Natasha Courtenay-Smith describes her first six months with Platinum Business Partners

Natasha was already a successful businesswoman before joining Platinum Business Partners (PBP) in March 2016. Not only does she have her own website design and digital marketing company, she also designs and sells her own brand of tote bags.

So why would she need support to build her own online retailing business? Here, Natasha shares her reasons and experience so far.

Why did you decide to join Platinum Business Partners?

I obviously have experience of running online businesses, social media marketing, maximising website traffic and even selling products online, but I’ve always been on my own.

This presented me with a great opportunity to do something that complimented my existing businesses while being part of a supportive and like-minded group of people.

How have you found the training and resources so far?

The training has been really good, especially in helping me to understand another platform and how it works. The online support group is really interactive now and a great source of advice. And I really enjoyed the mentoring.

To date, all of my work has involved trading a lot of my time for money. I do enjoy it but I wanted to find a way to have a better balance, where I can pick and choose who my clients are and also have a degree of income that’s more predictable.

What products have you started with?

I felt like I wanted to operate in the beauty category. Even though I’m not massively into beauty products, it is an area I am interested in and know something about. And from a consumer point of view, it’s always nice as a woman to find new products.

So, I decided this would be the category that I would operate in to start with, but I wanted to be able to stand out. Rather than just offering anti-ageing products, I tried to look for products with a specific ingredient with a high volume of searches so I could try and cut out some of the competition.

What stage are you at now?

I’ve got two products live in the beauty category. I was able to get the first product live within eight weeks and the second product has been live for just over a month.

What are your plans for the next six months?

I’ve got a third product almost ready and samples from three more suppliers on the way.

I’m learning that there is always opportunity. You can be doing your product research and think nothing is coming up and then suddenly you head down a path and it’s great. I really enjoy it and get really excited when I find new products.