While I don’t necessarily condone spending more money than you need to, there’s no such thing as free lunch when it comes to growing your biz.
Not a week goes by where I don’t see someone on social media asking about a cheaper alternative to a business platform.
9 times out of 10, the platform in question is in the $30-$50 per month range.
While there are definitely lower upfront financial cost options, that cost simply transfers to something else.
I’ll give you a real life example:
2 common digital product business platforms are Stan Store and Gumroad.
Both are great.
Stan is $29 per month and their Pro plan is $99 per month for everything you need to start and grow an online business.
Gumroad is $0 per month, however…
They charge a 10% fee per transaction, while Stan charges 0%.
Let’s say you work really hard (and smart) and do 100k in revenue per year.
Stan Store Pro leaves you with $98,812 before credit card processing or PayPal fees.
Gumroad leaves you with $90,000 before credit card processing or PayPal fees.
Even at 20k revenue per year, you’re STILL saving nearly $900 per year.
And that’s before any discussion about functionality, features, optics, etc.
Here’s what I think what trips a lot of people up:
They don’t have a long term vision, or they’re afraid to set bigger goals.
No one I know got into online biz to make 10k per year forever.
They’re usually brought into this world by some variation of a “7 figure secrets” guru.
At the same time…
You don’t need to buy every tool under the sun or bleed money just to get results.
A personal example is my Skool group:
I’ve switched between the $99/mo Pro and $9/mo Hobby plan a few times since I launched it.
While some of the Pro features are nice, the Hobby plan does what I need it to for the time being so I might as well save the $90 per month while I focus on the ebook side of my biz.
And that’s coming from someone who has no problem spending money.
So my advice is this:
Get the essential tools to run your biz.
Pay for good quality stuff.
Cut the noise.
And build this thing to where you actually want it.
If you want help figuring out your best path, including recommended tools and resources to support the kind of digital product business you want to build, then head on over to the link below:
https://gabejohansson.com/blueprint
Any questions? Let me know.
Talk soon,
-Gabe