Anyone Can Start a Business. An Expert Can Scale One. A Q&A with Patrick Jones, founder of Outdoor Fellow, a handcrafted home fragrance brand sold on Amazon.

Starting your own business comes with a slew of choices, from logos, colors, pricing, and of course – where to sell your products. Meeting customers where they are is the key to success for a small business. Finding the right mix of sales channels, brick-and-mortar stores, and your own direct-to-consumer website could mean the difference between growth and stagnation.

Patrick Jones founded home fragrance brand Outdoor Fellow to combine his love of the outdoors with his candle-making skills. His unique scents come from the places he and his husband like to travel. Jones left a successful marketing career to dedicate himself full-time to expanding his business, and he turned to Amazon to help him grow his business. What started as a hobby is now a thriving brand with 18 scents across two product lines and thousands of happy customers.

Here, Jones shares his thoughts on how to grow your business and what he wishes he knew before he dove head-first into being a small-business owner.

There are millions of items for sale across online retailers in the home fragrance category. Any advice for how to make your brand stand out in a crowded industry?

It's important to think like a potential customer and be extremely critical of each listing. When I list my product, the question I always ask myself is, "If I came across this product, would I buy this?" To get my yes, I think of three things:

Understand your market: Look at what your competitors are doing and examine how they are listing their products. I generally search the keyword for my product and examine the top organic listings that follow since that's where I ultimately want my product to appear. What keywords are they using in their listing and do any of those apply to my own products?

Tell a story: High-quality photography helps customers see exactly what the products look like and helps them imagine how it will look in their space. People are shopping online so the visuals you present have to be high quality and tell a story. At the same time, well-crafted product descriptions showcase why your products are better than others out there in the market and how they can help solve a problem. When I first started, I wish I knew about some of the other programs Amazon offers small businesses such as Amazon Handmade, which features brands like Outdoor Fellow that make everything by hand. Having the Handmade designation differentiates us from the competition and helps us tell our story. Amazon has lots of resources to help those starting their selling journey, whether you need tips on creating an online store, launching your brand, or continuing to grow.

Use data: I have a small advertising budget and I need to ensure I get a good return on my ad spend. I use the data and analytics Amazon offers to make decisions based on what customers are doing. For example, I review my pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns every single day to make sure they are correctly targeting keywords and products.

What's a selling hack that you've learned since starting Outdoor Fellow?

Take advantage of trainings and resources – whether that's offered by your selling partner, like Amazon, or what you find online. While I did have a leg up through my previous experience as a marketer, I deliberately took the time to learn about selling in Amazon's stores. I took advantage of Amazon's thorough onboarding process as well as the vast library of free education that walked me through pretty much everything I needed to know. It can be daunting at first but if you take the time to go through the materials you can pretty quickly educate yourself on how to sell successfully.

Also, your account representatives are part of your team. During the early days of my journey as a business owner, a crucial turning point was when I met with my account team at Amazon. This meeting provided me with a deeper understanding of the benefits associated with selling in Amazon's stores, and my account rep walked me through the advantages, shedding light on how the Amazon's seller tools and services could serve as a powerful catalyst for my business growth.

You mention the importance of continuously learning and educating yourself on the industry. Is there anything you're looking forward to at this year's Accelerate 2023, Amazon's annual seller conference?

Now that I am familiar with selling in Amazon's stores, I am looking forward to scaling my business even more. I'm attending Accelerate 2023 for the first time and joining virtually. The most immediate area I'm interested in learning about through the virtual sessions is what advertising strategies other brands are implementing that I may be able to apply to my own business that will help me stand out this holiday season.

I've also been interested in selling in other countries outside of the United States, so learning more about how Amazon can help with the logistical challenges that come with that expansion is exciting to me. The agenda this year looks really educational and inspiring, and I'm hopeful I can attend in-person next year to take advantage of all the great networking opportunities.

What is one piece of advice you'd give a new seller?

As an avid runner, I apply the mantra "run your own race" to my business. This means staying committed to my own goals and defining success for myself. It's easy to get caught up in comparing ourselves to other brands, but this can lead to unrealistic expectations and a loss of authenticity.

Instead, I focus on setting realistic, obtainable goals that make sense for Outdoor Fellow. Sometimes these goals can be as small as creating a social media post for the day or finding one new business lead to pitch, and that's ok! Completing small goals builds discipline and empowers me to tackle bigger challenges that lay ahead. By focusing on my own race, I'm able to achieve the goals that lead to my own success.

Partnering with Amazon allows sellers to benefit from powerful, cost-effective capabilities that leverage Amazon's technological innovation. Anyone can still register to join Accelerate 2023 virtually.