Starting An Online Business

What's up, guys? Welcome to the Pelby Biz podcast. I'm your host, Kelli Alhueey. Today I want to talk about how to start an online business. I really believe this is going to be on the rise and you guys are going to know, have to know how to do this and if you have a brick and mortar, how to also transition into online. So let's get started. So let me tell you a little story first. I, you know, I started first a brick and mortar practice, built it to multi seven figures, and then I started an online company as well while also building the brick and mortar practice and scaled that to seven figures. That being said, I've done both. I know both sides, and I actually did it both at the same time. And it was a beast on both ends. And there's different things for both things that you're trying to build. And when it comes to online, I think what I hear time and time and time and again, so I talk to a lot of you guys, is okay, to build an online business, I just need to start with a website and I need to start with a lead magnet. I'm going to put that out there. Or actually, no, this is what most people say. I'm going to start with a product and I'm going to create my product. I'm going to put it out there. Especially most therapists, they start with a product and they just want to put it out there. So what they do is they spend a month, they create the product and put it out there and no one buys. And guess what? This happened to me too. During COVID when I was starting my business, my brick and mortar practice, I actually created two products. One was for C section moms, and one was to get your abs back. I literally spent like over a month creating these things and I posted it. I got no one to buy. Not one person bought. And I was devastated because I just spent a whole freaking month, like, putting this out there and not one person bought either one of them. And I look back and I'm like, wow, that was stupid of me to think, But I didn't know better. I just thought, wow, I have great information. This is amazing. Someone's going to buy it. So please do not make that mistake. Please do not let me repeat that. Please do not make any product unless someone pays you first. Point blank period. Do not make any product and try to put it out there unless someone actually hands you money for that product up front. Okay? So I think people have this vision of stuff starting an online business is they must just put out a product first or a lead magnet, and that's how they're going to start. And that's actually not necessarily the case. It can happen that way, but it doesn't mean everyone's going to be lining up to buy your product tomorrow. What I have found to be the most successful path and online is not probably what you're thinking. It's actually to start building a commute community in person for online, which you're like, what? That's counterintuitive, Kelly. Yes, it is. Because when you start building a community in person, okay, I don't care if you're moving tomorrow, you can still start a community in person, see them for two months, and then move and then start a new community. That's okay. Okay. But when you start a community in person, that allows you to start getting connections, actual real connections with people that are surrounding you. When you put out an online guide or an online product online, okay, Sally sue, over the Internet has no freaking clue who you are. She doesn't know you. She doesn't even know if she likes you. She doesn't even know if your crap works. Like, she doesn't know any of that. So why the heck would she give you money? She won't. So what she's going to do instead is try to go to YouTube, find something, and if you pop up, she's gonna be like, wow, she's actually legit. But that's still not going to convince her. She's then going to go to Facebook if you pop up, she's like, okay, well, maybe if you don't pop up, she's like, yeah, she's probably not legit. She's then going to go to IG if you don't have a handle, she's going to be like, I don't know. She may even check out your website, if you have one. You may not have a website. You may have a funnel. She may check out your funnel, right? She's going to check out at least seven different things before she buys anything from you. Now listen how crazy this is when you meet someone online. I mean, when you meet someone in person, let's say you went to, like, a fit for mom's stroller stride thing, right? And you meet a new mom and she just had a baby, and you're like, oh, my God, I actually have this guy that can help you. And during that hour time period, you talk to her, you see what her problem is, and she's like, oh, my God, I need this freaking Guide. She will buy from you after that hour. She will. As long as you point out there's a problem that doesn't happen online like that. I need to be very clear because I'm seeing a lot these coaches, and we don't call ourselves coaches, but these coaches are like, yeah, create this online product and then you're going to sell it. That's not how this stuff works. You have to have a community first to then sell anything to. Otherwise no one is going to buy your stuff. So if you really want to be good at online, you have to be good at building a community. Point blank, period. And I always say in person works best. It doesn't mean you have to treat in person. It's just cultivating a community in person. It's an easier connection to then bring them online. Now you can also create a community online, meaning you can start creating a Facebook group. So let's say, you know, most of you guys already know my story. Where I was in California, I moved to Virginia. When I moved from California to Virginia, do you guys know how I got started? I don't know if you guys know the story. I have a dog that I absolutely love. Okay. Her name's Lulu. She's a mini Goldendoodle. Well, many Golden Doodle owners are psycho. Okay? We are psycho. So I went on Facebook and I joined an Instagram and I joined all these groups and then I went to Instagram and I know many people. I started to see trends. It was like, my dog's Instagram handle is luludoodle dc. So there was like the person's name Joe Doodle Vienna. Okay, great. So I started to see and go to locations where I knew dog parks were and I would just Google map it and then I would see who was showing up at those dog parks that were going to be around my apartment. Then I just randomly started friending those people and they're in the people's dogs. I just started friending them and I just started dming them saying, hey, I'm new to the area. Would love to know more about the area. Would love to know when you guys have meetups. Would love to know, you know, do you guys get together all this kind of stuff. Well, make a long story short, those people became one of my best friends in this area. And the crazy thing is, is all these dog moms were the first people that we use my apartment gym to show that I had a business, even though it was not my business, but we acted like that was my business. And we took pictures and they were my models because those were the only friends I had because I moved from California to Virginia and they ended up being my models of my business. And they actually helped my business because they were my first clients. And how did I get these people? I got these people through my dog, through finding them on Instagram and Facebook groups because I knew that they were going to be like minded and we connected over our dogs. And so you guys, my point is, you guys can build a community online and I highly recommend it. And that's just an example of if you're passionate about something, try to Google a Facebook group that has that specific thing and, or go to Instagram, find a location that, that you maybe really like or that's like hip or like where you think your population kind of hangs out and start looking to see who's tagged that location and just start friending them and DMing them and say, hey, we'd love to know more. I'm moving to the area. Or hey, I saw that you posted about this and you're at this location. Would love to know more about it. You'd be surprised. Guys, people start to talk and you create relationships and friendships just from that. And then you build your own tribe, you create your own group. You say, maybe like for me it'd be like Doodle Moms Vienna. I created my actual own Facebook group and that's where I would pull people to start to say, hey, by the way, I have this offer. I'm doing free assessments or I'm doing this therapy offer. Does anyone want it? And people would come to that literally from my dog and using online. So that's just a way that you can connect and build your audience. But I didn't start with a product, I didn't start with an offer. You guys have to realize that I didn't start with anything. I started with trying to genuinely find people that were like me and that wanted to have support and wanted to hang out and, and they had one thing in common, our dog. Most of y' all can either have that or your babies. And so that's how I started. So I want to kind of change the narrative here. When you're thinking about starting a business, what it looks like and what you think you have to have versus what you actually have to have, you have to have a strong community. Community is where it's at. If you don't have one, then you're not going to build a success, successful business, whether or not it's online or in person. And then legalities of how you get started online, you have to put out offers first. Meaning if you're putting out offers, you have to pull people on Instagram. You have to pull from other people's audience if you don't have it. So if I'm starting out, I'm going to people that have my audience. So burn Boot camp. I'm going to do a live with them and talk about pelvic floor therapy and why it's helpful. And then hopefully some of those people are going to follow me back. So then now I can start reaching out to them and seeing what they need help with in the DMs. DMs are where the sales happens, guys. The posting is where the awareness part happens. It's not how you get a sale. The DMs is where I say you change people's lives, because that's ultimately what you need to be doing, is the more people's lives you change, the bigger problems you solve, the more your company is going to grow. If you're solving very little problems, then it doesn't work. So you also need to make sure your marketing message is good, that you're nailing down, that you're nailing down specifically why you are unique and different. If you're struggling with that, please reach out. I have easy ways to get you over that hurdle so that you feel confident on why you're different compared to everyone else in the marketplace. Okay. That specifically is for you. And so, yeah, you just start reaching out to people like that. It's easier than you think. But I know a lot of you stay stuck because you're like, kelly, I'm so scared. I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to market it. I don't know my clients yet. I don't know where to get them from. All those things. All those things, by the way, are normal thoughts. But if you want to go and move quickly and be able to do this and. And see. And test quickly, I always say test quickly. Don't make that product spend, you know, a month doing it like I did it, and then think, oh, yeah, good, they're gonna buy. No, they're not. Don't do that. Okay. If you need ways to present your offers, I have that, too. Where we've already built it out for you. And then you say, hey, guys, this is what, you know, see if they'll buy it, they'll buy it. Great. Then I'll create the product on the back end and we drip it out so that you have time to actually create it. It's no problem at all. Okay, so if you are thinking about you want to start an online business, we can help. We have our Pelvi Biz solution on the back end that's all digital. We're going to store your contacts. You're going to need something like that. We have funnels where you can. That's how you're going to sell a product. We have a. We have a system where you can store all of your products all in one place. And again, you can just say, hey, this person needs this. Specifically, this person needs this. We have email series that we've already created that automatically go out for specific diagnoses that are already written out. So you don't have to hire a copywriter, you don't have to hire an admin, you don't have to hire all these other different people to make this all come together. A tech person to construct the emails and how that looks and the wait times and all that stuff. We've done it all because we built both businesses. So if you're in the pelvic health space and you're like, hey, I may need a coach, I don't call myself a coach anymore. I call myself a strategist. Plus, we utilize technology a lot because we want to automate everything. So we're really systems plus strategy. If you want that or need that because you're really trying to start this thing, please let me know because we have it and it's specific for pelvic health language. If you hire a generalist, it's not going to help you as much because they don't know how to really speak to your people and get to the deeper why for them. So it's not going to hit as hard. So that's really important. And then you're going to need scorecards to point out that people actually have problems. That's also really important. We have that for every condition. So all this stuff is how you get started and what you're going to need to get started. And hopefully this is helpful to give you a little bit insight. And you need belief. You also need belief that it's going to work, that you can do it, and you've got to test the market quickly, then, you know, move on from there. So hopefully this gives you guys some insight. Guys, if you want more information, Elvie Biz on Instagram, you can me there. You can direct DM me. Be happy to chat and let's get your business started. So starting a business online, this is what this was about. And it's not just about creating products. It's about creating community. And how are you going to actually do that? All right, guys, bye.