Small Business Decisions

Running a small retail business can be tough trying to figure out how to be successful. Then you add finances, marketing and shipping on to that and it can be stressful and a little scary. Deciding what you can afford and what you should hold back on until you have more money can definitely make or break a small business. Adding marketing to those costs will make those financial decisions even tougher. Do you put together a big add campaign to get your name out there? Or do you hold back and just send out an email and SMS campaign to save the money to use somewhere else for the business? Do you choose free shipping to entice your customers further or do you let them accrue the costs of shipping and maybe lose some of your business to your competitors? 

These and more questions on other business-related topics are what small business owners have to decide. One topic we have been dealing with recently is upfront costs. We recently started selling mystery tumblers with mystery bags. The idea my wife had was a great one, but we were worried if we should do it or not. We sat down and went through the products we thought would be great a great addition for the mystery bags we were going to include with the tumblers. We saw the costs and decided it would be rough on our finances but decided to purchase enough items for one theme. After about two weeks on our website and on Etsy, we sold a few. We then decided to purchase more items for another theme. We sold a few of that theme as well. We continued to monitor our money we allotted for the mystery themed products as we continued to purchase items to replenish our supplies for them. Today, we have we currently have seven different mystery themed tumblers with mystery bags on our website and Etsy. 

We found that upfront costs can either payoff or could fold your business. As a small business owner, you have to be smart about your decisions and not commit unless you know you can afford it or know it will be a success. We saw, from our own experience, that purchasing and adding one product at a time was what helped us keep costs low and also allowed us to see if the product would take off. If your products take off and sell or they fall flat and no one buys them at least you will know what to do from there. Be brave and keep selling!