Limited? Social media would be your primary outlet to finding clients. It would be as easy as reaching out to large local influencers that would take work done on them free of cost in exchange for a promo post. Very high ROI. Would get you a lot of eyes on your account. We work with a few similar businesses and at least 60-70% of their leads come through social.

Other avenues would be to set up a booth at cosmetic events / expos, partner with complimentary businesses (Tell any lash / nail techs / hair dressers that if they come across anyone that wants work done you’ll reward them a referral commission), or even attending women focused networking events on Eventbrite. The more hands you shake the more likely you are to meet a woman who wants work done. I know men get filler too but marketing towards females is easier.

Lastly, maybe one of these spark an idea for you

Lastly, don’t be afraid to get some supplies sourced from Alibaba. Zoomed is legit and all but some Products can be sourced for 1/5th of the price and are near the same in quality. Ex, any rocks for terrariums. You can order a sample and eventually buy low MOQ’s and save a lot. Not sure how good the vendor pricing is for Zoomed but look into that when things come into place. All the best to you and the wife 🙏💚

As a past owner of turtles (2 red eared sliders, had them for 15 years before passing them off to my cousin who still has them), I love the business idea 🙏

Website is okay to start for a home based business but with time would need to be optimized to look more modern / professional. Ex. Sign up for our newsletter box doesn’t look visually appealing.

In terms of social media I would rarely post just products unless it was a cool new idea of a product or something most people have never heard of. I find that fun content will get you more views, and will ultimately lead to more people clicking the link in your bio (when you add it).

Example, if you made a TikTok video of “asking strangers if they’re afraid of snakes” and then the ones that say yes you said “I have 5 bucks if you pet this snake “friend / partner walks up behind holding a snake” that would do very well. You would get some laughable reactions that people would eat up online.

I just helped my friend film a video downtown Toronto asking people “sell me this pen for $10” Wolf of Wall Street movie line And the ones that came up with a very unique pitch got the 10 bucks. He had 80 followers and got 15k views in less than a week. Just checked and he’s at 3.2K followers now. I should have taken my own idea 😂

I wouldn’t give anything away to a random on FB, I would however gladly give it away to influencers online that are within the parenting space.

Like the ones that constantly post reviews of household / products for their kids. If they have 50k+ followers it can be a great way to get in front of parents that might want the same for their kids

Seems like a pretty simple solution. Create a terms & conditions section on your site if you have one of simply tell everyone your delivery / pickup rules if through word of mouth.

Example:

• All orders are subject to a $30 shipping fee. If you’re within X,Y,Z cities it will be hand delivered. If outside of X,Y,Z cities it will be shipped via X courier.

• Local orders can be picked up at Metro Plaza 7 days a week between 8am-8pm. Please email me to arrange a day / time. Local pickups must be paid for in advance via E-transfer or PayPal invoice. Always state that they don’t need a PayPal account to pay the invoice.

Yes, cash works great and all but when you do it enough times you’ll find out that there are far less issues when it’s paid for in advance. Lastly, don’t say you MIGHT be able to do anything. You either CAN or CANNOT.

Few layers to this.

1. With enough time, any scammers that purposely damage goods will be a few drops in the bucket. Once you have a large amount of followers that back you as being reputable they’ll drown out the outliers.

2. I can’t remember a time we ever said no to a replacement. Some people won’t stop. It’s often easier to just say “no worries, here’s your replacement” and eat the cost and send them on their way. We factor in a smalllll amount of returns for this reason. It’s the cost of doing business. If it were to ever happen a third time we wouldn’t refund them but it has never lead there before.

3. You never know, it could have been an accident. Don’t stress it.

4. if it was an influencer you sent out an item to, just means you have to better qualify who you work with

Petra Star

Superstar Jewellery at Petra pricing

Gems made for a star

You’re the star, we’re the jewellers.

I’d have to think on it but I think one that has word play with star would be cool.

You can start the design process before the final wine(s) are chosen as they aren’t mutually exclusive. I would forecast that one wine over another wouldn’t change your design process. It would be wise to work on other areas while the slower areas aren’t ready yet. In the wine / spirits industry marketing is very important.

I don’t think anyone on here will walk you through an entire business plan but there are plenty of solid YouTube videos 💪💯

Between those two I would pick A as B sounds a bit too materialistic.

Imagine a woman getting a small ring from her husband (that’s all he can afford but he loves her to death). That tag line would make her think the worth of the ring defines how much he loves her. Small ring = small amount of love.

Maybe I’m overthinking but that’s how females think so just a heads up 😅😂😂

Doesn’t have to but if that’s his lifelong partner I guess he should be able to

Starting your own biz is a lonely road. Who better to drive 1000 miles with than your partner in the passenger seat

Instagram. Use local hashtags such as TorontoCooking or TorontoFoodie if I wanted to sell a blender. CanadianCosmetics if I wanted to sell face soap. Just be sure to check all their metrics, not just a follower count. How many people are actively engaging in their posts? Are a lot of people tagging them? People can buy followers & likes. Quality comments not so much.

• I would network with others at industry focused events (Eventbrite)

• Perform work (nothing too costly) for a local influencer with a large following (50k followers or more). All you would ask in exchange is a promo post with you tagged so others can contact you. Maybe you make a custom chair for a local musician and title it “a throne for the king of pop music in X city / country”. Then others will naturally click your profile and see all the work you do. Or maybe you make a mini ramp for a local skate boarder. Things of that nature.

• Partner with complementary businesses. Reach out to painters, plumbers, interior designers and the like and explain to them how if any jobs come up where your expertise is needed you are willing to provide a kick back (Ex. 10% for all jobs referred).

here’s a video with a few other ideas, hopefully one sparks something you can run with

I may be the odd one out but I think focusing on other areas other than schools would be more ideal since there’s less red tape. I would focus on the standard holidays such as Christmas, Valentines Day, Birthdays, ETC.

I don’t see why I would need cards for anything school related (when I was in uni) but if you had a way where I could send a loved one a really nice Christmas card without leaving my house during a snowy day that’s very enticing. You could then work with local complimentary businesses such as flower shops, treats (chocolate, fruit baskets, etc) and have the option where at checkout they can add a small gift to it as well. Now you could make a bit more off of each order as you skim a bit off the top for the add on item.

If you reallyyy wanted to market to high school parents I would attend local networking events (Eventbrite). Most people there will have kids and don’t mind being pitched. But parents are everywhere so it isn’t like you would have to go to an industry focused event. Lastly, possibly partnering with an event planner or banquet hall and asking them to forward any leads to do with graduations for a kickback.

I hope something mentioned sparks an interest. Few other ideas on this video

I would be attending trade shows where retail store owners can see the boards first hand. Another option would be to utilize LinkedIn. Business owners are far more likely to accept a request from you to stop by and chat on LinkedIn since they can see your profile and validate what you’re all about.

First contact would be to build the relationship if you stop by the retail store cold. You don’t need a yes or no from them on if they’ll carry it on the first meeting. I would get to know the owner(s), their story, what makes them select a product / service, current pain points they face with other suppliers (you then use that to your advantage), and then describe your line of products. I wouldn’t take up too much of their time on the cold meet. My goal would be to get a scheduled time outside of store hours where I can sit down with them, bring a sample or two and then discuss pricing, delivery, warranty, etc - all the technical stuff. I don’t think I would talk pricing on the first visit unless it was a product or service that was sold mainly on price such as readily available consumables. If I was selling mops to a cleaning business generally all mops can do the same job. They would be heavily focused on price so I would go in asking what they pay per mop head and saying I can beat the cost.

This doesn’t apply to me but they need to do all of the above. You can’t rely strictly on paid ads. You need to have both push & pull strategies. The mistake however is that most of the people that do DM / call me aren’t using paid ads. It’s even more worrisome when I ask what their social media accounts are and I have several times more followers & higher engagement metrics than them.

Hard to believe a social media marketing specialist with 700 followers will help one of my businesses with nearly 15k followers. Not saying they can’t, but it certainly doesn’t look right. Similar to if I’m hiring a personal trainer, they should be in much better shape than I am.

But yes, they should be running ads themselves if they’re telling you that you should 👍

Very solid points. I will further the emphasis on not doing too many side projects at once. You’ll most often make far more being a master at 1 skill / niche than average or slightly above average at a dozen.

If you’re a hairdresser on the side don’t worry about waxing, nails, lashes, etc. if anything, work with someone that you can pass the leads on to for a kick-back commission. I see far too many people working a full time gig and have 4-5 side gigs and none of them take off.

Ask ChatGPT for 25 dog walking business names. You can then select your top 3, slightly alter, and ask your 5 closest peers their top choice. I wouldn’t overthink it.

For businesses like this, often if you use your city / state it works well because 1) The SEO will favour you 2) You only want customers in that region, unless you plan to expand and hire others 3) Its straight to the point. If that’s already taken then go for something unique. But for me, I would be trying TorontoDogWalking.com (which is available) before I use Dave’s Dog Walking or Superior Dog Walking, etc etc etc.

If you plan to outsource and have walkers all over then don’t pick a name that is attached to a city / state / province.

Everyone is quick to blame the algorithm. What’s the IG handle? Can we see the quality of content?

Gonna check back in a few days and add a bunch of these to my list. Thanks guys 💚

This was mine too. The initial jump out of the birds nest is often the biggest part of it all. You can’t fail if you never even attempt to fly.