Promote Your CDS Doll Shop Online
Chapter Two - Understand Your Goals
Only you can decide what you want out of your shop. If you are serious about succeeding, you have to set specific goals for yourself and follow through with making them happen. Here are some logical steps to do this.
1. Analyze your cost of operation, and investigate how much you need to make over and above this to not merely exist; you know - enough to become a success!
2. Factor in peak selling times and lesser ones. Zero in on working hard to have the kinds of things available (enough inventory) for sale when peak seasons roll around. Remember, you and CDS can lead people to you, but if you don't have inventory to sell it will make no difference.
After you analyze what you what to make and what you want to sell you can pinpoint what you need to do to make you content with your doll business.
Grab you calendar and a journal or a notebook and keep them handy. Here you will want to chronicle your budget goals as well as your inventory needs. Put them in a succinct order, date appropriate items, and outline step by step ways to initiate goals! Then put them into operation.
Items to ponder:
1. Budget – Put down what you currently make. Next put down the goal you aspire to. Then figure out how much more inventory you will have to have on hand and sell to achieve this goal.
2. Inventory – Try to outline the specific amount you will need to increase your sales by to achieve your goal. Then concentrate on how you will have to adjust your inventory to do so. Begin to look at different designs you may have sketched you belive will sell; pair up the design with some fabric by draping it on a doll or viewing it on your design board. Might this be a design(s) you could work into your schedule to achieve?
3. Price Points - Look hard at what you spent to make the garment vs. what you need to sell it for before you even make it. Along with analyzing cost vs price you need to also look at what the market will bear for like items, consider the state of the economy, etc. to try to look at what you might realistically expect to sell your garment for.
Of couse, there may be an item(s) you would make that have no comparison. Don't under price your items either. OOAK or one offs that customers are chomping at the bit to buy should be priced as high as the market will bear. Designs that can bring this kind of price should be revisited.
4. Promotion - Now look at when and how you will promote. What are the peak selling times and what approach will you use to escalate sales? Will you initiate a collection of your own and announce it on Facebook and Twitter, use the CDS promotions, or do both? And what outside venues might you try using to bring people over to your site - Etsy, Ebay or some other auction or shop site?)
5. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a must do if you want to drive the most traffic you can to your website. I have found the information provided by the Weebly website explains SEO in simple terms that even an internet novice can understand, so I am including a link to their article here. It is mostly generic, buf if there is something specific to Weebly you can ask your website provider how to do it on your site, research further on Google about that topic, or ask me a question about it - I'm always just an email away.
SEO explained by Weebly
Be sure to take advantage of the additional links available in this Weebly article.
As you complete these steps and subsequent chapters you should have all the information you need to make your goals work successfully for you. Remember you can set your beginning goals, and work on them, but always be flexible enough to adjust them as you go. The important thing is for you to stay focused! Always keep your eye on the prize of being successful, and be honest with yourself about the time you can and want to put into your doll venture. If you can achieve YOUR plan, you should do well.
1. Analyze your cost of operation, and investigate how much you need to make over and above this to not merely exist; you know - enough to become a success!
2. Factor in peak selling times and lesser ones. Zero in on working hard to have the kinds of things available (enough inventory) for sale when peak seasons roll around. Remember, you and CDS can lead people to you, but if you don't have inventory to sell it will make no difference.
After you analyze what you what to make and what you want to sell you can pinpoint what you need to do to make you content with your doll business.
Grab you calendar and a journal or a notebook and keep them handy. Here you will want to chronicle your budget goals as well as your inventory needs. Put them in a succinct order, date appropriate items, and outline step by step ways to initiate goals! Then put them into operation.
Items to ponder:
1. Budget – Put down what you currently make. Next put down the goal you aspire to. Then figure out how much more inventory you will have to have on hand and sell to achieve this goal.
2. Inventory – Try to outline the specific amount you will need to increase your sales by to achieve your goal. Then concentrate on how you will have to adjust your inventory to do so. Begin to look at different designs you may have sketched you belive will sell; pair up the design with some fabric by draping it on a doll or viewing it on your design board. Might this be a design(s) you could work into your schedule to achieve?
3. Price Points - Look hard at what you spent to make the garment vs. what you need to sell it for before you even make it. Along with analyzing cost vs price you need to also look at what the market will bear for like items, consider the state of the economy, etc. to try to look at what you might realistically expect to sell your garment for.
Of couse, there may be an item(s) you would make that have no comparison. Don't under price your items either. OOAK or one offs that customers are chomping at the bit to buy should be priced as high as the market will bear. Designs that can bring this kind of price should be revisited.
4. Promotion - Now look at when and how you will promote. What are the peak selling times and what approach will you use to escalate sales? Will you initiate a collection of your own and announce it on Facebook and Twitter, use the CDS promotions, or do both? And what outside venues might you try using to bring people over to your site - Etsy, Ebay or some other auction or shop site?)
5. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a must do if you want to drive the most traffic you can to your website. I have found the information provided by the Weebly website explains SEO in simple terms that even an internet novice can understand, so I am including a link to their article here. It is mostly generic, buf if there is something specific to Weebly you can ask your website provider how to do it on your site, research further on Google about that topic, or ask me a question about it - I'm always just an email away.
SEO explained by Weebly
Be sure to take advantage of the additional links available in this Weebly article.
As you complete these steps and subsequent chapters you should have all the information you need to make your goals work successfully for you. Remember you can set your beginning goals, and work on them, but always be flexible enough to adjust them as you go. The important thing is for you to stay focused! Always keep your eye on the prize of being successful, and be honest with yourself about the time you can and want to put into your doll venture. If you can achieve YOUR plan, you should do well.