Yes. Feel your pain. Welcome to the small business start up world. It gets better once youre rich 
After further research, I’ve determined there’s just not much I can do without it being costly with some of the programs that I need to integrate and pay for, or being annoying for my clients.
The best advice I got is to attach a person massage explaining that we’re a small business that is trying really hard to get started and every sale counts asking them not to share. And saying we will give them updated versions of the book in the future as well, and giving them our contacts to reach out or any questions. It seems people are less likely to share and steal from a small business compared to a large corporate company.
Anyhow, the ebook is a very small part of the business. So even pirated and shared copies can have some net benefits if they come to us for our products and get our name out there quickly as a small start up.
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Even bad publicity is publicity.
Maybe keep one jewel out of the book to entice them to reach out.
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I was thinking about creating a FB group for people who have bought the book. And also will try to write smaller 1-2 chapter books about certain niche topics to give out later.
Put QR codes in the pictures leading back to your site so if they print it and share it still can go back.
Also update it regularly so you are a go to resource
Doing online webinars is a big driver in B to B too just keep all the contacts in your CRM from all your activities (use the eBook download to understand these are your strong leads for product sales , if higlhy motivated to read your content they will register to download it…Don’t expect to make money from it …Personally I’d offered it free if they agree to give you more personal details and survey them but hey I could be wrong ).
If it’s very very niche but also valuable commercial info maybe you can charge for it.
Another idea could be to link it to a live zoom course . They register, pay for the course and get the 'download info pack ’ as bonus .
You mentioned you have 3000 followers and product not launched yet…So you have created the buzz already.
From my own experience I think you need to focus more on your product quality in the first few batches , and get the positive customer reviews and sharing going more than anything. Anything else isn’t going to be as important than that right now. For a new product launch you really just have one good shot at it. If there are defective products in there make sure you are screening them out and even if a batch is close to but not what you want…Don’t ship it Just eat the loss.
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The product has finished production but unfortunately it’s sitting in a warehouse awaiting shipping because the UK government is so slow right now with business registration stuff.
We’ve ordered small batches and it looks really good. We’ve tried from many factories the last few months and finally found one that provided the quality we wanted. Now we just need to get it across the ocean.
So the ebook is something I hope to drive up the anticipation once it arrives and we can sell it. And also we need to get some cash for the business as I’ve already put everything in it I can. There’re just so many little expenses that keeps adding up.
Our following also keeps growing. Almost 3500 now up about 300 from the last time I posted. We’re doing a giveaway where they have to tag 3 other people in the business so that has helped tremendously.
Nice idea. I work with highly educated customer bases and most of them aren’t willing to read much these days , we tend to drip feed them the info for specific areas of interest that have been created fresh… Although we do have ‘full manuals’ and some want that but we are slow to update it and its a lot of work . By the time we get it out it starts going out of date again.
I understand the pressure of a new business owner you start generating revenue. I think an eBook could hardly generate any revenue could it ?
It’s tough but I’d say stay focused on the product ,setting up the sales channels and getting that into consumers hands and getting those positive reviews . In the meantime maybe work at something else to bring in some income now.
You mentioned you are direct to customer, that’s good but think about a mixed model working with resellers or distributors too in some markets as they can relieve your cash flow issues and bulk purchase and take away the loading of dealing with some many customer inquiries and shipping issues.
I made a mistake once selling a lower quality product. Batch because I wanted the revenue due to cash flow pressure , damaged the brand, , never compromise on that anyway.
Other people sell similar products for about £30-£40, but mine is far more comprehensive and offers way more content. Some of it I’ve yet to see anyone else cover before. I feel confident I can sell it for about £50 pounds. It’s an educational book for people, mostly for newer people in the industry but there’s also pretty advanced stuff that I don’t see anyone else talking about.
£50 for each sale isn’t bad considering there’s no actual expenses and work involved with shipping.
It’s still a relatively young industry, really only a thing for maybe just under 10 years. Theres a few large companies already that dominate the market, but I think I can offer a better product at a slightly lower price.
I see others also try, but they fail for obvious reasons to me. Like poor presentation to not having a following thinking they can just sell it from scratch.
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, did you patent your product? Its expensive but worth it. Copyright and trademarks can be placed but they are nearly useless in court. they should somehow be placed into a dated print (like your book) for proof of age. Registering your brand would be good if for no other reason than to date stamp your product as well. That gets expensive with multiple items as well though.
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Yes. We have a trade mark pending.
Sale went live just now and we’ve sold our first copy!
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Start # hashtagging
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No matter how big one gets, that first sale always feels aamzing
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