ENTRY 0.
So since we're at the eve of starting a new month, I figured now's a nice clean slate to begin keeping track of my progress into a new venture: ecommerce.
A bit of backstory: I'm a freelance writer with an emphasis on organic SEO. I've helped friends and clients either set up websites from scratch and helped write their content or just formulate SEO strategies for clients who already had a site that wasn't performing the way they would hope. The past two-ish years I've struggled finding continuous work, mostly because either a client becomes possessive and wants me to solely write for them without paying me enough to earn a living or just struggling to compete in a saturated marketplace where plenty of writers gladly write for fractions of a penny per word. Other issues were spotty communication (the client likes my work but takes a month or so to get back to me with clarifying information, no matter how much I try to call or email) or outright theft (some clients wouldn't pay me upfront but then on delivery, they'd like my work, publish it, but then wouldn't pay because "Well, anyone can write so why should we pay you?" despite the contract; the contracts were so small that trying to take it to court, I'd end up losing money and piss away time I didn't have). Couple that all with COVID and virtually all of my writing gigs have dried up.
Could I have maneuvered some other way, finding higher-quality clients and more work in the writing arena? I know I could've; I've done it before. But I've just become so jaded both dealing with lackluster clients and helping everyone else build their brand while my own would falter (again, word of mouth wasn't much of a thing because they wanted me to write *just* for them).. I needed something new. I needed more CONTROL in my life because I was tired on relying on flaky clients to make sure food was on the table.. and I needed something that required a bit less time so I could effectively SCALE as a one-man team.
I spent enough time helping people with marketing campaigns through Facebook and building brands through their websites and the content hosted on them. I wanted to try it myself for a change. Instead of selling services as I have the past 6-7 years, I want to try selling products, building a system that, once set up, is mostly automated while I continue working on it. I invested money in some online graphic design courses through Udemy and really enjoyed one on geometric grid design. I've always wanted to be more visually creative but my analytical mind and coming up with beautiful images people would wanna buy don't go hand-in-hand -- until now. I started playing around with different shapes, linework, layering them onto one another. I shared a few designs and a couple of my friends were like, "Whoa, I'd totally wear that if that was on a shirt," which got me into thinking about print-on-demand stuff.
I know PoD and dropshipping doesn't follow CENTS as well as one would like. The low barrier to entry, relying on third-parties to fulfill your products, being stuck with what options are available on the platform you're using, and a myriad of other factors make it a less-than-ideal model for long-term growth. However, for me, this is just an exercise to prove a concept as well as a stepping stone as I bootstrap my way to make enough money to reinvest in other options that are more CENTS-friendly (that is, instead of relying on a third-party printer for fulfillment that I have no clue about and very limited control over design placement and the like, have enough money stashed away to work with a local printer, buy in bulk, handle fulfillment myself but offer an even better product with better control over it). I'm virtually broke (COVID, the stress of the upcoming election, mixed with crippling depression and anxiety lead to less-than-stellar decisions and non-existent motivation) but I've been in worse places before. I know that if I think creatively and keep working on things and maintain my focus, I'll get to where I wanna go. Which brings us to this entry.
I've already made just over $200 in profit since launching my site about two weeks ago, all just through word of mouth. Granted, $200 is nothing for living up in the Pacific Northwest but still, it's $200 more than I expected so soon and everyone who's purchased from me has said how much they love the shirts -- both the designs on them and how soft the material is. I even have two return customers already and people asking me if they can refer their friends to my site. I also have three friends with a combined total of about 26k followers on Instagram that want to influence for me once I set up referral codes which is a nice pay-as-I-go way to advertise, giving them a portion of the profit of each sale instead of having to pay x amount upfront for an ad campaign like through Google AdWords or Facebook.
As far as the brand goes, there's a lot of emphasis on sacred geometry and Stoicism. With everything going on in the U.S., I wanted to do something to alleviate some of the stress while being apolitical. I know that might not be the strategy (my dad suggested having one site to cater to the right, the other, the left, with different shirts they'd buy; my conscious wouldn't let me sleep well if I did that though as I feel like I'd just be a part of the division), but Stoic philosophy has helped me a ton and I know I can apply its principles to motivational and calming kinds of products. For instance, I also want to sell self-help and philosophy books, coffee, tea, and mugs, notebooks and journals, posters, and other things that fit the brand. But for now, shirts is the name of the game.
My milestone/to-do list at this point is as follows:
Monthly Sales Profit for August '20: $207.38
Monthly Milestones
- $100
- $250 (Current Goal)
- $500
- $1,000
- $2,000
- $3,000
- $4,000
- $5,000
- $7,500
- $10,000
- $12,500
- $15,000
- $17,500
- $20,000
So since we're at the eve of starting a new month, I figured now's a nice clean slate to begin keeping track of my progress into a new venture: ecommerce.
A bit of backstory: I'm a freelance writer with an emphasis on organic SEO. I've helped friends and clients either set up websites from scratch and helped write their content or just formulate SEO strategies for clients who already had a site that wasn't performing the way they would hope. The past two-ish years I've struggled finding continuous work, mostly because either a client becomes possessive and wants me to solely write for them without paying me enough to earn a living or just struggling to compete in a saturated marketplace where plenty of writers gladly write for fractions of a penny per word. Other issues were spotty communication (the client likes my work but takes a month or so to get back to me with clarifying information, no matter how much I try to call or email) or outright theft (some clients wouldn't pay me upfront but then on delivery, they'd like my work, publish it, but then wouldn't pay because "Well, anyone can write so why should we pay you?" despite the contract; the contracts were so small that trying to take it to court, I'd end up losing money and piss away time I didn't have). Couple that all with COVID and virtually all of my writing gigs have dried up.
Could I have maneuvered some other way, finding higher-quality clients and more work in the writing arena? I know I could've; I've done it before. But I've just become so jaded both dealing with lackluster clients and helping everyone else build their brand while my own would falter (again, word of mouth wasn't much of a thing because they wanted me to write *just* for them).. I needed something new. I needed more CONTROL in my life because I was tired on relying on flaky clients to make sure food was on the table.. and I needed something that required a bit less time so I could effectively SCALE as a one-man team.
I spent enough time helping people with marketing campaigns through Facebook and building brands through their websites and the content hosted on them. I wanted to try it myself for a change. Instead of selling services as I have the past 6-7 years, I want to try selling products, building a system that, once set up, is mostly automated while I continue working on it. I invested money in some online graphic design courses through Udemy and really enjoyed one on geometric grid design. I've always wanted to be more visually creative but my analytical mind and coming up with beautiful images people would wanna buy don't go hand-in-hand -- until now. I started playing around with different shapes, linework, layering them onto one another. I shared a few designs and a couple of my friends were like, "Whoa, I'd totally wear that if that was on a shirt," which got me into thinking about print-on-demand stuff.
I know PoD and dropshipping doesn't follow CENTS as well as one would like. The low barrier to entry, relying on third-parties to fulfill your products, being stuck with what options are available on the platform you're using, and a myriad of other factors make it a less-than-ideal model for long-term growth. However, for me, this is just an exercise to prove a concept as well as a stepping stone as I bootstrap my way to make enough money to reinvest in other options that are more CENTS-friendly (that is, instead of relying on a third-party printer for fulfillment that I have no clue about and very limited control over design placement and the like, have enough money stashed away to work with a local printer, buy in bulk, handle fulfillment myself but offer an even better product with better control over it). I'm virtually broke (COVID, the stress of the upcoming election, mixed with crippling depression and anxiety lead to less-than-stellar decisions and non-existent motivation) but I've been in worse places before. I know that if I think creatively and keep working on things and maintain my focus, I'll get to where I wanna go. Which brings us to this entry.
I've already made just over $200 in profit since launching my site about two weeks ago, all just through word of mouth. Granted, $200 is nothing for living up in the Pacific Northwest but still, it's $200 more than I expected so soon and everyone who's purchased from me has said how much they love the shirts -- both the designs on them and how soft the material is. I even have two return customers already and people asking me if they can refer their friends to my site. I also have three friends with a combined total of about 26k followers on Instagram that want to influence for me once I set up referral codes which is a nice pay-as-I-go way to advertise, giving them a portion of the profit of each sale instead of having to pay x amount upfront for an ad campaign like through Google AdWords or Facebook.
As far as the brand goes, there's a lot of emphasis on sacred geometry and Stoicism. With everything going on in the U.S., I wanted to do something to alleviate some of the stress while being apolitical. I know that might not be the strategy (my dad suggested having one site to cater to the right, the other, the left, with different shirts they'd buy; my conscious wouldn't let me sleep well if I did that though as I feel like I'd just be a part of the division), but Stoic philosophy has helped me a ton and I know I can apply its principles to motivational and calming kinds of products. For instance, I also want to sell self-help and philosophy books, coffee, tea, and mugs, notebooks and journals, posters, and other things that fit the brand. But for now, shirts is the name of the game.
My milestone/to-do list at this point is as follows:
- Get to my first $3,500 profit month. At the very least, this will cover my living expenses with some extra leftover to save, pay down outstanding debt, and reinvest into the site.
- Set up the website for referrals and bring the influencers on board. While my site's Facebook page only has about 140 likes through word-of-mouth, increasing a social media audience to 26k would be a tremendous help in the short-term. Even getting 1% to make a purchase or convert to a like/follow on my platforms would get me to 400.
- Find a mentor. Rather self-explanatory. I could take the time and learn things myself (something I've already been doing) but I'd much rather find someone willing to take me under their wing and help catalyze the process -- so if there are any takers, I'd love the help and insight.
- Broaden my list of available products. I have about 30 products so far, mostly t-shirts and tank tops. I'm making designs for long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, and hoodies for the fall months and need to find suppliers for the above products I listed. I also have my own book I've published through Amazon and so I wanna sell that on my site as well as it still fits the brand. But I also understand quality > quantity so I don't want to saturate the store with nonsense.
- Find other ways to scale beyond just Instagram influencers. While the current group is a good short-term strategy, I want to find ways to scale on my own. I have my own community of almost 2k people through gaming (a lot of them like my philosophic vibes in the community and gamers seem to like geometric/abstract prints) which has been where I got most of my initial sales. I also want to learn better on how to scale for Facebook and Google Adwords using paid advertisement.. which I have some ideas but again.. having a mentor would be helpful in this endeavor.
- Learn meal-prep and eat three meals a day. Also, smoothies if only because drinking calories is easier and it's a decent way to get a bunch of fruit and veggie servings along with protein supplements.
- Workout more because endorphins. I'm also trying to go for more walks just to get out of the house, get some Vitamin D, and have picture opportunities for the different adventures I go on (I love landscape photography and might be able to use some of the shots in later designs).
- Find some small writing projects, preferably within the video game, cannabis, or logistics industries. I'm passionate about all three subjects and have some contacts in each. I don't want it to distract too much from the work on the site but I just need money to keep afloat for now so while I'm waiting for sales and my advertising/content publishing is automated, I can fill my day with some quick work with newer, better clients. I don't want to be guilty of "business polygamy" but I'm not in a position to turn down opportunities to work.
Monthly Sales Profit for August '20: $207.38
Monthly Milestones
- $250 (Current Goal)
- $500
- $1,000
- $2,000
- $3,000
- $4,000
- $5,000
- $7,500
- $10,000
- $12,500
- $15,000
- $17,500
- $20,000
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