BowBusiness.com Where to Begin... Starting a Business -- The FIRST STEP

Determine Your Mission: Having a successful business takes more than just finding a great product to sell and then selling a lot of it.  All successful businesses, regardless of what types of businesses they are, must have more than just the desire to have their wealth become enhanced.  All successful businesses require more than business operators that walk around with big dollar signs flashing in their eyes.  All successful businesses only become successful if they have a mission.  A mission is defined as  “an assigned duty or dedicated purpose.”  Your business must first have a purpose in order for it to begin, and then for it to be successful.  Why is a mission important?  Because for any business to be successful, customer satisfaction must be a top priority, and in order to provide full satisfaction to your customers, your business must be grounded in a purpose to do a particular service for customers in some way.  This is your businesses foundation, thus being the first, and necessary step to success.   In determining your mission in the hair bow business, there are some things you may want to consider.  First of all, you must know who you will be marketing to.   Obviously, in the hair bow business, most of your customer population will be mothers of daughters.  What kind of product will these mothers want for their daughters?  Consider that mothers want only what is best for their precious little girls.  Thus, they are going to want a high quality product.  Believe it or not, hair bows can be “made” even when they won’t stay together longer than one day.   Mothers want precious hair bows for their daughters that will at least outlast one season of clothing, but much more, that will last for as long as the clothes they wear them to match will last.   Once you have gained an understanding about how you should target your market in your mission, you should then think about what types of products you plan to sell within your hair bow business.  A hair bow business in general is a realm of many specifics.  There are many types of hair bows, and in determining your mission, you want to determine which hair bows you will sell.  Relying on the first part of your mission as a foundation to the rest, you should consider which styles of hair bows there are that you can make with the utmost quality. Maybe you can make a very beautiful boutique styled bow, but your korker bow looks like the unraveling disaster of an old ball of yarn your kitten shredded.  If this is the case, I would suggest your main product line be focused mostly on the boutique style bows.  You are much more likely to ensure offering a high quality product to your customers, as is your purpose, if this is the case.   How you want to treat your customers Finally, in determining your mission, you want to think about what it is that really motivates you to want to do hair bows.  Monetary reasons are likely not the only thing that motivates you because you have an interest in making hair bows.   There is very likely something out there that has driven you to want to make hair bows in order to earn money.   Once you’ve determined all of these things, a great mission statement can be accomplished.  Below is an example of the mission statement I used for my business.   *Looking Fabulous Bows* “Bowtique,” is dedicated to offering sweet, hand made hair bows in various styles, ranging from boutique style hair bows to bottle cap hair bows, made with utmost quality, and up-to-date fashions.  Custom bows can be made upon request.  All of my hair bows are crafted from the highest quality ribbon and hand sewn so they will last.  Because I make these hair bows like I would my own daughters', I guarantee that customers who are not completely satisfied with my products will receive a full refund if guidelines in my refund policy are met.     **  Feel free to use this as a model for your own if you wish. A catchy and clever mission statement should convey to your customers the type of service they will receive in your store, whether your “store venue” be online, at a flea market, or in an actual store.  It should be published somewhere that will get customers attention, and even possibly attract customers to your place of business.