“If you had to start your business from scratch, what would you do differently?”
People often ask me this and it’s always so fun to think about! 🤔
I made a ton of mistakes on my business journey and although I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned from them, I would definitely do certain things differently if I had to start over.
Over my 6 years of building an online business, I’m looking back and identifying these things for you so that hopefully, no matter where you are on your journey, you’ll find the insight valuable.🙌
It’s always good to look at your business and make sure you have everything in place to build a solid business that is sustainable and that will continue to grow.
1. Worry Less About My Niche
First up, I would worry less about my niche and not overthink it except for honoring what it was that I wanted to talk about all day long.
I still believe that having a niche is important and is what I teach my students inside the Blissful Biz Incubator and throughout my website, blog, and podcast episodes.
However, when you’re just getting started it can be unbelievably difficult to make a decision on what your niche is going to be. It can feel like you’re putting yourself in a box, and so you think about it, strategize, and tinker, and before you know it it’s 6 months later and you still haven’t created any offers.
The truth is, especially when you’re just getting started, you don’t know what your niche will be 5 years from now. So the start is your time to experiment and try out different things, put out different offers, and see what resonates, what works, and what doesn’t.
Stay open-minded about your niche evolving over time, and make a decision right now to get the ball rolling.
If you need some help to get started, try this:
Ask how you can direct all of your attention to increasing the quality of life for your community/customers/students. Focus on who’s in front of you. What are they struggling with? What problems can you help them solve?
Don’t try to come up with the perfect niche right out of the door. For some people this is easy, but most people need more time to grow into it, and that’s fine.
2. Create Higher-Priced Offers
I would create higher-priced offers sooner to generate more revenue that would allow me to hire support and invest back in my business.
This is a big one! It took me years to realize that it takes the same amount of energy to sell a low-priced offer as a high-priced offer.
When I first started, I created low-priced courses, and a low-priced membership, I designed websites for $1000, and I wasn’t getting anywhere. I was working all the time and still didn’t earn a sustainable income.
It was only when I created my first premium offer (an online course that I sold for around $1000) that things changed, in a big way.
You might think to yourself that you could never sell an online course for such a high price and, believe me, I get it. It took me way too long to ask for that price and I think it’s completely normal if you need time to get more comfortable with this.
Having this extra revenue from higher-priced offerings would allow you to hire support and delegate tasks, which in turn would give you more time to create a better offer, and to support your students more, so they would get better results.
The same applies to 1:1 packages – create a premium offer to get to financial stability a whole lot sooner.
Selling higher-priced offers also means that you don’t need such a huge audience to see results. If you sell a yoga membership that’s $20 per month, you need a lot of members to make that sustainable. This would mean needing to reach thousands of new people every month just to replace the members who are leaving, which is a normal process.
This is exhausting! I’ve been there, I had a low-price membership and it wasn’t sustainable for me.
I would always recommend offering premium services, going to the top, serving people who want the best support and are willing to pay for it, and building up a financially stable business before you start thinking about adding lower-priced offers to your product suite.
3. Show Up On Video Consistently
I would show up on video consistently, building the know, like, and trust factor with my audience.
At the start of my business, I was so reluctant to show up on video. Now every single week I’m probably doing three to four live videos and then pre-recorded videos around certain things I’ve been working on.
I go live in my stories on Instagram, I record Reels, I have my weekly coaching calls, and I offer free trainings – you name it.
I wish I did live video more when I was starting out because it makes you better. You think fast on your feet, and you get better at communicating. Over time you feel more comfortable on video, you show your vulnerability more, and you’re more real to your audience.
The truth is, nothing builds connection faster than video – not even a podcast.
Embrace it, be open to learn and to grow into it, step by step. If I did it, so can you, I promise.
I hope that this has encouraged you to keep moving forward no matter where you are in your business. You’ve got this.
Learn from my mistakes and embrace this whole journey of being an entrepreneur. Baby steps my friend.
And if you’re looking to advance your business even more and are ready for a bigger step in your business, I’d love to invite you into my program Blissful Biz Incubator.
Inside the Blissful Biz Incubator, I teach you how to design your brand, grow your audience and create and launch digital offers like an online course.
What really sets it apart is that you get a ton of video trainings to help you implement things and take action, but you also get 1:1 coaching, group coaching, and personal feedback and critique for work you submit.
Go to www.susannerieker.com/application and get all the details.
