Lessons I’m learning (the hard way) starting a business by myself mid-pandemic
Pro-tip: it’s not as easy as I’d thought.
It’s not like this is my first rodeo.
I’ve been trying my hand at building businesses since I was 16 years old, to varying degrees of success. I’ve had:
- a couple of freelance design businesses
- a freelance translation business
- a brownie business
- heck, even an aroma diffuser business
I knew it wouldn’t be easy to start my new hand-drawn t-shirt business.
But to be honest, I didn’t expect it to be this hard.
I didn’t start out trying to start yet another business. No, after several burnouts I chose to shut down my last business as it was starting to gain traction. I promised I wouldn’t fall for the allure again.
Except, as I was browsing YouTube one day, I discovered the world of print on demand. And everyone made it look so easy, and I wouldn’t have any up-front expense, so I figured “Why not?” I already had some art lying around anyway, so I figured there was no reason not to.
Turns out I’m not very good at half-assing things. So now I have an official website, two Facebook pages, and two Instagram accounts (one local, one global). And I still haven’t sold anything other than to my fiancé, but that doesn’t really count now does it?
Here’s what I’ve been learning though:
1 — You NEED to learn SEO
SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It’s what makes search engines such as Bing or Google find you and decide where you will show up in their results.
For the first two days, Google couldn’t find my website at all. After I made sure it could, it stuck me at 541st place.
For my website name.
Something was wrong. So, I hunkered down to start writing so that Google could find me. And now when I search for “Squiggle Store”, it actually shows up on the first page. Though it does keep suggesting “Did you mean: smiggle store “, so, I’m not quite there yet.
2 — Pick your niche carefully
This one is obvious, and I did pick a niche that is a great fit for me. However, there is something I only found out after I was all set up: my niche may be too niche.
Using the Moz Keyword Research tool, I discovered a pretty big problem: no one is searching for my niche on a monthly basis.
So now I have a niche that competes with stores such as Etsy but doesn’t have a significant search volume. So even when I’m easier to find, there won’t be anyone looking, which means:
3 — Make sure your social media game is on point
So now I’ve spent significant time and money into something that I also have to create a demand for. And yet.
I have never been great at social media.
Oh, I know the theory. I’m just not great at execution. So, this is something else I need to pick up ASAP.
In conclusion
Every time you start a business there are new challenges. But there are some things that always stay the same:
- Make sure that people CAN find you
- Make sure people WANT to find you
- Remind people WHY they want to find you
I’m learning as I go, and I’m sure this won’t be the last time I write about this. But I hope that these lessons will help someone else not to make the same mistakes I have.
