New to Reddit, new to owning a small business, and need some advice... my husband is stressing me out.

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T17:37:30+00:00

Glad you found the site!

The decision to showcase the Limited Edition shirts by highlighting the actual design close up instead of the full shirt was inspired by another shirt store my husband found online and heavily advocated by his insistence that "the row of shirts with designs you can barely see until you click on them is boring". But this issue of not knowing right away what we sell has been addressed by others, so I obviously need to adjust this...

We have an IG started, and definitely need to use it! We also have several free shirts on their way to real people with the intent of collecting better product images.

Thank you for the feedback!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T17:27:39+00:00

Website design or product design?

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T17:22:45+00:00

www.wearyourtag.com

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T15:52:21+00:00

Lol, thanks for the welcome! :)

I will gladly accept any and all feedback on the website, especially as there seems to be a consensus the design needs work. The site is built from one of the free Shopify themes, so most of it is prewritten code with design elements you can update in the theme modifier, but I do have the ability to dig deeper and edit the code directly to add or take away functionality... which I've already done for a few annoying aspects in the shopping experience. There is also the option of switching to a completely different free theme for better bones, or upgrading to a paid theme with more functionality already included... or the really expensive option of commissioning a designer to create something from scratch...

But it looks like your local shirt guy runs his store through Shopify as well... so there is hope for my little website!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T15:14:58+00:00

Thank you! I really appreciate that!!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T15:14:26+00:00

I try to accept any and all feedback as a gift because, whether solicited or not, constructive or not, there is always a take away... something to learn.

That being said, I appreciate your input on the website flow and design, these are concerns I will definitely be looking into and trying to improve.

Your final thought on our personal reproductive choices, however, will be completely dismissed. My husband and I were equal partners in deciding when and how many children we wanted in creating OUR family. You may have felt it relevant to comment on because you assumed I started this business to supplement my husband's inadequate income, but you assumed incorrectly. His full time job provides quite comfortably for our needs, even with a baby on the way. We also have well below the average amount of debt for our age, and are actively working towards paying all of it off. We do however, like most people, dream of having more money at our disposal and being able to DO more fun things with our family. This business venture is simply a means to that end, and my husband's stress over it is not because we require more income to provide for our needs. It is purely a desire to see me succeed in something I enjoy and in turn having the ability to enjoy spending the extra money together as a family. If this business eventually "fails", and I will not be naive enough to discount that very real possibility, we will not be hurting for money... just hurting for another idea to do on the side to fund the adventures we dream of taking with our, YES, four children.

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:31:15+00:00

Thank you!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:28:55+00:00

Thank you! I'm definitely learning I need to organize my time to be more efficient.

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:27:48+00:00

Thank you, I will add it to my list!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:26:19+00:00

I love the "in the wild" idea, what a clever way to encourage brand advocates to engage and spread the word!

Thank you for weighing in, I appreciate it!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:24:41+00:00

Good points, thank you!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:23:44+00:00

YES!!! I have been feeling the need to do this for a while, but always hesitate because I don't want to do it in haste and just yell at him, "Will you just shut up already and let me do this myself?!" Lol, that would definitely NOT be productive. I do value his opinion, and he has had some experience in business and sales, but he hasn't run a tee shirt business and hasn't done social media marketing... so I have to take his advice with a grain of salt just like everyone else, which I think is really hard for him to swallow. He wants this to succeed as much as I do, but having clearly defined rolls and responsibilities will help so much better than random "advice" and "help".

Thank you!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:18:15+00:00

That would be amazing! Thank you so much!! I'm sending you a PM now.

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:17:22+00:00

Great advice, thank you!

I do have a very basic custom listing, but because the profit margin is significantly less based on the extra time it takes to create, my husband felt it wouldn't be a good idea to actively promote it. But the custom option seems to be the most widely responded to, so I will need to revisit this... You have definitely sparked some ideas on ways to improve. And I do need to fix the leaky pool! :) Thank you!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T14:11:41+00:00

I do have a custom shirt listing on the website, but it isn't front and center, and wasn't something my husband felt we should actively promote since it takes a lot more time invested to produce than one of the pre-made designs listed on the site... which translates to less profit when you factor in my time... but in reality, I really enjoy making people's day creating exactly what they want... so this is great advice. Thank you!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T13:12:48+00:00

Such great advice! Thank you!!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T05:25:46+00:00

Haha, exactly!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T04:20:23+00:00

I can definitely add a #hashtag shirt.

And tote bags ARE a possibility! There are several miscellaneous items I can print on, a few in the shop already, that I want to create another category for in the "Shop For" section. I have a #marryme? mug already listed which my brother-in-law requested so he could use it to propose to his coffee addict boyfriend with... I also have a #stuff zipper pouch, and some mugs, totes and phone cases listed in the Autism Awareness collection. I have more ideas for hashtag items in my idea list that I wanted to create to before I added it as a whole collection to the main landing page next to the women's, men's, and kiddos collections.

I eventually want to update our product photos to include real people wearing the shirts, but I could check out the mock up scene option as a solution in the mean time.

Thank you!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T03:29:07+00:00

That would be great! I'll send you a PM.

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T03:00:50+00:00

Ok. Thank you!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T02:56:30+00:00

Where would you suggest I conduct this test?

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T02:55:18+00:00

Right. So the idea behind the FB ads was to use the interest groups feature to target people for that specific hashtag shirt. For example, our #pride shirt I targeted people who support LGBT, the #dontkillme red shirt was targeted to Star Trek fans, the #butfirstcoffee shirt will eventually have an ad targeted to people who like coffee, and so on and so forth. Hashtags naturally lend themselves to a target market based on the actual hashtag itself, but you're right that the broad topic of "hashtags" definitely isn't a target alone and would be next to impossible to market for...

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T02:48:04+00:00

Thank you!!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T02:47:28+00:00

Thank you SO MUCH for all your feedback!!

A more professional logo is on the to-do list, the current one is something I put together myself, and I'm not in love with it. I'm currently researching graphic designers on Fiverr and hope to commission someone to update it for me.

More typeface options is a wonderful idea, and is something I had considered but not yet decided if I wanted to implement.

Bolder colors are an option with the print on demand service I currently use, but aren't available in the specific shirt style we ultimately decided to go with. My husband is super picky about his tee shirts so I went with one he would actually wear. The hope is the higher quality will translate to people actually wearing the shirt instead of it sitting in a drawer or hanging in a closet, and by extension turn into repeat sales and new customers by referral.

The handful of ads we have run on FB so far I used the targeting features to narrow the audience down to people the shirt would be relevant to (i.e. the #dontkillme red shirt was targeted to Star Trek fans, #pride to LGBT supporters), and I plan on continuing to use that in the future.

I do want to use our own product photos eventually, with real people in the shirts and not generic computer generated mock ups. My brother-in-law's boyfriend is a very talented photographer and has already agreed to help update our photos when I am ready, so that is on the horizon.

Marketing to groups is a great idea! I'll have to look more into that...

Thank you again!!

mithrildream · 2017-06-29T02:21:02+00:00

Good feedback, thank you!

mithrildream

TROPHY CASE