Welcome to Wear Wag Repeat Episode 56: Creating A Dog Empire – How to Start a Niche Business, Grow Big & Pivot. Do you dream of taking your little niche blog and turning it into a multimedia brand? Listen to what’s worked and what hasn’t work for me as I launched an online shop and started a podcast in the last two years.

Creating A Dog Empire – How to Start a Niche Business, Grow Big & Pivot

Why I Created My Blog:

My starting point was my dog mom blog six years ago. It was very much a lifestyle blog. It wasn’t totally niched down to dog content as it is now. Of course it’s called Wear Wag Repeat. So it was about fashion and dogs. And over the years I’ve sort of transitioned to it to be about way more dog stuff than fashion stuff. But I’d still like to consider myself a stylish dog mom. I hope that you do too! On my blog, I do regular blog posts, sponsored content, affiliate links and affiliate sales to create income. I haven’t played around with ads yet, but once I build up my traffic I will. This blog is my headquarters and what ties everything else together.

The Lessons from Creating a Paid Membership:

In January 2017, I launched subscription service for $3.99/month to get exclusive content. I wanted to create something really affordable but would provide exclusive content, bonuses and DIY tutorials to dog moms. But when I launched – crickets! I kept working at it for about 3 months until I just cut my losses. What I learned was kind of the opposite of what I thought. Offering something cheap meant it had very low perceived value. People actually get more excited about signing up for my courses that cost $250 or a coaching package that’s $1,000 than a $3.99 membership site.

Adding Online Courses to My Business:

In the fall of 2017, I decided to teach creative women entrepreneurs how to grow their Instagram accounts with soul. I launched with pretty good success, and build that community. I did webinars, challenges, you name it to grow those paid offers. I made money every launch and had happy students, but I felt disjointed internally trying to juggle two different businesses. This taught me to listen to the data of who actually bought and what they liked. I’ve got some exciting things in the works with these so stay tuned!

The Benefits of Hosting a Podcast:

Also in the fall of that year, I started a podcast. I wanted to interview women in the pet industry and just talk business advice while obsessing over our dogs. This makes $0… actually, it costs me money! However I’m helping other women pursue their dreams. It’s so valuable to my reputation and it’s also so rewarding for me.

Making My Dream a Reality with a Product Shop:

I launched my shop in August 2018. I carry handmade goodies for stylish dog moms. Everything in the shop is Dog Mom Made – and that’s really important to me. There is tons of amazing potential for long term growth and revenue with this revenue stream. Starting the shop has been the largest learning curve for me (second to creating the online course). I started really small with just a handful of products that I loved and added print on demand shirts using Printful.

It’s easy to be intimidated about starting because you feel like it needs to be perfect.  But it doesn’t! It just needs to be something you’re proud of and that excites you – the rest will come in time.

CHECK OUT THE SHOP!

The Wear Wag Repeat Shop is OPEN! to check it out and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @tmistick if you liked this episode or order anything from the shop.

SUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW

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You can also see all the episodes on the Podcast page of my site.