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free JEn and Elke's “150 Trending Zazzle Niches and Designs" Guide
But before we dive right in, let us introduce ourselves in case this is your first visit. Welcome to The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast. We’re your hosts, Jen and Elke Clarke. We are a mother and daughter team that started Zazzle e-commerce businesses over 10 years ago and have sold over 15 million dollars worth and counting of products on Zazzle.
The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast is for you, the creative. We share actionable steps that you can take to make money in your e-commerce business. In each episode, we will take you one step closer to achieving freedom with your time, location, and finances.
We believe that a profitable e-commerce business is what opens the doors for you to start living your dream life if you work smarter, not harder, use the right tools and follow the proven roadmap. We’re here to give you the tools you need to make your dream life happen. Let’s get started!
In today’s post, I want to share the business lessons I’ve learned over the years with you. If you’re just getting started on your Zazzle journey, this could prove to be very valuable. If you’re already involved with Zazzle, you may just learn something new!
Doing these things will help move your business forward. I started my online business journey in 2007. The knowledge I’ve acquired over those 15 years is highly valuable. Over the course of that time, Zazzle has given me the opportunity to create a long term passive income online business that has transformed how I live my life and what my future can hold.
My success didn’t come without a LOT of trial and error. I am excited to share with you my learnings so you can use them towards your own success as a Zazzle creative.
I did not have a business background, so I really had to learn how to run my own business on Zazzle. That meant learning what is involved in running a proper business.
It’s important to take intentional actions that produce strategic results. When I first started out, I worked many late hours on my side hustle, but I was not working intentionally. That resulted in me only making $90 over the course of my first year. Ouch!
I didn’t have a business strategy. I did not analyze my numbers and more. This is because I had previously been an employee, not an entrepreneur running my own business.
This was hard for me and may be for you too…. “let go of your artist ego”. We as artists do great work and love what we do but it may not be positioned exactly how the customer wants it.
Once you find that perfect mix of your creativity to provide uniqueness and the format in which a customer wants to buy it, the profitability of your online business skyrockets!
Also, you will need to look at things from a business perspective instead of an artist ego perspective in order to maximize your monthly cash flow.
The key is to design for the customer who comes to the Zazzle marketplace to shop. This can take a shift in mindset, but once you understand that and work in that manner, you’ll have much more success selling your products on Zazzle.
As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to use earnings as the driving force in the business. However, it’s really important to flip it around and serve the desires of the customer.
This strategy will drive more sales, which – will in turn – lead to more profit.
Designing with the customer in mind increases your chances of making the sale and making more money.
This requires market research to understand your audience and to market effectively to create a strong brand to best serve your target customer.
To achieve anything, you must set goals. The way to achieve goals is to set goals that are attainable for you. This will help you stay motivated and encouraged. One way I recommend doing that is using my ERSD technique.
This technique allows you to set four “levels” for each goal – or four sub-goals if you will. That makes it easier to achieve them, which is motivating and helps you to gain momentum.
The ERSD technique has helped those in our coaching program reach bigger and bigger goals beyond what they thought they were capable of. That’s really powerful!
The simple truth is that following a proven plan and investing in coaching prevents you from getting stuck.
Following a proven plan makes a big difference. It will inspire confidence, build momentum, and make your entire journey to create a successful online business so much easier!
The final point revolves around you acting as if your business is earning the amount of business you want it to earn. For this, you’ll need to work backward. For instance, if you want to make one million in sales, how many products do you have to sell? What are the steps that you need to take to get there?
From there, you can dive into what things you need to do to make more sales, get more customers, and so on. By looking at it that way, you create steps in your business to make your goal possible.
Another part of this point is sticking to the reasonable number of hours that you want to work on your Zazzle business per week. This will make you more efficient in the allotted time. You don’t want to spend too many hours at first building the business because it will not be sustainable going forward.
Sticking to the habit of 20 hours a month, which we recommend, and creating the habit of getting what is needed done to create the earnings you desire in this time frame also helps your mind see the possibility of this new business working for you in alignment with your desired dream lifestyle.
While I can’t go back in time to tell myself these lessons, I’m glad I was able to share them with you as you begin your journey building a successful online business or side hustle on the Zazzle platform. Applying these learnings will make a huge impact on how you operate, how you serve your customers, and how your bottom line stacks up.
Thank you so much for reading!
Be part of our community where we can continue the conversation on these topics and tools. Join our Facebook group!
We love it when we make new friends. Connect with us on Instagram, @msjenclarke and @elkeclarke.
Share on IG. Tag us @msjenclarke and @elkeclarke, so we can send some love to you and get to know you.
If you’re ready to take the first steps in starting and scaling your own Zazzle store, join the waitlist for The Profit by Design Academy® Coaching Program today!
Ready to create your 6-figure business plan with confidence and clarity? Join our virtual 6-month program The Creative CEO Mastermind™️ today!
Official Website: https://jenandelkeclarke.com/
Jen’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msjenclarke/
Elke’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elkeclarke/
The Creative & Ambitious Entrepreneur Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/ElkeClarkeZazzleExpert
Episode #38 – How to Sell 1 Million Dollars-Worth of Zazzle Products in One Year with Christine Factora: https://elkeclarke.com/1-million-dollars/
Episode #4 – How to Make One Million Dollars in Sales on Zazzle: Our Student’s Success Story: https://elkeclarke.com/how-to-make-one-million-dollars/
The Profit by Design Academy® Coaching Program: https://elkeclarke.com/startandscale/
The Creative CEO Mastermind™️: https://elkeclarke.com/creative-ceo-mastermind/
Jen and Elke Clarke are a mother-daughter duo that empowers women entrepreneurs to make money online. Through courses and coaching, Jen and Elke help women (and men) become successful creative entrepreneurs on Zazzle and e-commerce. Combined Jen and Elke have sold over 15 million dollars-worth of products, and earned over $1.5 million combined through their businesses on Zazzle. Jen and Elke have influenced and transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide with their free content, paid and private coaching.
They are international, award-winning authors. Click the links to purchase their books through Amazon: Earn Around The World and Create Online and Grow Rich.
Jen and Elke Clarke have been featured in Yahoo Finance as TOP 5 e-commerce coaches.
If you want to see how Zazzle can change your life, gain more free time, work from anywhere, and have uncapped income potential — join now.
