Introduce your business and tell us your story: How did you decide on what to sell, and how did you source your products?+
I wanted to help others in the photography industry. There is a lot of competition and I wanted to create something to encourage community over competition and create products for photographers all over the world. I created everything myself. Since it is a digital product I don't have any overhead costs on production and an unlimited amount of items and quantities. I recently added a few other vendors who offer digital products as well and am now in the process of growing my online store by making it a one-stop shop for photographers.
How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you?
Facebook! I have over 52,000 fans and a wonderful community built around my photography business. Having a strong fan page led to my first sales and it out performes any other type of marketing strategy I've tried so far.
Tell us about the back-end of your business. What tools and apps do you use to run your store? How do you handle shipping and fulfillment?
Still Facebook. A mixture of giveaways, great content, free advice and ads is growing my business faster than ever. I recently hit a new milestone which was making $90,000 in 90 days. Shopifys digital delivery is in charge of delivering all my digital products instantly to my customers. I also love using apps like privy to collect more potential customers email addresses and recently started using rare.io to build a very strong email newsletter marketing strategy. There are so many apps I love but those are the ones that are at the top of my list.
What are your top recommendations for new store owners?
Set big goals and demolish them. There are no dreams too big, it's all just a matter of setting the right goals and creating a plan to achieve them. Be patienct. It WILL take time to get your dream up and running, but if you work towards it every day, you'll get there. You have one life to live and you should spend your life doing what you love and what you're passionate about.