Goals – My Site

Next Steps

Ok let’s write down some possible next steps for clarity!

How to 10X business income?

More products
1. More colours
  1. Have tried this before. Very time-consuming to manage so many SKUs’ inventory level and production timeline. Unless we have lots of demand for each colour, this is adding a lot of overhead and pissing off factories.
  2. Alternative approach: Limited edition colours, exist just to bring fresh eyes to our site. If sells well, keep. If not, done after limited edition, and let customers know it’s sold out and never coming back.
  3. Update not-so-hot colours to say “limited edition” and add in description that they will not be replenished. “Last chance to get it” like IKEA says.
  4. Regularly explore seasonal colours, based on clothing trends.
    1. Get the calendar for when to check out H&M etc.
2. More styles
  1. Copy competitor’s popular styles. See Section 3.
  2. Add birthstone
    1. Explore the possibility of this one with Fred or Martin?
    2. Find the manufacturer of Rinfit who has a metal attachment for their rings
  3. Open moulds for engraving designs that are popular
  4. Regularly explore competitor’s popular styles
  5. Dual coloured from Fred would be great for engraving. Which underneath colours though? Does one colour have to be black?
3. More engraving designs
  1. Such a great way to try out different ideas! I think I can 4x our sales on Etsy by offering more engraved designs. Once the designs are confirmed to sell well, we can open mould and sell them on Amazon
  2. Ideas:
    1. Celtic knots
    2. Horoscopes
    3. Animals
    4. Hobbies – cycling, skating, swimming, hiking, golfing, sailing, kayaking
    5. Symbols – diamonds, LOTR, rainbow, other special old world symbols
    6. Quotes and self-signalling – love is love, rise up
    7. Trending stuff – diamond hands, emojis, Gamestonk, Doge
4. Packs
  1. Like our competitors, pack of 5 or 7
  2. This works better for the low end brand
5. Branch out to new products – bracelets, dog silicone accessories, sex toys, menstrual cups
  1. Lots of product devel and marketing effort, which adds overhead, and can distract from main product.
  2. Can test on a small scale before deciding if want to put more effort
Add 1 or 2 more brands
1. Get to sell more on Etsy, perhaps (unless just competing with KT). Lower price drives KT’s prices down perhaps…unless it’s just lower in quality. It’ll attract that lower bracket. Same price will mean….same quality, and normalizing what we charge.
2. Cheap brand – On Etsy, no returns, only exchanges; capture cheap market, sell packs
3. Same/higher price brand – can focus on dual colour and their engraving? Can also “silky smooth” all surfaces, and air flow inner wall.
More marketing / more traffic
1. More Amazon listings
  1. We have so few listings right now. About 5. We should try adding 5 to 10 more. This is probably the fastest way to grow.
    1. New style of striped with air flow
    2. Arc CF with air flow
    3. Edge CF with air flow
    4. Rise CF with air flow
    5. Dual inner colours
    6. Cheap thin bands in packs
    7. If expensive, silky finish
    8. If cheap, put in packs
2. FB ads
3. Collaboration with other brands
4. Paid SEO (hire someone on Fiverr)
5. Free SEO (blogging, VA posting backlinks)
6. PR – get articles, etc
Higher conversion
1. More reviews
2. Better reviews
3. Better products
4. Better prices
5. Better Amazon listings – enhanced brand content, better listing images and title and bullet points
6. Amazon store front
More effective marketing on each platform
1. Is Sellerlabs doing well? How to support them to perform better?
2. Have CA managed by Sellerlabs?
Higher average order value
1. Free shipping with orders > $35
2. Discount when you buy more
3. 48 hour steep sale (so people want to get as many as possible)
Higher returning customer rate
1. Accumulate points
2. Send more emails
3. Retargeting ads
More sales channels
1. Subscription box
2. Wholesale accounts
3. Sell directly to firefighters etc
4. Sell to gyms, stores, etc
5. Walmart.com and other online channels
Better management
1. Keep stock level steady
2. Easy & fast new product design and launch
3. Scalable marketing
4. Cheap marketing (not sure where to find this yet but getting new customers cheap is key)

Action in Priority Sequence:

Get some designs going with Fred
Replen with Martin and set it on autopilot
Start FB advertising
Create more engraving designs

Happy New Year! Goals!

I’m so excited about the new year! I have a good feeling about this coming year!!

2018: BEST YEAR EVER!!!!

BIZ GOALS:

BEAST MODE FOR BIZ GROWTH!

Grow my businesses 6X – new website, more ring designs, more products, wholesale, affiliate, creative tactics, take many small risks!

BEAST MODE FOR PRODUCTIVITY!
Follow the 12 week year schedule, RPM weekly planning, time blocking!
SCHEDULE TIME TO LEARN!

Amazon Selling tips, new income opportunities, and how to model after successful people (e.g. read biographies)

RELATIONSHIP GOALS:

HAVE FUN LOVING ALEX!

Cultivate a fun, loving, supportive, sexy, and genuine relationship with Alex

BE TEAM MONEY MACHINE!

As a team, help Alex achieve financial independence with $5K+/m side income

REMEMBER POWER OF PROXIMITY!

Build fun and meaningful relationships with friends and biz allies

PERSONAL GOALS:

WORK SMART PLAY HARD!

Productive when working; relaxed when playing

MORE ENERGY AND HAPPINESS!

Establish sleep and workout routine, lift weights, laugh lots, meditate, socialize

FEED THE BRAIN WITH AWESOME!

Expose self to enlightening positive idea and people with qualities I admire!

Goal Implementations:

How to 3X website sales?

Diversify rings: Have a very comprehensive ring offering (many designs, colours, sizes, and customizations such as engraving and gift box)
Great website (beautiful images, good UI/UX, SEO’d, high traffic, with great conversion rate of 10% or more) ranked top 3 in the search result.
Website sends out regular newsletters to targeted audience (segmented)
Website has sales funnel
More marketing! Facebook ads, videos
Wholesale, affiliate, etc. See post about website ideas in Evernote.

How to 3X Amazon sales?

Take advantage of Amazon Exclusives!
Launch many more products. Learn from Stan. See what he has. Learn from Amazon experts.
Improve conversion
Be very prepared for Christmas! (In stock, good marketing and sales.)

How to make $3MM?

Etsy engrave necklaces and other things (Can make $250K)
Website 3X (Can make $150K)
Amazon 3X (Can make $426,521.77 x 3 = $1.3MM)
Collaborate with Alex on something bike related (Let’s make $200K, $100K each)
Remaining $1.2MM? Collab with Chinese, create more innovative products, invest in stocks, collab with hospitals for ring wholesale
Learning and keeping positive with positive influence from Amazon experts, SmartPassiveIncome, and my awesome masterminds!

How to have great relationships?

Have lots of fun in South Africa and make good friends!
Keep in touch with my mastermind group
Keep in touch with Stan and Lana

How to reach my personal goals?

Wake up early every morning and seize the day!
Read those books!
Cultivate good habbits
Better time management. Implement what I know from Tony Robbins.
Better focus. Remove distractions.
Play volleyball and get better at it!
Lift weights to build bigger mitochondria for more energy!
Eat healthy but spend very little time cooking! (One day a month)

Vivid Vision 2017

So, now that we are clear that I’m going to make $3MM USD in the next 10 months, with $1MM USD in profit, it’s time to figure out the road map.

How do I make $3MM USD this year? What are some ways?

Really grow Knot Theory (KOR)
Grow existing products
Find new products and sell them
Systemize all of the above!
Open to new opportunities

Grow Knot Theory (KOR)
1. Innovation
  1. Better rings
    1. More durable
    2. Provide very prices silicone info (soft, hard, Newton etc.)
    3. Non fading metallic in singles
    4. Option to flip ring inside out
  2. More styles
    1. Rounded
      1. comfort fit, with engraving on inside and can flip inside out
    2. Different widths
    3. Stackables
    4. Ask “the voices” for ideas! Call them “experts”
    5. More colours
  3. Customization
    1. Custom engrazing
  4. Explore subscription model
  5. Better packaging
    1. Includes ring measure tool? Makes sizing easy for customer’s friends and family
    2. Inspires customers to refer a friend, and makes it easy, fun
    3. Makes educating the gift recipient very easy
    4. Email us for more than 30 days warranty
    5. Eco-friendly recycled plastic and paper for packaging
  6. Include 3 sizes, making it easier to find the right size. Make this version slightly more expensive. Ask to gift the other 2 to friends.
2. Marketing
  1. Better website
    1. Better SEO
      1. Regular blog content update
        
        Hiremymoms.com
        
        Info for each niche
    2. Better conversion rate
      1. What can we do to “help” people buy?
        
        Better FAQ page (see Warby Parker and other ring sites)
        
        Each to reach us by email (chat later on?)
      2. Who is our ideal customer?
      3. Better lifestyle images to inspire
      4. Videos of the rings to affirm the customers
      5. Lots of customer reviews (first grab from Etsy and Amazon)
      6. Design customer end-to-end buying experience – give more than we promise
      7. Appear as experts
        
        write extensively on each niche
        
        go into details about our rings
    3. Grow mailing list
      1. Need to start paying for over 2k people, or start a new list for KOR
    4. Email loop for customers
    5. Email loop for mailing list audience
    6. Gather customer data
      1. e.g. Survey contests. “Not because we want to pry, but because we want to serve you better! All info is anonymous. (should it be??)”
      2. Right after customer buys, send an email to ask them questions and give them gifts for next time they purchase, or coupons to another product, or ebook, or something they want (maybe a choice)
        
        Why do you need a silicone ring?
        
        Ask them how they learned about silicone wedding rings
        
        How they found us?
        
        Why do they chose us?
        
        For self or gift?
        
        Is there an industry that we haven’t thought of?
      3. Also gather their input on what they want
  2. More traffic to our website, Amazon, and Etsy
    1. Social Media
      1. Give out more rings to right people
      2. Instagram
        
        Reach out to influencers for free or paid promotion or kickbacks
        
        When we become an influencer (5K followers) we can co-promote with other brands
        
        Ongoing contests
      3. FB
        
        Currently our largest referer! Need to cultivate this.
      4. Pinterest
        
        Also a large referer.
    2. Collaborations with the voices / experts (and give kickbacks if applicable!)
      1. gym owners
      2. personal trainers
      3. fire fighters
      4. military
      5. charity
      6. …..
    3. Ads
      1. FB
      2. Google Shopify
      3. Pinterest
      4. Instagram
      5. Google Display Ads – retargetting
      6. Ad agency
      7. Trade something with Cyndi?
    4. Build funnel to improve Amazon ranking
    5. More PR
      1. Newsjacking
      2. Maybe hire Summer or similar? for local sales
      3. Maybe a PR for US sales
    6. Collaborate with more people and companies, creatively
      1. Subscription gift box companies (include one with 5 sizes. This is ideal for gifting to complete unknowns)
        
        Need to include size circles so people can figure out which ring is which size (since the sizes are not engraved).
      2. A variety of niches
        
        e.g. shooters, fishermen, sawmill workers
      3. Unions
      4. Companies who offer insurance to staff and want their fingers protected
      5. AirBnb – travellers need these!
      6. Travel agencies
      7. What other industries have lots of married couples
    7. Wholesale
    8. Tradeshows
    9. Sales people to call up stores and prepare orders
      1. Set up warehouse first
  3. More profits
    1. Upsell
    2. More volume
    3. Store in warehouses not Amazon
    4. Custom
  4. Study leaders from different industries
    1. Nike
    2. Qalo
    3. Warby Parker
    4. Weekly brainstorm of ideas and keeping up with the trend (and technology) – e.g. Watch the laser engraving of your ring! Robot to engrave it!
  5. Reward my team
  6. Weekly:
    1. Where are we at in sales? Where do we need to be? What’s to do? Brainstorm.
      1. Customer list growth
      2. Sales number
      3. Profit margin
      4. New wholesale customers
    2. Where are we at in marketing? Where do we need to be? What’s to do? Brainstorm.
      1. Conversion rate
      2. Mailing list growth
      3. New relationships with companies and influencers
      4. New product placements
      5. New PR mentions and impact
      6. What is the upcoming season? How do we prepare?
    3. Where are we at in product innovation? What else can we add to the list? Prioritize.
      1. Delivery Timeline
      2. Test results
    4. What are our competitors doing? How does it impact our roadmap?

Priority:

Schedule time for weekly evaluation
Schedule time for top priority tasks
What are top priority tasks?
1. Urgent and important
2. In terms of short term and long term sales

Top Priority Tasks:

Grow website traffic – learn from Extractafy course – 3 days
1. Facebook Ads
Improve website conversion by building new site – 2 weeks
1. Build new site using Extractafy, shopify (with discount)
2. Once we have all important pieces in place, direct to new rings site from old site
Move old products, reduce inventory
1. Now is a good time to have giveaways
2. Replenish after Feb 15
Page 1 Amazon ranking – ok for now, keep observing
1. Prices
2. Sponsored Ads
3. Facebook Ads
4. Click Funnel
5. Enhanced listing

NYE 2018 Props: Notes on how to sell more in 2017

Some ideas and revelations:

Start sea shipping in Mid September
Estimate selling 1500~2000 set
Start selling in Mid November
Combine NYE decorations and wearables
1. ceiling hanging things
2. hats are popular
3. crowns and horns are good too
Sell corporate-party-friendly sets – maybe a funny office add-on one!
Offer business price
Offer bigger package with repeat pieces so it can be priced at $20
If can have parent-child in this category,
1. create sets of $17 and $30, maybe. Too expensive, don’t get ranked.
2. Perhaps year pieces can be an add-on purchase
Design something with no year on them (or more pieces without the year) so that:
1. Can sell them the next year (but will have to pay storage fees)
2. Customers can reuse them and will see more value in them

PBPBox sell about $26K/month:

https://www.amazon.com/PBPBOX-Photo-Booth-Props-Creative/dp/B01M11XBJ8

Hats are popular and these ones sell about $18K/month: (no year on them)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NBJHUS7

Hanging Swirls (no year on them), doing estimated $30K/month:

https://www.amazon.com/Amscan-Rocking-Hanging-Decorations-Silver/dp/B0092W9AS0

But then, Ash and Parker (me!) is doing an estimated $28K/month

Erm….that’s not true. If I sell 40 a day (doing that about now) then it’s $20K/month.

2017 Goals

Health, Wealth, and Love. And fun new experiences!

Have more stamina
1. Have rhythm in my sleep pattern
2. Meditate
3. Eat more veggies
4. Get my blood measured
5. Get my fitness measured
6. Get a personal trainer
7. Get abs
8. Better skin
9. More hydrated
Have more like-minded, good friends. Including guy friends. Maybe someone I can fall in love with.
Diversify my income streams
1. Well developed channels
  1. Amazon – more and better ads, enhanced content
  2. Etsy – better writing
  3. Shopify – better website, separate Knot Theory Bow ties and Rings
2. More marketing channels
  1. FB video ads
  2. Great IG accounts
  3. Pinterest – ads
  4. Affiliates
  5. Gym partners
3. Dividend-generating stocks
4. Index funds
5. More products for Chaos Games and Ash & Parker
6. 1 more brand that can easily be scaled. Bathroom products, bedding, for example.
Reach >$3MM in revenue and $1MM in profit (6 times 2016)
Volleyball / running / gym partner (Maybe Monique and meetup ladies)

Checklist: How to stick to a habit or goal

Some habits and goals:

Get good at volleyball
Get fit
Rise by 8, bed by Midnight
Work efficiently while having a life.
Clean the house monthly
Monthly tabulation of things: improvements, progress

Some ideas:

Make it fun
Make it social
Set up the environment to minimize effort required to adhere to the habit
Set up reminders of start time (and end time) so I don’t forget to do it
Have an execution plan before starting
Remind self of why I’m doing it. Visualize the desired result and write it down.
Pay for it (e.g. volleyball class, gym membership)
Remind self that discipline is freedom
Measurable improvements
Make it educational (e.g. listen to a book or podcast while doing the task)
Allot time for it; schedule it (e.g. cleaning day)
Make it more varying so it doesn’t get mundane
Commit to doing it for 30 days, and give self a reward when completed
Get enough sleep and hydration so that I’m motivated enough
Encourage myself. Pat on back each time I get it done.
Contingency plans for
1. What if something comes up? (e.g. social event, work, being away, sick)
2. What if I don’t feel like it?

In many ways I feel blessed. I get to stay in a 2 bedroom beautiful condo at Aunt Jane and Uncle Bill’s. There’s no internet, but now, Vanthony are going to Panama for 2 weeks, and asked me to house sit for them. I get internet here! I also get to use the pool, sauna, steam room, etc.

Mom is great to me as usual, making me awesome healthy gourmet food. She is so supportive of me in my biz, and caring of my wellbeing. I’m really lucky to have her.

My friends are good to me…Vanthony definitely are. Wilson and Anna too. Nicole, Deeann, Ainsley not bad. Cyndi is not as good as before. Other friends aren’t really in my life.

My point is, all this support, yet, I have nothing to show for. I wish I could be the one with more than enough money and time so I can help other people. I appreciate being helped, but I feel like I’m always the one being helped and I have nothing extra to give. For example Vanthony….it almost feels like they asked me to house sit for my own benefit not theirs.

This year, before I turn 36, I’m determined to succeed. God help me please. I’m only wishing for one thing. I want to earn $1M USD. I want to earn it through my own talent, skills, cleverness, and some luck. Not money I didn’t deserve. Not money that didn’t require me to have some substance to earn. (Because I need to know that I can duplicate it.)

January 1st seems like yesterday. What have I accomplished?

January
Not sure where time went. Was in Victoria. Not being very productive. Sourced ASM products. Sent out 100 SEO letters.

February
I was travelling in Las Vegas for ASM and in Thailand for 2 weeks. Lots of jet-lag recovering after coming back too.

March
Definitely the most productive month so far.
ASM – The rings are ready to ship. Other people got it done sooner, but I had my obstacles such as the silver colour rubbing off etc. I got a lot of stuff done such as the gift page, the squeeze page, email sequence. mailchimp stuff. Spent about 10, 12 days on this.

Knot Theory – Sent out a promo, sold 2 origami bow ties, tried one facebook ad, rewrote some email loop. Planned out new email loop. Not yet implemented. SEO. Spent about 4, 5 days.

AC – launched Alopecia Channel. Edited the video, created website, signed up for bluehost, created facebook and twitter. Wrote blog posts. Uploaded vids to youtube. Optimized it. Invited Facebook friends to watch it. Emailed alopecia group to view it. Designed logo. Took about 3, 4 days.

Still not sure where some of the days went (Oh I was sick for a week!), but I’m starting to write everything down in the paper planner.

April
Let’s be amazing in April!

ASM – Start selling, start promoting. Give aways. Get reviews. Get at least 30 good reviews.
– Go through Modules
– Ezra facebook ads tutorial
– Take ring photos and maybe videos!

KT – Finish Email Loop. Learn Facebook Ads and other Ads. Take pics of the Hustle bow ties.

AC – release 2 more videos. Do some SEO. Send out emails to people, groups on AW, etc. Prep a video to announce NAAF this year.

SEO – not sure. Market research on SEO tools for entrepreneurs.

SEOD 1 Year Plan

My 1 Year SEOD Plan (by March 2016):

Have 20 clients. Making $10K+ per month

My 90 Day Goal (by June 2015):

Contact 300 prospects. Get at least 3 clients at $600~$1000 each.

My 2 Week Tasks (by March 15, 2015):

1. Contact 100 prospects, round 2 (24h)

KT 1 Year Plan

My 1 Year KT Plan (by March 2016):

Have a flywheel set up so it is growing passively.
The bow tie portion is making $100K per year.

My 90 Day Goal (by June 2015):

Traffic at 300 unique visits per day, making $8000 per month.

My 2 Week Tasks (by March 15, 2015): (4 days of work)

1. Get in line for Pinterest Ads (1h)
2. Contact Youtubers (2h)
3. Start invest all profits into ads (google, facebook) (8h)
4. Study facebook advertising (16h)
5. Some SEO (5h)

ASM 1 Year Plan

My 1 Year ASM Plan (by March 2016):
Earn $1 million USD per year. Sell 137 rings per day.

My 90 Day Goal (by June 2015):
1. Selling 25 rings per day
2. Have 50 reviews at 4.5 stars or higher

My 2 Week Tasks (by March 15, 2015):
1. Have product specification up to my standards, ready for manufacture. (?h)
2. Bar codes and shipping plan ready in Amazon. (4h)
3. Bar codes ready for print, get printing started. (4h)
4. Listing ready to go live. (8h)
5. List of all things to do once the product has arrived! (8h)
– launch plan
– align all resource to get reviews
6. Start on some of the things on the list! (?h)

Category: Goals

Next Steps

More products

Add 1 or 2 more brands

More marketing / more traffic