Having a successful print shop is not easy, no one hands it to you on a silver platter, you have to work at it.
But there are so many pitfalls along the way that no one really tells you… until today!
Today let’s talk about the 9 Deadly Mistakes You’re Making With Your Printables Business And how can you stop them in their tracks!
9 Deadly Mistakes You’re Making With Your Printables Business
There are 9, count them NINE things you can do to improve your sales and get more customers in your printable business. Let’s dive in to find out! 🙂
1- Your printables are not of high quality
Someone you are selling to is complaining right now in their head that they will never buy from you again and you won’t even know it!
Why do they say that to themselves?
Because they bought you printables and they printed them and they all come out blurry.
Not EVERYONE has the fanciest printers. Some have printers older than dirt and we as vendors have to accommodate ALL of our precious guests!
That means you need to create such high quality printables that even someone with a stone age printer can print it and it looks beautiful.
How do you do that? Use quality software and save files professionally.
I teach all about it in my two courses:
If you are not sure which software is right for you, this post will help you decide!
2- You are building in someone else’s sandbox
Listen, I’ve been around the block or two. I have seen several of my friends lose their income in a matter of minutes. It’s HORRIBLE when it happens!
Worst? My good friend, Jen, who I’ve known for a decade, lost her $30k/mo business in a matter of a few weeks.
Because?
Because she was selling on another site and the site changed their rules, she flagged her ad for some unknown reason (total nonsense if you ask me) and she was instantly out of business.
All your hard work. All that marketing and building this empire, only to lose it. 😞 It’s heartbreaking, even now, to think about it.
However, Jen is not alone. I have seen several people lose their businesses on Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, etc. and she is a nightmare.
If you’re building on someone else’s territory, honestly, you’re asking for trouble! It is not stable in the long term. You have to be on Shopify. It’s your OWN site, with your OWN rules and no one can take it away from you.
Having your printable store on Shopify is like building on a solid foundation, whereas elsewhere it’s like building on sand. Think about it!!!
3- You are doing illegal things and you don’t know it
There are so many copyrights out there, how do you know you’re actually doing it legally? Look what a friend wrote me the other day. She says, “I get confused by options like Canva… I’m worried about copyright infringement… I get so obsessed with what’s right and okay to sell that I stop myself from even doing anything with it. I’m not sure what to make of it and then I don’t know how to move on.”
It’s true. You never know what you’re doing. Their terms are so hard to understand without a lawyer and if someone sues you, you’re fried.
Rather, do things right from the beginning and protect yourself. This is also something I go into in-depth in my How to Create Printables courses, so you never have to worry about whether or not you’re complying. 🙂
4- You are not charging what your time is worth
It takes a bit of time to create printables, put them all together, place them in your store, and market them. If you’re selling for $1, it’s really not worth it unless you have a million subscribers.
If you do, HEEEEY!!! Go for it! 😁
But if you’re like most people, you don’t and you want to get paid what you’re worth.
I have done several tests in my store. Folders at the price of $27 and folders at the price of $57.
Every time I run a test, the results are the same.
At $27, I get a couple of sales and at $57, I get maybe a proportional sale. So, it’s a 2:1 ratio (I’m not saying you’ll only get 2 sales). 😝
So, in essence, I get double the sales at $27. You may think that’s a good thing and you can definitely do it in your own business, but for me, I look at all aspects of things.
Sometimes people send emails and they need help or maybe someone has a problem. I try to keep my customer service emails low (so my business runs on autopilot) and that means, for me, it’s better to have one $57 sale than two $27 sales.
Also, someone willing to pay $57 for a binder (as opposed to $27), is much more likely to buy a course from me (my course prices are high due to the sheer amount of information they contain).
So there are several different strategic things that go into my decision and tThis way, my business can run more passively and I can be ABLE to create MORE products for the store in the long run.
Again, you need to do what’s right for you in this scenario, but for me charging more has always been something that has worked and every time I’ve told others to charge a little more for their products as well, they’ve made more money. .
Now, this is NOT meant to rip people off.
You can’t charge $100 for a folder. You have to be reasonable. NEVER, EVER take advantage! The Bible warns against those who take advantage or charge too much.
But if you’re charging $5 for a 50-page printable package, chances are you’re charging too little. Charge a fair amount, something that you can pay your bills and that is fair to your customers. Don’t devalue yourself or your work. You work hard, you deserve to earn a fair wage! 🙂
5- You are not investigating what really sells
I highly doubt Taco Bell would just throw a new item on their menu out of nowhere. No way! They investigate it. Companies investigate what they are doing like crazy.
They ask the taste testers, they ask the consultants, they’ve done all the research, they’ve mined all the stats.
So making a product out of left field won’t really help much. It may work, but it may not.
It’s like shooting arrows in the dark. You want to create products that people buy. Products that solve weak points and help solve problems. Well researched and well thought out products…
Not just random things you thought of and hope and pray they hit the mark. No, investigate! This is your business we are talking about here. Take it seriously! 🙂
6- You are stingy and you want fast money
There is nothing wrong with needing to make a quick buck, but there is something wrong with having unrealistic expectations and being stingy with your work.
If God has blessed you with a skill (or you learn it through a program), then you must be willing to share that blessing with the world.
This is what I mean: give presents.
Get them hooked on your stuff. Give a sample. Show them it’s worth investing.
If you don’t go above and beyond in your business, you’ll only feel like you’re swimming against the current.
I don’t have to twist anyone’s leg to buy my printables. They come from everywhere to buy them.
Because?
Because they know they are good. I have built a solid reputation producing quality work and have given away A LOT of stuff. In fact, every week in my newsletter, I’m launching a new product. Can join the newsletter here and take some gifts yourself! ❤️
7- It is not your passion
Is creating printables something you enjoy?
If not, it will feel like a JOB and you won’t want to do it. If he does, it won’t be as convincing for others to buy his stuff.
You have to be full of passion and zeal. You have to be so enamored with your OWN work and see it as something you CAN get behind, totally and completely if you want to convince others to take a chance on you.
If you’re not getting sales, you may not seem enthusiastic enough about them!
8- You are trying to do it alone
Most people don’t have 24 years of experience under their belt, they just don’t, and that’s okay. But unless you’ve been doing all this for a LONG time, you need help getting started.
It is a pride to think that you can do everything on your own. I can’t do everything by myself either! I need help. I need assistants to connect my work in my store, help me optimize my business, proofread my blog posts for errors, etc. I am incredibly grateful for my team. ❤️
You also need help. Whatever your weakest points, get help for them. If you suck at design, hire a designer to create printables for you. If you like creating them but you’re not good at it, buy a course like mine and learn to create printables which are of great quality and sell like hot cakes.
If you’re already good at it, then hire someone to help you get them into your store so you can build faster.
The point is, seek help. Don’t try to do it alone (unless you’re willing to build slowly). Build as fast as you can and really get there. Because every day his projects are sitting on his computer collecting dust, he is LOSING MONEY!
9- You quit too soon
A lot of people start with a product or two and sell it on Etsy or something, never get traction and think that’s the end of it.
“Well, I tried, I have to nurse and no one tells me,” they think.
silly bull!
This is YOUR dream, go out and fight for it. Because the truth is that no one else is going to fight for your dream except you. How bad do you want it? Actually? How bad?
It is impossible to stop the person who does not give up! There is something to be said for persistence (Luke 11:5-8).
Use this list as a guide to help you become better at what you do. Go through it and really change the things you can change so you can get more sales and be more successful in your printables business. I wish you all the best in the world in your endeavors! ❤️
