Month: February 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?

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

1. 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
               1. Hiremymoms.com
               2. Info for each niche
         2. Better conversion rate
            1. What can we do to “help” people buy?
               1. Better FAQ page (see Warby Parker and other ring sites)
               2. 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
               1. write extensively on each niche
               2. 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)
               1. Why do you need a silicone ring?
               2. Ask them how they learned about silicone wedding rings
               3. How they found us?
               4. Why do they chose us?
               5. For self or gift?
               6. 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
               1. Reach out to influencers for free or paid promotion or kickbacks
               2. When we become an influencer (5K followers) we can co-promote with other brands
               3. Ongoing contests
            3. FB
               1. Currently our largest referer! Need to cultivate this.
            4. Pinterest
               1. 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)
               1. 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
               1. 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:

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

Top Priority Tasks:

1. Grow website traffic – learn from Extractafy course – 3 days
   1. Facebook Ads
2. 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
3. Move old products, reduce inventory
   1. Now is a good time to have giveaways
   2. Replenish after Feb 15
4. Page 1 Amazon ranking – ok for now, keep observing
   1. Prices
   2. Sponsored Ads
   3. Facebook Ads
   4. Click Funnel
   5. Enhanced listing