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Name: Kimberly Vetrano
Name of company: Everyday-Occasions.com
Business
Description: I offer affordable gifts & favors
such as personalized candy & non-candy wrappers, cartoon prints,
personalized Teddy Bears and specialty mail programs for children.
We also proudly offer Child Safety ID products. I also offer links on
my site for fun children's sites (educational as well as great
"freebies") as well as resource links for those interested in having
a home business.
Are you married?
Children? Yes. I have been happily married to my best friend
for 7 1/2 years now. We have two children. Our daughter will be 7
soon and our son is 4 1/2.
Why did you join this company?
I joined the Teddy Tin company back in January of 2004 and My
Precious Kid in March of 2004.
How long have you been in the work at home
business? I started my home business back in May of 2003.
Since that time I have added a few more products to my product line
such as Teddy Tin and My Precious Kid. I find that you have to keep
your business "current" with the times as well as find new ways to
interest your customers into wanting to come back to your business
time and time again by offering something else they might be
interested in. It's good to "reinvent" your business sometimes, but
only at a minimum. You DON'T want to redo your web site and totally
change your products and services all the time. That will only
confuse your customers and they won't want to deal with you anymore.
Especially if you give them the impression that you are impulsive
and you can't commit to just one thing.
What is the startup investment?
With my personalized candy wrappers and specialty letters the start
up costs were next to nothing. I already had the computer, paper,
printer and all. I just needed to purchase some royalty free
graphics and some special holiday theme stationary.
My cartoon prints cost over $500 to buy
into the program. That program incurs many extra expenses, so I am
going to phase that aspect out of my business in the very near
future. I jumped into that program back in May of 2003 without fully
looking into all the expense it would cost me over time.
The Teddy Tin personalized Teddy Bears
required only a small fee for the start up, which included web sites
for all the products.
My Precious Kids cost only $30 for the
start up, but I opted for the "deluxe" package so that I could get
samples of many of their products so that I could familiarize myself
with them as well as have them on hand to show customers.
Your biggest challenges:
MARKETING!!! I am a
super shy person so trying to sell my products and services
face-to-face is a huge challenge for me. Whenever I try and talk
about my products to strangers I often either freeze up or trips
over my words. So I shy away from discussing my business with
people. If someone mentions something about it I will happily talk
about it, but I have a difficult initiating the conversation. So I
have had to find other venues to market my business. I do most of my
marketing online. I belong to several small business web sites and
marketing groups. I also try and link my site to online
businesses that "compliment" my own. I do pay for some ads online,
but I only the inexpensive ones.
In hindsight, I would have wanted to
take some college courses on marketing BEFORE I started my business.
Plus I would have looked into the Small Business Association to see
what services they offered.
Learning how to market your products
and services is challenging for anyone, no matter how gifted of a
sales person you are. And it's a day to day thing too.
So to date I would honestly say
that getting over my "fears" and my shyness has been my biggest
challenge.
Tell
us about your successes:
Everyone
defines "success" in their own way. Some equate success with having
a lot of money. Others view success with having a certain "status"
in their community. To me, success is knowing that each day I am
doing the best I am capable of to keep my business going. I may not
be "swamped" with customers, but I still feel that I am successful
with the customers I do have. I also "rub elbows" now with people of
"importance", so that to me makes me feel successful as well. I am
no longer a little "speck on the wall", but rather, a business woman
whose thoughts and ideas matter to others. People care about what I
have to say now, and that shows me that I have come a long way.
I have been the feature profile on
Business Owners Idea Cafe, which was a great honor to me. I have
also been featured on other sites and in newsletters. Things like
that prove to me how successful I am.
I have also been given many awards from
work at home sites. Not everyone can get an award. Some places have
high standards about who an award can be given to. And to know that
my business meets or exceeds those standards also reflect on being
successful.
I am also still in business! Many small
home businesses die out within a year of their start up. My business
is still here and growing. I haven't given up on it. Any business,
big or small, who can make it past the first year or two will be
successful.
Do you advertise your business online?
Yes. I
do advertise online. Since I am a stay at home mom, and we primarily
live on one income, we do not have a lot of money available for
advertising. So I am always on a search on the Internet to find low
cost or free advertising for my site. There are sites out there, you
just have to find them.
I have also made it a "habit" to
each day find new sites that I can exchange links with. Since I am a
"Family Friendly" site I seek out other family friendly sites that I
can exchange links with. I also join a few "top sites" which helps
too. The more exposure you can get for yourself, the better for your
business. There are millions of sites online, not to mention the
incredible amount of people on the Internet. So it's very important
to get yourself out there on the Internet anyway you can.
How much do you spend? As little as possible.
I look for free sites to advertise on or else those that cost $20 or
less to advertise on for a year. There are such places out there,
you just have to find them.
What advertising has worked for you? I would
have to say linking with other sites has given me the most "traffic"
on my site. The exposure gets people who might not otherwise find my
site a direct link to me. I have not tried putting ads in local
print publications yet, so I am not sure how well they will work. I
have heard of others who spend a fortune on newspaper and magazine
ads, only to get a tiny bit of customers.
Word of mouth is always the BEST form
of advertising. Treat your customers well, do a great job for them,
and they will recommend you to others. To me, customer satisfaction
is #1, and if I have to bend over backwards here and there to make a
customer happy I will. Because that customer could recommend me to
another customer, and so on.
Tell us about any games you use successfully
at your home parties: N/A - I don't do
home parties. But there are plenty of resources on the Interment
where to find great party games.
I do know it's important to treat your hostess well with discounts
and freebies. When others see what "goodies" you get for being a
hostess they are more likely to want to sign on to be a hostess as
well. People LOVE freebies and discounts.
How do you balance work and family?
In
order to balance your work and family you need to have things
prioritized. My family is first and foremost under any
circumstance. Their needs and taking care of my family is my first
priority, followed by my business.
The key is to plan out your day ahead of time. Know before you go
to bed the night before what exactly you need to accomplish the next
day. Say for example you need to finish up a huge order, yet your
son has a T-ball game from 9:00 - 10:30 AM. Well, the first thing
would be the T-ball game, since my family comes first. Then, when we
came home after the game I would ask my husband to tend to the
children while I did my work. Or if he wasn't home I would engage my
children in some activity or game that would allow me the necessary
time to complete my work.
I also do a lot of my
work before the kids get up in the morning, while they are both in
school ( currently my son only goes to school for 2 1/2 hours a
day), or at night after they go to bed.
It's also VERY
important to give you spouse QUALITY TIME! Set up a certain time a
day to spend time with your spouse while the kids are not around
(usually when they go to bed is a good time). Talk with your spouse.
She the news of the day with each other. Unwind together. And you
can even get your spouse involved in your business. My wonderful
husband helps me out from time to time.
It's VERY important NOT
to neglect your spouse. If your spouse is neglected they will feel
"threatened" by your business and that will cause A LOT of problems
eventually. So keeping your spouse happy and reminding them on a
DAILY basis that THEY are important to you, MORE then your business,
will help keep your whole family happy. And when you are happy you
are more likely to pass that along into your business, thus making
your business more successful.
How about some advice for people who are looking into a work at home
business?
Please see below for most of this
answer. I would add to "find your niche". Once you find your "niche"
in the business world you will be able to blossom and grow as a
business.
Also, don't start a business just because you have dreams of huge
profits. Everyone wants to earn money. But, is everyone earning
money HAPPY and ENJOY what they do? Sadly there are too many people
out there, including business owners, who are NOT happy with their
business. They do it for the money and the money only. They do not
do it for the feeling of joy and satisfaction. And it's difficult to
have a business succeed and continue to succeed under those
conditions.
Find your passion. Look for a business that you enjoy doing. Look
for a product or resource that will bring YOU joy! Don't look at it
ONLY for the monetary value. Look at your business ideas
objectively. Seek out those that will make you HAPPY! I'm not saying
that you have to go to bed at night and wake up in the morning
LOVING what you do. There are very few people that can HONESTLY say
that. But you should at least ENJOY what you do and find some form
of happiness in doing it. If you hate what you do and dread starting
your day because of your business, then that is a major "red flag"
that the business you have chosen is NOT the business for you.
Please see below for
more tips.
What are your business goals for 2004-2005? I
am working towards being certified to facilitate Child Safety
classes. That way I can offer my products in conjunction with the
safety classes. There is a huge need for such services locally, and
I know it would be a very smart business move to offer such
services.
I would like to learn
more about marketing and find creative ways to market my business
aside from the typical "cookie cutter" ways to market.
I am going to try a
print ad for six months to see how well that works. If it doesn't
work out I won't do it anymore and at least I'll know that I tried
it.
I am currently taking
an online course to help me with search engines. So my goal for the
upcoming year is to redo my site by adding in more keywords and such
to make it fare better on the search engines.
Is there a company
web site provided? Cost?
With the Teddy Tin
the web sites are provided when you sign on. If I recall the start
up fees are $50, plus there is a monthly fee of $18 to host all
the sites you get from there. At present time I have four sites
through them.
For the My
Precious Kid products there is no site provided, but if you needed
to have a site they have resources that can help you to set one
up.
What are the minimum
monthly or quarterly sales, if any? None. I
won't operate a business if I had quotas to fulfill. Sometimes Life
gets too busy for you and you don't have as much time to market your
business as you'd like to. And if there was that added pressure to
sell a certain amount each month or quarter, I couldn't handle that
stress. Why add extra stress and pressure on yourself? It's not
worth it. There are plenty of business opportunities out there that
are "no pressure".
As for my candy wrappers and specialty letters,
since I am my own boss, it doesn't matter how little I sell each
month. As long as I sell something I am happy.
What is your commission
on your own sales? For
the My Precious Kid products 25%- 50% depending on the products
(more are 50% but a few products will only provide you with 25%
profit).
For the Teddy
Tins my profits are 40% per sale.
As for my candy wrappers and specialty
letters, the profits are all mine, 100% less my expenses to make the
products.
What
suggestions do you have for new business startups? Start
small. There are so many wonderful products and services you can
offer your customers, but when you are starting out you don't want
to get too overwhelmed. If there are a couple of products/services
you want to offer, pick one to start off with. Find ways to market
that product/service. Get yourself established FIRST before adding
more things into your business. Once you have established yourself
and found your business "niche", then you an start to add additions
into your business, but only one at a time. When you ad in something
else, take the time to get that product/service marketed just as you
did with the first one before moving on to anything else. You need
to focus all your time and energy on one thing at a time before
moving on to the next. If you only market your products and services
for a shore time before adding in more additions, then you won't be
able to establish a decent customer base. You will only end up
confusing customers.
Before you start a business make sure you write
a business plan! It's the foundation for ALL BUSINESSES! Without a
business plan in place you are only going to end up out of control
or disorganized and thus setting yourself up for failure. A business
plan does not have to be elaborate and many pages. It can be as
simple as a few paragraphs. And a business plan is not something
that is et in stone. You can modify and change your business
plan according to the direction your business takes. A business plan
is never final. It's always an ongoing process.
Make sure you research the
business you are going into. Check out other business that are
similar. How do they run things? What do they charge for
products/services? What is their returns policy? How many products
do they offer? Learn all you can about like businesses so that you
have some idea what you should work on with your own business. DO
NOT COPY ANOTHER BUSINESS!!! Your business MUST be uniquely your
OWN. Just use like businesses as references to how your business
should be like.
Try and talk with people who have home business
as well. Learn all the "tricks of the trade" from them. If you can
find people who do similar businesses, that is great! They can share
with you a lot of the "ins" and "outs" of the business. But don't
overlook businesses that are totally different then your own. You
can learn A LOT from knowing a diverse group of people.
Join marketing groups. Yahoo have
thousands of great groups you can join.
Take a marketing class at a local
college if you can afford to do so. Give yourself at least a little
marketing background before jumping into a business.
Remember, success DOES NOT happen overnight!
You MUST work on your business EVERY DAY if you want it to succeed.
And understand BEFORE starting a business that it times time, even
YEARS, before you start to see a true profit from your business. The
first year or two you will either lose a little money or break even.
If you are lucky you might see a tiny bit of a profit. But by
the second or third year you should start seeing the profits and
after 3 or 4 years you should REALLY see profits coming in. If you
think you are going to be giving the likes of Donald Trump and
Bill Gates a run for their money from the start, you are doomed to
fail right away. Patience and hard work will get you there in due
time.
Website: http://www.funtasticlettersandwraps.com
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