It's the 14th of September and I think I want to start my own business. Hi guys, I'm Karina and welcome to my channel. I am in the process of starting my own business and I want to document this entire journey and share this video. So I do create a lot of DIY projects for my YouTube channel and even around the house I'm always doing something or the other. There are so many products that I can potentially sell but I just did not want to sell random things that I'm making. I wanted to curate a collection and stick to a niche. So I did think about creating textile prints because I am a textile designer. I did go to textile design school. Then I even ventured off into making clay jewelry. And I don't think I see myself making jewelry. So then I did do some research about macrame and it is trending right now. It is something I've loved doing. Then it's something I see myself doing for a long time. So I realized why not start a business of selling macrame products. So now that I've established that I do want to start a business in selling macrame products, the first thing that I actually need is raw materials. So my first instinct was to just contact sellers who are selling these products and ask them where they're getting their yarn from. I know for a fact that a lot of people will not want to disclose where they're getting their raw materials from and I expected that. So a lot of people did not reply and I was okay with that. So there was this one girl who did reply to me and she told me a few sellers that are selling this yarn in Canada. All of these yarn shops are so expensive. I would have never thought that I would be paying so much money to buy yarn. But it is what it is and that's why my products will be priced at whatever my cost in terms of that to be. So I did contact that seller and I did order one sample pack. I will be getting six different colors and the color of the yarn is very important for me because I want my brand to look very pretty and all the products to be very cohesive. I just don't want all these colors to be all over the place. So that was very important for me. And the second thing was to get hardware. Now I did find some Pinterest images for the type of keychains that I want to make and the colors I want to use for the hardware. And I did order a sample pack of 100 pieces. I have not received it yet so I really can't wait to receive my yarn and my buckles to start making these products. So now let's talk about naming the brand. So I wanted to call my brand Preep. But in the last week I did enough research to figure out that Preep.com has been taken. And on Instagram the username Preep has also been taken. So I did go to the extent of emailing the website owner and messaging the person on Instagram who owns this username to give it to me. But basically no one got back to me and then I realized why not with love by Preep. Because it goes with the whole concept of the brand where I'm making the products by hand by me and with a lot of love and care. So I realized why not call it with love by Preep. Although the name of the brand is still going to be Preep. And even on my Instagram, my logo, my branding, my cards, everything will be Preep. Just the username and the website URL will be with love by Preep.com. So after purchasing the domain name I had to figure out where I want to host this website. So you buy the domain name from GoDaddy or Google or wherever you want to buy the domain from. Now that is separate from where the domain is hosted. You can use Shopify, you can use weekly, square, wicks. Honestly there are so many options. And the most popular one is Shopify. But I found that to be a lot more expensive than the other options. And my main objective was to not spend a lot of money each and every month on the website. So I did find square to be the best option for me. It wasn't so expensive and it gave me everything that I wanted for the website. So yeah, I made my website on square and I absolutely love how it looks. It's so minimal, so simplistic. And yeah, it just looks very pretty. I love it. So after making my website I did make my Instagram page. I made my Facebook page. I signed up on Pinterest. I made my email account. And I also signed up on Etsy. So my two tasks for this week is to open a bank account for my business. Because so far all my expenses have been through various accounts and PayPal and so many other avenues where I cannot keep a track of all my business expenses. So it's very important to create an account for your business where all the expenses and income goes to my account. So it's just going to be a lot more easier to do accounting at the end of the year. And my second task is to figure out shipping. My shipping is a huge deal because in Canada shipping is super expensive and I do want to find the cheapest option that I can. So obviously I'm going to look into Canada post. There's something called chit chats. I need to figure out the labels. How am I going to print it? Because I don't have a printer. Am I handwriting it? Am I using posted stamps? I don't know any of that. But basically I need to figure out shipping. And yeah, that's my task for this week now. Now before I talk about packaging, I did want to update you guys regarding my shipping. So I did decide to go with Canada post and I did realize that if I'm shipping to the US, chit chats is the best option. It's the cheapest option. Now the only downside is that you will have to print out your own label and I don't have a printer. So I'm not sure if I'll be able to use that. But for now, I'm going to stick to Canada post. And regarding my bank account, I did open a new bank account for my business and I'm super excited to use that. As for packaging, my main goal is to make the most sustainable packaging and I found no issue to be the best brand. So I did order all my packaging material from no issue and I will be doing a dedicated video just for packaging, which will be going live in the next few weeks. So make sure to hit the subscribe button and stay tuned for that. I got my sample pack of yarn in six colors out of which I only like three colors. I like the blush, the brown and the white. So that's what I'm planning on making my products with. And as for the keychain, I got two hardware options. I got the hard buckle and the oval buckle. I'm planning on launching both of them in two different styles. So in this week, I'm going to be making all my products so that I can photograph them for my website as well as social media. Now this is the most important step when it comes to starting your business. I cannot physically get in front of the customer and sell my product. The only way the person can actually get a full sense of what I'm selling is by looking at pictures, videos, my Instagram feed, my website, and just read the text that I write under it. My main focus when I started the business was to make sure that my feed looks very pretty. And all of this worked out very well because my product colors and my Instagram feed colors were all in sync. And this was very well thought about. I knew before I started my brand that this is my main focus. And I was willing to spend as much time as I needed on this step. Even the props that I used to take these pictures were all part of the same color family. And I spent a lot of time on Lightroom and on Photoshop. So all the hard work is done. I have made my products. I took all my product photos and all the pictures have been edited. And I used this app called Preview to curate my feed. It is midnight of November 1st and I have finally launched my brand. I have publicized about it on my main Instagram page and I've led everyone on my friends groups, on WhatsApp and family groups. Everybody know about my brand and I've promoted it in any possible way that I could. And guess what? I already got my first order for a keychain. Somebody purchased a keychain with their money and they want to pay me to buy a product that I made. How incredible is that? Because this thing was a long time in the making. Obviously I spent two months to make this brand to like figure everything out. But mentally it was a four to five year process. It's been so long that I've been wanting to start my own business. But I never really got around to doing it because of so many factors. And I finally did it and my brand is launched and someone has already purchased a product. Which is mind blowing. I still can't believe it. But yeah, anyway, I am super excited for what 2021 has in store for my brand. And I have planned so many things for what I want to do. And yeah, thank you so much for watching this video. If you have a few seconds, make sure to click the link in the description box. So I have linked my website as well as my Instagram. Please please please follow my Instagram business page. That would mean a lot to me. As you have seen, it's been a long time in the making and every little follow or like or share or comment really means a lot to me. Thank you for all your support. Thank you for watching this video and you will see me very soon in my next one. Bye.