Imagine if you travelled back one hundred years and found a few crystals on the floor, you‘d be immediately rich. Fast forward a hundred years, and crystals are still worth quite a large amount. If you start a crystal business, you‘d be playing with the elite as it‘s such a game.
It could be quite rewarding, but it‘s challenging. It‘s not exactly like the automotive industry, but let me give you an example from there.
They always say, “If you want to start a car company, buy a car company.“
Some industries are difficult to tap into as they‘re already quite saturated.
The Google Docs Template
Firstly, if you‘re looking for a business plan template, you need to access this template, make a copy, read it, and use it as your own. This is in case you‘re looking for a co-founder or an investors to help you in this journey.
But then, if you‘re not ready for this, let‘s focus on how to actually start a crystal business.
The ABC to start a crystal business
The first thing you need to be aware of is that this business is similar to any business at the end of the day. It has costs, and it has revenue. Do not create an elephant out of an ant. Yes, it‘s going to be challenging, but all businesses have different challenges.
The beauty of a crystal business is that it isn‘t confined to a certain product. You don‘t have to be selling raw crystals as per this article‘s picture. You could be selling your signature crystals in products like phone covers, pins, Apple Watch covers, gloves, hats, Darth Vader replicas, etc.
The list is endless. A good example of a crystal business is Swarovski. I remember quite well going there to buy a ring as a gift for my girlfriend. But I ended up amazed by their Star Wars collection and their decorations that are just stunning. You might be thinking crystal diamond ring when I say Swarovski, but to me, it‘s that shiny small Yoda that costs a few hundred dollars.
Hence, the options are extremely limitless. This allows me to introduce your next step.
You need to niche down.
It‘s critical to have a unique selling point in that particular industry. If you decide to start a regular car company these days, your odds of succeeding are close to zero, even if your name is Elon Musk.
But if you decide to create an electric car company with a good product, your odds have increased. That was simply because you chose to focus on a niche. The same exact thing is applied to a crystal business. You need to be specific in what you‘re offering that is off the charts. It could be the design focus. It could be the extreme quality. Whatever it is, make it pop in your business plan and website.
That being done, if you can grasp what you‘re doing differently, you‘re ready for the next step.
Create a sample product.
You need to create an MVP (minimum viable product) to fully assess how your product feels like. If you‘re going to stand behind this product, you need to make sure of the quality of it. Then the tough part comes. You need to show it to as many people as you possibly could. Try to avoid getting feedback from friends and family members. They will be biased, even if they said they wont.
Improve on your alpha version. Create a beta version, then a gamma version, and so on.
Finally, when you have a product you‘re proud of, you‘re ready to take this to the market. But is the market ready for you?
Does the market want you to start a crystal business?
Market research is what makes you clearly see a product‘s use. You might have a killer product that no one will buy. Alternatively, you could have a small ignored product that everyone needs. In order to know this, you need to dig into market research to see the numbers.
You‘re starting in a certain region (even if you say you‘re focusing on the global market.)
Study this region and understand the competition. I‘ve written an article about creating a good competitive analysis. Take a look at it!
I can‘t stress on how important it is to know who you‘re competing with an how much they‘re pricing their products. Studying is what will make you succeed in this game.
If you know everything you need to know, then you must be wondering how you‘ll fund such a business.
Funding—the most common obstacle.
You have multiple options.
- You can bootstrap your way and just create a website on Shopify or WordPress, invest some money in marketing, and let the sales fund the future.
- Alternatively, you could seek an investment from someone you know (like a friend or a family member.)
- For that, I recommend checking out some of my articles about how to create the perfect pitch deck (Like this one.)
- Finally, you could crowdfund this project from websites like Kickstarter, but it has to be a product that everyone can‘t wait to buy.
All these options have their pros and cons. One might sound easier than the other, which is not true. They‘re all equally challenging, but doable.
Once you get the funding done, you‘re ready. You have officially started your crystal business.
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments! I‘ll personally respond to this, it‘s one of those A.I. blogs.
Have a great day!
Meet The Author Of This Article
I’m Al Anany, an entrepreneurship consultant in Zurich, Switzerland. The business world might be challenging, but it‘s worth it.
Experiment away!
