2017 is a year of creative ideas, ongoing innovation, and taking risks. With that being said, if you have a great idea for a new, original product and you haven’t started your business yet, what’re you waiting for?

It’s important to know that started a product-based business isn’t a walk in the park. You must create a product–of course–, find a platform you want to use to sell your products, and how you’re going to get your product from point A to point B. Here are three things you should know.

1. Find a Platform you love

As I mentioned earlier, finding a platform to sell your product on is one of the first steps to starting a product-based business. Sites such as Shopify, Bandcamp, or Bigcommerce will allow you to set up your buying platform in a matter of minutes and for a low price. Even Amazon or Etsy are a great place to start. They will even walk you through the process. What more could you ask for?

2. Make it efficient

In order to do all of this efficiently most people look to a fulfillment service and a customer relationship management service. If you don’t know fulfillment services are, they help a product-based business owner become more productive and efficient. It’s easier to hire a fulfillment company to handle your product needs that way you don’t have to spend time stocking, storing, packing, and shipping orders. This allows the you as a business owner to focus on growing your business and becoming successful.

With so many different ones to choose from it’s important that you choose carefully and wisely. One that comes to mind is Whiplash. It’s is a fulfillment service that is ideal for a beginner is the world of a product-based business. They will not only ship your items for you but store them as well. As for a customer relationship management service, ProsperWorks, which is the number one CRM for Google, allows product-based business owners to view their customers at the touch of a button and find any relevant data they might to help their customers.

3. Know your inventory

When starting your own product-based business, knowing your inventory is a habit you should be making. You must know what margins to order so that you have enough of you product but don’t end up with a constant overhead. Inventory software such as Cin7 and Asset Panda are cloud based tools that are made to help you with this. You want your customers to get their orders as soon as humanly possible. By keeping a close eye on your inventory you won’t run into problems such as items being out of stock.

Starting your own product-based business can be stressful and tedious but with a good product that fits a niche market, anything is possible. Remember, you don’t have to do it all alone. There are so many helpful tools and platforms out there that will get help you become successful. Get out there, get creative and start selling!