“Lynn is my…everything.”
The business owner I worked with said this in front of 200 of her clients – all online entrepreneurs.
We were on stage during her 2019 live event in Zurich.
She was introducing the 6 members of our team to the audience and when she got to me, she stumbled a bit to find the words for my “title.”
And then she said I was her everything.
I was so touched.
It was a goose-bumpy moment shared with a room full of her clients. People I’d connected with in some way because I was doing nearly ‘everything’ in the business for over 4 years.
That’s how long I’d been supporting this powerhouse business founder.
I started working with her part-time as an online business manager in May 2015 and by the time I was on that stage, I was her full-time right-hand filling many different roles within the business.
Early on, it was mostly the two of us doing all the things.
She was bold and made big moves to grow the business.
I was happy to be a part of it.
In the following years, her husband looked after operations, while contractors and a few full-time employees joined the team.
We did more than 30 launches with many of them bringing in six figures ranging from $300k-$800k. And one of them was a $1Million launch!
Planning and managing those launches was challenging and exciting.
But I came to realize that the launch business model – where you make most of your revenue through intense promotional campaigns – wasn’t my cup of tea.
So when I left her business to start my own, I knew I wanted to do things differently.
I could talk for hours about what I learned about creating launch strategies and what it takes to execute them.
But the things that mattered most are quite simple.
Here are 3 lessons I learned that inform my approach to creating a minimalist biz:
#1. Prioritize email in your business.
Our email plan for launches was intense. We had many different segments with specific campaigns for each. For our big launches, we sent out around 100 emails.
I was very protective of email.
We didn’t want people to be turned off by the promotion. And we also wanted to make sure those who were interested in joining the program would feel they were getting all they needed to make a decision.
While it’s a 1-to-many medium, it feels more intimate. And when people invite you into their inboxes, you want them to feel well taken care of. That means being reliable and showing up when you say you will – every week is best.
We did send emails outside of launches but they were often the first thing to be dropped when things got busier. It may not seem like a big deal, but it is.
This is where people who care about what you do will give you their attention. Being consistent is a good way to show them you value that attention.
Email is by far the most impactful asset in an online business.
#2. Do unscalable things.
For most of us, our businesses involve coaching, consulting, and/or teaching. While you may bring on others to coach in your programs, you are still the person your customers were attracted to in the first place.
Be available for 1-on-1 chats and/or make your customers feel welcome and safe once they sign up with you. This shouldn’t be outsourced.
During launch periods, business owners usually do a ton of free training which sometimes includes 1-on-1 help for some of the attendees.
The founders are super visible and fairly accessible. If the program they offer doesn’t have the same level of accessibility to them, customers might be disappointed.
Happy customers will have an outsized impact on your business’s growth.
#3. Focus on the few.
The few = the 20% of your inputs that account for 80% of your results.
The good old Pareto principle.
Knowing which 20% of your activities and strategies are the most effective is much easier to determine when you aren’t in the weeds. And when there are fewer moving pieces (weeds), it’s easier to make decisions.
During our launches, we often added tactics and tried things on the fly. There’s something to be said for experimenting but it’s best done strategically.
Doing more stuff on top of our original plan – without stopping any other activity – made it hard to be clear on what was having the most impact.
You might be thinking, so what? I mean, the launches were successful after all.
True. But sometimes we succeed despite our additional effort.
It’s much simpler to get great results by focusing on the few.
The six and a half years I spent learning these lessons gave me a very valuable training ground for my own business. I’m so grateful.