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The Hottest Tiktok Trends Right Now

May 30, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

If you use Tiktok to market your small business, you know that it can be all about trends. Here are some the hottest Tiktok trends right now that your business might be able to benefit your business.

#Cleangirlaesthetic

The clean girl aesthetic covers decor, fashion and beauty, and is all about minimalism and understated sophistication, along with prioritizing your self-care. Simple, neutral color palettes, pared-down style, but high quality.

#Mermaidcore

The #mermaidcore trend is influenced by the release of the latest Little Mermaid film, and it has to do with fashion, jewelry and makeup involving pearls, ruffles, seashells, low-rise skirts, sequins and sparkles – all in the traditional mermaid color palette of purple, blue and green.

#Whimsigoth

This trend is inspired by any magic or witchy type TV show you watched in the 90s, so it focuses on vintage stars, moon and other celestial decor.

#Railscapes

Railscapes is a hot #decortok trend whereby houseplants line the balusters of your indoor staircase.

#Dopamine

The dopamine #decortok trend is all about decorating with things that are fun and whimsical that gives you a rush of dopamine when you see them.

#Paintedbread

Painted bread is a popular #foodtok that is basically handmade bread, which has been decorated with floral and vine graphics using food coloring and food gel.

#Teabombs

We’ve had hot chocolate bombs and coffee bombs, now tea bombs are the current rage, which are a mixture of tea and other botanicals inside a dissolvable sugar shell.

#Cottagecheese

This retro health #foodtok is making a comeback with Tiktok users looking for recipes for cottage cheese pasta, cottage cheese ice cream and cottage cheese toast, among other things.

#Vintagecakes

The vintage cakes trend has Tiktokers showcasing their over-the-top cake creations that are also ultra feminine with rows and rows of sugar pearls, an abundance of edible roses, an overload of piped icing, and just really gaudy, decadent designs.

#Customweddingnapkins

Your #weddingtok #bridaltok trends should include custom or personalized wedding napkins that come with a cute story about the couple or special messages from the bride and groom.

#Packanorderwithme

Many small businesses are packing customer orders on camera, and people seem to respond to this, including their customers excited to see their own purchase getting ready for shipment.

#Dayinthelife

A day in the life video follows a small business owner throughout their day so that the viewer gets some idea of all the tasks and activities involved in what they do.

If you need more social media content ideas, be sure to download my 365 Social Media Ideas Calendar.

Also Read: 8 Instagram Reel Ideas and My Favorite Home Office Finds

My Latest Side Hustle Ideas

May 25, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

I love Google Trends because they give you so many ideas for small businesses and side hustles. Here are a few side hustle ideas I came up with based on some search trends from the last couple of weeks.

Summer Lessons and Teaching Kids

Google is showing that most searched “classes for kids” in the past month are:

Art classes
Swimming classes
Dance classes
Cooking classes
Coding classes

In my opinion, these could also be offered as private mommy and me or daddy and me classes. Did you know that 56% of all US adults cannot swim well enough to save themselves? If you’re a swim teacher with their own pool, you might want to consider offering private lessons.

If you own a restaurant that is not busy during the day, why not run a cooking class for kids, even if just in the mornings?

If you know how to code, either try to run a coding camp or offer this as tutoring or, again, private lessons.

Sleeping and Dreaming

Both “dream interpretation” and “sleep” are being searched at all-time highs on Google. Therefore, if you have any products or services that will help people improve their sleep, or you have the ability to interpret dreams, these are possible business opportunities.

Wedding Locales

It’s wedding season and Google Trends shows that the most searched wedding venues are below. While you likely do not own botanical gardens or a chateau or a winery, you could consider buying an old barn or farmhouse and turning it into a wedding and event venue.

Barn
Farmhouse
Botanical Gardens
Chateau
Winery

If you are planning to start a business, be sure to download my Best-Selling How to Start a New Business Planner, that I have on for a special price just for Memorial Day weekend.

Also read: Consider This Billion Dollar Small Business Idea

The $242 Billion Business of Corporate Gifts

May 17, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Are you making sure that your products can be sold as gifts for clients and employees?

COVID helped the Corporate Gift Market to double in size, and it now stands at US$242 billion annually, worldwide, according to a study done by Coresight Research. It is even a bigger gift market than Christmas.

Of this $242 billion, approximately 60% will be spent on gifts to clients and partners outside the organization and 40% for internal employee recognition and awards.

For sellers, there are even marketplaces designed specifically for corporate gift buyers, such as CorporateGift.com and gifts include everything from food and alcohol to candles and apparel to (if you remember my blog post two weeks ago) “experiences“.

The only caveat is you might have to be able to produce significant volume in a short time, and the company might want corporate personalization on the product.

Be sure to also read my post, “How to Get Corporate Holiday Gift Orders“.

Memorial Day Sales & Ongoing Offers for Veterans

May 11, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Did you know that every May, “Memorial day sales” is one of the top searches on Google? In terms of annual sales, it is not as popular as “Black Friday sales“, but it is a more popular search than either “Cyber Monday sales” or “Labor Day sales“.

No matter what type of business you run – store, restaurant, realtor, etc. – if you offer any type of ongoing offer for active, reservist, veteran, and retired Military personnel, then let your local newspaper’s business writers know, as they will likely include you any editorial they are planning for the Memorial Day weekend. Stories like these are very popular this time of year, and again in November for Veteran’s Day.SEO Tip (4)

You should also include your ongoing offer to veterans and military personnel as part of your business’ Value Statement (a writing service I do provide).

Since Memorial Day is May 29th, you might want to take advantage and offer an early bird sale now to get ahead of your competition.

You Have To Try This Email Marketing Idea

April 30, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

I saw this email in my in-box and I thought the subject line was simple but brilliant:

This florist, who I have purchased from in the past, is using the various national days to drum up business, and you can do the same.

Below are some upcoming occasions to email customers about the way they did (except, you might want to say “This Month is” instead of “Tomorrow is“):

May 2 – Teacher Appreciation Day
May 5 – Cinco de Mayo
May 12 – Military Spouse Appreciation Day
May 12 – Nurses Day
May 13 – Dog Mom Appreciation Day
May 14 – Mother’s Day
May 24 – Brother’s Day

Click to download

I have a detailed timeline of every major holiday, event and other occasion for each month of the year in my brand new 2023 Etsy Holiday Sales Planner.

New Business Idea: Sell An “Experience”

April 25, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

You’ve heard a lot about turning your knowledge into an online course, but that approach has become pretty exhausted.

A different approach, which I think is more effective, is what Uncommon Goods is doing. Capitalizing on the gift market, they are selling “experiences” as gifts.

In fact, a survey by SurveyMonkey found that 67% of respondents said they’d rather receive an experience than a physical gift.

I actually wrote about a similar idea about a year ago, where 1-800-Flowers teamed with Alice’s Table to offer a mother-daughter online flower arranging workshop as a gift for Mother’s Day.

Therefore, chefs/restaurant owners, florists, artists, psychics, crafters and more, can sell their “experiences” as a gift on Uncommon Goods. The gift approach means you can buy it for someone, or buy it for someone and yourself to do together (two sales instead of one). Think couples gifts, bridesmaid gifts, corporate gifts, Father’s day, Mother’s day, etc.

The Top-Selling Experiences:

Paint Your Pet
Romantic Mapmaking
Astrology Chart Class
Flower Arranging
Mixology Class
Scandinavian Baking

You can also use the “experience” to upsell your products. Be sure to also read: All New Small Business Ideas for 2023

Click to download the planner.

Thinking of Starting a New Business?

Download my best-selling How to Start a New Business Planner.

Consider This Billion Dollar Business Idea

April 20, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Looking for that billion dollar business idea? Well, I have one for you that was just under a billion in 2022, but might reach that height this year, considering its 20% year-over-year growth since 2019.

The billion dollar idea is pet Halloween costumes!

When doing research for my new 2023 Etsy Holiday Sales Planner, I found that, according to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent $710 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2022!

And, there is not as much competition as you think. There are only 3,000 listings for dog Halloween costumes on Amazon, and only 12,900 listings on Etsy. So there’s lots of opportunity!

Currently, 69 million US households own a dog and 45 million US households own a cat. Since the NRF also found that 1 in 5 pet owners plans to buy a Halloween costume this year, that’s 22.8 million costumes to be sold!NEW BUSINESS STARTUP CHECKLIST

Dogs costumes are three times more popular than costumes for cats. The most popular costumes for pets include a pumpkin, hot dog, bat, bumblebee, witch, lion, spider, ghost, super dog and devil. Consumers start searching July 31^st and searches peak October 23^rd.

My 2023 Etsy Holiday Sales Planner is available now.

You might also want to read: 54 Small Business Ideas for 2023.

A Brilliant Co-Marketing Idea

April 10, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

I was writing something for a restaurant in Texas called Doña Maria Dominican Cuisine and they told me something unusual. They said that people who came to their restaurant, and had never even eaten cuisine from the Dominican Republic before let alone even heard of the island, loved the food and vibe so much that they ended up booking a trip to go there.

So, I thought, if you’re a travel agent, or sell vacation real estate, maybe you should be forming a business relationship with some of your local ethnic restaurants. You recommend them, and they recommend you. It’s a win-win.

In other words, the travel agent tells their clients to visit XYZ restaurant so they can try the food before they go, and the restaurant tells customers, if they love the food, then go visit XYZ travel and book a trip to go there. Don’t you love marketing that costs you nothing!

More Inspring Ideas:

Inspiring Product Ideas

April 3, 2023 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

When I wrote my ebook, 187 All-New Product Ideas for 2023, I brainstormed how to take currently top selling products and make them even more desirable, along with some new ideas based on current customer needs and demand.

Since then, I have recently seen three of these product ideas online, so I guess I was onto something.

One of my ideas was for a Camping Blanket Hoodie. This is because it was the perfect combination of blanket and hoodie for sitting around the campfire.

Then there was my idea for a Cold and Flu Remedy Kit, because COVID made people want to nip every cough and sniffle in the bud, and everyone loves a compact, all-in-one remedy.

I also had the idea for holiday pillows that had a dual purpose – Halloween on one side, Christmas on the other, so you are not drowning in pillows (you can charge twice the price if you’re worried you are losing a sale). MudPie took it further and created a Four Sided Holiday Pillow.

Discover your next great product idea in my download, 187 All-New Product Ideas for 2023.