On the show today we answer a great question from a listener who wants to bring his brick and mortar business online.
What should he be thinking about? What are the common roadblocks and challenges? What are some unfair advantages brick and mortar businesses could take advantage of?
Our answers to those questions on the show today. If you’ve got a local business you definitely want to pay attention to this one. Enjoy!
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“Take your brick and mortar business online with these terribly important questions”
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Questions to ask yourself:
If you run a brick and mortar business and you’re thinking of taking it online, you’ll definitely want to listen to the whole show today. Below I’ve put together some notes for you to keep track of what we talk about.
You sure you need to do this? — Why not expand the reach of your current methods or add more items to sell?
Do you know exactly who you want to sell to? — In Patrick’s example he’s selling directly to restaurants in Memphis. When you go online will your current customer target shift? Consumers and chefs are two very different targets, requiring different kinds of marketing, calls to action, etc. You’ll need to identify your target market early on.
For each item you’re going to sell, how much do you make in profit after production costs, labor and shipping? — This is about pricing and scale. Can you make money if you’re only selling X amount of Y product per month?
Get a website up! — it’s not a question. This needs to happen first. Squarespace, Shopify, Gumroad, Etsy, Big Cartel, StoreEnvy, WooCommerce. Pick one and get your site up. Don’t worry so much about platform. Get started and figure it out as you go.
(Find some more info on this in our domain name advice and platform guides.)
Can you try a pre-sale first? — Why not try this out and see if you can drum up some interest? Gumroad has this feature and makes it real simple to test for interest.
Where are you? — Location matters! Local marketing is a much different thing, even though you’ll be selling nationally and maybe internationally, don’t short sell your local presence.
Who could you approach to mentor you? — You’re going to have to crack a whole bunch of new nuts. Approach a few people who’ve been there before to help you anticipate the sticky stuff!
What’s the story about your package/product? — It’s not just a cup of coffee, it’s a fair trade farmer’s livelihood. It’s not just vegetables, it’s microgreens from a family farm. Don’t bore me with it, but make sure I feel the story as I quickly peruse the product.
What existing sites/communities could you partner with? — Marketing is going to be one of your hardest problems.
What shipping material will you need? — This is a real expense and a real part of fulfilling these orders. Spend an hour figuring this out.
What exactly are you going to sell? — can you organize things into packages? are they totally individual?
Show Notes
eCommerce Shipping Fulfillment Software For Business | ShipStation
Comparison: Etsy//Big Cartel//StorEnvy//Shopify
Learn how to set goals that actually stick!
The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.
One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »
Great show (as usual)! I’m typing this as I listen to the show. Corbett just said some of the things I’ve already written…
Patrick, check out the Germantown farmer’s market. Go where the customers are. These are the wealthiest consumers in the Memphis area. Sell to them and get their email addresses.
Don’t buy new greenhouse equipment when you expand. Check out Craigslist, golsn, ebay for used greenhouse equipment. I have a family member in Fairhope, AL who recently quit the microgreens business (after 2 yrs.) and has all the new equipment just sitting there. Don’t make that mistake. You can buy used equipment for pennies on the dollar. She was selling to high-end restaurants, but the margin wasn’t there.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Who is already selling microgreens online? If no one else is doing this, it means it’s probably not viable, YET. Why not just sell at the farmer’s markets?
Organic = premium price. Start the two year process to get OMRI approved. Microgreens are easy to produce organically because the crop turn is fast.
You probably already know all of this…Thanks for sharing your story! Good luck!
I am very curious to know what type of response this podcast episode gets!
I really respect what you guys do, so I apologize in advance if I come across as harsh or arrogant here, but I do think my experience is valuable for your listeners.
Most brick and mortar owners are going to have a problem with it, because they literally have no extra time to do a lot of the things you were talking about. This isn’t so much of an excuse as a reality (self-imposed no doubt, but still a reality).
I also agree that you guys were in full-on “Cart Before the Horse” mode for most of the podcast, but there were some really good ideas as well.
Taking your brick and mortar online is a very valuable topic, because there are a lot of us who are working a ton of hours keeping a brick and mortar business afloat, and wanting to create an additional revenue stream online, or leave brick and mortar all together. That’s where I was about 2 years ago, and now I’ve sold the brick and mortar portion of the business, but kept the brand and the website and am selling a few different physical products, and one digital product online, making more profit with much lower overhead online. The best part: I haven’t cleaned a bathroom in 6 months (brick and mortar owners, you know what I’m talking about)!
You mentioned getting a mentor, and I think this is a really good idea. I’d be more than happy to talk to anyone in this situation who wants to hear from someone who has been there. Just contact me and we can set something up, free of charge.
My advice for anyone in this situation:
1. All you really need is a webpage, an email signup link, and a buy now button (easiest way is through paypal) to get started. Don’t overthink it.
2. You should think of this as expanding your brand online, not starting a new business.
3. Ask your current customers: “If you moved away, what product would you most miss that we sell?”
4. Price it to profit after shipping and handling, even if you only sell one at a time.
5. Think about the absolute most unique product you have, and start there. It might not be the product you eventually sell online, but that’s how you have to think. People buying from you online will most likely have searched high and low for what
they need and finally found it by googling “the description of your product” several times. They aren’t going to buy from you if you put up a product that has lots of online competition. It has to be unique.
6. You will never be able to compete with fulfillment companies (like Amazon) on shipping costs, so don’t even try. Get an account with UPS or Fedex which will give you a bit of a break on shipping for now, and then wait until your volume is high enough that you can hire a fulfillment company that takes care of all packaging and shipping (I’m not there yet, but I know that’s the next step, because I have no desire to become a shipping company myself).
7. As Chase mentioned: Tell the story and make it unique. Portland Oregon is a great example, because the city has its own brand (weird). Use that to your advantage. There’s probably someone in Bulgaria who has watched every Portlandia episode and wants what you have! Put a bird on it!
8. Finally, and most importantly for a brick and mortar business: You are busy, and
selling online is a lot different than selling in person (even if the same customer service principles apply). If your online product offering doesn’t sell with minimal marketing and/or sales effort on your part, it probably won’t work. Don’t worry though, because you can continue to run your brick and mortar while you try out different products. There most likely is SOMETHING that will work, and even if it doesn’t make you millions, it will do two things: add a stream of revenue and build your online presence (your brand).
I had a physical product I had been thinking about putting in my gyms, The Green Microgym, but hesitating because I knew it wasn’t gym quality (The UpCycle Eco-charger, a DIY indoor bike trainer that generates electricity).
I knew a lot of people were at least interested in it, because people from outside my town, Portland Oregon, would email me asking for something like it. But I had no idea whether they would buy it at a sustainable price.
My basic process:
1. I took a few pictures of the prototype and created a page on my already existing Green Microgyms website and called it The Story of the UpCycle Eco-charger.
2. I put one call to action: Join our email list, The UpCycle Eco-charger if you think this is a cool product.
3. I got about 2-3 email addresses per week.
4. Once I had a MVP (emphasis on MINIMAL), I priced it for double my cost in materials and sent out an email to the 38 people on my list to see if there were any takers.
5. I sold 2. One to a local high school teacher, and one to someone in Alabama.
6. After getting some feedback and selling a few more, I improved it and ordered parts for 10 units, took better pictures, and raised the price.
7. After another 6 months or so, I had sold the next 7 or 8, so I ordered 10 more. (I’m still ordering 10 at a time, but that is going to change in the next few months.)
8. Then there was an elementary school class in Florida who made a video saying they wanted one, so I sent them one and said “pay me when you can”. They won a contest or got a grant and paid me.
9. I noticed there were more people landing on the UpCycle Eco-charger page of my website than the actual homepage!
10. I got an order for 4 of them from a school in Virginia, but they wanted it customized for kids. So I customized it, and started to realize my real market was schools.
11. It was around this time I realized I was making more profit selling the UpCycle Eco-charger than I was running my businesses in terms of paying myself.
12. When my leases ran out at the 2 gym locations I was running, I sold them. But I kept the website and the brand.
13. In the last few months, I’ve seen continued interest in the UpCycle Eco-charger, and now have the time and mental energy to figure out how to market it in a more focused way and put it into production. I’m talking to a company called Crowd Supply in Portland who essentially do kickstarter campaigns for physical products, and then handle the fulfillment (shipping) of the product.
I now am out from under the day-to-day responsibilities of running a brick and mortar, and it suits my lifestyle as a Stay at Home Dad much better. I also have more time now to focus on building The Green Microgym brand in unique ways. The future is much brighter for me now. I encourage anyone running a brick and mortar business to do whatever you can to start selling something, anything,
online. It’s completely different in many ways, but the overhead and risk is SO MUCH LOWER!
Wow, great stuff, Adam! Thanks man.
Thanks Chase!
I REALLY should not be listening to this while working at my legal assistant job! LOL
After reading this article. There’s a lot of sparks in my head for ideas for the future.