Type of Products/Services Offered: Made to
order, personalized framed drawings
Start Up Cost: in excess of $10,000
What did start up
costs go for: Computer & graphic software, color
printer, website development
Earning Potential:
$50,000
Skills Needed: Artistic design, development,
production, business management, marketing, sales,
business development
Special Equipment Needed: Computer, color
printer, zip drive
Best Customers/Target Market: Moms, gift
buyers
Resources & Organizations : Art & computer
Any Tips?: I
have learned the most important factor in starting a
business is to love what you're doing and to be
passionate about your
product. You must be
committed to devote a huge amount of development
time before launching an online business -I spent
more than 2 years researching other sites, various
software and website developers, then learning the
graphic software that I use and designing the
product and the site. I also found that budgets
needed to be greater than planned and that delays in
developing the website are to be expected, but well
worth all the time and effort and even some tears
that come with paying attention to details and
making sure you get exactly what you want.
Having a supportive and
encouraging family and friends to cheer me on and
offer their opinions and comments was vital for me
and all of them helped test the site before it went
"live". Having an online business doesn't
automatically mean orders will come flooding in.
Marketing -with listings on search engines and links
on appropriate and related sites in vital as is
general PR (which I still haven't been too
successful in getting) I'm constantly talking up the
business, donating products to
non-profit/fundraising organizations, and using
discount/promotions to drive traffic to the site.
Also, I've placed the product in several retail
stores to start building "brick and mortar" business
that can feed the website. The business is not yet
providing any big income to speak of, but it's
paying its way and giving me much pleasure.
