In this week's Quick Tip Wednesday, I'm sharing with you the secrets behind what it took to build my first 6-figure year with my small business, Plant Based Beauty.
If you are currently struggling to get more sales, or if you are working SO hard to grow your business without the results you expected, then take a listen to this episode to hear about the same exact hurdles that I had to overcome, and to learn what is required of you to reach YOUR first 6-figure year.
LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
In this week's Quick Tip Wednesday, I'm sharing with you the secrets behind what it took to build my first 6-figure year with my small business, Plant Based Beauty.
If you are currently struggling to get more sales, or if you are working SO hard to grow your business without the results you expected, then take a listen to this episode to hear about the same exact hurdles that I had to overcome, and to learn what is required of you to reach YOUR first 6-figure year.
LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
[00:00:00] Monica Little: Hello and welcome to the Product Biz Podcast. This is episode number 40, and my name is Monica Little. I'm your host, and this week we have a quick Tip Wednesday. So this is Actionable Insights, 15 minutes or less that you can walk away with some tangible tasks, insights, tips, tricks on how to run your business.
[00:00:22] In today's episode, I wanna give you a little bit more context about my first six-figure year with plant-based beauty. And I know as we are still in q1, the January, February, March timeframe, a lot of small business owners are working on their business, doing so much, working on the foundations, trying new things, going outside of their comfort zone, really building the foundations of their business.
[00:00:49] But maybe. , just maybe they aren't seeing results from their efforts just yet. And as I think back to my first six figure [00:01:00] year, I think what you're going to notice is this is something that is super, super, super, super common. And what really happens is what you're doing, how you're showing up, it compounds over time.
[00:01:13] and it's not going to be something that maybe the work you do today leads to the results tomorrow. It might be that you're spending more time working on the foundations before you actually see the fruits of your labor. But sharing the story of plant-based beauty and my first six figure year, I think will be extremely eye-opening and hopefully motivating and inspiring for you to keep going.
[00:01:35] So my first six figure year with plant-based beauty was 2020, and I left my full-time job, as you have heard me say before. At the end of 2019, December 31st, 2019, I left my full-time. I started working for myself in January 1st, 2020, and that was the first year that I did make six figures. But a lot of times when people hear this, oh my gosh, a six figure year, what [00:02:00] they may think is consistent sales every day, all day, every week, every month, kind of slowly growing or pretty steady or.
[00:02:09] Or just coming in in this really consistent fashion. And although I will say that consistent sales are possible, what has to happen first is building the foundation before you even get to the state of having consistent sales. And that is exactly how my first six figure a year with plant-based beauty was.
[00:02:32] I remember January. March, even into April, even into May. I was working on my business 40, 50, 60 hours a week. I left my full-time job. I was so excited. I was so motivated. I had all this time to work on my business, and this was my dream and my vision and my goal of what I wanted to grow. And I was working so hard on my business those first four or five months of the year, and I'm gonna tell you straight up that I [00:03:00] sought barely any results.
[00:03:03] Barely any results. I was spending so much time in my business and I didn't see instant results, but that year ended up being a six figure year, and what I did is worked. One project at a time, one foundation at a time, one pillar at a time, and there were months and days and weeks where I was freaking out.
[00:03:29] I was breaking down, I was having meltdowns because I was working so hard, but nothing, quote unquote, seemed to be working. Little did I know that everything was brewing underneath the surface. Everything was coming into fruition. Everything was starting to compound on itself, but it needed some time to grow.
[00:03:46] And it's super interesting. In my first six figure year starting May, things started to pick up. I remember January, February, March and April. Like I said, I had meltdowns. I told my husband, I can't even imagine, and I can't even tell you [00:04:00] how many times I told my husband crying that I need to go back to find a job because I'm blowing through the little bit of savings that I had.
[00:04:07] I thought working on my business would mean more sales because I was spending more time on my business, but that wasn't happen. I had a meltdown after meltdown, after meltdown, after breakdown, after breakdown, after wanting to throw in the towel, after tears, after crying myself to sleep after wondering what am I doing wrong?
[00:04:25] And what happened is in May it started to come into fruition, things started to click. The projects that I worked on, that I finished, were starting to actually bring me some results. . And then as the year went on, June started to become even better and July was even better. And then August was even better.
[00:04:43] And then by the time I hit the holiday season, December of 2020, I think I sold about $30,000 worth of products. I don't know if it was November and December or just December, but I ended the year with a crazy bang during the holiday season [00:05:00] because I spent all of that time building the foundations. And now when I see people who are really struggling because they're putting in the work, but they're not seeing the results, this episode is for you to tell you that that's normal.
[00:05:16] It's going to happen, and you have to be in it for the long run. I gave this example to my Chronic BI Academy members. I was reading a book and I think it was Atomic Habits, and what they mentioned in the book is the Bamboo Plant. What you may not know about the bamboo, obviously they have these big stalk that come out of the ground and that grow.
[00:05:38] It takes a bamboo five years for the roots to establish, for the roots to grow before that stock shoots out of the ground. It takes five years of building roots of building foundation before the actual plant appears. And here we are as business owners, doing one thing today, expecting results [00:06:00] tomorrow.
[00:06:00] If you want instant results, offer your products for 50% off. Offer your products for 75% off. If you wanna make sales tomorrow, you can do something quick, Twitch like that. But it's not building a business. Doing things for instant results, doing things for quick hits, doing things today, expecting a result.
[00:06:20] Tomorrow is not building a. Building a business is actually building a machine, and it takes time, it takes energy, it takes effort, and you're not gonna see the results today or tomorrow, or next week even, or next month maybe. And I love this metaphor that when you're building a car, imagine building a car from scratch.
[00:06:40] You're in the garage, you're building it, the pieces, the tools, everything coming together. You're not driving the car and building the car at the same. So if you are in a building phase right now, if you're building the car, if you're building the machine and you're expecting to also whip it around the block and drive it, that [00:07:00] doesn't make sense.
[00:07:00] It's literally not possible. So if you're building the car, you have to have the patience of, I'm gonna show up every single day to build this car one piece at a time, and when it's ready, I'm gonna drive. I'm gonna drive cross country, I'm gonna drive wherever I want. I'm gonna take this on a road trips, I'm gonna go see the.
[00:07:18] But for some reason with our business, we expect instant results. And I say this coming from me personally, who also felt that way as, as you heard me say, I was having breakdowns in tears and crying because it wasn't happening fast enough. But if you're a business owner, you truly have to be in it for the long run because it's not gonna be instant.
[00:07:38] And this is the biggest difference between a hobby and a business because people who run a hobby, they expect things to happen instantly. But when you run a business, you have to know that you are in it for the long run. You have to love what you do so much to be okay with not getting results. Right. , [00:08:00] you have to love what you do.
[00:08:01] So much to be okay with never getting results, but still saying that you're gonna show up every single day regardless and do it. And the amount of people who can say, yes, that's me. Even this amounts to nothing. Even if I make no sales, I don't care because I'm bringing joy on my social media. I'm bringing joy from the few people who do buy.
[00:08:21] Even if I got zero sales, I will still do. . That is a mentality that you have to have because you have to be in it for the long run. You have to be in it for however long it's going to take, and there's not a lot of people who would say, if this didn't work out, I would still do it. A lot of people only do it for the money.
[00:08:41] A lot of people only do it for the success. You have to do it because you love to. , you have to do it because you have a long-term dream, a long-term vision. You have to do it because you love hearing from your customers how they feel, and you have to show up every single day remembering that it's not going to be instant.
[00:08:59] And [00:09:00] sure there are some cases of people who are overnight success who blow up on social media, but they are as quickly an overnight success as quickly. They probably fall right. Because they haven't built the car, they haven't established the roots in the ground, they haven't built a machine, they haven't built a business.
[00:09:19] They just lucked out. And as lucky as they are, they're probably gonna be just as unlucky to phase out and be yesterday's news and be no longer relevant in a matter of days or months, however long it may be. So the main moral of the story here is show up for your business every. You have to love what you do.
[00:09:40] You have to show up with no expectations, with no need of certain results. You have to show up with just the idea that I am building a business because I love what I do. I'm in it for the long run, and I want this to be my future. And if you can show up every. [00:10:00] Releasing expectations, putting in the work, putting in a lot of hard work, making hard choices, investing in your business, doing things that scare you, doing things when you're not ready for them.
[00:10:11] Spending time, a lot of time on different projects to get your business out there, to see the fruits of your labor later on, then that is how you build a six figure business, and that is how it came for. Month after month in January, February, March, April, I focused on different projects. One month it was Etsy.
[00:10:34] The next month it was Pinterest. The next month it was my website. The next month it was really going into social media. The next month it was store outreach. The next month it was fair. I built a machine, optimized all of these different places, didn't get any instant results from it, but then it came full circle.
[00:10:56] and then I had my first six figure year. [00:11:00] So I want to just remind you that if you're struggling right now, if you're not getting the sales that you want, if you're in this comparison game, you're seeing others that are doing so great, but you're not there yet and you're working so hard, just know that in due time it will happen.
[00:11:16] But you have to have the mindset to know that it's. Going to be instant. It might take some time, and to be okay with that and to be able to show up every day knowing that if you can do. If you can show up with no evidence, if you can show up and bust your ass every single day without instant results, if you can show up happily excited, enthused, engaged, and ready to keep building this machine for your future without having the results right now, that is the difference maker between a six figure business and the one who gives up, the one who stops showing up, the one who compares and goes into a hole and lives in that hole instead of living to their true.
[00:11:58] So looking back with [00:12:00] plant-based beauty, I realize how hard it was those first few months. But now looking back, I realize how important those months were. I needed those slow months to build and do those projects in order to get the exposure later on. That set me up for my first six figure year. So whatever you are going through right now, just to know that it's happening for a reason, you're building something for the long.
[00:12:26] And it's going to turn out in your favor as long as you keep showing up day after day, building your machine, building that car, and letting those roots grow. So that is really the message that I wanted to share with you today. It's more of a mindset, quick tip. Wednesday, more of a frame of mind, more of just giving you encouragement and inspiration to keep building your business, to keep going outside of your comfort zone, to keep learning new things, to keep showing up no matter where you are right now.
[00:12:56] And I really hope. That this message resonated with you. If you [00:13:00] have any questions or feedback at all, I would love to hear from you on Instagram. My Instagram handle is Monica Little Coaching and I will see you next week on the next episode of the Product Biz Podcast.