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I built a business from scratch to prove you can too (It made me $11,414) — Transcript

by Creative Hive · 3,142 words · 607 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I started a brand new start from scratch,
0:01and in its first 30 days it went from 0
0:05to $11,414 in sales with no audience.
0:09Before that, though,
0:10I had a whole bunch of failed businesses,
0:12and I have done this so many times
0:13that I can boil down
0:15online business success
0:16to three boring things.
0:18I'm going to walk you through today,
0:20and the third one is the exact thing
0:22that took that new store
0:23from 0 to 5 figures
0:24without a social media following.
0:26And here's what's interesting.
0:28All but one of those failed businesses
0:30were actually making sales.
0:31People were buying right up
0:33until the day that I shut them down.
0:35So whatever makes a creative business
0:38not work,
0:39it's usually not
0:40what everyone thinks it is.
0:41You know those satisfying packing videos
0:44where an artist is boxing up
0:45hundreds of mail club envelopes?
0:48I did the math on those
0:49at a $10 price point
0:51after printing, shipping,
0:53and a whole month of making the art.
0:55Some of those artists are working
0:57for less than minimum wage.
0:59They may have hundreds
1:00of paying customers,
1:01but it is barely enough
1:03to cover their living expenses.
1:05And this first boring thing is why?
1:07And that is the economics
1:09of your business. Need to make sense.
1:11Or as the cool kids say,
1:13the math needs to math
1:15and male clubs
1:17are not the only place
1:18I see this happening.
1:19Sticker sellers.
1:20People who sell accessories.
1:22I'm putting y'all on blast here,
1:24but with love.
1:25I constantly
1:26see amazing artists
1:28make art that I could never
1:30in my lifetime
1:31make put their beautiful art
1:33on stickers and keychains and buttons.
1:35And when you sell something
1:36that cannot be priced
1:38more than a few dollars,
1:39which is the perceived value
1:41of these types
1:42of products,
1:42your margins or your profit
1:44margins are so slim
1:46that you need serious volume
1:47to make all of that effort worthwhile.
1:49Which means you need a lot of marketing
1:52and traffic and eyeballs on your shop
1:54all the time, and the amount
1:56you make in a month
1:57this way is a fraction
1:58of what someone else
1:59would make selling charms.
2:01Now, some people are really good
2:03at the volume game,
2:04or they have a really prolific art style
2:06that grabbing attention on the internet
2:07comes super easy for them,
2:09and people
2:10just flock to their work naturally
2:12and if that is you, amazing!
2:14I am so jealous.
2:16But that is not a model that is easy
2:19for me to do
2:21and for other people to replicate.
2:23If you are one person
2:24making things at your kitchen table,
2:26you want products
2:27that can demand higher prices
2:29and greater profits
2:30without relying on a volume game
2:32to make a meaningful paycheck
2:34from your creativity.
2:35That's what
2:36the successful businesses,
2:37across everything
2:38that I have tried to launch in my
2:3920 years, have in common.
2:41So here's what's actually going on there.
2:43Everything in business costs money. Okay.
2:46Getting people to your shop costs money.
2:48If you're vending at a local craft show.
2:51There's the booth fee.
2:52The display stands.
2:53You have to buy the table decorations,
2:55and your time costs money to.
2:58Even though nobody's going to,
3:00like, send you a bill for it.
3:01That means the time
3:02you spend on social media
3:04might feel like that was free,
3:06but it's not.
3:07So what this means is
3:09every product you sell needs enough
3:11profit baked in to cover
3:12all of that time,
3:13hopefully with something left over.
3:15And if it doesn't,
3:16you can be making sales
3:18every single week.
3:19But still be slowly going broke.
3:21And that is why the price
3:22you put on your products matters
3:24so much more than what most people think.
3:26It's not just what you get paid,
3:29it is what determines
3:30whether your business can even afford
3:31to exist in the first place.
3:33Let me say that again
3:35for those of you guys in the back.
3:36The price you put on
3:37your products
3:38is what determines
3:39whether your business can afford
3:41to exist.
3:43It is that important.
3:44Let me show you what it looks like
3:45when the math does math.
3:47So at Tiny
3:48Hands, my jewelry business,
3:49I can make around 20 to 30 charms
3:51in a 5 to 6 hour day.
3:53My material costs are almost nothing
3:55because it's clay.
3:56It's very affordable
3:57and each necklace
3:58costs me about $2 to make,
4:00you know, for supplies.
4:01And then they sell for about $30 a piece.
4:04So one day's worth of charms
4:06is roughly $900 in sales
4:08if I can sell them.
4:09And that's $900 for roughly $60 worth
4:12of supplies and for a six hour day.
4:15That's a $140 per hour rate.
4:18Not bad, right?
4:20But that amount needs to be high
4:21because that needs to pay for my time
4:24to keep working on the business
4:25even when I'm not making anything.
4:27Or when I'm not making charms
4:29or when I'm not making sales,
4:30like doing businessy stuff
4:32like sending emails,
4:33doing outreach, running ads,
4:35replying to my customers.
4:36Also, the profit from my sales
4:38pays me to go get more sales
4:41because promoting your shop
4:42takes time and effort, right?
4:44Now compare that to my t shirt line.
4:47I sold t shirts under tiny hands.
4:48I paid an artist $500 per design.
4:50I did a whole photoshoot
4:52and then on top of that
4:53there were printing costs.
4:54The cost of the
4:55t shirts themselves
4:57and I made sales for the shirts,
4:59just not at the volume
5:00that I needed to justify.
5:02Continue selling them.
5:04Same with kits that we sold at Mini
5:07Food Tutorials,
5:08which is a business that I started
5:09and ran with a partner.
5:11The supplies that go into making
5:12kits were expensive,
5:14and then putting each kit together
5:16took a lot more time than I thought.
5:18Like the same amount of time
5:19that it would take me
5:20to actually make a charm.
5:22But the kicker is,
5:23a kit isn't a finished product,
5:25so people aren't willing to pay
5:27finished product prices for it.
5:28There was a hard ceiling
5:30on what we could charge,
5:31and the costs were so high
5:32there was never enough profit
5:34to make it worthwhile.
5:35So both products were making sales,
5:37but the math just never made sense.
5:39And the new store that we have,
5:41everything in it gets printed
5:42when someone orders it.
5:43That's called print on demand.
5:44So we don't own any fancy
5:46printer or paper or ink.
5:48And a company just does that all for us.
5:51And not having to carry
5:52a lot of inventory is also a huge help,
5:55but a mistake that I see also
5:56a lot of other makers make.
5:58But here's the catch
5:59with charging higher prices,
6:01total strangers will only pay them
6:03for a certain kind of product.
6:05Which brings us to the second
6:07boring thing
6:08a product that total strangers
6:09will actually pay money for.
6:11Now there are three parts to this,
6:13so let's dive a little deeper
6:14into what I mean.
6:15First,
6:16I research
6:17what people are already buying,
6:18and my whole research process
6:20is honestly just Google.
6:21It's free.
6:22It's boring, but it works.
6:25The first step is to find
6:26at least 8
6:27to 10 other successful shops
6:28selling something similar
6:30to what you want to make.
6:31Not just the top 2 to 3 result.
6:33I want you to dig deeper
6:34and see the full range of
6:35what's already out there and doing well.
6:37And note
6:38I said similar
6:40to what you want to make,
6:41not necessarily
6:42exactly what you want to make.
6:44Also, finding
6:45competitors is a good thing.
6:47Competition proves
6:48that people are buying what you have,
6:50and if nobody is selling anything
6:52like your idea,
6:54that usually doesn't mean
6:55you found like this huge opportunity
6:57and you're going to be a millionaire.
6:59Although,
7:00if you are an experienced business person
7:02and have the eye for this,
7:04sometimes it could mean
7:05that more often than not, though,
7:07it usually means
7:08there is no demand
7:09and proceed with caution.
7:11It could be amazing,
7:12but it could also be an uphill
7:13battle for you like
7:14it was for tiny hands.
7:15The second thing
7:16is to look at their pricing.
7:18And this is the first boring thing
7:19in action, right?
7:20Because this research tells you
7:21whether the math can math
7:22before you have made a single product.
7:24When you look at their pricing,
7:26you want to find out what is the range
7:27people are actually paying
7:28and what's the ceiling.
7:30That ceiling tells you
7:31how much this type of product
7:32can be worth to someone,
7:34and whether there's enough room in it
7:35for your business to afford to exist.
7:38The third thing is to look at what
7:40all of these shops have in common,
7:42because whatever they all share,
7:44that is their opening to be different.
7:47That is exactly what we did
7:48with the new store
7:50before we made a single product.
7:51I noticed every seller in that market
7:53used the same dark blue, dark black,
7:57I mean black backgrounds
7:59and they all just look the same.
8:00They were beautiful
8:01and there was something very minimal
8:03about all of it.
8:04But as someone who loves color,
8:06the opportunity to me was obvious.
8:08Let's bring more color into this market.
8:10That was the same thing I did
8:12for one of my failed businesses,
8:14Jewel and justice,
8:15where I sold colorful initial necklaces
8:18at the time, and still to this day,
8:20this market is saturated
8:21with gold and silver options. Right?
8:23And they're beautiful.
8:24But what if you want something
8:25different or more fun?
8:27What if you love color like me?
8:28So that's how I came up with the idea
8:30for Jewel in justice,
8:32which made sales right away.
8:33Except I ran into some issues
8:35which ultimately resulted in me
8:37closing down this shop.
8:38So here's the problem
8:39I ran into twice
8:40even total strangers
8:42spending their hard
8:43earned money on your products.
8:44Expect a certain level of quality, right?
8:47Because I want to avoid language
8:49like good or bad,
8:51which can be triggering
8:52and also so subjective.
8:54I call this
8:55a commercial level quality instead.
8:58So when someone who's never met
8:59you pays for your product,
9:01they are comparing it to everything else
9:02they have ever bought,
9:03not what their friend made for them
9:06at home.
9:07Commercial level quality
9:08is like the level of quality
9:09you would find in products
9:10that sit on the shelves
9:11at target,
9:12or your favorite gift store
9:14in that cute part of town.
9:15My initial necklaces were selling well
9:17and they were cute
9:18on paper in the photos,
9:20but the stamp that I had made wasn't
9:23detailed enough for the clay
9:24that I was stamping them into.
9:26So the letters came out rather undefined.
9:28So let's say your initial was an
9:30I see your name is ingrate, right?
9:32Your necklace kind of look like a G.
9:34And so I had a lot of people complaining
9:36and they were right to complain.
9:38Same thing with mini food tutorials.
9:41We saw PDFs and video lessons
9:43and they were selling,
9:44but honestly,
9:45we just weren't good enough.
9:47Miniature artists
9:48to make the kind of tutorials.
9:50People will pay premium prices for.
9:53There was a level of polish
9:54that we were not having in our products,
9:57and I didn't know how to get there.
9:59I could have practiced more,
10:00but my heart also wasn't in it.
10:02I didn't set out with the goal
10:04to become a miniature artist.
10:06Yes, I sell mini food jewelry,
10:08but that's not nearly in the scale
10:10that a miniature artist
10:12would make them at.
10:14Which is mind blowing.
10:15And I can't do that.
10:17So if your craft or your process isn't
10:20at that commercial ready level yet,
10:23you have two options.
10:24You keep practicing until it gets there
10:27and you can keep selling in the meantime.
10:29This doesn't mean
10:30that you have to close down your shop
10:31while you practice.
10:32That is what I did
10:33with Tiny Hands, my clay charm shop
10:35that makes six figures every year.
10:36Or you find something
10:38that you can make at
10:39that commercial ready level today.
10:41And I want to say why
10:42I believe this is so, so important.
10:44Okay.
10:45There are a lot of businesses
10:47selling products
10:48that look great on paper,
10:49especially with what I can do these days.
10:51But where are the products
10:52you get actually
10:53is really underwhelming
10:54or straight up
10:55disappointing, and the sellers
10:57don't really care
10:58if they get one star reviews
10:59or unhappy customers
11:01because they already got the sale.
11:02In my opinion,
11:03that is a recipe for a business
11:05that will fail fast.
11:07I have been in business
11:08online for 20 years,
11:09and it is not because
11:10I'm trying to make the fastest money
11:12possible without any care
11:14whether people love my products or not.
11:16I was never
11:17the fastest business owner
11:18at making the most money,
11:20but I keep my customers happy.
11:22They keep coming back,
11:24and that's
11:24what gets you to last for 20 years
11:26and to make a lifelong career
11:29out of your creativity.
11:30I have been in this game
11:32long enough to see that
11:33when you compromise on the product
11:35or your offer,
11:36those very same people
11:37end up quitting prematurely
11:38because they can't get their business
11:40to keep working. Year after year.
11:42Which brings us to the third
11:43boring thing,
11:44the one I told you at the beginning
11:46that took that store
11:47from 0 to $11,414 in 30 days
11:51with no audience.
11:52The third boring thing is traffic,
11:54because you need actual
11:56eyeballs on your work
11:57in order for sales to happen, right?
11:59And I want to start
11:59with what we didn't do
12:01because it surprises a lot of you.
12:03Social media content
12:04was never part of the plan
12:05for this new store,
12:06and social media isn't bad.
12:08I use it in a general way
12:10across all of our businesses,
12:11but content takes a lot of time
12:13and it takes a long time to get working.
12:16You have to figure out your angles
12:18or messaging your hooks,
12:19what actually gets views
12:21for your specific product
12:23and your audience,
12:24and then you still have to build
12:26that audience, one follower at a time.
12:28That can take months and years,
12:30and it's not what yields the consistency
12:33from what I seen.
12:34So instead,
12:35I leaned on the two leverage points
12:38that worked so well,
12:39especially when nobody knows
12:40you exist yet.
12:41And that is one paid
12:43ads and two influencer or media outreach.
12:46Here is the difference between them.
12:47Paid ads.
12:48Obviously it costs money
12:50and they're fast.
12:51You can turn them on today
12:52and have strangers
12:53seeing your products tonight
12:55and make your first sale
12:56literally within hours.
12:58But this is exactly why
12:59the first boring thing had to come first.
13:01Ads only work when there's enough profit
13:03in each sale to pay for them,
13:05and when the math, maths ads
13:07are like an ATM where you put in a dollar
13:09and you get $2 back,
13:11but when it doesn't math,
13:12then ads will only help you
13:15lose money faster.
13:16We have
13:16two paid ads
13:17bootcamps coming out where I walk you
13:19through the strategy
13:20for how I personally do
13:22my own ads for a very accessible price.
13:24And if it's out for sale already,
13:26there will be a link
13:27in the description below
13:28so you can go and check that out.
13:29Now, influencer or media
13:31outreach is the opposite.
13:33It costs you almost no money,
13:35but it costs your time,
13:37which you know we've established
13:39does cost a little bit of money.
13:41Now with media outreach,
13:42you are pitching your products to people
13:44who already have
13:45the audience that you don't have yet.
13:47I'm talking about influencers,
13:49bloggers, publications,
13:50gift guides, magazines,
13:52even TV shows and celebrities.
13:54I use outreach
13:55in all three of my biggest businesses
13:57that I still run today,
13:58and even huge billion
14:00dollar companies out
14:01there are using outreach and influencers
14:03as a way to promote their products.
14:05Even if you are a small shop
14:07just getting started.
14:08It can work so well for you
14:10and it doesn't have to cost any money
14:12except you
14:13sending out samples of your products
14:15and paying for shipping costs.
14:16One feature
14:17put my products
14:18in front of somebody else's audience
14:19and made me
14:20thousands of dollars in sales from
14:22just doing a bit of research
14:23and sending out some emails.
14:25If outreach sounds
14:26more like your kind of thing,
14:28I have a free workshop
14:29that walks you through
14:29how to get your products
14:31featured in much more detail.
14:33The link is in the description
14:34below and it's free.
14:35Now you need one thing
14:37for any type of traffic to work
14:39and that is your own website.
14:40Okay, and I'm not saying that
14:42as some philosophy
14:43about owning your own platform,
14:45because you guys know
14:45I harp on that plenty in my other videos,
14:48but it's actually really practical.
14:50If you run ads to an Etsy listing,
14:52you are paying to send people to a page
14:55where they will see ten similar products
14:57from other shops right under yours.
15:00You are essentially buying traffic
15:02for your competitors
15:03and say a blogger
15:04or a gift guide
15:05features your work,
15:07but you only have your Instagram account.
15:08You know how distracting and easy
15:10it is for people to leave your profile
15:12and go watch something else, right?
15:14You have worked so hard
15:16to get that person to your shop.
15:18You need to ensure they stay in your shop
15:20as long as possible,
15:22and when you send traffic
15:23to your own website,
15:24you can do
15:25so much more to get them
15:26staying longer and eventually buying.
15:28Now remember at the beginning
15:29when I said
15:30almost all of my failed businesses
15:32were making sales?
15:33This is something
15:34I really want you to understand, okay?
15:36Julian Justice was making sales.
15:38When I shut it down,
15:38the t shirts were selling,
15:40the kits were selling.
15:41Every one of those businesses
15:42had customers,
15:43and they still didn't work
15:44because each one was missing.
15:46Just one of the three boring things.
15:49But when all of these three
15:50are there from day one,
15:52that is when a brand new store
15:53can do $11,414 in its first 30 days
15:58with no audience.
15:59Now, knowing the three things
16:00and knowing what order to do them
16:02in are two different problems.
16:03Because tomorrow morning,
16:04what do you actually do first?
16:06Do you research products first?
16:07Do you build the website first?
16:08Do you set up the ads?
16:10I made a whole video
16:11that walks you
16:11through building out
16:13your entire store the fast way.
16:15The entire strategy
16:16from start to finish in specific order.
16:19And it's on your screen right now.
16:20So go watch that next.

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