BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WHILE FEEDING YOUR STATIONERY HABIT

Stationery addict? Read on!

As an entrepreneur, there are a few moments in biz life where things start to feel like you’ve finally ‘made it’. The first time you land a big client, the first financial return to the taxman and the first time you hold something tangible in your hand with your brand on it. There’s no feeling quite like it.

But as we know, being a business owner isn’t all Insta-perfect selfies and a carefree lifestyle. Life happens. Things get in the way. Family and friends will occasionally need you to prioritise them, your health might need you to step back from the business and sometimes you’ll need to switch off for a day or two or worst case scenario, even longer than that.

It happens to the best of us. And we’ve all read the advice to make sure there’s enough in the pot to cover slack times in business. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. The best protection against the little hurdles life likes to spring upon us is to have a passive income stream bringing in a trickle of cash to your biz without you having to do a thing.

One of the best ways to get that is to have an evergreen product that looks after itself after you’ve done the initial setup. The ideal product for this is to create your very own branded book. “But Cat, surely a branded book is expensive to get designed, made and printed?” I hear you cry! The good news? It’s much simpler than you think and already in your grasp.

Imagine meeting with a potential client and instead of pulling out a generic notebook for your notes, you had a book with your branding on the front. What message does that tell your client? It immediately builds authority, gives your business a massive boost of credibility and they’ll trust that you’ve got the skills and experience to help them.

How many times have you bought the next ‘perfect’ daily/weekly/monthly planner only to abandon it half-finished (if you even get that far through it!) because the layout wasn’t quite right, or it didn’t have the right trackers or enough writing space?

Once you know how to create a branded book, your imagination is your ONLY LIMITATION for how many ways it can be used.

Create your ideal planner to use in your every day working life – you get to decide the layout, you can choose what to track and you’ll never have to get frustrated again about it being ‘not-quite-right’ for you.

Create a whole line of stationery that you know your clients will love (or just for fun) if it fits with your business model. Offer it as an added value element they get for working with you or sell it separately for extra income.

Create 1, 2 or 10 different notebooks with fun slogans on it if that’s your brand voice. Give them out at conferences and events in place of a flyer and watch your brand awareness skyrocket.

Not only will it make people remember you as they use it, but you’ll also be attracting a whole new tribe of customers to you when they find them online.

You can even take it to the next level and team up with other brands your customers are likely to love and add your branded books to a subscription box. Not only will your customers get goodies and useful items they’re going to love, monthly, but you’ll uncover a new client base and get your brand out into the world.

And the other beauty of creating your own books with your branding is that you can start selling them globally on Amazon. Each month more than 197 million people browse on Amazon.com – that’s an astronomical number! Even if only 0.01% of those people saw your branded book, that’s still 19,700 people.Thousands of people seeing your brand, potentially checking out your website, maybe subscribing to your email list and perhaps becoming a customer. Now that’s what I call a great lead magnet!

The biggest fear business owners have about creating a physical product to sell is that they’ll have huge outlay costs, have boxes of stock lying around their office and ended up losing money. In reality, all you need to get started is an internet connection, your laptop and a fresh cup of whatever beverage you fancy.

Learning how to brand your own books takes under an hour, doesn’t use any expensive software or tools to get a professional finish and they’re sold print-on-demand. No wasted resources, no excess stock cluttering up your space and kind on the environment to boot. What’s not to love?

On top of all that, you’ll never have to pay for another over-priced planner, jotter or notebook ever again (thank you, love, your bank balance).

You can sit back, take the Duvet Day you so desperately deserve safe in the knowledge that your business is still working hard for you. A well-rested you is a more productive you – so when you do get back to the day-job, you’ll be all the better for it.

Ready to hop into the branded books world and get going? I’ve developed a DIY online course which will get you started in less time than it takes to watch an episode of Stranger Things.

Head on over to Branded Books to check it out and get your branding out to the world.

Feed the stationery addiction AND feed your business bank balance.