We've interviewed thousands of successful founders at Starter Story and asked what advice they would give to entrepreneurs who are just getting started.

Here's the best advice we discovered for starting a personalized gift business:

#1: Catherine Weis, founder of Bestowe Gifting:

We chatted with with Catherine, founder of Bestowe Gifting ($12K/month). In our interview, Catherine says:

Word of Mouth really worked when I started reaching out to Event Planners and affiliates that could work with me to be my spokespeople.

Additionally:

Growing an eCommerce business is hard. It requires a lot of brand awareness, a lot of money, and a lot of hard work.

Read the full interview ➜

#2: Tom Strickland, founder of Bookblock:

We chatted with with Tom, founder of Bookblock ($260K/month). In our interview, Tom says:

In 2014 we decided it was time to quietly let Monsieur Notebook go, set up our own factory, and rebrand the business to focus on corporate gift manufacture.

Additionally:

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Whilst I set up my business in my early-20s, it really took all of my 20s worth of set-backs and failure, and a lot of family and friends’ support, to pop out into the 30s with a viable business.

Read the full interview ➜

#3: Elliot Bishton, founder of Engravers Guild:

We chatted with with Elliot, founder of Engravers Guild ($200K/month). In our interview, Elliot says:

Don’t get trapped into trying to be a certain type of business in a market where the ship has already sailed.

Read the full interview ➜

#4: Elliot Bishton, founder of Engravers Guild:

We chatted with with Elliot, founder of Engravers Guild ($200K/month). In our interview, Elliot says:

It’s a reminder that, like them, we are all running marketing businesses and we shouldn’t make the mistake that we are doing something else.

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#5: Elliot Bishton, founder of Engravers Guild:

We chatted with with Elliot, founder of Engravers Guild ($200K/month). In our interview, Elliot says:

That night, I emailed the agency and told them never to contact me again, I designed a complete rudimentary website (on PowerPoint!) and found a new website coder online.

Additionally:

In terms of SEO, 14 months ago we hadn’t had a single organic impression on Google. This has been growing steadily to over 1,000 organic impressions sometimes in a single day.

Read the full interview ➜

#6: Elliot Bishton, founder of Engravers Guild:

We chatted with with Elliot, founder of Engravers Guild ($200K/month). In our interview, Elliot says:

When you start a business, you have to take whatever you can get. However, as soon as you have the chance to diversify, you have to do it.

Read the full interview ➜

#7: Dmitriy Peregudov, founder of GiftBasketsOverseas.com:

We chatted with with Dmitriy, founder of GiftBasketsOverseas.com ($833K/month). In our interview, Dmitriy says:

We’ve learned over the years that focusing on doing one small niche really well helps us perfect it.

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#8: Sarah Davidson, founder of Australian Woodwork:

We chatted with with Sarah, founder of Australian Woodwork ($20K/month). In our interview, Sarah says:

Although I did lots of self-learning from youtube videos and helpful Shopify blogs, a short photography course taught me more and better and I recommend it to anyone starting their own website.

Read the full interview ➜

Part of

Starting A Personalized Gift Business: Everything You Need To Know

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