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I am often asked, how can I start an online business? A business that doesn't trade my hours for time and doesn't require the traditional 9-5 work schedule. This is the first step to becoming an online entrepreneur. Online entrepreneurship has changed my life forever. I can spend my days golfing and doing whatever I want because I don't have a typical day job. This, however, doesn't mean it is easy. Running your own business (Online or Physical) is difficult Running your own business online or a traditional brick and mortar business take effort, focus, and time. The key difference is that becoming an online entrepreneur has a much lower bar to entry. This is one fo the main reasons, I love being an online entrepreneur. I can start up a new online business with just an idea and a business plan. I don't need to go rent an office, hire staff, and run newspaper ads. I can run with my new business idea and see if their is traction before I start aggressively investing to grow it. The best part of being an online entrepreneur is the location freedom You can literally work from anywhere. This makes it so much easier to just grab your laptop and go. If you are able to scale your online business, you can start hiring. If done properly, you can hire yourself out of your day job and have not only your location freedom, but time freedom as well. The best way to think about an online business is it should be able to run without you. If you are the only person who can do the work, then it is not a business, it is a job. The best online businesses are those that can be systematized and repeatable. Successful online business examples you can start - Consulting (Time intensive - harder to scale but easy to start) - Service-based businesses (Similar to consulting in terms of time and scale) - Selling information products (Great cash flow - but upfront time is high and scaling can be difficult) - Affiliate marketing (Great scale but requires you to sell other people's product - So they better be great!) For example, this blog post was written using Jasper which is an AI tool. I am an affiliate for them. If you click this link, love the software and buy it. I am paid a commission. It is so META it actually works. Click here to check it out. - Creating and selling a physical product (Capital intensive - but great scale) Most of these can be started with little to no money and can be run part-time. The best online business for you is the one that fits your personality, skill set, and goals. What is the best online business for you? Start with this question and not the others and you will be well on your way to building a successful online business. Now let's dive head first to get a better understanding of what it would be like to start and operate one of these online businesses. - Service-Based Businesses: These are businesses that provide a service to their clients. This could be anything from coaching, to consulting, to graphic design, and much more. The best part about service-based businesses is they can be started quickly and with little to no capital. - Building a blog: This is my personal favorite and what I am currently doing. Creating a blog one of the best online businesses you can start because it is so easy to get started. But, because its so easy to start there is fierce competition. Why I am building blog (Because I still can go golfing) I prefer to build personal blogs that have your own unique perspective and will allow you to work on for a long time. Getting organic traffic is NOT an overnight thing, as it takes time to rank for competitive keywords. Once you have established blog posts you can monetize in many ways. Ads, Affiliate marketing, Referrals or even making your own product. Essentially all the online business models can be executed from a blog. - Affiliate Marketing: This is a business model where you promote other people's products and earn a commission on every sale. Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money online without having to create your own product. - Creating and Selling a Physical Product: This is a bit more capital intensive but can be a great online business. The best part about selling a physical product is you can create it once and sell it over and over again. This is where I have most of my personal experience in and it can be scaled to truly massive revenues but the cashflow required to create your own product requires deep pockets. This is what has made me most successful but requires skillsets in many categories such as Facebook ads, Google Ads, Email Marketing, Copywriting, Product development, Logistics, and the list goes on. If you are an ecommerce brand, we do offer pre-vetted experts in those areas to help you grow your brand. Just click HIRE MY AGENCY Experts to get connected. These are just a few of the best online businesses to start. The best business for you is the one that fit's your personality, skill set, and goals. Choose wisely and don't get discouraged if your first attempt doesn't work out. The best businesses are built through trial and error.

How to increase your conversion rate on your ecommerce store? (Part 2) In Part 1, we talked about Frictionless eCommerce and how to reduce friction on an ecommerce store. Part 2 is also about reducing friction, but it’s about the friction in your customer’s mind. Whether your website visitors come through Facebook ads, Google search or emails, they always have questions in their mind. “Is this brand legit?” “How is this better than what I have?” “Why is it so cheap?” “Why is it so expensive?” And on… These questions create friction! Every unanswered question is a reason for them NOT to buy. More unanswered questions = More friction. The better you can answer those questions on your homepage and product pages, the less friction there is. This is the part where most CRO works miss the mark. When you optimize your conversion rate, make sure you look at both the friction in your store and the friction in your customer’s mind. Here’s how to reduce friction in your customer’s mind. Step 1 - Find out what questions they have Before you can answer their questions, you need to know what their questions are! Dig deeper to find out the common objections your customers have BEFORE they buy. You can always find great insights by going through reviews. If you have a Facebook group, you can even ask them to see what other concerns they have. Step 2 - Find the best way to answer them Once you have an idea of what questions they have in mind, then it’s time to find the right message to answer them. Don’t just limit yourself to the FAQ section or product description! Be creative about how you get your message across. The store is yours! My CRO agency and I have tested so many ways that increase conversions, from adding messages in the buy box to adding an intro banner at the top of the product page… I’m often asked who I use to increase conversion rate. Please hit me up and I can introduce you. That’s my way to increase conversion for my ecommerce store. How do you increase your conversion rate?

As someone who has sold nearly a million golf clubs online, it may be counterintuitive to hear me say you shouldn’t start an e-commerce business. Most of these “gurus” get 5 sales online and then push you to buy their course on how you can be insanely rich by finding the right drop shipped product. The only thing they do well is sell you their course… The reality is that a true e-commerce brand that makes their own products is expensive, time consuming and requires a lot of capital to have traction. Starting an e-commerce business is not for everyone! And that’s ok. For me I went as far as designing a golf club with 4 Engineering students at the University of Vermont in 2012. This process took a year! And there was no guarantee it would pay off. From there I ended up cashing in my 401k to pay for the tooling costs and first production run. I was young and crazy clearly! But I knew I could never work for someone ever again and this could be my way out. For those trying to get started I believe you must have a unique brand position and product that customers will love and talk about. And you must be willing to absolutely wow any customer you get, at any cost! Any inventory based business will require capital to launch and most importantly more capital to scale paid traffic. I ended up using PayPal working capital loans for nearly 3 years to help scale the inventory and fund paid channels. I’m not trying to scare you away from e-commerce, but tell you the truth. I guess I’m the Anti Guru Guru. If your still not scared, you must be as crazy as I am…I think the reason I stuck with it so long was the fact that I started in 2012 with zero expectations. I honestly didn’t expect to make a single dollar. I think this no expectation perspective allowed me to work on what was fun and simply do things that started to pick up traction. Although I don’t think most people should start an e-commerce brand, I do love the business model. Here is why I freaking love e-commerce. 1- You can scale an e-commerce business without you working more. If you set it up properly! For example, today (June 29, 2022) at 9:27 pm and our sales are at $127,872 for the day. Yes, just for the day. But today, I hung out with my Son…all day! So even though I personally did nothing, my agency experts, customer service guys and fulfillment center did. I didn’t ship a a single box and didn’t open my computer. Sounds outrageous, but 10 years of hard work does pay off and we sent emails saying products came back in stock today! Always love the power of email! 2- You can sell your business to an e-commerce aggregator or strategic buyer. Direct to consumer e-commerce brands that are run well can be sold. It’s not an easy process by any means but this one sale could be a total life changing event. It was for me. Bottom line, nothing worth doing in life is easy. If you have a great product and actually give a shit about your customers you may be able to make it happen. Just don’t think your going dropship some garbage product and magically make millions. What business will you start?

When I first started my golf company, I worked way too much… I’m talking legit every second in the day, easily 16-20 hours a day. I did that for a few years, even when my first kid was born. The pressure to make it work was absolutely insane, since I was fired from my job when it was just a side hustle. I was very fortunate that all my hardwork paid off…but it took me having a second child to realize That my kids and family don’t care about my work, they only want me around… I changed everything and started delegating…this pivot was the best thing I ever did because it allowed me to build a buisness that works for me, and one I was able to sell! When I’m older…I will have no regret that I spent so much time with my kids and been able to spend time with my family. This lesson took me a few years to figure out…but work isn’t that important… I’m very thankful to the internet for letting me build a business that allows me to do what I want. Although it’s hard work, I don’t need to go into work or have a regular job.

7 Best Shopify Apps Ranked in order by must-have to nice to have for your Shopify store 1- Klaviyo - Email marketing app - This is your biggest asset and fundamental to any marketing strategy 2- Postscript - SMS marketing app - A huge asset for any product launch 3- Judge me - Product reviews app - Great customer service and super affordable 4- Helpscout - Customer service platform - Easy to use and very affordable 5 - One Click Upsell - A post-purchase upsell. cross-sell and pre-purchase tool that can increase average order value 6- Privy - Pop up and lead capture tool to build your customer list 7- TaxJar - Sales Tax - Not fun but necessary! Bonus: 8- Bonjoro - Make custom videos for your customers! Great for long term brand building and increasing customer engagement and repeat orders. My love-hate relationship with Shopify Apps I have a personal love and hate relationship with Shopify apps. The marketing behind some of the Shopify apps is simply fantastic. The marketers make me think that if you download their app that all their eCommerce dreams will come true. That is unfortunately not the case. A great Shopify app is simply a tool to help you run a successful ecommerce store. An app or platform will never be the reason you will be successful. Keep that in mind. Store owners have enough distractions already. There are literally thousands of apps available for to store owners out there. My philosophy is to use the LEAST amount of apps possible. This keeps my online store running fast, and having an eCommerce store running fast is one of the best ways to increase your conversion rate. Secondly, some apps simply don't play nice together. The worst-case scenario is to download multiple apps from the Shopify app store to find out that something is broken on your website! Before installing any app for my online store, I read all the reviews and send the app to a Shopify developer to see if the code seems sound. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but I have too much traffic to my eCommerce store to risk having the checkout page not work. Back to the 7 best Shopify apps for your online store 1- Klaviyo - (Best Email marketing app to increase sales) At this point, Klaviyo is the clear leader in email marketing. I have been a fan for 5 plus years and for good reason, it works, it’s easy to use and even I can understand it. An effective email strategy can drive a significant portion of your revenue, in some cases up to 40 percent of your e-commerce store revenue. If you truly had to have only one app on your Shopify store, this would be it. Your customer list and email list are your business and it’s your greatest asset. Bottom line: Klaviyo is a must-have! 2- Postscript - (Best SMS Marketing App to increase sales) Text messaging has gained traction over the years, and although email is the gold standard for sending messages. Text can have an amazing impact to your business revenue. It just needs to be treated differently then email, it’s a more intimate channel. Treat it as such! The email and SMS combo is the literal 1-2 punch for retention marketing. Properly sending texts to hype a product launch can be an absolute game changer, just don’t abuse it. Marketers love to ruin things! 3- Judge me (Product Reviews App to increase sales) I am a huge fanboy of Judge me because the product works well, is easily customizable, has a massive impact on conversion rate and the customer service is amazing. I have had a number of questions or things I wanted to have modified, a quick live chat in the app, and poof…it’s done. Absolute no-brainer to have on your ecommmerce store. 4- Helpscout (Best customer service app to increase sales) This is a personal preference, but I love Helpscout because it is simple, effective and affordable. The saved replies feature saves a ton of time for the customer support team. The customer support ratings gives a great high-level overview to see how team members are performing. You can also easily see what customers order if you connect to Shopify. 5- One click upsell (Best upsell app to increase sales) Who doesn’t want to increase their e-commerce store average order value? One-click upsell is easy to set up and you can be offering upsells with a few clicks. I will say, the revenue is incremental, it is not as big of a lever as dialing in your front-end offer. This is one of those apps that not only drives more revenue but can give you a lot of insight into what people buy together. 6- Privy (Best pop-up app to increase sales) There seems to be an endless supply of apps that will pop up and gather emails. Many of them are good but slow. I always choose privy over others because of how fast it loads! Speed matters. I personally use the privy in cart page to tell customers they are close to the free shipping threshold and it works fantastic. You can see how we used privy in our product launch here. 7- TaxJar (Best Tax Software for Sales Tax) No one wants to talk about sales tax and for good reason. It’s a pain in the ass, not to mention it’s expensive to do properly. Taxjar was an absolute game changer to keep our brand compliant in almost 30 plus states. Trust me, I tried to have my accountant do this before and it was a disaster. Taxjar made it feasible for users to scale and be compliant. It’s not cheap but anything that saves time and effort…I’m a fan of it. 8 -Bonjoro (Best app to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction) This is one of my secret game changers. For e-commerce stores that want to invest in their growth and customers. Make simple thank you videos to your customer in a flash. Customers love the extra effort and it truly builds a deeper relationship to your e-commerce brand. It does take effort but for brands this care about customers (that should be all of you!) it’s a game changer. Sorry I couldn't help myself and had to make the list 8 apps long. Ha. Shopify store owners need to focus on an overall solid marketing strategy I don't want to make these apps seem insignificant but they are simply tools that allow you to get your message in front of your ideal customers. I think a more important discussion is around the use of the apps to increase sales and build a brand of loyal customers. A poor product experience and marketing message will make each app useless in your journey. I like to focus my effort specifically on the following: A strong brand position - What do you stand for and who is your ideal customer? You can't please everyone it will be impossible to. Having this strong and unique brand position will help you make customer acquisition profitable and vocal. An amazing product - Seems like a no-brainer, but I have seen many try to run a Shopify store by selling products that are subpar and they don't even use themselves. Make a truly outstanding product and iterate from your customer feedback. You should also use your apps to ask your customers what they like and don't like about your product. Your job is to take action and make a better product with each launch! Wow your existing customers and new customers - Take the time and money to do whatever it takes to wow your customers. Fast response times, no arguing about refunds and use this as an opportunity to wow them. If you want to run an online store and ecommerce business for years to come, you need to treat your customers like royalty. You are nothing without them. They will reward you with a high repeat order rate and word-of-mouth referrals. Don't wow they and growth will be extremely difficult. P.S. There are a number of Shopify apps that I did not cover, such as a referral program, push notifications, the different actual ecommerce platforms, and the awful fake scarcity apps. I excluded those apps because they truly aren't big levers in my opinion. Focusing on the fundamentals for your ecommerce store is a much bigger opportunity than scouring the app store for more revenue. What Shopify apps do you use on your website to increase your sales?

The simplest way to think about increasing your conversion rate on your e-commerce store is through your customer's perspective. Getting into their mindset is a difficult tasks for many ecommerce business store owners. Your website visitors want to buy, but why aren't they? What is stopping them from completing the sale? Our goal should be to reduce friction. If we can reduce friction on our ecommerce site, conversion rates will go up. Let's make sure we are focusing on the right things to move the lever for your ecommerce website. What do we want our website visitors to actually do? We want them to buy. That’s the best-case scenario for any website visitor, so we should optimize for that. Anything else is a distraction. Optimize for the purchase to increase your conversion rates. 25 Conversion Rate Optimization Ideas To Test 1- Don't get too cute with your call to actions (Add to cart, Proceed to Checkout) 2- Make your eCommerce site fast (Remove any unnecessary apps or code) 3 - Reduce the friction from add to cart to checkout page (Sometimes less is more) 4 - Test your messaging, not your site design (Messaging is the most powerful conversion rate optimization method) 5 - Test removing coupon codes 6 - Simplify the sheer volume of promotions and codes (More coupon options can cause confusion and friction for your website visitors) 7 - Having a consistent testing schedule based on your website traffic 8 - See the whole picture (A higher conversion rate but lower AOV may actually hurt total sales!) 9 - Offer free shipping at a certain price threshold (This is a worthy test because it could increase AOV) 10 - Take high-quality images and product videos 11- Optimize your product pages (These can be the biggest lever pages on your online store) 12 - Test your checkout process (This may seem nuance, but if the checkout is broken no amount of CRO would help) 13 - Test offering guest checkout so potential customers can checkout easily 14 - Optimize your mobile commerce user experience 15 - Use social proof on your product pages and reviews page 16 - Ask a potential customer what stopped them from purchasing 17 - Optimize for revenue per visitor not just average conversion rate 18 - Look for leaky buckets in your google analytics 19 - Add any Press Mentions to your eCommerce website 20 - Don't compare your store to other ecommerce stores 21 - Get feedback from your paying customers (They are your most valuable resource) 22 - Always test your checkout process when updating shipping prices or payment methods 23 - Use your baseline revenue per visitor metric instead of the normal "Good Ecommerce Conversion rate" benchmarks 24 - Ask web visitors what they are looking for with a simple survey form 25 - Test different flash sales for certain products to see if your target audience is price sensitive

Yes, it does. Usually, a truly passive income stream generates a small return. When I think of ways to generate passive income, I think of high-yield savings accounts, high-yield cd rates, real estate, and the stock market (if it goes up!). None of these methods of growing passive income moves the needle in a big way. Even if you have significant capital to invest, 2-4% isn't huge, but it is something. A different way to create passive income stream I am a huge believer in small business as a way to build passive income. But, there is a catch. A business may never truly be 100% passive, but a business can run without you. This is the business model I am using to build "passive income" and shoot for a higher goal than 2 percent. When I first started my direct-to-consumer ecommerce brand, I was working 20 hours a day 7 days a week. It doesn't get more active than that! At that time, I was fired from my day job and had my first child on the way. There was no other option than to make it work. You can read my entire story here. From active to passive income (Can you make the transition) The hardest part of building a successful business is getting the initial traction. It can take time, effort, and capital to build any business from scratch. For my first online brand, it took multiple years before I could truly live off the cash flow. Once it started to cash flow, I could hire employees and experts to free up my time. As a founder, it is incredibly hard to let someone else do what you do. When I had my second child, I had to put my ego aside. I wanted to spend more time with her and be there for my wife. I hired a marketing expert and an operations person to run the day-to-day when I was gone. I took nearly 6 weeks off. The sales for my online store actually went up! That was the epiphany I needed to remove myself from the business even further. Passive income versus Business Income (Why I like business) It was truly freeing and downright terrifying to trust others to run my business. I knew that I had to turn my active income into more of a passive income stream. If I could get out of the day-to-day weeds, I would be able to spend more time with my family. It worked, but it wasn't easy. Even though I was able to delegate and make it more of a passive income stream. I still thought about the business and had the stress and pressures that come with being a business owner. That is why I hesitate to call business income passive income. The beauty of owning a business is that it could be sold. The best case scenario is to build a business that has cash flow and you can sell. That is the biggest difference between pure passive income. I can't sell my high-yield savings or CDs for a multiple. Is this the best business model for passive income that you can sell as a business? Ecommerce Business Model (Capital Intensive) The challenge with running an eCommerce business can be negative cash flow cycles. If you are the one manufacturing your own products, it can become extremely capital intensive. Although the scale can be great, it can be difficult to get rocking and rolling. Agency Business Model (People Intensive) The challenge with running a service-based agency can be the people needed to scale. If you are the one having to scale and build your team, it can be hard to do so. The cash flow can be really strong but it requires a lot of people to grow to a meaningful number you can sell. Blogging Business Model (Time Intensive) As you can see, I believe in blogging. You are on my blog right now. Running a blog doesn't require a lot of capital or people to scale. It requires a lot of time and patience. It is potentially the best business model to get closer to your idea of passive income. It is absolutely not passive when you start. No business starts off as a passive income stream. Why a blog is the closest to a passive income stream of the three models? Put in the work and write high-quality content that search engines can rank. Over time, your blog should begin to rank. The costs to operate are so low, that it could be seen as more passive.

When I started my first online store in 2012, it was a lot harder to build a great website and advertise to your target audience. Now, it is easier to do both but it is also far more competitive because the barrier to entry is lower. The first roadblock to starting an online business is finding the right products to sell online I prefer to do things the hard way, so when I first started my online store I didn't actually have anything to sell online. I built a website first and started posting on facebook. I focused on asking questions to my target audience that I wanted to know the answer to. One of them is what products should I sell. I didn't go out and say what products should I sell, but I did product research by asking them what clubs they used to know and what they were thinking of buying. By having authentic conversations on social media and email I was able to build a following first before I sold them anything. "Build a following first, then find a product to sell" I know, that is the hard way to do it, but it is a great way to truly bring a product to market that your audience wants. Some of the biggest online stores started as influencers that already had a built-in audience to sell to. I certainly wasn't a famous influencer but I had a small and engaged following. The first products I sold on my eCommerce store were wholesale products. I never drop shipped a product a day in my life, because I wanted to make sure whatever we were selling was a truly great product I could support and believe in. I also made these wholesale products custom which gave me something unique to offer. You don't have to do this, but I found that it gave me an advantage over other eCommerce stores all selling the same stuff. Selling products online from easiest to hardest (Dropship, Wholesale, Design Your Own) There are a few methods to choose from. As a general rule, the easier it is to sell it the harder it will be to be successful. The best e-commerce brands have a great product with a very specific customer in mind. Don’t try to be everything to everyone, sell to one type of customer. I cringe saying this word - “Dropship” In theory, you could sell products from manufacturers direct. The problem? Trademarks, inferior quality products, long ship time. More negatives than positives, this is not something I would recommend unless you are dropshipping legitimate brands - This I would call “wholesale” not drop shipping. Once you have heard of a trending product it is already too late usually When I hear dropshipping and trending products I think of all the Facebook ads promising you that you will get rich quickly if you find this one winning product. I call BS! But, as someone starting out it’s obviously very difficult to design your own product and brand. But the harder it is, usually, the more opportunity you may have. I would also add print-on-demand or POD since you never touch the product and drop shipping. This is slightly more “legit” because you're typically selling from a more reputable source in the USA but can have long lead times that lead to unhappy customers. Remember, the easier it is to do the harder it is to be successful! Let’s go over the pros and cons of Wholesale Pros: 1- Selling established brands can build credibility and trust 2- May not need to hold inventory 3- Good cash flow (sell the product first, then buy from the manufacturer direct) 4- Can offer a variety of brands on one website without holding lots of stock Cons: 1- Low margin 2- No control 3- Competing with brands direct 4- Competing with other resellers 5- Competing with Amazon! How to find wholesale products to sell online for your e-commerce store It’s simple, products you already buy or brands you already like may already have a wholesale program. Some may not or may only sell direct themselves. For my own brand, I decided to sell 100 percent direct to consumers. This is a bold move, but the entire reason I launched my golf brand was to sell premium golfs at a great price. I couldn’t do that and have enough margin to pay a middleman wholesale. Plus, I didn’t want to end up competing with a wholesaler. Unless they had a very specific channel I wasn’t selling in there was no value. Hence why I stayed the course and sold everything directly from my site. I mean who wants to be bidding against their own branded keyword? The hardest but highest margin way to sell products online is to design your own product Listen, I’m not trying to crush your dreams of making millions selling physical products online! It’s just not as easy as some make it seem. For me, I built my own brand and product line from scratch. The hardest and most expensive method by far, hence why fewer people will do it making the opportunity greater. To be honest I was just having fun and truly doing it out of passion. I never tried to do it just for money, if you are trying to build an e-commerce business or any business for that matter for the money. It will be super difficult to stay pumped and focused for long periods of time and especially when things aren’t going well. Asking your potential customers during the design process will help your product launch be a success Here is my story of how I designed my own golf driver with my local college. I was crazy enough to spend a year with a grip of college students to design my own club. Because I freaking loved it! Here is the full story : https://www.uvm.edu/news/story/golf-bombs-away So, unless you love it, I think selling physical products online is a tough first business to start unless you have a unique brand position or product. Also, I have seen some craftsmen do very well making custom one-off pieces for customers. Higher-priced custom work that doesn’t require you to sell many! I had a friend making custom knives and axes and he sold them without even having an e-commerce website!

Am I a great communicator? No Am I great at explaining how to do things? No Do I prefer to spend my time golfing, skiing, and spending time with my family and friends? Yes. The only way I can do the things I truly love is to delegate tasks effectively It took me 8 years and 2 kids to finally free myself from tasks I should have delegated years ago. My own ego and sense of control were holding me back from truly letting go of those tasks. Not only my own ego, but I truly thought I was the only one that could do each task. "Let go to grow" You could have told me 100 times that I should hire this person or that agency expert but I would have told you no when I first started my ecom store. It was only until I had personal life events did I feel the need or desire to delegate. Effective delegation is the only way to grow your business and build a business that you could easily sell. I like to say, let go to grow! You still can maintain control and steer the direction of the company or project for delegated tasks. At my eCommerce brand, I currently just coordinate the different experts to a desired outcome or KPI for each silo. This allows me to act more like a coordinator than a doer of the delegated task. Plus, it frees me up to take on more meaningful and challenging assignments that can impact the business in a far bigger way. How do you truly delegate effectively (trust your team members) 1- Mindset - you have to actually believe someone else is capable. Most people I hire are way smarter than me, but that isn't saying much. I know this isn’t a specific hack or tactic but you truly must want to delegate the task. If you want to do it because you don’t feel anyone else can you will reverse delegate it. Where you barely explain how to do the task, then get upset when they can’t do the task and the final step is you will take that task back. And usually, say “I knew they couldn’t handle it!” Trust your team member and give them the right task for their skillset. Do not give them something that isn't in their silo of expertise. "Never say, I knew they couldn't handle it" - That just means you don't trust your team member and/or you didn't clearly explain the delegated work 2- Make an unedited loom video (this is the most powerful part of the delegation process) I am a massive fan of Loom, if an old guy like myself could figure it out anyone can. My process for delegating tasks could not be simpler. One take only! Do not make more than one loom video, that will only slow you down. By going through it with one take you will likely do it in a more similar way that a new person or expert would do it. Mistakes are great! I actually like when I make a so-called mistake because this is probably what the person who is doing the task will do as well. Make them, and explain the context of what you are doing and what you are thinking no matter what happens during the video. Explain why for each step no matter how insanely simple it is for you! Remember, who you delegate to may be a total rookie to your professional and how you do it. If you do this you don't really need any special delegation skills. The video is the key to freeing you from those tasks. 3 - Save and upload to Google drive or a Monday Board. (The project management tool doesn't have to be perfect to be effective) Once you record your loom, make sure you upload it into a folder that is organized by the role. For example, if I recorded a video on how to make a Facebook ad. I would put that into “Marketing” or a video on how to build a purchase order that would be “Operations.” Whatever is simplest and makes sense so you could easily find it. This is a great way to first start siloing team members and experts for those tasks. Give the right people the right tasks and it's amazing how fun the work can become. Likewise, give the right people the wrong tasks and work feels like work 4 - Create timelines for each task (give team members a clear target) By simply attaching an estimated time to completion for each task you will uncover sticking points and get a better sense of whether the person hired is the right person. If they aren’t doing it within the estimated time, they either are stuck and need further guidance or they just aren’t the right fit. 5 - Give them a KPI - a target to shoot for It's hard to hit a target if you don’t have one! The more simple the KPI the higher the chance of success. For example, I give my Facebook ads agency a ROAs target. If they hit it great, if not I need to know why and we make a plan to hit It or adjust the budget accordingly. It is so easy to get caught up in different software and methods of delegating, but the best way to actually delegate is to start. Once you have delegate responsibility away, you may want to delegate everything. It can be quite addicting and freeing to effectively delegate. So...Stop reading and go delegate it!!! How do you delegate your tasks? Let me know in the comments section.

In my last business, I found success by documenting what I was doing. This simple step was my unlock to getting started. If I waited until everything was perfect I would never have started. This is the exact approach I am taking in writing this blog post. Just start writing and hit publish. 1- How to start a blog from scratch? Document Don’t Create your blog post When I started my golf company in 2012, I literally had a dream and nothing more…no product, no brand, I was starting from scratch. So instead of trying to make the perfect blog, social post, or website…I simply documented my authentic journey from scratch. I didn’t know how powerful it could be to just be your authentic self and be transparent. Documenting what you are doing is so much simpler than trying to come up with the world's best first blog post. The first time you start a blog, it is probably not going to be great. You can always go back and edit that blog post. So if you want to start a blog from scratch, start now. Update: I have now written 40 blog posts and came back to this blog post to optimize it for the search engines. I have now established a methodology for ranking my blog posts in search engines. 2- Ask questions that you actually want answers to I may change the name of this blog to simple money or something to that effect because I believe the most simple actions typically drive the best outcomes. This is a prime example of that. When I started building my golf brand, I asked my small following on social media and website real questions that would actually help me build a golf driver my customers would want. Versus me assuming I knew what my potential customers would want. Why wouldn’t I just ask them? It’s so simple it actually works. Not only did I learn a lot about my potential customers but guess what…I built a product they actually wanted and they felt like they built it because they truly were a big part of it! It changed the business from “I” to “We” and was a huge part of our success. Plus…when you ask questions to your following via email, you get replies…this shows gmail and other email providers that your emails deserve. Don’t be surprised when your emails go from the promotions tab to the inbox. This is more of a secondary benefit to actually asking good questions and caring about your audience. 3 - keep it simple - copy is more important than design Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing more fun than changing the button colors, font types, and even your theme templates…I could do it forever…but it isn’t the most important part when starting a blog or website. The actual copy and the content is what moves the needle. The pretty colors, images and logo are great but they won’t be the biggest lever you have. 4 - Pick a blogging platform and never look back (Most use a WordPress blog) Although it’s the most fun thing to play with, it can be a distraction. Get a basic website launched then start documenting. For this website, I decided to try Wix. It was the easiest site for me to get set up. I was able to get a simple theme, and a domain and start blogging in less than an hour. That’s with almost no experience with Wix before. And for those looking to start from scratch, just being able to get launched abs started can be the biggest hurdle to well…starting a blog. 5 - How will you monetize your blog? (If its display ads, choose Wordpress) Wordpress is better if you plan to monetize with Ezoic, Medavine or Adthrive. Take a moment to think about your monetization strategy. If you are going to rely on display ads that aren't google Adsense, then you likely will need to use WordPress for your blog. Lastly, what I like about Wix and I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds on the platforms for blogging. But I can bang out a blog post on the Wix app. Making it super easy to do from anywhere. Right now I’m putting my kids to bed and blogging. Don’t worry they are already asleep. 5 - Use the notes app on your phone for blog ideas This is so simple I can actually do it! I often have my best blog post ideas when I am not in front of my computer. The notes app is my secret weapon for never forgetting my new blog post ideas. I personally don't love having my phone near me all the time, but I keep it in the same room in case I am feeling inspired and need to write down my blog post idea. 6 - Buy a blogging course and join a blogging community Although I thought I understood SEO and blogging when I first started this blog. I have learned a lot from other blogs and bloggers. I am a big fan and affiliate of the Fat Stacks Blog and community. His course is specific to niche sites, I have learned how he runs a profitable blog and thinks about content creation. The community is full of experts, I hope to become a successful blogger with their guidance and support. Plus, who likes to work alone? Starting your own blog can be lonely. The community has been instrumental in starting my own blog. 7 - How do you define a "successful blog"? I try to make easy targets that I can actually hit when I first start a blog. Here is my simple silly list: One blog post every 3 days SurferSEO score 50 or higher (On first draft) One RankIQ optimized blog post every 3 days Review an old blog post and optimize it once a week This simply list, makes me feel accomplished and gives me bite-sized goals that I can achieve. Every successful blogger I have spoken to said the key to success is to keep hitting publish. You just need to keep putting out great content and try to be patient. I have taken their advice, but now try to be a little more scientific in my approach. I don't want to own a hobby blog with 1000 blog posts and no organic traffic. You need to be seen by search engines to get traffic. 8 - Do keyword research Start a blog or do keyword research, which should you do first? My approach was to just start blogging, this document-first approach gets you over the biggest first hurdle. Now, that I have dived head first into search engine optimization I can simply go back to my blog post concepts and optimize them for my target keywords. The overall theme of the blog doesn't need to change dramatically. Now, I do keyword research first and then write my blog posts. But starting a blog would be nearly impossible if I tried to understand keyword research before I started the blog. 9 - Should you pick a blog niche or have a personal blog? Many successful blogs go after a specific blog niche. I decided to do a personal blog because I had some momentum and exposure from my other online companies. If I did not have that momentum and back link opportunities I would have chosen a blog niche like fishing or skiing. I am not saying those blog niches are great, but they are things I love to do. As long as you enjoy writing blog posts about that topic you will have success. A quick way to quit blogging is to choose a niche you know nothing about. It is so difficult to do something just for the money. By being an expert or knowing the niche you can easily just start blogging. Your research time will be much shorter because you already have a passion for it! 10 - Don't worry about your blog theme Blogging can be so confusing. Picking the perfect WordPress theme, Search engines, search engine optimization, google search console, web hosting companies, blog hosting, WordPress development: it all can make you want to quit. Just pick a blog theme and get started. Content production is more important than content design. Have fun with your blogging journey, growth is never a straight lineup. Learn to improve, talk to SEO experts, talk to bloggers and see what makes you happy. 11 - Start a blog that you will be proud of and will make you happy to blog about. I have always been a fan of building companies around something you love, then you will never feel like you are working. I think this is even more relevant for your blogging journey. I will say, a few industries that may be difficult to rank out of the gate are money blogging and health blogging. You need a high domain authority for those categories. Whatever you decide I hope you start blogging sooner than later, because patience is the key to long-term growth.

How I started an email marketing company with my partner Chris and grew it to 7 figures We were already sending email campaigns, setting up flow automations and driving revenue with Klaviyo for my ecommerce Brand BombTech Golf. I never expected to start an email marketing company with my employee Chris (who was running all my email marketing campaigns). It wasn't until Klaviyo, Bigcommerce, Entrepreneur magazine, and a few other media outlets started featuring my brand as successful and showed a case study on our marketing efforts and success. Potential customers started reaching out for help to grow their eCommerce store At first, I didn't know what to say. I was flattered, but I was way too busy to help small businesses like myself grow their email list and their revenue from email. That was until Chris said he wanted to do it. I knew he was an expert at all the technical aspects of sending emails that would drive revenue and engagement. I told Chris, I would support him however I could as he landed and started working with 3 email clients. I told him he could do it on the side to start as long as it didn't impact his day job at my company! The results after the first month were amazing, he was able to act as a full-service email marketing agency and provide great results through strategy and sending emails customers want to read and take action from. The best results come from an effective email marketing strategy (not just blasting promotional emails) Our true advantage was the fact that Chris knew exactly what an ecommerce founder is going through on a day-to-day basis. He and I worked so closely and it gave him such a great perspective on how he could help other ecommerce brands. Just because you run a digital agency, doesn't mean you know what an ecommerce founder truly needs help with. Business growth came from word of mouth and case studies, growing a digital marketing agency of any kind is difficult. The sheer amount of competition is staggering. The barrier to entry to starting an email marketing business is low, but that doesn't mean it's easy to provide great results for your clients. Being an email marketing expert takes real-world experience and understanding of how to manage the entire email marketing funnel, overall business strategy, and email marketing plan. This way you are sending the right email at the right time for your clients. The best email marketing services send emails that have a high open rate, but even higher conversion rates. Aside from results from clients, when you are first starting. So how do you grow it from you an email marketing consultant to one of the best email marketing agencies? Word of mouth and referrals are great, but you are going to need a sustainable way to grow your client roster if you want to scale it beyond a freelance gig. We have tried many social media marketing campaigns, such as Facebook and Google but the ROI wasn't high enough to make it a core part of our growth plan. The ideal company we want to work with is very specific and those ads were too broad and couldn't be precise enough to be profitable. Cold email and outreach can be effective As an ecommerce owner myself, I am bombarded with sales pitches. It is so easy to ignore cold emails unless they are value first. Chris was an expert and actually provided value to our potential customers by sending actionable insights and tips for clients. They didn't even need to be a client or pay us for this value he was providing. In addition, we would provide detailed Loom videos to clients we really thought would be a good fit and would be fun to work with. You could even go as far as putting together a series of emails for them at no cost. Which could be risky, but value first is a good way to get started with outreach. You can try a lot of marketing channels if you have an offer that your potential clients will jump at. Without an offer and value it is really hard to make any marking effective. Be a real expert, before you try to help a client This seems like a no brainer, but I would never try to help a client with their marketing emails unless I was a true expert. Put in the reps and start an online store yourself or like Chris, get a job at an ecommerce brand managing their email. If you quit, the company may not be to happy though! Keep it simple to scale your agency Decide what email marketing software you want to partner with and stick with them. I believe that the simpler the better and we only offer one email service provider that we will manage. I know other email marketing companies don't do that and that is ok for them. But to keep our business lean, streamlined, and scalable we like to simplify everything we can. Building a service-based business is hard work (there are no shortcuts) Once you have landed a few clients and driven results, it's time to build your client base. Some of our clients have been with us for nearly 4 years! Talk about an awesome customer base. Keeping clients on retainer is the best way to able to go after new customers and be more stable. If you have a high churn rate, it is really difficult to keep closing new business if your clients are unhappy and leave. Like any small business, an email marketing agency can take a long time to grow. Anything worth doing will take time effort and some growing pains. Define your email programs It is difficult to do this from day one, but as your client roster grows and your team members you will need to have well-defined email programs. You should optimize the deliverables for the best results and also make it repeatable in the back end for your team. Not being crystal clear how exactly what you will do for your client is asking for trouble. Be clear when you close your client and tell them in great detail what they should expect, what a successful email campaign should look like, the number of emails that will be made, and when the deliverables need to be submitted. Let me know in the comments below if you are going to start an email marketing agency or another business altogether!

The best ecommerce platform for subscriptions will have all the tools your ecommerce subscription business model needs to succeed. Whether you sell physical or digital products, you need secure payment gateways, subscription management tools, customer support, advanced analytics, and online resources that help you get the most out of the platform. The best subscription ecommerce platforms covered in this post: 1- Shopify 2 - Sellfy 3 - SendOwl 4 - Podia 5 - Payhip 6 - Squarespace 7 - Lemon Squeezy What is a Subscription Platform in eCommerce? eCommerce Subscription Services are online businesses that allow customers to subscribe to a recurring delivery of services and or products they want to consume regularly. The subscriptions recurring payments come out of an account the customer chooses and are good until canceled. The subscription business can be a very lucrative business model since payments happen automatically. Many people don't actively manage their subscriptions recurring payments every month. You sell subscriptions. Then, regardless of whether the person uses it, you keep getting paid. Of course, you want them to get what they pay for! But the set-it-and-forget-it nature of recurring payments is one reason the subscription business model is taking over the tech industry. A robust subscription ecommerce platform offers business ecommerce opportunities that allow companies to increase revenue versus simply selling something in a one-off manner—creating more consistent income and predictable inventory management. Key features of a subscription eCommerce platform To keep people subscribed and increase subscription sales, you must deliver a seamless subscription management experience. You'll need certain features to do this. Every subscription ecommerce platform should have certain basic tools. But they may also have some exclusive features that make the ecommerce platform a perfect fit for your particular ecommerce business. These must be considered when selecting a subscription platform that's right for you. As for basic features, you're looking for: Support for multiple payment types, including digital wallets, credit cards, debit cards, and global online payments Advanced analytics to improve customer experience, optimize performance and maximize subscription revenue User-friendly experience to make signing up and keeping their subscription a no-brainer Integrations for different payment processors, Customer relationship management (CRM) systems, website builders (like Wix), billing, and inventory management 24/7 customer support to help your team support customers when websites go down, payments don't work, subscriptions stop renewing, etc. Shopify If we had to guess, you've heard of Shopify before. They've done significant advertising to generate brand awareness. They have been developed specifically for e-commerce and are a very popular subscription e-commerce platform, in particular. Who knew? Shopify has had to work through some technical and user-interface issues since its launch in 2006. So, if you tried it back then, you may be hesitant. Just know that's not the same tool it is today. Shopify listened to its customers and made improvements. And you know, technology has come a long way too! It provides integration with several apps for subscriptions you need to run a successful business. Pros & Cons Pros: Easy to use 24/7 Customer support is very reachable Multiple third-party payment options. This was once a problem with Shopify. Categories to help larger stores stay organized and navigable Beautiful and functional store themes SEO capabilities Cons High price if you need more than the basics Blogging integration needs work No email hosting Notable Features Once maligned for its limited payment options, it is now one of the best, including international 3rd party payors. Pricing Structure After a free trial, you'll pay $29/mo. for very basic features. This plan doesn't even come with analytics, which no subscription ecommerce business should be without. Honestly, you'd be better off with some of the other tools for this price if you don't plan to grow into the $79 or $299/mo plans. Shopify doesn't actually manage subscriptions itself. You'll need to install the Recharge API to gain this feature. However, there is no monthly fee to do this, and they charge a very low per transaction rate of $0.10 + 1% Why We Love It Today, most of the companies on this list probably consider them their top competitor. When combined with Recharge, they're a very popular online subscription ecommerce platform. And name recognition matters. Your customers and subscribers know Shopify and some of that brand awareness can rub off on you. Sellfy Sellfy offers a comprehensive e-commerce service for business owners and entrepreneurs. It has a number of outstanding functionalities that make it an excellent subscription-focused ecommerce site. Subscription management can be a challenging task for most small companies. Sellfy gets this and has really thought out what small businesses need to run a successful subscription business. Whether you choose Sellfy or not, we recommend using an online marketplace like Sellfy to start a business online quickly and efficiently. This is where they excel. Sellfy helps your organization promote your online products and manages recurring payments easily on subscription ecommerce platforms. Pros & Cons Pros Ease of Use (a lot of people say this) Good analytics for your online store Business growth-minded product Best option for its price point Cons Unclear how or when the company will update or add features Limited SEO Gets poor Google Speed Scores Notable Features Store Builder Payment gateways Embeds into existing website builders Built-in marketing Exceptional analytics Pricing Structure You can list up to 10 physical products for free to test out the features. After that, if you pay a monthly fee for this subscription platform. Starter $29/mo for up $10,000 in sales per year Business $79/mo for up to $50,000 in sales plus extra features Premium $159/mo Why We Love It Sellfy has the subscription model in its DNA. So it's one of the most subscription ecommerce-focused tools you can use for your online store. SendOwl SendOwl gets touted as one of the best-known shopping carts in the industry for a reason. Subscription services can often be confusing to the average marketer, so SendOwl tries to be the wise friend guiding you through everything you need to sell subscriptions. People like its integrated subscription features that allow for automatic payments and billing for recurring customers. What's more, some subscription services can be complicated to sell, and some have clunky interfaces. But SendOwl isn't one of them. Presumably, it's used by famous brands such as the Universal Music Group and Semplice. Bloggers and other publishers use it to sell subscriptions to their premium content. Thanks to its fantastic suite of subscription tools, this platform enables customers to easily sell subscribed services to clients, take recurring payments, manage recurring billing, and a whole lot more. Pros & Cons Pros Many clever features you didn't know you needed An analytics dashboard that is both useful and aesthetically pleasing. Automatic order fulfillment You get a lot of stuff for free Different payment methods So, the Cons Doesn't have a community built around it as some tech does Limited design templates for marketing can become repetitive No way to A/B test You'll pay 5% transaction fees if you don't subscribe Notable Features Its range of features include: Instant order fulfillments Easy to scale Multi-language and multiple currencies supported Pricing Structure Like Payhip, you get most of it for free forever, but you'll pay 5% per transaction. Once you're ready to commit, you can sign up for the 30-day free trial and then $19/mo. This gives you access to more customizations and only 1% per transaction fee. Why We Love It So, maybe it's not one of the best subscription ecommerce platforms. By that, we mean it doesn't have all the bells and whistles some subscription ecommerce platforms do. But it deserves a place on this list because they worked to create a more streamlined tool so they could also make it cheaper than similar subscription management platforms. Podia Is your subscription e-commerce booming? Do you need a new subscription ecommerce platform? Podia is the cheapest and easiest way to sell your subscription services online. Podia has more than 150,000 creators on the platform. It combines ecommerce store tools so you can make easy sales with subscribers. Building a store in Podia can be done lightning fast. And there is no need for programming or technical experience to build an impressive store immediately. Many consider it a hassle-free choice for the subscription business model. Pros & Cons Here's what people think about Podia. Pros Exceptional customer support Easy to set up and start selling subscriptions Payment integrations User-friendly and intuitive No coding required Cons Seems like it's missing basic features because they aren't where you'd expect Can't embed codes if you want to Digital subscriptions and online services only Notable Features Podia is built for online courses and other educational digital assets like webinars, quizzes, and online coaching services. The live chat feature allows customers to reach out to you when you're online. And email marketing segmentation tools help you generate more relevant and meaningful customer experiences to upsell and retain subscribers. Pricing Structure Podia is also free to try, but you'll pay an industry-high 8% per transaction fee. For $39/mo, you can eliminate the fee and get access to limited features. But most people will not need any more than this. If you want white glove service, Podia can cost as much as $199/mo. Why We Love It The transaction fee and subscription fees are high. But Podia has a lot of features other tools don't, like community building, live chat, and email segmentation. With that said, it has a high price point. So we strongly suggest you use the demo. Take advantage of the free and lower tier before committing to the more costly tiers or switching to annual billing. Payhip Payhip resembles Podia but with a more targeted focus and lower overall costs. The company offers a complete solution for selling subscription plans for just about anything: Digital downloads Masterclasses Coaching Physical goods This subscription ecommerce platform has incredibly useful features to make selling a subscription a real business success for the serious ecommerce entrepreneur. But is it the best subscription ecommerce platform? That depends on what you need your subscription ecommerce platform to do. First and foremost, it has complete store-building software for creating your dream site without any code or programming experience. Second, you can enhance your brand through the use of custom domains and subdomains. Third, you can embed Payhip into your existing website builder. Pros & Cons Pros Easy store setup Free (Wait, did we say, "FREE"? There's a catch!) Sales Tax and VAT management Visual Data Analytics Full access to the product for FREE Cons 5% transaction fees. The standard is 3%, so this isn't outrageous. Paid plans cost a lot You'll occasionally hit glitches in the programming. Notable Features Easy VAT and sales tax calculation based on location Lots of Marketing tools Social discount program and affiliate program Embeds into your existing website builder Mailing list PDF stamping for copyright protection Pricing Structure You get "free" access to the whole product and all its features. But you'll pay 5% per transaction for this, so not really free. Paid $29/mo subscription lowers your fee to 2%. Why We Love It It's trusted by 100K + content creators. And the pricing structure reduces barriers entrepreneurs may face when testing a new subscription-based business model or choosing the best subscription ecommerce platform for them. Squarespace Squarespace is growing into an impressive website builder as well as a subscription ecommerce platform that deserves a whole article. But we can cover the most important stuff here. Squarespace is your solution for giving subscription business wings. You can still opt for another subscription ecommerce site. But if you're just testing the waters or only plan to offer a few products ever, Squarespace is a great place to start. Pros & Cons Pros Fantastic content marketing platform with video capabilities Mobile subscription apps Seemingly unlimited page limit Cons Some find parts set up more complicated than it has to be No backup and restore option if you accidentally delete a page Notable Features They really know content marketing and make it easy for content creators to monetize their work or use it to promote whatever the store sells. Pricing Structure Just $16/mo gives you great features like video. However, it doesn't become a subscription ecommerce platform until the $49/mo tier. It's the top tier but cheaper than some other subscription ecommerce platforms on this list. Why We Love It It offers great value for a subscription business and almost unlimited growth potential without a higher price tag. Lemon Squeezy As the name suggests, Lemon Squeezy touts itself as the easiest subscription ecommerce platform available. In minutes, your online business could be operational and receive automatic payments from customers waiting to get your digital products. Pros & Cons Pros Live chat for your customers Customizable advanced analytics dashboards Branded check-out links Failed payment recovery Cons Some find it buggy on the business side of things Pricing Structure Access all features for free. It's designed to grow with you. Instead of a monthly fee, you pay per transaction and/or per email subscriber. The first 500 email subscribers are free. Your first $1000 in annual revenue is charged a $0.50+8% transaction fee that goes down as your revenues go up. Why We Love It It makes it easy to get started and it grows with you. As you get more email subscribers, the revenue you generate from subscriptions also goes up, which will lower how much you pay them per subscription over time. Subscription Ecommerce Platforms Sell subscriptions and get recurring payments while you sleep when you have an online store. These options allow you to either start a store from scratch or integrate with your existing store. With different price points and options, it's easier than ever to start selling subscriptions.