30% of new businesses fail within the first two years, according to the Small Business Association. As such, when you’re launching your own personalized portrait business, you need to have solid marketing in place to attract customers. Additionally, you’ll need all the stock and tools required to create an original, quirky, and colorful piece that your customer will treasure forever. But, how do you ensure that you don’t overspend and ruin your growth potential?
Buy Materials in Bulk
Before you even consider launching your personalized portrait business, you should produce a detailed business plan, highlighting how you plan to grow your business and cover your expenses. As part of this plan, you’ll need to thoroughly research how and where you’ll purchase your materials from. In general, buying canvases, paints, and pencils in bulk will save you an average of 45%, according to one wholesaler. However, you mustn’t let the lure of ‘buy more to save more’ tempt you as you’ll have to sell more portraits to make a profit. So, ensure you carefully plan how many portraits you can realistically produce in a three-month period initially, and only buy the materials required to cover this output.
Offer More to Earn More
When you’re starting out in the custom portrait business, it can be tempting to offer customers portraits in standard sizes and formats to keep your costs down. However, customized goods are typically given as gifts, and this presents a great opportunity when you’re keen to get your business off the ground. By offering portrait cards, gifts, gift wrapping, colorful frames, and the option of adding a personalized message to your portrait, your business will stand out from the rest. Of course, this will increase your initial expenses. So, when you’re considering your business costs, you may need to borrow more capital in order to earn more income.
Be Accessible
Customers are prepared to pay high for personalized portraits as a unique and fully customizable design is something you can’t put a price on. But when consumers are sending you images, color swatches, and specific requests, they expect to be able to contact you as and when they need to. It’s, therefore, crucial that you have multiple methods available for them to contact you on. If you’ve met up face to face, handing out a business card is wise, whereas, being active on social media, having an easy-to-use contact form on your website, and an email address is crucial. By providing a good first-time experience, you’re much more likely to get repeat custom, positive reviews, and referrals.
Launching a personal portrait business takes a lot of enthusiasm and investment. But, by being smart with the way you launch your new venture, you can keep costings to a minimum while growing your business at the same time.
