets. But it would definitely be worth it to take your business online and learn how to market and build a shopify store. Those are skills you can transfer to other businesses if this one doesn't work out.

 

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[Mister]

For marketing, you need you to get your current costumers on your shop, so that you have asap costumers. Then you can expand. Here a few ideas how you can get some costumers:

1:You could make a Google my business account and set the location (your company address) where you stand was. Then you link your shop on the profile.

So when people discover your google my business account, they can easily access your online store.

2: You could create a QR code that brings people to your online shop and place it on your stand. So that you can say they should check out the store and they can easily do so.

3: You could create a flyer with all your products and prices. Then you create a few 1000´s of them (~ 100 $). When you have them, you can go around the city and prod each house / apartment on in the mailbox. Also you can over them to costumers on the stand.

4:You could contact your local newsletter and tell them your story. They might write a story about you.

 

[fastlane_dad]

Not only is it 'worth it' - it's part of the CENTS commandments (time and scale, and it selling in time and space without you). You need a way to 100X your sales. If you don't understand some of these principles - re read all of MJs books.

The 'market' at farmers markets might be completely different then the market online. Find a way to test the online market - but it sounds like with product already made, you are not that worried if you invest a bit of time setting up an online shop and doing a bit of marketing towards there.

There are various avenues you can go online as well - shopify store, amazon, potentially contacting some food grocers etc. Can your product fit the 'gift' category as well (I recently bought a really nicely packaged hot sauce 'TRUFF' - because it appeared to be giftable).

The online / website space is CROWDED with info on how to get started and setup your site. Do some searching, consult youtube.

Good luck.

 

[Zooman009]

Not only is it 'worth it' - it's part of the CENTS commandments (time and scale, and it selling in time and space without you). You need a way to 100X your sales. If you don't understand some of these principles - re read all of MJs books.

The 'market' at farmers markets might be completely different then the market online. Find a way to test the online market - but it sounds like with product already made, you are not that worried if you invest a bit of time setting up an online shop and doing a bit of marketing towards there.

There are various avenues you can go online as well - shopify store, amazon, potentially contacting some food grocers etc. Can your product fit the 'gift' category as well (I recently bought a really nicely packaged hot sauce 'TRUFF' - because it appeared to be giftable).

The online / website space is CROWDED with info on how to get started and setup your site. Do some searching, consult youtube.

Good luck.

Hey, thanks a lot! I really appreciate it! I have a Shopify store that I'm building.

The early stages are just challenging. but that's to be expected. This business is going to scale and when it does, things are going to be even more brutal.

But it's all part of the process.

 

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