Shopify Success: 3 Easy Growth Steps to Unlock Your First $5,000 Month

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By following this guide you will be posting about your Shopify Success in all the groups! You will be quite surprised with how easy it is to make this your first $5,000 month, and I'm talking net profit.

When starting out with ecommerce too often people get caught up in the details that really do not matter. I am asked all the time about whether their CPM's are too high or if high engagement on a post will result in sales or how big their audiences need to be.

While this has some bearing on the overall product launches, they are much further down the list of importance as you might expect.

You are going to learn the very steps I used for my own Shopify success and the reason I was able to make $535,294 in 6 Months. 

In this article I will show you how easy it is for you to make your business successful, not next month, but this one.

The secret sauce is in your process.

Let me explain;

Your Shopify Success: Your First $5,000 Month

1. Consistency of Process – Launches Per Day.

The common trait in every rags to riches story will always stay the same. Every successful individual has the trait that you will shortly possess. In order to be successful we must be persistent and to be effectively persistent we need a plan. For an effective plan we need an effective process.

With an effective process success becomes inevitable. In my time with Teespring and speaking with the guys that were selling thousands of shirts a week the common thread to success was the Launches Per Day (LPD).

The higher the LPD the more profit was being made. The successful guys were doing 20+ launches per day of new designs and absolutely raking it in. They didn't start there but they started with a consistent process that allowed them to have design requests going through to their designers to allow them to have the quantity of work they needed to keep up those launches.

When launching that amount of designs they were learning very quickly what people wanted, what interest targeting worked, what designs sold and were educating themselves with data Facebook was giving them. In order to maintain their LPD's and increase their profits they needed to have an overall statistic that was accurate, fast & reliable.

a. The Key Statistic = Conversions

The statistic that mattered and continues to matter is how many conversions you're getting for your money. The more conversions, the more profit (so long as you are scaling correctly/profitably). Identifying conversions as the main indicator of a campaigns success gave the consistency to apply a process for success.

Think of it this way, if we are only launching 1 successful campaign/product in 20 then we need to get to 20 quickly in order to start making money.

  • 1×7=7 (1 Launch per day of the week)
  • 20/7=2.85

In this scenario of only launching 1 product a day its going to take a very long time to reach a profitable level. Potentially waiting 3 weeks for your first success will be incredibly draining and wreek havoc on your state of mind.

As a starting point I would suggest aiming for 5 products per day.

  • 5×7=35 (5 Launches per day for a week = 35
  • 35/20= (Number of campaigns launched to find 1 successful product = 20)

When you start launching 5 a day your road to success is much shorter and potentially you will be finding 1.75 or close to 2 products each week that will need scaling. Shortening the length between success is imperative to keeping your momentum and motivation high.

These numbers are arbitrary however serve as a guide to explain the importance of increasing your output to increase your return.

Making this your first $5,000 month is much easier when you lay it out like this.

b. The Key to Profitable Advertising

Alongside LPD's you will need a threshold that you're willing to stake on ad budget (on a single ad. I typically run 2 ads for each product). This is the amount of ad spend you are willing to lose to test a product. A consistent approach here will give you a consistent outcome.

The way I usually work out my threshold is by doubling the profit margin of the product I'm selling. This is obviously easier to do when your products remain the same, i.e. Hoodies or tshirts as opposed to dropshipping where each product will typically have a different margin.

If you are a dropshipper then I suggest working out your AOV (average order value) and doubling your average profit per order to get your threshold.

The reason we have this is so we can turn ads off immediately once they've triggered the stop loss. Every new ad I run (typically 2 for each launch, a broad interest and specific interest ad) these rules apply. Using shirts as an example;

  • 1 x Broad interest ad $10 Budget/day – Run for 2 days. If $20 without a sale turn off.
  • 1 x Specific interest ad $10 Budget/day – Run for 2 days. If $20 without a sale turn off.
  • Potential Loss – $40.
  • Potential Gain – Unlimited.

2. How to Increase Your Output – Tools.

To be able to launch 5 campaigns a day you will need to spend some hours researching in order to get your workflow to a consistent level. This may be spending a few hours on Aliexpress searching for products you want to try for your niche.

If it's POD you will be searching everywhere to find sayings that you can spin to your own niche, and I'm not talking about just swapping out the niche…i.e swapping out hunting for cycling.

The important key to making this all work is setting up Trello to ensure every product you find gets launched. While you need to keep a discerning eye on the products you are wanting to launch, i.e. quality, consistency of brand etc you need to remove your emotion from your launches.

Numerous times over the years (too many to count) the products I didn't think would do well were the ones that would go viral. Strange, either my radar is off or the market is just that unpredictable.

Shopify Success
How I set up my Trello Board for Launches

Using Trello is incredibly easy and has been one of the keys to my success over the past few years. It allows you to easily keep track of the process each step of the way. Working closely with platforms like this ensures everything is kept central. If you have any notes on a particular product you can add them as a note to your board.

Shopify Success
Process Storehacks Workflow

I have my VA's launch products and then add them to the “Ads – To Do” board either for me or for the team member responsible for getting those ads launched.

It is imperative that you do every step in batches and actioned for specific days.

  • Step 1 M-T – 1-3 hours of product research. Send to designer or add to launch list.
  • Step 2 W – Product Launches – Setup products correctly on platform. Correct ad copy and images
  • Step 3 Th – Run Ads
  • Step 4 F – SCALE SCALE SCALE

3. How to Increase Your Profit

The reason I love this process so much is that it becomes second nature. It's easy and replicable meaning the consistency allows to increase your available time to look for other opportunities to increase your profit.

Following these steps will ensure this is your first $5,000 month. If you haven't read The Top 10 Best Apps on Shopify in 2018 jump over and read it now. It is full of gold for unlocking extra pockets of profit. Once your store is setup for success with the apps mentioned, following the process outlined above will ensure you are grabbing every bit of profit you can.

Making the most of your front end traffic is hugely important. Particularly when the conversion rate is such a small percentage of the audience that you're advertising to. Every little bit counts and it sure as hell ads up.

Conclusion

Your first $5,000 month is not around the corner, you can be doing it this month. With consistency of action success becomes inevitable. It is by chunking your goals down into repeatable steps that your business becomes easily profitable. Each day you know exactly what you need to get done and will be able to attack it effectively.

To have an action plan for each part of your business is incredibly important. I'm still learning how important it is and have just started using the Best Self Journal which sets each and every day into small goals to achieve a bigger 13-week goal. It chunks your overall goals down into bite-sized achievable daily goals. Check it out Best Self by clicking here.

 

 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you so much for this article!!

    Do you have any recommendations for courses about product design and design selection?

    I am starting this POD business and your article helps simplify the process a lot. I have taken a few courses about starting dropship/POD businesses but the problem is I still don’t understand about how to select good designs. I know how to research and select a niche but when it comes to designing good designs for that niche, I am totally blank! Hope you would have any recommendations for me. Thanks a lot.

    • Hey Polly! (I hope that’s your name). There are no courses as such about where to find good designs (if you find something let me know), however there are ways that can make it easier for you to come up with ideas.

      I am not fantastic at coming up with the ideas and I have been lucky enough to have had a business partner in the past that could spit them out like a generous ATM. So now, since rolling solo what do I do? I look out for other products in my niche that may have a saying that I like and save it for when I see something else, perhaps in another niche and then meld them both together to get a unique phrase.

      I remember one of my best selling shirts… “This girl is taken by a smokin’ hot & awesome, chubby bearded dude… and yes he bought me this”. It was my first shirt that sold over 1000 units in a week.

      Previously I had seen a similar saying without the chubby added into it. What I had noticed was through comments on previous shirts that I had run ads to, that bearded guys were proud of being on the heftier side. So I thought I’d try the blended design.

      Another of my best sellers were the LOVE series where the word was spelt out with elements from the niche. The photography LOVE was the DSLR on its back with the lens pointing in the air. the aperture, another lens and a piece of film that went from forming part of the V to making the e.

      Early on though with starting out your best spot would be to look at amazon and ebay best sellers, etsy and redbubble. Finding the ones that have sold a ton designing better and putting your own tweak on it.

      Once you start getting a catalogue of ideas together it is important to set a quantity you want to launch each week and stick to it. If you can do 20 do 20, just keep it the same. It will build consistency which builds habits and they are the keys to success.

      I hope that helps, I have now had a couple of Rosé’s so I’m not sure how coherent I am haha.

      • Hi Ronnie! Thanks so much for your swift reply.
        I have a few more questions and I hope you are sober enough to reply 🙂

        Do you focus on one niche or several niches LPD?
        Can you elaborate more on the difference between broad interest and specific interest FB ads?

        I really appreciate this. Thank you.

        • Absolutely. I’ve slept it off now haha.

          LPD = Launches per day

          Typically I focus on several niches at once. I have a core 5-10 niches that I know just work so I use that as my bread and butter. As I get new campaigns that are going well I will start running campaigns into other niches I am wanting to bring in. While my main focus is 5-10 I would be able to step into about 20 or so where I know the targeting and it’s just a matter of time having designs etc to run to them.

          I suggest starting with 5-10 to test your designs. Particularly with POD. Although in saying that I know plenty of guys who focus on one and dominate it.

          Broad interest = Golf, Golf Club, Golf Course
          Specific interest = makingbirdies.com, golfballs.com, PGA Tour

  2. Hey Ronnie,
    I read your story and it was as if I was reading my own online journey in print. Have been with Amazon for past 5 years with some success, but in the last year was swallowed up by cash flow difficulty trying to keep up with inventory. A year ago started my own shopify store and for some reason have not been able to get any traction with FB ads to get my POD business off the ground.

    I appreciate having your blueprint to finally get my store going. My question is twofold…first, am I correct in saying that I should expect to invest approximately $700 a week in ads to find 1 to 2 winners in getting started. And secondly, have any of the changes in FB advertising had an impact on the 5 launches per day, or have the numbers remained fairly consistent if following the plan.

    I am ready to put the blinders on and ignore everything else to move forward. Very glad to find a calming “matter of fact” voice in the midst of the online chaos. Thanks so much.

    • Hey Karen,

      Thank you for your comment and your kind words. One thing that has been consistent over the years is the cyclical nature of my business. There are dry times and there are times of good fortune where everything you launch needs scaling.

      There has been quite a lot of changes recently, however, there are still plenty of folks out there that are starting out, getting tractions and building profitable stores quickly. They are able to do that by following the guidance of others and by sticking to a plan.

      In regards to the outlay, it is entirely up to you and your level of comfort how much you’re willing to spend to find a winner. I am actually in the process of launching a new store, Facebook is being rough but I still believe we will find the sweet spots for our ads.

      I hope that helps… I certainly don’t want to cause you any more confusion! ha.

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