Aloha, Tom here!

This is the last part in a series that outlines my signature online business strategy. The goal of the M.I.L.K. It Method is to turn your product, skill, or idea into a major cash cow. You can find the original guide here.

Last time around, we talked about launches. I discussed how people new to online business can experience their very first profitable launch. Believe me, once you experience it for the first time, you’ll get hooked. We talked about the importance of a dedicated sales page, the intricacies of payment and delivery methods, and all the final touches you can use to ensure success.

Now, we get to talk about the most fun part of the M.I.L.K. It process, which is represented by the letter “K.” For me, the letter “K” stands for Ka-Ching! This is the sound of your proverbial cash register filling up with money, empowering you to ditch the 9-5 grind and build the online business of your dreams!

The influx of cash enables us to build a solid business, develop out-of-proportion profits, and systematize your practices to make profit-gaining automatic.

By the way, this teaching is also available in podcast form. You can find it here.

Investment Over Spending

This leads us to one of the biggest mindset shifts required to succeed as an entrepreneur. Back when I was in the 9-5 working as a restaurant manager, I thought of money in terms of spending and saving. When a paycheck came in, I paid my bills, set some aside for savings, and treated the rest as spending money. When my tax return came, my first thought was about what warm beach I can go sit on during spring break.

When I became my own boss and went into full-time marketing, my mindset had to change. Instead of thinking about money in terms of spending, I needed to think of it in terms of investing. Instead of thinking about what I could get here and now for my dollars, I had to start thinking about the kind of return I could get if I moved the money to the correct destinations.

After my first successful launch, I had $16,000 sitting in the bank, with nobody telling me how to spend it. I had to make a tough decision. Instead of remaining in my old mindset of spending as soon as I got any money, it was time to invest the money back into my business. Just like mine, your business’ growth is predicated on the proportion of profits you reinvest into it.

I’m not saying I always got it right. In fact, I know I didn’t. But I learned a thing or two about key investments to turn my first big win into a consistent habit.

With your successful launch done and dusted, you’re probably sitting on more profit than you know what to do with. Let me give you a few ideas.

By the way, it’s never too early for you to start opening up new streams of income. Here’s a quick guide.

3 Areas of Investment to Supercharge Your Profits

Once your bills are paid, here are the main areas of focus for you to invest your first chunk of profit into:

1. Customer Service

As a relatively new online business, you have an immense opportunity bigger incumbents don’t. You have a small enough audience to interact with, and enough time and energy to respond to them.

As you grow, however, you need to make sure that customer service stays at the forefront. When you graduate from dozens of customers to hundreds or even thousands, you’re no longer the best person to solve problems, answer questions, and ensure customer success.

With the profits from your first launch, bring in somebody who specializes in customer experience. Have them answer all your messages on social media and your website. Have them run your email. Let them troubleshoot problems when your customers begin to have them because trust me, they will.

The goal is for you to have the same level of customer service you always had, back when you only had one or two customers. Staying in touch with your customers also helps you stay on top of your market and their pain points.

2. MVP 2.0

The next thing to work on is a new and improved version of your Minimum Viable Product (MVP). If you remember from last time, the MVP was the very first product you launched with. It was developed enough to relieve pain points in your audience, but not so developed that you had to spend too much time or money on it.

Now that you have resources to spare, you need to develop a second product that improves upon the first. Take customer feedback into consideration, as well as the insights you gained from your first launch. Invest enough money into developing MVP 2.0 to make it a significant improvement over the first one.

With this product development paradigm, you’ll attract both MVP 1.0 customers and entirely new customers who weren’t ready to buy your first product. To remain successful in online business, you need to string together consistently successful launches. The day you launch your first product is the day you start preparing for launch two.

3. Systems, Automation, and Dreaming

Lastly, as your business grows, you will need to take on fewer tasks. If there’s something only you can do, then do it. If someone else could conceivably take care of it, then delegate it. 

At the start, you were doing market research, product development, audience building, customer experience, networking, and more. As you grow, however, you need to have employees or freelancers who do all of that for you.

You can also now afford timesaving software. These could be email automation, schedulers, project management, and website plugins. Ask yourself what repetitive tasks you have to take care of regularly, and find a way to automate them.

Then, hold a review of what worked. Sit down with your team, or just you if you’re a solopreneur right now, and look back at the M.I.L.K. It process you just went through. Write down everything that worked. Find a way to repeat it. Also, write down everything that didn’t work. Stop doing them immediately. 

Lastly, it’s time to start dreaming. You did it! You successfully launched a product in online business. You’ve realized the sky is the limit for you. Take some time to write out what your next goals are in business. Write out the people you want to work with. Display your goals somewhere you can see them.

You and I have a wild ride ahead, but your best days in online business are still to come.

For more secrets the so-called gurus won’t tell you about succeeding in online business, check out my podcast: