You’ve been selling some of your crafts in your spare time in order to make extra pocket change. But, now you think you could take your crafting to another level, turning your side hustle into a full-blown business. You have the talent. You have the audience. All you have to do is get the right funding and the right online platform, and you should be ready to go.
How Do You Get Funding?
Starting a business is expensive, even when you decide to open up a store online. You need to consider regular expenses like materials, shipping and payroll if you’re going to hire employees.
If you don’t have a large stash of savings to dip into, you can always get business funding in Maryland without having to step foot into a bank or fill out a grant application form. You can get your online application accepted within 24 hours, and then you can get access to that financial support within 72 hours. In days, you could have enough money to transform your side hustle into a legitimate and lucrative enterprise.
How Do You Handle the Funding?
One of the smartest things that you should do is start a separate business savings account at a bank once you get the financing for your project. Putting profits into your personal savings account may have worked with your side-hustle, but it’s not the best idea for when you have a full-time establishment. Tossing your business funds in with your personal savings is a good way to mix up your budgets and make regrettable spending mistakes.
You should also take out a separate business credit card for similar reasons. You should keep your business’s credit far away from your personal credit. This way, your venture starts with a clean slate. Slowly build up your business credit so that you can guarantee bigger funding opportunities in the future.
Where Should You Set up Shop?
Instead of setting up a traditional brick and mortar storefront to sell your professional crafts, consider starting your store online. A brick and mortar storefront will be much harder to keep open — and it will be much harder to make a profit. You will have to factor frequent expenses like rent, utilities and security into your budget. And you will only have access to a small audience.
With ecommerce, you can have customers from around the world. You can make sales at all hours, even when you’re asleep. And your overhead costs are going to much, much smaller.
All you have to do is choose which ecommerce platform should host your business’s official website and online store. Some of the top choices out there are Wix, BigCommerce, Shopify and Squarespace. Every platform brings different benefits to the table. Explore your options so that you can find the ideal match for your business.
Becoming an entrepreneur has never been so easy. In a few clicks, you can get the funding for starting your own business. And then, you can open up a new tab and get your ecommerce site up and running.