**You can read this article in the July/August 2022 Issue 7 of Torah Sisters Magazine.**

For those of you who have or want to start a home business, I’ll be writing and podcasting more about business building. The desire to have a little side hustle is strong among us Hebrew women, and I’m your biggest cheerleader! I’ve also learned a thing or two over the years, (especially in the “what doesn’t work” category,) and am excited to help you learn from my mistakes and benefit from my successes to help you get more sales. In addition to this, I’ll be interviewing some of my highly successful and talented friends and sharing their tips with you.

This first article in my series is about the most important part and that is how to begin.

Just start selling something!

So many of us have a good idea, but we get stuck in the planning stages and never actually launch our product or service for sale. It’s so easy to fall into the paralyzing trap of, “Everything has to be perfect before I can start.” However, an important principle to remember is “done is better than perfect.”

Think about it. What is “perfect” to you? Write down how you define that. Of course, if you have made a thorough business plan, you’ve already written it down. But some of you aren’t starting some big venture that requires a long drawn out plan. You just want to start selling some homemade items at a market (not on Saturdays, of course) and have a little website on which to sell, too. Still, write down what “perfect” means to you. What steps are you requiring yourself to complete before you actually start asking for money from people in exchange for your goods or services?

Here are some examples of things you may feel just have to be in place before beginning: professionally designed business cards, a logo, a tablecloth with your logo, the ability to accept credit cards, a business paypal account, being set up for sales tax, business bank accounts, a website with ecommerce set up, the ability to calculate shipping on the website, and perfect design on that website. That list is based on years of working with new sellers to launch their businesses. However, it is important to realize that some of these things will likely have to wait. Just start!

Now, I know it’s painful to consider launching your business without all the things on your dream list done, but in this article I’m going to endeavor to convince you that it will be okay. First of all though, if you’re incredibly talented or have the funds to hire people to do those things for you, allowing you to knock them all out in a reasonable time frame, that is great! Do all the things! However, most of us will find that some of those items on that list will take a lot longer than we anticipate. Further, waiting for each of these items to be done perfectly before selling something could take months. It is possible to get so stuck in the planning phase that you never begin selling at all.

Also, consider that some of those things have a small monthly fee, like a website. Paying these expenses without having any income puts you in the negative immediately and can be discouraging.

When we start a new venture we have so much excitement and energy, but that energy quickly fades if we never get to the making money part. Keep that energy alive by just starting to sell while you are still building your framework. People will buy from you even if you don’t have all of those things, just try it!

Here are some thoughts…

You can sell without a logo. People do it all the time.
You can sell without a website or even without taking credit cards.
Take cash or checks.
Use Facebook marketplace and craft shows, etc to sell.
Start an email list with a service like FloDesk and use that to tell people about sales.(Do this first! If I had to pick one tool for my business, this would be it.)
Simply post on Facebook to your current circle of friends and relatives.
Don’t ship outside the US, and use flat rate shipping.
Make shipping free and just add the cost into your product cost. Keep it simple.
Sell without business cards. Gasp! (I have never had business cards for Torah Sisters.)
You are allowed to sell a certain amount in your state without requiring sales tax. Research laws in your area for details.

I think you’ll find people will buy your merchandise even before you have all of the fancy extras. Those sales will help you fund all of the other bells and whistles you want to incorporate later on.

So remember, done is better than perfect. Get your product done. Make your product or service amazing. Then call your product or service “done” and start selling while you develop the rest. Trust me, that development phase never ends, so start selling now! I pray the Father will bless the fruit of your labor and make you prosperous!

Click here to see Amy’s favorite business-building links and resources.

Look for the Torah Sisters podcast by Amy Guenther on your favorite podcasting platform. I talk a lot about business on my podcast!