If you've already got one business and you're thinking about starting a new one,
so like maybe you have one Etsy Shop,
but you want to start a second one. You might be asking yourself.
If you should keep everything under one umbrella
or start over this new business from scratch with a whole new website
and use social media profiles
and all of that keep watching to get the five questions that will
help you make the right decision in a snap.
Hi, my name is Mei Pak. And I help makers artists
and designers make a living by selling their handmade products online.
I've been running a handmade business
for over 14 years now and I've been coaching other small business
owners on how to run their own creative businesses
for half of that time.
So that's right. I run two completely different businesses
and if we're really counting we technically have six different businesses in our household
like they each literally get their own schedule C when it's tax time
and when you have multiple ideas for businesses like that,
you have to decide whether
or not you're going to keep everything under the same umbrella
or split them up and keep them separate.
So today I'm going to give you five questions to ask yourself
to make that decision a whole lot easier.
Okay question number one,
have you fallen out of love with your first business and don't be afraid to get totally honest here.
It can be hard to admit the truth when you've put Years of your life into it I get it.
But if you're getting really excited about your new business think about
whether you're truly energized to run two different companies,
or do you actually deep down want to just pivot your first company to do this new idea.
There is a huge difference between pivoting
and then starting an entirely new business and that is something that you need to get clear about.
Now before you go too deep. This is a great time to think hard about your first business.
Have you really taken the time? To make your first business
as smooth and as efficient as it can be for example my business tiny hands.
I sell polymer clay scented food jewelry
and my branding is so spot-on
and my marketing and sales systems run
so smoothly that it doesn't matter
what second business idea I come up with
because it would be confusing to run it under the tiny hands umbrella.
But if you're able to add in the second business idea without even blinking into your first company,
this could be a sign that our first company isn't niched down enough
and that you need to go back and do some work there.
So that's for you to decide question.
Number two for these two companies is the
audience and branding largely overlapping
so that is will a person who is an avid fan of your first business
still be interested in your second one.
This is where it's really important to think about your ideal customer.
I don't want you to cheat here because I know it's really easy to say.
Oh well, you know I saw Pet Portraits
and obviously those customers would like my Pottery business
to because I have such a cool modern aesthetic that fits both of those.
I want you to answer your branding and ideal customer questions for both of your companies,
but you don't have you thought about what colors will resonate best for both.
What type of copy think about your ideal customer and then step back and look at them.
Once you've done those exercises. You know,
how much do those things overlap if you genuinely We have two
companies that have overlapping audiences
and Aesthetics and branding then yeah,
there are paths for you moving forward to keep the same social media profiles
and the same website that unifies both businesses.
But if you've done this work and you think you know,
the demographics are actually a bit different if I'm doing them both Justice
and serving them best then that's your clue that they might be better
off being split off into two separate profiles
and businesses in the early days of Creative Hive.
I thought I had some people in my tiny hands audience who were interested
to learn how to start their own handmade business.
So the very first time I tried to sell some coaching sessions.
I put that listing up on my tiny hands website.
Well, can you imagine what happened? No one bought it
because the overlap of audience between the two businesses either wasn't strong enough
or it just wasn't there at all which is why both tiny ants
and creative Hive exist as separate businesses,
and I'm so glad for this because both of them can stand on their own two feet independently
and they both require very different systems of operations
and teams to keep them running question number three do the products of
both of these companies form some kind of a Continuum.
That would be reasonably packaged under one umbrella
and does adding the second company make you a stronger
competitor than your first company standing alone,
or does it just make it look like a wholeness.
So for example, let's say you are a florist.
And you now have a passion
for photography and you want to make a second photography business
and you're asking do these fit together
or should they be separate
while if you are doing wedding florals before
and now you want to have a wedding photography company,
you can put those under one umbrella and it would make sense to the customer right?
You could branded as a One-Stop wedding
shop for people in your local area
and that combination actually makes you a stronger competitor than you would have been before
as just a floor.
First however, let's save the two companies
when you put together look like a mismatch
or it's not gaining you followers in a way that makes sense for both businesses.
Then that's a sign that they shouldn't be put together.
So one example of that is say you were a florist
and you were also a dog walker maybe those two can't reasonably be put together right?
Do you see where I'm going question number 4 is a new company best served
by leveraging the resources of your first one
or is it going to suffer from?
The baggage I think we all think oh,
you know, I have 10,000 followers on Instagram.
If I start a new company, obviously,
it's best to show all of my existing followers to this new company.
It will get such an advantage by being merged
as one but that's not necessarily the case first off by increasing the size of your business.
You run the risk of becoming too general,
which means basically you'll be losing out on that specialized Niche Advantage where you're known
as a shop that does.
Realistic super cute scented food jewelry,
you know imagine if I started selling stickers
and stationary and fashion accessories like bags
and hair ties and shoes my business would be more General right
and no longer as Niche down and as a side effect,
I would no longer be as memorable to other people if people can't remember my business.
I'm not going to make any sales makes sense.
Right A good rule of thumb here is simple cells also
for the social media account example
while there are Me gains from having a larger account in terms of attracting new followers
because you have all this social proof.
You also will experience less engagement
as your account gets larger
and older a lot of the old followers you got from like 5 years ago probably
don't even use the same Instagram account anymore.
So it's likely that by starting a new account that's directly targeting your ideal customers
of that second company that you will get better results overall.
So think about whether you're holding the second company back by forcing them to be together.
Now the fifth question this one might be the hardest in terms of being really honest with yourself.
I have to put it out there because we've all been there where all human myself included.
Are you trying to keep your two companies together?
Because that's the best thing
for both of the companies
or because it feels like so much work to go through setting up the second business properly.
I'm not going to lie setting up a new business is going to be annoying right?
I mean you have to start a new website get a new domain name.
Get new social media profiles put up all your images get new
photography get a new logo get new branding
and now you have to do marketing twice.
It's going to be a lot of work.
But if you're not feeling like you have the energy to invest in starting a second business,
you have to really ask yourself
whether you have the energy to run and manage and maintain and upkeep a second business.
It's a lot of work trust me. It is way more painful to split up two companies in two.
Separate newsletter subscribers separate website separate SEO after you've
glommed them together then it is to do it right from the start.
So do that thinking now to avoid a lot of pain later now
because you stay to the end I have a bonus question number six
for you to ask yourself is your first business already automated and doing well.
This is a tie-in to question number 5,
right? It's a lot of work to start a new business from scratch
and I think it's totally feasible to A new business if your existing
business is already doing well you're happy with it.
You've got automated systems and things just flow smoothly.
You're not trading time for dollars with that business.
Meaning you're not working in the business you're working on it.
So a good way to check is if you go on vacation
for a month can your first business continue operating
and making sales without you if the answer is yes,
then you're probably ready and able to start a whole new other business.