cristinaarce

[cristinaarce]

LAST UPDATE ON MY START-UP VENTURE (at least here in Tumblr)

Well, this is the final report and after many ups and downs, I am pleased with how everything has turned out at the end.  

... But before I go into business, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation to Amber. Thank you for all the help given the past 14 weeks!  Your guidance and mentorship have been greatly needed and I really appreciate what you have done to support me (and all your students) through the entire class.  Thank you for not only sharing the theory but for the encouragement to actually become entrepreneurs.  Thank you for setting up the bar high because of this we were able to build a new business from the ground up and become small business owners. Thank you Amber!  :)

Ok, as part of the last update, I just want to share a summary of the journey of this start-up venture.

AN IDEA THAT BECAME A REALITY...

Everything started with a very personal problem.  As a petite woman who is curvy, I find it difficult to find clothing that actually fits my body shape.  And that’s where the idea of starting an online store for petite women came from.

ARTISTIK is a fashion brand for petite women. An online retail store focused on styles and designs for petite women. ARTISTIK offers a variety in clothing that will actually fit and flatter the small figure. There is a common misunderstanding that petite means small all over. However, petite women vary in heights, body shapes, and sizes, including plus-size.  No matter her curves, a woman who’s under 5 foot 4 inches in height is considered petite.  ARTISTIK is an online retail store focused on styles and designs that will make the petite woman feel confident, without drowning in extra fabric.

WHAT DOES MAKE ARTISTIK’ BRAND DIFFERENT?

ARTISTIK’s collections are exclusively designed with the petite woman in mind.  I have created exclusive prints and patterns to make the small frame look longer.  ARTISTIK represents a fusion of fashion and art, with contemporary designs merging illustrations, original photographs, and designs, all created by me, Cristina Arce.  I am a fashion photographer, a graphic designer, an artist, and most importantly, a curvy petite woman myself.

(Although the pieces are designed with the petite woman in mind, they can also we worn by any height woman).

BODY POSITIVITY

My focus is to design clothes that are comfortable and chic, allowing women to carry out their daily routine with confidence and ease. It’s super important for me to promote a healthy body image.  I do not digitally reshape or alter the model’s appearance – this is a very common practice done by many big retail brands.

SUSTAINABILITY

The clothing industry (Fast Fashion Industry) is the third largest polluter of our Earth.  Because of this, ARTISTIK does it differently.

ARTISTIK is a slow fashion store using a made-to-order business model.  This allows me to operate in a safe ethical manner with minimal environmental impact.  ARTISTIK only sells online and on demand so that we don't waste unnecessary raw materials and thus keep the Earth a little cleaner.  I want to be remembered for the quality of products I deliver, not the waste ARTISTIK leaves behind.  This way ARTISTIK prevents overproduction, and therefore unnecessary waste.

BIG SUCCESSES THROUGH THE COURSE

During this journey I have had many successes (and also many failures, but let’s focus only in the successes), and I would like to share some of them:

Success 1.  Going from just an idea to the entire creation of the business. Success 2.   Feels great to have done the market research, identity market gaps, and doing surveys to ensure me that the idea was feasible and accepted by the potential buyers. Success 3.  Developing concepts for products, creation of prototypes and designs for products.  This was something totally new to me and I have never done anything similar, and it was a good experience to go through the entire creative process. Success 4.  Applying all my knowledge of Design Thinking, User Optimization, and E-commerce creation into the store. Success 5.  Doing the extensive research of Canadian, American, and international suppliers, contact them, define processes was not fun (lol).  It was a hard process to find a supplier specially during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it was very rewarding to finally find one that I am happy with and its products are all made with eco-friendly materials!!!  (which it was very important to me). Success 6.  Finding not only a beautiful packaging but it is made 100% from recycled materials. The Branding and packing I have created for the store its just gorgeous!

In addition to the multiple tasks that I have successfully accomplished as part of the course, and also as part of the business plan for ARTISTIK.   Some of these tasks are:

- Created a “start-up”, “launching”, and first 6 months budget - I did the banking, financial planning, and monitor of funds through all the start-up months - Creation of a SEO strategy, Landing Pages, and AB Testing for the E-commerce store - Develop pricing strategies to maximum profit - Planning of marketing campaigns around build brand awareness - Professional photographs of the product for the E-commerce and for social media

And everything related to the creation and design of the E-commerce store that I have done all by myself.

(And many many more!)

AND NOW... ARE YOU READY FOR THE BEST NEWS?!

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR AND PLANNERS!

ARTISTIK STORE is ready and I am having the LAUNCH set up for August 18th at 10am EDT!!!

Yes!  The Launch date is just right around the corner, and I am so excited for all the things I have planned for that week.

The store is launching with TWO Collections, and a current line of sixteen (16) totally different products.  

- Seven (7) different styles of dresses, including two (2) styles for plus size petite women - Two (2) styles of hoodies, two (2) styles of sweatshirts, and one (1) of a windbreaker jacket - Two (2) styles of T-shirts and two (2) styles of tanks

Each style has different designs for the customers to choose their favourite.

 https://artistikstore.com/

Did someone ask for a sneak peek? ;)  

These are just some details of the pages from the E-commerce that I have been creating, designing, and programming these past weeks:

I think sneak peeks are so exciting but make me more impatient at the same time lol I cannot wait.  

Join me for the full Launch Date on August 18th at 10am EDT!

If anyone wants to give me a follow, it would be so awesome! :)

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/artistikstore/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/artistikstore

Or go to ARTISTIK’s website:

This is the link:   https://artistikstore.com/

Thanks for reading my updates during these weeks, and I hope to see you at the store. ;)

[cristinaarce]

Progress Report Week 6

This is my Week#6 update:

E-COMMERCE

The E-commerce is taking me longer than I have expected. I designed all my social media and set up personal deadlines to launch on August 1st, but sadly I was not able to have everything ready for it, so I had to postponed it.

Why is it taking so long?  Well, basically all the behind the scene logistics.  Just a few tasks but so important that I cannot launch without them finished.

For example:  Shipping information.

This week I have set up the shipping information for the store.  I didn’t realize how difficult it was to set up this, and it took me pretty much the entire week to recollect all the necessary information to complete this task.

For some reason I always thought that online stores had an option to set these things up automatically and it was all ready... but nop.  That is not the case.   I mean, yes and not.  Yes, the platform can automatically give some results of shipping costs and will automatically show it to the customers at the checkout page, but first, you have to enter some data.

What kind of data?

I had to set up shipping information for each product individually, because they all have different weights and packaging sizes.   …Which means, I had to weight and take measurements of every single product I am having on the store.   I’ve created an average, because there is a weight difference between an extra small size dress and an 3X-large size, so this way I do not have to enter a different shipping cost within the same product.  

Also, each country has different shipping regulations, and all that has to be entered into the store back-end.  Shipping costs within Canada are different than shipping a product to United States, and very different than sending a package to say, Italy or Costa Rica.   

Shipping costs are different if I am using Canada Post or if I want to offer the option of a faster shipping using companies like FedEx or UPS.  All this data needs to be added to the admin part of the website.  Some of these companies offer flat rates, other ones require the company (me!) to contact them directly to get a rate for local businesses.  To do that, they request to fill up forms and some paperwork needs to be sent.

I had to also consider that each supplier has different shipping specifications and each of them package the products differently, which means... yes, you guessed, different prices for each supplier.

Another headache was to set up the taxes.  Once again, each province has a different set of taxes, the same as each country and the states or provinces within that country.  So, yeah… that was a lot of work too, because I had to look for, do research, and recollect all the information related to provincial, federal, and international taxes to be able to complete this task.

All that information had to be entered into the admin part of the website, so I can actually sell and ship the products to the customers and charging the correct amount. 

Another thing that I did this week was to create an analytics account and connected to the store, so I can monitor the future traffic.  This was set up on Google Analytics and tested.

I have also set up the Facebook Pixel, to be able to track the customer’s interaction with my brand.

The last thing I have done related to the website, was to add reCAPTCHA to all the contact forms on the website, to protect it against spam.  To do this, I have to program some customized coding into the website, because the theme I have bought did not have it as an option.

Basically, most of time invested this week was to cross over only five things from my entire to-do list.

SOCIAL MEDIA

In the meantime, I have been posting every day on social media.  I have been using relevant hashtags to attract people and hopefully create some kind of buzz around the brand.  I have been getting some likes but not new followers just yet.  :(

I have not done any marketing or advertising though, because I am not having the store ready just yet, but the visitors I am getting at this point are all organic.

If anyone wants to take a look and give me a follow, it would be so awesome! :)

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/artistikstore/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/artistikstore

I STILL HAVE HOPE...

I know that the course is getting closer to the end, and by now most of the other students have sold their products and have hit their goals... and I haven’t even been able to open my store.  BUT, I still have hope...  

I still believe this business idea has great potential.  I still believe this online store could be very successful.  I still believe there is a need for my product.  I still believe there is people who will buy it.  I still believe this E-commerce would be awesome.

For some, getting to the end of the class means it’s time to wrap up the project and move on... BUT for me, this is just the beginning.

I still have hope that I will be able to launch the store this week.  I still have hope that as soon as I open the store, I will be able to attract some potential customers. I still have hope that people will like the E-commerce store and that they will love the products I am creating.   I still have hope that I will make some initial sales during the first week.

But most importantly, I still have hope that this business idea that I am slowly making a reality will become THE NEXT BIG THING!  :) 

[cristinaarce]

PROGRESS REPORT WEEK 5

I feel like this week went by so fast and I was not able to do everything that I wanted.

E-COMMERCE WEBSITE

As per last week’s to-do list, I needed to finish the E-commerce store so I can launched and  start promoting it, but between work, deadlines, and other courses that I am taking at the same time, I was not able to dedicate as much time as I wanted to the website.

So, the extensive to-do list I shared last week of everything that I needed to do to be able to launch the website, it’s pretty much the same one for this week. :(

Sometimes when I am struggling finishing the website, I feel like these guys:

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY

I did set up my photography and studio equipment, and took the professional photos I wanted of all the prototype details.

I am still in the process of editing the photos to match them all and give the website the professional look I want.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I designed two full weeks of posts for Instagram, and I have schedule them.  I set it up to share automatically to my Facebook Page and also my Twitter account.  At this point, I am not having enough time and experience to create different unique posts for each social media platform, so I am using the same image and content for the three of them.

I did start posting on social media even when my website isn’t finished just yet. 

For now, I am redirecting them to a temporary homepage where the person can add their email to get a notification of when the store will open.  So far, no one has subscribed just yet.

If anyone wants to take a look and give me a follow, it would be so awesome! :)

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/artistikstore/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/artistikstore

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/artistikstore

HAPPY NOTES

Since this week was not entirely the best one so far, because I was not able to accomplish as many things as I needed, I want to finish this week’s progress report with a happy note.  

Since this week seems to be all about turtles (lol), here I left you with a cute turtle joke and an turtle inspiration image:

[cristinaarce]

PROGRESS REPORT – WEEK 4

This week has been a little slow because I had work to do, but I was able to accomplish some important tasks.

The best news of this week is:

THE PROTOTYPE PRODUCTS ARRIVED!!!!

After many weeks waiting what it felt like an eternity, the prototypes products arrived.

The first one was the Chinese supplier, which included a personalized note from the manufacture apologizing for the delay and explained what happened, which I consider it was a nice detail from them.  According to them, they were running into some last-minute adjustments and paperwork in the import/export regulations from their country due to some changes of policies at the Canadian border due to the “new NATFA” modifications (now called Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement CUSMA) that happened two/three weeks ago, and ensure their normal shipping and custom processes are a lot faster.   

Not really sure how the Chinese import/exports may be affected by the CUSMA agreement, but the truth is that I received the products at the end of the day of last Monday, which was actually the fastest of the three suppliers even with the mentioned issues.

Two days later, I was contacted by the Fedex office requesting a custom fees to be paid to be able to deliver a package coming from Latvia.  Latvia?  At the beginning I thought it was a scam but after checking the tracking numbers and also the information provided by them, I realized it was the order from the US supplier.  This order ended coming from a Latvia fulfilment center and not from California where they are actually located.  I sent an email to the supplier asking about this, and they said that because of the Covid-19 pandemic the entire state of California was ordered to close once again, and they had to shut down.  As a solution to this problem outside their control, they had to contact their sister company located in Latvia asking them to fulfill the orders of their customers temporarily until California is allowed to open again.  They say their priority was to get the products to their clients as promised even if they are coming from another their sister manufacture, instead of letting everybody down.   They posted about this in their website, blog, and social media which I missed, so I was not aware of the situation.

Since the package came from Latvia and Canada does not have any trade agreement with them, I had to pay for the additional custom fees, which were not cheap.

And today I have received the Canadian one.

Although I paid an expensive premium shipping to rush a 1-2 days delivery for all orders, the Canadian supplier sent the products using normal shipping from Canada Post, which meant an additional 6 days to what I actually requested and paid for.  This supplier is located in Montreal, so probably it could have been faster for me to drive up there and get the products than waiting and paying for their delivery.  But it is what it is.

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY

This week I will be setting up my photography and studio equipment to be able to take the professional photos of all the products I have received.  

After taking the photos of the products I will edit the backgrounds to match them all and give the website a professional look.

I have already some mock-ups made but I will be also adding the actual photos of the products.  These mock-ups are a general view of the products, but the product photographs I will be taking will be about the details and finishes of the products.

(Image source, google images.  Not my product).

E-COMMERCE STORE

The store is 80% finished.  I still need to write the content for the few last pages, create and upload the final designs for the products, upload the new photographs of the products, and finalize the collection pages.

These days I have been writing all the product descriptions, trying to apply some SEO suggestions so hopefully the pages will rank in Google, and the website could be found. 

I have also setting up the SKUs for each product, each size and material of each product.  Creating SKUs have been a learning experience, because I need to set them up in a way that the store can potentially grow by adding more products.  But also, easy to understand that any future employee could recognize what each SKU means.  ...And without repeating them! -  Definitely not an easy task!

It has been a LOT of work, because I normally create a website in a few months, not only a couple weeks!  And an E-commerce requires a lot of logistics that a simple informational website does not have.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I have started the designs for the first week of posts for Instagram, and I will schedule them hopefully in the next couple days, so at least my social media channels are not empty.

After I edit and finish the product photographs, I will start sharing them also on social media.  This way, if someone runs into my social media channels by pure random luck, there will be something to show.

GOALS! GOALS! GOALS!

I know that as part of the class and in previous assignments I have set up a goal of making profit for the end of the class, but I want to also be realistic of the limited time available at this point. 

I have been pushing myself as much as I can to finish everything as soon as possible, so I can actually launch the finished store before the end of this course and at least have a couple sales.  But to be entirely honest, even if I cannot reach that goal within the timeline given, I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish until now.

Yes, it would be very disappointed to lose marks because of it, but the truth is: I am here for the long run.  The feedback I have been getting from the people I have shown the project and just some sketches of the website have been extremely positive.  And I think the E-commerce at this point looks even better than those sketches which makes me super excited of what its coming.

Don’t get me wrong, I will keep pushing myself even more the next couple weeks to work harder and will try to do even the impossible to make this happen, because it has been truly a very rewarding process to see this business idea slowly becoming a reality.  :)

[cristinaarce]

PROGRESS REPORT – WEEK 3

This week’s update is going to be pretty much about one thing: The E-commerce store.

Basically, all the free time I had during the week has been dedicated to work on the creation of the E-commerce website. 

I have been looking into online retailers to see what are the most needed features to launch a clothing E-commerce store… and I have a huge to-do list!

At this moment I am focused in the logistics of how to make the store work properly.  From setting up payments systems, to how to capture the personal and shipping information from the buyers so I can deliver the products.

It’s important to mention that I have been testing constantly that the store is working perfectly on mobile and also a computer.

Things that I have already done:

- I have set up the hosting for the store - Redirect DNS of hosting supplier to the URL with the store name - Created two main email accounts using the URL, so customers can send emails or special requests - Created a scope of the website architecture to make sure its functional and user friendly - Defined a content hierarchy with the different menus around the store - Have created page outlines for the main pages - Established the visual hierarchy & placement of the content - Determined the brand colour, imagery, and all fonts used in the store - Design banners for the homepage - Created visual assets like buttons, call to actions, etc. - Connected one of the suppliers to the back-end of the e-commerce - Added initial 4 products of the first Collection to the store - I have set up the payment systems for the store - Connect billing information to the bank - Designed the size chart and a guide of how to make your own measurements - Wrote all the content for the pages:  Homepage, About, Size Guide, Frequent Questions Asked, Shipping Policies, Returns and Exchanges, Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policies. - Set up and programming the forms used around the website, like the one in the contact page and a floating contact form that will be available at all times.  Including some web securities like ReCaptcha to avoid excessive spam. - I have installed a few applications that will provide the opportunity for customers to leave reviews on the products or the experience. - And also installed additional applications that will help me manage the Wishlist and the reviews. - I have started looking into email marketing options for the store - I have programmed some required code customization for functionality and the back-end of the store

And - I have drank a lot of coffee to help me stay up late trying to get all things done  LOL

Some of the many things that I still need to do:

- Enter all the Shipping information about the costs to ship in Canada or Internationally. - Setting up the FOB point for supplier and carrier responsibilities. - Set up taxes’ information (Provincial, federal, and international). - Design and set up online invoices - Connect billing information to my online bookkeeping system - Come up with a launch promotion so I can attract some potential buyers - Design and photograph the new products so I can start posting on social media - Decide which email marketing platform I will be using for the store, so I can create an email list and eventually can send newsletters and promotions to the past customers. - Need to create an Analytics account and connect it to the store, so I can monitor the traffic. - Add links & functionality to content for SEO (internal links and external links). - Need to proofread and edit the content where required for SEO - Continue testing performance on different devices and platforms - Social Media! Social Media! Social Media! And more.

FASHION DESIGNS

The only non-website related thing I did this week was to create the first couple designs for the first Collection.  I have modified them as needed, reviewed them, and selected the ones I want to use for the first couple products :) 

WHAT AM I LEARNING?

That starting a new online store requires more work than what I thought.  There are SO many little things that are SO important to make a website to function properly.  They seem like a 1 minute tasks when in reality are a couple hours tasks.

This is what I thought it will be:

When these are actually more accurate to reality:

[cristinaarce]

START-UP VENTURE. WEEK TWO.

WEBSITE.

This week has been all about the website.

This week I started working on the E-commerce website for the store.  I have selected the platform Shopify for the online store.  For the start-up I subscribed for the most basic package to keep the costs as low as possible.

I have also bought the template I am using for the store.  Even that I have experience creating and designing websites, it’s very convenience to use a template that already has most of the features that I want for the store.  There are still some features that I need to add to make the website fully functional and customer friendly before I launch the store.

SOCIAL MEDIA.

I was able to lock down the social media usernames using the store’s name.  I was able to find the exact name that I wanted on all the social media channels that I am interested to use.

They are still empty at this point because my next step is to start brainstorming about content ideas.  I still do not have my prototypes (samples) of my products, so I cannot share them online.  But as soon as I receive them, I will start posting to create some buzz about it.

SUPPLIERS & THE PROTOTYPES.

Still many suppliers are not open yet, so I won’t be able to work with them for this course.  But, I am still considering them for the long run since their materials and delivery times are way better than the ones I have chosen for the prototypes.

For the prototypes, as I said last week, the suppliers available are taking more time than normal to process orders because of the Covid-19 crisis.  I have ordered the prototypes (samples) three weeks ago but they are still in production, without having a specific timeline for delivery.  Before the Covid-19 crisis, their production times were somewhere between 4 to 10 days, currently they are up to 6 weeks!  To this timeline I still need to add the shipping timing.

I have written an email to all the suppliers asking for an update.  The one from United States and the one from China has responded.  I got no answer from the Canadian one.  I’d have loved to use the Canadian supplier for everything, but since their customer service team is not even responding it is making me have second thoughts about relying on them for all the production.

CUSTOMS AND TAXES.

Since I haven’t received the samples, I cannot really know if it will be required to pay additional customs fees at this point, but that is something I need to consider budgeting in if I decide to use either the American or the Chinese supplier.

This will be also a cost that I need to seriously consider if I want to offer free shipping to my buyers.

COPYCATS.

A bad experience I have had this week was that I found out that someone is already copying what I am doing for my store.  I haven’t launch it yet and I already have copycats.

I already knew that part of owning an online retail store was the risk of having people copying the store, the designs, the company’s name, or the content of the store.  I just didn’t think it was going to be this soon.

I had two options, one is to fight it and go after this copycat… or two, focus my energy and my time into making my store even better than any other copycat out there!  

I’ve decided to go with the latter.

. . . . . (enter suspense music) . . . . . . . .

I will still keep an eye on this copycat though.  

This was the update of Week 2.

So, this is the update of the second week.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next weeks are bringing to this new venture…. :)

Images Sources:  https://fox28spokane.com/classic-movie-review-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-r-1967/

https://www.deviantart.com/jeffvictor/art/The-Good-The-Bad-and-the-Ugly-315379399

https://25yearslatersite.com/2018/12/26/sergio-leones-dollars-trilogy-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

[cristinaarce]

START-UP VENTURE.  WEEK ONE.

What is working?

- It has been very exciting to see something that was only a “crazy idea” a few months ago, start becoming something real.  :)

- I have showed some of my closed family members what I have been planning these months and they are all see it as a very promising venture.

- Every day that I am working on the project I get more confident about the potential success, and I am very hopeful of what the future may bring.

- I have designed and created a few designs for the store, and I am loving them.  They are simpler than what I have envisioned, but still its something that I am sure can be sold.

- Since I’ve started developing the initial idea, I have had many other business ideas that could be merged with this one.  I am starting to visualize it growing into a something bigger.

What is not working?

- After having such an amazing guideline of all the steps to go through, from detailed information of how to come up with the idea up to the practice of the pitch to the creation of the budget to build up the new business, now I am honestly feeling a little lost without knowing how to do advertising or marketing.  I know I need to basically start “putting the name of my brand out there” to be able to find clients or customers, but I have no clue of where to start.  (Other than telling my family and friends about it).  Some of the questions going inside my head are:  What kind of advertising/marketing works and what not? Where is recommended and wise to spend the limited money available and where is considered a waste of time/money? How can I prepare a step-by-step plan and how can put the plan on practice?  Do I need to hire someone to do all this for me, or is it something that I can do myself?  What kind of skills are required to do it? Do I have those skills?  So many questions!  Yes, I know that I am probably overthinking it, and honestly freaking out a little bit but I have so many questions about marketing and advertising that I still need to find answers and solutions to them.  

I just do not want to make mistakes like these guys did, because I did not know better: 

Here are some drawbacks I have also experienced:

- Because of Covid, many suppliers are not open yet, or they are not offering the same products or services that they used to.  I have been forced to look for other suppliers that are offering these services currently and leaving the initially selected suppliers for a future plan.

- Another inconvenience I am having is the suppliers available are taking more time than normal to process orders.  I have ordered prototypes (samples) a few weeks back but they are still in production, without having a specific timeline for delivery.  (Before Covid, their production times were something between 4 to 10 days. Now they are 5-6 weeks!).  

- I have also heard shipping times are extremely long at this time.

How do you feel the project is coming?

- I have bought the URL for the website, which makes me super excited.  Just by doing that, it made it feel so REAL!  As I was buying it, all I could think was “OMG It’s happening! It’s actually happening!”  :)

- Tomorrow I will start working on the website (E-commerce) for the store.  I have selected the platform I will be using.  I already looked into their pricing and features included into each package offered.  For the start up, I will be using the most basic package to keep the costs as low as possible.

- I have selected the suppliers I will be using too (even that I have not received the samples just yet).  Unless there is a big issue with any of the prototypes, I will use three suppliers.  One in Canada, one in United States, and one in China.  I’d have loved to use the Canadian one for everything, but their prices are extremely high compared to the other two (even considering the dollar exchange).  Since I haven’t received the items, I cannot really know if it will be required to pay additional customs fees at this point.  I will make my final decision about the suppliers as soon as I get the samples, compare and evaluate the quality of the products, and the final costs of the goods.

What are you learning about running a business?

- It requires a lot of work to get a retail business off the ground, even if it’s only online at this moment.

- The costs related to starting up are higher than I thought.  I had a clear idea of what was needed, but the prices have been going up in the last couple months, so I was a little surprised to the total amount involved to just break even.

- There have been so many unknowns during the Covid season that its teaching me that as a business owner I need to somehow to be prepared and protect myself and the business against circumstances out of my control.  As they say, be prepare for the rainy day.

What are you learning about yourself?

I hope not to sound too negative here, but going through this entire process of building a new business from the ground up have made me realize of some qualities that I haven’t realized I had that I am not very proud of but I still know that I can work on them and get better at it.  Recognizing the problem is the first step, right?  :)

- I tend to overthink when I am not sure of what steps I should follow. (as you can see in the question about marketing lol).

- A very personal one:  I am perfectionist and I am having trouble letting things go.  Perfectionism is tricky.  I may think that I have high standards and I only want to do the best, which sounds great… BUT, it can also keep me from getting things done too.  I need to find a balance between those two, so I do not feel frustrated if something is not as perfect as how I imagined.

- Talking about overcome perfectionism, I will have to remind myself about this while I create and design the E-Commerce store for my business, so I won’t be focusing on the tiny little unimportant details, and more on the functionality to make a great user-friendly website.

- As a typical perfectionist, I am always doing everything myself, but for this retail business I realized I will need to learn to delegate tasks to other people otherwise the business won’t grow.  As scary as that can may be for a perfectionist person like me, I get pumped of just the idea of having someone else to give me a hand with all the business responsibilities.

So, this is the update of the first week.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next weeks are bringing to this new venture… all those gratifying moments and also the challenges involved.  And hopefully that will also bring a few sales too. ;) 

[cristinaarce]

BUSINESS FUNDING

One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs and small businesses owners is finding the funds necessary to launch and grow their business.

Image Source: thesmallbusinesssite.co.za

So, where will I get the money?

This will be the order of how I am planning to fund my new business.

Personal Investment

Love Money If needed:

Crowdfunding

Bank or Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)

The first months and to launch the business for the 14-week courseI will be my first investor.  I am the owner of another business, and as a solo-entrepreneur I will be adding my own equity and assets into the business.  Some of the equipment and office supplies I currently own, will be used for both businesses.

I have also used my personal investment for the manufacture of product samples. (CAD$50+)

For the launch, I will invest heavily on marketing to create brand awareness and to see the response of the market.  I will update or modify the first products as needed adapting it to the feedback from the buyers and users.

After the launch of the business and some months of running the business, only if needed, I may borrow a small capital from my spouse to market the products even more to an extended range of people getting close to the Black Friday and the Holiday season.

I am planning to re-evaluating the finance status after the 1st month, 3 months, and 6 months, to adjust what is needed.

Image source: smallbizdaily.com

If I need more capital to grow the online store, I may consider using Crowdfunding to launch new products.  Crowdfunding allows for a wider pool of small investors with fewer restrictions and is ideal in the early stages of a business.  My options for crowdfunding will be Kickstarter, or Rockethub, or Fundable or Indiegogo.

If the business is blooming and I am not able to handle everything involved with the business by myself, to keep growing the online store to the next level I will approach my bank as they have programs and grants specifically for women who are starting a small business; or I may request a small personal bank loan, based on my good credit and also presenting a solid business and financial plan to grow the business.

In terms of future larger financial sources, I did some research looking for government grants and programs.  Because of my age, I do not meet the eligibility criteria for any Futurpreneur Canada programs; but BDC has a start-up financing offer for businesses who have been in operation for at least 12 months and have generated revenues.  I did some additional research about this program and from what I read on their website, I do meet their criteria and I will be eligible after a year of successfully running the online store.

#funding #smallbusiness

[cristinaarce]

BUSINESS OPERATIONS FOR AN ONLINE RETAILER

Business operations vary according to the business type, industry, and size.  The business operations for brick-and-mortar stores may have some similar elements to an online store, but they also have some unique operations.

Ecommerce allows you to optimize an infrastructure to sell to a huge world-wide audience online efficiently at a lower cost than running a physical store, but it is not as easy as most may think.  Building an eCommerce business takes more than choosing a brand name, writing a product listing, and starting selling the product.  Or even having a website filled with hundreds of products, dozens of categories, and no real focus.  Unless you are Amazon, that does not work.  You need to niche down to run a profitable store, put systems in place in the process of selling those products.   Even the best idea/product won’t sell if the website does not have any traffic.

I will be listing some of the many elements that need to be taken care of daily, weekly, and monthly, to run an online retail, and how I am applying it to my own business.  You will also notice some of the struggles and challenges that as a business owner one has to face.

Manufacture.

The recent events related to the Covid pandemic have affected many manufacturing companies and their suppliers.  Most of them have had to temporarily close for several weeks, and some are struggling to survive.  Initially I was starting a business relationship with only two suppliers, but now I am increasing my options for suppliers because some of the ones I had deals with, have no timeline to open, or do not have any products available just yet.

After doing some additional research, I have found a Canadian supplier located in Montreal that offers a similar product than the one I had planned.  It is not exactly the same, but since the other suppliers are still closed, I needed to find a new one as soon as possible.  I have ordered an initial sample from them over the weekend, so now I just need to wait to check their quality, real producing timelines, and shipping deliveries.  Since this manufacturing company is about 6 hours away from my residence, if the opportunity is available, I may consider setting up an appointment for a quick visit.  (I have emailed them this afternoon, but haven’t gotten a reply about this matter just yet). I will need to find out about the production time and lead time with them to ensure there is enough time between the end date of the manufacturing process, shipping time, and the launch date of the store for this course.

Part of the $50 was invested and used to buy the sample from this manufacturer.

Inventory Management.

I am producing a custom made product, so I will not be carrying any inventory.  When the customer orders a product, I will be sending the designs, specifications, and order to the manufacturer to produce.  Since it's a custom made product, I will take longer to produce than buying an already existing one, but the client will have the satisfaction of having a personalized product exclusively made for them.

Online Store There are literally hundreds of eCommerce shopping platforms.  Choosing the right software is not easy.  You need to evaluate things like compatibility with different payment gateways, loading speed, SEO-friendly and social media features, and more.

Even though the possibility to sell on Amazon or any other marketplace is available, I love the idea of owning my own digital real estate.  I have owned my personal website since 2001 with only my name (and dot com) which is almost impossible to find these days.  I also own different URLs related to my photography and fine art store, so I find it logical to have my own for the clothing store too.  Since I have been a long-time client of SiteGround, I will be able to get my URL through them.  The hosting plan I am already paying for my other websites allows me to have unlimited websites, free SSL, free business email, unlimited databases, daily backups, and up to 100,000 visits monthly.  I have checked and the brand name I want for the store is available. This company’s service integrates perfectly with Shopify, which is the eCommerce platform that I will be using. My next step is to start choosing which theme will work best for the online store I want to create, and start designing it.  I have a background as a graphic designer (I have been one for 20+ years), so I will be doing the website myself.  The investment here will be mostly my time. As a future investment, I will be looking into SEO optimization, email marketing, and strategies for diverse online marketing like pay-per-click ads or sponsored content to drive traffic to the store.

Social Media Channels

Most businesses sell through their website, marketplaces, and also social media.  My brand will follow those steps too.  I have reserved the social media handles with the name I will be using for the store.  After I set up the website, and am still waiting for the sample to arrive, I will start brainstorming ideas for social media content.

Image source: ecommerceceo.com

Licenses and Permits I will be outsourcing the production of the product initially to a canadian company, so I won’t need a license for that.  Eventually, when I am required to find another supplier outside Canada, I will need to look into more details about Import and Export regulations and permits, and also the potential customs fees I might need to pay.

Test Product As soon as I get the initial sample, I will test the product.  I will test it myself, and get extra eyes and hands on it.  I will try to get feedback from family, friends, and hopefully potential customers.  I will get all their thoughts together and make necessary changes, or improvements.

Organization, Workflow, and Systems Since I am new to the retailer industry, I am creating templates to organize myself a little bit better.  Some of the templates are to keep all the details of the products in one place.  I have also created one specifically for the product samples.

I am looking into digital workflow systems that may help running the store smoothly and as automate as possible.

There are still many more elements to take into account then running an online retailer like: - Fulfilment process - Warehouse space - Payment Methods - Customer Service and Returns process - Accounting - Multi-currency, multi-language websites to sell overseas - Taxes And many more.

 Image source: careertraining.ed2go.com

[cristinaarce]

CREATIVE ADVERTISING EXERCISE

After a few fun steps in the exercise, we had to come up with a headline, copy, and simple image to create an Ad for product described like “metal wire bent in an oval shape, it’s got a hinge on one end, and a pointy part on the other”.

This is final Ad:

*  Pronounced GA-SEE-JA

FYI.  My background is Spanish, and most of the words that I thought in the process of the exercise were mostly Spanish, so I used one of them for the advertising. :)

#creativeadvertising #schoolexercise

[cristinaarce]

MARKETING PERSONA

What is a marketing persona?  “A marketing persona is a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience” - Ardath Albee.  According to Aaron Beashel, a marketing consultant from Buffer, “A marketing persona is meant to represent a segment of your target market, not the whole thing. If your target market is ‘Marketers’, it is perfectly acceptable to have multiple personas for the different types of marketers so long as there is enough of a difference between them to warrant a separate persona. You may have multiple marketer personas broken up by business size, or industry, or whatever makes sense for your business”.  He also says “Marketing Personas are the foundation on which you can build your marketing function. Without them, it’s almost impossible to know how to message your product to talk to customers’ pain points and needs, or how to reach them to build awareness and drive them to your website”.

Source Image: https://www.prestashop.com/en

Today I am creating a marketing persona based on my target audience.

MY BUSINESS

Online Retail store focused on styles and designs for petite women.

TARGET AUDIENCE

My business will target professionals between 25 and 45 years old.  The women who are under 5’4" in height, averaging between 5’ to 5’2” with curvy or smaller frames.  They are always busy and do not have much free time to devote to shopping, which is why they value being able to shop online for their favourite outfits.  These women are established in their careers and have the money to spend on clothing and accessories that fit them best.  This group of women desires fashion and comfort in their clothing while having the perception that they lead an active lifestyle. They look for clothing that can be worn as casual or as fitness attire, which is very appealing to this audience.  This group of people is health-minded and maintains a healthy lifestyle by practicing yoga, running, or working out—people who could potentially be ambassadors of the brand

PERSONA

Her name is Anna. Anna is a creative, multitasker, 37-year-old woman, married, an interior designer, writer, and content creator.  She is a hardworking professional and busy mom of two girls.  Anna likes to look good and polished, but she is 5’2” in height and has a petite frame, making it difficult to find clothes that fit her body type.  She is aware of how her body is changing with age and how her hips got wider after having her two daughters.  She is no longer a small size, and currently, she buys large or extra-large clothing.  She realized that to look good, all her clothing requires hemming or tailoring because the standard regular size in most stores does not fit her.  Anna looks for fashion and comfort in her clothing.  She loves to dress well and feel great when wearing something that fits her body.  When she goes out on a date with her husband or lunch with her friends, she loves to dress up wearing the latest trends in fashion, but she also wants to look fashionable and feel comfortable when she is out running errands.  She supports local boutiques, but she rather does it from their online platform.  She likes to shop online because it’s convenient to buy from either the privacy of her home or anywhere using her mobile phone.  She makes a good salary, so she isn't entirely budget-conscious; however, she is not a crazy extravagant spender.  She weighs quality over price.  She is loyal to brands that carry sizes that fit her body and make her look good even when she is considered short to the fashion norm.

You will find more details about Anna’s motivations, likes, pain points, her personality and much more, in the following image:

(Click on image to make it big)

[cristinaarce]

#competitors #analysis #clothingstore

[cristinaarce]

Starbucks Message Map Created by me (Cristina Arce) Using: Coggle. 2020.

Click the image to make it bigger.

Information:  Starbuck’s websites (www.starbucks.ca, www.starbucks.com).  And from my own experience as a regular customer.

#messagemap #starbucks

#schoolproject

[cristinaarce]

Strengths and Weaknesses

Let me start saying that probably one of my weaknesses is talking about myself.  I could talk hours about the great things that other people have done or have created, but it is just a challenge to find the words to talk about myself without feeling like a self-centric person.

Having said that, I do know that I have many great qualities and skills because, without them, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

For those new around here, let me introduce myself, I am Cristina Arce, the owner of a photography business and a fine art online store, both based in Toronto, Canada.  I started my photography business in 2002, and since then, I have worked across the board of photography, from fashion, corporate and entertainment headshots, to commercial, editorial, and product photography.  Currently, my main focus has been branding and social media imagery for clients who need amazing photos for their businesses.  

I am also a graphic designer with extensive experience of over 15 years in web and print design, over seven years as an email marketing design specialist, and over five years as a manager overseeing a creative department of 18 employees.  I went to university to get a degree in graphic design and publicity back in the early 2000s, and another in photography after that.  I recently went to college to get a social media and management certificate, and currently, I am taking three courses online about business from Western University and George Brown College.

I can easily talk about what I do because that is something that I am very passionate about.  But I did not really mention anything about myself.  Yes, by telling you what I have done for a living, you may have guessed that I love to study and that I am really good at business.  However, the reality is, it has not always been easy, and I had to get over many challenges and learn many new skills on the way.

One thing that everyone trying to go into a new business or starting a new venture needs to do is evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, so they can have a clear idea of where they will need help, or where they will need to learn more in-depth.

Strengths and weaknesses

You may find several blog posts and articles all over the Internet about the many essential qualities that most business owners should have.  Some articles have lists of over 20 or 30 specific skills. And a lot of them will make you think that if you do not have all of them, you won’t be able to ever run a small business - I do not think it’s necessarily true.  

Even though I don’t think you do not need to have every single quality when you are successfully launching a business, you definitely need to prepare yourself to wear many hats.  And sometimes all of them at the same time!

Every person is unique.  You all have strengths and weaknesses, not only personal ones but also as professionals.  The same goes for your business.  Every business requires a different set of skills according to the products or services offered.

(Image source: Capscratch, Redbubble)

Today I won’t be giving you a list of all the essential qualities that you need to run a small business; instead, I am going to put myself on the spot and tell you with entire honesty what are some of my personal and professional strengths and weaknesses that I have discovered through the years as a freelance creative.

I will make it as a list because I love lists!  :)

STRENGTHS

I love to-do lists and sticky notes

I love to help people

I am a “glass-half-full” kind of person.  I try to find the good in people and opportunities from rough moments.

I am very easy-going

I like to share advice from my own experience

Love to start projects and new adventures

Love to be organized, and keep track of everything that’s going on

Love to start every year with a new paper agenda, and write down my goals

I am definitely a visual person and love to create vision boards for my projects

I am used to wearing several "hats" at the same time

I am always analyzing risks and opportunities

I have determination and perseverance

I am very artistic and creative

I am bilingual, I speak English and Spanish.

WEAKNESSES

I am naturally a nice person, so some people may try to take advantage of it.

I am a perfectionist and focus too much on getting things perfect instead of getting them done.

I take too much on my plate, and I cannot finish the many projects I am working on

I do not know when to stop without feeling defeated.

I do compare my behind the scenes with other people’s highlights, which brings self insecurities

Most of the time, I am overthinking when analyzing risks and opportunities. LOL

I get overwhelmed when I am given too many options to choose from.

Oh, definitely bookkeeping, accounting, and banking stuff!  I am so thankful that people love to do these tasks, so I can outsource it!

Why is it so important about knowing these qualities about yourself?

Before jumping onto the entrepreneurship wagon, I was an employee for a large company, and didn’t know all the little and not so little things that were happening behind the scenes.  I did not know that since I was the business owner I had to look for new clients, keep them and making them happy, deal any complaints or suggestions, finding suppliers, changing suppliers, bookkeeping, accounting, social media, website creation, website maintenance, marketing and advertising, government paperwork, finding ways to innovate, creation of new products/services, prototypes, testing of those products/services, etc.

Why am I telling you all this? Because knowing everything that needs to be done, and being able to identify what you do well, and what you do not do so well, will help you to find the best solutions to those challenges.

For example, I am not a math person; I could even get a headache just thinking of doing the taxes myself.  I know it's one of my weaknesses.  So, as a business owner who HAS to do bookkeeping, accounting, and fill out the taxes every single year, what did I do?  Well, I planned ahead and saved some of my income to be able to hire someone to do that for me.

Remember, another solution is, if you do not want to hire someone, you can always go back to school and learn those new skills.

(Image source:  GaryVee Wallpapers, a Quote from Gary Vaynerchuk )

 Now, it's your turn.  Take a pen and a paper, and write down your strengths and weaknesses.  As you evaluate yourself, be honest.  You will only hurt yourself if you are not.  If you find a weakness, try to find a possible solution, like what I did for my accounting challenges.

Leave a comment telling us one of your strengths and weaknesses, and what may be your solution to your weakness.

During the next weeks, I will be posting more about entrepreneurship, some new business ideas that I have, and I will be showing the progress of starting this new venture.  Thanks for stopping by! :)

#startinganewbusiness #strength #smallbusinessowner

[cristinaarce]

Please take me back to Italy! ❤️ . All original fine art photographs by Cristina Arce (@cristinaarce) are available at our store, www.cristinaphotostore.com. (Link in our bio). ☀️ . . . . . . . #cristinaphotostore #cristinaarce #torontophotographer #canadianphotographer #fineartphotography #travelphotography #art #travel #travelgram #travelnow #wanderlust #beautifuldestinations #artforthehome #artofvisuals #landscape #landscapephotography #printshop #artprint #artlovers #artist #artistsoninstagram #originalartforsale #artprintsforsale #emergingart #puzzlefeed #italy #italytravel #rome #roma #italytravel (at Rome, Italy) https://www.instagram.com/p/B11t3rFg2zp/?igshid=1i00wpcjl0f9s

#cristinaphotostore #cristinaarce #torontophotographer #canadianphotographer #fineartphotography #travelphotography #art #travel #travelgram #travelnow #wanderlust #beautifuldestinations #artforthehome #artofvisuals #landscape #landscapephotography #printshop #artprint #artlovers #artist #artistsoninstagram #originalartforsale #artprintsforsale #emergingart #puzzlefeed #italy #italytravel #rome #roma

[cristinaarce]

Going to Italy was in my bucket list since I was a teenager, and been able to visit was definitely a dream come true. Italy is even more beautiful than what I thought. Specially the smaller towns. . . . . . . #cristinaphotostore #cristinaarce #photographer #torontophotographer #canadianphotographer #fineartphotography #travelphotography #art #travel #travelgram #travelnow #wanderlust #beautifuldestinations #artforthehome #landscape #landscapephotography #printshop #artprint #artlovers #artistsoninstagram #italy #italyphoto #italytrip #italytravel #italylovers #italia #italianlandscape #italianplaces #puzzledfeed #instagrampuzzlefeed (at Rome, Italy) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1y32smHm2N/?igshid=x9t5v5hdcrt

#cristinaphotostore #cristinaarce #photographer #torontophotographer #canadianphotographer #fineartphotography #travelphotography #art #travel #travelgram #travelnow #wanderlust #beautifuldestinations #artforthehome #landscape #landscapephotography #printshop #artprint #artlovers #artistsoninstagram #italy #italyphoto #italytrip #italytravel #italylovers #italia #italianlandscape #italianplaces #puzzledfeed #instagrampuzzlefeed

[cristinaarce]

Photograph I took while we were in Italy 😍 . . . . . . . . . #cristinaphotostore #cristinaarce #photographer #torontophotographer #canadianphotographer #fineartphotography #travelphotography #art #travel #travelgram #travelnow #wanderlust #beautifuldestinations #artforthehome #homedecor #artofvisuals #landscape #landscapephotography #printshop #artprint #artist #puzzlefeed #artprintsforsale #italy #italytravel #italy_vacations #italyphoto #italytrip #beautifulitaly #instagrampuzzlefeed (at Italy) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1wma2bJdx_/?igshid=8a4h5c8b2uzn

#cristinaphotostore #cristinaarce #photographer #torontophotographer #canadianphotographer #fineartphotography #travelphotography #art #travel #travelgram #travelnow #wanderlust #beautifuldestinations #artforthehome #homedecor #artofvisuals #landscape #landscapephotography #printshop #artprint #artist #puzzlefeed #artprintsforsale #italy #italytravel #italy_vacations #italyphoto #italytrip #beautifulitaly #instagrampuzzlefeed