In today’s economic landscape, many people are struggling to get on their feet. Having a side business can help you pay your bills and have a little extra to spend on yourself. In order to do that, you need to know a few marketing basics. Today we are going to discuss how to sell natural products from home. Please bear in mind that this is just some advice, please consider all aspects and plan carefully before investing your hard-earned dollars.
Before starting to plan your business out, consider if it is worth your time and effort. How much money is there to be made from this niche market? How much time are you going to be able to put into it? And finally, how much money can you invest?
Table of Contents
First, What are you Going to Sell?
It does not matter what type of natural product you are selling, but you need to choose the best product you have first and then diversify. For example, focus on homemade soap bars first and then move on to fragrances or lotions.
This is important because, in this way, your investment will be safer and the business will be easier to manage at first, as it will be smaller in scale. The more items you have, the more work and planning that needs to go in it to make it a reality.
You also need to have a special selling point that differentiates your product from other products in the market. It can be a variety of things like branding but also claims like “toxin-free” or “all-natural”.
Be careful, though, with such claims. For example, the use of the word “organic” is regulated by the Certified Organics Industry, so stay clear of that.
In that regard, educating yourself on any laws that can hinder your marketability and product performance is very important. You need to know what you can or cannot sell and under what conditions according to the law.
Second, Who are you Going to Sell It to?
After you have chosen a great first product, you need to research the ideal customer you are selling it to, potentially. Is it your group of friends from school or your child’s school parents circle? Is it your work partners?
Who your product is aimed for is the basis for all your following decisions. For example, if you want to sell your handmade natural soap bars to women ages 25 to 45 you are going to choose a certain aesthetics for your brand and a certain place to advertise it.
Third, Plan your Market Strategy
Now that you know what you are selling and who you are selling it to, you need to work out the numbers. You need to crack how much it costs to make your products, including materials and your own work time, and figure out how much profit margin you have.
The best way to go about this is to use a spreadsheet and list your material costs, taking into account shipping if need be. First, list the amount in bulk and then crank it down to individual product cost.
Do not forget to work in your packaging and marketing budgets, as without any marketing or correct branding people will not know where to return to buy from you again.
Once you have those numbers down, you need to take into account how much time it takes you to produce your product and how many units you will have at the end of that time frame.
This will help you understand how fast you can produce the product in order to allocate the right profit margin to it.
After you have all those numbers figured out, you should add all the individual costs and figure out how much it costs you to produce one item of your product total. With this number in mind, you should add the profit and voilá! That is your product’s price.
If it is too high, you will need to adjust some of your math or change suppliers in order to decrease it. You could also try and work on better branding to differentiate your product further but this depends on your ideal customer and how much they are willing to cash out.
Fourth, Start Small
Once you have everything figured out, you should plan out how much money you will need firsthand for a small batch production and how much time it will take you to get your return of investment if the product is successful.
If everything checks out, then you can go ahead and start selling your product. In this, marketing is essential. You need to brand your product correctly and spread the word through the best paths possible to reach your target audience.
Do not try to produce big amounts of the product. Be conservative at first and once there is some hype or the wheels have started turning, you can start producing bigger amounts of your product.
Some Tips
Remember that in this day and age social media is everything. Consider paying a professional to handle your social media accounts if it is at all possible. If you cannot, then you should definitely read up on how it is best to handle social media platforms for marketing.
This can make or break a company. Branding and knowing how to market your product is the best way to get a successful product. Make sure your packaging stands out and that your differentiating factor is advertised clearly.
Always make sure to have great customer service, whether you are working from a farmer’s market stand or online. This will make people want to buy from you again. Think of it as if it was you on the customer’s side. What would you like the company to do?
Have you found this guide useful? Tell us in the comments below! Think of this as a chance to put your product out there as well! Any chance to pitch it in is worth a try.
