Raise your hand if “grow an online biz” has been on your To Do list for awhile.
I’ve been growing my biz online for years.
While the tactics and strategies change, you know something that stays consistent?
The fact that the online space is THE place to be if you want to have a business long term.
There’s no better time than now to start a business.
Or to ramp up your existing business.
I think the world has shown us that..
I’ve got 5 tips for ya that will help. Let’s get straight to it.
Online Biz Tip #1: Check Your Time.
Yep. Duh. Before you do anything, take a look at your schedule.
What can you drop?
Delegate?
Move?
Cancel?
If you’re already working a JOB somewhere, you’re gonna need a few hours a day to dedicate to your side hustle.
And if you're thinking about adding another income generating component to your biz, yep, you’ll still have to find some room in your calendar.
Even if you’re coming into this with free time, make sure you’re making timefor subtle time sucks.
Things like: laundry, groceries, errands and let’s be real… scrolling through FB or Insta.
Set the precedent NOW that you have a real need for time.
And that time needs to be spent only on your priorities.
Like your family and your business.
All the other things can be batched or delegated. (I’m all for delegating).
Online Biz Tip #2: Take It Seriously.
The people in your life are only going to take your business as seriously as you do.
So if you don’t prioritize the work… no one else will.
This is about setting boundaries.
Decide when you’ll work on your business.
Decide what tasks you’ll cover.
There’s a little mindset hack for this -- even though as the business owner you’re the boss… pretend you’re the employee.
You’ve hired yourself.
An employee is held accountable by their manager or boss to get their shiz done.
Can you hold yourself accountable?
By imagining you’re your own employee?
Kinda meta, right? But it works.
If you can’t hold yourself accountable, hire a coach who will.
Online Biz Tip #3 - Save Where You Can.
Truth time: the first few years of business may see an imbalance between startup costs and salary.
That’s reality.
So it’s better to prepare for that up front than be disappointed later.
Decide ahead of time what softwares or tools are essential.
Using a fancy checkout software probably isn’t essential, but a website probably is.
A course teaching you what you need to know probably is.
Where do you want to invest?
And where can you conserve your energy and pocketbook right now?
Remember, you don’t have to have all the tools up front.
You can always start with the bare minimum. And then add on as needed.
None of us started with everything.
We invested a little at a time as we began to bring in a bit of cash.
And you’ve got to know → there are a ton of low cost or affordable solutions out there.
For instance, for those of you who want to start making your own graphics so you have the confidence to get out there on social media…
A great example is leveraging a free software like Canva.
Canva is an amazing software platform that will help you create things like images for your social feed. You can also create downloadable freebies (such as ebooks and slides for a deck or digital course) so you can get people on your email list.
Canva is super diverse.
You can even use it to make your own logo if you don’t want to pay to get a professional one designed.
Online Biz Tip #4 - Choose What You’ll Splurge On.
There are some things worth splurging on from the start.
In my opinion, the number one thing at the top of this list should be your website.
For everything else you can go the DIY route until you can afford more help.
With your website, I’m not necessarily talking about the design.
I’m talking about choosing a company that will let your website run FAST.
Why?
Because if your site is slow, people won’t stick around to see it.
They’ll bounce. And you don’t want that to happen.
Here’s the truth: the design of your site is important.
But more important than that is the speed and your copy.
There are many building and hosting platforms out there.
SO many to choose from.
I use Wavoto for my site because it’s an all-in-one platform.
Which means you can use Wavoto to build and host your website, as your email platform, a funnel builder, and even a webinar platform..
Total win win.
Online Biz Tip #5 - Be Present and Future Focused
Did I lose ya?!
Seems impossible, right?
It’s not! Here’s how.
To have a business, you’ve gotta have a few basic things in place:
A product or service to offer
Marketing to get that offer out into the world
A way to accept payment
A way to deliver your product or service
That’s basically it.
So as you continue to plan out your business (or the expansion or diversification of your business), keep thinking about who you want to serve and how you can serve them.
That is what I meant by being present in your business.
But there’s one glaringly obvious thing missing from that list I just mentioned.
And that is --> a way for your business to grow.
Or some people call it “scale” your business.
This is what I mean about being future focused.
What if the product or service you want to offer can’t be “scaled?”.
In other words, what if your growth is limited?
It doesn’t have to be a deal breaker.
Let’s think about it.
How can you get creative about other ways you can solve your market’s problem?
Could you create a digital course?
Could you layer in complementary products?
Could you add a complementary service?
For instance, I have my doTERRA essential oils business.
But because SO many people were asking me how I built that business online, I created a course called The Social Downline.
My Social Downline students could now all learn how to build their own businesses online and automate those businesses without me having to coach every single person individually.
I also have people asking me to share my healthy hacks all the time.
So I created another course called Healthy Habits and Holistic Happiness where I share all my hacks, and again, don’t have to coach one on one or answer a million DMs.
Guess what?
I have people who find me and my course and then become my doTERRA customers as well!
So it works to fulfill a need for my students, conserve my time and energy AND as an entry point into my other business
See where I'm going with this?
Start with the END in mind.
Plan ahead.
Think long term.
How can you grow?
What digital mini course can you create to build your email list, make some extra cash, and support your customers more?
You’ll set yourself up for long term success by doing this.
Now, I’ve got an awesome resource that can help you totally nail Online Biz Tip #6 (plus all the others, too).
It’s a toolkit with tons of handy resources to help you focus your efforts on ONE action that’s going to bring immediate results to your biz.
Aka, growing your email list.
Listen. Email is kinda like currency in the biz world. Social media fans and followers are cool and all, but email? Your list is like your group of BFFs.
Because that email list is the gateway to increasing the number of customers in your biz.
So focusing on email list growth is an awesome way to channel all the magic that will happen when you focus on these 5 biz hacks.
One way you can do that really well is by leveraging the power of a digital course as a list builder.
I know I’ve mentioned digital courses a few times here, but stick with me. It’s for a reason.
A digital course is a great way to bring people onto your email list.
After they’ve purchased your course, you can email them periodically and introduce them to the other parts of your biz -- so they’ll become a customer for life.
If you’re curious how this could work for you, then let’s get back to that toolkit I mentioned.
It was created by my friend and online marketing expert, Amy Porterfield.
It’s called “The Ultimate Course Creation Starter Kit.”
You’ll learn how creating a digital course can help you serve more people, save you time, generate more leads and bring you more revenue.
Awesome right?
It’s packed full of all the resources you need to get your brain thinking.
About how your business can be working for you.
XO,
Hayley