Has anyone started up a business and been successful?

[bakesey]

I just ask because I have just started up a new business called MyMo (customisable wooden baby mobiles) and I'm seeking reassurance that I can make it a success...ultimatley I want to be able to quit my regular job and just work for myself.

If you happen to be in the market for a baby mobile, check out the site: www.mymostore.co.uk

pay to advertise?

btw your home page is too in your face

you want a welcome page with about us and better lifestyle type photos

too much text - for the mobiles you want a " more informtation" button once they choose the one they want

I am a successful storyteller, I started my business in October and will be in profit in a few weeks' time, even counting startup costs and one-off capital expenditure.
You're skating very close to breaking the self-promotion rules with that OP though.
Make sure you use all relevant social media outlets to promote your work (most are free), and network shamelessly. If you help others, they'll be more inclined to recommend you when something comes up in conversation.
LinkedIn has some great advice for new businesses, and is great for networking.

You can do it bakesey! I did it with my coaching practice and watch/ help many other Mamas set-up and grow businesses they are passionate about.

Smart and strategic perseverance, coupled with patience, trust and clarity will lead to success!

Define your goals, design your strategy and your plan clearly; identify and understand your niche; connect with them authentically and specifically and it will begin to unfold.

Stick with it!

Agree with Nine on visuals! I think you should remove pricing and as much text as possible from homepage! How about some pics of your previous products etc!

The potential revenue you could generate from advertising space at the moment is not worth it imo! For now you should focus on building your own brand and making a real effort for your company to appear as professional, established, and large as possible! I'm assuming that advertising revenue at this point would come um through google ad's which gets rid of the proffesional and instantly spells small/home business!

How are you marketing? On and offline?

Hey there, I like the look of your product. Check out local baby fairs, you can also go along to NCT events and they don't charge too much. I don't mind giving you a shout out to my followers on my facebook, I'm all for helping fellow mums in business, I need help too, well all benefit from helping each other! Its a struggle but we'll get there in the end right?

Are you on facebook? I'm tread lightly toys if you want to find me.

Starting a business isn't easy.
I've done it too and the start is like kicking against a brick wall. It's hard, it's painful, it takes a lot of time to get threw that wall and it can sometimes be very upsetting.

But keep kicking and you'll get threw that wall. Once you're threw that and the customers are coming then it's downhill from there.

Have a product and look for your customers. Keep an eye on your competitors on what they are doing.
Listen to your (potential) customers. It might feel better to get positive feedback, but that'll help you to no where.

You can only learn from negative feedback. How hard and how uncomfortable it me be to get it. When you just started a business you can't do everything right from the start. It's a learning process.

Even if the negative feedback was given unfairly. Then still you learn from it. You learn to stay calm and patient and to deal with the situation.

I hope it all works well for you.

Sylvia

Hi
when starting a business, it's important to know what your vision is - what is the BIG idea and what you dream of creating. And why do you want to do it.
These two things will help motivate and inspire you to keep on when it does get a little tough....
The other thing you must do is to create goals for your business.....how much money do you want to make - how many mobile do you want to sell, etc
If you don't have goals for your business, you are creating an expensive hobby.

Best of luck!!!!

I attended Emma Jones Start Up Saturday - which is dense with information and useful. It's really interesting to hear all the amazing business ideas people have and how they are going about setting them up.