#078 - If you have a subscription box idea but not sure if you're going to go for it or not, this episode is for you. Julie is talking about three questions that you need to ask yourself to help you get clarity on your new subscription box business idea.
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#078 - If you have a subscription box idea but not sure if you're going to go for it or not, this episode is for you. Julie is talking about three questions that you need to ask yourself to help you get clarity on your new subscription box business idea.
Summary:
Links:
Julie (00:01): So you want to launch a subscription box and don't know where to start? Girl, you are in the right place. I'm Julie Ball, a subscription box coach and your host here at Subscription Box Basics, a podcast for new and aspiring subscription box entrepreneurs that want to avoid overwhelm. So grab a coffee, some pen and paper, and let's have some fun!
Julie (00:23): Hey, everybody! Welcome back to Subscription Box Basics with Julie Ball. Today, I'm talking about three questions that you need to ask yourself when you get a new subscription box business idea. And the reason why I'm talking about this today is I have a lot of people that come to me and say, "Oh, I have this great idea!" And then I asked them a couple of questions and they haven't thought through any of it. And another scenario where this is important is where someone has a subscription box idea, but they're just not sure if they're going to go for it or not. So today we're going to talk about three questions that you need to ask yourself. And I think the best way to do this is write down these three questions on a piece of paper and just start brain dumping or journaling your thoughts around it.
Julie (01:15): And I find that when I do that, and when I get it all out of my head and onto paper, sometimes that just gives me the clarity that I need because it's on paper. It's not just running circles in my head, but also it frees up some brain space to get creative again. So let's talk about those three questions.
Julie (01:34): The first question that I want you to ask yourself is, does it solve a problem? Because that's one of the most important things. You want to be part of the solution in your customer's eyes. And when you have a solution that's well thought out that actually solves the problem, then you become this force in their life, something that your subscribers need and something that they want month after month after month, keep them coming back for more. I mean, that's what this is about, right? This is a membership. We want them to become a long term members. We want them to be lifers.
Julie (02:11): I actually have a couple of Sparkle Hustle Grow subscribers that have been with me since 2016. And for them, when I talked to them about, you know, why do you stick around it's because we make a difference in their life. We solve the problem of not having to do the entrepreneurship thing alone and not getting in the rabbit hole of training and courses, and what do I need to learn about in entrepreneurship today because we wear so many hats as entrepreneurs. And so ask yourself, does your idea solve a problem? If the answer is yes, then you're going down the right path. If your answer is, "I'm not sure.", then I think you need to work a little bit harder on carving out that concept and getting clear on the value that you provide through your box.
Julie (03:01): Now, if you answered no to, "does it solve a problem?", I would challenge you to rethink your concept in a way that you can flip it, that you can change that perspective. And that doesn't mean scrap your idea. That just means, think about what the, the idea behind the boxes and what is a problem that you can solve. It's not only important to solve your customer's problems, to keep them coming back for more, but when it comes to acquiring new customers, you can lead with the transformation. The idea of having a problem to solving a problem is a journey. And you should be right in the thick of it, right in the middle of it with your subscription box. And so you can use a lot of that information in your copy, in your marketing message, in your videos, on your website. So it is so important that your subscription box business idea solves a problem.
Julie (03:54): So that's number one. Number two, if you have a subscription box idea, we're talking about three questions you need to ask yourself. So this is number two. Is there an existing fan group or base or group or subset of people that are really, really excited about this, or are super fans, or are simply really passionate about the box idea or the box niche? So again, using Sparkle Hustle Grow as an example, female entrepreneurs, pretty big subset, right? Pretty big group. And there's a lot of people in there that are so passionate about being an entrepreneur. And I am able to use that for my marketing. I'm able to make sure that I target those people and say, "Hey, I've got something. I think you're really, really going to like." So think about, does your box idea having existing fan group? So maybe they're coffee levers and you have a coffee box, or maybe they are moms of teenagers.
Julie (05:01): And you know, that is an existing subset that you can tie into and use in your marketing. So that's question number two. Is there an existing fan group base or subset of people and write that down. And if your answer is yes, awesome! Make sure you're talking specifically to that target market in all of your marketing messages. If the answer to that is, you're not sure, then I would suggest that you niche down, you do some market research and see if there's enough demand for it. So I guess that's what we're really looking at here. Like is there enough demand? And so then if your answer to the question is no, then I really suggest that you get, again, more clarity on carving out that concept on who you're going to serve. You don't want to serve everyone. You can't be everything to everyone. It's just not going to work.
Julie (05:54): And in fact, that's a recipe for disaster because there's too many subsets of people that you'd be serving. There's just no way that you can make everybody happy. But if you niche down and you find that target audience, that is just a raving fan, or like you have the exact solution to their problem. And it's hard for them to say no. You want them to find your product and say, "I can't live without this."
Julie (06:24): Okay. So the third question is, am I willing to put in the work guys? This is a business and ask any business owner. It can be a lot of work. And especially with a subscription box business, not to scare you away, but there are a lot of moving parts. It's just part of having this recurring product business, which I will tell you, I believe is the best business in the world.
Julie (06:51): So don't let that scare you away again. But, are you looking for a hobby? I probably wouldn't recommend running a subscription box as a hobby, but if you're looking for a lucrative side hustle, or if you're looking to build this into a full-time gig, then you definitely need to put in the work.
Julie (07:10): Now you can find all kinds of resources. There's a handful of podcasts. There's a handful of coaches. There's some of it. You can do it yourself. Yeah. Obviously that's, that's part of, I think an entrepreneur's heart in many ways that we have this can-do attitude. But if you're looking to ramp up faster or kind of cut to the chase, get to the front of the line, then that's where I recommend that you find yourself a coach like myself here at Subscription Box Bootcamp to help you get through things faster.
Julie (07:45): You don't have to spend hours and hours and hours of researching how to start a subscription box. When there's so many wonderful resources out there, I would love to be your coach for one. And I am always eager to welcome new students into Subscription Box Bootcamp. We want to see you succeed, but we don't want it to be overwhelming or difficult for you. So we are here for you.
Julie (08:11): All right. Let's recap what we talked about in this episode. Again, if you have a subscription box business idea, these are the three questions I want you to ask yourself. Number one, does it solve a problem? Number two, is there an existing group or subset of people that you can tap into for your target audience? And number three, are you willing to put in the work? I hope this has been helpful, especially for the listeners that are really at the front end of that idea stage where maybe they just had that light bulb moment and you're kind of stuck and you're not sure what to do if you, especially, if you are a new listener to this podcast, I would encourage you to go all the way back to episode one, start there, where you can hear my launch story.
Julie (09:04): And it kind of goes in order to get you started of learning the terminology of the subscription box industry and helping you carve out that concept. Just go back to episode one and start bingeing there until you catch up. We have a new episode come out every Monday. So as always, thanks for joining me today and see in the next episode,