3 Tips for Starting Your Own Wellness Business
If you’re interested in starting your own wellness business for nutritional supplements, you’ll be pleased to know that you don’t necessarily have to become a distributor with an multilevel marketing scheme or even start from scratch. Rather, you can simply use an established supplement manufacturer to get the ball rolling. While it may take a bit of time to plan and set up, creating your own unique branding label made by a cGMP certified (“Current Good Manufacturing Practices”) supplement manufacturer is a convenient way to ensure your new business provides a quality product and reflects your values and personal style. While the specifics of the startup process may be determined by the manufacturer you choose, here are a few tips for planning and starting your new wellness business.
Let Your Wellness Passion Become Your Keyword
These days, you’ll hear a great deal about “SEO” (search engine optimization) and its importance in online marketing and advertising. One essential way for people to find your company or product is by using an online search engine. Therefore, defining your passion up front is best. By zeroing in on your specific niche within the wide spectrum of different wellness businesses, you can ensure that your business shows up near the top of the list when customers are searching for your products online. Designing your entire business around SEO right from the start can save you a great deal of money in advertising costs later.
Whether your wellness passion is based on pediatric supplements for growing kids, geriatric supplements for age-related issues, sports medicine supplements for enhanced performance and tissue repair, or something else entirely, chances are, someone is already searching for your product. A report recently released by the California-based market and research consulting company Grand View Research indicates that by 2024, the supplement manufacturing market will reach an estimated 278.02 billion dollars. It would be easy to get trampled over in a market this large, which is why it’s so important early on to define your niche and embed keywords related to your specialty in everything you do, from product title and labeling to blogging to product descriptions on your webpages.
Leverage Social Media Early and Often
You can start building a buzz around your company and products before your supplements are even ready to be shipped. Establish a presence online by commenting and posting in related Facebook Groups, Twitter feeds, Quora Answers, and even Reddit subgroups. It’s important to have your finger on the pulse of both the latest in medical and scientific research as well as the court of public opinion. Knowing the issues that matter most to your target audience will help ensure you stay in the sales “sweet spot” by having the right product offering in your lineup. Getting your name out across multiple platforms as an expert in the field helps you build a level of trust and a pool of followers already interested in what you will be selling, which is half the battle in the beginning.
Once you’ve started to sell your products in the marketplace, it’s important to set aside time on a weekly or even daily basis to continue answering questions and posting on social media to maintain your web presence and follower base. Posting relatable moments that you experience in your everyday life tends to generate a great deal of engagement; are you offering an energy supplement in your product line? Posting a picture of a person fumbling for the snooze button to advertise an upcoming product release or sale can be just as effective as a picture of the product itself. Remember, you are a problem-solver, and your products are designed to help people on the path to wellness. So capture those everyday moments where we all need a boost and provide a helpful solution.
Plan Your Time Wisely
Time is one of the most precious commodities we have to offer. Once you become your own boss, your ability to manage your time wisely will have a major impact on your long-term success. As with any business, if you don’t stay organized and focused, meeting your earning goals can become more and more difficult. Setting boundaries from the start about your work/life balance is key; once you have determined how many hours you are able to work daily, you can begin to meter out your time to make sure the wheels of your wellness business continue to turn.
In addition to these practical tips from the National Federation of Independent Business, a general breakdown of a typical workday could include the following:
- 20 percent Administrative Tasks: paying bills, managing orders/shipments/returns, etc.
- 30 percent Market Research; reading up on the latest trends and studies related to your market.
- 25 percent Marketing Strategy: assess and implement various sales ideas, collect and analyze data to determine what works and what to do differently next time.
- 25 percent Social Media Engagement: creating & uploading posts, monitoring online reviews, answering questions, etc. (try not to get stuck on your personal feeds).
Of course, each day is different and you may be presented with unexpected challenges or projects, but finding a way to keep up with the many facets of a personal wellness business starts with careful planning.
With a little patience and dedication, partnering with an established supplement manufacturer can put you on the road to financial independence. You can enjoy the freedom of choosing your own product line, branding, and market specialty for your wellness business without having to adhere to strict distributor guidelines and restrictions or worry about the hassle of managing production facilities or employees.
