It can be easy to feel intimidated by big firms who seem to dominate the market but there is definitely room for small business. In fact, being a small business has some distinct advantages over the big players.
The obvious one is personal service... customers get to deal directly with you through email and social media and this isn't limited to office hours.
You get to see the bigger picture as you are the accounts department, sales, marketing, buyer, web designer etc. This means that it is easier to have a clear vision for where you'd like to go with your business. It's also a lot of fun :-)
It would, of course, be lovely to have a bricks and mortar shop... and maybe one day I will but there are again advantages to being online only. Costs are minimised as you don't have the extra overheads which means you can offer competitive prices. Also stock is kept in pristine condition; the only time it sees daylight is when it is packed.
Top Tips :-)
SEO... once you have your shop live on the internet you will probably find that it doesn't appear in google searches. This is perfectly normal as it takes time for a site to be found. There aren't any secrets to SEO and I just followed the guidelines set out by google. Here's
a good link
Use a simple spreadsheet on your desktop for stock-keeping and update immediately an order comes through.
Use paypal... it costs 5% of turnover but it's worth it!
Add a little extra... a handwritten note/free gift..
So if you are thinking about setting up your own webshop, I'd say give it a go...
