How To Start A Business

So forgive me! This is one of my first video interviews that we had ever completed. Michelle McCullough is a proven speak and published writer, in addition to being an awesome entrepreneur. If she had to start over she'd find companies with lots of different products, rebrand them, and sell products that someone others have made. If it was a business that she started with her daughter, it would be with her jewelry. If it was an idea that she ran with her son it would relate to Pokémon. She loves win-win social entrepreneurship ideas that help entrepreneurs in other countries, in 3rd world countries, and help grow their companies.

Jared Richards is meeting with us today, and sharing his new business idea. He's the founder of Blue House Ski's, and is now launching Coinless Mobile, a technology platform for carwash owners and their customers. Jared wanted a mobile payment solution at his car wash. He came up with that idea in November, purchased a booth at the car wash show in April and are in beta right now with a long list of potential customers. It shows you that you can come up with an idea today, and be up and running in 6 months.  

Today we are with Jennifer Davis from The Blueberry Hill, a company that sells cute hats for children, and she will discuss what social networks she uses to grow her business. It's important not only to build a presence but to drive sales. She got on social media several years ago and it was much easier then. People saw her content and it was growing. Then Instagram and Facebook changed their algorithm, and that stopped. Now she uses ads to sell products via social networks. She doesn't sell products, she sells an emotion. They grow a lot more from Pinterest than Instagram but does a lot on both. Learn more about Jennifer here: https://theblueberryhill.com/

Today we learn how to get your first retailer to sell your product. She shares how a small, children's specialty store was interested and placed an order for her first product. A month later, they placed a $1,000 order. At the time she sold the product outright. Sometimes others sell on consignment. Selling on consignment is a good way to get in a store, but it's hard to scale.

Learn how to overcome challenging days as an entrepreneur. Jennifer Davis from The Blueberry Hill. What makes entrepreneurs make it or break it, is if you keep going. Sometimes product doesn't ship, things fall apart, but keeping going is the hardest part. Do you watch Netflix tonight, or do you work on your business? Do you work until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, or do you just keep going. :)

Learn how to get your first retail partner with Jennifer Davis from The Blueberry Hill. For the first 2-3 months Jennifer found a few local stores to resell her products and spent $2,000-3,000 a month ordering products through her. Jennifer talks about what types of margins to expect, and her process about how to sell through retailers and consignment.

We asked Jennifer Davis from The Blueberry Hill what her first 100 days would look like if she had to start her business over again. Her first time was trial and error, just learning as she went along. The second time around she'd focus on processes and fulfillment. She'd skip most of the formal paperwork and start building a brand over a business. Get a name, pick the industry, and start building a following. Start posting content in that genre even before starting a business. A lot of how Jennifer grows her Instagram accounts is through loop giveaways. This helps to get exposure with the other company's websites.

Jennifer Davis started The Blueberry Hill almost by accident. She started going to street fairs and meeting with vendors. She went online to buy hats to supplement stuff she was selling at these shows. She purchased 3-4 styles and signed up with a deal-a-day site to help sell the extras. She put up a website and put up for double she wanted to sell them for. They sold out on the deal site and sold out on her website too. She was approached by a company that asked if she had a representative in LA. Soon, Jennifer started selling through her and sold through stores on the East and West Coast.

Want to know how to sell a product on Kickstarter? Today we are with Anthony Ambriz and Bryce Fisher, and these two fine gentlemen are Kickstarter gurus. They know how to launch and effectively sell a product. They explain how they use Click Funnels to drive traffic. They take a fake idea and run traffic to it through PPC campaigns. The big mistake that people make, is they assume Kickstarter is the way to test/validate an idea. It's important to test an idea before using Kickstarter, because Kickstarter will keep track of all of your failed campaigns which will affect how easily you can raise in the future. Testing outside of Kickstarter will help you figure out your brand and marketing message before hitting Kickstarter.

Ever wondered what the biggest PR mistakes are that people make? Learn more today with Cheryl Snapp Conner of Snapp Conner PR Company PR and personal are interrelated. People that put out personal opinions that reflect on the company, like the founder of Lulu Lemon that made a comment that was insensitive and didn't represent the brand proposition and values of its customers. Over disclosing, making promises that you can't keep is another big PR mistake. Over exaggeration is an example of this. Practice the hardest questions. Always take PR training. If you're a company, don't talk about release dates and miss them. Learn more about Cheryl here, http://snappconner.com/

When is the right time to bring on a business partner? In general, Cheryl is in favor of business partnerships. She does say sometimes we pursue it too soon. She's also heard more bad stories than good ones. Often we recruit business partners because we aren't confident in our own abilities. That's the wrong reason to recruit a business partner. You also have to remember that you're not only partners with the partner, but also you're a partner with their spouse. In Cheryl's mind, most ideal partnerships last for 3-5 years. People get comfortable and are unwilling to change. We often need a new starting point.

When is the right time to hire a PR firm? Today, Cheryl teaches us the answer. It varies by company, but generally, every organization should do it's own PR for as long as it can. You hire a PR firm for strategy and connections. Plus, many writers would rather talk to the CEO and founder, over a PR firm. Remember, Cheryl writes about how to hire a PR firm without hiring an agency. You can find her on Forbes. When the time comes that you should hire a PR firm, be metric driven. Know what the job you're hiring this PR firm to do. And make it driven by metrics. Follow Cheryl on Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/#5d119dec72ee , for even more great advice. Or check out her company, here: http://snappconner.com/

Looking to start a PR firm? Do you want to grow your company? We asked Cheryl Snapp Conner, what her first 100 days would like if she had the chance to build her company again from scratch. Would she focus on sales? Would she focus on recruiting a team? What would the first 100 days look like? On her first 100 days, she had pent-up demand. She'd focus on finding the ideal customer, and go get them. She reveals that the ideal customer is often not what you think and that it takes a lot of time. It took her some time, that the smaller companies are not ideal. That it's best to let them go on their own as far as they can before she gets involved. Learn more about Cheryl here: http://snappconner.com/

What is Content University? Learn how to become an influencer, and write content that helps build your brand and grow your business. In this episode, Cheryl Snapp Conner teaches us how. Sometimes we create content that oversells our product. Other times we aren't putting the needs of the reader first. This and other mistakes will prevent your content from really taking off. Learn more about Content University, here: https://contentuniversity.com/

Having difficulties knowing whether to build a personal or a corporate brand? On this episode of How to Start a Business, Cheryl Snapp Conner teaches us how to perform this balancing act. Learn more about Cheryl and her company: http://snappconner.com/

Meet Cheryl Snapp Conner, as we learn how to start a PR firm. She had a minor in English and worked at a tech company that went through four acquisitions and an IPO. She learned it was better to work on her own, then for a large corporation. Learn more about Cheryl and her company: http://snappconner.com/