How to start a profitable business
Many people have been emailing me asking me
Cassie go back to the real beginning when you first started your business
how can I start a business and what are the first steps I should take
if this is your first time on my channel welcome to KICKINwithCASSIE
what's crazy is the start of my business wasn't very long ago. We only launched about 10 months ago
and we've grown it to about $3,000 a week in sales only operating five nights.
to anyone who is new to my channel, I will give you a quick synopsis of what I do.
I graduated college last year and I started a late-night cookie delivery service
out of the back of a local bagel shop in my college town.
when my boyfriend Brandon and I started the business, we were living in our car
and we had to beg a local bagel shop to let us use their kitchen in their off hours
we were able to save enough to launch our first cooking much our storefront in September 2017
and we are really excited! so my first piece of advice don't wait for the
magical idea to come into your head I've heard so many people say that they have
so many ideas but they can't choose what's going to start or they want to
wait until they find the perfect idea they want to wait for their final idea
because they think they're going to be doing it for the rest of their lives.
but just start with something you're passionate about it doesn't have to be
something that you want to do forever. Just start a business to get your foot
in the door and start getting a sense of what it's like to work for yourself!
I don't plan for Cookie Munchers to be the business that I die with.
But I just graduated college and it's something for me to build up to learn about starting
my own business learn how to handle employees and get my foot in the door of
entrepreneurship. If I waited for the perfect long term idea to come along it
could have been 2 to 3 years in a job or career that I just don't want to be in.
Why not in the same amount of time start Cookie Munchers and then in the same
two to three years figure out what business venture I want to start next.
Most entrepreneurs start multiple businesses in their lifetime before they decide
which one they want to be in forever. They learn and grow from each one to get
them to where they want to be. The sooner you start the longer you have now is the
best time to start. Just start something! So your first step push any obstacles
and hesitations you have about starting now
out of your way. Your obstacles could be: "my ideas and perfect I don't have enough
money" or "I don't have enough time." There is never a perfect time to start a business
you have to make that perfect time by pushing through any obstacles in your
way in any way you can. Make a list of all the reasons you can't start your
business right now and take a real step back and look at it. Actually write them down!
Make a plan to fix them and have a timeline to do so. If you don't, it won't happen.
It'll always be pushed to later. If your reason is you don't have enough
time, then make time! Sleep less. Cut more time out of your television.
Work during your commute! Just make baby steps to getting started.
So now you're ready. You want to make moves toward your idea. So what do you do first?
Create a version of your idea to test it. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Ours sure wasn't. We did our first test run over a week-long period, my senior
year of college I tested the idea out of my house just to see if it was in demand.
And to get a better sense of if it could be successful.
The best way to tell if your idea will be successful is to test it. Go out and sell it!
See how it does! We had black and white flyers printed and passed them out throughout the town.
We didn't even have a website yet. We just put a link on the Flyers that
brought them to our Facebook page where we found a free app where people could
order through our Facebook page in the most unprofessional way possible and
only pay cash. I'll be the first to admit it was far from the perfect system.
But people were ordering! Just from those flyers, we were hitting 20 orders a night.
There's nothing to test your idea better than pure sales. So let's say you have a
product idea that you want to invent. Try making a mock version yourself and
creating a few of them to test and sell. If you can't do it yourself, find someone
who can help you just make a few of them and sell them. It's very unlikely that
someone's going to come and steal your idea just from you selling a few of them.
Most people honestly just too lazy. Now with 3d printers, many prototypes can be
turned around in less than 24 hours. I'll even put in the description box below, a
company that will help you build a prototype now. If you have a service you
want to sell, do the same thing! Test it. Make some Flyers of your cleaning
service or whatever it is and pass them out throughout the town. Offer to do
a few places for free just to get some reviews started on your Facebook page.
Reach out to local Facebook groups and tell them about your newly found business.
I can't stress enough that testing your idea is the most important
thing you can do to make sure you don't waste your time or money on an idea that
no one wants. Oh! And did I mention this stage of your product does not have to
be perfect by any means. If you wait until your product is perfect, it will be too late.
You better believe our first week in making cookies, they were far from perfect!
Then after you test it, if you haven't already, come up with your
business name then go to your county's Registrar's Office.
They usually have a website online where you can check if your business name is
taken so that you can avoid getting in trouble. The easiest way to do this is to
Google "Check Business Name Availability" and follow that by your state and your
county that you're in and then press on the first thing that pops up.
And I'm sure that's going to be the page where you have to figure that out.
The logistics. If you're selling a product that you invented, make sure you go and
patent it. Google a local patent attorney and speak to them about your idea.
Usually that first consultation is free so make use of it! If that isn't relevant
to you, go register your business online. I would recommend setting it up as an
LLC because this protects you against lawsuits and helps protect your personal
bank account. Then in a few weeks, you'll get back your paperwork and you are
officially a business owner! So take that paper to your local bank and get a
business bank account. Step 3. Now that all the business stuff is out of the way,
it's time to move on to the fun stuff. During your test run, you may have
already designed a logo. But if you haven't, now is the time you can try it yourself.
or you can hire a graphic designer.
There's a website called Fiverr, which I will link in the description box below...
where you can basically get anything you need, made pretty cheaply including logos,
animations, commercials, basically anything you could need for your small business,
for as low as $5. Then trademark your logo at uspto.gov. I will also put that
link in the description box below. Many people don't know this but when you
trademark your logo, trademark it in black and white. This is because that
makes it cover any colors that you could end up having your logo. If you
trademark it as a specific color, it is only trademarked under that specific color and
only protects those specific colors.
So you want to trademark it in black and white so that it covers all colors that you could
want your logo in. Then if you haven't already make your Facebook page take
some pictures or video and throw them on there to make it look professional. Make
sure you have a nice cover photo and profile picture as well. Step 4.
You can make Facebook ads, flyers. Pass them around town get into the local
church bulletins. Get into the local paper. Tell them your story. If you're
selling a product online, be open to using Amazon, eBay, and Etsy to sell your
product in the beginning as well. This will help get your foot in the door
because they already have a following coming to their website. Once you have
your sales moving, reach out to bloggers and ask them if they'd be open to
reviewing your product or service. If your audience reads their blog, it will
be worth it. Also don't just contact bloggers straight-out. Make sure you've
been liking and commenting on their pages as well, so they get to know you
first and don't just automatically push you off as spam. So that's how you get
your business started from the real real beginning. Last few pieces of advice I
will give you, is surround yourself with mentors if you can. Reach out to people
you admire and send them a sincere message. Obviously don't try to aim for
someone too high here because that would be a lot less likely to get results.
Tell them how much you admire them ask them if they'd be willing to sit down for
15 minutes for coffee where you pick their brain. Or if they're far away ask them if
they'll do a Skype call with you. Maybe if you could find a smaller entrepreneur
like someone on Shark Tank, you can contact them and ask them if you can
pick their brain. I've contacted now about three entrepreneurs that I saw in
Shark Tank and I got responses from every single one of them.
Whatever you're interested in, just ask them. It will never hurt to have someone by your side
that you can ask questions and who can mentor you through the process.
You can also read books to get yourself in the right mindset by just listening to
people you admire. The person I look up to most is Richard Branson. He's in the
exact space that I want to be in in the travel industry and everything he writes
in his book is super helpful and they're actually incredible. Next some people
would disagree with me on this but I highly suggest bootstrapping your
business. This basically means trying to fund it yourself in any way you can
without having to take on investors or a bank. This will ensure you have full
ownership and control of everything you do and ensure that you also don't have
debt to the bank.
This isn't often possible without a lot of sacrifices but as I said before, when
we first started Cookie Munchers, we were living in our car. We were in our car,
and that was okay! All the logistics don't have to be figured out immediately.
Sacrifices will have to be made to help your long-term goal. I would suggest
doing whatever you can to keep your ownership. It will pay off in the long run.
Lastly, be patient but push hard. Don't expect everything to turn out
perfect immediately. You will make mistakes and probably a lot of them but
don't let the money you lose from making these mistakes bring you down.
You better believe that telling people I was starting a late-night cookie delivery
service got a lot of hesitation and a lot of giggles. People thought I was
wasting my degree away by not getting a corporate job and doing an idea that
they never thought would work. But I tested it and I knew it was something
people would want. I lived in that town for four years and I can't tell you how
many times I would have loved to order warm cookies to my doorstep at night.
Don't let anyone bring you down and tell you to give up. Listen to your customers
and if they like the product or service and it's selling, keep doing it! So I hope
this was helpful to you remember in this channel is not all about business it's
also about having fun! So leave your comments below and let me know what you
think of the journey. If you want to see our journey to a storefront location,
press the subscribe button below to follow our story. We've been posting
videos since day one of starting our business, so I'll put that in the
description box below in case you want to check it out and start from the real
beginning. The business videos have been slower recently because we've been
waiting to sign the storefront lease and get the construction going on the new
storefront. But there will be many more business videos in the coming
weeks in the meantime its a mix between travel and business updates. If you want
to see more videos like this or found this helpful please let me know in the
comments below so I know that I'm not talking to myself. Give it a big thumbs up
if you like this video and I'll see you next time on KICKINwithCASSIE.
Munch Out!
For more infomation >> WNY Metro Youtube Channel: WNY Metro Showcase Of Homes | 7-30-17 - Duration: 28:31. 
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