Newsletter 16th July 2021: Falling off a log đŸ˜± and how to succeed or fail in business in 5 steps

by | Newsletters

Hi

Business failure is easy. You can do it like falling off a log.

Just don’t fracture your ankle like hubby did walking Alfie yesterday.đŸ˜± and have to wear a moonboot for 6 weeks following his X-ray this morning!

Especially don’t do it at the top of Blackford Hill and have to be helped down to where someone can pick you up in a car.

Just don’t.

You won’t appreciate the view on that trip, lovely though it is!

blackford hill walk

But I digress – any of the following make failure a pretty safe bet (a least until you change your strategy.)

  1. Buy all the things and take no action.
  2. Learn all the things and don’t make a product.
  3. Make all the things and don’t put them up for sale.
  4. Put very similar things up for sale as your competitors with no special reason for customers to buy your product.
  5. Have unique things for sale and don’t promote them.

I used to be really good at failing in all these ways, but I’m getting better. Not as good as I could be, mind you, so this little message is for me too. I often write the things I need to hear😀

Anyway, since I’ve been getting better at NOT following the five failure strategies, things have taken off.

Funny that!

So, what about success?

Not surprisingly, it’s pretty much the exact opposite of failure

ONE: Buy very selectively and use what you buy.

Overbuying is a huge source of overwhelm and guilt. It’s one of the things I cover in my Freedom from Overwhelm course.

[btw I was supposed to stop the launch of that on Tuesday. Call me a soft touch, but I can’t charge anyone an extra $90 for not reading their email on time so you can still get it for $37 instead of  $127 with coupon FREEDOM90 for a few more days. I know. I hear you. I should be charging more for a 12 week course. But like I said, I’m not perfect at the success thing lol and I find that I like giving insane value.]

TWO: Make products!

You probably own a lot of courses to help you make products already (courses about creating Kindle books, or selling journals, or creating art prints, or creating ebooks to sell) and if you do but you’re not using them, you’re sitting on an unused goldmine. If you don’t own any of these courses, hit me up and I will recommend a few! There’s definitely no need to be held back by a lack of  knowledge.

But if you want to make sure you take a course, a great strategy is to do a live workshop and get the chance to ask questions.

Faith’s Create Pretty Calendars workshop will have you creating calendars in an hour and there’s an additional hour for more questions about creating products. There’s a coupon code DESIGNQ&A to get $10 off (making the two hour workshop just $17) but it’s valid for the first 50 only. No need to miss out, if you buy through my link and the coupon doesn’t work, just send me your receipt (reply to this email)  and I’ll give you a $10 coupon for my site instead.

live training

THREE: Have a platform to sell your products

Better than one platform, have more than one. You can sell on Etsy. You can sell on Amazon. You can sell from your own website. Just get your products out into the world so that potential customers can buy them.

On Wednesday, I told you about web designer Yolandé and her low cost WordPress workshops. Within two weeks (starting July 21st) you can have a fully functional blog and Woocommerce site with your own affiliate program built on a super fast theme she created. And Yolandé is going to hold our hands as we get up and running which makes all the difference between trying to follow a technical online course and actually getting something done.

I say she’s going to hold OUR hands because I’m doing it too. I’ve never used Woocommerce, but a lot of the web runs on it so I’m going to build a new Woocommerce site during the workshops. This whole package costs just $49 including the theme and all the hand holding help you need for the duration of the workshops  (crazy introductory offer.)  Definitely worth it to have your Woocommerce site up and running by early August ready for peak selling season. Come and be my study buddy!

Get more details here but don’t hang about; the workshops start in a few days and places are naturally limited.

FOUR: Give your product an edge

Whether you buy private label rights content as many of us do, or you create products from scratch, give your customers something unique and a little bit extra compared to others out there.

If you sell planners, the latest Simple Happiness product, a Work from Home Planner Kit  makes it easy.  First you get all the templates, 31 pages, which are easy to customize with your own fonts, colors, designs and branding in Canva or Powerpoint to create something unique. And you get your own easy-to-customize product with commercial rights for just $12.95 with coupon code ATHOME

Work From Home Planner

Secondly, you can give your product extra CONTENT compared to other planners, by using the optional extension kit (costing just $7 with COUPON CODE AHEXTRA).  You’ll find this offer on the download page when you buy the main kit.

Work From Home Extension

FIVE: Promote your stuff!

You know the drill here. Build your list. Let them know when you launch a new product.

Beyond that, you can either pay for ads. Or pay with time, posting on social media. Or both!

No time to do all this list building and posting?

Yes, I get it. It can be overwhelming – see success factor ONE. But if you use the pockets of time we all have and do one step at a time, you will get there.

Case in point. I wrote most of this email in the hospital parking lot this morning.

So I just needed to add pictures, links and format it when I came to do it later. (And tbh I’ve done that in between taking hubby cups of coffee, making lunch, clearing my shambles of a kitchen abandoned from last night’s cry for help from hubby, doing the laundry, and posting to let everyone know what was going on!)

But snatching bits of time can make the difference between sending an email and not.

Between having a successful business or not.

So snatch those bits!

If you’re stuck anywhere with the five success factors, hit me up and let’s see if we can get you unstuck 😊

Have a great weekend and I’ll catch you soon with more tips, freebies, and some offers (but only the ones I personally think are great value and know the quality to be good.)

love

Jan

https://simplehappiness.biz

Jan

 

This email may contain affiliate links for products I personally recommend, however the opinions expressed are my own.

I will receive a small commission if you buy through my affiliate links, which helps me keep the lights on, but the product will not cost you more.

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