The learning curve since starting up and running my online discount designer childrens clothes business has been steep. So, what have I learnt:
1. It takes an enormous amount of time spent on SEO and targeting the right keywords to get a lot of traffic to your website. Without having a good presence on the search engines it is difficult to drive enough traffic to the website.
2. There is a lot of competition out there, especially for childrens clothing.
3. The price at which you purchase stock makes a big difference on the % margin that you can achieve so it’s important to buy the right stock at the right price. A lot of this comes through experience of running a business – analysing what sells and what doesn’t and the price that customers are happy to purchase at.
4. I have found that it is important to have a support network, such as other mums that own mumpreneur businesses. I have networked with these mumpreneurs through forums and online business courses. Having the support of other mumpreneurs makes a difference as you share the highs and lows. There will be knock-backs and it’s the way you deal with the knock-backs that make the difference. By having support I find that other mumpreneurs have also a some point had similar problems or issues and we can share stories and empathise.
5. I have found it is important to work on my business. Things have changes a lot since I first started out. The ideas I initially had for my business has changed slightly – I realised that I needed various sales streams. I also realised that I had to go into a smaller niche. When I make decisions I always go back to my business plan and this helps me come to a decision on the route I should take.
Most importantly, I have found that it takes time to build up a profitable business – to build up traffic, to get the brand known, to get customers and then to make these repeat customers.
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