629. The Million-Dollar Playbook: How to Make Your First and Next Million

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is the Product Boss podcast. I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what mistakes they could have avoided, how did they turn their ideas into a successful business, and what are the strategies that they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. And this is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams, no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. Let's do this. Hey, hey, Product Boss. Jacqueline here from the Product Boss podcast. I'm so excited that you're here today with me. And today I'm going to talk about the million dollar Playbook. Now, the reason I want to kind of open up this playbook for you and talk about it is really starting to kind of lift the lid and open this idea up to you on how you can make your first million dollars in your business. And maybe your business has already made a million dollars and you're looking to make your next million. Now I'm talking about this in annual sales, making a million dollars in revenue this year or next, let's say for 20, 25 or beyond. And then if you've hit that first million, how to get to your next. Now, I've been working a lot with the students inside of my Mastermind. They're my Mastermind members. They are the people that I'm the closest with. I know the most about their businesses because they're in my inner circle. And in that I've been, you know, we've done this since we had masterminds before the Product Boss was ever an actual podcast. It was actually what we started with, which was actually called the Multi Stream Machine Mastermind. Yes. This is back in 2017. Okay, so way, way, way, way back in the day. Now since then there's been lots of iterations, but the, the base of the Product Boss had always been masterminds. And the reason why is that I really made my shift in my business. The thing that lifted the lid on the possibilities, the infinite possibilities and like the hope and the big things that I never even knew were possible for me came out of a mastermind. And so that's just something that I've loved so much. As, you know, I'm a coach, I've coached for the last 18 years. And you can see that I love doing that on this podcast. And so I really want to kind of dig into some of the strategies that I've seen, whether it's for me and what I implemented in my businesses or from working so closely with so many product based business owners again since 2000, that 17 here at the Product boss, and what I've seen in this playbook, right, those strategies for your first million and your next million. And let me just start with saying your first million is usually the hardest to get to, okay? And so that first million dollars in your business is the hardest to get to. Now to make the leap to your second million, to get to a $2 million business actually gets easier. And this is what I tell my masterminders all the time. It's actually easier. Things start to break again when you hit that $3 million mark, and then they'll break again a little bit after that and probably close. And then 10 million things change again. Right? But, but we're not there. We're talking about our first million or our next million. Okay? So I want to kind of get into that reaching of the first million dollars and that path to your first million, and then we can kind of dig into that path to your second million. Okay. And how that can accelerate your growth so fast. So what I've seen over and over and over is a lot of. And I'm going to speak, I'm going to speak specifically about my masterminators, because I have, especially this last year, my 2024 groups. You know, you're out there. Hello, my friends from my inner circle. Um, several of you are continuing on with me into 2025. So you're my inspiration for this because I've been able to work so closely and intimately behind the scenes with all of you. So the thing that I've seen that has really set their company like on fire in a good way, right? That it's really been the thing that's lifted their business is that they've identified a niche. So so often we sit there throwing spaghetti at the wall and we're trying to see what sticks. You hear me talk about this all the time. And it's at all levels. As you grow, you start to expand, right? They start to make more. But the more revenue you're making, the more money in your business that you're making. And I think it's, you know, when you start to get into that multi six figure mark, think when you're like a hundred thousand, $250,000 business, you're starting to see what's possible. But when you hit that half million dollar mark on your way to a million dollars and beyond, you're starting to really like, it's, it's ingrained. You're like, I know what works, I know what works in my business. And so to get there, they've really identified a niche. They've really figured out the products or the variation of products or the collections that are selling really well and they know that they're profitable. So they have good profit margins. They know the sales channels that they're working on and that these like the profit margins make sense for where they're selling and they know what they're selling. They also really understand their target market, they understand their target customer. They really truly understand that person where they could speak about that person to their ideal, ideal customer and their customer would be like, oh my God, you know me, oh my God, you know exactly what I need, right? They know them so intimately. So the first step, I think, in getting to your first million is really identifying your niche and then settling into that niche, being comfortable with kind of with focusing and staying focused and really pouring into that niche and that focus to scale up. Now I've seen that happen. I'm just thinking about a few students that I've recently worked with and like really successful people. So you know, there's a company that I work with that sells Turkish towels and blankets for example. And, and she knows very intimately what towels are her best sellers, what kind of colors and look that her customers are gonna want. She kind of knows before she even makes them what people are gonna buy. And she also knows the pricing of her product. I worked with another one of my masterminders and she makes a kid product, like a baby kid product. It's a single product in three different color variations. She sells on Amazon and direct to consumer and she knows her numbers so well. She knows her pricing that she knows if I price it under $10, if I price it at $12 or 15 do, she knows exactly what that number is and who her customer is and she knows how it works on that platform. So when you start to hit multiple six, I'm going to say when you get to that 400, $500,000 mark and beyond, you're really knowing this. If you are not there yet then you want to really think through what do I need to do, what do I need to focus on? How do I keep moving this snowball that's small and getting that momentum. And if you are there, you might be reflecting back and thinking, oh yeah, that is something that I did. I did stay focused. Now if you are at that 500,000 million multi multiple million mark, everybody has a different way that they run their business. You might also be getting a little bit tired, you might feel exhausted, you might feel like you are actually running around and making all these different things and doing all these different things and you're like, yeah, it's gotten me here, but I don't know that it's sustainable. So this might be a time that you kind of reflect backwards and start to identify and actually reduce your offerings versus continuing to add more. You have the data, so just look at the data. Okay, so, so the next thing that I see on this path to your first million is really having a solid foundation. Now I'm going to be honest with you, with the hundreds of people that I've worked with, inside of my masterminders, inside of my mastermind and like all the different levels, gotta be honest, they could be half million dollar, million dollar business and still not feel like they've got efficient systems and processes. Okay? They, I'm telling you, whether you're just starting out, you've made 50,000 in your business, you've made a hundred thousand, you've made a million. I'm telling you at every level, something breaks, you use that engine up and you're going to have to repair it. So what got you to your first to that level is not what's going to get you to that next level. So that solid foundation is constantly going to have to be updated and looked at and looked for. And this comes with systems and processes. So when you start to get to that half million dollar mark, seven figures and beyond, you know, some systems, you're either improving them, you might be looking for a different way of doing things, or you're like, you know, this just needs to get better. I'm, I did it this far. A lot of times we joke and it's like with like duct tape and chewing gum, right? It's very MacGyver where we're like piecing it all together and hoping it works. And I've heard this from another one of my masterminders of Julie of a Gentle Feast. And she's said it and I've said it several times is she feels like she's building a sand castle on top of IKEA furniture. And then I added that she's got a couple screws left over and she's not sure which one she forgot, right? So she's built this beautiful business, but she doesn't feel like she's got this like solid foundation that at any point it could break and fall. And so this is another really important thing that you're constantly thinking through your systems, your efficiencies, your processes and updating them and getting better. And simplicity simply scales. So the more we can simplify processes, the better. In fact, it's something I'm working on right now. So you know that I bought the business out a year ago from my business partner and this has been a big year of transition. It's been test and try and it's been trying different things. And I also am a participant in a mastermind. And this year I actually decided to go all in on one. So a mastermind, for example, is where you, if they've got a facilitator or an expert, there's different versions of masterminds. But the ones that I tend to be in are ones that have an expert or someone that I really align with that is either living a life or a lifestyle that I want, that has a business that I really like or knows how to operate a business like the one that I want to operate, they have knowledge beyond what I have and they know how to pull together a group of people that are aligned in mission and values and the type of business that we're building. So I'm in one this year that I'm, I'm absolutely loving. And the thing that I've learned from her, that has been my big up level in the last year within being close to her as the facilitator and being in this group surrounded by these amazing women that are also mothers, is simplifying systems, getting better processes. In fact, this year we've been looking at scaling team and all these other things and profitability drops when you get a bigger team. And actually in this moment in time for me, I am looking at how to improve my profitability with a smaller, more efficient team with better processes, with better systems. Right? Because as you grow like you are growing team, there's more to manage internally than there is externally, externally a lot of times. So you want to make sure that you have that solid foundation and someone to help you if you don't know how, how to get those efficient systems and processes together. And so that's another really great foundational Part of getting to your first million. And then again, every time you feel like the business breaks as you level up, this is where it kind of needs to be looked at again. Now, the other thing to get to your first million is people tend to bootstrap. They can usually bootstrap their first million or at least get better resources. So at this point, when you're growing your business, you know, you make your first a hundred thousand, you've gotten there in a certain way. When you start to make your first a hundred thousand and beyond, you're really thinking, okay, I need to reduce my cost of goods. Like, can I get. Can I be better at resourcing? Whether it's raw goods, whether it's, you know, things that are more cost effective, whether it's shipping. Right. We're looking at ways to just resource our limited funds and think about better ways. You also start to get into creative financing strategies. Because I always quote, I'm like. I'm like the 90s rapper, you know, like, more money, more problems. Is I say that in the way that we do want to grow our businesses. Like, I have huge goals for me and my business and the product boss and our impact. And I wouldn't one have these huge goals if I didn't have examples or if I wasn't surrounded by other women sharing with me what they do. And the masterminds that I'm in, for example, to kind of lift the lid on the possibilities of what I can do. Most people are really, we're exposed to what we're exposed to. And so if you've never been exposed to these possibilities that we don't even know, we don't know yet, then how do you know what you can aim for? So the other side of this is creative financing strategies. So when we're thinking about this first million that we're getting to, we have to get creative in financing. And this is when. And in. In my groups, we tend to talk about. There's a lot of discussion about financing, strategic financing, whether. Because when I went back to the mo Money. My problems is every time you level up, let's say you get a huge order. I have a cl. I have two. Two of my masterminders have been on Shark Tank. One has aired, one has not aired yet. So two people that I've worked with this year have been on Shark Tank, which is kind of awesome. Okay. And I don't know the results of one of them. I do know the results of the other. And basically, if you bring in that much attention on Your business, right? And you know you're gonna make, I think they say you're gonna, you could make like anywhere from like, I don't know, it's like hundreds of thousands of dollars that people make in a couple days after it airs. Gotta be able to keep up with it. But you also need the finances to do it. Right. And it's not cash, it's not always cash sitting in our bank accounts. It's just gonna pay for it. I know we get there at some point. I know there's people out there there that are like cash only, no credit, da da da da. But credit works in businesses, especially product based businesses that need to front money before they get paid, right. Cause we have to make product before we ever sell it. So this other thing of understanding how to bootstrap and how far you can bootstrap and then how to get more resources is another key, key thing to think about every time you level up. Now the other thing in this playbook to a million dollars is your marketing. And at this point, a lot of times people are marketing on a budget. I've seen people scale to a million dollars very fast in their first year because they've decided to scale a product that they know that they could fulfill if they start to advertise. So they pay for ads. Not a gazillion dollars in ads. Right. It's very, it's manageable because let's say you put a dollar in for ads and you make four, four to six dollars back on my, on your ad spend, then you're profitable. Right. And so I either see people jump straight to running ads and they're usually, they're usually hitting these bigger numbers faster because they have a budget for advertising. And then I also see people that have done it without ever running ads, that have used other ways, like social media for example, building loyal customer bases in other ways. Cause you've heard me talk about not going into my marketing strategy here. But they're able to figure out what kind of marketing they're going to do and they leverage that. They're either doing paid so paid ads, organic marketing, or partnership marketing. They go all in on it and they figure out what they can do in their business. I got to tell you though, when we get up into that 500,000 to multiple millions, a lot of times they're paying for something in marketing. They're either paying for someone to manage their social or they're paying for ads on a platform. It could be Etsy, it could be Amazon, it could be they're running meta ads, it could be running Pinterest ads. They might be paying people to post content, they might be paying a company to handle their emails. So they are still budgeting. But when you start to get into this bigger, higher level, they're starting to outsource their marketing by paying for it in some sort of way. Okay. And then another gigantic, humongous, most important thing, and this is at any point in your business journey, but it really starts to come into play is when you have to overcome these challenges that come with being an entrepreneur. They just are. It is what it is. Okay? There's gonna be challenges. So a lot of the things that I see, you know, my masterminders do, which are in this like half million, multiple million dollar businesses, is, is dealing with self doubt, dealing with their competence, dealing with burnout. Because again, what got us to here is not gonna be the thing that's sustainable to get us to that next point. And I also see a lot of people dealing with, I started this like, it's almost like a runaway train where sometimes they're like, oh my goodness, the business was going, it felt manageable and now it's doing so well, but it's sped up and they're feeling very out of alignment with their current lifestyle. And so really working on. There's this mindset aspect of realignment and always realigning to what we want our lives to look like. Because the reason we started our own businesses, the reason we're not working for someone else, the reason why we're working more for ourselves than if we were to ever work for someone else, is because we have amazing, beautiful, great dreams for our lives, for our families, for the people around us, for our communities, for the product we're building. And so the thing here is we always want to go back to alignment. How aligned are we? Did we get off track? Does it feel like a runaway train? We got to get it back on track. We got to figure it out, you know, and then they're constantly learning from their failures and pivoting when necessary. That's like a humongous thing. It's like you didn't fail and you're down and out. It's like you get back up, you figure out the next step. It's one step at a time and we're constantly pivoting. What worked before might not work now. So what do we do? And so those are a lot of things that kind of we deal with on our way to our first million. Now, if this sounds like you, and there's anywhere around this. I'm just going to drop a link into the show notes. Depending on when you're listening to this in the future, I either have a masterclass for those of you that are on your way to a million dollars or multiple millions that I'm teaching, or you can get, uh, you can either apply to be in the Mastermind, the Inner Circle Mastermind, or get on the wait list. Not sure when you're gonna listen to this, but right now we are. At the time of this recording, we are enrolling. We have limited spots for masterminders for 2025. And I'm only doing this one time. So I'm only launching one mastermind in 2025, and it's going to be exclusive to the people. Like, I'm gonna go through these applications myself because I really, really, really want to put together this incredible, incredible group of humans that are on the same journey together and that are super aligned and that I feel really aligned with, that I can work with in a. In the closest level in which anyone can work with me right now. So if that's something that feels aligned to you, take a look at the show notes. We've got the product boss, Inner Circle Mastermind, that's enrolling for 2025. All right, now let's get into accelerating to your next million. So maybe you've had a million dollars or you're thinking, okay, I hit a million, then what? Right? You might be on your way there right now. Then you're. You need to get to your next million, or your next million after that. Really how I ended the last part is how I'm gonna start this first part is we gotta think about shifting our mindset. We gotta think bigger, we gotta think bolder, we start to take risks, but they're always going to be calculated risks. So I want you to imagine, you know, I. I've been to, like, one of those, like, ropes parks, you know, where you kind of like walk on a tightrope or you're like. It's like balancing and you're up in the trees and you, you're doing the whole situation now, having a guide there, someone who's like, I got you. This is how you're gonna walk across. They show you how to do it, but you're hooked in to a harness and it's attached to something, and you're attached. You feel way more confident. I know it's still scary, but you're probably gonna feel way more confident taking a step out on that tightrope, knowing that you're attached to a tether with a harness and somebody there and the fact that they've told you you can do this, you may have never thought that you were going to be like 40ft up, walking a tightrope with just a helmet on. But then, and this is, you know, from experience, but then the idea here is like once you do it, once you cross that rope now you've opened up like this world of possibilities of wow, I did that. I was scared and it felt like a risk, but I knew I was safe. And I would have never considered that. And that's sort of what I think starts to happen when you reach for these milestones in business. That, and I'm speaking because I know a lot of our community are women out there listening. And in my own reflection is, it wasn't modeled for me, right? Maybe it was Oprah and Oprah was Oprah, but growing up, it wasn't like modeled to me that women could be. You had to be like a very, very, very special woman to be a millionaire and a self made millionaire. And now we have more and more examples of women becoming billionaires. And even before that, millionaires is amazing and enough for a lot of people. So I would have never thought that had I not lifted the lid on my own glass ceiling. So I went from having a hundred thousand dollars as a goal to maybe, just maybe, could we have a million dollar business to my sights are now set on infinite possibilities. I get to feel how it feels in my body and my mindset and my capabilities and the support that I have around me, whether it's at home or on the team. But I know that I can like, it's an like if I lift the lid on my glass ceiling. And this is a visual I use a lot of times for myself. It's all blue skies. I've been up. You know, when you're up in an airplane, you're above all that cloud cover. It's blue sky above the cloud cover. The blue skies are up there and it's infinite. And so is your ability to hit whatever goal you want to hit in your business. So you want to be around people that are not trying to pull you down and being like you're thinking too big or that's not for you or that's not possible. You want to be around people that are supporting you in thinking bigger and being like, yeah, what's possible? Let's do it, let's do it. Let's figure it out what's possible, right? And that's really a huge part of being able to like accelerate to that next million. I think another thing, once you hit that next million you, you could do a lot to get to your first million. Being pretty focused and niched. Then as you start to scale up, here's where you start to think do I expand my product line or do I start to explore like new markets or sales channels. So again if I think about people in the group that I've been working with recently, I have a couple people that built huge multi six figure businesses like 500,000 to a million, over a million dollars on Amazon alone. And so that's a great sales channel. But also they've hit a competitive market or somebody, you know, there's like things that have happened and so they've gone all in on one sales channel. So now it might be a time for them to diversify their sales channels. Or one of my students, like the one with a kid product came out with a secondary kid product. She's not coming out with a whole bunch of new products but it was like a secondary product to her product or it's thinking about, okay, now I've built my, I've built on this one sales channel. I have to uplevel my brand or I have another student that was doing handmade, handmade stuff like handmade pottery. And I've seen them and they've launched a melamine brand line now. So they have like a dishwasher safe product. They took something they know did so, so well and now they've scaled it into like a more mass produced product. So this is a time where you really get to start to play again and get creative because you've got the data of what works and you know what works and you know you've got the customer base and you get to start to play. Now this is getting up to your first million and past that is the team. That's the next thing is like your team. So again getting your first million, it could still be a pretty small team. A lot of times it's doers where there are people who are helping you make things, ship things, maybe an assistant, but you can get a lot done with not a lot of people. When you start to get to your next million and beyond, that's when you might be hiring more specific roles for growth, maybe more leadership skills, might be hiring people in a leadership position or elevating team members to leadership. Because this is a time where you actually don't have to be doing all the things anymore. In fact you could be taking I have one student right now, she's just recently bought a building that she's moved her whole business into. She's really worked this year on building out a team with people with like again leadership qualities. She outsources to certain contractors but she's really built in the standard operating procedures and the processes and the systems and she's got this great team. And so she's told me that actually one of the things that she wants to do is what she wants to travel more like quite often to the point that her business can actually exist where she only has to check her emails a few times a day and do a little bit of work on vacation. But she's like, I'd rather go to a beach and work a little bit and be at the beach for seven days with my kids and my family versus you know, being completely, you know, on or off the clock kind of thing. And so she's able to start to marry in something that's so important to her, which is travel, while also running this business. And that's because she also has a team that she's figured out and relied on. And so I think the next part after this again is really when you're in this level is, is that team and it's the, the leveling up is for you as a business owner. So to continue to maintain that work life blend that you're looking for, right? To continue to avoid burnout as you grow, to keep supporting the lifestyle goals that you have and in support to get support. So the support might be in peers. Again my masterminders love it because they have each other. They're like we're on this cuz we're fast tracking. We have questions. There's so many people in this one group signed up with the same website and ad agency to up level their websites because one person was like look, they did my site, this is how much they charged. It was so great. And three other people were like let me take a meeting with them. They signed up and now they're all getting up leveled websites. It's faster access for your growth and then also the support of peers and colleagues and people who are willing to share. There's also support in having experts or people to fast track what you're doing. Right. Like I have a question, how do I get this question answered right now I have feedback I want, I have someone I want to brainstorm something with. Do you have the access for that support outside of someone who's working for you or a spouse or a parent? Right. So you really want to start to build a business that has support. One of the affirmations I'm using recently is I am supported. I am supported. And I'm going to keep saying that because I'm going to be looking for support whether it's at home or in business. And so you want to keep working on making sure that you are supported so that you can grow this business and so that you can live the lifestyle that you've wanted to live by starting your own business. So I'll tell you, those are kind of the two different level ups. Getting your first million and your next million and obviously continues to change and grow. But I'm telling you, team support is a huge thing. Mindset is a huge thing. Thinking bigger, leveling up, being around opportunities to help you level up and believing that you can is a huge thing. The product is going to be there. You know how to do that. The business, you do know how to do that. Now it's just tightening it all up. It's like it's getting systems and operations in place. It's getting that strong foundation. I think it goes back to foundation. Strong foundation to support the business, whether it's systems, processes, knowing your cash and cash flow, and strong foundations that support you, the business owner. That to me is the thing that unlocked my first million and then my millions and millions after that that I've made over the last several years in owning the product boss even. Right. And that came from having a strong foundation of support. Support around me and below me, below me. I say that in the way of like, not below me, but as like a foundational support so that I could grow on top of it. And that is probably the biggest thing that you're gonna wanna look for every level that you grow. So making sure that you have that for business and for yourself as well. All right, if this was helpful, I hope it was. Let me know. You can send me a DM on Instagram if you have any questions at all at the product Boss. If you're 500,000 or above and you're thinking about wanting a mastermind for product based business owners and you wanna work with me, take a look at the product boss mastermind.com we'll drop all the links in the show notes if that's something that you're looking for. We are starting to take applications and accept members, very limited spots for 2025. But I really wanted to share this with you because I think it's really important to know as you're growing a business, what's coming, what it would look like if you hit your first million, and what it will look like past that. Because a lot of times, what keeps us small is the fear of the unknown. It keeps us from stepping forward. So by sharing this with you, I want to start to just break it down where you're like, this isn't that intimidating. I just need to take one step in front of the other. And I think going back to it is really looking for the support that you need in the elements to support you as the business owner so that you can grow this to whatever you want it to grow to. All right, I hope this is helpful, and I'll see you in the next episode.