One week on

I am very excited to be writing this update as everything i have been working on so far has been coming together nicely :)

Last week i was working on getting-word-out about my new business and doing some of the background development work.  I had my action plan to work through and keep me going in the right direction.  Over the past week then i have been working on the following:

Promote fb page to get up to 200 likes

I have been ticking along with this, it was a bit difficult at first but it seems to be starting to take its own promotional course a bit more now as fb is intended to.  Today i have 197 likes on the page so i am quite pleased with that - not far off target at all.

Plan how i am going to hold the online car boot sale

This caused a little bit of a dilemma for me - i had decided to share products on the page for the sale, but i had internet problems during the week and had no access.  I didn't know if i should go ahead with the sale as i hadn't been able to promote it much AND the weather forecast was pretty good for the weekend.  I was trying to decide between doing the sale online or going to do an actual car boot sale - in the end i managed to do both! I was able to use my phone to post pictures to the page for the sale and sell some items at the car boot sale too - best of both worlds :) I was a bit more limited by using the phone but i was glad i was able to do as i had said i would even if i wasn't the best it could have been had i been home on the laptop.

Add customers to my contact list on email

Yes i managed to do this without any problems.

Figure out how to link my fb page & Twitter to my blog to

send the updates to both at the same time - i have done it

before so hopefully i will remember.

 This step i haven't quite managed to do yet - i have been able to link the blog to fb, but not to twitter.  I'm not great with twitter and i don't use it as easily as i do fb, but i will hopefully start to develop skills on this.

Additional points/notes/learning from this week

I did manage to generate some good interest in the FB page by thinking outside the box - I arranged a fun and novelty giveaway and people seem to be really taken by it.  This reminded me about building up a personality for the brand The Selling Cafe and the USP.  It also reminded me that people buy from people - the main USP i have is me.  I'm a bit quirky and random at times and when i let that reflect on the page it worked.

I was at the car boot sale - the perfect place to promote the page and i had no promotional materials.  I did a bit of an on the hop promotion by drawing a sign and writing on the back of some of my other business cards.  Not very professional but it actually worked quite well :)

Next Steps

Following up on my action plan i will be aiming to:

Promote fb page some more to get up to 300 likes
Think about when to hold the next online car boot sale
Add the new customers to my contact list on email
Link twitter to my blog/fb page
Try to use twitter a bit more frequently
Sort some promotional material for the page

I hope the next update is as good as this one has been :) I love the fact it seems to be heading in the right direction!

Getting the Word Out

Ok so i have decided on the business i want to pursue (this time) and i have a name for it - The Selling Cafe.  I have a long term vision which involves premises and other people etc, but for now i will be focusing on trying to sell online and at markets, car boot sales etc.

The Selling Cafe will not focus on any specific type of product - i've tried that before when i was trying to sell handmade goods, but the joy of this is i can *try* to sell anything, so hopefully it will be flexible enough for my ever changing ideas.

Selling has been a constant aspect of my many business ideas so it makes sense this latest one will continue with that.  I know i need to have a USP (Unique Selling Point) to make the business different from the many others out there - i do have the idea that will make it unique but i need to develop that a bit more.

At the minute i am trying to concentrate on getting the word out about The Selling Cafe and so far i have an ebay account, a facebook page, a Selling Cafe Blog and today i started a twitter account as well.  I have been playing around with developing a website as well, but money is an issue so i've been looking at doing this myself (i've designed and developed a few websites before).

I am making some regular sales on ebay and have found opening a shop on there has helped a bit - i'm limited to 100 items a month right now but hopefully i can increase this in time.

I am working on connecting all my 'outlets' and so far i have my ebay account linked to my facebook page via a shop app, the rest i need to figure out how to connect.

I feel like i am struggling a bit to get followers on fb but i know it does take time to build this up.  I am planning on holding a weekly online car boot sale on the page so i am hoping that will help to build up a bit of a following of both sellers and buyers.  Today i have 155 likes on the fb page so would like to aim for at least 200 on there by this time next week.

The blog i have just updated with a new template and am much happier with that.  My vision for the blog is to add pics of items i am selling but offer blog followers discounts and special offers.  That blog was a bit of a mishmash of 'business development posts and selling posts so i've decided to separate those (hence starting this one).

The twitter account i am hoping will help me to promote the blog, fb page and ebay accounts, but i'm not very familiar with twitter yet.  I know i can also have a pinterest account but i am conscious of spending all my time on social media accounts rather than selling, so i will let that sit right now and might review it again later.

Action Plan

Promote fb page to get up to 200 likes
Plan how i am going to hold the online car boot sale
Add customers to my contact list on email
Figure out how to link my fb page & Twitter to my blog to send the updates to both at the same time - i have done it before so hopefully i will remember.

Right, that gives me a direction for the next few days - wish me luck :)  

Its the Start of Its a Business Thing!

I have tried to set up a business a few times in my life.  Some have been successful for a while, some have been a downright flop! This blog will hopefully allow me to talk about what i'm doing business wise now, ask for other peoples help and opinions and post any useful bits and bobs i come across.

I find blogging generally helpful and well its good to have a record of what i've tried to do :)

Hopefully i will get a few people dropping in so i'm not talking to myself ALL the time LOL!