[ROTEM SIVAN, "MATCHA"]

(SINGING) I like my coffee Black, no milk, and hold the sugar, please. Can't take too much because the jitters just ain't good for me. When clouds are loud, I find it gets so hard to feed my meager needs. Like wilted flower, thirsty soul-- a prelude to the fallen leaves.

- What's up, you people. I'm Erin. And this is "Erin On Demand." And today, we are talking all--

[SNAPS FINGERS]

--things business. I'm going to share with you some things that you need to do to get your business up and running this year. Now, I did create a video like this a few years ago when I didn't have as much business acumen under my belt. I wasn't as seasoned. You know, your girl is getting seasoned out here.

And I actually don't really agree with some of the things that I shared in that video. Not that I don't agree with them, but I don't think that the starting point or the things that I emphasized in that video are necessarily the main emphasis that you need to have as you're starting a business. So, that video is still a great resource. I will leave it down in the description if you want to check it out.

But let's get into some things now that I have a little bit more business experience under my belt, shall we? The very first thing that you need to do when you are considering starting a business is ask yourself why. Why do I want to start this business? I know it sounds cliche. I know you feel as though what you want to be doing with this business, why you want it.

But I'm telling you, you need to do the inside work before you get started. Because entrepreneurship is very demanding. It's not hard. You will never hear me say that starting your business is hard. Is it a lot of work? Yes.

So is this business idea that you have something that you are solving a problem for? Is it something that you genuinely want to provide a solution for? Or are you doing it for personal gain, which is totally fine. You just need to be clear on what it is that you're doing this for.

Second thing you need to do is get clear on your goal. What is the value proposition of this business? Everyone brings something different to the table. We all have different personalities. There are a ton of different clothing companies, a whole bunch of furniture companies. There's tons of different companies that provide the same thing.

So it's not necessarily about always bringing something totally revolutionary to the market. So when you're getting clear on your goal for this business and determining your value proposition, think about these things-- what makes my business different than things that are already being done out there? How can I bring something fresh into the industry that isn't being done already? What conversations am I able to stir up that aren't being had? How is my product or service going to provide a slightly more enhanced solution to this demographic of people?

So think about that. That is what is going to be your value proposition. That's the thing that sets you apart. And in today, y'all, when it is a ton of businesses opening left and right every single day, on top of the fact that there's tons of content out in the world, there's so much competition everywhere. So, you know what? Competition is honestly obsolete at this point because it's just a way of life.

You have to think about all of these things that are going to set you apart and cut through the noise, as I like to say, of all the other hustle and bustle that's going on and get people to lock into what you're doing. So, understand your value proposition. Number three is list out the cost of starting.

So, I'm just being honest, starting a business costs money. And obviously you can limit the amount of money you're spending. In the beginning, I will highly recommend you save up for your business, especially if you're planning to transition from your full-time job into full-time entrepreneurship without stability yet in your business. I would recommend that you have a big lump sum of money saved up.

Now, there is a cost. Everything comes with a cost. So list out the expenses that you're aware of, OK? And then you might have to bake in a little bit more for the things that you don't even may come up. So expenses, such as the products that if you're creating a product-based business, what do you need to purchase? Do you need to find a manufacturer? Do you need a product manager or somebody who can help you bring your product to life? Do you need to purchase software or technology to create whatever it is that you're doing?

Do you need licensing or do you need to learn a new skill and pay for someone to teach you? Do you need a facility to store your products or to conduct your services? So expenses matter on top of the day-to-day expenses that you also have to be keeping up with. You know, if you pay rent or a mortgage, your car, your cell phone, your groceries, your utilities. All of those things. So you're going to want to list out every single thing that you can think of that's going to cost.

This is not to deter you. This is not to freak you out. This is just to be real with yourself in understanding how to best prepare if you are trying to transition into full-time entrepreneurship or if you are trying to just understand the cost of running your business. So either way, you need to be doing this.

And the last important thing to think about when you're evaluating your expenses is your time. Looking at your schedule, looking at all of the priorities that you currently have, and figuring out where you can buy some time to run your actual business. So you can have all of these things, and you can have the best branding, the best website, the best everything. But if you don't create time to run your business, market your business, and efficiently grow your business, then all of this isn't worth anything.

Number four is to conduct a SWOT analysis for yourself and for a few of your competitors. So basically what a SWOT analysis is, is it stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So you're going to look at what do you have going strong for you? What are your strengths, weaknesses? Where are some areas that you actually aren't the strongest and you may drop the ball here? The things that you're not the best at right now.

Opportunities. Where do you have the highest amount of opportunity of growth. Maybe you have a juice bar and you are marketing mainly to kids. You want your juice bar to be more kid-friendly versus being adult-driven. So you're like you have it in juice bags, juice boxes. You make fresh, cold-pressed juice. Cool for kids.

So maybe your opportunity is that there aren't that many people marketing to that demographic. And some of your SWOT can overlap. So maybe that's also one of your strengths.

And then your threats. If you are an online juice bar where people can't come into the store and you have to ship things and someone lives in Texas or lives in Florida and it's 90 degrees during the day, if they're not home within that hour that their juice is dropped off, that's a threat. It can be rotted by the time they get home.

So you have to think about all of these different things. I love doing SWOT analyzes because it helps you think big picture about your business in comparison to your competitors. So you do the same thing for your competition, but don't overkill. Do not overkill. Do it for maybe three to five competitors max.

Because what you really just want to do is get an idea of what's going on in your industry. It is not for you to mimic or replicate what others are already doing. So in the Creator to CEO course, I go in-depth about competition analysis, SWOT analysis, how to conduct them properly. And yeah, I think that they're a really great tool to do before you get your business supercharged and up and running.

OK, number five. This can kind of go wherever in this video as you please. But you got to create the doggone product or service. So you have to create the thing. If it is a product, you need to produce it. If it is a service, you need to create your framework or get your things that you need to conduct the service and actually map out how your service will work.

So either way, you need to create the thing that you are selling. Number six is to test. Test, test, test. This is a phase that I was in early on in my business for quite a while. I did not-- well, I did test for free on some clients. But I didn't overtly test for free.

I tested by charging minimal amounts because, heck, I needed to make some money. I had no job, no consistent income. I had saved before I started my business, but I needed money. So I did charge a minimal fee. And when you're testing, I want you to know that you don't have to do it for free.

If you want to test and you want to charge a minimal amount, just something that is just worth your time, that's fine. I think in general, people are valuing the fact that maybe you're taking initiative to say, hey, I want to test this out on you. Maybe your first one to three are free. But then after that, as you start gaining more understanding on how your product or services work, how your clients may be getting results, or your customers may love it, then you can start charging.

Now, if you have a product-based business, when you're testing, I would recommend you letting a few people wear your product. If it is like a sweatshirt or if it's a pin or some type of productivity book, let people use it. Let people see how the material holds up. Let them wash it in the washing machine three or four times, see if it shrinks, if the color fades. This will also help you iron out any wrinkles that you have in your services or products.

If your website isn't working properly, if your shirts are shrinking, maybe you need to find a new manufacturer. And on top of that, it's going to help you realize if you actually want to commit to this business. So by testing out, I would not recommend ordering 1,000 units of shea butter or sweatshirts if you haven't done any testing yet. So whatever that looks like for you, even if it looks like getting a sample, get a small batch where you are starting out. Don't take on too many clients when you're starting out and really understand how to run the business and see if you actually like it.

Number seven is to refine. So now that you've created the product, you have tested it out on some people, now it's time to refine. So whatever those action items are that you found from the data that you have tested, you need to refine your product or service so that it is--

[SMACKS LIPS]

optimal chef's kiss when you launch. Number eight, baby, is that you know you want to do this. And now it is time to move into the logistics. So if you feel like, OK, I can commit to this business. This is something that I want to run. I want to do this long-term. Now is the time to start implementing a lot of the things that you will hear people tell you-- you need to do to start a business, which I also told you in my past video.

So now it's time to do the things like registering your business. This is going to vary by state. You also don't have to default to an LLC. Research-- this is also something that we go into in the Creator to CEO course, business entities, helping you understand what is the right thing to fall under. But I would recommend seeing an accountant to best guide you based upon your business, your state, et cetera, et cetera.

So registering your business, getting your EIN number from the IRS. You can go to irs.gov to register your business with the IRS and get your EIN number, which is basically like your business's social security number. You also are going to want to handle all the legalities. So trademarking, copyrighting, patenting. Whatever your products or services are, that can be your tagline, your logo, your business's name.

This is important. You're going to want to protect yourself, protect your brand and your business because you're going to work so hard on it that you need to protect it. Now, I will say this. You can do this immediately if you want, if you know that this is a name that you are never letting go of. But if you are kind of like, OK, I know I want to start this business, I know I want to do. I just don't know my name yet. Do not wait to start your business just because you don't have a name solidified.

Get going, produce, sell stuff, have a placeholder name for now, and just let it come to you. You do not have to know your name and do all of these things that I'm talking about immediately after you are ready to launch your business. They're not necessarily necessary. You want to get some experience, some skin in the game-- that's what it is-- before you get to investing all of this money into your business.

So just make sure that you are solidified with your brand's name before you go into the trademarking, patenting, all that legal stuff because it's going to cost money. I also would highly not recommend you to do that on your own. I would recommend getting an attorney for that. In my Creator to CEO course, my attorney is speaking all about trademarking, and copyrighting, and all of those legal things-- contracts-- getting those in place. So those are things that are necessary. But I want you to be sure that this is the direction you want to go into before you make that investment.

Other things are securing your social media handles, also building a website, making sure that you've secured your website domain. You don't have to invest thousands and thousands of dollars into a website at the beginning. As long as it's functional, as long as you have great copywriting, as long as you have some great images, and as long as it's easy to navigate and it shares all the information that is necessary to get someone from knowing your product to buying your product or your service, that's all you need. And then as you grow, then you invest into a nicer website that is more functional for the direction your business is going into.

Number nine is to market and to work your butt off. OK, this is where the work really happens. The starting is the hardest part only because it's going into something that you have no idea what you're about to do. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. And our bodies naturally are protecting us from the unknown. So acknowledge the fear, embrace the fear, and thrive in the fear, OK? So marketing, that's social media, that's the Facebook ads, Instagram ads, influencer marketing. All of those things, you guys.

I'm not going to go into too much depth about that, but market your business. You cannot be scared to talk about your own business. And you have to figure out ways that you can talk about your business in a way that is enticing to who it is you're trying to get to purchase into your business. So make sure that when you're marketing, you're not begging. OK, there's a big difference.

If you would like to see a full video on how to market without being too salesy, please let me in the comments. I would be willing to do that video for you guys. I also go very much in-depth. We have an entire module in the Creator to CEO course about branding and marketing. And this course is built for content creators who are a little scatterbrained like myself. And you are ready to take your content creation and turn it into a full-time business.

That is exactly what this Creator the CEO course is for. And it was built specifically with you in mind. So I'm really excited. We go through so much-- mindset, getting your business organized, branding and marketing. I even throw in some influencer marketing in there. We also talk about scaling, hiring, all of that stuff.

So this is an ideal course if you are in the swing of creating content and you are ready to take it to the next level or if you started your business and it's kind of in that beginner phase and you are ready to supercharge it, you need to fill in some holes, you feel like you're a bit overwhelmed with creating content, running the business. You're just kind of like all over the place. So, I would highly recommend this course for you. I will leave all of the details down below.

I don't want to share like launch, waitlist, all of that stuff in the video because I don't want to make it untimely. So if that sounds like your jam, click the link below so you can get more information about the course. And number 10, last but not least, understand that your business can change. You can pivot. You are not held captive by your business. You are not trapped by your business.

And I want you to know that this is supposed to be something that allows you more freedom in the long run. So please, if you are feeling like you are not experiencing joy from running your business, if you are going months and months and months and you are not fulfilled, you are not happy, then you need to make a change either in your business, either in your approach to your business. And that is OK. Be OK with that. And a lot of times, sometimes even our first business is not the business that is the business that takes us to the next level.

Sometimes your first business or your first few businesses are teaching you those fundamentals of growing a business, becoming a leader, becoming more confident. So consider that as you are growing as an entrepreneur and taking these steps into being a business owner. So remember that this is not a rush. This is not a race. Where you are is the sweetest place to be.

So, enjoy it. Enjoy the journey. And I will see you on the next one. Let me know if you would like that video on how to market without being too salesy and I will create that for you as soon as I can. If you want more information about the Creator to CEO course, you can find that down below. And I will see you later. Peace.