Buy wholesale!

If you are buying anything that will be in a quantity greater than that of the common buyer, ask about wholesale pricing!  Even if you won't be buying in bulk now, you might later and it'll be good to find a company that will give you good bulk pricing (pricing before the retail or market markup on the item).  The MSRP is the market rate for resale (the post-wholesale pricing).

To give you an idea of what a difference wholesale can make I'll give you an example:

We searched for a large item online that is necessary for the success of our business.  The market rate for this product is $319 plus shipping.  This is what the manufacturer charges the average Joe for this item.  We need a couple of these to get started, and hopefully we'll need more as we grow.  For the six I need, it would be a total of $1,914 plus shipping. 

The lowest price I could find after scouring the Internet after checking the main brand site was $271.  This was posted by the parent company on Amazon.  So I would be saving $48/item plus getting free shipping.  My total came to $1,626 (including shipping) for the six items meaning I would be saving $288 just by taking the time to seek out a lower price (and that doesn't take into account any additional shipping cost from the original item)!

I noticed on the original website that they work with wholesalers (basically intermediaries between the mother company and the buyer).  Think any major retail store like Macy's or Target: usually they are not the brand owner; they buy from the manufacturer of the brand at wholesale price and sell it to the consumer at a higher price.

Eventually we will need to replace the items we are looking at when they break or become unusable so I decided that, even though we aren't planning on opening a Target store anytime soon, it might be worth it to get wholesale pricing information at least to understand 1) if any discounts are available for low quantity wholesale items and 2) what might my discount be for future bulk purchases if/when my business takes off.

I contacted the wholesale department for the brand and was pleasantly surprised; those $319 retail price items are only $165 wholesale, even though I only need a small quantity right now.  Larger quantities can result in even lower wholesale prices!  Good news for me!  This cost is FOB, though (FOB means "free on board" which is a schmancy way of saying "shipping is not included").  The additional price for shipping these items is $130 total.  So my wholesale buy ends up being $1,080 including shipping: a whopping $834 less than the retail price (and again, that price still didn't include the shipping)!

So, you see, even if you're only in the market for a few startup items, it's worth it to look into wholesale.  Know your options!  Knowing is half the battle (and, in this case, half the price)!!

Sometimes it's ok to not have a plan!

Get a website

If you want to maximize your marketability you're probably going to want a website.

So...we wanted a website and if you're not a computer nerd (and we aren't) this might be a useful, lay mans, guide to "getting a website" (and p.s. There is some vocabulary that you'll learn along the way).

So...we did what every intelligent entrepreneur does when tryin to do something we hadn't done before: googled it!  And there are a TON of ideas so I won't pretend that I have synthesized them all for reproduction here, just that I'll share what I found out.

Ok so a little history:  when the Internet was born, so were what I would compare to "families."  They are essentially the suffixes of the Internet community (.com .ca .uk .me etcetera).  We're generalizing here, but as in MOST families, it was necessary to give all of the kids different names so they wouldn't get confused.  Those kids are websites and their names are referred to as "domain names."  Because there are way too many people in the world wanting to have their own internet children, there had to be some overriding system so that no one would duplicate names.  This is a good thing because it would be a huge waste to build a website and have it trying to share the same website address as another.  It would be a train wreck.  So because of all this, when you want to get a website you have to go through one of the baby-naming gatekeepers.

I learned a bit about this and there are multiple options for where to get your website. The first step, though, is to see if it's already taken!  You don't need magical skills to know this; just type the website name you'd like to use into your search bar and see what comes up!  

If a full blown website pertaining to the name comes up, it's likely taken and not up for grabs (there is a chance this isn't true but unless you are interested in contacting the owner to buy their existing domain name off of them, I'd keep moving).

If the site is owned by a web domain sales company, it will usually come up with that company's site or redirect you to some sort of contact information in case you're interested in buying it off of them.  We, personally, contacted the sales company that had the name we originally wanted and they were asking somewhere in the range of $4,000 for it.  There were some existing domains I read about that could be bought for less and some for way more so you'll have to weigh your options and consider the size of your business and the capital you have available to see if it's worth it for you.

If you want to know another quick way to find out if someone already owns your domain name you can check the "who is" list which is the registry for all the baby names on the Internet.  This list can tell you who, if anyone, currently owns a domain name and you can find out details about past prices paid, location, other sites they own, and more (if you're interested).

Like I mentioned, we aren't in the position to pay $400 much less $4,000 for our site so we had to come up with another option.  If you're in the same boat, remember that flexibility is key! See if your desired company name can be shortened somehow.  Consider an abbreviation "NYtours" instead of "newyorktours", for example.  Get creative but remember the main goal is to stay searchable, that is to say, try to keep the words or names in your domain name something that a potential client might search for when looking for your product or service.

After reason quite a bit, we found this site to be one of the most useful: https://www.easydns.com/10-things-to-know-before-you-register/ it has some really helpful pointers on things to look out for on your domain contracts.

Find a place to register your domain name (an example of a registrar is godaddy.com or register.com (these are not recommendations, solely example of where you can register your domain name).  There are multiple options for hosting as well...before you buy your domain name with any given registrar, take a look at web hosting.

You will disagree. It's ok.

In business you'll disagree.  With a business partner, with a lender, with yourself!  There's a lot going on, there is (or will be) money involved, but most importantly you all want to make it work and you're individuals with your own ideas of how to make that happen and wanting to be proud to have your name on your creation.

I, for one, am amped and ready to go.  So is my business partner. We have differences of opinion on how to get to the end game. Our critical paths (the order in which we think things should get done to reach the "final" product are quite different and it definitely has caused some tension and unnecessary stress.

We also deal with stress differently.  Like polar opposites.  He sleeps and I feel a desperate need to exercise in talking last night at 10:30 pm I was ready to get out of bed (because out of respect I wasn't tryin to keep him up with the lights on (nor did I want to be on a computer any more hours of the day than necessary).  I was ready to put on running clothes and peace out for a run.  Maybe I should have because my body was calling for thy stress relief but in the end I did get up but I put my stress to good use by getting back to what I was doing on the computer, treating myself to a few minutes of "me" time on social media (which I haven't had time to do with all of the business startup stuff, and 45 minutes later I was finally ready to calm down and sleep it off, too.

My suggestion is to remember why you're doing what you're doing.  Change is stressful no matter what it is but when so much is at stake including (but not limited to) your time, your money, your energy, your passion, your reputation and your relationships, you're going to break down every once in a while.  Be prepared for this.  Be prepared (and willing) to communicate the things that stress you out and try to express yourself without the exasperation that I usually have (something I'm learning to control ever so slowly for the sake of my relationships).

If you still don't have a business partner and you're thinking about it, you should check out this post about what the author learned bout business from watching "I love Lucy."  

Breathe, stretch, shake, sleep (or run), and let it go ;)

User Names and Passwords

Write them down!

As easy as you think they are, every website will have different requirements.  Some will just be a username and some will be an email address.  Some will have loose password requirements, others will require everything short of your firstborn child, and still others will require only your firstborn child.

Write it down and no one has to get hurt...when they are frustrated and have to create new passwords every time they want to log onto or of the many sites you are using for your business...and they will be plentiful!

Store them in a safe place and keep a copy.  Use a simple system like excel so you can organize them or search the file easily.

Good luck!

Choose a name for your company

Before we decided what we needed to have for our company to technically "exist" I think we had already somehow concluded jointly that we needed a name and a website.  I think this order of operations stems from the theory I mentioned previously; marketing before your product is ready to be released is just as important as the release of the product, itself.

Ok...for starters think of a title for your company (we actually did this first).

One of our caveats was that the name had to have searchable key words. For us, this meant that the name really had to be uber-simple...the type of thing someone might type into google when they want to narrow down their options but don't have a specific brand in mind: "bird bath", "Florida trip", "restaurant deals in Barcelona." This resulted in not being able to have too much fun with a quirky double-meaning for our company's title but when we weighed the options we felt that our product is really about people and service and it depends on the capacity for people being able to find us more than catering to a highly specific group of repeat clientele.  This is not to say we aren't aiming for repeat customers, but what we are offering is a quality service not based on it being "cool" or "trendy" or "uniquely weird."

See stores like "hot topic" which cater to a very specific crowd that spreads the word within their group to visit.  It occasionally gets random stragglers but usually they are either wandering and see something unique that catches their eye, or the business reputation has preceded the visit and has brought customers in for something specifically funky or taboo (like sex toys or bachelorette party favors).  If Hot Topic was looking for a more generic audience, they might have chosen a more direct name like "funkadelic" or "crazy, sexy, weird" but they were more subtle and it fits them.  They aren't looking for the everyday person off the street to know them and "get" them and come in.  We are. So we are keeping it direct.

Being direct may not be as necessary when you have a physical location and you can grab customers with your intriguing storefronts or cool music, but in today's technology-driven experience, and with our business not having a physical location to use as a big 'ol "WE ARE AWESOME" banner, our website is our storefront and the Internet is our yellow pages advertisement, grabbing the attention of people in search of our services.  Remember, your company name matters.  Come up with a few options that you think will work...it will come in useful to be a little bit flexible when you get to creating a website!

Starting: when does your company actually "exist?"

I don't know if there's a specific order to creating a business.  I read recently (in a book about using your passion to create your dream job) that marketing something before it's even available is a highly successful way to gain clients before you even start.  Additionally, it can mean that your business brings in cash faster as soon as your product actually hits the market.  The allure of the desired product and the excitement to see it become reality make the business intriguing before it even exists.

We had an argument (I'm sure this is one of many that will come from two people collaborating on bringing a business idea to fruition) about what it really means for a business to "exist."

I argued that on some level it exists if you say it does.  No lemonade stand of mine ever existed as any more than a table and a piece of paper with some strikes of a marker.  The argument was over which item on our ever-longer list of thing to do and to buy comes first.  Which things mean we exist?

Entrepreneur As You Go

Guess what?

We're starting a business and neither of us has any experience.

Ok, that's not totally true.  I was a child entrepreneur;  I owned lemonade stands and sold string bracelets before these plastic loom things were ever in existence!  I groveled to "investors" so that they would donate to or invest in my causes from Girl Scouts to soccer teams to earthquake victims and beyond.  I even played witness to the start of a business under my lead but was not part of any of the major planning, resource, or grunt work (fail)...and...I'm starting a business.

I'm lucky because I have a lot of resources...one of them is the internet...which is absolutely nothing to scoff at given the boundless podcasts, articles, professional and government websites, online courses and more that could potentially be of use in this endeavor.  I have supportive family and friends and I'm not completely alone as this business idea is my husband's dream.  My biggest resource, perhaps, is that I'm a believer.  I believe in myself. I believe in my own capacity to get things done and to figure things out on-the-go.  As such, and given that I'm probably not the first person to start a business in the age of technology, I've decided to share our journey. Since its really fly-by-the-seat of your pants and I'm learning as I go, the title is fitting: entrepreneur as you go.

Wish us luck!