What I wish I knew before starting my business (7 lessons from my mistakes😊)
If you are new to the online coaching business and digital product business world, I am sharing the little mistakes I have made since starting the business in 2020 so you can learn from them!
In this episode, I'll share 7 things I wish I knew before launching my digital product business - you know, the real mistakes, regrets, and lessons I have discovered.
If you are a coach, creator or someone in the digital product business, I hope this episode will help you start or run the business on the right foot, save money and avoid the mistakes I made :)
In this episode, you'll find out…
Whether I would recommend WordPress or Squarespace for your business website (I think the answer is obvious for more seasoned biz owners ;) )
My $200 rule when it comes to buying lifetime software deals
How to avoid FOMO-driven software purchases
Why I would choose to create consistent podcasting or YouTube content from early on
All the useful tools mentioned in this episode:
✅ Pay once, use forever course & memberships platform : Teachery
✅ (Shameless plug!) Pay once, use forever coaching and mindset tools : shikahanuar.shop
✅ Free mindset and coaching tools to use as lead magnets : https://shikahanuar.com/free-tools
✅ All-in-one platforms: Funnel Gorgeous, FEA Create, GoHighLevel
✅ Smaller all-in-one platforms : She Owns, Funnel Sketchers, Systeme
✅ Pay once pop-up boxes for your sites : Convertbox
✅ Highly-reviewed Wordpress hosting : Lyrical Host, Siteground
✅ Helpful courses : Pinteresting strategies , Kate Doster’s courses
Trancript below:
Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of Feel Good Business. And in this podcast, I share tips on how we can create a business which feels good to us, which nourishes our soul, and at the same time leaves an impact to the world.
I'm Shikah, and in today's episode, I am going to be a little bit more personal, I would say. And we are going to be talking about the 7 things I wish I knew before launching my digital product business. So if you're new to me or my work, I have a business where I sell done-for-you mindset courses, mindset workshops, mindset workbooks to coaches and anybody who's in the personal development niche.
I have actually run this business since 2020, and I've learned quite a few lessons since then, and there have been many ups and downs. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. There are some ups and downs, and especially in the more recent couple of years, there have been downs as well, especially when it comes to AI and competition and all that.
Anyway, I'm going to share some of the mistakes and lessons I've learned, which cost me time, cost me money, and the things that I would change or the things I would do differently if I have to start my business today.
If you are just starting out, you're new to the digital product business or new to coaching, perhaps you may find this episode helpful. And I hope that it's going to save you some headaches along the way, helps you with your decision-making, and helps you get started. in a smooth sailing manner. If you are someone who's already been in business for some time, you may be able to relate to some of the lessons that I'm sharing. So whatever it is, let's get started.
Lesson 1
Lesson number 1 is the debate between Squarespace and WordPress.
So my current blog, shikahanuar.com is under Squarespace.So when I first started out, I went with Squarespace because it's very easy to get started. The templates are very pretty. It's very sleek. You can get your blog running from day one. And I get why so many people love using Squarespace. It's very easy to get started, especially if you're not a technical or not a tech-oriented person like me. But here's the lesson I learned, and this is for me personally. I wish that I had gone with WordPress instead.
So Squarespace is beautiful, but it can— it has a lot of limits as well. And some people say, I'm not sure if this is true, but some people say that the SEO capabilities may not be as robust. And it doesn't have as much flexibility as WordPress does, especially when your business grows. That's when you need more customization, more flexibility. You want to add more things to your website and all that. So WordPress is something that I would go for if I were to start a business today. WordPress has a steeper learning curve.
I mean, I couldn't deny that it's more technical in my opinion, but I feel that the— I feel that the freedom that you get, especially with when it comes to content creation, makes the extra effort actually worth it. And like all things, you know, once we get the hang of something and we get used to it, it actually gets easier along the way.
So I think it's worth the effort to master WordPress or just get used to how it's run. And it can be really freeing when your business grows in future. Some things I like about WordPress is that - this is just from my viewpoint - is that there are some course platforms where you can just pay a lifetime price. I think it's called Fluent Communities, if I'm not wrong. And you can run your courses from your WordPress site, you know, just with a one-time payment and you can add plugins such as like communities, affiliate marketing, and, and many other things to your website, which can be a bit tricky with Squarespace. And also, many software out there play nice with WordPress.
For example, I have this social media management software which I'm currently testing out. It allows me to schedule posts to WordPress but not to Squarespace. So many software do ‘play nice’ with WordPress, so it makes your life much easier in that sense.
And the thing about Squarespace, from my understanding, is that I can't easily move my blog entries from Squarespace to WordPress. It's not that straightforward. So I can't exactly just move today if I want to. I think, I'm sure there are ways around it, but I feel that it's not worth my time and effort. So I'm just going to stay with Squarespace for now.
And I know there are many WordPress hosting out there, but there are 2 which I hear many people rave about. One is Lyrical Host and the other one is SiteGround. So I will just leave the links to all the software I've mentioned in the description box so you can refer to them later for your own reference.
And also one more thing which hurts a little bit is that hosting on WordPress is actually cheaper than Squarespace. Okay, even if I choose something like Lyrical Host, which is a little bit more costly than some of the other WordPress hosts, I believe it's still cheaper than what I'm paying for Squarespace.
If you're starting your website today, you— it's good to think long-term, long-term about your platform instead of what's easy right now, what looks nice right now. So that's just my opinion.
Lesson 2
So lesson number 2 is that lifetime deals can be a hit or miss.
So some lifetime deals can be really worth it. So I'm talking about tools like Heartbeat. Heartbeat, it's a community tool like Skool, S-K-O-O-L. Or encharge.io . It's an email marketing platform. So these 2 have had lifetime deals on AppSumo for a very short time in the past. So these are very good tools, which I think are really worth it because look at what they've become right now.
So they've really grown, the companies and the offerings have grown, and it's really worth the lifetime deal. And also there are some platforms like Teachery, which allows you to host courses, and in future, even communities and memberships as well within one platform. So that’s also a one-time price lifetime deal, which I think is worth it.
And there's also ConvertBox, which is like a marketing tool for your website, which is also a lifetime deal. So I've grabbed ConvertBox and Teachery because I think they are worth it. Like I mentioned, some lifetime deals can honestly be worth the money and I know that many of us have subscription fatigue. I mean, I'm sure many of us can relate to that. You know, everything costs money, everything is raising in prices.
So for me, I run my business in that way as well. So if you need like done-for-you coaching resources or mindset resources, you can go to shikahanuar.shop and whatever you buy there, like a done-for-you workshop or workbook, is lifetime access, no subscriptions ever, not at the moment anyway. So I love that model. And that's why I believe that lifetime deals, when they are done right, they can be very, very valuable to a business owner.
But however, not every lifetime deal is worth it because I've bought many, many lifetime deals in the past, especially when I was first starting out, because I thought they were good deals, but they can be a true waste of money sometimes.
Some of these companies just crash and burn within a year or 2, and suddenly your lifetime deal is just worth nothing because, well, the company is doesn't exist anymore. Some of them do not update their user interface. Some become very outdated.
Some companies will change their terms after 2 years or thereabouts, and then your lifetime deal suddenly becomes not usable anymore or not useful anymore. It's quite a pain, especially when you've paid a few hundred dollars and suddenly the terms are different and you can't use it anymore.
So here's my rule right now. If I were to buy lifetime deals, I'm very selective right now. So my personal filter is that if the cost is low enough, let's say about $200 thereabouts, I'm willing to take the risk of the company potentially closing down, especially if there are other alternatives out there that I can easily switch to. So recently I bought a social media management lifetime deal. I'm still trying it out. It's less than $200.
For me, it's not a big deal because I guess if it goes bust in a year, I can just switch to something else like Buffer or Publer or something easily. So I, that's why I bought it. But if it's a bigger investment, I will actually vet the company first. Like look at how long, how many years they've been around, reviews from real people.
And at the same time, you have to also be aware of the support. That is very important in my opinion. So before I buy a lifetime deal, what I would do is that I will email the software team a few questions back and forth to see how quickly they handle problems, how quickly they handle queries. Some will be just unhelpful and give you cut and paste AI answers.
And some of them will actually have real humans answering your questions. And some software have teams which don't work on weekends. So this is something that I would like to bear in mind before I buy a lifetime deal. I would check out their support, how many years they've been around, and also the cost. If it's something I can risk, then maybe I'll— I'll invest in it.
Lesson 3
Okay. Lesson number 3 is that I wish I had chosen an all-in-one platform from the start.
So when you are starting a business, you may be piecing together like 5 different tools for your email marketing, your courses, your booking calendar and all that. So it can get really messy. So if I were to look back, I would have gone for something like a GoHighLevel white label platform.
So in case you are new to this and it sounds gibberish to you, I will just explain briefly. GoHighLevel is actually a platform which allows you to do so many things. For example, email marketing, social media management, hosting of courses, calendar booking, blogging, all in one platform.
So the thing about GoHighLevel is that it's very technical, it's very tech-oriented. So if you are someone who is very good with tech, then maybe it's something you can consider. But if you are someone who prefers an easier interface, you can look at platforms such as FunnelGorgeous or FEA Create.
So these are white label platforms of GoHighLevel. They allow you to do like some of the things— email marketing, social media management, blogging, and a few other things for one price. I think FunnelGorgeous and FEA Create are about $97 or $100+ per month.
What they do is that they make this GoHighLevel platform easier for you to manage, more approachable, easier for you to use, and better support. So people pay for that. They cost, like I mentioned, about $97 to maybe $100+ a month, which sounds like quite a lot if you're starting out. I understand. But if you look at it properly, you need to pay for blogging, you need to pay for email marketing, you need to pay for course hosting and all that.
It all adds up in the end. And social media management as well- it does add up. So these are some of the more stable alternatives to GoHighLevel if you're not a tech-oriented person, but there are also smaller players out there such Funnel Sketches or SheOwns. I think they cost about $50 or so a month. They also have some, some all-in-one functionalities like email marketing and blogging and, and all that in one platform.
In the past, in 2020, when I was first starting out, only Kajabi and I think Kartra was available at that time. And they were quite costly for me.
So right now there are more all-in-one options for you. So if I were to start a business right now, maybe I'll choose an all-in-one option like these, one of these. You can have your funnels, your email automation, your booking calendars, your courses, your social media management, and blog all under one roof. It will save you a lot of time and also a lot of money as well. You don’t have to buy Zapier or something like that to connect the tools together. So it can be a bit complex.
By the way, if you want another platform, I think Systeme.io is also a good option. It's just that there are some limitations when it comes to product creation. I think it starts at $17 right now per month at the point of recording, but you can only create and sell a few products.
If you are early on in your journey, maybe you can consider an all-in-one system like the ones I mentioned earlier, rather than duct taping 5 different subscriptions together. So this is just my opinion.
Lesson 4
So lesson number 4 is that expensive courses do not always mean that they are better than cheaper courses.
Some of the most helpful courses that I have bought were under $100. And one of the examples that I can give you is Pinteresting Strategies. So that course helped me a lot when I was just starting out and when I was starting out with Pinterest marketing. And it was, if I'm not wrong, it's still $97.
I've also invested in Kate Doster's courses in the past and in her email marketing templates in the past. And if I'm not wrong, a few of them were also under $100, so quite reasonably priced, you know, and very practical to use.
So the lesson I've learned is that price is not always an indicator of, you know, of quality, of how much you will implement. You can pay like $2,000 for a course and if it just sits in your laptop collecting dust, and it's not useful. Whereas a $47 course, for example, can create changes in your business if you actually watched it and took action and implemented what is in there.
When I first started out, I bought a $997 all-in-one business course.
The course was quite basic, but the active community was very, very valuable. So I think there was a Slack community or a Discord community, and whenever you have questions, the coach and the assistant coach will be there to answer your questions like all day long. So that was very valuable.
The community was, you know, it was very active. So when I was starting out, that was incredibly helpful. The business is no longer active, I believe, but it was okay for me because I got so much value from the community whilst it was active, and I outgrew it after some time anyway.
Before you invest in something expensive, in an expensive course, you can just ask yourself, will you truly use it? Are you going to set up a timetable or some kind of schedule to make sure you use it?
Or are you buying it because you think that a higher price tag guarantees better results? Or are you buying this expensive course because it has a celebrity coach?
You know, so you have to ask yourself these questions.
Lesson 5
Lesson number 5 is that FOMO purchases are not encouraged at all.
Okay, so this one is a little bit painful for me because I have to be honest, nowadays I have to be very aware of not buying software because of FOMO, which is ‘fear of missing out’. So in the past I bought ThriveCart. In case you're new to this, ThriveCart is a sales checkout with a course platform, and a few years ago I bought it because people were talking about it.
I bought it because of FOMO, because it has a lifetime deal. And then it kept saying that the lifetime deal is ‘going away soon’. So I bought it because of FOMO. And basically it's just collecting dust in my tech stack right now.
I don't really have a clear use case for it. And that's my fault because I bought it due to FOMO. And when I went in, the whole setup was just too technical for me. I'm not a tech-oriented person. This is from the viewpoint of someone who's not excited about tech. I didn't really like the user interface.
It's just not pleasant for me to use. And I bought it because everybody bought it. And if I were to give some like suggestions to you, I would say don't buy things because of FOMO. And I know that many people have been complaining about the software. If you go to their Facebook page, their ThriveCart Facebook page, many people do have complaints about the software and the complaints have been going on for quite some time.
So that's why I would suggest that you do not buy things out of FOMO and to have a clear use case for it. This is what I would do differently right now. Before I buy any tool, I would write down exactly what I'm going to use it for.
Not a vague idea in my head - but an actual specific use case for the tool. So if I can't articulate clearly, if I can't write it down clearly what I'm going to use it for, then I will not buy it.
And if there is a free trial available, I will take it because the free trial will buy you some time— time for you to let the initial excitement and urgency-driven marketing to wear off, and time for you to try out the software to see whether you like it and whether you will actually use it before you make a decision to buy it.
So you are making a decision based on logic and your own practical use case and not because of FOMO or some other heightened emotions. If after the trial period, you find that it's useful and you really find it very beneficial for your business, then you can purchase it and invest in it. If not, you just saved yourself some money. So lesson number 6 is to have fewer, stronger lead magnets.
Lesson 6
So lesson number 6 is to have fewer, stronger lead magnets.
I have about, I think more than 20 free coaching tools and lead magnets on my blog, which is shikahanuar.com . And if I were to start a business today, I would have gone a different route. I would have created maybe a few or several very strategic lead magnets instead of creating 20 or 30 free lead magnets for people.
Specifically, I would have offered mini workshops instead of PDF downloads. So the thing about mini workshops or workshops in general is that they have a more personal touch. When someone joins you or watches your recorded workshop, they hear your voice, they see your face. They can feel your energy. They can get to know your worldview.
They can get a feel of what it's like to work with you. So it builds trust and community quite quickly. It builds trust much faster than someone just downloading a checklist or an ebook, and then they forget about it in the inbox.
So if I were to start over, I would have offered mini workshops, which is free lead magnet. And if you are looking for workshops as lead magnets, you can get some done-for-you workshops from my shop, shikahanuar.shop , and you can go and browse through some workshops that you can purchase, or even some other tools which you can purchase to use as lead magnets for yourself.
Lesson 7
This is the one that I think about the most, and this is one which I wish I had really started much, much earlier - which is to show up on podcasts and YouTube more consistently. So for example, I would have chosen to invest my time in podcasting or making YouTube videos at least once a week.
When we want to build a brand or a following, it does take time.But content platforms like podcasting or YouTube, for example, and even blogging, they compound in a way that not a lot of other marketing platforms do. For example, every episode or every video that you make, or even every blog post, can become a piece of evergreen content that keeps working for you years and years even after you've published them. And the thing about podcasting or YouTube videos is that you can turn the transcripts into blog posts. And I have blog posts with freebies from about 4 years ago, which people are still signing up for. So your video from 3 years ago can still get views and build trust now. And people can listen to your podcast episodes from last year and learn from you even now. So it's it's very worth your effort and your time. You invest your time in creating a podcast episode or video, and it can do your work for you years and years from now, provided that your content is of course evergreen, such as spirituality, mindset, motivation, well-being, something which is relevant regardless of time.
So podcasting and YouTube build trust, and they build familiarity, and they build like a genuine following. And I know some coaches who built some kind of ‘celebrity’ image because they've been showing up on podcasts and YouTube for so many years. And because they have this quote-unquote celebrity coach image, they can charge really premium prices for their products and services.
So if you're on the fence about starting a podcast or YouTube channel for your coaching business or for your digital product business, I would say you can start thinking about it now and being consistent is actually very important and it's going to pay off in ways which you can't see yet right now.
Also, it depends on your personality. If you are an introvert, maybe podcasting is more suitable for you. For example, I am an introvert, so I prefer podcasting because being on camera takes up too much of my energy for me personally.
So if you are an extrovert and you love being on camera, you have high energy, you're energized by interactions - maybe going live on YouTube, going live on Instagram is going to be an approach which is suitable for you and your personality.
So your personality also plays a part. Blogging is also still very relevant. However, I feel that in this era, people are really turning to videos and podcasts more than blogging. Blog posts can be a transcript of your video and your podcast episode. So if someone doesn't have the time to listen to you or watch you, they can read on your blog. These go hand-in-hand.
Which of these lessons resonate with you the most?
Let me know which of these 7 lessons resonate with you the most or gives you that aha moment, and you can email me and let me know.
And if you like this episode, you can give me a 5-star rating. Thank you very much. Or if you want to talk to me via email about this episode, you can email me. The link to my email is in the description box. And if you're a coach or in the personal development niche, you can get free lead magnets to use in your business from my blog, shikahanuar.com . So that's all for this episode. I will see you in my next episode.
Some of the links above may be affiliate links & I only recommend items which I genuinely think are value-for-money. 💛