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Addressing Budding Entrepreneurs' Questions

Featured Author:

Vera Babayeva

Vera Babayeva is the founder of Women Can Have It All, a place where entrepreneur moms and women connect. After working in corporate America for two years, she found passion in her role as a business owner. An entrepreneur for three years now, she organizes networking events and writes about entrepreneurship to encourage women to explore their creativity, ambition and fulfill their dream of business ownership.

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More articles from this author:

• Steady Persistence: The Key To Making An Idea Reality
• 3 Tools to Best Market Your Business
• How to Effectively Build Relationships

Within the past couple of weeks I have met some incredible people who either have business ideas or are looking for one. Both kinds of people share similar concerns.

One of my fellow WomenCo. members asked: “What is a better way to sell my product?” She is hitting road blocks and feels that she may be forced to give up on her business because money is an issue. This woman felt that she needs to develop her business first before selling.

Only you will figure out the best way to sell your product. Look for various avenues and try them out and see what works best.

• Go online. Listing online requires a minimal fee. It costs less then a dollar to sign up and list items on eBay. Many other similar sites allow you to list for free.

• Attend networking events. There are many free or low-cost networking events that you can attend to promote your product. Go to MeetUp.com or ask around to find such events.

• Cold call business owners for help and expertise

• Contact stores that would be interested in your product. You can also leave your product at local stores on a consignment basis.

• Define what makes your product different and better

These are all low-cost ways to promote your product. You just have to be ready to roll up your sleeves and work.

Your business idea will develop as you promote and get feedback. Think about Coca-Colaa – they are constantly changing and developing their product as times change. It’s never perfect and it never stays the same.

During a Women Sphere networking event, one of the attendees told me she did not have a business, but was there to bounce off ideas. I suggested she take business classes and attend more such events. She then asked, “When should I take classes, after I get my business up and running or now?” If you are serious about starting a business, take the classes now. As you take classes, talk, read, and research you will figure out what business is right for you.

Another budding entrepreneur I know is my cousin, who has a great idea for a product. He only has a product idea and before ma king it he is already thinking about how he will promote it, where he will find a person to build a website for him, and the like. He’s gotten ahead of himself! Slow down.

Don’t think ahead. Start with the first step.  Make the product tangible. Start promoting it by showing it to friends and family. Get feedback and fine-tune. Start promoting your product via websites, networking events or stores that already have heavy traffic. As you get more fe edback, you will further improve it. Once your product gets recognition, only then you can start thinking about doing your own website.

Take one step at a time. Thinking about everything at once overwhelms you and stops you from making that product idea real. Whatever you do, don’t give up on your ideas! You just have to work on it and work on it and then… work some more.