Episode Transcript:
Miesha Williams 00:00
I'm Miesha Williams and you are now tuned into Season Two of thenetworthy, building a business. Join me as I take my listeners step by step on my journey as I build my LLC naimalux from the ground up. I promise you don't want to miss a second of this. Hey, everyone, how are y'all doing? First, I want to thank you all for tuning in to another week, another episode of the networthy podcast. I also want to thank those of you who are here for the first time as we continue to grow week after week. So the cat's finally out of the bag, I launched naimalux over the weekend, and I had no plans to, I can be a very impulsive person. Sometimes I like to do things when I feel like it. And sometimes what I feel goes against what I've planned. But I realized I had no real reason to put off the launch, just excuses. Sometimes when we sit on an idea for so long, it becomes hard to share our vision with other people. You don't want to move forward until things are perfect. But in reality, things will never be perfect. It's like when you go swimming, and you know that the water is about to be cold. So you hesitate to get in, you might dip your foot in, maybe a hand, and it's still freezing. So then you try to ease your way into the water, but you're still freezing, you'll never get comfortable in the water until you just fully immerse yourself. So you finally just put your whole body into the water. And before you know it, you're just swimming around, and it feels like the temperature of the water warmed up. But the temperature never change, you just adjusted.
Miesha Williams 01:19
So if you haven't heard and haven't seen on Instagram, naimalux is lingerie, black owned lingerie sizes ranging from small to 4XL with new styles being added often. By the time you hear this, there may be something new on the site. And you can go to naimalux.com and check it out, it will be in the description box. So I launched the website over the weekend. And there were some hiccups, I won't lie, things didn't go perfectly. But I opened the site to my friends first so they were able to catch most of it because I'm one person. But we made it work. And now I get to move on to marketing and checking analytics to see how things are performing, making adjustments. So you know, so that we continue to grow. I am a little lucky, because I do have web development experience. I've been coding for over 10 years now. So whenever I go to release something new, I don't have to rely on anyone else to build the website for me. And I love that for me. I don't have to pay to make things look how want, I get to do exactly how I want it to, I don't have to try to explain what's in my head to anyone else so that they can build the vision for me, I just do it. Because building and maintaining a website can be expensive. And I know that's not an investment that everyone is ready for yet. But in reality, when you're trying to build trying to build a business, build a brand in 2021, you need to have a digital presence. So a lot of people think that they could get around having a website by just selling on Facebook and Instagram. And that's great. You know, you get to do the whole word of mouth thing, your friends and your family can see it and help you out. But I've said this before, and I'll say it to my last breath, you should have something set up so that customers are able to purchase or book with you at their own leisure. It doesn't matter if it's two in the afternoon or two in the morning. If someone is thinking about your product at that time, they should be able to purchase and checkout right then. The hard part is convincing people to buy from you convincing them that they should buy that product and you're the person that they should buy it from. If you have already convinced them to purchase it, you want to make the road to getting their money in your pocket as easy as possible. If I'm up at three am, making impulse purchases as I do. And I see you're selling something that I like I don't want to have to dm you for your price and then wait for you to get back to me with details, then have to wait on your cash app information in order to purchase it. Because by that time, I've already realized it's not money that I really need to be spending, I've already changed my mind. Same goes for those of you who do have websites built but your information isn't displayed in a clear concise manner. You make it hard for people to find what they're looking for on the website or the checkout process is unclear. You're creating unnecessary obstacles which are getting in the way of your sales. Because then people are having to come to you to ask you questions before they can check out when they should just be able to go on your website, see everything they need Checkout, boom, that's it. You have website builders out here, websites, sites, that will allow you to build your own site or use a template to get the look and feel that you're going for. Shopify and store envy are two examples. But if you're know you're not that great with design, or you don't know how to add the right keywords to the page and on the back end to help drive traffic to your website, you're still doing yourself a disservice the money that you think you're saving by not paying to have a website built or having a = DIY option that isn't built effectively. Yeah, you might be saving money but you're losing that plus some by not making the sales you expected.
Miesha Williams 04:31
So here's some tips that I have for building a ecommerce site. One, make sure that you are accepting as many payment options as physically possible. If you can find a system that processes a variety of different credit cards, PayPal and even add afterpay so that your customers have options. There are people who are more willing to complete the checkout process if they're able to use PayPal because it helps them feel protected. Or if they can split the payments. You know split the split the total into different payments. using Afterpay so that they're not paying the entire amount upfront. And the good thing about afterpay is that once you integrate into your site, you'll still receive your money upfront, they aren't paying you in payments, they're paying afterpay back in payments, you're still getting your money, you don't have to wait to see your funds. Two, be clear on your website about what you're selling, make sure your product descriptions fully outline what the product is. This will help on Google search. If someone is looking for a similar product. I'm still working on getting all this information into my website this week, actually. So as we speak, I'm trying to work on it. So this is a personal reminder to myself as well. Somebody may be looking for like a pink dog leash, and you happen to sell one it's listed so many times on your website that you come up second or third in the Google search results when people are looking for it and boom, more traffic for you, more customers, you're being able to have checkout on your site without having to reach out to them and do too much work.
Miesha Williams 05:51
Three, take clear product photos, your customers want to see what you're selling, make sure your product photos do a good job at displaying your products. And I know that starting out that can be hard me, for example, I knew it would take longer to find models that were comfortable with modeling lingerie on such a short notice, especially during a pandemic. So I had to settle for a mannequin. That was a compromise that I had to make for the time being but I wanted people to be able to see what it looked like on something. That's also something that can be changed as my brand continues to grow. You don't want to only have like Facebook and Instagram photos that aren't doing a good job with the display. You want to cut down on how many questions people are asking about the product before checkout.
Miesha Williams 06:32
Four, accessibility is important. Accessibility is key. I'm very heavy when it comes to accessibility. You want to make sure the colors you are using on your website are visible to those who may have visual impairments, you want to make sure that the ratios for the color palette that you have chosen, chosen means the standard, you want to make sure that the photos have alt text so that if someone is using a screen reader and they come across your site, they're still able to navigate and check out on their own. You don't want to stop people from being able to purchase from you just because they have you know certain impairments. And your site isn't accessible because then it's not their fault. It's your fault for not having an accessible website. That's not okay. It's kind of discrimination as well. Five, know when it's time to bring in help. if things aren't looking how you want them to the maintenance of the website becomes too much for you. Or you become overwhelmed because you gave it a good shot. But it is just it isn't something that you're able to get a grasp on. You have to know when it's time to bring it help. Don't stand in your own way. Don't let taking the cheap way out the easy way out of well not really the easy way out if you're having issues, but don't let taking the cheaper option stop you from being able to make sales. There's hella developers out here who are ready and willing to help you get started me for example. I do prefer to work with women though. But on the occasion I do have openings in my books, which I have space for spring summer, I'm more than happy to help. And you can contact me through my website mieshawilliams.com. And I'll leave that link in the description box as well. But other than that heavy building, happy launching and I hope everyone sees the growth that they're hoping for this year.
