Hey there, my gorgeous listener, welcome to episode 279 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thank you for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them, especially at this time of the year.

If you’re a first-time listener, super super welcome, I am so pleased to have you here.  Excited to have you on the journey too.

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/279

Did you have a listen into last week’s episode? Last week the episode was all about getting more leads into your business.  I gave 5 examples or ways that would bring in more leads. So, if you need more leads, get cracking and listen into that episode if you haven’t already! www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/278

Today I am chatting with you about something I’ve been working diligently on since about September last year – so 4 or 5 months.

Starting from scratch, the long thought process and the scribbling on paper process to design and implement (still implementing!).

What have I been working on? My product architecture – side note the word architecture has been one that I’ve never been able to spell, but I am almost cured of that now after writing it so many times in the past few months!

What is a product architecture? It’s product design, it’s similar to income stream but the product of that income stream.

It really starts with the question, what do I want my business to look like – and although that might sound like an easy question, for me, almost 9 years in, it’s been a HUGE question for me, and I guess that’s what has taken so much work.

After you decide on what you want your business to look like, then the next question is how much money I want to earn in, say, 2024 and after you come up with that figure, the very next question is HOW!

“How” consists of what income streams you have to make that money goal and, in many cases, “how” then becomes what products do I have to sell.

It doesn’t matter if you’re the product, like for coaches or mentors or course creators or whether you sell a physical product, there’s still a product.

This might all make more sense if I tell you a little about the process, I’ve been going through over the past 4 or so months.  Oh and new side note, if you think this isn’t for you, as a small business owner, think again, because it SO is and if you think it’s not, this is probably why business isn’t moving for you like you want, because you don’t have your product architecture mapped out and working well.

Ok, so this all started with my book – Small Town Big Impact.  If you didn’t know, I wrote a book in 2023 which came out at the end of 2023. It’s a marketing book and it’s based on 107 different marketing strategies – because I was tired of seeing so many business owners ONLY having social media as their whole marketing strategy. You can get a copy from my website www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au or I believe now it’s available on Amazon and BookTopia etc but if you get it through my website, I can personalise it and send you a little cool gift – just saying!

Now writing a book in 2023 wasn’t actually on my goal list but it happened. It not being on my goal I guess is why it created such chaos in my business – at least in my head.

Obviously, my book is one part of my product architecture, one income stream now. 

In the process of writing the book, I got to thinking about the passiveness of reading a book. You buy a book, you like a book but do you take action and follow the author on socials or listen to their podcast they’ve talked about throughout the book (obviously, I am talking about business books here), and importantly, as the author and business owner who now has this income stream, what action could the reader or would the reader take next.

Remembering, of course, that many people will buy this book and I will have no idea who they are. They might buy it at a bookstore, online – but not on my website where I can have their data (e.g./ name and email address) so I need to create something in the book that would get them, potentially, to come deeper into my world.

And that looked like more products! Either products to sell or products to giveaway like a Lead Magnet in exchange for an email address and name.

So, I created the Nine Week Marketing Transformation program. And it is what it says on the box! It’s a Nine Week Marketing Transformation program that small business owners can buy and do a self-paced marketing course that will transform their marketing – help them take their business to the next level. PS – if you’re keen to know more – just head to my website www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au and click courses in the top menu.

So, now in my product architecture I have a book, and online course, me as the product as a marketing coach and digital marketing mentor, and of course, speaking.

Going back to the first question above, I asked myself what I wanted my business model to look like – and the answer was

Speaking

Which leads to books sales

Which leads to Nine Week Marketing Transformation Sales

Which leads to marketing coaching and mentoring opportunities

It’s not quite as linear as that and if I could show you my actual drawn product architecture, you’d see that it’s definitely not linear and there’s different pathways to each, but in 2024, I really do want speaking to sit at the top and the rest derive from there.  (So, another side note, if you have a business group, Shire Council or Chamber that’s looking for a speaker this year, please pass them on my details – how great would that be, we could chat in person!).

What took me 4 months to get to there, the place where I had my product architecture created, well I actually then had to create it, didn’t I!

I didn’t have a Nine Week Marketing Transformation Program, so I had to write that, record that, create that.

I had to update my speaker bio, re-create my speaker kit, create a show-stopping speaker proposal document, update my media kit, re-design some website pages and create new ones, write and create email marketing sequences, lead magnets and so much more. I had to do the doing – and that’s what has taken the time.

And in true Jenn style, where I started, I did not finish, tweaking, polishing, second-guessing along the way.

My product architecture are my income streams though for this year. Maybe not all of them, but most of them.

My income will come from speaking, keynoting, course sales, book sales, and coaching/mentoring small business owners around their marketing, strategy and of course, product architecture!

I can’t encourage you enough to take some time and sit back and think about your product architecture, your income streams. Are they REALLY going to get you to your financial goals this year or do you need to add more income streams, great rid of others (like I have) to make room for new ones, and if you do need new ones, what does that even look like – what needs to be created?

I hope this podcast episode has got you thinking. I really, really want this year to be your best year yet and that’s why I am dedicating so much of January’s podcasts to having you think differently about marketing, to stretch you a little bit and get you to design the business that will see 2024 being so freaking fantastic and so enormously profitable.  You with me? Great, let’s do this.

Of course, if you need any help with anything, feel free to book a Discovery Call with me and we can talk about how I might be able to help.  Here’s the link: https://calendly.com/jenn-smm/discovery

Or if you’d like a copy of my book or the Nine Week Transformation Program sounds just like what you need at this time, head to my website www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au and you will find them both there (you can also book a Discovery Call there if you want – the link is on the home page – just scroll a tiny bit and you’ll see it.)

Remember, you need to ask for help to get help.

I’d love to hear from you in the Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group. You can join the group here and then come tell me what your product architecture looks like in 2024 – maybe you’ll inspire another business owner! https://www.facebook.com/groups/LikeMindedBusinessOwners

But that’s it for episode 279. If you loved this episode and found it valuable, please take 30 seconds out of your day to leave me a rating and review if you want where you are listening.  One more goal of mine is to reach more people with this podcast, and you can help me achieve that, by leaving me a review!  Thanks in advance. And PS – it’s been a while since someone has left and rating or review on Apple Podcasts, so if you listen there, can I please ask you to leave a review? I would REALLY appreciate that – it’s tough producing a podcast each week and I know thousands of people listen, but seeing some appreciative words will help cheer me on in 2024! If you don’t know where to go to leave a rating or review, just scroll down, past the episodes, and you’ll see it at the bottom.

See you next week on the podcast for episode 280.  If you have any suggestions for podcast episodes, please sing out. After 279 episodes sometimes my brain desserts me for ideas!

But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.

But whatever you do,

…….. remember small business peep, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!