I remember an August evening in 2017. It was just before midnight and Petter Erik and I sat and watched the sunset from a fishing boat on the fjord outside Senja, and now and then we heard a “ping” from the phone.
WE GOT SALES. And money in the account.
While we were doing something completely different.
I remember how extremely grateful I felt. And proud!
This experience came to my mind after we had written and launched our book.
I suddenly realized that EVERY DAY there was a message from Stripe that we had made a sale. Without me having put a concrete effort towards it every time. The development had taken place gradually… almost imperceptibly. And I felt even more proud. And humble. And grateful because we had done the right things that allowed us to grow.
A good online business brings in money every single day. If you are in the start-up phase, this may sound like a utopia, but it actually isn’t. It is entirely possible.
If you’ve gotten to the point where you already have a solid business, you are probably making money many (or most) of the 365 days of the year, but you may need to put something in place that completely runs on autopilot without you.
This year we at AweSM have increased the team from 7 to 12 (I just got a personal assistant !!!!! Oh how nice it will be to have someone to just throw tasks at !!!!!) and the turnover this year lands at about 50% increase compared to last year. And we weren’t even focusing on growing. We were focused on building a structure that lays a solid foundation for growth.
But we know that we have made some right choices:
- we are getting better and better at ONLY focusing on what we are best at, what we LOVE, and what makes the biggest difference for our business (and customers)
- we work to spread risk on several traffic sources so that we are less vulnerable when Facebook is in trouble (as most people who advertise there have experienced lately)
- we constantly invest in our own development, both in strategy, technology and mindset… so we are always improving
- we focus on making more money from existing customers or people who are on our list (back end), so we can spend even more money on attracting new potential customers (front end)
I will never tell you to focus on the past, quite the opposite, but sometimes it’s good to look back and realize how much you have accomplished, how much you’ve grown because it will give you a boost of positive energy and lots of motivation to keep growing & moving forward.
