I embarked on a journey that in 5 years or less, I want to be my own boss, earn at least what I making now at a corporate job and work less. Follow my progress and lessons learned.
I started the journey of writing my first book ~18 months ago. I first blogged about the beginning of this journey when my goal was to write an eBook here.
In the process of writing my eBook called Everything I Learned About Sales I Learned From My Dog, I got positive feedback from friends and family and so I decided to turn my eBook into a paperback. I found a publisher in January, Skeeter Buck at Night River Press, and started the publishing process (see this blog for more details. I published another blog in May with updates on how it was going. See it here.
It has now been ten months since I found my editor and I am about six weeks away from launching my book. Since I last blogged, my cover designer, Susan Malikowski, finished my cover with my dog Oliver on the front. I love it.
My publisher told me to find an interior designer on Reedsy to type set the book and suggested I go back to my cover designer, Susan, and ask if she did that as well. Turns out she did so I hired her to do the interior design and composition for my book for both print (print-ready pdf) and ebook (e-pub and Mobi) format for $650.
I sent her the final edited version and she sent me some sample fonts.
Here are the things we did together:
We decided it would be softcover, perfect bound, black and white interior printing, on 50 pound white paper
She sent jpg, png and epub high-resolution (300ppi) and screen-resolution (72ppi) files for the eBook cover
I seent a short description to include in the ebook searchable data(metadata)..“This is not another boring business book that will put you to sleep. This book will teach you important things such as why butt sniffing and sales have a lot in common . . . as all dogs know, you have to take time to get to know your customers and what they need before doing business.”
She put paw prints at the beginning of each chapter (which I love)
She created a sell sheet that I could send to bookstores, newspapers, etc. I paid her an extra $85 for this.
She put a picture of Oliver on the spine (too cute)
I created an “About the author” for the beginning of the book
She asked where this will be printed. I told her through Ingram Sparks
My publisher, Skeeter, sent me a first run print copy in October. She also got one for herself and I sent one to my sister, Lisa, and one to my friend, Theresa. Skeeter said we needed to all review it to find any grammar mistakes or typos as this is the last chance to make any changes. I got everyone’s feedback and sent it back to Susan to make the changes. Some of the changes were a little substantial so Susan needed to reset the interior design of the book. She said that would cost another $390 to do that and I agreed to that price.
Around the time that I sent my final edits and scheduled time on Susan’s calendar again, my dad was finishing his memoir. My sister was helping him write it and I offered to put them in touch with my publisher, Skeeter Buck at Night River Press. Skeeter agreed to publish my dad’s memoir.
My father is 92 and not in good health so my mom asked if we could try to get something in his hands by Christmas. I scrambled to find an editor and gave up my spot with my designer to do his book cover and interior design. The good news is that my father’s book is flying through the publishing process and the bad news is that my book is on hold until the designer is done with his. His book will be out soon any where books are sold. It’s called A Lifetime of Collecting Experiences. A Memoir by Paul Hickey. Check it out here.
I am trying to be zen and remember that getting his book out quickly is more important than getting mine out quickly so I think I am about six weeks from publication. I’ll update again when my book is ready.
If you found this helpful and want to have a consultation session about publishing a book with my publisher Skeeter Buck, you can email her at skeetieb@me.com. Check her out her website here and watch for her new business in the next few months here.
I launched my ebook on Amazon ~6 months ago called Everything I Learned About Sales I Learned From My Dog (click here to see the book). It was the start of my journey to see if I could actually write and publish an ebook.
After getting positive feedback from friends and family, I decided to embark on turning my ebook into a paperback. Recently, I wrote about how I was beginning the journey of trying to get my ebook published at https://thesidehustlejourney.wordpress.com/23wc. I am in the middle of this process now so I thought I’d write an update on what I have done in the last ~2 months. I meant to publish a blog last month but I only have ~2 hours a week to dedicate towards this. Also, add that the Coronavirus epidemic has accelerated at alarming rates so we’ve been sheltering at home in California for seven weeks and life has turned upside down.
When I last blogged, I had put in the recommendations that my amazing friend, Skeeter Buck of Night River Press, had given me. Skeeter started a publishing company, Night River Press, a few years ago. She’s also starting another company, Instacks, to help writers take their ideas from inspiration to realization).
Here were her recommendations for me:
Have someone professionally edit it
Think about how I want to use it. Some examples are:
The first thing I did was buy 10 ISBNs for $295 from Bowker.
After that, I took Skeeter’s advice and went to Reedsy to find a copy editor and book designer. What is Reedsy? Reedsy allows authors to find and work with the best publishing professionals: from developmental editors to book cover designers, publicists and translators. I created a free account on Reedsy and searched for both #38220 – Design and #38219 – Editing. My criteria was I wanted a female (ideally). Reedsy suggests that you get quotes from more than one professional so I selected 3 book designers and 3 editors that I like their bios. I went back and forth with each and then settled on one of each that I liked, Susan Malikowski as the book designer and Bess Maher as the book editor. I agreed to pay Susan $525 for the cover design and production of my book including front cover, spine and back cover* (print-ready pdf and e-pub format). I agreed to pay Bess $600 to edit my book. FYI- Reedsy adds 10% on top of your negotiated fee. I gave them each 5 weeks to complete their work.
I think Skeeter was pleased that I was acting upon her recommendations and offered to be my publisher for this book. HUGE NEWS. I now have a publisher, Night River Press.
There were lots of questions that came up from both the copy editor and the book designer. I’ll start with the questions from the book editor as that was more straight forward than the book cover design. Skeeter Buck helped me with all of the answers so when I said , “I said”, it’s the royal we of Skeeter and myself. Just a disclaimer, I’m not claiming that I did everything correctly, I’m just sharing what I did in hopes that it may help someone else save time and money.
Questions and answers from the book edit, Bess Maher:
She had me send her a Microsoft Word version of my ebook.
She asked if I was planning on sending this manuscript to a book designer to lay out the book after she copy edits it. Yes, I said I want her to send the design as if I’m sending it to a book designer.
Do I want a serial comma? That’s a comma in a list of 3 or more items i.e. “France, Italy, and Spain”. I said yes.
I clarified that I wanted the pdf, epub, and mobi files when she is done.
I told her my published asked her to use the file creation guide from Ingram Sparks for standard spine width dimensions (I attached it and sent it to her)
Also, I added a subtitle called Butt Sniffing is not a Virtue. Again, Skeeter’s idea and I loved it.
When she sent the edited manuscript, Skeeter and I both read it and loved it. I told her I accept all changes “as is” and I just had her add a few things to the preface about thanking certain folks etc.
I’m waiting for the final edits but I’m thrilled so far with what I have seen and would definitely recommend Bess Maher from http://www.reedsy.com.
Questions and answers from the book cover designer, Susan Malikowski:
I had a graphic of my dog, Oliver, that I had paid someone on Fiverr to create (see this post to find out how to do that– https://thesidehustlejourney.wordpress.com/3ry1). I wanted her to ideally use that on the cover so I sent that to her up front with that request.
I asked if she could create a paw print to put at the beginning of every chapter. She said yes for an additional charge (we haven’t discussed the charge yet).
She asked what my style was and she suggested playfulness or whimsy but with a professional approach. I said that was exactly what I am looking for.
She asked about what type style I wanted. I told her I trusted her as the expert to try to type styles and colors she thinks would work.
I had sent her one ISBN but she said since I am creating a physical paperback book as well, I’ll need another ISBN, the e-pub and printed version numbers need to be different. I had bought 10 so I just gave her another one.
She said I also needed a barcode file. Skeeter suggested I buy that from www.bowker.com as well so I bought one barcode for $25.
I told Susan that Bowker asked me to put a book price to redeem the barcode. Skeeter and I discussed and I set the price as $4.99 for the ebook and $11.95 for the paperback. Skeeter said I could always discount the prices. I didn’t want to set the price too high as my goal was for people to read it.
She suggested I create a subtitle. I took Skeeter’s suggestion that she came up with and we added a subtitle of Butt Sniffing is not a Virtue. I love it.
She needed the dimension for the paperback. I went with her recommendation of the standard dimensions of 5.5 x 8.5 inches.
She needed a publisher logo for the back spine. Skeeter sent me the logo for Night River Press.
She needed a headshot of me. I sent it to her.
She needed copy for the back cover about me. I sent her this:
Julie Hickey is a mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend, dog owner, career salesperson, book lover, traveler, entrepreneur, writer and blogger on http://www.theordinarymom.com and http://www.thesidehustlejourney.com. She lives in Northern California with her wife, 3 kids, and her dog, Oliver.
As per Skeeter’s recommendation, I asked if she could send the cover in .jpg, .pdf & .png. She said yes.
She sent the first round of mock ups with 6 options.
I had my family review them and we narrowed them down to two. Skeeter suggested we look at them with Oliver as a puppy (who doesn’t love puppies?) so I sent a photo of Oliver as a puppy and Susan redid them with that photo. I took them back to my focus group (my family and Skeeter) and we all decided we liked one of the original covers with the cartoon of Oliver.
Susan asked if I just need the printed version? I said that I would be redoing the the ebook so I need both. I need the epub and Mobi file for the ebook and the pdf for the print version? Attached are specs from IngramSparks.
She needs the copyright page items: Library of Congress Control Number, and the Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Number. (You can ask your publisher if they will provide these). I said my publisher is going to provide these.
Front matter – besides title page and copyright page – introduction, preface, etc. Here is my front matter:
This is not another boring business book that will put you to sleep. This book will teach you important things such as what butt sniffing and sales have a lot in common…as all dogs know, you have to take time to get to know your customers and what they need before doing business. We should all subscribe to the philosophy that you should not take yourself too seriously and you should laugh a lot. Enjoy the insights and feel free to chuckle out loud, especially if you are in church or on an airplane.
For the Table of Contents, Susan asked for the number of chapters. I have 17 Chapters.
Susan asked if I had any Footnotes. I didn’t quote anyone or add stats so I don’t need this.
Susan asked if I have any images, graphs, illustrations, tables, figures, and how many of each. I said I don’t have any of those.
Susan asked if I need any special formatting of text other than regular paragraph format. I told her I want a paw print either at the beginning or the end of each chapter. The typesetting should resemble my writing; light hearted and true, and not look like a law book or medical book.
Susan asked about Back matter – bibliography, appendix, index, author notes, etc.— I don’t have anything that I know of for the back matter, no bibliography, appendix or author notes
I asked her to add ,MBA to the end of my name.
I told her my publisher asked if she could do a few tweaks to the tagline “Butt Sniffing Is Not A Virtue”. Skeeter thinks it is such a great line (it is and she came up with it), but it doesn’t seem to stand out on the cover.
I am waiting for the final proofs and we are on track with timing.
I’m thrilled so far with what I have seen and would definitely recommend Susan Malikowski from www.reedsy.com.
I have yet to see the final copy editing or book cover but I’m very happy with this process so far and could not have done it without Skeeter Buck’s help. Stay tuned for the next phase of this.
If you found this helpful and want to have your own (paid) consultation session with Skeeter, you can email her at skeetieb@me.com. Check her out at https://www.nightriverpress.com/ and watch for her new business in the next few months at https://inkstacks.com/.
I launched my ebook on Amazon ~6 months ago called Everything I Learned About Sales I Learned From My Dog (click here to see the book). I have done a few edits since then and now I feel like it is good enough to start talking to publishers. Since this is all new to me, I started with my trusted source (Google, of course) on how to do it.
I researched how to find an agent and found these two sites:
While I was doing this online research, I saw an old friend, Skeeter Buck, who started a publishing company, Night River Press, a few years ago. She’s also starting another company, Inkstacks to help writers take their ideas from inspiration to realization). Skeeter knows a lot about what I needed to learn but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by bugging her about publishing my book but she, gratefully, asked me about it first. She was amazing and helpful (as old friends usually are) about guiding me through how to start this process and even offered me a free consulting session with her. Cheers to having friends in the right places when you need help.
Here are my notes from that session. She said I could share my notes in a blog so I’m giving you advice that I was grateful to get in hopes that it helps others on their journeys.
We started the session by her asking me what my goals were in writing my book. I told her my 2019 goal was to learn something new and publish an ebook (which I did). My 2020 goal is to see if it has any legs as an ebook, possibly start to market the ebook and try to get it published in print.
She gave me some feedback on my book:
She thought it was a great book (yeah!).
The name of the book is awesome (I love it too!).
I have great writing skills- I have my own tone and it is awesome (thanks!).
My style is very informal (which is my intent, yeah!).
She said as the reader, she felt like I was speaking directly to her and she was the only person in the room, which is great (she said I have the same effect in person, which I take as a major compliment from a dear friend).
She asked how I edited it and I said I had a few folks look at it. My sister is a writer and looked at a lot of it but I did not pay anyone to edit it.
She thinks I should pay to get it professionally edited to take it to the next level.
She asked about the cover. I took a picture of my dog, Oliver, and paid someone on Fiverr to make it a graphic and then I created the cover on Kindle Creator. She thinks I should get the cover professionally done.
Skeeter explained that there are 3 types of editing
Developmental and structural
If you have a story, you have someone to make sure the manuscript has a flow
Basic editing
Commas, spelling, etc.
Proof editing
Looking for grammatical stuff
Skeeter knows someone who could edit it for ~$500 but she said if I want to make it a learning journey, I might want to shop it on Reedsy. I hadn’t heard about Reedsy but when I looked it up, the site says it “can help at every stage of your publishing journey”. They are an educational website and a one-stop shop for writers. It’s similar to the company that Skeeter is co-funding, Inkstacks, but Inkstacks is still in development so she thought it might be helpful for me to check out Reedsy. It seems a lot like Fiverr, which I have used to hire people to create logos, make graphic of my dog for the cover, build a website, etc. Check it out at https://theordinarymom.com/fiverr (FYI- this is an affiliate link so I may get paid if you buy something).
Reedsy looks like a great resource. Since Inkstacks.com is still in development, I was grateful for Skeeter to send me to her competitor. It’s like when you go to a store looking for a specific item and they say, “we are out of stock of that but if you head over to X store, I think they may have it”. Because someone actually told you to go to their competitor, it makes you like them even more and you make the effort to go back to that store later to give them your business. Because of that, I will certainly check out Instacks when it’s done but, of course, I would have anyway because my friend is one of the co-founders but just trying to make a point of how awesome Skeeter was to refer me to her competition.
Skeeter and I spent some time talking about my target market with my book and came up with 3 target markets:
Sales
Marketing
Business
Skeeter very wisely pointed out that I could take the theme of “Everything I learned about sales, I learned from my dog” and instead of sales, I could insert other topics like marketing, business, etc. I realized I could even move away from business and insert anything else I want to write about i.e. parenting, traveling, side hustling, etc. Who knows, maybe writing more ebooks with that theme will be my next side hustle. Promise me you won’t steal my idea.
Skeeter explained that to print a book, you need an ISBN (international standard book number). Without an ISBN, people don’t think it’s professionally published. Every format will have to be a separate ISBN i.e. ebook, audio, and print. She suggested that I should just buy a bundle of 10.
She told me a story about one of her authors who is a retired University professor. The book she wrote is now her introduction when she speaks, attends a conference, etc. She doesn’t hand out a business card, she gives a book as one way to get both her name and book out there. She even negotiates in her speaking contracts that they have to buy a certain number of books (~15 books) at a discount. Brilliant!
Skeeter said that if I want to do any public speaking around sales or teach a class (in person or online), having a book is a great way to get my name out there and give me some credibility i.e. sign up for my online sales class for $129 and get the book included. The book could also be the outline for the class if I want it to be. I love this idea of making the book an extension of myself at speaking engagements, online classes, etc. In this scenario, the book might not actually make me money but it gets me in the door to other things that I might want to do. I hadn’t thought about doing any speaking or creating any online classes about sales so it sparked some more side hustle ideas I may come back to in the future.
Skeeter asked how I wanted to distribute my book. “I have no idea” was my answer. As a publisher, she has an account with different aggregators to push out to Barnes and Noble, etc. or print on demand. That’s the type of thing that a publisher has that I as a writer don’t have access to or, frankly, know anything about. This is one way that a publisher can help. We didn’t decide if she would publish my book or guide me to other resources of someone who might be interested but she gave me the list of recommendations below and, after I complete my list, we will get back together to discuss the next steps.
We ended the session with her recommendations for me:
Have someone professionally edit it
Use Reedsy.com
Think about how I want to use it. Some examples are:
As a marketing tool to use in an online class, speak to Sales, Marketing and Business people
As a pitch book to sell other products or services that I have
Change the cover
Bring in a different design
You have 8 seconds to grab attention at a bookstore
Shop around with different designers on the site
Tell them what you want to see in the cover
Use Reedsy.com
Can upload for free and shop it around to editors
Get a bundle of 10 ISBNs from Bowker (http://www.bowker.com/)- this is where everyone, including Amazon, gets their ISBNs
Enhance the layout and typesetting
Where the chapters break, have a typesetter, put a paw print where there is a page number
Each chapter could have something unique to my content like a dog chewing on a bone
Take the epub file from my Kindle Create software as-is:
Log onto Reedsy and shop for an editor
Make all these changes to my ebook and then I can convert ebook to a print book
Draft to digital
She works with a company (IngramSpark) that would hold inventory and ship for Amazon orders
I’m excited to have some direction for my next phase of this project and have someone to hold me accountable. As always, I don’t know where this journey will lead me but I’m having fun learning, documenting and sharing my experiences along the way.
I started this side hustle journey 18 months ago. After I spent the summer of 2018 bing listening to podcasts about side hustles, I came up with 9 ideas to pick from to pursue. Here was the list:
1. Sell non fiction ebooks on Amazon
2. Create an online store and do drop shipping
3. Create a website and blog
4. Do podcasts
5. Start an after school enrichment class
6. Become loan signing agent (notary)
7. Be a virtual assistant (VA)
8. Teach English to kids in China via video chat
9. Create online videos to sell about anything you know to sell i.e. teaching, tutoring, parenting etc.
Since then I have done #1 with my ebook Everything I learned about sales I learned from my dog & #3 with my blogs on my The Ordinary Mom and The Side Hustle Journey websites. I have had so much fun unleashing a creative side of me that’s been bottled up for too long due to working in corporate America, kids, kids activities bills, life, more kids activities and exhaustion due to all of the fore-mentioned things.
For the last year and a half, I have been doing those passion projects and loving it. However, the sad reality is that often passion projects are not money makers. I believe in slow and steady so I will continue to write and I hope that ebook writing and blogging will pay off someday but I’m not anywhere near quitting my day job because of them.
The one thing I have been thinking about as a potential money maker from my original list is drop shipping. In a nutshell, drop shipping is where you sell someone else’s product on your website, when you get the money from the customer, you order it from your supplier at a discounted rate and then supplier ships the product directly to the customer. The beauty of this method of selling is that you don’t create or build the products and you never have to carry any inventory.
To me this sounds like an interesting business and one that I could hopefully be successful at with my business background. For a lot of my career in Silicon Valley, I worked at a big software company and dealt with resellers and retailers who would sell our products for us. I always thought that was an interesting business model as they were riding on the tail of our product and brand. Not that they didn’t work hard- they did- but they didn’t have to worry about coming up with product ideas, creating the product or shipping the product. They could just focus on marketing, sales and customer service.
My biggest hesitation about drop shipping is that I don’t know if I’d be passionate about it. I’m currently allocating 2 hours a week to my side hustles so I don’t know if I want to take that precious time away from my passion projects of writing books and blogs and put it to something that might actually bore me. I think the business part would be fun i.e. researching a niche, building a website, learning SEO etc. but I fear that I’d be selling something I thought was boring and just adding another job to my life.
That said during my summer of binging podcasts on side hustles in 2018, I ran across Anton Kraly. He has a brand, course, passionate followers etc. called Drop Ship Lifestyle (https://www.dropshiplifestyle.com). I have been on his mailing list for a while and occasionally read his emails. Recently I saw that he had a free introductory webinar and I decided to sign up for it.
The bottom line of his free webinar is that he gives a quick teaser of his program and how you can make money drop shipping. At the end he offers a discount for those who sign up right away. The thing is, his program is expensive. He says the value is ~$10,000 but if you sign up on the day of the webinar, it’s ~$1,500. We’ve all been to time share talks to get a free trip and know the pressure sales pitch of “you’ve got to buy it today or the deal goes away”.
From listening to the webinar, I do believe he has a tried and true system to help you set up a drop shipping business. His philosophy is to sell expensive products so you have good margins, find products that people are already buying, develop relationships with high quality domestic suppliers and market to people who are at the bottom at the sales funnel (i.e. those who are ready to buy a specific product). For someone who has never set up and run an e-commerce site, I think I’d find value in the support he offers (8 modules to teach you the business, support through a closed Facebook group, monthly group calls with Anton, templates to use to create a website and emails with the right call to actions etc). I know you can probably get the same information by researching it yourself for free but I’m trying to think if a ~$1,500 investment would be worth it if I could really make this a profitable side hustle and, eventually, my main job.
I went online and researched Anton and his course and saw a lot of mixed reviews. Basically, what I want to know is this…is he a charlatan or is he the real thing? As a sales person, I can say he’s an excellent sales person. He’s got his business of selling his course down to a science. He sends emails to his list every few days with teaser titles like “Last chance- 50% off”, “1 order for $8k, is it a fraud?” or “last month Adam made $102k”. His teaser titles get you to click the email and read them (or at least I do when I’m intrigued).
It was the email that said, “$24k with just one sale” that got me to click and then sign up for the free webinar. Once I signed up, I got the confirmation email with the webinar details and what looked like a personal email from Anton’s assistant, Anna, saying she had just talked to Anton and he was excited that I signed up for the webinar. There was a photo embedded with Anton next to a computer that said, “Welcome Julie!” on the screen. Then I got 4 other confirmation emails with titles like “Webinar starts in 1 hour” and a text from “Anton” saying that he saw I registered for the upcoming webinar. As a salesperson, I know that these are all generic emails that get customize based on the person’s name but wow, he does a great job making you feel they are excited that you signed up for the webinar. The webinar was also too polished and smooth to be live so he must be pre-recorded it but would say things like, “Type yes if you agree” and then say, “I see a lot of yes’s so I guess you agree”. The beauty of that is that he can run this webinar as many times as he wants and only had to do the really hard work of recording it one time. Brilliant. I look at this as if he is this good at making you feel great about signing up for and attending his webinar, he probably has a well thought out and effective drop shipping program.
After I got off the free informational webinar where he finally shared the shared the cost at the end (a bit of sticker shock there and I’ll make you wait a bit like he made us wait), I decided to research him online.
They vary in whether or not they recommend him but the themes are:
It’s expensive so not everybody can/should buy it
He has done his homework and the class is extensive
It’s a good step by step for people who haven’t done e-commerce before
He doesn’t spend enough time on product niche selection or SEO
I am still thinking about what to do. I do believe the same information is out on the web if you want to learn it and I also believe that there are cheaper courses out there.
My current thinking is that I am going to put some serious thought into diving into drop shipping but I am not going to make any decisions for a few months. If I do end up buying the Drop Ship Lifestyle course it will put me out ~$1,500 (yikes!) and I need to make sure I have the time and the energy to take the course and take starting this side hustle seriously. I’m currently putting two hours aside a week for my side hustles. I don’t want to give up my passion projects of writing so I need to decide if I could put aside another hour or two a week and, if so, how I would allocate that time between writing and drop shipping.
Stay tuned and I’ll update you in the next few months on what I decide to do. If you have any experience with drop shipping or have paid for any drop shipping courses, drop me a line (bad pun, I know) at julie@theordinarymom and let me know what you’ve learned.
P.S. I took myself out for Sushi for a working dinner to write most of this blog. When I got the bill, they gave me a fortune cookie and the fortune was, “The only way to find yourself is to play hide and seek alone”. I’m not exactly sure what that means but I’m taking that fortune as a sign for two things 1. It’s good to take myself out for a working dinner sometimes and 2. I should keep on this side hustle journey until I can be my own boss.
P.P.S. Growing up, whenever we ate chinese food, my dad would read his fortune and then turn it over and say, “Look. On the back scribbled in pencil it says, ‘Help, I am trapped in a chinese cookie factory”. All five kids would do the obligatory laugh and then we’d roll our eyes behind his back. If you have ever eaten at a chinese restaurant with me, you know that I have carried on that tradition. I can’t help myself, it’s just ingrained in me. Please make sure that if you ever eat chinese with me in the future, when we get to the end of the meal and I turn over the fortune cookie and say that stupid line, make sure to do obligatory laugh and then roll your eyes where I can’t see it.
I am so excited to report that in my journey of trying new things I wrote an eBook in my spare time (right!) of just 2-3 hours/week on nights and weekends over the last 3 months. It’s called Everything I learned about sales I learned from my dog.
It is now live on Amazon at:
Here’s Chapter 1 to give you a teaser:
Always hungry
Quotas always go up
Get your needs met or look for something else
Just like dogs, sales managers are always hungry. I’m going to say something revolutionary here….quotas always go up. If you haven’t figured that out by now, you are either not in sales or are in sales and have been surprised and frustrated year after year that no matter how good you are, your quota is always higher the next year. If you hit your quota one year, management tends to increase your quota by at least 10-15% for the next year. (It may go up even more if you are in a fast growing industry or at a start-up.)
As a career sales person, I have never been a big fan of this top down way of forecasting. I think realistic forecasting should be bottom up rather than top down. Top down is when your company has set expectations i.e. a 20% growth rate year after year and they push down those expectations to the different business units to achieve/beat that goal. For public companies, if they have publicly stated they will grow 15% next year, they may push that number down the chain to achieve that. It doesn’t have to be the same for every business line or product but they need to set expectations/quotas that average at least a 15% yearly growth.
To do bottom up forecasting, you look at what you have in the pipeline and factor in any changes (i.e. new products, more marketing, extra people/resources to assist the sales people etc.) and then come up with a realistic goal. You may need to spread out expectations across the organization where some high growth areas are going to be expected to grow more (i.e. 30%) than an older established product line that is not releasing any new products (i.e. 5%). You still need to achieve your goals but you do it in a realistic way based on what’s in the pipeline in terms of new products and possible opportunities and not just “you need to achieve a 20% growth even though we have no new products or no potential sales.” I’m all for having a goal that you may have to stretch for but it should be realistic, attainable and based on what a territory actually has the ability to achieve.
Once I had a 25% year over year quota increase with nothing new coming out in the next year, no extra marketing scheduled, and no large potential sales in the pipeline. When I looked at the last five years of my territory, I noticed that when you took the five year average and increased it by 10%, it became my new 25% quota. I pointed out to my management that one of those years was the best sales year ever for the territory because we had just released a revolutionary new product. I suggested that we throw out that one crazy high year as an outlier and then average the remaining years and apply the ten percent growth. The finance team did not agree to that so I started the year knowing that I was set up for failure and ended up moving into a new role in the same company mid way through the year because I was given an impossible goal with no extra support or new products to help me reach the goal.
I am on a sales team now that appreciates having seasoned sales people. My management team (who were all sales people who were promoted from within the company- yeah!) realizes that if you make quotas unrealistic or not attainable for a particular territory, you will have salesforce turnover. Then you have to spend more time and money finding a new person to hire and to bring up to speed.
I think good managers realize that veteran sales people are not a dime a dozen. There is a huge value in keeping your sales people happy so they don’t company hop. If you are reading this and are in management, just remember that we in sales are all getting emails/calls/LinkedIn requests from recruiters all the time and every time we don’t take a new job, it’s a choice to stay because we are happy and/or see potential where we are.
For the sales folks reading this, make sure you are getting what you need from your company to be happy. And remember: Happiness doesn’t always come just from money. Make sure you feel the company is providing you with quality products and appropriate compensation such as salary, commission, bonuses, stock, good health insurance, life insurance, vision insurance and maybe extras like a company car (or at least pay for gas and car usage), phone, computer, tablet, marketing support, and technical support. Make sure your company provides a culture that fits with your values and your lifestyle. If you do not feel valued for what you do at your current company, make a long term plan and work backwards to meet your goal.
My dad always said it’s easier to find a job when you have a job. This is so true. If you are not happy at your current job, try to fake it until you find a new job. In my experience, the easiest way to find a job is when you are happy in your current job and not even looking. If you are truly unhappy, pull from that reservoir of strength that I know is in you. (You are a salesperson, after all, so I know you are strong!) Go ahead and grit your teeth, put on a fake smile if you have to, make a plan to get yourself a new job, put your feelers out there to friends, family and recruiters, and get that new job. Don’t look back.
If you are doing well at your current job and a recruiter contacts you, let that happiness and confidence shine through. I am lucky to be in the position that I am content in my current role at my company of six years. In the last few years when a recruiter has asked if I am interested in a different role, I have honestly said, “I like my current company and am knocking it out of the ballpark this year. But if you brought me the perfect job, of course I would consider it.” Recruiters have stopped bringing me lateral moves. It saves both the recruiters and myself time and energy, knowing I am only willing to listen to job opportunities that will catapult me into a new sphere.
The culture of a company that values its employees and supports work/life balance is very important to me. As a working parent, I’m cautious when a recruiter brings me a position from a start-up. I worked at several start-ups when I was younger and have found that the pay wasn’t that great and they overwork their employees based on the premise that everyone is going to make it big.
I find that start-ups also tend to be unrealistic about what you can make as a salesperson. Since it’s a new company, there tends to be more optimism than data. They tend to say, “You have to ability to make $X — a huge number — a year.” The problem is almost no one ever makes a million dollar in sales a year at a start-up.
“What did the sales people make last year?” I always ask the recruiter. I usually get something like, “Well, they made a lot less but that was the first year and now the company is more established and the product is selling like gangbusters.” Or if they keep talking about that one salesperson who made a milion dollars, I ask if they can put something in writing guaranteeing a minimum about that makes the jump to a start-up worth if for you. Don’t be surprised if they don’t (they never have for me).
I also see red flags when a recruiter says things like, “It’s mostly millennials.” Then they talk about the five cafeterias with all different kinds of food their world renowned chefs will prepare. (This means you will be working around the clock and eating all of your meals at work!)
I see a really BIG red flag when I am told that it’s a start-up and they are not offering any equity, which means that they aren’t willing to do what it takes to attract high level employees and if they do make it big, which is unlikely, the employees won’t get to share in the profits. I bow out quickly and politely and move to the next stage.
At this point in my career, I’m not willing to move to a start-up that doesn’t want to compensate me in both pay and stock to make up for all of the risk of leaving a good job at a stable company. If you are young and not supporting a family, go for it. For those of us who have been around a while, we have watched so many start-ups begin with optimism and passion but then they fizzle out and die in a few years. Many are not even throwing in equity for the stress of riding on the roller coaster with them. I won’t even consider a start-up who won’t offer equity to someone with my experience. I don’t feel it’s my job to take all of the risks of a new company but not get any of the rewards. For now, I’ll stick to my big, established company with strong brands, good benefits and consistent pay.
I want to add that I never talk negatively about a company where I work to a recruiter. We are only as good as our current job and that job could be taken from us tomorrow. Watch out if your boss asks you to meet with him/her in person in the next 24 hours with HR present. Hello, pick slip.
Things look a lot different when you are unemployed. Remember, if you get laid off, you need to contact recruiters ASAP. I’m a believer that you should throw things out to the universe and see what comes back. I also keep a list of recruiters and am generous about sending that list to friends who have been laid off. One friend got a job in two weeks and credits a lot of the speed to my list of recruiters I gave her. Always bring people up when they are down because it’s the right thing to do and people will remember if you helped them when they needed it.
Recently, a recruiter was telling me about a role that was a complete lateral move at a company not as well known as my current company. I wanted to keep on his list for future roles so I decided to take a very honest approach that he would either appreciate or not. (If he did, he’d only bring me the cream of the crop of future job openings.)
I am copying the wording I sent to him for your reference:
“To be totally transparent, I have found that every time I’ve talked to a recruiter in the last few years, the prospective company can’t come anywhere near my current compensation so I have had no motivation to change companies (fyi- I made ~$X last year and, in full disclosure, was a good year). I have been doing high tech/educational sales for almost 30 years and am happy at X company; however, I’d never turn down my dream job. Here is my dream job: in a field that I love (i.e. education, writing, travel or something that allows me to be an entrepreneur), doing meaningful work, mostly home based without too much travel (I’m tired from traveling for so many years), making a guaranteed $X/year for a company that values its employees above all else with an amazing culture and truly supports work/life balance.”
The funny thing is, after sending this email back to a recruiter the conversation switched from trying to place me in that lateral job to trying to hire me for the recruiting company. It turns out it wasn’t my ideal job so I’m still happily at the same company but he has me on his radar if he ever comes across anything that sounds like my perfect job.
Think about those dogs at the dog park. You can never throw down a treat without them going for it. They stay hungry. They know what they want and they go for it. Decide what your perfect role looks like, write it down, and then put it out there. You can’t expect people to read your mind. It’s like expecting your dog to retrieve the ball before you’ve thrown it. It’s unrealistic and won’t happen. Know what you want and don’t settle for less.
Sometimes, you are in a situation where you have to get a job ASAP. That’s OK. It happens. Just secure employment and then make a longer term plan to achieve something better. One of my dog park friends got laid off from a secure, well-known company in Silicon Valley. He ended up taking another job with a terrible commute. He knew he couldn’t do it forever but he took it knowing he could do it for a year. In the meantime, while he was working, he is working on finding a better job closer to home. We all have to make short-term sacrifices to get to our bigger goal. You’ll get there. Just stay hungry. Remember what you want.
Here are all the chapters titles:
Always hungry
Spoiler alert! Quotas always go up
Make sure you are getting your needs mets or look for something else
Needs lots of attention
Build customer trust through engagement
Remember to nurture relationships
You are the center of their universe
Focus on their needs
Build long term relationships by being attentive and authentic
Got to go now!
Customer urgency
Figure out the customer timeline upfront so there are no surprises
Oops!
Mistakes will happen- clean them up quickly without anger
How you handle mistakes is more important than the mistake itself
Butt sniffing
Listen first, talk later
Take time to get to know the customer and what they need
Scratch me behind my ears
Give your prospects and customers lots of attention
Let them tell you what’s important to them before diving into your sales pitch
Fetch (again and again)
Continuous customer contact is key
Continue to market to the same group
Roll down the window and let me take in the smells
Be passionate about your product/service, it will show
Notice customer signals along the way and be prepared to go off track
I’m not going in there (the vet)
Check ups and check ins are important to any relationship
Use dashboards to measure your progress and see where you need to put more attention
Dog park rules
How to work with complex organizations
How to navigate various personalities
Bad Dog
How to handle bad customers
What to do if you have a bad boss
Stay hydrated
Focus on work/life balance
Take care of yourself and put your safety mask on first or you’ll never survive long term in sales
Shake off the mud and get up
Change your mindset
Things don’t always go the way you planned so remember that instead of always moving forward, you may have to move left or right
Some times their bark is worse than their bite
Dealing with difficult customers
Letting angry customers vent
Be true to yourself- don’t try to be a pitbull if you are a poodle
How to navigate the old boys network if you aren’t part of it
Things will go badly at times so how you handle them creates your brand
Don’t forget to roll around in the mud, get your fur dirty and have some fun
Work hard but don’t forget to stop and laugh
It’s ok to share customer stories with your associates but be appropriate and never be mean
Would love any support if anyone wants to buy it. I hope it teaches you at least one thing and makes you laugh.
The Side Hustle Journey 