The 3 Counterintuitive Mistakes Keeping Your Lifestyle Business From Being Profitable
Hey there!
I’ve heard from some of you telling me you’ve started something on the side but you just can’t get it to a point of profitability. Some are making a little money, some are even losing money. But none of those who replied to my previous emails are making enough to consider it a real “lifestyle business”.
So this week I’ll share what I’ve learned about getting your “lifestyle business” to profitability and sustainability.
Let’s dive in!
Building a successful lifestyle business requires skills you don’t have… yet.
Launching your lifestyle business can seem daunting (and it is!) but it is also just the first step. In order for it to be profitable and sustainable, you will need to avoid these 3 common mistakes:
- Mistake #1: Putting all your energy into your product or service and none into marketing
- Mistake #2: Waiting for X to happen before making an offer
- Mistake #3: Launching once and giving up
The reason experts tend to make these mistakes is because we approach building a business around our expertise as technicians — not as business owners. And as a result, we fail to build a profitable business that gives us the lifestyle we seek.
So, here’s how to fix it:
Step 1: Become a “shameless self-promoter”
The very first step to turn your dream from a job into a business is to accept the fact you need to promote it shamelessly.
This does not mean you have to spam every one of your facebook connections inviting them to a “presentation” MLM-style. But you do need to embrace the fact that your business’s future is, quite literally, on your hands. If you are embarrassed to promote yourself and your business, how can you expect others to promote it for you?
Here are a few ways in which you can start promoting your business without feeling like you’re repping essential oils:
- Go to conferences or events where you might meet clients and collaborators.
- Reach out to meeting planners and get yourself booked to speak.
- Get booked on other people’s podcasts (my favorite one!)
- Create content on social media around your topic.
These are just a handful of examples, but there are thousands other which might work well based on your personality, your field, and your audience.
Remember, if you have something that can improve people’s lives, it’s your responsibility to tell them about it!
Step 2: You don’t need anything before you can start offering your product or service to people
Too often when I talk to experts launching a product or business, they have this arbitrary number of tasks and milestones they need to reach before asking other people to buy.
Things like:
- Incorporating an LLC
- Creating a business plan
- Opening separate bank accounts
- Getting another certificate or degree
- Getting a professional logo and website
At face value, these all sound like important things to have. And to a certain degree, they are. But not until you’ve validated your idea, and begun serving your audience.
The very first –and only– thing you need to get the ball rolling in your lifestyle business, is a single paying client.
If you don’t yet have one, you should focus 100% of your efforts on getting one.
Only then should you start looking at everything else.
Step 3: You need to launch. Repeatedly.
It breaks my heart when I hear of an expert who has poured her heart –as well as money, time, effort and sanity– into a digital product and it flops.
Because if you’ve been around online entrepreneurs for any period of time, you’ve certainly heard the stories of launches making 6 and 7 figures, allowing its creator to retire their spouse, quit their jobs and travel the world. And while this is certainly possible, what they don’t often share are all the failures (stepping stones) they went through before they got to this level.
That’s why I often make a point to tell every single expert I work with that 6 and 7 figure launches are not the result of catching lightning in a bottle, but of multiple iterations of the same product or service you’ve already validated.
So whenever you’re ready to launch (or if you’re launching again soon), I like to do a “post-mortem” debrief with my clients.
I use a Google sheets template where we plug in the different metrics from their launch, establish baselines, identify shortcomings and make a plan to do better in the next launch.
*If you’d like a copy of this google sheet, drop me a comment and I’ll send you a link.
That’s it!
As always, thanks for reading.
Hit me up on X or LinkedIn and let me know what you found most helpful this week — I’d love to hear from you!
See you next Saturday,
🤟🏻 Dr E
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This post was first published at drernestomd.com
