Cute Little Store

What Ever Happened To That Cute Little Store Blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:55:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've posted a blog entry here - and this will be my last entry.

Almost two years ago I closed my Cute Little Store, and I've been moving further and further from the retail scene. Publishing the second book about the business effectively allowed me to close that chapter of my life (pun very much intended), and over the past few months I've been working on new projects - none of which have anything to do with retail and very little of which has to do with small business right now. Continuing to write for this blog is just not in the cards.

I still strongly encourage anyone interested in small business, not just retail, to read both of my books:

(Cute Little Store is also available in KINDLE Edition)

The message today for current and budding entrepreneurs is this:

It's okay to change directions partly or completely
It's perfectly fine to decide you want to do something completely different from what you thought you wanted to do five years ago
The only person who needs to be happy with your career and your life is YOU

I am still always interested in hearing from people who've read the books, and I'll still try to answer questions that show up in my email ( info @ cutelittlestore.net ).

Good luck, best wishes, and if you're interested in what I'm doing next, check in on my primary website ( mignogna.org ) in a few days and you'll see what's up!

Happy Holidays!

Entrepreneurship As A Creative Endeavour (or: The Business Of The "Cute Little Store" Books)

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:40:00 +0000

"smart vendor sammy" recently posted the following comment on my blog post "Choose one...":

"I am a musician, and for me it is a constant struggle to try to play/make what I personally like and get paid for it. I'm doing okay, but at this point I believe that unless I have some crazy twist of kismet I'm going to have to forget trying to sell music if I really want to enjoy the explorations that I ACTUALLY want to do."

I have the same issue with writing. Creative endeavors such as writing and making music is a very different type of entrepreneurship than say, opening a retail store.

I'm going to tell the tale of part of the business aspects of my books "Cute Little Store" and "Cute Little Store 2" and hope that sammy and others can make the intuitive leap to if I was discussing a music CD.

First, for as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to write and even make money on my writing. Primarily, I want to write fiction, but I do a lot of journal writing, too. I was journaling many things related to my store and after almost 2 years, I realized that I was starting to have quite a quantity of work. It was enough so that it was worth intentionally continuing to make into a book.

The problem was of publication/production and distribution. I could submit my book (actually it's a book proposal) to traditional publishers and hope one of them was interested. But that didn't seem like what I wanted to do for many reasons:

Potentially low royalties
I felt my material was timely - and it can take months to hear back from a publisher and typically you don't submit to more than one at a time
Unless you're a big name author or other known person, you're still left to market your book on your own
And lastly, I was concerned about not having the creative control over my work that I wanted

Clearly - I wanted to be the boss of my writing career.

So I looked into self-publication. But the cost seemed to be prohibitive... in order to make it work, it seemed like I would need to produce and sell 5,000 or more copies of my book. The *average* book sells 1,000 copies in it's lifetime! This would be too huge and investment of time and money. It could have been anywhere from $10,000 on up to produce and taken a lot of my time to do things like the layout, find a printer and binder, register for an ISBN number, and get the book listed with various book distribution channels. Ugh.

Luckily, in this new-fangled internet age, I found a happy medium. There are companies out there like my publishing company, Outskirts Press, that are a little in between traditional and self-publishing. Yes, I pay to have it published, but they do all the real work including getting the book available on amazon.com.

The only thing left for me to do is market the book - i.e., sell it. This has not been as overwhelming a chore as it sounds. There are a handful of resources out there on the internet and in books on the best ways to market a creative work. This blog, in fact, has been my Number 1 marketing tool.

Which brings us back to sammy's original problem - spending time marketing/selling vs working on the creative work itself. It is a challenge. The fact that I'm spending time writing this blog today means I'm not working on my other creative writing. I struggle with this all the time - because the more I blog, the more results in sales I see on my existing books, but it takes away from me producing new work. (It's one of the reasons my blog writing is erratic - I struggle a great deal with writing this vs writing other things.)

It is a catch-22, and I think one of the best ways to deal is to block out specific times of specific days to work on one or the other. I do this sometimes - I will block out 1-2 hours of specific evenings that I devote just to marketing my existing books.

In order for this 1-2 hours to be meaningful, I have a list of things I do for marketing and I work off this list. For me, this is very helpful so I'm not just randomly spinning my wheels. A lot of my book marketing is done right here on the internet and involves being active in online communities where I might find other entrepreneurs or people who want to be entrepreneurs. If I was in music, I would definitely be maintaining a site on myspace and other places that attract music lovers.

Another option is to hire people to do some of the work. I'm not talking about hiring a manager or someone who will always take a cut of your royalties, but hire someone to do a specific task. In the case of music, if you have a CD and you want to say, get some stores to carry it at their counter and you would rather spend your Saturday making more music then going around to a bunch of stores... hire someone you know who's good at schmoozing people to spend a few hours going around to stores and canvasing them to sell your CD. I'd offer this person something like $30 flat plus some amount based on what they're able to sell.

Basically, sammy... I'm glad you ended your comment saying "I'm not going to give up yet" because you shouldn't. Earning money off your creative endeavors is possible and doable - it will just take a lot of hard work! Good luck! :)

The Simple Dollar on finances and freelancing/starting one's own business

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:28:00 +0000

The Simple Dollar is one of my favorite blogs. Today's post is:

Fifteen Things to Do to Make Jumping into Freelancing/Self-Employment Financially Successful

and a worthy read!

Get Your Personal Finances Under Control Before Quitting That Day Job!

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:34:00 +0000

I just paid off the remainder of my student loans the other day. Woo hoo!! Outside of personal satisfaction that comes with this act, it's something that I did with the intent to reduce my monthly expenses while I think about starting my own business again.

I live by and support myself. Which means that if I want to quit my job*, I need to make sure that I can earn what I need to live off of.

When I started The Pot & Bead, this was not as big an issue because I was married and my then-husband was able to carry the household for a while. Not indefinitely - mind you - and one of the line items in the financial section of my business plan included a salary for me (although it was half of what I had previously been making).

But in having to carry it all on my own, the first thing to do is question my monthly expenditures. If I can live on less, then I don't require as much income, which is good as starting a new business is risky and the less income you need to generate, the better. So I've been thinking things like: "What can I cut out?" and "How can I live on less?"

For me, paying off my student loans now saved me $400. I had 7 more payments to go... and had I just let it go, the accumulated interest over those 7 months came to about $400. So I've saved that, and now going forward, I need $300 less a month to live! Which is also equivalent to thinking that I can apply that $300 a month to other debt reductions needed...

...which is one of several other important things to take care of as you get your finances under control such as:

Get rid of debt (yep, you've probably heard it a thousand times already, but trust me as someone who carried a large credit card balance for a long time - this is important!).
Build up a savings cushion (what if your new business' sales aren't as expected? You need this cushion to live/eat).
Hold off big purchases (would you rather have the 65" TV or be able to quit your day job? It's okay if you want the TV, but then you're going to be at that job that much longer!).
Examine the rest of your expenses carefully - what else can be cut (at least temporarily)? Can you downgrade your cable or satellite TV package? (I was considering disabling it all summer...) Get rid of netflix? (I did downgrade from 3 movies at a time to 1) Get rid of your home phone? (I did this a couple years ago when I realized that the only people who called me at home were telemarketers)

The less income you need each month, the closer you are to financial independence and the closer you are, the more flexible you become in life. Until then, the other option is to work your new business in your spare time. With The Pot & Bead, this wasn't possible - at least not at first. When we opened the retail doors, I had to be there. But my current musings about a new business all have to do with software which I program on my computer at home. I can do this nights and weekends and prioritize this with the rest of my life as I see fit. This enables me to keep my day job and keep the roof over my head.

Is it a perfect situation? No - since often at 10am and again at 2pm all I want is to be outside this time of year! But I'm lucky to have a job and have some flexibility as I get and keep my finances under control and work towards my current goals.

*(Note to the folks who employee me right now... I have no intention of quitting any time soon! I just like to think about it a lot! :) )

It's Spring! I want to be my own boss again!

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:00:00 +0000

It's been GORGEOUS this week where I live (in Maryland). It's made me very antsy - I want to be my own boss again. Why? At my full-time day job, I've been locked away for the last several days in rooms with too much A/C and no windows when all I want is to be outside. In theory, if I worked for myself again, I could decide that I'd be outdoors if that's what I really wanted.

In theory.

In practice, while I did have a little more control over my schedule and activities when I owned The Pot & Bead, it wasn't absolute. The store opened at 10am every day which meant that someone had to be there. I had a choice. I could pay someone else to be there, freeing me up to do anything I wanted or I could save money on payroll and be there myself.

It was always a trade like this - but it was my decision and mine alone to make. Often, I would chose to work the store myself and save on payroll, even on gorgeous days like this week. It wasn't so bad - the store front was one large window and there were windows in the back. And I could open prop the doors open and step outside at any time. But the best part was having the decision making ability. I really miss that.

The Frugal Business Owner

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:30:00 +0000

If I had to boil down all the mistakes I made as a retail business owner into one it would be this: I overspent in the first year of business.

I was definitely not the frugal business owner I should have been. (Note: all my sales and expense numbers were published in Cute Little Store 2: What ever happened to that cute little store? and I'd be happy to answer specific questions here on the blog about them!) Why? Because I had this silly notion that since I was building a business, I wasn't supposed to make money in my first year, so it was okay if I spent when sales were higher than they should have been. Oh so wrong... so wrong.

It took several years, but finally, out of necessity, I learned how to be cheap.

Here's a few tips:

Question every single purchase. Sometimes it helps to sit on a purchase for a day, a week, a month. I do mean EVERY purchase - are those office supplies really necessary right now? Is that $200 newspaper ad really going to bring back in $200 plus?
Buying in bulk sometimes means you just have too much junk later. I bought bulk office supplies from stores like Costco and Sam's Club when we first opened. Some supplies made sense - we went through a lot of paper. But some didn't. I bought a bulk pack of staples. 5 years later, I hadn't used them all! How do you know which to buy in bulk or not? Start out not buying bulk and see what you really use. Frequently, you can find deals on smaller quantities of products at places like Staples, Office Depot, and even your regular supermarket.
Budget. Plan how much you are going to spend. In the case of a retail business, plan how much you're going to spend on payroll, on inventory, on marketing/advertising. Question everything that doesn't fall within the budget!
Get free stuff. When I needed a mirror or new shelves, I probably could have found a free giveaway at websites like freecycle.org or on craigslist.net (under the "for sale" section on craigslist there is a subsection called "free")
Explain your frugality to your employees. I had a bad habit of buying little things my employees would ask me for. I thought that if these little things were what it took to have happy employees, that was the right thing to do. These were always things related to the store - like a different kind of cleaning product or office supplies when we had perfectly good stuff already.

In the current economic times, now is a great time to start a business as a frugal business owner - you're practically forced into it. And it's a great habit to develop for later!

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Have you read "Cute Little Store 2: what ever happened to that cute little store?" yet?

Did you like it? If so, please write a positive review on amazon.com!

Hiring (and Firing) Your Family

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:20:00 +0000

You can choose your employees, but not your family. But what happens if you want or need to choose a family member to be an employee?

There are a lot of good reasons to hire family members. They might be willing to work for less while you get your business up and running, or to help out in lean times. You've known these people forever, and may be able to trust them implicitly.

But sometimes it just doesn't work out and you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of needing to fire your family member without destroying your relationship - while this person may stop working for you, they're not going to stop being family.

Let's face it - not all of our family members are going to make fabulous, perfect employees just because they are related.

So what to do?

One solution is to never hire family members, ever. This is a valid way to go - and you avoid the situation where your Aunt Jane begs you to hire your cousin John - but while you love seeing John at holidays, you know he's unreliable and has a problem holding a job. If your policy is to never hire family, then it should be pretty easy - "Aunt Jane, I'm sorry but you know I don't hire family!"

But if you do decide that you want to hire family, set the expectation from the beginning. Be honest and open and tell them that in order for your business to be successful, you need to behave as if they were any other employee. Have them fill out an application. Go over the rules and expectations you have for the business. You should give them the same introduction that any other employee gets. Don't assume that they'll just "know" how you want things to be just because they know you.

I never hired family, but something close to it. I was having a hard time finding a new employee, and my boyfriend's son offered: "Why don't you hire Julie?" (not her real name) Julie was his current girlfriend who I'd known for a few months since they'd been dating. I was initially a little skeptical - would my other employees think I'd favor her because of the pre-existing relationship? What if she doesn't work out? So I did as I described above - I had her fill out an application, apply for the job, and interviewed her - everything that I would do for any other employee. Luckily, it turned out to work pretty well and I'm thankful for never believing I needed a "no family" policy!

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Have you read "Cute Little Store 2: what ever happened to that cute little store?" yet?

Did you like it? If so, please write a positive review on amazon.com!

Is now the right time to start a business?

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:02:00 +0000

The easy answer to that is that it's never a *bad* time to start *a* business. But it's not always a good time to start just *any* business.

All businesses, big or small, part-time or full-time, require planning and research.

I saw a cute movie yesterday: "Sunshine Cleaning" While the point of the movie was not about the business that was created as part of the plot, I couldn't help but cringe at all the mistakes that were being made in the start up process. While it was cute and worked for the movie - in real-life, the person starting this business in the way she did would be in A LOT of trouble.

You can't just print up business cards and tell people you're for hire. Be aware of rules and regulations that govern your business ahead of time. If you need insurance, you better have insurance. Not having these things right from the beginning can cost you a lot of money and get you into a lot of legal trouble, too.

But back to the original question - is now the right time? The answer is YES if you 1) know how your mortgage/rent and other bills are going to get paid 2) have determined that there is a need or desire for your service or product and 3) have a plan for how you can start and grow the business.

The Simple Dollar just posted a list of "side business" ideas that someone could start now: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/04/11/50-side-businesses-you-can-start-on-your-own/

...but beware... these aren't going to be all that simple. Selling cakes? Are there food, health & safety concerns to be aware of? Hiring out as a handyman? Do you need to be licensed and bonded in your jurisdiction? Spend some time doing your homework first!

Good luck! And don't forget! Cute Little Store 2: whatever happened to that cute little store? is now available! If you like it, please post a positive review on amazon.com. Thank you!

Cute Little Store 2 is now available!

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:29:00 +0000

Cute Little Store chronicled my story of opening and operating The Pot & Bead, a paint-your-own-pottery studio in Ashburn, VA.

Cute Little Store 2: what ever happened to that cute little store? is now available and provides insights into the challenges I faced when I decided to end the business life cycle of The Pot & Bead just after 5 years and closed my cute little store.

Are you thinking about starting your own business? Or have you started and are wondering: Now what?

Many people start out with a dream of what their cute little store or business will be like. As reality sets in, one wonders if the dream is still there or if it was only a fantasy. Many people, either because they need to or have to, get out of business almost as quickly as they got in.

If you haven't fully planned out an ending for your business, then you're not done planning. Every business owner needs to have an Exit Strategy. Cute Little Store told you about all the little pitfalls that happen along the way toward starting your own business. Now Cute Little Store 2 continues the story, discussing serious issues like financial troubles, trying to sell the store and even closing. There is more insight into managing employees, thinking about presence on the internet and handling cash flow.

Cute Little Store 2 completes the memoir of The Pot & Bead. In Cute Little Store 2, you'll find:

The full business plan that was responsible for securing a $90,000 loan and commercial lease
The full text of a working commercial lease
Actual financial data for 5 years of an operating retail business!

Get your copy today and find out just what happened to that Cute Little Store!

One year after closing The Pot & Bead...

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:30:00 +0000

It's been exactly a year since I closed my business, The Pot & Bead.

It was a very hard decision to make, but for me, it was the right one. At that point, it had been almost 3 years since I tried selling it and I was definitely not interested in running it anymore. Add the economy issues on top of that, and I definitely needed to close.

Are you thinking the same thing? Wondering if you've had enough? Wondering if you can survive the economy right now?

There are two, and only two, major items you should consider when making the "to close or not to close" decisions.

1) How much do you love your business and love what you do?

2) Are you making or losing money?

#1 is a fairly straight forward question and should have a straight forward answer. Do you love what you do? Which is slightly different than loving the thing you created. I loved my cute little store, but I didn't love running it. It wasn't me. I'm so glad I created it, and I loved being there... but running a retail business was just not me.

If you love what you do, that's a good reason to try and stick it out. If you can honestly say you don't love it, that's a fantastic reason to start figuring out how and when to move on.

#2 is a little more difficult because we can't predict the future. Sales might be a little better next month, or they might stink all year. But you can look at these things: how was the past year? how much do you have in savings? how long can you last on your savings if you need to?

If you love what you do, and financially can survive for a while, then you might not need to consider closing. However, if you don't love what you're doing and/or you're losing more money than you can handle each month, it is probably time to consider this.

Just know this - it's okay to close your business. You're not a failure if you do. It's business, and if the business isn't working, it's time to make a very brave decision like I did a year ago. You still did it, you still tried it, and that says a lot! (A lot of good things!)

NEXT: While closing a business is going to be the answer for some... starting a new business still can be done in this economy!

Finally - Good News About Retail Sales

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:18:00 +0000

If you haven't heard... things started to get better in January! Hope this is part of a new trend!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=6862173

I was in Target recently... and I would never have believed that our economy was having issues. People are spending money. There is no scientific basis to this theory, but I think that folks are still buying if the *perceive* the need to buy something. For example, they believe they *need* to buy new clothes. They might not *really* need new clothes... their old ones might be fine, just dated. Or they don't need *new* clothes. I believe people are cutting out things they perceive as completely unnecessary.

Hope that makes sense. Look at your product or service. Do people need it? How can you convince people they do?

With paint-your-own-pottery... no, people don't need that. But, people still need to celebrate their child's birthday party! If I still had my store, I'd be focusing on that angle of the business. And tapping into other groups: schools and businesses.

Your Retail Store = Relationship Builder Part 2!

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:30:00 +0000

In order to make your retail store look a little more exciting, invite you friends-in-real-life (FIRLs) to come and hang out. People can get nervous when they don't see activity... they wonder what's wrong even if everything is perfectly fine! But the opposite is true, too. A crowd attracts a crowd.

There are many ways to do this. You can simply come out and ask your friends individually. You can even tell them that yes, you want to hang out, but that you are trying to attract business. Offer to buy some pizza and make a little party out of it. And there's nothing to stop you from including customers in on the fun when they walk through the door.

Another way to invite a group en masse is to create a Facebook page for your store. Add events and invite your Facebook friends. Facebook might not be for you socially, but think of it as a way to build your business. Set up a group or fan page for your business and ask your friends to join. Then you can set up events and announcements.

Tell your customers about your store's Facebook page. Then when you create new events, they'll know about them, too. (**Note: Need help or unsure how to do this on Facebook? Leave a comment. I'm considering writing a little "Facebook for non-Facebook business people" post and would like to know what people need to know.)

Events don't have to be big blow-out deals... it could even be: Friday night is pizza hang-out night!

Just remember... don't let anything get in the way of greeting new customers as they walk in the door. Explain this to your friends ahead of time. They'll understand and possibly even help!

February '09 Retailing Tips Article

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:09:00 +0000

Check out my latest article in TDMonthly:

Retailing Tips: Are your online sales in line?

Your Retail Store = Relationship Builder

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:04:00 +0000

What's the one good thing about having fewer customers right now? (Yes - there is something good here!)

The fact that you and your employees can spend more individual time with each and every one of them.

This is the time to turn your customers into friends.

Why? Because these people will still be there when the economy picks back up. And they'll tell everyone else they know.

When? Start today with the next person who walks into your store!

How? Just start talking with them. Ask for their name. Introduce yourself - don't just assume they'll learn your name from your nametag. Tell them you're the owner. Ask them why they came in and how they learned about your place. Tell them something about yourself.

Basically - have a real conversation - get to know who they are - give them a reason to come back... not just to buy stuff but to visit their new friend! :)

----------------

(Some auxiliary tips to help with the above:

1. Have a play area for young children. This is good for almost any type of retail store I can think of. When adults come in with young children, it's hard to get their full attention. If they know their kids are occupied and safe, they'll feel more comfortable and give you more attention.

2. Even if you're in the middle of a conversation with your new customer... uh, I mean, friend... don't let that prevent you from greeting new folks that come into the store. Just excuse yourself and say you'll be right back. Your new friend will understand that you're working and need to take care of everyone.

3. Don't be pushy... if someone really doesn't want to engage with you... that's ok. You'll know when this happens - most people are better than they think at gauging others reactions. If a person doesn't make eye contact, if they seem distracted, etc... it's okay to let them be. Just smile and let them know you're there!

4. Be positive! Yes, business might suck... but you can always find something positive to talk about! Dwelling on the negative won't encourage people to be around you.)

How you doin'? (and an easy marketing idea you can set up right now)

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:42:00 +0000

It's a few days before Christmas and I'm curious... how are you doing?

The reports have been coming out about November retail sales and how they are down from October and down compared to November of last year. So I'm wondering: is this in line with your own business? How are the smaller, independent stores doing?

If you're in business now, leave a comment and let everyone know how it's going.

If it's going well, tell us why you think so (did to plan to cut back on extraneous stuff, did you market/advertise heavily ahead of time, do you have a product or service that people really need)

If it's not going so well, hang in there! Make sure you have no extraneous expenses - cut back where you can and look at low-cost or no-cost marketing ideas that you can implement now or right after the holidays for the new year. (like below)

And for all the small, independent retailers... it takes almost zero money to create "return coupons" or "refer a friend coupons". These can be created on your own computer and printed on colorful paper. We did this all the time this time of year at The Pot & Bead. Often, I called it the "Pottery Lottery" where we let customers blindly choose a random coupon from a bag. Some were for $10 off, some were for 25% off, etc, all on a return visit. It cost no money to implement (except for the paper), took about 30 min to do, and we did see lots of these coupons come back in January. (Often, we specified that they had could be used from Dec 26th thru Jan 31st)

Good luck and Happy Holidays!

Checklist for starting a business - Revisited!

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:40:00 +0000

This is a revisit of an older post "Checklist for opening a retail store"

Since I closed my retail store back in February, I've been thinking about what's next and more entrepreneurship is definitely in my future. However, the next business I'm planning isn't a retail store - I'm planning to start a small software company that develops and sells a particular software product.

No matter what small business someone wants to start, there's planning and a to-do list. Here's the old checklist, updated with some specifics for this type of business. I want to emphasize that no matter what kind of business you want to start, three main things are inevitable: Research and Planning; Thinking about Money Matters; Getting Ready to Sell Your Product or Service.

1 - Research and Planning
1a) Create a Business Plan. This is a must. It does not have to be a 50-page polished fancy document. It can be as simple as listing your main products and services, your mission and philosophy and some other details. But it absolutely does need to exist.

[Note for the software business: I'm creating this plan for myself, and for the potential partners I am trying to bring in. This is our road map. Unlike The Pot & Bead, I'm not seeking a large business loan or looking for investors right now.]

[General Note: I'm making a very big assumption here. There's so much research and planning that needs to be done: figure out who your customers are; define your product and service; scope out the competition, etc. Business plans have sections for these things, so I'm assuming that since you're creating a business plan, you are doing your due diligence in these areas.]

1b) Create a Financial plan. This is also a must. It can be included as part of your business plan. You have to have an idea of what your expenses will be and a conservative guesstimate of what your income will be. This can't be in your head, it needs to be written down.
1c) Create a Marketing Plan. This can also be part of your business plan. How are potential customers going to know about your business when you start/open? At a minimum, this will be a simple list of things you will do (i.e., obtain a website, attend related networking events, post fliers around town, etc)

[Note for the software business: I'm probably not going to post fliers around town, but I will have a website and will need to get the word out to customers. Given that it's software, I'll likely be relying on marketing solely through the internet: cost-per-click ads, facebook, 'tell a friend' email mechanisms, etc.]

1d) In addition to the above, I'm also writing specs for the software products themselves. With the retail store, we weren't creating the product - just buying it from a wholesaler and selling it to the end user. That's the definition of retail. With the software business, we are creating a product and need to design and define it at the beginning.

2 - Money and Space
2a) Find your space and secure a lease. If you're a retail store, by definition, you'll need space. Most landlords will also require a business plan, by the way.

[Note for the software business: this isn't required right now. Yes, maybe someday I'll rent office space. But right now, my office at home is all the space I need!]

2b) Secure funding. You might have money in the bank, or you might need a loan. By the time you've completed steps 1 and 1a, you'll know how much you'll need to get through the first 1-2 years. Oh... if you need to seek funding through a bank loan, most will require a business plan. Good thing you've already completed that step.

[Note for the software business: Above I claimed that I'm not seeking any financing. That's true for the shortterm, but may not in the long term. It's still something to think about.]

3 - Get ready to open
3a) Design your store. This might have been done as part of securing your lease. Some landlords will require that you submit a "site plan" for your store during the leasing process. But now you'll need to obtain all your furniture and fixtures, point of sale system, extra lighting and anything else you need.

[Note for the software business: "Getting ready to open" here means two things: "Setting up a way to sell the software product to consumers" and "having the finished product ready to sell". These two items are just as important as setting up a brick and mortar store.]

3b) Purchase inventory. Chances are you'll have one or more regular suppliers so you'll need to arrange with them your first and probably largest shipment ever.

[Note for the software business: This doesn't apply. Instead, there are one or more developers who are working on a software product and the business has to receive the end product from them to sell to customers.]

3c) Create operational procedures. This was one of the last things I did before opening, and my procedures are always in need of tweaking, but it was good to know what to do when we opened and was good to have something ready for when I hired my first employees.

[Note for the software business: We still need procedures. Internal coding guidelines and standards. How to share code between developers. What to do to track bugs. Right now it's just me, but if I start writing down how I do things now, it will be that much easier when I'm ready to bring someone on board.]

3d) Hire some employees. I opened The Pot and Bead knowing that I wasn't going to be in the store at all times, so I started the hiring process right away. Lots of businesses, if they can afford to, hire and train some key employees before opening their doors. You'll need to decide for yourself if this is right for your business.

[Note for software business: It's just me right now. But it won't be forever. I'll have employees and partners like last time so I have to prepare.]

Good luck! And wish me luck, too, with the new venture. I'll be writing about it here as I progress. No, it's not a "retail store", but it's still a business with a product to sell to a customer so all the lessons I've learned with The Pot & Bead are applicable, and things I go through with the new venture are applicable to any "Cute Little Business!"

Retailing Tips in TDmonthly magazine by Adeena

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:11:00 +0000

Check it out:

Retailing Tips by Adeena Mignogna

Starting this January, I'll be writing a monthly column on "Retailing Tips" for TDmonthly magazine. TDmonthly magazine is a trade magazine for the toy, hobby, game, and gift industry. While the focus is on toy and hobby retailers, Retailing Tips will have useful tidbits for anyone in retail.

You don't have to do it alone... but you do need the paperwork!

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:05:00 +0000

When I started The Pot & Bead, I did it with a business partner. It was someone who I worked with in my "day job" at the time and because we seemed to work well together, and were motivated by the same forces to start a business, it seemed like a good idea to form a partnership.

It didn't last very long... It was only a few months after opening that we realized that he wasn't really into the business and it didn't make sense for him to continue to be a partner.

The best thing was that we had prepared for this. When we set up the business entity (The Pot & Bead was a LLC in V.A.), we also had a lawyer draft an operating agreement that among other things, outlined how one partner could get out. It made the process of buying my partner out pretty easy and straightforward.

Read more at the Ask The Business Lawyer Blog. There's many fantastic posts about business partnership arrangements.

Just remember... if you really are good friends or family and are going into business together, you need to be able to have all the difficult conversations and get agreements down in writing. Make sure you have written down at a minimum:

1. What each partner is going to do in the business

2. How each partner can exit if they need or want to

Retail financials... by Inc.

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:48:00 +0000

Everyone knows that Inc. is my favorite magazine for the small business owner.

This month, there is a "Quarterly Financial Report" that has compiled financial data by industry. If you're in business and looking to see how you compare, or you're working on your business plan and gathering data pick up a copy of this.

A couple highlights for retail industry:

- Payroll as a % of sales: 13%

- Advertising as a % of sales: 1.5%

For my business, payroll ran closer to 20% at any given time. All the numbers for the 5+ years I owner and operated The Pot & Bead - sales and expenses - are about to be published in Cute Little Store 2 (which is with the publisher now and due out in a couple months). But for now, grab a copy of Inc. It's got some great data!

How's your email marketing campaign?

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:31:00 +0000

As a small business owner who needs to pinch the pennies, I'm a huge fan of email marketing.

You can collect email addresses from customers for free (instead of buying a mailing list). You can write the newsletter yourself (instead of hiring a copy editor). And the cost of most email newsletter services is in the $30-50/month range as a opposed to print advertisements and mailings which could be anywhere from a couple hundred dollars a pop to thousands. (Most quarter page ads in local newspapers cost me $200-300 per print; The couple mailings I did cost $600 or more each time including printing and postage.)

I read this interesting article on email marketing this morning that I'd like to share:

"Is email marketing Dead or Evolving?"

Some comments on this article:

1. A good way to engage folks is to ask them to answer a question or a poll.

2. The article goes in to why blogging is great for a business. In general, I agree and would recommend that any small business owner could and should add a blog to their website.

Good luck!

Are you ready for your first customer?

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 23:37:00 +0000

I got a phone call from my mother yesterday.

"Adeena, I'm planning to start a business!"

I thought this was fantastic and the particular business she was interested in suits her talents and abilities very well.

We chatted for a few minutes about her idea and one thing she told me how she was struggling to pick a name. She was anxious to print up business cards and hand them out because she had been telling people that she was starting a business and they were interested in the service she'd be offering.

This set off some alarms in my head... what if one of these people she told wanted to hire her right then? Was she ready for her first customer? She hadn't decided on pricing, didn't have a method or procedure to bill a customer and didn't even really have a good written definition of the service she was going to provide. No, she definitely was not ready.

I tried to explain that it's great that she and others she spoke with were all excited, but that there was a lot of planning work to be done before she should be handing out a business card or any other materials. She needs to do this planning so that the minute she hands someone a business card and they want to hire her, she's ready!

The message here - starting a new business is very exciting, but there's a lot of prep work to get from having that great idea to being able to accept that first customer. It doesn't have to be a full out professional business plan. (Since in this case, she's not in need of financing to start the business.) But it still has to be a plan that covers what products and/or services are going to be offered, for how much and should also include a marketing plan.

Once this up-front planning is done, then you're in business!

Getting Ready For The Holidays... Your Marketing Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:20:00 +0000

But it's August! That's true, but if you're in retail, you should already be thinking about the November/December holiday season.

If my store, The Pot & Bead, were still open, then last week would have been the last week of summer camp and with school starting in another week or so, we'd be into the slow season. Pottery studios, and lots of other non-school related retail, slows down for the month of September and even into October before picking up for the holidays.

What that means is that if you're in business right now, you have a welcome break from activity that can be used to plan out your (low-cost) marketing strategy for this holiday season.

I highly recommend the following two books:

Marketing Your Retail Store in the Internet Age by Bob & Susan Negen
Shameless Marketing for Brazen Hussies: 307 Awesome Money-Making Stategies for Savvy Entrepreneurs by Marilon Ross

The first book has a ton of ideas that are low cost and can be implemented right away. The second one, while not current with respect to internet strategies (the book was written before Facebook and MySpace were born), has covered all the bases and basics and contains tons of low cost ideas, too.

I'm focusing on the concept of "low-cost" because in these times, budgets are tight and smart small business owners are doing what they can to bring in business without spending a lot. The goal for your holiday season should be:

Getting existing customers to return
Getting those existing customers to spread the word and bring their friends

Think email newsletter with bring-a-friend discount ($35 a month with a service like constant contact, cost typically depends on the size of your email list) rather than multi-week quarter page newspaper ad ($100-400 or more per week depending on newspaper). There's a lot of data out there that suggests that it is more cost effective to market to existing customers than find brand new customers. So instead, do what you can to help existing customers bring in new business.

Not in business yet? You can still be planning your marketing strategy now, too. The more upfront work you do before opening your business, the easier it will be to implement later. Write a list of ideas, get cost estimates and time to implement estimates. Also think about how you'll track results.

Good luck!

Research for Your Business Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:02:00 +0000

In working on Cute Little Store 2, I've found so many more resources than I knew about when I was writing business plans 6 years ago to start The Pot and Bead. (Some might not have even existed then!)

Lucky for you!

In doing some research for Cute Little Store 2, I came across the following website:

http://www.centerformediaresearch.com/

If you're in the business planning stage and looking for numbers to include in your business plan to back up your assumptions, this site might have some good info.

For example, the following research briefs might provide valuable insight into customers:

Wealthy Consumers Using Social Networks Online

More Women in the Marketplace

Data like this can help you answer why your product or service might be successful.

Remember to include information about your source and evaluate your source. If your using the internet for research, most sites have an "About" page that will give you insight into who is posting the data. (Data from a lobbyist group promoting a product might be a little more biased than say a government group or consumer advocacy group.)

Email marketing - when did you last send an email to your customers?

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:30:00 +0000

I am a firm believer that email marketing is one of the BEST things a small business owner can spend his or her time on.

Email marketing is free or VERY inexpensive
You can target EXISTING customers (there are lots of statistics out there that talk about how it is less expensive to retain a customer or encourage repeat business than to find a new customer)
You can keep your business in the minds of customers (even if they don't read your email, the fact that they saw it was from you is a little reminder that you still exist)

If you aren't collecting email addresses from customers, start! And you need to be a little proactive about it... don't just leave a piece of paper on your counter - ask customers. A good time is when you're ringing up merchandise... it's going to take you a minute to do that, so why not say something like: "While I'm ringing you up, you could sign up for our email newsletter right here!"

What next? Writing the email! Deciding what to write, when to send, what offers to include, what "call to action" to include... these things can be a little daunting, but if you can set aside one day to devote to email planning, you can cover several months! Brainstorm a list of ideas and topics. Having events is useful, but people are more prone to read something interesting. Lists are always a good idea. "Top 10 unusual uses for our product" "Top 5 people who'd appreciate our product as a gift (and why)" "Top 10 reasons Dad would appreciate our product this Father's Day" and so on. Light humor is great too. As are references to useful websites.

Polling people, asking them for their opinions and other ways to get folks to interact with you are also fantastic options for your emails.

While doing research for Cute Little Store 2, I came across this useful website:

http://www.emaillabs.com/tools/

They have a great set of articles, tips and best practices. Take some time a browse through.

Good luck with your email campaign!

PS - For almost 4 years, I used Constant Contact as my email "management" tool and definitely recommend it - although it's not the only option. You can do a search for these companies, or browse your own inbox to find a newsletter you like and look at the bottom - often in tiny little text will be a link to the email service.

Choose one...

noreply@blogger.com (Adeena) — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:16:00 +0000

I just heard the best quote yesterday from a colleague (who heard it said over and over by another colleague of his years ago):

"You can make what you want, live where you want or do what you want. Pick one."

This is perfect quote for entrepreneurs to ponder. When you venture out on your own, which one are you choosing?

When I opened The Pot & Bead, I thought I was "doing what I want". And for a while, that was true. I think this is the choice that most new small business owners believe they are making. This is also the item from that list that is the focus of the "e-myth" series of books. I.e.: if you want to bake, don't open a bakery. Since if you are the owner of that bakery, you'll need to find someone else to bake while you manage employees, customer service, pay the bills, deal with facilities, marketing, etc etc etc.

After a while, it was obvious that I wasn't doing what I wanted. I enjoyed the day-to-day freedom of being able to set my own priorities, come and go mostly as I pleased, etc. But certain aspects - like customer service, planning for the winter holidays in the summer and never turning my cell phone off or having it out of ears reach - were putting a damper on the whole thing. Add to that the fact that I wasn't making what I wanted either and barely living where I wanted. (I still live in the same place now, but with the retail store I didn't really have a choice of where I lived. Now, if I choose to, I could move out of state or to the other side of the country or other side of the planet.)

The message here is... if you own your own business, or are thinking about it, which of these are you choosing?

... and if you find a situation where you have all 3 (which might not mean you're the owner)... Congratulations! You win!