This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
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you’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast Simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probe Age Hi there. Episode number 167 of The Sweet Life Entrepreneur in Business Podcast I’m April Beach and we are in Week two here at my house that the recording of this were actually on date number four of Corona virus locked down. My boys are restless and this is a very strange and surreal time. And there’s a lot of bad news out there, a lot of scary things that are being talked about.
And so here, the Sweet Life Company and on the podcast, we are focusing in on all of the positives, the positives from a business standpoint and the positives from a personal standpoint. There is beauty from the ashes. There’s a silver lining to this, and so that’s what we’re going to talk about here on today’s show and is a business. We’re really striving to focus on those things also, it puts us in a very unique situation because my company’s expertise is developing online businesses. The podcast is dedicated towards small businesses and entrepreneurs who are looking to launch your service is and grow your company online in.
So there is certainly a silver lining in this, that this particular podcast is strategically designed to be pouring into you as an entrepreneur right now in the state of the world that we’re in. So I hope this show is a blessing to you. And I hope that you use the free tools and business strategies that we have here to grow your business online because there has never been a more important time to do that. If you and I don’t know each other yet, I’m April Beach, and I’m super glad that you’re here.
You can get to know me more by cruising over to sweet life co dot com. In the meantime, this is what you can expect on today’s episode. We’re diving in, and I’m actually giving you a pre online business launch checklist that goes along with the teachings I have on today’s show. The idea behind this is that many of you who may have not launched your existing business or brought a new business online before are in the process of doing it in I know that there is a rush to get online.
I understand the importance. I have kids, I have a home. I have people that I love to take care of this well, it’s a very scary and surreal time right now that’s happening in the world until I understand that there is a rush Tau launch your business online. With that being said, it’s my intention to make sure that as you bring your business online, you’re doing it mindfully in a very smart way that works with your life, aligns with your profit plan and establishes your business in your brand as the leader.
So on today’s show, you’re going to get the business training, and I have a complete online business pre launch checklist for you to download. You can cruise over to the show Notes for this, which are found at Sweet Life podcast dot com forward slash 167 On top of that, I have also partnered with my good friend, who’s also been a podcast guest here on the show back in 2019. Elizabeth McFadden Elizabeth is the cofounder of Novella Brand House out of Kansas City, and they are the ultimate branding and marketing Ninjas,
Sweet Life Company. My business and this podcast, a novella brand house, have partnered that we have created a completely free cove in 19 small business resource center that I want to make sure that you guys know about You can go right away to sweet life. Coat dot com Ford slash cove It small business. Now I know that you might be busy and maybe not able to write that down. And so I will make sure that the link to the Free Cove in 19 Small Business Marketing, an online business development resource center,
is available to you in the show notes again. So the on Lee you’re all you need to remember is cruising over to sweet life. Podcast dot com ford slash 1 67 This resource and the online business prelaunch checklist are all totally free for you, and we’re talking marketing training’s how to create an online content counter and things that both of our companies actually usually charge a lot of money for. We’ve made them all free to you to grab at this cove. It Small business resource center again cruise over to the sweet life podcast website,
and we’ll make sure that we’re getting those in your hands. Okay. On today’s show, we are specifically talking about four things you should know before launching your online business. Online businesses are the new frontier of entrepreneurship. We all know that I’m not telling you something you don’t know. But how are you going to build your online business in a way that it’s still gonna work with your family in a way that you feel like you are doing a good job strategically positioning yourself with what other online businesses air doing and meaning your client’s needs?
Those are a lot of things to think about watching your online business. It’s very different than just launching your business when you get into the point of launching the online part of your business or online service is there are quite a few different things that you should be thinking about ahead of time so that you don’t waste your time and we’re gonna talk about four of those things that you should be thinking about ahead of time on this episode. So if you’re new here, this is the drill. If you are one of my fans,
it’s here all the time in my followers again. I appreciate you so much. So just bear with me while I go through this because I want to make sure this is really great use of your time. If you’re new to the podcast, I cover three questions in the beginning. So you know if this is a great use of your time. Number one. Who is this Episode four Number two. Why is this important? And Number three, what can you expect to discover or learn? So here are the answers to those questions.
Number one This episodes is for coaches, consultants and service providers who are looking to expand your business online. This means that you’re looking for where to start in clear steps of what you should do first before you make that transition that jumped online. This is also for you if you really have not had a one on one in person service business before, but you want to get into launching an online business or online coaching or consulting service is why is this important thing is important so you don’t jump in blindly because if you don’t do your homework and you don’t know the answers or the thoughts and strategies that I’m gonna bring forward in these four different things I want you to be aware of.
Then you are gonna waste your time. And time is money. So don’t waste your money. You can expect that I’m going to download you on these four different areas and topics that I want you to be aware of.
And I’m going to be really honest. This is going to be pretty unfiltered. And I’m just gonna lay it out there and tell you exactly what I want you to be aware of with each one of these four points.
So there’s gonna be a little bit of tough love in here, and then there’s going to be hopefully a lot of inspiration and learning from some of my mistakes.
I’m gonna share those with you and a really quick note of you are one of my established listeners. You know that I tackled the episodes by phase of business you’re in.
So this particular episode is for those of you who are in my lifestyle. Entrepreneur roadmap phases one and two.
If you’re interested in taking a quiz to find out where you are simply visit sweet life co dot com aboard slash Quiz.
So you want to launch an online business, join the club. Here are four things that I would like you to be aware of.
First number one. How are you gonna make money? You need to know your business model. And what will your revenue streams be?
What will they look like? How are you gonna bring revenue into your new online business? So I’m gonna give you a sample of different types of revenue streams that you can consider for your business and break them up into three different categories to help you understand and kind of wrap your head around this a little bit more.
So the first revenue stream is selling service is or selling digital products. So if you’re a coach or a consultant,
this could look like creating downloads or templates to be sold. Maybe you want to create a workbook to be sold or a planner.
There are a lot of entrepreneurs that are creating these in really amazing planners for other entrepreneurs. I love them.
I’m such a sucker for those. They’re making great money doing it. Their specialty is creating planners. So that is certainly one area If your coach,
our consultants and you want to make money through digital products. If you’re a service provider and you want an online business than you could bring in revenue by creating graphic design result based products,
whether it’s logo design or PDF design or slide design, you also could be doing ah website design and anything that the delivery of the product is digital.
The results of what you’re creating is also a digital result. So those were two examples of how you could make money with your new expanding on my business through digital products.
Granted, there are so many others you can do social media design. Do you have the list goes on and on,
depending on what your specialty is, You can also consider creating beautiful, like signs and paintings and different things to be sold on etc.
And it’s still considered an online digital business. So I just wanted to mention some of those again. If you’re a coach or a service provider consultant than digital products is,
a revenue stream would look like downloads, workbooks, graphic design, Web design, anything that the result is digital based or a settling of that service or product is digital rather than meeting with somebody one on one and face to face or selling it like an art and craft show or something.
A second example of how to make money online is specifically for those of you guys who are coaches, teachers or consultants,
and these would be to launch an online course or perhaps to offer instruction through teaching webinars. Now there are two different types of online courses that you can consider watching,
and we are going to dive too deep into these because I don’t want to dump truck you with too much information.
But there are basically two different types of online courses. One is known as Evergreen, and that is the type of course that you would create and you’d pre record and it would be available all the time.
Anybody conjoining it, it’s on demand. They could just jump into your course whenever they find you and whenever they’re ready.
And then the other type, of course, is one that’s more of an open enclosed car course. So it is only open a couple times a year,
if that, and there’s a lot of marketing a lot of hype around when you open up the list for people to join that.
And then there’s a very hard deadline for when you close the doors to that course. And then the course begins and everybody works together through the course,
usually at the same pace. Those are two different types of options you can consider as faras only courses you also might want to consider.
Teaching live in live is a great way to connect with people. There’s so many different ways to offer live training’s.
You can do live webinars through like Zoom or go to Webinar. You can also do live like Facebook,
Live Training’s within a closed private community. And then the third opportunity for you to consider is like a membership site or an association.
A membership site is a little different than an online course, because a membership site is something where you need to make sure that you’re constantly nurturing your members.
There are always people joining and some people coming in. There’s kind of this ebb and flow off the members that come in and out of your community,
so it’s always important to be creating at least like one new training in a month for them, or,
you know, they have perhaps a core content that they come into. And then maybe you could even charge more and do a smaller upgrade for them To get the newest latest training,
you could have membership levels. There’s so many different things to consider with the membership site, but it is a little bit different than just a straight cut and dry online course.
It doesn’t have that beginning point in that completion point. As an online course, Teso membership site is something that’s a bit longer of a commitment for you.
So I just want you to be aware of that. And the same is true of about creating an association because you have members in your association that you need to nurture and you need to keep supporting.
So going back to question number one, you need to know how you’re gonna make money, and I want you to fully investigate every single one of the opportunities.
But I also want you to consider going back to that vision. What is your vision for your business?
What does an Every day we could look like owning and running your business. Do you want to have more contact with your clients?
Is something like a membership site where you’re constantly connecting with them in meeting with them and having relationships with them?
Is that something that that you like? Word. Are you thinking maybe like an online course? You can create more passive income that you can create more income that you work really hard in.
I am going to tell you that launching online courses a lot of work. It’s worth it, but it’s a lot of work,
you guys, and so you know you’re gonna do all that work up front. And then there’s also the marketing in the list building that goes around that.
But is that something that’s more your style? You know, I personally I I love online courses because I don’t have the capacity based on how I designed my life to constantly be in a membership site all the time.
But then, of course, I make up for that because I have a really great online Facebook community.
So I do get to have those relationships that I want, and they just look different than they would with a full blown membership site.
So there are so many options for you. I wanted to give you a brief overview of each one because you do need to make a choice.
And once you make a choice, please start with one master, one of them. First, I would not go out wanting the launcher on light business with trying to do an online course and a membership site and creating a downloadable digital product.
Yes, I want you to have multiple streams of revenue, but you do need to do one of them well in.
So in order to do things well, I want you to make sure that you’re really just having opportunity.
Given yourself that opportunity to focus on one of them at a time. Okay, The second thing I want you to be aware of before you launching your online business is how much you’re going to be working online Does not mean that you are working less.
If you thought that or if anybody told you that, then they’re not telling you the truth. Yes,
you can make your own schedule. Yes, you can choose to only work 20 hours a week, but when you’re first getting your business started and you’re developing your online courses and programs and materials and service is and everything that you’re gonna be offering,
including your brand and making yourself visible to your ideal clients. It is a lot of work, you guys,
so if you launch it, they won’t come. I have so many clients that are like, Oh,
I can’t wait. I, you know, work somewhere, and I can’t wait to just finally launch my website or I can’t wait to just,
you know, finally get my course up and running. And then it’s like crickets. So I want you to be aware of the fact that it takes a lot more than just showing up on the Web in order to make money online.
Online has more moving parts than you’re in person business. And as you get into this, you’re gonna discover it.
So let’s make sure you have a plan for how you’re gonna manage that. Moving parts in your online business look different,
though, than they would if you’re meeting with somebody one on one and giving them nutrition, coaching or if you’re a doula and your meeting with them one on one,
and in helping them prepare for their baby that it looks a lot different when you move your business online,
your work time shifts. So it’s shifts in that you aren’t necessarily working in your business so much. But the amount of time you’re working on your business is actually going to increase,
And this is gonna look like new types of relationships that you need to build. You’re not gonna have an opportunity as much to connect with people face to face and build those relationships.
So the relationships that you are now gonna build our very intentional and sadly, they take a little bit longer to take root because you’re not seeing somebody face to face.
And that’s obviously what’s gonna happen when you weren’t physically with somebody is building that relationship. In that trust,
it’s going to take a little bit longer. And these relationships, certain referring to are not only to your new clients but to new business colleagues and affiliates and influencers.
So when you launch this online business after your website is up because I want youto have your your brand represented well,
before you start reaching out in saying you know what you do to these potential clients. I want to make sure that you’re at least your splash pages up,
and then you haven’t opt in and your brand is is well represented. You don’t get a second chance to make that first impression.
Then we need to dig into the relationship building inside. So you’re gonna build intentional relationships with your fans and with your new online friends.
And these relationships take work, and they take time. Now, I’m not saying that you’re not gonna have face to face contact,
and we’ll talk about that in a second. But you have to create this optimal lead magnets to attract people to you.
And then after you’ve created that there is a period of time and work that you are gonna need to put in to get your information in front of your ideal audience in order to grow your list and to grow your amount of followers in one of the most powerful ways to do this is to get other businesses and other influencers to tell people about your business.
But one of the ways to get other businesses and other influencers to tell people about your business is develop relationships with them in those relationships take time,
they take trust and they take time. So if you’re working backwards, it looks like launching your business,
being clear about what you’re offering and then connecting with other people that you may need to mentor you to help guide you through continuing,
develop your relationship and then also putting your business out there so that others can share your business with their fans in their followers.
And these things do take time. They take time in the number of hours that you will need to work each week because the more you work,
I will say the more that you get done, that might not sound very popular. But the more time you put in,
the more ground you’re gonna cover, it also means that the summary is basically me saying when you launch your Web site,
you aren’t just going to be plowed over with people dying to join your online course. That is a lie.
That’s not gonna happen. You have to grow your list and grow your influence and grow your brand. The only thing I want you to know about online businesses is that you can’t stop connecting with people,
face to face. I told you I’d be honest with you. And so here this is me being honest.
I suck it connecting with people face to face. I say that online business and working at home gets lonely and sometimes that it does,
but not very often to me. I’m actually pretty good here in my office and then going to the gym in the morning and seeing my very small circle of friends.
I don’t need more than that. My body, my mind doesn’t need more than that. However, I’ve really learned in the last two years that my creativity does,
and that been ordered to continue bringing my business to the place that I want to bring it to. I need to surround myself with other people that I allow to speak into my business and speak to me and mentor me and guide me.
And really, those types of relationships are built best by that face to face connection. I might meet them through a digital online mastermind or an online community or an online Facebook group.
But in order to really facilitate those relationships, I need to start taking the time to invest in being with them face to face.
And I have started to do that in the past two years. And what’s happened to me professionally in my development and in my business is night and day from all of the years that I was like in the trenches of being in my office by myself.
So I just want to be honest with you and tell you that it is important. It’s a new development for me in the last couple of years.
How important that is in that even though you are going to launch your online business, you still need to develop these face to face relationships with mentors and influencers and people that you will allow to come around you as a community and speak into your life and into your business.
Okay, Number three, how are you going to master the technology? You guys have heard me say I kill technology over and over again,
and I totally d’oh, but I want you to have my philosophy. I am prepared that I am not going to be scared.
That is my philosophy. Be prepared to not be scared for technology and is it going to die? And it’s something gonna go wrong like the 1st 5 times.
Yeah, totally. So I kind of set my bar pretty low when I get in there. And I learned a new software.
I am going to suck at it and it’s not gonna work right? And so there I’m gonna have those phone calls where I’m calling my husband or my friends and just saying I’m killing this.
I can’t do it. And I’m to the place, and I want you to be at the place where you need to hire somebody to do the tech stuff for you.
You don’t have to be a tech wizard to have an online business Hire help Hire it out. If you aren’t in place yet where you can’t afford to hire it out yet.
Then you’re gonna have to, you know, figure it out. But the reality is, is be prepared that you’re not going to be scared.
You’re gonna master the technology. And so you have to set aside the time to tackle that learning curve to master the technology.
In order to master your technology, I want you to do your research and I want you to choose the right website platform before you ever launch.
Don’t launch because a weekly site is cheap. Don’t choose Oh squarespace site because they have really beautiful templates and you can do it yourself.
And honestly, don’t even choose a WordPress site because you’ve heard me say on here, I would totally recommend one with a wordpress dot org’s site.
That is not why I want you to choose a site. I want you to sit down, go back to number one,
figure out what you’re going to be delivering and how you’re gonna be delivering it, whether it’s in courses or products.
And take a look at the big picture of what you’d like to deliver online and then choose the best website platform that is going to deliver you the capabilities to do that.
That is step number one. The second thing I want you to know is technology is becoming more and more simple every day.
We have online videos. They have amazing technical support. So if you’re struggling with something like lead pages or active campaign or convert kit,
call them and ask them and choose the technology based on the support and the help that you need. It doesn’t have to be all about all the bells and whistles.
The most expensive one isn’t the best one for you necessarily. So go with what you can do. Because if you can’t do it and you can’t master,
it is not gonna do you any good anyway, right? So choose the technology that if you have to master it yourself,
then you could master well in the beginning. And then once you have an opportunity, go with a technology support person.
Attacked Guru, one of those wonderful people that just loves to master in mold technology, toe work perfectly to your benefit.
And the some of that I’m just telling you, don’t let the technology scare you. Is it going to be easy?
No, it’s not gonna be easy. Is it worth it? Yes, it’s totally worth it. And you can do it.
I’m gonna put a link in here to the technology that I use in the software that I use to house my website.
I’ve gone through so many different online course software because I’ve had online courses since 2008 on, and so it really has been a long journey of transitioning through multiple different software options I’m in order for me to find the one that I love now on the one that works for me.
Now, you now need to find what works for you and number four. You need to know how to stand out.
So the fourth thing I want you to know before you launch your on my business is how you will stand out.
And here are my suggestions for you. The first thing is to be your brand. You have to be your brand.
Not everybody’s gonna like you. And you shouldn’t try to be somebody else. This is something that is incredibly easier said than done.
You absolutely deserve an opportunity to build a business. That is the representation of the brand that you want to put forth and your ideal clients.
Because you’re in a perfect world developing your brand for her, for that ideal person. She is gonna love it,
but everybody else might not. And that is okay. I don’t want you to be afraid to niche down.
I don’t want you to be afraid that you are narrowing your audience. I want you to know in your heart who you serve specifically and I want you to be that branch.
And let me tell you a little quick story. An example of this One of the first areas of consulting that I started specializing in was the maternity industry.
And I became an expert at launching service and consulting business in maternity industry. So I was an expert at launching businesses for Obi Joan’s in maternity concierge and of the,
you know, private our ends in anybody in the maternity field because I was so niche specific. I never advertised.
I never did. Google AdWords high never, ever spent a dime marketing my business, and it was always a constant stream of income because it was so clear on who I served in what results that they would expect was I afraid that I wasn’t going to meet the needs of somebody who wanted to do something else back in 2008?
Absolutely not. I was totally dead set on serving only the maternity industry and coaching and launching those businesses.
So there is power. There’s massive power in niche ing down. Now my niche is obviously changed. I launched coaches,
consultants and service providers who want to reach that 20 hour work week business model. That’s what I do.
That’s not what you need for me. That’s okay, but that’s what I do. I want you to get that specific as well.
Don’t be afraid to be authentic. And don’t try to please everybody. And then the other thing I just want to make sure that you’re aware of is that you need to be consistent.
You need to be consistently in front of your audience, often being online. There is a footprint that will be there forever.
People can look back and see how often you posted when you posted what you posted, what you were seeing on your block.
So you have to create a plan in which you are going to be consistently showing up. It doesn’t mean you have to show up every day,
and it doesn’t mean it even has to be every week. Just start consistently. If you can only blogged once a month,
then commit to blogged once a month. If you think you can do it twice a month and then commit to do it twice a month but don’t fail at that,
that’s when we get into misrepresenting your brand and people will question your trust and whether or not your business they want to work with subconsciously because of the fact that you weren’t consistently in front of them.
So I just want to be honest with you about the fact that it’s going to take consistent communication with your audience for you to prove that you want to serve them and for them to notice you,
especially with all of the images in all of the things that are being thrown at them. Currently four online businesses,
they’re getting so many messages, so many images, so many different things, air coming at them all at once.
So that’s what it takes. And I wanted to be up front with us because so many of you guys are ready to take that jump,
and it’s so amazing. This is what you have worked for it. This is what you’ve wants your business and taken your ideas and brought them forward for to this point where you get to now share it with the world.
So let’s make sure that you’re going into with eyes wide open again. What are we going over first thing is,
how are you gonna make money? How are you going to make money? You can do multiple different streams of income.
But let’s make sure that you’re picking the one that you want to start with first and that you are putting out a great product number to know how much time you’re gonna be working.
When you’re first getting started, you are not gonna be working less hours. It takes awhile to build the business to the point where you can scale it back to that 20 hour work week.
That’s the truth. Launching and growing and scaling your business is a journey Number three. Be prepared to not be scared by technology.
Technology does not have to scare you. It’s getting simpler. It’s getting easier to master. It’s getting better and you are ready for it.
You can do it. If I can do it, you can do it, I promise you. And number four,
I know how you’re going to stand out and be willing to be true to your brand. Don’t try to be somebody else.
Don’t try to compete with somebody else. Don’t try to serve everybody. Know who you serve. Why you serve that person?
What your purpose, What your mission is and how you are going to communicate it and then communicate it consistently.
All right, you guys, that’s a wrap. This was episode number 167 And so all of the resource is we mentioned the Corona Virus,
Small Business Resource Center and the business Launch Check list, including the online business software that we use so that you can copy and just check it out for yourself.
If you like it, you can find all those in the show notes for today’s show by visiting Suite Life podcast dot com forward slash 167 And before we go,
I just want to leave you with an encouraging word and then give our listener of the week a shout out.
We’re in a super uncertain time, a very surreal, very strange time where our faith is tested, where businesses air tested and where we grow.
We have been called into leadership. I believe you’ve been called into leadership. That’s why you’re listening to this show.
And so thank you so much for being here, and I just want to encourage you that we’re praying for you and as a community of global community of women business owners together we will pull through this.
Our hearts go out to the families who have lost our hearts, go out to people that are suffering and just together as a community.
Let’s just all agree to listen. Lift them up in prayer and support and everywhere we can, and that starts with helping our neighbor’s.
That starts with pouring into other businesses as you continue to grow yourself. Just like Henry Ford said. If everyone is moving forward together than success takes care of itself.
And before we leave, I want to give a shout out to Shannon Baker. She is the owner of socially savvy V A and the creator of the upcoming podcast called the More than Capable Mom.
Preneurs. Shannon’s an awesome Lister, owner of this show. She messages a ton back and forth with us on Instagram,
and we love her because she is a systems geek. So her company again is socially savvy. V.
A U confined her at socially savvy via on instagram and online Shannon. Thanks so much for listening to the show and creating Amazing service is the poor into businesses.
All right, you guys have a fantastic week. Be blessed. Be well, talk to you again soon
That’s all folks!