‘Here’s the business plan I used’

In 2014, I quit my $ 35,000-a-year insurance business to increase my e-commerce relationship with my husband, Chris.

We experimented with selling clothes and accessories on online markets, including eBay and Facebook. Our online community of friends and customers has grown rapidly from a few hundred members to over 10,000 in a very short period of time. I realized that I could combine my passion for affordable clothes and building relationships to help women feel confident in their fashion choices.

Without funding or reassurance about what lies ahead, we have taken risks and set ambitious goals. I focused on using my knowledge of sales and social media to increase our reach, while Chris incorporated his financial expertise into structuring operations.

Today we run our online retail business, Pink Lily, full time. Last year, we had sales of $ 141 million and sold an average of 11,000 items per day.

Whenever ambitious entrepreneurs ask for my advice, I tell them that the most important step we took at the very beginning was to create a business plan.

Your business plan may not be perfect and you should expect to make changes along the way. Here are five basic elements of a business plan that we have used to ensure success:

It is very important to identify and strengthen your value proposition - or the reason why customers will want to buy from you compared to another company.

Before I started Pink Lily, I was very immersed in the retail market. When I wasn’t doing my job full time, I would go shopping online. Every time I visited a website or eBay store that I liked, I kept a record of what I liked and did not like about them.

I found that there were not many options for women that were both modern and affordable, and I knew I could help meet this need. That was the foundation of Pink Lily’s value offer.

Here’s what to consider when defining your value proposition:

1. Define the product you are trying to sell.
2. Write a list of other brands that offer similar products.
3. For each of these brands, pretend to be a loyal customer and consider what you think is good and what is not.
4. As you conduct your research, look for market gaps - or areas that these companies do not serve.

Then you need to define and get into the shoes of your ideal customer.

The deeper you can get to know this person - to the point where you have a fundamental understanding of his decision-making process and day-to-day challenges - the better you can directly meet his needs.

To find your ideal customer, ask yourself:

• When exactly are you trying to target?
• Why would you be interested in your products?
• What does a normal day look like for them?
• What makes them happy?
• What frustrates them?
• What does their finances look like? For example, what are their typical purchases and how much do they spend on those items?

At Pink Lily, we know that our customers are looking for trend-driven design and quality options at affordable prices and a wide range of sizes. They like to be involved in the products we bring and to have a voice in the styles we create.

How are you different from other brands? How to better serve your ideal customer? Once you understand what sets you apart, you will understand the essence of your job.

Your differentiator may eventually become the central focus of your marketing strategy and online presence. For Pink Lily, what set us apart from other e-commerce brands was that many of our items were under $ 50.

Our customers also like to support the family business and be part of the Pink Lily family by participating in our community on social media and beyond.

To build a scalable business that will allow people to come back for more, you have to assume that you will be extremely successful in gaining first-time customers. Then create a strategy based on that assumption.

Ask yourself:

• How will you service all your customers more than once?
• How much money will you need for that?
• How will you expand your business to a growing number of customers?
• How will you use their interest and loyalty to further build your audience?

Social media has been invaluable to Pink Lily’s growth and success. From the very beginning, we used platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to connect directly with customers.

Consider these aspects when designing a social media marketing strategy:

• On which platforms will you publish and when? My recommendation is to post on more than one platform (ie Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) at least three times a week on each.
• What content will you publish? How will this provide value to your target audience or interest them?
• How much time will you spend on directly engaging comments? I suggest that you take as much time as possible to pay attention to your companions one on one.

I regularly ask our 3.6 million followers on social media which products they would like to see on our website or with which brands we should partner. We use their answers to make real-time decisions.

This helps customers feel like insiders. Their daily engagement has shaped our curation, while motivating us to always be a better partner in how we support our community.

Tori Gerbig co-founded Pink Lily, an online fashion store, like the eBay store of 2011. Today, it is one of the fastest growing online retailers in America. A graduate of the University of Western Kentucky, Tori lives in her hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky with her husband and their three children. Follow Pink Lily on instagram i Facebook.

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