I have decided to try my luck in another online business. Knowing that something can only be achieved by trying, failing, trying again, failing again, but always getting up and trying again, this time I will try my hand at teeth whitening industry.

So my new project is www.SmaidaFabrika.lv (SmileFactory) – a website about teeth whitening, where you can also buy teeth whitening products – strips and kits. Currently, the first version of the website, or MVP (Minimal Viable Product), has been created.

I learned the term MVP while at a business incubator doing research for DiscoverLatvia’s business idea. The term Minimal Viable Product means doing the most necessary things to test a business idea.

In my opinion, a very common mistake, for young entrepreneurs, is the lengthy and in-depth process of developing their business ideas. It takes a long time to fine-tune things for which there is no certainty or proof that they are really needed.

That is why I try to start my business from the other end – I do initial research on the actuality of the business idea and the saturation of the market, and if I see an opportunity, I create an MVP. From people’s reactions, available statistics, and feedback, I will be able to understand what else needs to be added to the product / service to be complete.

Maybe a minimum is enough for a successful business? Perhaps all the brilliant ideas in your head about all the extra fancy features are meaningless. So perhaps it is better to start with the minimum viable product from which then all the other conclusions are drawn?

So that’s how I came to the business idea of ​​selling teeth whitening products:

  • I  have done both professional teeth whitening and dental whitening at home myself.
  • I have friendly dentistry, so I was able to get contacts where to buy teeth whitening products at wholesale prices.
  • During my market research, I found that it is not possible to buy professional teeth whitening products in Latvia. I found one account on Instagram offering to buy Crest Teeth Whitening strips, but the offer is limited and the price is equivalent to the prices that I can offer.
  • This business, in my opinion, has + carma points because the products on offer can improve people’s lives – improve their self-esteem and make them smile more often.

When I decided that I wanted to do this project, I didn’t wait long and started working. I will tell you step-by-step how I got to the current end result.

The first step, in almost all serious internet businesses, is to purchase a domain. No matter how powerful social networks are today, and no doubt that you can build a successful business using only social networking accounts, I still trust the website as a business foundation. The picture below shows my (which is also quite classic) philosophy of running an internet business. The home page is your main selling tool, but all other tools (social networks, Google organic and paid results, email marketing, etc.) are just tools to get people to the site.
So, after researching the available and already reserved domains, I realized that all the relevant domain names are already in use, so I had to go for the second way – Branding or Branding. That is why I came to a rather logical (maybe not the most original) name – SmileFabrika.lv. A website to help people smile better!

website traffic sources

The second step was a thorough study of competitors. I realized that my main competitors are dentists, who offer professional teeth whitening services, which are expensive – 200 – 300 euros. It could therefore be said that I am in a very good, almost monopoly position.
I realized on the competitor pages that all the existing content was quite similar and relatively short, so it was immediately clear that a big, comprehensive article on teeth whitening had to be written.

I did not wait long for the Teeth Whitening Guide. The result was a 3,000-word, comprehensive article on teeth whitening. In it I tried to cover everything that came to mind. Of course, I got ideas from the most popular foreign portals, I picked the best from many portals.
The main purpose of this MEGA article is to appear on the first pages of Google search in a few months for teeth whitening related searches. This part of internet marketing terms is called SEO or search engine optimization. However, at the moment only half of what is needed is done – there will still be work to do on external links.

The fourth step was to find and add products. As I mentioned above, I have contacts in the dental industry, so this step was relatively easy for me. From the contacts I got access to two professional teeth whitening products, which until now were marketed only in the dental field.

Both of these products have been on the market for a relatively short period of time and are virtually non-existent on the internet, so only some quality photos were available. Realizing this, I got both products in my hands on the same day and the next day with these products I went to a professional photographer where we did a semi-professional photo session (because I hadn’t fully specified what I needed before)

The next step was to add products to the SmaidaFabrika.lv online store. I use Woocommerce as my internet base – I build all my websites and online store on WordPress. In the end, I got two product pages – Teeth Whitening strips and Teeth Whitening kits.

The construction of the website was completed with the creation of the home page. I wanted to make the homepage as clear as possible so that people could clearly understand what the homepage is all about.

Of course, it took a lot of time to sort out all the terms of use for the online store and more. info pages. I tried to keep the website design clean and fresh (using refreshing colors).

The next step was to create and design a Facebook page. For each Smile Factory page, a separate social network share image was created with a similar design.

teeth whitening trays

READY! Facebook ads are already turning and I’ll be working on new content and optimization of existing ads in the coming days.
P.S. I test the websites “performance” on a 70% complete Teeth Whitening Guide with no design to understand how expensive a single visitor will cost me. AND! The results were very encouraging as I was getting visitors for 5 cents per click. It was a good motivator to keep working!

The future work will be on Instagram and Facebook influencers, because I think the best motivator to buy this product is satisfied customers and visible results that will be very good through microinfluencers, which will be enough to test the products (I will not turn to sharks at first).

Have I sold anything so far?

Yeah! The first orders were already received in the first week of launching Facebook ads! Three weeks after this project was launched, I have already received eight orders, which is a very good indicator for such a short period of time. I have asked my clients to capture the results of the bleaching and then, of course, post them anonymously on SmileFabrika’s social networks, which will definitely increase sales.

There are already a few reviews from satisfied customers on the site. Some of the testimonials were added during the development of the page as I interviewed my friends about their experience with teeth whitening products. After all, positive feedback is needed to sell these products.

teeth whitening products

This is what Smile Factory products look like and my workplace at home. I’ll be publishing my own bleach results soon. Hopefully I won’t make others feel uncomfortable with my dazzling smile 😀

That’s in a nutshell, for now. I hope to be able to supplement this article with some great sales results in a little while.

I hope that this type of article will also encourage you to stick to a long cherished idea. Feel free to leave comments and ask a question, if any.