This is my first business review I’m putting out into the world for all to see. I follow a couple of other entrepreneurs that publish these on their blog and I find them really insightful.
Full disclosure, I am in a transition phase which means I am putting in double the amount of work behind-the-scenes and not really marketing or pushing my Brand + Showit Design packages. For the past 4-6 weeks, I have been focusing on building a Monthly Membership and a Showit Template Shop. My goal is to take on less 1:1 clients and grow my recurring and passive income streams. I use the term ‘passive income’ lightly because there is still a lot of work that goes on to get everything set up.
I launched a $20 monthly membership, The Brand Gathering, as a way to help businesses who are just starting out meet their goals and grow their business faster. I’ve been asked the question, “Why only $20, Amanda?” I wholeheartedly believe the level of content inside The Brand Gathering is worth more than $20. However, if I raised the price it would take away the impulse factor. I want people to join The Brand Gathering and rave to all their friends about it. I also want to make sure it’s affordable for creatives who are just starting out and don’t have a lot of revenue coming in from their business. I set up Good, Better, Best goals for different points of the membership. (At the time of writing this the membership hasn’t launched yet.)
My hope is to have the Monthly Membership gain momentum on its own as the community grows. I plan on creating a commercial for The Brand Gathering for my podcast since that channel has the largest audience. I will also be booking other podcast shows and guest speaking spots so I can grow my reach and get my face in front of new audiences. My other hope is that I can get Brand + Showit 1:1 clients easier through building my like, know, and trust factor with the members of The Brand Gathering community.
In January, I will be launching a Showit Template shop for multi-passionate creatives. I was initially planning on launching the Showit Template shop in October, but between The Brand Gathering monthly membership and setting up a shop on my website — it was too much work to get done. My goal is to have a referral program that will help me spread the word about the templates. Affiliates will earn 25% of every sale. I stated earlier that I use the term ‘Passive Income’ lightly because by the time that shop launches I will have put in 3 months of work upfront.
One of my challenges when deciding on opening a template shop was how was I going to differentiate myself from other Showit template shops. Then my good friend Elizabeth Henson gave me the brilliant idea to make the templates for multi-passionate creatives since I had experience doing this for multiple clients in the past. For example, wedding photographers who also offer education to other photographers.
Each month, I’ve been tracking my analytics so I know how my business is progressing. I track my audiences on my website, blog, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Email, Podcast, and most recently YouTube.
Website: Visitors: 697 (↓ 8.65%) Page Views: (↓ 14.1%) Audience: (↓ 11.09%)
Blog: 233 (↓ 35%)
Note: Not sure why the drastic decrease in blog views. I only published 1 blog post in June and 2 blog posts in July. Possibly I shared specific blog posts inside Facebook Groups more frequently in June.
Instagram: Average Likes: 60 (↑ 5.26%) Comments: 7 (↓ 12.5%) Followers: 1289 (↑ 4.12%)
Facebook: 400 (↑ 2.04%)
Pinterest: 6,359 (↑ 12.73%)
Email: 200 (↑ 8.23%)
Podcast: 101 downloads with 1 episode released (no analytics to track from June because Season 1 ended in May)
I finally have a set posting schedule for every platform within my business. I will probably track analytics on all these social media outlets for six-months then evaluate to see which ones are growing my business and which ones I can cut. I don’t want to spend time and energy on things that aren’t giving me ROI. Right now I am focusing heavily on showing up consistently for my audience and providing a lot of intentional, high-quality value.
For the rest of 2018, I want to look for collaboration and speaking oppurtunies. I was asked to speak at The Rising Tide Society – Austin Chapter meeting for August. I want to book 3 guest podcast speaking engagements for the remaining year.
❑ Grow Instagram to 1,500
Daily engagement sessions of 20 minutes.
❑ Grow email list to 300
Market my freebies to get new people on my list. I will market my freebies in YouTubes Videos, Instagram Posts, IGTV videos, and on blog posts.
❑ Book 3 projects for October
Follow up with clients that fell off the radar and promote complimentary brand discovery calls.
❑ Sell at least 30 monthly membership spots
Launch plan for this month heavily replies on my current email list, Instagram posts, Lives Videos and personally reaching out to people I think would benefit from the membership.
❑ Finish Designing Two Showit Templates
For the Showit Template shop, I am just designing templates and researching affiliate program apps. More goals for that won’t ramp up until September. To listen in on the behind-the-scenes look at transitioning my business listen to the Get Back to Business episode below.
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