Chapter 6: The Small Details are Large

 As I adventure into my business journey, learning the ins and outs of what a business needs to start up, I find myself facing another challenge. Most people who have already established their business typically discuss the challenges they have after everything is already set up. You are seeing the result of weeks long contemplation and experience as you enter a shop, but not the challenges that they had to face starting up.

In my class we talked about funnels, pipelines, and other marketing and sales tactics. Those are all really good terms to learn and fantastic when managing your sales, but how do we get there? Cant have sales unless you have products, and cant sell products until you figure out how you want to sell them.

These are the small details of starting up a business that tend to escape your mind. You have an idea, you know what the product is, but now you must think about how much you should sell it, and what exactly you can sell.

In my last example, we talked about a 3D printing business. Using that same example, as a shop owner I know that I am going to be selling 3D printed items. That leaves a huge category of items you can sell, so lets limit it down to just toys. You are a 3D printing shop selling toys. Now that we know the product, its time to contemplate the environment (am I selling online or at a store front?). I am going to sell my 3D printed toys at a store front, so that eliminates the need to increase the prices to compensate for the shipping costs and other shipping fees. We also need to calculate how much the material costs, how much I am using per toy, and track the length of time it takes to make the toys. Gets complicated fast, doesnt it?

We have calculated the costs of the toys. Do I want to add services? Packages? Bundles? I am going to add a "toy box" that has 2 large toys, 2 medium, and 4 small toys. I also added a service that allows customers to bring me their 3D digital models and I will print them. Now that I have calculated the costs it could look something like this:

Large or complicated toy - $12
Medium toy - $6- $9
Small toy - $3-$5

The cost ranges between material used, labor, and how detailed the toy is.

Services will need to account for material, labor, and details as well (a lot of digital 3D models need to be supported before printing, make sure to account for all service aspects):

Printing Service: $5 an hour for less complicated prints, up to $10 an hour for large complicated prints
Toy Box: $50, this costs less than the toys individually, but we want to make a deal on it. Customers like deals!

As you start up you business, take some time to plan out the details of what you are trying to accomplish. These small details can become large later on as you make profit. Think about your customer, goals, and what you need to succeed. In the grand scheme of things, the small details become large as you start your journey.

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