Online Business, Does It Suit Me?

By reading that question, you would soon realize. In this modern era, everyone dreams about having successful online business, preferably by doing and selling what they like.

But, is it for you though?

Or are you more like a traditional face-to-face and love to put human element in selling?

Starting an online business, especially in vinyl decals business, may not be for everyone. It needs significant passion, discipline, and commitment to build your name heard without getting appreciated directly by customers.

Before we go further, check out these aspects that a vinyl decals businessman should have.

• Since you are dealing with it, thus you should have passionate about vinyl decals. You should know about vinyl decal machine, its hardware and software, at the very least.
• Your job highly relies on your design and creativity. Well you could use and sell some free online material. But your unique and remarkable design distinguish you with other seller. Not all designs are feasible to make out of vinyl and you should know about it. So, being a creative designer is an important advantage.
• Collecting some different point of views is important in designing business. It will help a lot if you are a photographer, when you are able to see, get, and edit images by your own.
• Despite “online” means you are executing business behind a laptop, you still need to be a people person You should easily adapt with new people, your staff (if you have one) and especially potential clients. You have to make them comfortable to tell you what they want, then choose you as their designer. You could get some rude and demanding clients, but handle it wisely since you are working for them.
• Understand the legal side. Many vinyl decals sellers don’t give enough attention about copyright and trademark. That being so, their online shops are turned down because of it. You could print online design for your own, but it cannot be sold if you don’t have the commercial license. Understand your local rule too, as each district may have different business rule.

Eventually, what is Vinyl Decal?

You’ve absolutely seen this kind of sticker even didn’t know its name.

The vinyl stickers could be used to personalize, decorate, and label your belongings and website. Therefore, you have range of potential buyers such as event organizers, interior designers, political parties, sport teams, and small businesses searching their brands.

Unlike conventional paper stickers, you could make a waterproof vinyl by adding a layer of clear vinyl on the top. It can definitely make your printed designs last longer.

What Do I Need to Have?

Enough for the talk. Let’s get down to business. What kind of equipment’s and tools I have to invest?

You need to have some materials to support your business.

• Cutting machine. Most of your investment will be used for these items. Many online references suggest three brands for vinyl decal cutter: Cricut, Silhouette, and Klic-N-Kut. Just make sure to do enough research for it and estimate your budget wisely.

Each cutting machine should include its cutting mat and software, which can be used to cut basic vector and existing design. But what distinguish you with other sellers is your design. Thus, we recommend you to buy and learn designing with such specialist software, for instance Corel Draw.

• Laptop and color printer. Not only for production, laptop will help you maintaining and updating your online shop anywhere. It’s fine to only have black and white printer, but it means you have no much space of creativity for custom stickers.
• Printable vinyl. The various size of sheets that are put into the printer. To get a waterproof printed stickers that would last up for to five years, just simply put a vinyl laminate on top of it.
• Packing and shipping supplies. Some people may undermine this aspect, yet customers’ happiness could be impacted by small things. You should make pretty packaging and ship it quickly.

By having online shop means you miss the human element and direct interaction. You could replace it by adding handwritten note and try getting feedback from them. Put sticker with your shop name as an advertisement.

• It’s only an optional tool anyway. However, it will remarkably improve your design creativity and site visitor if you post gorgeous pictures.
• The other essentials that you have to own are weeding tool, blade, vinyl roll, and application tape.

How Can I Start Selling?

• Most of us feel afraid of selling and dealing with people. We love designing, not marketing. However, enough of this comfort zone. Let’s make some money. First, you need to pick your name. You must check the US Patent and Trademark Office to know whether your name candidate is still available or not.
• Open online shop. One of the most recommended sites specialized in online vinyl decals shop is Etsy. For the start, you could apply some textbook tricks like put low prices or ask your friends to buy your products and leave good comments.

Do research for another similar shop to learn your competitors. You should know what popular designs are, or something that might have not existed yet.

In the previous part of this article, we have suggested to put attention in packaging as well. Follow-up your customers.

• Branding and social media. Alright Etsy is a good start. But later on when your shop becomes bigger, you may think to use personal website to avoid administration fee on Etsy. You can find tutorial to create and use WordPress or even paid domain.

Top four social media for business are Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. More social accounts means you get easier to find and reach potential customers.

• Selling locally. Apart of online vinyl decals business, you should promote your business via offline too. Family and close friends should be a perfect start. Make sure you’ve been heard. Some of them may post your work on their social media and it’s good for promotion.

Nail the presentation and advertise your business well.

There are some awesome vinyl decal shops on website, one of them is https://vectorency.com/.

You may learn how to properly manage an online shop, since Vectorency provides both free and paid cutting designs, depends on the license and your membership status.

And finally, that’s the end of our article. So, does it suit you?