Many times I am asked how I started in the  eCommerce retail business? Where did I get the idea ? Did I start from scratch? How much money did I spend? … and so on.  So I thought it would be good to share my story via blog.

You may have read a lot of entrepreneurial success stories and might have dreamed of starting your own business. Maybe you have a great idea that chases you and that you often imagine pursuing. That was the case for me. I had the passion and desire to chase my dream and wanted to make a change from a regular 9-5 employment to owning my business, selling something I loved. This is my story and I hope it will encourage you: 

“I had the passion and desire to chase my dream”

It was 2014 when I first started with a costume jewelry business. At a later time, I added Leggings. These are both items I personally love so it felt natural to offer these products. 

I did not have the technical know-how to build my own website, so at first, I used a regular simple eCommerce website. Besides my small online business, I also used to sell at Fairs, Open Markets and of course friends and family. I loved the business, but It did not take long for me to realize that my sales reach was very limited. I simply could not bring about the number of people I needed in order to grow the business, especially since high priced Social Media marketing costs were completely outside of my reach. No matter how good my products were, I could not promote and sell them outside of the boundaries of my limited contacts and physical premises.

“ the potential is very limited in traditional selling “

My next step, if I was going to reach a larger customer audience, was to sell in other sales channels like eBay and Amazon. On the outset, I was reluctant to venture out because of all the “How” questions. How do I set up my store on Amazon? How much will it cost me? How will I ship items when an order is made, etc, etc? But I knew I had to try it anyway.

My first few months were consumed with experimenting and learning. I spent money on the wrong campaigns and marketed to the wrong people. But even after I optimized my campaign settings and expenses, I could see that it was very hard to break even given that I had to keep the campaign running to gain sales. As soon as the campaigns stopped, the sales would drop. It was at that point that I started to research other possible business models. This lead me to Direct Sales.

“ The Direct Sales Business Model Saved My Dream”

The world is changing. As technology progresses so do businesses. My old business model wasn’t leveraging the new technological advantages. After a lot of research, it was clear that Direct Sales would enable me to expand and reach people I had not been able to reach thus far. Direct Sales was the thriving business model.

So, one may ask, what exactly is a Direct Sales business model? It is a way for a company to sell its products by signing up individuals as “Affiliates” who market the company’s products to earn a commission. In other words, it provides other people the opportunity to generate income while promoting products they love, just as I did. It also meant that we could reach a much larger audience with minimal marketing costs. This plan completely re-directed my focus. Now the drive was to find the right platform that would support the Direct Sales aka “Affiliate Sales” business model. This decision was by far the best and most rewarding, yet the most challenging step of my then 3 year old entrepreneurial career. 

Read my next blog “Affiliate Sales here I come…” to read my story on how we transitioned to the Affiliate Sales market. See you there…