The TRUTH About Starting A Online Product Business | What They Don't Tell You!

Hey guys. Welcome back to my channel in todays video were going to talk about the truth about having a product business. So, as you may know, my name is shannon, and i am the founder of oh so curly, which is a hair tools and accessories brand and product business and ive been running the business for about seven yeah. I wan na say seven. Maybe eight years now coming up to eight years, so i have a lot of knowledge about the truth behind running a product business which is some good, some bad, so im gon na share. All of that in this video so make sure you stay tuned. For the truth, grab a notepad and pen and lets just get straight into it. So the first thing that you want to make sure you do and the truth behind running a product business is to have your ish together legally, so you want to make sure that you have a trademark. You want to make sure that you can, if you need to copyright anything whether thats, your logo, trademark, in your name having your llc llc ive, been watching too much american content ltd set up or set up as a sole trader, if youre not sure which route To go down whether it is ltd or soul, trader or partnership definitely check out my video on that. I will leave down below for you guys, but you really just want to make sure everything is.

You know lined up correctly legally, especially if youre gon na go into actually selling in retail stores. I wasnt aware, but there are actually a lot of certifications and tests that you need to actually pay for for your products to be tested and approved to actually sell a lot of small business owners and product business owners. Dont actually do that, because a lot of us just sell via online, we do it directly to customers. When you get involved with a big retailer. There are a lot of liabilities and things that they can get in trouble for if your brand isnt on point and you know, has passed certain certifications so make sure you really look into the legal side of things. Another truth to running a product business is that packaging is key and by packaging i mean again looking into the legal side of things. So if you are a skin care product or a hair care, product or cosmetic, you want to make sure that you have your ingredients listed in the proper format in the right actual order of things. You want to make sure that youve got an address and the proper things on your packaging, especially if youre going to sell in retail. You also want to make sure that your branding stands out and everything looks really cute and professional, which is something that i didnt really do in the beginning. I just wanted to get up and running, but thats.

Why im sharing the truth with you guys, because packaging is something that you should definitely dedicate a lot of time to a lot of effort and invest a lot of money into, because its going to be very important further down the line? Now, one of the biggest things that i speak about on my channel is actually packing and shipping orders. I show you how ive done it over the years. What works, what doesnt work – and one thing i want to say about the truth of running a product business – is that packing and shipping can be fun at first, but it can also become a chore. I actually dont really, if im being completely honest with you guys, i dont enjoy packing and shipping orders anymore, its very repetitive, and it becomes a bit of a waste of time, because thats time i could have been putting into creating content to actually sell my products. So if you want to be really smart and think really well ahead, i would if i was to start a business again from now. I would make sure that i really focus in on the operations side of things and sort out whos going to pack and ship. My orders, because it aint gon na, be me and if im gon na use a fulfillment center or dropship. That is something that it will be. The first thing on my list to do because i just know packing and shipping isnt something that i enjoy and if youre watching this and you do enjoy packing and shipping, it still doesnt mean anything because you shouldnt be packing and shipping.

Your orders, you, as the entrepreneur as the ceo as the business owner that shouldnt, be your role because it is a huge waste of time, its a very basic job. Anyone can pretty much do so either train someone up to do it, go to a fulfillment center and get them to ship it out for you, obviously, in the beginning, its gon na have to be you sometimes, but if you can, if you do have another option, Try and outsource that first, the next truth about having a product business is the fact that you have to constantly evolve and kind of reinvent your brand reinvent with new products reinvent with new audiences new influencers its a lot, and i will be completely honest with you Guys, product businesses are way more harder to deal with than digital product businesses. I can speak from that because i actually have both. I sell digital products and i sell physical products and i notice a huge difference. First of all, there is a lot more stress and time and effort and physical labor that actually goes into having a physical product business not only just way of packing and shipping, but just a lot of the emails and the back and forth and the fulfilling of The back end of your shopify store, constantly updating content on social media replying to customers. All of that effort has to go into your product business, otherwise it can backfire on you and you want to keep customers coming back.

So if that side of things is being neglected, youre more than likely going to see a decline in customers, whereas with your digital product business, everything is automated. Pretty much. All you need to do is drive people to your website and to the product once theyre at the website and theyre buying the product. Everything else is up to them and up to the automations, so different amount of responsibility and time and effort put in but having a product business for me is just like its my baby. I really enjoy having like a physical product that i can say i created. I own people have it in their house, and the end goal was obviously for me to fill a gap in the market and to be in retail. So, for me, its worth it if you are interested in products and have a passion for it go down the physical products route if youre not go down digital product route. My next piece of honesty is that it is a lot of work for one person to deal with honestly. I dont know how ive actually done it all of these years. Im so glad that ive managed to outsource even more tasks this year, but i know moving forward. There is a whole lot of things that i want to outsource even more within my business. So when you first start a business, you are a whole business but youre the one person so youre, the customer service team.

You are the shipping and packing team. You are the marketing team finances everything like pretty much everything, whereas a business like misguided, the owner actually started off like how we have, but now he has full laws and departments and different offices for every single task in his business, and i just feel like that Is such a goal to have in the future? Because you want to offload those tasks so that you can focus more on how youre going to collaborate with certain people and new campaigns and stuff just to keep the business running and going you want to be the person that kind of like overlooks everything. While the machine is working for you, next is dealing with manufacturers and suppliers, which is something that not a lot of people teach, and it is something that you need to learn. I actually had to visit a lot of manufacturers and suppliers in person. Ive had to call up manufacturers and suppliers ive had to contact them via chat in china, so it is something that youre gon na have to do, and you want to have like a business mindset when youre doing it. You want to try and negotiate with suppliers. You want to make sure that you are telling them exactly what you want come to them professionally, so that they take you seriously, and you want to make sure that you keep a good relationship with them, because at the end of the day your product is in Their hands, you dont, want them to mess up your product because they think youre rude or they think youre demanding, or they think that you just dont know what youre doing, especially as a young female, its very hard walking into a building full of like grown men.

That are working with huge companies and youre. Just this little girl, theyre. Probably looking at you like what is this girl doing and thats how i felt when i first went to look at my manufacturers and stuff, but i had to go in with the confidence that yeah we are a big business. We are going to be the biggest business that youre actually going to work with so im going to act accordingly and im gon na make, you feel like you, can trust in me and im professional and that i know what im doing so. Those are my truths about running a product business. I hope this video was really helpful for you guys if you have any that you want to share down below.