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Strategies and tools will only take you so far. In business, mindset matters more than you would think. How do successful store owners think? What are their most common mistakes? This free ebook teaches you how to get primed for success, avoid pitfalls, and achieve your goals.
In this ebook, we’ll run through the most common mistakes new ecommerce store owners make. You’ll read some candid stories about failures, comebacks, and lessons learned. We’ll give you a brutally honest look into real entrepreneurial setbacks, as well as how to recover from them.
No miracle shake can actually cut inches off your waist. There’s no sleep rhythm that will add hours to your day. And there’s no “hack” that will flood your store with orders and turn you into an overnight success. The only way to achieve success in life is to work hard and learn from your failures.
In the beginning, people don’t care about brands nearly as much as business owners want them to. Fortunately, you can exploit the psychological phenomenon of habit-forming experiences to grow your brand. Get them to view, like, comment, and share your social media posts. Build a support forum or community of some kind.
Successful entrepreneurs with a millionaire mindset prioritize the options that lead to actual growth, and they delegate or discard the rest. They don’t fall prey to pessimism and negative thoughts. Learn how to get into a growth mindset that’s wired for success.
If you ever need to hire people, take on investors, or build deeper relationships with your suppliers, a business plan can be something useful to show them because it shows you’re serious and committed. So let’s dive right in. Open a document and jot some notes down for each section that follows.
An ecommerce exit strategy is basically a way to separate yourself from your business. It could mean hiring someone to run your business. Your exit strategy isn’t necessarily an escape plan. Even if you decide to run an ecommerce store for the rest of your life, your exit strategy will help you build a better business.
Resourcefulness is your ability to find answers to your questions and overcome challenges. It’s the one skill that begets all other skills; the talent that ignites all other talents. If you only develop one piece of your entrepreneurial toolkit, it should be resourcefulness. Become a more resourceful entrepreneur.
To separate yourself from the crowd, you need a unique selling proposition (USP). A USP is a factor (or a set of factors) that sets you apart from everyone else. It’s the quality (or qualities) that convince a customer to stop their online search and buy from you. You can always find an awesome USP.
Creating new relationships and holding onto them is a skill like any other. If you don’t have much experience meeting new people, you’re probably bad at it. The best way to learn is to immerse yourself in relationships. Talk to as many people as possible about your store. To do this well, you need three qualities.
As an entrepreneur, you must know the importance of understanding your customer. You know you need a comprehensive profile of the type of person who will buy your product, so you can create specific copy, images, and a shopping experience that speaks to them. Learn how to put your customers first.
If your customers are distracted by loud colors, find a new color palette. If they contact you with the same questions over and over again, answer these questions in your product descriptions. In other words, the best way to improve your customer experience is to have actual conversations with your customers.
Never host a giveaway because you’re desperate for sales. There’s rarely a clear causation between giveaways and orders on your website. Use giveaways as a tool to build a following of interested people you can market to later on.
Think of SEO like a long-term strategy with no immediate payoff–but one that’s definitely worth your attention. It won’t drive sales in the short term, but it will eventually improve your overall exposure. But whatever you do, don’t rely only on SEO. Let it be one tool in your kit, not your entire strategy.
Small businesses–yes, even little one-person-shops with a simple business model–need to know accounting. In other words, you need a way to examine the financial health of your business operations at all times. Keep tabs on things like your tax liabilities, your revenue, and your average margins.
Today’s sale isn’t nearly as important as the connection you build with your customers and fans. So, instead of focusing on what you can make off your customer today, worry about the lifetime value your customer can provide. Learn how to cultivate long-term relationships to raise customers’ lifetime value.
Tools only add value to your business if they support your process. Your tools can improve something that already works, but they won’t solve problems on their own. Rather than searching for tools that might make your life easier, it’s smarter to start with your problem.
Plenty of professionals can do a good job serving your customers. They’ll even abide by your policies and procedures. But when your business is young, it’s crucial that you do most things on your own. Most importantly, don’t allow yourself to get stuck in an expensive contract, with no way out.
If you only have the supplier’s photos, it’s fine to use them for the time being. (Your customers definitely won’t buy if you don’t.) But eventually, you’ll want to use your own. Also, shoppers want to know what your products feel like, smell like, and even what they taste like (sometimes). This is where copy comes in.
Unfettered trust takes time to build. It took Amazon a long time to build trust with its customers too, so don’t expect your customers to trust you immediately. Remember your goal: to eliminate anything that might make your customer suspicious. Let’s go over some signals that make your site appear untrustworthy.
There’ll come a day when you plan to spend several hours focusing on how to grow the business, but get caught up performing mundane daily tasks. So instead of creating business opportunities, you’ll just tread water. Avoid that from happening by learning how to work on your business rather than getting stuck in it.
There’s no boss to look over your shoulder to make sure you stay off Facebook. When your store fails to hit your goals, you have only yourself to blame. These stressors cause many entrepreneurs to lead unhealthy lifestyles. So as you embark on your entrepreneurial journey, don’t forget to take care of yourself.
Each failure is a chance to learn. No, your journey won’t be perfect. You won’t get everything right the first time. But over time, as your ecommerce muscles grow and your entrepreneur brain matures, you’ll build a healthy machine that makes all your financial dreams come true.
