All successful businesses start somewhere and it takes just scratching the surface of a new idea to get the ball rolling. But with that ah-ha! moment comes a lot of hard work, late nights, and coffee to make your new business venture happen. Oh, and a digital platform to make your new idea look beautiful and profitable, too. Think you’ve got what it takes? Well, we partnered with Squarespace for a three-part series called From Scratch to Success: How to Turn Your Side Hustle Into a Thriving Business to find out what really goes into launching a company from the ground up. To do that, we interviewed three female founders—Michelene Auguste Founder and Owner, Dem; Karen Rose, Owner and Herbalist, Sacred Vibes Apothecary; and Gina Correll Aglietti, Yola Jimenez, and Lykke Li, Co-Founders, Yola Mezcal—to share their story from that lightbulb moment to selling their products online, and everything in between. And don’t forget to keep scrolling to the end to read about our exclusive Squarespace offer for Create & Cultivators.
So, you have this incredible idea to turn your passion into a profitable business—now what? Where are you supposed to begin and who is going to help you reach your end goal? Well, in the beginning, when you don’t have any capital, all you really have is your idea, so the only person you can rely on is you. But the good news is there are a plethora of online tools that can help you get started. Does your new business idea include a product line? If you answered yes, then say hello to the world of e-commerce! To put yourself on the map (and find customers) you’ll need a website that will showcase your unique products in a way people just can’t resist. The rest will come from you, your vision, and your drive for success—but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
In the first chapter of our three-part series, From Scratch to Success, we introduced you to some incredible women who are crushing their business goals online with the well-known platform, Squarespace. We asked them about their new business venture, how they got started, and why they chose Squarespace to launch online. In part two of this series, we’re diving a little deeper into the commerce side of their business and how these three unique businesses—Dem, Sacred Vibes Apothecary, and Yola Mezcal—use Squarespace to turn their passion into profit. You’ll want to take notes for this one!
Create & Cultivate: Squarespace makes it easy to start a website from scratch. Can you walk us through the process you took when creating yours?
Gina Correll Aglietti: “Anticipating YOLA’s launch, we felt a video was the best way to communicate our brand story to depict our farm and team in Oaxaca. Squarespace gave us the platform to share this story with a new audience and made it easy for us to help curate first impressions of our brand. We've been using Squarespace for over three years now. I especially love the marketing tools we can use to create newsletters, collect emails, and keep our audience engaged.”
C&C: Squarespace has great features for brands that want to introduce e-commerce. What commerce features do you rely on the most and advise others to use too?
GA: “We will soon be launching our merch store through Squarespace. We had initially looked at embedding a third party e-commerce platform on our website, but then realized how simple it was to add e-commerce tabs into our Squarespace without straying from the brand’s aesthetic. We have also had the opportunity to embed a link to sell YOLA direct to consumers, which is often very difficult to do because of strict alcohol compliance laws.”
C&C: There are so many websites online—how do you make your website unique?
GA: “Squarespace allows us to maintain a simple and minimal design that aligns with our brand's aesthetic. We have been able to incorporate our own fonts and imagery to customize the experience.”
Create & Cultivate: Squarespace makes it easy to start a website from scratch. Can you walk us through the process you took when creating yours?
Michelene Auguste: “When I started building my site, it was very easy to navigate. I started with an e-commerce page, a homepage, and basic information—I’ve been adding to that ever since. I love that I can easily move things around and change the site. I also love that I can rearrange the products on the e-commerce page so it looks the way I want it to.”
C&C: Squarespace has great features for brands that want to introduce e-commerce. What commerce features do you rely on the most and advise others to use too?
MA: “I have the Squarespace app which helps me edit on the go when I have to. I’ve found that the app is very helpful.”
C&C: There are so many websites online—how do you make your website unique?
MA: “The Dem site is a curated experience of the clothing and objects I’ve discovered throughout my life. It’s a bit personal and I think that’s what makes it unique. I love taking photographs and updating the site often with new material.”
C&C: Do you have any shortcuts you can share with other users for making their website?
MA: “My advice would be if you can’t figure out something or you’re stuck, don’t stress—all the information and help is there for you on the site which has helped me out a lot.”
C&C: What are some more advanced tools that you use for building out your website?
MA: “My favorite thing about Squarespace is that I don’t need to know any coding tactics or use any advanced tools. Everything is already there for you to create and run a beautiful, successful site.”
Create & Cultivate: Squarespace makes it easy to start a website from scratch. Can you walk us through the process you took when creating yours?
Karen Rose: “I started with Squarespace about five years ago. I saw how beautiful other Squarespace sites were and wanted mine to be just like that.”
“I have come so far. I have an online shop now and in many ways I have grown that on Squarespace. We are currently working on creating an online membership/educational portal utilizing Squarespace’s collaboration, Memberspace to offer global access to our work.”
C&C: Squarespace has great features for brands that want to introduce e-commerce. What commerce features do you rely on the most and advise others to use too?
KR: “I rely on our online shop greatly. It is super easy to track inventory and monthly sales.”
C&C: There are so many websites online—how do you make your website unique?
KR: “We make our website unique by using it to tell the story of our brand. When folks are on our site, we want them to get the whole picture of who we are: not just an online shop but a community.”
C&C: Do you have any shortcuts you can share with other users for making their website?
KR: “I decided to hire a designer familiar with Squarespace for the initial site design. This allowed us to use our time and resources in a way we felt our business could benefit from most. We still work together closely. He was able to show us a lot of what he has done. But now, most of the everyday maintenance we do is on our own.”
Head to squarespace.com and use the offer code CREATE2019 to save 10% off your first purchase. And or more information around Squarespace’s commerce feature and to understand how you can start selling online today, visit Squarespace Support here.
And don’t forget to tune in next week for part three of our From Scratch to Success series for everything you need to know about SEO and ensure your website ranks in Google.
