Is Your Stamping Business Making Money?
Five Areas You Should Examine
By John Sanpietro, Certified Business Coach
If your stamping business IS a business, then it should be making you money. The great thing about Stampin' Up is, there are multiple potential revenue streams. Here are five ways your stamping business should be making you money:
1. Classes – Unless you're doing large, retreat-type seminars, classes should be your most profitable individual event. The profit is based on what you charge for the event, minus the expense of supplies and other incidentals. When you take the profit and divide it by the total number of hours you put into the class (marketing, prepping, planning, holding, etc.), you should come out with an attractive hourly wage ($15-20/hour or more). If this is not the case, you have to look at what you're charging and what you're spending. Adjustments probably need to be made in both categories to bring your classes into a more profitable area.
2. Workshops – If you're including workshops in your individual business model, they should be a profit center. Again, to determine the profitability, you have to look at how much money you're making (Instant Income + Volume Rebate), NOT selling, and look at how much you're getting paid for your time. If your workshop sales are not that high, or you're not seeing as many people at workshops as you'd like, I would recommend booking further in advance AND engaging in more direct hostess coaching.
3. Blog – Your blog should be an enormous profit center for your business. If you're posting properly about various classes, events, promotions, etc., and you're not getting a direct response from your readers, that's a problem… and it can be fixed. If you're asking for comments and making strong calls to action, but not getting any response, that's also a problem. This can be fixed, as well. Try adding some variety to your posts, as well as stronger calls to action. Also, make sure you're engaged in outside marketing to drive more new traffic to your blog.
4. Newsletters – Every time I send out my newsletter… or any e-mail, I make money. If that's not the case for your business, then there's room for improvement. Your mailing list is a step up the ladder of commitment, and your subscribers should be even more engaged than your blog readers. If that's not the case, consider the frequency of your mailings, the content (you want more information than solicitation) and the calls-to-action (make them clear and strong).
5. Downline – Ultimately, your downline should generate more revenue for you than any of the other categories I've mentioned. In fact, your downline may generate more revenue than all of those categories COMBINED! If, however, your downline are taking up your time, and not making you any money because they're not doing anything with their business, there are several factors to consider if you'd like this to improve. Who are you recruiting? Do you talk about the business as a business? Or do you talk about the discounts and the social aspects. Whichever benefits you put front and center are the benefits that will attract. People attracted to discounts and the social aspects are far less likely to build their business. How often are you calling your downline? When you do call them, are you making sure to discuss business? Are you straightforward with your downline, or do you walk on eggshells around them? Finally, are YOU a good role model? Are you running your business exactly the way you want your downline to run theirs? Or are there areas where you're slacking, as well?
There's no reason why each and every one of you can't run an extraordinarily profitable stamping business. Part-time or full-time. It doesn't matter. You can still be profitable. If that's what you want, you have to take a look at each of these categories and make the necessary adjustments
