If you think it takes lots of start-up capital to be an entrepreneur, you haven't met Jennifer Slater, founder of EightyEightPercent.com. Here are some key success factors Jennifer has put to work in her business.
High gross margins: "You can have bumper stickers printed for about half the cost that they normally sell for. Mine sell for $7 each and I offer quantity discounts, which is something I also receive from my printer. If you sell them through your website you receive payment before mailing the product so you don't need money to produce the product upfront."
Doing well by doing good: "I donate a portion of my sales to The Salvation Army. Not only do people like knowing they're contributing to a good cause but it makes me feel good."
Low start-up costs: My start-up costs included a website at $12.95 a month, a sample of bumper stickers to bring to stores to see if they will carry them ($20), the shipping cost for my "free" business cards that I ordered online ($6), and then it was all up to creative marketing and social media ($0!)."
Social media integration from the start: "My website took off the first day I started posting on various blogs. I also signed up for Google Alerts ($0) which lets me know when an article or blog has been posted that contains my key words (i.e., "believe in God"). You can respond to all the hits you receive, but I've gotten the best results by commenting on articles found in larger publications who of course get the most viewers, like Washington Post, NY Times, AARP, etc."
The bumper sticker business is sounding pretty good, right? Jennifer's written the manual for you. Here goes:
Choose a topic that you're familiar with and enjoy. It will enable you to be more creative when it comes to designing your irresistible bumper stickers, plus you're going to be blogging about this subject so you need to know what you're talking about.
Set up a simple web page -- don't spend more than $15 a month. Your product and creativeness will get you more sales than a complicated and costly website.
Sign up for Google Alerts or a similar company that notifies you of articles you can respond to, or you can just start scouring major websites every day for articles you can comment on Order free business cards online and design them to attract people to your website. For instance I have three sets of business cards, each one representing a different one of my three most popular bumper stickers. They actually look like little mini-bumper stickers. For example, one of them is lime green and says, "I am the apple of His eye." On the back is printed "Put God back in America, slap a sticker on your car, your storefront window or your backpack. Go to www.EightyEightPercent.com." Then I leave them all over the place.
A lot of restaurants and shops allow people to leave business cards next to the cash register or on a bulletin board, and since mine are simple and brightly colored they seem to attract a lot of attention.
Finally, start doing research on creative marketing. I'm currently collecting donated prizes from local stores to give away in a contest I'm putting together. And the good part is, I'm submitting the contest to all the local newspapers, radio stations and TV news stations. Not all of them will cover it but the ones who do will do it for free because it's news, not a paid advertisement (which also gives me more credibility). And the stores that donate prizes get their name advertised for free also -- which encourages better prizes.
Next I'm going to start contacting companies and churches who would be interested in purchasing large quantities to stuff inside their visitor gift bags (or whatever) and I will put their company's website instead of mine on large orders. Whether it's a sports team, something cute for little league or ballerinas, something for a specific holiday, or even a popular group (i.e., Red Hat Ladies Club) -- if you're creative and fun with it you will do well.
About the only regret Jennifer has about her business? "Wish I had thought of this twenty years ago. I wake up every morning, check my email, print out the addresses for the orders that came in overnight and print their envelopes, then I order more stickers from my printing company. Then I check my PayPal balance and do a little happy dance."
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