Passionate about performance? Maybe you’re a life-long supplement fanatic or appreciate the natural healing power of plant-based nutrition.
If you’re a current gym-goer or entrepreneur, then you’ve likely already started sketching out your business plans. This guide will take you through the basics – from setting up your marketing, to how to buy juice in bulk.
1. Know your power
Any successful business will need to know its own Unique Selling Point (USP). If you’re meandering into the supplement space, have a look at precisely what other brands are offering, and how you can adapt or improve on one aspect.
If you’ve found there to be very few supplements on the market for gym-going pregnant women, then there’s your niche. You now have a better idea of who exactly your competitors are, too.
This process works particularly well when you are your own ideal customer: spotting a gap in the market organically is an incredibly powerful position to be in, whether that’s making smoothies or selling powerlifting equipment.
2. Nothing’s Original
At the same time, there doesn’t need to be material differences between your own brand and your competitors. For example, if your product focuses on treadmills for sprinters – and you discover another brand that recently started a product line like that – do not be disheartened.
Though Asics and Nike both produce sneakers, there are still major differences in the brand identities and market segmentation of both companies.
Your USP does not necessarily need to be something tangible in your product; it can be in your brand image, the service you give to customers, or even the particular type of customer you focus on.
3. Find your Suppliers
Assuming you’re not creating everything in-house, you’ll need at least a few components from your supply chain.
Find a high-quality manufacturer or wholesale supplier that specialises in quality products in your niche. If you’re setting up a smoothie or supplement brand, this supplier will likely need to be registered to produce safe-for-consumption foodstuffs.
With your supplier(s), discuss the needs and the goals of your brand. Make sure they can offer the product and qualities that you require
4. Get branding
No matter your specific product of choice, one thing’s for certain: you need to create a website, eBay or Amazon listing.
This is an absolute necessity if you want to excel in the health and supplement markets. Most customers now shop online. Setting online stores up means you can broaden your reach and start to grow your business online.
This is not only far easier for you – especially with easy web creation sites such as Wix and Squarespace – but further reduces the costs that many brick-and-mortar businesses incur from attempting to open their doors on the street.
That’s not to say selling online is free – you might not need to pay rent for a shop-floor, but many online shopping sites will incur a processing fee, or demand their cut of the profits, so factor these in when totting up the numbers.
5. Branding
The labels and packaging make up a significant amount of your brand image. Not only does it need to stand out on the virtual shelf – it needs to accurately represent the brand, and appeal to your customers!
If you’re appealing to a younger audience, check out the designs that appeal to that age! And not just the designs of your competitors – draw up a profile of your target customer. What clothing brands do they enjoy? What gym do they go to? Do they work out alone or is it a social experience?
Drilling into the psychology of your target audience is vital for your brand to resonate with your target audience.
6. Keep in Stock!
With all these steps followed, a successful health brand is bound to follow. Eventually, brands in the health and fitness space can be acquired for multi-million-dollar deals, such as the DilenyTech 2022 acquisition.
However, brands that start to become successful face their own problems! Encountering bumps in the purchasing funnel can be incredibly frustrating for customers.
For example, if you go to buy some of your favourite protein powder, but realise that the supplier is out of stock, then you’ll naturally try and find the most similar product being sold by someone else.
As a business, this is lethal – it funnels your hard-won customers directly to your competitors’ sites. Make sure your brand is always fully stocked on the most popular products, and ensure to always keep an open communication with your suppliers.
