How I started my online fitness accessories store.
Introduce yourself and provide a brief description about your business venture.
Hello, my name is Abraham. I had this desire to start a business on the internet and I knew it had to be something I am passionate about. The first thing that came to my mind was fitness and sports as I am a fitness enthusiast. I do regular work-outs including skipping and jogging which is a part of my daily routine. I started this e-commerce business based on fitness related products and services in February 2021 called fitnessonomy.com.
How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
I knew fitness is something everyone has to adopt as a daily routine to lead a healthy life. Moreover, the pandemic literally stopped people from going to the gym for workouts and people had to be educated about the possibilities of keeping themselves fit around the comforts of their own homes and gardens. They needed the right equipment and accessories to get into shape and keep themselves fit. So I knew the idea of starting a fitness related website to help people to do daily exercise and work-outs would be a great idea.
In your case how difficult was it to transform the idea into a successful product/service?
Well, I made a note of all the activities I could take advantage of, with the concept of an online store, which included e-commerce store selling fitness related accessories and clothes, exercise and work-out lessons, customised lessons with an instructor, heathy meal plans based on a person’s BMI etc. That really worked out well for me in planning and business design, partnering with fitness coaches and brands and brain-storming some wonderful ideas which would become a part of the business in the near future.
What is unique about your business?
I don’t know if there is anything unique about the business, but certainly my USP is providing a customised plan for people that want it. Nonetheless, I am always on the lookout for adding innovative concepts to the business and to make it a problem solving point for fitness enthusiasts.
How did you make your first sale?
A lot of prospects come to the website through organic search, showing me that the website SEO is done right, which is promising and the first sale was a workout band. As I promote through social media and have big plans for online promotion using various trending platforms, I anticipate a steady surge of traffic to fitnessonomy which would eventually add to our “leads list” and also a steady increase in sales.
How do you build authority in your market?
For fitnessonomy, authority is built by providing valuable content, and associating with fitness coaches and trending brands.
Using social media as an educational resource and providing the audience with useful information they actually need, rather than just selling them products that they may not need.
Authority is also built by joining forums and fitness communities and adding my personal experiences and suggestions to the conversation.
What motivates you?
Fitnessonomy is for anyone to get help and guidance in being physically fit and work towards living a healthy life. So working towards creating a healthy community motivates me and make me look out for trends in health and fitness space. I am also all ears to innovations in the fitness industry and would work towards merging the right ones with the website or through an app which would be an addon to the website.
What skills do you think should an entrepreneur develop to stay ahead?
In my opinion an entrepreneur should have an inquisitive mind and always look out for trends. Be creative and maybe brainstorm ideas to make use of the trends to come up with innovative business ideas. It would help to learn digital marketing skills to stay ahead and build an online brand.
What marketing strategies do you attribute to your success?
For me SEO was the best strategy that got people coming to the website, followed by Instagram and facebook.
II would also say, Social media advertising is one of the best ways to reach your audience and potential customers. With paid social media advertising, you can target your ads to very specific audiences, set up calls-to-action, and reach out to them with messages that are relevant to their needs.
Paid social media advertising has grown in popularity over the last few years as more people are relying on these channels for information about products and services. They help you cut through all the noise that’s out there and let you turn your marketing message into something that people want to engage with.
There are many advantages of paid social media advertising:-You can target your ads to very specific audiences , You can set up calls-to-action , You can reach out with messages that are for a custom audience etc.
“
Be honest about our abilities. We should also surround ourselves
with people that will help us grow in our chosen venture.
There are many resources in the form of valuable blogs and customer feedback for you to seek help with your business.
The last piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is that they should never give up on their goals and passions.
“
Why would customers/clients do repeat business with you?
As a matter of fact, getting repeat business from happy customers is a great motivation for a new business like ours. It is the life blood of any business as it keeps the cash flow at an acceptable level.
We make sure to understand the specific needs of our customers with regular engagement with e-mail marketing, maintaining easy navigation of websites with simple interfaces, quick response to queries etc.
It was seen that the number of return customers increased by an average of15% when contacted by email with customised coupons post purchase.
.
Does your business help the community where it is located or do you have plans in store?
Yes, community involvement is important for any business to engage with our target audience and for brand building. We have to come out with a plan to contribute to the community, encourage customers and people in general to stay active and help more people to get into some kind of work-outs which could even be done from home rather than going to a gym if that is the hurdle.
What books would you recommend to new entrepreneurs?
Yes, entrepreneurs need to have a deep understanding of the market they are in, so it’s important for them to read about relevant topics that will help them grow their business.
Some of the best books I suggest for entrepreneurs who are just starting out on their journey, as well as for those who have already established themselves are :-
4 hour work week by Tim Ferris-
This is a great book for anybody who wants more from life and I advice that it should be read occasionally. It will change your thought process and make you think outside the box.
Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller
Whatever stage you are in your entrepreneur journey, this book is a must for anyone to gain clarity in the message you deliver to your customers.
Are there any websites/blogs/apps that you can’t imagine your day without? Give your reasons.
Yes, we live in a fast-paced digital world and with the rise of new technologies, it’s becoming even more important to make our lives easier.
neilpatel.com and sethgodin.com are great websites for entepreneurs
to get some golden nuggets.
There are many apps out there that can help entrepreneurs like us with their work and enable us to grow our startups more efficiently.
There are apps for team management, marketing, social media management and some
serve as an all-in-one solution – helping us deal with our finances and business plans.
Few useful ones I found are as follows:
Buffer:It is an app that allows users to queue up our social media posts so that it can be scheduled to auto-post them for us when we have time.
Dropbox: It is a cloud storage and file hosting service. It allows users to upload or sync files across devices and share those files with other users.
Evernote: As one of the most popular note-taking apps, Evernote is great for gathering and
organizing thoughts and ideas. It’s also useful for taking notes during meetings or lectures.
Trello: This app is perfect if you want to manage tasks and projects with other people –
it’s like an online bulletin board where users can post messages and upload attachments to share with others.
If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Well, it’s true there is no clear-cut path to success. Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks,
and there are many difficulties along the way. But don’t let that stop you from following
your dreams!
Due to the lack of a clear-cut path, we should know what kind of business we want to start and should be honest about our abilities. We should also surround ourselves with people that will help us grow in our chosen venture.
There are many resources in the form of valuable blogs and customer feedback for you to seek help with your business.
The last piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is that they should never give up on their goals and passions.