You started a business. Now what? When do you get to make money? Today? Next Week? 6 Months? 1 Year?
What is the quickest path to profitability?
I get this question all of the time which is why I thought it was so important to give you a few tips today on how you can make money NOW.
Many times you get an idea for a business and you are so excited! But then, you start creating the website and that takes weeks, maybe even months to finish. Then, you get caught up in trying to grow your social media and driving traffic to your website.
Let’s say you want to sell t-shirts and you spend months sourcing your products and saving enough money to buy 1,000 of them.
Or maybe, you started a blog and you think you need to wait a year to start monetizing it.
Perhaps, you have a great idea for a digital product but you’re waiting to create it until you get “X” amount of traffic to your site.
OK, NOOOOOOOOOOO.
We have to get out of this mentality that we have to build everything and have all of this great infrastructure and landing pages and a gorgeous website before we can do WHAT WE DO that’s actually going to make us any money.
If you need money now, then you have to start selling NOW.
A business needs customers.
If you’re a life coach, start coaching.
If you’re a consultant, start consulting.
If you make or sell products, then you need to sell them.
You don’t have to have the perfect website up first or 30 blog posts finished and a sales funnel to go with it.
If you want to generate money now, go get it.
The first thing you need to do is to get very clear on what it is you have to offer. If you’re not clear on that, or you’re not confident enough in your abilities, then you need to do a little pro-bono work first.
You may need to call up some people that fit your ideal client avatar and you need to offer to do whatever it is you do free, in exchange for feedback and a testimonial. This is going to help you get more confident in your services, but also figure out what your people really need.
Don’t get me wrong. It is very important to lay the groundwork for your business, to get very clear on your offerings, and who you want to help. But what happens next is very important.
On one hand, you can create your website and start putting the pieces together for online sales funnels and spend your time on social media creating a brand, and driving traffic to your website. Once people come to your website, they learn more about you, and they get in your online sales funnel. This is the ultimate end goal. Right? You want people banging down your door to work with you. Automation is key and it’s what I teach in The Work from Anywhere Business Academy.
But on the other hand, if you need money now and you don’t have the time or cash flow to build up your infrastructure, you’ve got get out there amongst the people and start getting real-life customers. Not only will you start generating income faster but you’ll also be able to see if you have a viable business.
You want to generate income, you have to sell your products and services. It requires being ACTIVE and sometimes getting uncomfortable. But don’t worry, I’m going to give you some tips on how you can do this.
When I first started my advertising agency five years ago, I didn’t even have a website. My goal was income. I wanted to stay at home with my kids so I went out there and got my first client. I picked up the phone again, I networked and I got more. No website needed, just the will to pick up the phone, call a potential client that I thought would be a good fit for my services and invite them for coffee. I printed out a powerpoint on real paper and brought it to the meeting. They signed it and I was in business.
When I started my first blog, I didn’t wait for the sponsors to come to me, I went out there and pitched my blog and program. I sold $10,000 in 8 weeks. It took me contacting at least 30 businesses in order to secure that type of income. Selling sponsorships are all about following up, not once, not twice, but three times (if needed) to the person you’re looking to get a sponsorship. In case you’re freaked out at this point, don’t worry, it was all via email while a toddler was a napping.
Then, when I decided to start working with military spouse entrepreneurs, I picked up the phone and called up some people I knew who had just started businesses and said, “hey can I help you?” I did this because I wanted to make sure I knew everything they were struggling with. Yes, I was one, and yes my specialty is marketing and entrepreneurship; but, I wanted to know EXACTLY how I could best help them. I worked pro-bono on a few clients to make sure my products and services were a perfect it.
Now let’s say you want to sell t-shirts. Get the T-shirt, or get the mockup drawn up and do a pre-sell. Start selling it in Facebook groups, on Etsy, Ebay, buy/sell/trade groups, Etsy, Craigslist and deal sites like Pick Your Plum, Zulily and Brickyard Buffalo. You can also sell off Facebook Ads as long as you learn the platform well and budget how much you can afford to spend per conversion.
If you sell digital products and you either don’t have a sales funnel set up or that funnel isn’t generating the type of income you want, then start getting really involved with Facebook groups, listen first, start answering questions if they need help offer to jump on a quick call. At the end of your chat, tell them about your product. It is so much easier to close a potential client over the phone, especially when you’ve just helped them out. Check out 15 Ways to Monetize your Brilliance if you need help with ideas.
Bloggers-most people think they need “X” amount of traffic to monetize their blog. Do you have a niche audience, are the eyeballs you do have coming to your site valuable? Think of other bloggers, big websites, or large media outlets that you can partner with. You may have to charge more for your sponsorships to pay for visibility on the larger sites in order to drive traffic to your own. You could include Facebook Ads in your sponsorship so that you can promise a certain amount of traffic to your site. You just have to build the cost of the ads into the sponsorship. I did this when I launched my first blog by getting a television partner. I sold $10,000 in sponsorships in the first 60 days of launching my blog because even though my traffic was growing, I knew that the TV would be the perfect promotional vehicle. I was able to combo commercial spots promoting my website and my sponsors, as well as a half hour show so that my sponsors had immense value.
There are a million and one ways to do this but the key is narrowing in on one product or service that you offer and getting out there and selling it. If you’re not sure what kind of business to run with, watch my free class “How to Create Your Own Business in the Next 30 Days.”
So if you want to make money now, GO GET IT.
You can build the infrastructure later.
You can do this.
Here’s the full video here on how to start generating income now and what to do if you’re not quite ready to pitch yourself.
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