This episode should be sung to the tune of "The 12 Days of Christmas"

It. Has. Begun.  Or at least, the beginning is within sight!  Today, I talk about the 3 different phases that you find find during the Christmas rush, and how to manage your time during each one.  

If you have been following this podcast for the almost-one-year, you know that this is the prime time for sales coming up.  Many sellers make 70-80% of their sales during this time period!  If you've also been following the advice I've been giving you, you should be well placed to have a nice Christmas season!

You can only learn so much from a half hour per week podcast.  You need more training, and the best place to get that is from the Low Hanging System.  Join me and thousands of others to make the most of this years busiest buying season!

This is a follow up episode to episode 35, where I mercilessly dismantled the "business model" that some people call "Direct Marketing, Multi level marketing or Social Marketing", but more honest and jaded people like me call "Pyramid schemes".

The facts are incontrovertable, and devastating.  Over 99% of people (predominantly women) who get involved with an MLM end up losing money.  A tiny fraction of 1% of people make money, and the median income is $2400 per YEAR, an amount that is laughably small.

Despite these facts, there are still literally millions of people who fall into these quasi-religious organizations every year, throwing over a billion dollars into a black hole where nothing returns.

In this episode, I specifically address two "defenses" of MLMs, both of which are completely absurd.  Please consider sharing this episode with anyone that is contemplating joining up with an MLM, such as Arbonne, Epicure, Young Living, Scentsy or Primerica.

Hello, today we're talking about something a little bit different from the ordinary track.  This episode is focussed on organizations that would like to integrate printed merchandise in a way that both makes money, and helps spread their message.

Here are the 7 points discussed in this episode:

1. Start with your core message, the "why". What sets you apart from other organizations? Why do you exist?
2. Cut your message down to a few key phrases (Hope and Change, MAGA)
3. Put those key messages on all kinds of merchandise, t-shirts and hoodies are primary, but drinkware and other wearables are good as well
4. Market this to your followers using your social media accounts, email lists, and word of mouth.
5. Link them to your store built using Shopify (Wix can work as well, using Printful). Wordpress stores are more difficult to manage.
6. Don't: Offer discounts, beg for help, or oversell. You are selling a message and a cause, not a physical product. Always make the message the primary selling point, not the money raised. People will be more inspired by the desire to be part of the message, than the potential to raise money, plus it is a more "pure" motivation.
7. Don't make POD your primary funding source, because it has limits. You can also offer the merchandise as a perk for those who sign up to fund (Best option)

To learn more about the core philosophy of Libertarianism, visit Mises.org.

To learn more about the Libertarian party, and the inspiration for this episode, visit takehumanaction.com

To learn how to use Print on Demand to make real profit, click here to learn about the Low Hanging System

Today's episode was an interesting journey for me, because I actually didn't know what I was going to find out when I did the research!

In this episode, I discuss a few products that can be done with Print on Demand, and these are items that I don't currently sell, or at least not very extensively, but they are huge sellers, and you should consider branching out down the line to add these to your line up!

The top products are:

1.  Necklaces - from Gearbubble.com

2.  Greeting cards - Gooten.com

3.  Throw pillows - Printful (and others)

I also talk about the kinds of phrases and designs that I see on the top selling items, so have a listen!

Last week there was no episode, and the reason was that I was parachuting into Etsy headquarters, on a mission to infiltrate and obtain the secrets to selling a million dollars a year on the Etsy platform.

I got a little lost though, and I ended up at West Edmonton mall, so I just stayed for the weekend.  Those parachutes are hard to control in the Alberta winds!

Despite my failure to gain entry to Etsy's secret mountaintop lair, I do have a number of fantastic tips for you to use this Christmas season, whether you are a new seller, or a seasoned grizzled Etsy veteran.

Get out there, and take action!

Welcome to the Sales on Demand Show! 

Today's episode is all about the current political climate in North America, and how it affects your business.

Canada is just a few weeks away from a contentious federal election, and millions of people are waiting to see how things will play out at the voting booth.

Voting has been described as the "most important feature of any society", but to be perfectly honest, I've never been able to agree with that.  Choosing someone that you think is going to make the country "successful" is a losing proposition, because no matter who you chose, they always spend more than the last guy, start more wars, drop more bombs, and put the government into more debt.

The system can't save you.  Donald Trump won't save you, and he won't destroy you.  It's true, the government does have the power to make it almost impossible to run a successful business, but smart and determined entrepreneurs can make their business profitable even in the most dire political climate!  

The only person who can truly make or break your business life is you.  

Take action today, and join me in getting ready for the upcoming Christmas season!

To learn more about how I started my business and scaled it into a 6 figure per year enterprise, join me and thousands of other sellers in the Low Hanging System, a start to finish training program for Print on Demand.

Today marks the beginning of Quarter 4, the time of the year that all of us sellers spend our days dreaming of!  70-80% of your sales will occur in this 3 months, and most of that will fall in the last month before Christmas.  

In this episode, I'm giving you the steps to get started selling on Etsy:

1. Etsy still remains the best platform to start selling on, especially for new sellers or anyone with limited funds

2. Creating a store is simple, you need a buyer account first, credit card, and bank account to have funds sent to. Put your store in US dollars, because everyone else does and it makes your price seem normal (Cdn $$ would seem MUCH more expensive)

3. In order to "open" your store, you need to launch one manual listing. Create a design on Gearbubble, download the picture once it's launched, and list it. Once your store is "open", you can use any integration you like. Printful good, but expensive, gearbubble good price, but integration costs money monthly.

4. Start listing a variety of ideas using the basic research methods I've mentioned. Add a few customizeable listings if you want. For research methods, please see Episode 13.

5. Don't bother with ads, they aren't currently profitable.

6. Create a good title with short phrases like "Nurse Mom Gift" and repeat those in the tags.

7. Try Etsy Rank to do a bit of research, free is ok, paid is better. Marmalead is not useful.

8. List 5-10 per day or week for best results. Better to list continuously than all at once, Etsy rewards shops that have consistent activity.

I am part of a training program that can help you accelerate your Print on Demand business.  It is the ONLY training that I've ever taken that I recommend to others!  Have a look here, and if you feel like it might be worth it, join me and hundreds of other sellers making good money this year.

Today I'm taking a little bit of a diversion, but believe me, it's for the greater good of humanity!

So, you are sitting there minding your own business, smiling at pictures of your niece on Facebook (or Instagram), when BAM, you see that your aunt is looking for "10 people who want to lose weight by drinking coffee!".  

Multilevel Marketing (MLM) has been around for a very, very long time, probably longer than any of us have been alive.  I would not be surprised to hear that Pharoah's daughter was found in one of the pyramids, clutching a "Scentsy" brochure in her mummified hand.

The reason that this type of company is so popular is quite easy to identify; people want to make money, and they are intrigued by the possibility of "working from home" and "making money by posting on social media", which is the main selling point of every MLM company.  Is it a scam, or is it a viable work from home business opportunity?  Every MLM company is promoting a real product, something you can touch, share and use.  It all comes down to the structure of these companies, the audience that they are selling to, and the amount of control that each person has over their "business".

If you or someone you love has been effected by an MLM, you should listen to this episode and share it with your friend.  Not only could you save them months of wasted time, but you might be able to point them down the path to a truly viable work-from-home business opportunity (Spoiler alert: It's Print on Demand).  

Articles Mentioned in the episode:

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/the-likelihood-of-mlm-success-1794500

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/business-is-an-mlm-scam-1794756

If you would like to learn more about a REAL, thriving and growing business opportunity, click here to join me and thousands of sellers in the Low Hanging System!  This is how I got started selling, and it is currently the ONLY training program that I endorse.

Keep listening, and join us on the Facebook page to discuss what you've heard and learned. https://www.facebook.com/salesondemandshow

So far, we've talked a LOT about making that cash register ring with a new sale.  If you have the Amazon, Etsy or Shopify app, you already know that it chimes whenever you sell a product, which can be a hugely satisfying and addicting sound.

However, what matter most is not the cash that you earn, but the cash that you KEEP.  Today, I discuss the vital importance of cost management, and how you can maximize the amount of money you actually keep after the fees and costs are deducted.

Some Highlights include:

1.  Advice for new sellers, what expenses are vital, and which ones aren't?  Don't just slash every cost without considering the long term consequences.

2.  Experienced sellers - We often chase shiny objects, special software, or we allow profits to "bleed" away by not managing our banking properly.

Join me and hundreds of other sellers in the Low Hanging System, the training and mentorship program that got me started with my own business!  Click here to sign up (I get a commission if you do sign up, which helps pay for the cost of running this here podcast!)

Summer is over, and I have returned!  10 days of hiking and running around in the mountains, and they loved me so much, they gave me a parting gift of Teen Plague (tm), which robbed me of my voice for another week.

Nevertheless, that's all done and over with, and I've got a very important topic to discuss on this episode, so be sure to have a listen!

Join me as I talk about how to build your business up without going completely broke!  As we approach Christmas, it's quite important for you to think about how you are going to fill the orders you will (hopefully) be getting.  Since many sellers are basically bootstrapping themselves without any outside assistance, this is a real issue that many of us face.  

I also talk about some options that more advanced sellers can use to get faster access to their money, which can be used to reinvest and grow your business.