The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Entrepreneurship => Topic started by: k-vette on April 01, 2019, 11:02:07 AM
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I feel like 2019 is the year things are finally working. I've been in business since 2015 and it's been hard work! That's nearly 4 years since I started that it's taken to get my business where it is. Products changed, shipping processes changes, emails, etc. But to sum it up:
February I set a new sales record, 160% increase over previous best month of sales.
March I set another sales record, 180% increase over February's sales...
Last month's sales were ~8x higher than march of 2018.
This is still a side-hustle, but is starting to make substantially more than my regular "job". Hours-wise there's no comparison. (If you're wondering why I keep working, it's because I'm still toying with the idea of buying out the company with the profits from my side-hustle.)
Sole Proprietor, no employees and none expected. In fact, my workload with the recent sales has DECREASED compared to the previous months/year!
I feel like no one "gets it" so I had to share somewhere. If you have a business that is draining you emotionally and physically but making sales, keep tweaking and making changes. Change is the only constant. 9 out of 10 ideas may not work, but when 1 does it's all worth it.
If I had to attribute just ONE thing to the sales increase over the past few months, it would be Youtube. If you're not using Youtube videos for customer acquisition, you are seriously missing out. Constant traffic without paid ads has been the key for my business's growth. I can't believe what it's done and wish I would've started 4 years ago.
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I feel you. I've had my business going for just over 18 months and can safely say I've missed out plenty on making business so much better. I just only acquired a sales tax exemption certificate. Had I done so from the beginning, I would've had another $3k at least from sales tax alone.
You live and you learn. The key is persistence and discipline. Just this past month I hit $17k in sales and just over $5k in profit. Learn, adapt, and move on.
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Congratulations on your success!
Can you tell us a bit more about how you use YouTube videos? Are you making videos, posting them on YouTube, and moving on? Or are you putting in more effort to see to it that people find your videos and learn about your products from them? It seems to me that there's a lot of potential for people to never even notice the videos, and a lot of skill to making them visible.
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LPG - Consistency is a big factor. If you keep posting people come back to watch them. Most of my videos are not about products I sell, but by showing tools, parts, etc they might find helpful, I build up trust and expertise. Then if they decide to buy - they buy from me. It's been a great way for me to become an "expert" in my niche. I do put effort into the titles, keywords, thumbnails, etc to get views and get found on Youtube. I share certain videos online in forums or groups that are appropriate. Ebikes are my thing, and if you type in "ebike" on Youtube my video is often at the top of the list. That has been great for my web traffic. I also try to get people involved by asking questions in the comments, answering, doing small giveaways, etc. I've tested a few live videos and although the video quality isn't as good, people like being a part of the action.
Archipelago - that's awesome! Keep moving.
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Congrats on your success! I've been a lurker for quite some time and I subscribed to your channel a few months back when you were giving away an ebike. Looks like you've been making great progress since you started using YouTube. May I ask, did you just start your channel shortly before running your bike giveaway? I thought your marketing technique for the giveaway was great.
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Hey k-vette,
I've nothing to add but just wanted to say congrats! That is incredible and quite badass.
Here's to many more successful months!