Hello and a very warm welcome to this year’s Blogmas series! You may remember that last year’s series – the 12 days of Blogmas – well this year I’ll be uploading a new blog post every weekday of December leading up to Christmas – that’s 18 days of free content!
To kick things off I’d like to delve into behind the scenes of my 2022 Life Planner {availabe to purchase now from Etsy.uk} and how my niggling idea became a physical, saleable product.
{NOTE: Last orders for pre-Christmas delivery need to be in by Friday 3rd December!}
Just over 2 years ago I was sitting having coffee with a friend at our local garden centre when the conversation got onto things we’d like to do for ourselves now our eldest children have started school. It was then I first tentatively verbalised an idea I’d had about creating a planner aimed at busy women wanting to regain control of their lives and feel organised. This stemmed from both a personal love affair with stationary {if you know you know right?!} and the frustration of never quite finding that “perfect” planner which contains all the information I would want to help organise my various spinning plates.
For context – I’m a mum of 3, had just returned to work after maternity leave and had recently started working for myself as an independent contractor – plus my twin boys had just started school and I continued to juggle childcare for my youngest, then 1 year old. I felt at the end of my tether and constantly chasing my tail with a burning, desperate need for some kind of order to my life!
From that conversation, I started researching how to design a digital planner. I decided to explore this route in particular as, f I’m totally honest, it seemed far safer than the thought of any kind of physical product. Having been a big fan of The Goal Getter podcast by Jenna Kutcher {which I FULLY recommend to anyone wanting to step into entrepreneurial life} I’d heard of the site Skillshare and after a quick search found a course on how to design a digital planner with your iPad. Perfecto.
And so the basis of the Life Planner started to develop. I literally designed and finished an interactable digital planner with clickable navigation links within a month to launch the 2021 Digital Life Planner on 1st January. I had NO marketing plan. NO strategy. I was 100% late to the market but acted as though I had everything covered {fake it until you make it right?!} I uploaded the planner to Etsy and got my first sale {thanks sis {!}}
The 2021 Digital Life Planner did ok. And why did it do “just” ok? Because that’s as well as I thought it would do. I knew digital planners, whilst feeling like the safer option, wouldn’t be the majority of people’s preference and I basically wrote it off before it had even been on sale. It was a hobby. Not a business. Therefore it didn’t matter if it failed right? I wasn’t a businesswoman or entrepreneur! I was a mum “playing” business.
Yet this niggling idea was still there. The desire to make a physical product. A Life Planner. My Life Planner. And to make it into a business. This is when I first contemplated hiring a business coach and I started working with Gary Sutton Coaching. Again I tentatively verbalised my idea and BAM it was time to get down to business 🙂
Coming up
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Blogmas post. Come back or subscribe to receive the next post of the Blogmas 2021 series directly to your inbox.
Day 2: From Idea to Product – The 2022 Life Planner {Part 2}
Ellie
Order your 2022 Life Planner now here!
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Last 2022 Life Planner Orders for Pre-Christmas Delivery!
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