26: Subscription Box Service: From Idea To Launch

It’s Anna Cook’s success with her travel blog, her love of travel and promoting local businesses that have positioned her so well for her latest venture - SimplyNCgoods, a subscription box service. In today’s episode, you’ll hear how the idea came to her, and the steps she took from the seed of an idea through to shipping that first box on launch day. You’ll also hear tips from this self-described “productivity hack nerd,” and insights on how she’s monetized her travel blog with 5 income streams. She reveals her most unexpected surprise after the launch, what aspect of the box business she now needs to be laser focused on, and many invaluable resources she’s found in her journey to launch day. Be sure to catch the end of episode takeaway where I will suggest an often overlooked but invaluable source of ideas and insights to catapult your side hustle into greater profitability.   What You’ll Hear: 03:08 Determining what is your most productive time of the day 04:50 Pomodoro method for getting important tasks done 06:25 Training your brain to know when it’s time for “deep work” 07:38 Plan your side hustle work week! 08:21 Determining what “moving the needle” is for your business 10:10 How Anna started monetizing her travel blog (it’s at $30,000 per year) 12:30 5 income streams from the travel blog, Stuck On The Go 14:04 Where she placed her focus to grow the income 14:21 Working with tourism boards - writing articles and selling photos 15:19 Writing SEO articles 15:43 Integrating product sales 17:16 The most lucrative 2 sources of income from the travel blog 18:06 Reason for avoiding selling her photos through stock photo platforms 19:09 The idea and motivation for the subscription box business 20:46 Consider paying local merchants with cash 22:40 The journey from idea to shipping the first box 23:20 Choosing and learning from a marketplace/platform specifically for subscription box entrepreneur 26:22 Partnering with another business to grow the email list 27:20 Using software that’ll choose the cheapest shipping options each time 29:33 Anna discovers she priced the boxes too low!  31:06 Creative additions for the boxes 31:26 Working on adding value without increasing costs 33:35 SimplyNCgoods 34:35 Creating added value for the subscription box businesses 36:20 Biggest surprise after launch 39:25 Progress over perfection! 39:40 Reverse engineer your goals for the fastest progress Takeaways: 41:00 Someone likely has your solution 41:37 Reach out to someone in your industry  42:17 Be open to looking for answers outside of your industry too! 42:53 A four-letter word to use when you get a “no.”   Reach out to Anna: https://www.stuckonthego.com/ https://simplyncgoods.cratejoy.com/ https://www.instagram.com/stuckonthego/ Connect with Joan: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/joanposivy/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/posivy/ Joan's Main Site https://www.joanposivy.com/ Be on the show! Be Our Guest https://www.joanposivy.com/be-our-guest.html