Sheryl Over of Overstock Liquidation
My name is Sheryl Over. I am the owner of Overstock Liquidation. I started Overstock Liquidation three years ago. We are a retail business on the outskirts of Peterborough. Our business is unique as we are only open three days per week. We get three truckloads of new merchandise weekly. There is always something new each weekend and stock changes constantly. Our Facebook has been extremely successful for us. We do a weekly post on Thursdays highlighting some of the new items in store that week in anticipation of opening on Friday. We encourage people to like our page to receive our posts. Our website is www.shopoverstock.ca .We are open Friday 10-6, Saturdays 10-5 and Sundays 11-4.
My advice to people starting a business, “Take a chance if you believe in your idea. Go confidently and don’t listen to the doubts of others” Every successful business started as an idea.
Be persistent, focus on your outcome. I used to visit a store like ours and spoke to the owner. It took four years of phone calls before the opportunity came to open our store.
One piece of advice for every person interested in starting a business or currently in business is to make use of social media. Seek the advice of professionals like Sofie Andreou and associates. Sofie has been an integral part in developing our social media strategy. Her suggestion to run contests in which people share and tag a friend doubled our Facebook numbers.
One word of advice, work with someone who understands Facebook and how it works, before working with Sofie I naively thought that just by posting I was reaching the full number of people who like our page not understanding that Facebook only sends that to 3% of the people. You have to boost the post at a cost which is how Facebook makes money. I now routinely pay to boost my posts ensuring the maximum exposure.
My advice to work with professionals extends to other areas as well. When you start your business you are often a “one man/woman show” trying to do everything but you need the advice of professionals to grow your business. For example if paperwork is not your strength stop spending time trying to do payroll or accounting. Do the things you are good at and what makes your business succeed and hire professionals to do what they know and understand. It may cost you money but it pays off in the long run.
Another piece of advice is to use existing resources like the Canada Ontario Job Grant Program. It’s a wonderful resource to help business owners build their business. The government is paying to help us succeed at building our business who wouldn’t want free government money. We took advantage of this to train some of our employees in understanding social media.
