14 Day Writing Challenge
Jordan Hale is a comedic writer who spent years working with talented people, from entrepreneurs to academics, who wanted to write books. She saw that many people say they want to write a book, but very few actually do it. Her goal was to make book writing achievable, and she framed the business as the lean startup of book writing.
The business began as a side project built on Jordan's existing consulting work, which brought in between $70,000 and $80,000 in 2015. The core product is a 14-day writing challenge that moves people from writer to author two weeks at a time. Prospects are qualified in one-on-one conversations, then placed in either the $325 challenge or the $1,275 VIP live editing circle. Operating costs stayed minimal, mainly website hosting on Bluehost and phone bills.
The team built its first list from scratch instead of relying on lists from earlier projects, which Jordan says is why they are proud of it. They spent their time calling prospects and reaching out on social media. They reached a goal of 100 'raving fans' who opened at least 30% of emails, took calls, and gave referrals. Fifteen customers had given their credit card details by the time of the interview.
Jordan said the project showed faster growth than many of her other ventures, and that the personal, one-on-one approach built loyalty. The team also had a website that was offline for a while during the interview, and Jordan did not know exactly how many people had bought the lower-priced offer. Nathan Latka pushed her to know her numbers, a point that reflects a weakness in tracking.
At the time of the interview, the business had about $12,750 in sales over a couple of months, with a stated goal of $100,000 for 2016. The team planned webinars for larger audiences and was moving toward recurring support, two weeks at a time, from ideation through editing and distribution.
- •Starting with a list built from scratch and personal calls shows that the early customers were earned through trust rather than bought through an existing audience.
- •Converting the first 100 prospects into engaged fans who referred others suggests that the one-on-one model compounds through word of mouth.
- •Pairing a clear transformation promise (writer to author) with a specific, short time frame makes the offer easy to buy.
- •Keeping costs minimal, mostly hosting and phone time, let a side project grow into a business without outside money.
- 1.Build a prospect list from scratch and contact each person personally by phone or social media before building a broad funnel.
- 2.Qualify each prospect in a conversation and then match them to a specific offer tier rather than publishing prices on a page.
- 3.Track engagement metrics such as email open rate and referrals from the first customers so you can measure which relationships are turning into growth.
- 4.Turn early paying customers into advocates by asking them to share their results and referrals, then use that to build the next cohort.
- 5.Keep fixed costs near zero until revenue is proven, and reinvest a set share of revenue into the business.
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