The Livelihood Podcast

In this episode we look at how to start an online business online in 2021. We go over the core concepts everyone should know before they start a business, and discuss how and when you should implement those.

We ask the question - Should you start a business by creating content first or creating a product first?

We explain conversion rates for Instagram and why it might not be that important having 10,000 followers when you are trying to sell

We talk about why SEO is such an important aspect of any modern business.

We talk about the real value of creating content marketing for your website.

We explain the value of traffic, and use an example of how you could sell a website for 6 figures that has never made a sale before.

Brought to you by https://www.onthejobmarketing.com/

In this episode we discuss budgeting, we reflect on how we both used to be massively in debt and waiting for the next pay slip. What changed so we were able to invest into businesses? 
Alex discusses how his strategy allowed him to set clearer objectives in his business and divide his attention to win. Finally Alex discusses his latest experiments with social media on his page @madebyparallel.

Follow Alex on IG - @alexdpeet
Follow Luke on IG - @thelukeemery

Alex has recently made the move from Cornwall to Spain as the digital nomad lifestyle consumes him. 

After strolling round a quaint marketplace looking at the strange bric and brac wears of old men that no one wants to buy; he questions whether he is taking a similar approach to them and being product lead rather than market lead.

Alex and Luke debate either side, as Luke takes a business approach of being market lead and Alex takes the approach of being product lead.

Luke tells the story of Doja, a scared 4-7 month old puppy he saw living on the street with a dislocated hip. Luke rescued her off the street, took her to the vet to have surgery on the hip and now she lives happily with Luke!

Luke tries to convince Alex to sell custom weed grinders, but Alex explains why it doesn't fit in with his brand.

In this 1 year anniversary episode we laugh at all the business ideas we've come up with on the show, including selling trousers to the Police. We discuss whether Alex should move his Amazon business to the US and go over our theory on how to run a successful social media page. This is a theory since we've not done it ourselves because social is f*cking hard.  

Big News - Luke sold Van Woof! If you don't follow the show, here is a brief summary - 

Van Woof was started as a 2 week competition between Luke and Alex to see who could make the most money selling products on Etsy. Luke went on to be featured on the BBC, The Side Hustle Show and sell nearly $400k of pet portraits in 10 months!

Luke decided to sell the business, and we discuss why and what Luke's future plans are.

We briefly go into some small investing strategies that we use, and companies both of us are invested in.

Alex has spent the last couple of months designing some new products. We discuss what Alex should do to market those products.

Alex is getting an apprentice for his business. We discuss the programme in the UK he used to get one, paid for by the government and what training he's going to put in place for them. We talk about feeling nervous about being "the boss" in a situation where no-one really knows what to do. We discuss questions like are they they future of employment? Are Universities History? Embarrassing stories from both Luke and Alex. 

Luke is already thinking about his next business ideas...

He wants to build something big, but he doesn't know what he's talking about or doing, so he approaches Alex (who acts as his business creation consultant).

Enjoy while Luke pitches his 2 big ideas to you.

Also, Alex had 2 £1,000+ revenue days this week, which is a huge milestone when you are running a small business and we did a whole episode on it when Luke breached that number! So, congratulations Alex.

In this episode we discuss how we've both had some of the most stressful weeks of our lives, trying to orchestrate house moves and business moves whilst keeping everything running.

Luke has just moved to Vietnam and is recording the podcast from hotel quarantine; Alex has moved to Cornwall with his mobile factory (explained in the episode). Both the guys have managed to embody some digital nomad lifestyle during covid-19.

Luke decides to keep his little dog woody.  

We debate the best way of marketing services through social media. 

How do you involve yourself in the social media side of your business, whilst making it seem natural with your own life and the life of the business.

In this episode Luke talks Alex through his new software concept for sharing audio. We discuss how difficult it can be to get an app off the ground. We also cover the key reasons why so many people are starting software businesses and not doing things like Amazon FBA or physical product based businesses. Alex, of course, defends these approaches and explains why this is a good thing for people who want to make and sell physical products. 

In this episode we talk about the 3 business ideas that we think are great to start in 2021 and most importantly why we think they are important in such a strange year.

B2B service based businesses - As businesses have had to pivot throughout 2020 and going forward into 2021, it has created opportunities for entrepreneurs to service those companies having to make significant changes.

Personalized products - We both sell personalized products and believe that the individuality it creates for the customer is going to get more popular

Selling courses - In the discussion we have about online courses we dig deep into the morality of selling courses, and try to decide whether it is a good thing to sell

We also talk about the 300km running challenge we are going to attempt in March and discuss our thoughts on UFO sightings.