In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
It’s a Beauty-Full Match for these Emerging Small Businesses

Astoria Beauty Bar is no cookie-cutter, assembly-line salon. When a guest comes to have their hair styled or colored, get a scalp treatment, add extensions or have their eyebrows shaped, it’s the owner Michelle DeMartino who takes the call, schedules the appointment, and provides the service. It’s DeMartino who educates customers on how to maintain their hair between appointments. And it’s DeMartino who sources the products (many of which she finds on RangeMe) for them to use at home. She does it all, and there is a reason for it.

DeMartino is all about delivering a completely personalized end-to-end experience to each of her clients, many of which are local residents of the salon’s Astoria, NY neighborhood. “I wanted to create a boutique experience for my clients,” says DeMartino. “I want it to be more of an intimate affair versus the assembly-line type of structure that is very much the case with the big salons today. And this is demonstrated in the services I provide as well as the products that I sell, each of which is hand-picked by me to ensure they align with the salon’s values and our customers’ specific needs.”

This personalized experience has certainly resonated with …

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In: Dropshipping|Last Updated:

You may have noticed that there’s a massive market for print-on-demand products, especially for custom t-shirts. It’s one of those items that will never go out of style: people need clothing, and print-on-demand shirts guarantee an infinite flow of fun new ideas.

This presents both an opportunity and an obstacle for hopeful business owners. On one hand, there’s a ton of business to tap into. But on the other hand, competition is fierce, as many other entrepreneurs have the same idea. 

So how can you break in and build your own successful t-shirt business? In this article, we’ll talk about the basics of getting started. We’ll look at top print-on-demand companies to work with, how to create your designs, and how to start making some money selling them. 

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Best print-on-demand t-shirt companies

There are plenty of top-rated print-on-demand companies to choose from. Before you make your decision, you’ll want to consider some key elements like print quality, turnaround time, and competitive prices. Let’s go over a couple of popular companies.

Printify 

Best print-on-demand t-shirt companies: Printify

Printify allows you to print your custom designs on more than 750 high-quality products—including t-shirts, of course. …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

Almost every time I facilitate a small group leadership discussion, I ask the team to share some of their story. Predictably, half the group jumps at the opportunity to transparently relay “who” they are and the “story” that informs their lives. It is one of the most powerful moments of any gathering because our story is the truth of where we’ve been and often the spark of our motivations. Our personal narrative is the essence of who we are and the impetus for how we engage with others.

We all have a story. It explains our past and inspires our future; it is, was, and will always be essential to who we become. As Harvard’s Dr. Howard Gardner says, “stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.”1 Dr. Howard Gardner quote, Howard Gardner, cited in: Richard L. Daft (2014), The Leadership Experience, p. 273 Research suggests we almost exclusively operate within a ‘story mindset.’ Leaders who are not afraid to enter someone else’s story understand the power of empathy. But leaders who are not afraid to share their own story understand the power of vulnerability. The future belongs to the storytellers.

One of the best predictors …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
7 Key Elements to Bring Food Products to Large Retail Chain Stores

Are you thinking about scaling up your food business with a major retailer? Whether you’re expanding your product line or increasing production, there are key elements you’ll need to have in place before contacting a major retailer. 

I have seen many excited food entrepreneurs get into major retail stores only to have their products removed within a year with several thousand and sometimes millions of dollars of unsold inventories. 

Here are seven elements to have in place before contacting a big-name retailer. 

1. Get the right team and the right software

When building your team, make sure:

You hire people who enjoy learning and are great team players. Your team needs to keep up with all applicable regulations and should have ongoing training opportunities. All departments need to be able to work together to maintain an efficient product delivery process.   You reach out to your network of food consultants and services. As your business grows, you will inevitably have more on your plate than you can handle yourself. A very knowledgeable consultant can help you navigate some key transition periods without having to commit to them long-term. RangeMe offers a network of service providers that can support many aspects of…
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In: Dropshipping|Last Updated:

Our lives are filled with color. Color influences our moods, feelings, and perceptions, as well as our decision-making processes. That means your choices in color combinations play an essential role in designing your brand and website.

Choosing the best color combination is both a science and an art. Although not everyone was born with an eye for color and an innate ability in graphic design, there are methods and principles you can use to choose the best color combinations to make both a strong impression and achieve your desired effect. We put together a cheat sheet to help ease the stress of picking.

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Color combination basics

Before we start picking out color combinations, it’s a good idea to have a basic understanding of colors, color terminology, how colors work together, emotional connections to colors, and the role colors play in creating a reaction. 

Let’s start by reintroducing the visual representation of the relationships of color hues: the color wheel.

The color wheel

The history of this essential guide for artists and designers goes back to the early 1700s. Whether it was in elementary school or the last time you used

…
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In: Dropshipping|Last Updated:

In recent years, subscription boxes have taken the ecommerce world by storm. This trend grew even faster since the onset of the pandemic, when more people sought out new ways to keep themselves entertained at home.

Research supports this theory—McKinsey predicts that, by 2025, the subscription box market will reach a staggering $ 473 billion, up from just $ 15 billion in 2019. 

So how can you, as an entrepreneur, capitalize on this trend and build your own subscription box business? That’s just what we’ll discuss. In this article, you’ll learn how to choose the right subscription-based business model, how to get started building your business, and plenty of tips for success.h

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What is a subscription business?

Let’s go over the advantages of adopting a subscription business model:

More cash on hand. Subscription companies typically receive payments upfront. Besides being good for cash flow, the buffer provides much-needed peace of mind.  Predictable revenue. Knowing how much one has coming in every month helps you forecast everything from sales to inventory requirements.  Loyal customers. Subscriptions allow you to personalize the customer experience, which is a catalyst for repeated purchases and …
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