The time is now - stop putting off passion
JennBrockman
Last month I explained the reasons to not move my business outside of my home and take on the risks involved with doing so. But, a month later I’ve found new inspiration and reasoning along with old beliefs for moving my home based business out of my home.
The number one reason I want to move into a different building (than my home) is that I’m out of room. I can only store so many jars of makeup and bags of ingredients and bottles for lotions before they begin spilling out of my cabinet doors and that time came and went several months ago, if not a couple years ago!
More room would not only give me space to store more items and keep more of my product filled and ready to ship when ordered, it would also allow me to expand my line.
I have the capability and experience to add more colors, and a bath and body line, but no room to keep finished products let alone their base ingredients.
The number two reason to move into a larger space is that I know I can market to a local audience and do well with it. I have some very loyal customer in my own home state but no place to offer them a live viewing of the products or to invite them in for a party or just to visit in person with them. Marketing to the locals has been put on the back burner because I didn’t want to risk having people hunt me down at my own home. That would be uncomfortable for all involved since it isn’t that large and my kids aren’t always on their best behavior.
I know this could be a huge boost and I’ll tell you how I’m so sure. I had a customer who lives about 3 hours away from my town. She came through town with a friend on a short trip and wanted to meet me to look over my makeup line in person and get my personal opinions on what looked best on her. She bought about $80.00 worth of makeup when I met her at her hotel room to show the line in person. So, would being able to do that for the people who are local mean more money? I’m sure it would. Having a place where they can come in and meet me and see in person what they can buy always makes for a sale.
The number three reason for me to get into another location is that my sales area and target market is expanding. I’m not just in the work at home mom community any longer and I believe that is a good thing. In the last 2 months my customer base has expanded to Australia and just today, France! The customer in Australia has repeated her orders 3 times and is considering becoming a distributor of my products. There are millions of other potential customers out there and I’m just now finding them. I was featured on a beauty blog yesterday which has generated 3 orders already. That is 3 brand new orders within less than 24 hours! I expect them to keep coming too and imagine that other bloggers will pick up my information and feature me also.
The fourth reason, but not the last, that I can justify moving into another location besides my home, is that the landlord whom I spoke to about a month ago called me Friday and asked if I was still interested. I’ve been by the location once a week since speaking to him and it is still empty. He offered even more options for working payment on rent. I imagine that he is desperate for the space to be filled and I see this not as his weakness, but as a great opportunity to get my show on the road.
I see the tour bus that is waiting for me and my business and I need to get over my fear and jump the hell on it already. I’ve put my passion on hold due to fear for long enough.
JennBrockman @ June 6, 2008
JennBrockman
Whooohoooo Jenn - how exciting! Keep us informed as to how this impacts your business as I am sure many of our readers are also facing this dilemma.