Want to know the quickest method to starting a successful online business?
Let me start by defining "success"... Success in online business means making sales while you sleep, while you are at the gym or getting a massage. It means receiving positive testimonies and reviews from hundreds, if not thousands of students that have gone through your offers and programs. It means being able to experience time freedom, financial freedom and fulfillment.
Hi, I am Chandler. I have worked full-time in the medical device space for the last 7 years. In 2020, I decided to try building an online business and just have some fun with it. Low and behold, I built a successful online business while still working full-time.
Just a few years later, and I have cracked the code on the quickest method to start a successful online business.
It took much trial and error but I have the EXACT recipe for you to start a simple online business with the potential of generating thousands extra each month.
The method to the madness of building a successful online business is this;
- Defining your niche
- Envisioning a desired result for your students
- Using social media to market your business
- Growing an email list of potential buyers
- Nurturing your audience with free value
- SELLING to your audience
- Launching effectively
- Collecting positive reviews for "proof of concept"
- Refine and perfect your program
- Repeat (again and again) with more offers to build out an offer suite
Ok, let's dive in to the step by step method for starting an Online Business from nothing.
You need your "Niche"
I won't lie, I actually hate the work "niche". For some reason, it irks me. BUT, it's still important. Maybe we can think of niche as your "topic". This topic can be more broad/ vague and we will get more specific later on. Topics might be:
- Fitness
- Women's wellness
- Mental Health
- Photography
- Online Business
- Finances
- Motherhood
- Hair Stylists
- Fashion
- Beauty
It's time to think of a "desired result" that YOU have achieved in your lifetime (within your chosen topic).
Don't overthink this part, this "desired result" may be something that doesn't seem super special to YOU, but it is for others. There is something that you have overcome or achieved that doesn't come easy to everyone else. These desired results might be:
- Fitness - I lost 10 lbs without restriction
- Women's wellness - I cleared up my acne by balancing my hormones naturally
- Mental Health - I discovered how to keep my anxiety at bay by changing my thought patterns
- Photography - I land consistent clients each month in the wedding industry
- Online Business - I generate an extra 1-2k each month with my online courses
- Finances - I tripled my worth by learning proper investing techniques
- Motherhood - I save myself hours each week by meal prepping for myself and my kids
- Hair stylists - I became a fully booked hair stylist in 6 months
- Fashion - I can put together comfortable, yet chic, outfits with things I already own
- Beauty - I saved hundreds by doing these at home maintenance beauty tricks
You now have an overall topic PLUS a personal accomplishment/ result. Let's start sharing about it on your Instagram/ Tiktok/ LinkedIn/ YouTube (+shorts).
Most online business coaches will tell you to pick ONE platform and get really good at that one platform before moving on to the others. I somewhat disagree with that strategy. My personal strategy (which has helped me grow my social media audiences to almost 200k followers), is to repurpose EVERYTHING.
I create my videos using CapCut (it's an app) and I download the finish product and post it to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts. Chances are, I will be found by different people across all of these platforms and the extra work is only a few minutes worth.
*You might be questioning "WHAT DO I EVEN POST?" I got you. Read this post on The Content Strategy that Guarantees Sales
When you start to post on your social media, THIS IS THE ONE THOUGHT THAT WILL ABSOLUTELY GROW YOUR AUDIENCE: Create content that reflects desire marketing.
Instead of "pain point marketing", which is also very popular in this industry, point the picture of the desired end-result. Why? Because, if you are constantly marketing to people "in pain", then you aren't marketing to the people who are ready to make change. You want the "I am so done" student to join you, not the pity party student.
Now, as you are posting content, let's begin to grow your email list.
How does one grow their email list? By providing FREE and juicy value.
Let me explain: you are going to create an "offer" that is complimentary to your topic + your desired result, but is only just enough to get them STARTED.
For example: let's pretend your topic is fitness and your desired result is to lose 10 pounds. You will think to yourself "before I lost the 10 pounds, what was I searching for in google to help me quickly?"
Hustle over to Google and see what it says:
These are the MOST searched topics after typing in "how to lose weight". This market research is going to help you with creating your "Lead Magnet".
You might choose to create a lead magnet on "how to lose weight fast" and create a simple 7 day meal prep guide that is FREE to download.
In exchange for the Free download, your potential student will submit their EMAIL ADDRESS. And boom! We have a growing email list.
*Remember, you haven't even created a paid offer yet! You are simply growing your ideal audience. If you need more convincing on why you should be doing this work, read The 5 Reasons Why You Should Create an Online Course.
If you don't have an email list yet, don't worry! Download this Free Starter Kit guide to help you get started.
Now that we have your email list growing and thriving. Let's make sure we nurture and serve these people that opted in on your greatness.
Have you ever heard of an email funnel? If not, get used to it because the word "funnel" is HEAVILY thrown around in this industry. And there's good reason for that!
An email funnel is basically a series or sequence of emails that automatically go to a subscriber upon getting opted in on your list.
In my opinion, the "new subscriber" funnel sequence shouldn't be any more than 5 consecutive emails. These messages should be a combination of sharing your personal story, teaching them new things and encouraging them on this journey. Bonus points if you include engagement throughout your emails!
Since you have now mastered speaking to your audience and providing them with FREE value, it's time to create a paid offer.
Your paid offer might be an online course, a planner, a guide, a membership, one on one coaching calls... the options are truly endless. Make sure you read my post on The Top 5 Digital Products to get some ideas!
My go-to is to create an evergreen course. I think this method is truly BRILLIANT!
What is "evergreen"? It means that you (as the educator) have created content (videos, workbooks, etc) and load it into a course platform for students to consume at their own pace. The opposite of evergreen is simply a live course. Which would mean you show up to live calls, you provide education and content in real-time, etc
Your offer is created, it is ready to be shared... now we launch, baby!
Launching can be done so many different ways. Some people love to launch and some people hate it. For me, I wanted to trial different ways of launching to find which one I enjoy most in my business.
I learned that I personally enjoy a mix of different launches.
Regardless, with ANY good launch, you will need the following:
- an audience warm-up/ pre-launch plan
- a launch email funnel (can range from 5-10 days, maybe even longer)
- an applied sense of urgency
- an applied scarcity tactic
- a close date (unless you leave this open for all time which I don't recommend on your first or second launch)
Once you have your offer launched, the most important thing to do is to collect positive reviews and testimonials.
One thing I learned the hard way is, testimonials don't just come to you, you have to go get them. Like, feverishly go after these testimonials.
One option is to create a google form for your current students to fill out. Some things to note on the form:
- where were you (mentally or physically) before you got in on this offer
- what is the best thing you learned from this offer
- what is your plan now that you have the knowledge to (insert desired result)
- what are you most excited for after this offer
- do I have your permission to share your testimony
- do you prefer to remain anonymous
- if no, submit a picture that I can use on my public website/ sales pages
The most successful online businesses (or businesses in general) will refine and perfect their offers before they create more. The only way to refine is to ask for feedback and track your data.
A wise coach once told me "in order to be a phenomenal business woman, you must learn to make decisions based on data, not based off emotion."
Let's cover the data to track:
- How many opt-ins did you get on your lead magnet
- How many purchases came from the lead magnet email funnel
- How many purchases came from the launch email funnel
- How many opens/ clicks did you get amongst all emails
- ^ with that, start to understand which subject headlines do BEST and REUSE them!
With this data you will be able to understand the following:
- How intriguing was your lead magnet? Can you make it more intriguing with a different title?
- How many people are interested in your emails?
- How good are your emails at conveying that YOU are the solution to their problem?
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