Sometimes, it's good to take a look around and stand in amazement of the world we live in. I don't mean this in an overly emotional or magical way, it's simply mind-blowing how many tools are available to everyone. Last night I was wondering what it'd be like to be a college student in 1989. Probably not very fun, or at least not as great as it is today. The same feeling applies to the business world. Imagine the difference between starting a business in 1989, or even 1999 for that matter, and now.
Being successful in today's entrepreneurial world is about taking advantage of the tools available. You don't have to do everything on your own. You don't need to have every aspect of your business taken care of by someone in your company. You're wasting your time and money if you try to take care of everything.
Beth Terry of Iron Chick's Toys is a perfect example. She used Fulfillment by Amazon to cut down on costs and get her business rolling.
Find your niche
Every business starts with an idea, obviously. But it's important to note that the idea behind a business doesn't necessarily have to be something business-oriented from the start. It doesn't have to be a situation where you see that you need to make money and then come up with the idea. Starting a business in today's world can be as simple as identifying something you're good at and monetizing that in a way that may not be a full-time job but to start with makes a little change on the side.
Iron Chick's Toys is a basic company, founded on the Terry's ability to identify the most popular toys and then price those in a way that brought in the most sales. Her story has humble beginnings, she first started this idea by selling toys in online auctions way back in 2004. It didn't become an actual business until 2006, when she took the traditional approach to getting things off the ground. Very quickly, demand was outpacing the supply the company could put forth and she was looking around for options. She realized that if she wanted to keep everything in-house and continue at the current pace she'd have to find warehouse space and establish her own fulfillment process. Quite the chore for a startup.
Leverage available tools
If you're reading this and you're an entrepreneur, let that heading be the most important thing you take away from this post. There's an infinite number of tools out there that significantly decrease cost and workload. Let the experts take care of the parts of your business you may not be best. If your business revolves one of your particular skills, stick to that, and don't waste time doing things you don't have to.
Terry's use of Fulfillment by Amazon not only cut back on costs but allowed her to focus on growing her business. As she says in this article (pdf download), she was able to "send one box of 70 items to Amazon than 50 boxes to individual buyers." On top of sending everything out, Amazon also takes care of storage. While she does have to pay for Amazon to store the items she doesn't sell, it's significantly less than storing her products in her own warehouse.
Years after starting off, Iron Chick's Toys still takes advantage of outsider tools. She uses Volusion to handle much of the e-commerce on her site and used a basic stylized template for the design. Imagine the cost of designing and developing an e-commerce site from scratch? It'd be astronomical.
Does this apply elsewhere?
Of course. You could look just within Amazon alone to find a wealth of tools to get your business off the ground. From book printing to web hosting, they can help you out.
Here are some other tools that we like:
- Wordpress (Blogging Platform)
- Thesis Theme (Wordpress Theme)
- Wufoo (Forms)
- CreateSpace (Amazon's print on demand service)
- Earth Class Mail (Digital PO Box, Registered Agent Services)
- Ejunkie (Digital File Delivery)
- PayPal + Google Checkout (Payment Processing)
The list goes on and on. If there's something you need done and you're not an expert on doing it, take a look around, odds are you'll find someone or something that can help your business become a success.
Nice article.
Ms. Terry of ICToys is the real deal.
She continues to work hard, is honest, strives for excellence in customer service, her high standards show in the items she sells and she truly cares for her customers.