Archive for Starting Out
Friday Five - Location
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I look at many Facebook pages, websites and blogs, many of these have no indication of where they are located!
This week, I will give you five reasons to let people know where you are. I don’t necessarily mean to give an exact location, especially if you work from home and don’t want just anyone knowing where you live. In most cases a state and country is enough, or even something like “Melbourne, Victoria, Australia” if you want to narrow things down further.
- Buy local - there are many people who want to support a local business. This could be businesses in their direct local area or just in the same country as they are. If people have no idea where you are, they may move on to the next business.
- Postage - if you are an online store, postage may be cheaper if you are in the same country or state. Having a location on your Facebook page as well as your shop may help customers decide to buy from you as the postage costs won’t be as much as they would be if they were further away.
- Local information - one blog I read regularly has great business information and are located in the US. Because I know they are in the US, any information to do with tax or regulations I ignore because they don’t apply to us in Australia. The same with many recipe’s, metric and imperial measures are different. If you share information, it can help your readers to know where you are.
- Local Products - even with the Internet, there are some products that are only available in certain locations, or if you are the local distributor, it is helpful for people to know where you are. Another thing to consider is DVDs have different zones and something that is for zone 1 may not work in a DVD player in zone 6 (for example).
- Meet You - especially if you blog about markets or networking events, your readers and customers may want to meet you face to face. This is another place where it’s helpful to have a location. For example, if you say you will be at the local Farmer’s Market this Sunday, it is helpful to know where that market is. Also if you are travelling interstate to attend a certain event, let people know so customers know you aren’t in the same state all the time and to attend that event to meet you.
For me, the biggest thing about having a location is I love to support other Australian business mums, and I know there is a whole community of business mums out there who feel the same. At the very least, please put your country on your Facebook page, blog and website so we know where you are.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyIt’s all about how you present it…
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How do you present your products?
Nappy cakes - they were the latest thing a few years ago and it seemed every business mum was trying her hand at nappy cakes. The ones that stood out were the ones who had something different in the way they presented their gifts.
S.O.H. Sleepy Baby Bouquets presented their gifts as a bouquet of flowers rather than a cake, and Novelty Nappies has created some nappy trains.
Monique over at Your Cheeky Monkey packages her gift bundles in a Fregie Sack, a resuable bag.
Essentially the gifts consist of similar products - nappies, socks, singlets, and other baby items - however it is in the way they are presented that makes all the difference.
With a product such as cross stitch patterns, there are not a lot of creative ways you can present these, however Bernadette over at the Needlework Boutique wraps all her orders in light blue tissue paper and makes sure they look good before putting them in an envelope to send out.
Tania at Green Room Interiors sends her quarterly newsletter out in a green envelope. The green envelope really stands out in a pile of plain white envelopes.
So, how do you present your products? Whether it is a creative way to do gift hampers or a special way you package your products before posting them. What is it that sets your business apart?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyMarketing Monday - Thank You cards
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Thank you cards are amazing. In the last week I’ve received two, and they both blew me away, especially because they were thanking me for an event I put on!
Have you thought of thanking people around you?
These could include:
- Your customers
- Your suppliers
- Speakers at networking events you attend
- Organisers of networking events
- People you win prizes from
- Anyone else you can think of
Bree from Image Effect has created branded thank you cards for her business. She is a graphic designer and they show off her skills beautifully. The card she sent me is sitting over my desk at the moment.
You may not have the skills or budget to send a branded thank you card, any card will do so long as it reflects your business. I get the lavender postcards from Phoenix Trading as they look good and fit with the purple colour of my business.
A thank you card reminds people of you and they also give those you send them to a good feeling. They will want to do business with you again.
Don’t underestimate the power of a thank you card. And the best part - this is something you can do at any stage in your business.
Case Study - Leroy’s Gun Show Doll
Posted by: | CommentsThis morning I was at the Rialto with Light FM. It was an interesting morning, and it was great to catch up with people like Leroy and Cassie from The Buzz.
One of the features was a test live read, to see what it would be like to have one for our business. Well, Leroy & Cassie did one about the Business Mums Magazine. The read started with Leroy talking about a doll that had blow up muscles to show off his “Gun Show”.
Following on from that, I thought it would be fun to test his idea and get the brilliant business mums community to give him some tips on testing the market, manufacturing his dolls and so on.
Every Thursday, I will post as well as interview various experts on different aspects of business to go through how Leroy would get his Gun Show doll to market.
Leroy may not be a Mum, but he is a Dad. 
So, I hope you’ll all tune in and share your ideas.
Financing Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsFollowing on from last weeks post and all the great suggestions, I’ve decided to do it every Wednesday. A prize will be offered for the best suggestion and the winner will be announced the following week. For the winner from last week, look at the end of this post.
One of the most comment reasons I hear for people not starting a business is money - they don’t have the money to buy all the stock they want or get their ideal website.
If you know my story, I started the Business Mums Network with $100, and built it up slowly.
There are many ways you can finance your business. My question today is how did you finance your business? Or, if you don’t want to share that, what are some creative ways business mums can finance their business?
This weeks winning comment will receive a copy of Raising a Business by Sonia Williams.
The winner of last weeks comment is Sascha from Activ8 Change. Congratulations Sascha, we will get your CD out to you in the next few days.
