@melissabruno1 - Wow, good for you. I’m always excited when someone (especially a woman) starts her own business while doing other things. I ran a nail salon in Europe while working more than full time and it worked really well.  I basically had the shop running during the day by people who rented stations and paid me rent and then in the evenings and weekends, I had my own clientele.  

I found (during my business) the people who go on cruises the most are retirees or seniors at least over 65.  My business was easy to market.  I just had my nails done really nice and people always asked me where I got them done.  :) 

For you, it seems like you need to go and promote your business outside.  Try going to the assisted living locations, or bingo halls, and churches.  As I don’t really know much about cruises…Yikes! I’ve never been on one.  Maybe I will need you to book one for me in the future.
Do you have a website, blog, or something where people can talk about their cruise experience (only positive of course) where the whole world can see? 

Congratulations for pursuing the dream that can only be realized in America (I guess I am assuming you are in America-I know opportunities exist in other countries but not like in America). I am a retired accountant (not fully retired because I am still working 20+ hours a week for a church/non-for-profit which is in ways more difficult than for profit entities). At the same time I am trying to launch a new website for my 1 person business with an integration to Facebook that will be my main source of marketing and create (I personally make all my products=relatively small wood art products) my inventory. Tough to do all three. When I had a small bookkeeping practice years ago I realized then that the owners knew their business very well, i.e. their product, be it a service or retail merchandise. But they were considerably weak in marketing their business. They had no choice but to devote energy and time to both areas of their business if they were to survive and hope to make a profit. I don’t think the fundamentals have changed today. You know your product well, i.e. all about travel specializing in cruises. At the same time you have to be marketing your business, constantly.  When I worked full time for a large government contractor, we one huge department that all they did was marketing and looking for new business. Of course the company had more money to afford to do this. To me my website and integration with Facebook are as critical as my products that I offer to my customers. I can make many beautiful items but without first time customers and repeat customers and attracting new people regularly, I will sell very few products. You want to attract people, want them to stay on your website as long as possible, offering them something free and something to bring them back again and again. Again, if you know your product/service well, then spend time gaining knowledge and steps to market your product/service. I am actually at this moment looking for very low cost website developers that will integrate with Facebook. Excuse my longwindness. I’m very much Irish and talking is not a problem for me.

No1Texan

I’m doing that right now! I’m on Year 2, and have assembled a great team but still work full time since we’re doing a lot of effort on market penetration with aggressive pricing and all that jazz.

At the same time, I still love my day job. So I focus on that a lot. We’ll see where things go!

Jason

@melissabruno1  - I checked out your amazing site. Sold!!! I am so booking with you when the time comes i am ready for a cruise.  :)   

To be honest? I have some freedom of action which helps, and some of the perks are good, but the best thing regarding my position is that the immediate people I work with are really very nice. It keeps me sane.

At the same time, I get very good pay which I can then push into my company! So yay!

Jason

@melissabruno1 I had a feeling that the link didn’t take. Here it is!

How to know when to start your own business

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224161?cam=Dev&ctp=Carousel&cdt=13&cdn=224161

I don’t like to admit it but I also work a full time position. I run my business in the evenings and work the appointments during the weekends. Right now business is keeping me very busy but not overwhelmed. I don’t let my customers know I’m employed and if they ask for a weekday appointment I simply tell them I don’t have one available and the best available time is Saturday or Sunday. Since I’m in the first year of my business and let’s face it, BBQ cleaning has a seasonal period to it, my goal is to hire an employee or sub before the start of the next season, work them during the week and pick up the weekend appointments myself. I don’t have a timeline for when I will leave my current employer, right now I’m in no hurry.

i think i was lucky and  never had a  job to  have to  give up….  i  never  worked for anyone else,or  had the security of a  job…. except  a few months in my  20s….so  doing my own thing was the only option..and  the dh  felt the same way…altho he had  worked a lot as a kid….

when we started our business   dh stayed in our  other business for about a year,  bringing in some income…that  gave me the time  to  explore a  bit and   come up  with the right  direction  for our new idea…. ….in that time i  found  the   plot and people     that  would   mean so much to our   future  business….good  buyers and   a  great niche  that worked for   about  20  yrs….  ….  

.. after the year  we had to make it work with our new  business….it  was  rough  but we had a great   idea and a good  core of   customers leading  to    big  turnover   of the inventory…. and we  grew  really  fast…

not sure if  we  could have done it on a part time  basis  tho….

Do you have an e-mail address that I can send something to.  I am trying to post something for you on this site but it keeps getting erased.   @melissabruno1

@melissabruno1

You wouldn’t be the first to try and balance a full-time job w/a start up.

I started flyte (although it was called b1 communications at the time) when I was still working full time for a Med B supplier. 

Later I worked part time at a web content creator to make ends meet while I tried to ramp up flyte.

Ultimately I realized that it was too much, and if I wanted to make this work I’d have to give it 100%. 

This worked for me. YMMV. At the time I was single, had few expenses, and all the freedom I needed.

Sometimes working w/o a safety net is enough motivation so that failure isn’t an option.

Good luck!

I work full time and had a online store for 2 years now. It’s not easy. I started my small business when I was in college and it was kind of a hobby, but now I have a lot of customers and with my job I just don’t have the time for it. I don’t have time to attend customers or sent packages. I’m seriously thinking about closing. It’s really sad but I love my full time job and my online store doesn’t give me enough money…

I can only say it’s hard

@tracy-peterson-champagne I would love to but I can’t afford it as I said before, the store doesn’t give me a lot of money, I just care for it too much to close it

@melissabruno1 I also am involved in the travel industry. We specialize in cruises and all inclusive deals as well. But, I’m currently doing that and working full time. I’m on track to retire by year 3/4 of being involved in my business. But, it’s definitely possible to do. It’s not always the easiest thing, but worth it in the end. Just have to keep weighing the benefits of working hard now to live full time later or work for forever and enjoy life for a short amount of time. Just keep marketing your product and sharing it with others. I’d love to connect with you and talk about the industry!

@melissabruno1 It’s my pleasure. I enjoy doing the same and seems like there are a lot of people here to help as well. But, closing is definitely a struggle with any product you are trying to get out into the market. Personally, I have found it extremely helpful to dig deep into a lot of personal development books/audios. Listening to powerful speakers like Tony Robbinson, Zig Ziglar and reading books like The Magic Of Thinking Big, The Secret, and The Slight Edge. They all help motivate, educate, and help push you further along. Especailly when it comes to knowing how to deal with people.

@geoffrey-gordon good points! when I opened my online store I asked a friend that is a designer to make my business cards and it made a huge difference! they looked very professional and received a lot of good comments from customers (they even asked me to make them business cards hehe).

also!  people skills are so important, you’re right! I was on holiday recently, and was hoping to expend a lot of money hahaha. But the people there where so mean to customers that I just didn’t want to buy anything anymore, makes me think why would you open an store if you hate your customers, seriously, they didn’t want to show me the products, they looked angry, they didn’t want me to touch anything, even told me that I was weird for wanting to try a shirt on before buying it.. so yeah… customer service is a biiiiig plus! One lady in a store was so nice that I spent all my money there, just because she knew how to sell well, she was nice, she new everything about the products she sell, she had recommendations and stuff…

I think just being nice is not enough, if you’re too nice it’s weird and looks fake too, you really need a good balance and you will definitely have more customers.

MelissaBruno1, you’ve got a great fan page and already have a good start on creating a community of interested fans. One thing you’re missing is an email optin…. You need to capture them and start sending them information about upcoming events, helpful hints, etc. You could also create a tab for links to helpful resources or to use as a blogging platform.

I’d also suggest for you to put together a small ebook / report of travel to use as your optin value prop and then do some targeted advertising of a post introducing the ebook. For only $10 you can get reach of 2000 or possibly more. But make it very targeted to a market of people who generally travel. FB is great for this kind of stuff.

If you need more help, you can contact me and I’ll be glad to try to help you.

Good luck! 

@susanhand Thanks so much for the suggestions- very helpful! I’ve been thinking about the ebook but am stuck on how to get started. I will add an email option to my FB… Need to figure out how to create an app or perhaps just add it in the about page(whic is easier). I really appreciate the offer of help! I may take you up on it soon! Thanks again @entcommunity … Agreed! The good news I guess if you will, is that I was laid off from mt full time job so now I can focus on building my business.. Not sure for how long without a steady income, but do have a plan B in mind. Thanks again for your time!

@annfurnivall you’re right, sometimes the best decision is to just say: ‘this is enough, I can’t do this anymore’. I’m sure I can open another business in the future, I’m quite young and I want to open my own business one day but the store I have now, it’s just not working, I think the smart thing to do is admit that I failed and move on. 
But it’s quite hard, I love my customers I know I have to close the store, but I just can’t at the moment… I’m really attach to it after 2 years!

well at least  you  dont have huge overhead  like a brick and mortar..

..one more thing…we   lost a business once, it  went under  financially,   and it was  sooooo  sad..but it  taught me   3  things…..  the market  rules,  the market is  cruel,  and the  customers   can desert   you…..in other words if  you dont have the right stuff  you can t make them  want   it and if  you  have   the wrong price they wont  buy it…  ….they rule……….i know this is   very  unpopular with the   marketing   press who i  think   tells  folks  marketing   can  solve  about  anything………but  to me its  kind of   bad  and  sad  to knock  yourself out when the market is  saying no….of  course  ,  we hung on  way too long  back then….so  basically   i try and  go for  something  they  say yes  to…

our   next  business   had  these  thoughts in  mind at every turn….and its   helped  a lot….and helped us  survive  for along time……