my heart was pounding... but it HAD to be done...


Happy New Year Reader!

I know I'm 13 days late... but better late than never, right?

How did you start 2026? I hope it's all going well so far.

It's time for me to give you a little update on my new business building :-)

First, let me tell you the scary stuff I did just before the year ended...

I deleted more than FOUR THOUSAND email subscribers...

...and closed down my Facebook group of 2600 people...

Honestly, my heart was pounding when I did this.

I took some screenshots, just to immortalise the moment and remind myself of how brave I am lol:

As frightening as this was, I felt better once it was done!

Since then, I've been busy building again, in my new niche.

If you're wanting to build a (new) online business from scratch, here are the essentials you need:

  • a platform where you build an online presence (that's your virtual "shop on the high street")
  • something to sell
  • and a way of building your list

In my case, this means:

  • creating content for my YouTube channel (which is where I'm building an online presence)
  • having a link to my Amazon store in my description (so I can make affiliate commissions from my content)
  • offering my viewers a relevant lead magnet (so I can build my list)

I've got all this in place, and it's beginning to grow :-).

Right now I have... 516 subscribers on YouTube... 0 affiliate commissions... and 6 subscribers (well, actually, one of these is me, so that's only 5 lol!).

It's not huge... but it's more than I had a few weeks ago.

To help me out with all this, here's what I've done:

  1. I bought a YouTube course from a guy I've been following for quite a while now: Dan the Creator. He's super helpful, has a supportive community, and I'm greatly enjoying learning from him.
  2. I joined a "Cooking Creators" Facebook group. That's just a free group, but it's been such fun to get insights into the world of "cooking content creation"! We help each other out, give each other feedback, and it's so helpful. Some people are like me, just starting out, while others have hundreds of thousands of followers - a happy mix of beginners and experts!
  3. I continue to have my mentor Dean's help too, and that's more valuable than I can say.

I guess that's about it for now.

If you have any questions about how YOU can do this too, don't hesitate to hit reply and ask - I'm always happy to help!

Have a great week,

Sophie

PS: this week I'm creating something that should bring in some income... soon... I'll tell you all about this in my next update ;-)
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