Howdy folks,

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about why it’s so important to make your first $1 in business. The idea popped up because I made my money for the first time with my side passion project.

It got my thinking about why it’s important to make your first $1 and how to make your first $1 online if you haven’t already.

Here are the 2 topics this week.

1. Why it’s important to make your first $1

2. How to make your $1 online

By the end of this post, you’ll have a better idea of why $1 is such an important moment in any business and I’ll give you a strategy in how you can make your $1 online if you haven’t done so already.

There will be a freebie message template you can use to make your first $1 sale as well.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

👨‍💻 Modern Entrepreneurship

Why it’s important to make your first $1

This week I made money with 1 of my side passion projects for the first time. I made a grand total of $2.40 from Beehiiv ads.

I know what you might be thinking, that can barely buy a coffee.

This is true, but I’ve always felt that one of the biggest moments of building your own business is when you make that first sale.

Here’s 3 reasons why I think it’s so important.

1. $1 changes your idea from a dream into a reality

It’s the first real proof that your concept works and that people are willing to pay for it. It’s not just an idea in your head. It’s something real and achievable.

When I saw that email that I made $2.40, it was a powerful moment of realisation that I could actually make money from my passions.

Yes, I’ve always believed in my head that you can make it happen but it doesn’t sink in fully until you see those numbers hit the bank account.

2. $1 creates momentum

It’s a signal that you’re on the right path and that your efforts are starting to pay off. It’s a WTF moment that creates excitement which in turn you can use to fuel your motivation and drive you to keep on going.

The first $1 is like a small domino. It might take a lot of get that first one to fall but it has a knock-on effect on the rest of the dominos.

3. $1 boost in confidence

Let me be real and honest here - entrepreneurship is hard. The path isn’t a steady path to success. There’s twists & turns. Moments of high feelings & times of feeling stuck and low.

This is why I think you have to take all the wins that come your way. And that $1? That is a boost in confidence because of the validation that you idea paid off.

That you had an idea of what you thought would be valuable enough in the world that someone else would pay you for. That $1 reassures you that you’re capable of creating something of value.

It’s one thing to believe in your idea, but having someone else believe in it enough to spend money on it is a whole different ball game.

$1 is the start of something bigger

There’s a lot of content out there around how to make $1,000s, $10,000s. These are great for thumbnails & clicks.

But I believe it’s more helpful to talk about how to make your first $1.

Because if you can do that, you can start building your way towards $1000, then $10,000 etc.

But everyone. No matter if it’s an online business or a physical business.

Everyone has to start with that very 1st sale and making that first $1.

I’ve been selling online now for 8 years and have sold over 100,000 products. But the most important product I ever sold was the very 1st one.

Because it opened up the possibility that you could make money online. Bigger than that is opened up the possibility that I could make money online. That this isn’t a thing that ‘other’ people do. It’s something I could do too.

👨‍🎨 Life Design

How to make your $1 online

I get asked a lot about different ways to make money online. I get asked about e-commerce, FBA, courses, selling services, SaaS, YouTuber, affiliate marketer. I don’t have experience in everything but I’ve been in the space long enough to have tried it or know someone who has.

My advice is generally this. You can make money doing any of these things. You can make a lot and I’ve met people who’ve done incredibly well.

But at the same time, I know that each area will take a bit of time to get working. There is no get-rich-quick scheme here. It can take months & more likely years before things click.

I don’t say this to be disheartening, but to what I honestly believe from my own experience and what I’ve been told be others as well.

Now we’ve got that out of the way. I do think it is much easier, more realistic & beneficial to just make your first $1 online.

That is something that I believe you can do in 1 day.

So I’m calling it ‘The $1 Day Challenge’

It’s a way that I believe that anyone can make their first $1 online and be able to achieve that within 24 hours.

Here’s how it works:

Create Your Product: Here’s how

1. What you do. Easiest way to make money at the start? Sell a service you do or provide help to someone else. Take something that you are good at - writing, designing, marketing, selling, coaching your expertise.

2. What you offer. Take your service and come up with a way you can genuinely help someone else in a short amount of time. It should only take you 15-60min max to do.

3. Productise it for $1. Now you have what you do, what you offer & now you price it for $1. This isn’t going to make you a millionaire. But this isn’t the point! It’s just to get you your very first $1 sale.

Get The Sale: Here’s how

• Finding potential buyers. There is 100,000s of people running profitable businesses. Your goal is to find 1 person who would be more than happy to give you $1 in exchange for your help & expertise. An easy place to start is Linkedin. But you can even create your offer on gig sites like fiverr, upwork etc.

• Send your message. This is where you ask. I’ll provide a message template you can use to offer up your service and ask for a $1 in exchange for that service.

• Receive the payment. You can do a bank transfer (more difficult) or you can use online payment providers. Paypal is most known worldwide. But Stripe is a great service that you can send someone a payment link. You can even create a product on Gumroad that people can pay with.

Let’s give an example of how this would work in reality.

Jimmy is a designer who works for a local graphic design company. He’d love to make some additional income with online gig work. He wants to make his very first $1 online.

• He knows his expertise = graphic design

• He knows his potential buyer = professionals growing personal brands on Linkedin

• He creates a small offer = redesign their Linkedin banner for $1

Okay, so Jimmy has his product, buyer & offer. Let’s get into this week’s freebie which is a message template you can customise and send.

🎁 Members Freebie

The $1 Day Message Template

Hey {Name} I saw that you {What they are doing which might need your help}. I’d love to help you {What is their benefit} by doing {What specifically you are offering to do}.

In the end, you will have {The specific deliverable/outcome}. If you’re interested this will only cost $1 which you can even refund if you’re not happy.

Why $1? I’m doing The $1 Day experiment which you can read here.

Thanks, {Your Name}

Jimmy’s Example

Hey Jane I saw that you are doing a great job growing your personal brand here on Linkedin. I’d love to help you improve your visual branding by redesigning your profile banner.

In the end, you will have a professionally designed profile banner that captures the best of what do which will help improve your lead capture and conversions.

If you’re interested this will only cost $1 which you can even refund if you’re not happy.

Why $1? I’m doing The $1 Day experiment which you can read here.

Let me know if this works for you. If you give me a yes I’ll go ahead and design you the banner & give you a $1 payment link if you’re happy with the result.

Thanks, Jimmy

A simple friendly message which is straight to the point. Will everyone say yes? Most likely not but that’s not the point - your goal is to get just 1 person to say yes.

Good luck if you give it a go make sure to let me know how you got on. Lastly, if you can’t find anyone that will be your first $1 sale then I can be your first buyer if you provide something that is genuinely helpful and useful! Just drop me an email with your $1 offer.

🔥 Interesting Finds

The $1 Day Idea Generator

Okay so here’s a fun one. Here is my $1 offer to help anyone who is genuinely stuck with ideas.

My hope is that if you’ve read everything up to here. You will already have ideas that you’d love to explore, but if you are stuck, here’s an AI tool designed to come up with ideas for you.

You can take these idea suggestions and run with them.

Ready to get started? Access the $1 Day Offer Idea Generator here and take the first step towards turning your skills into profit.

📚 The Book Club

Here's what I've been reading or listening to lately alongside some little nuggets I've picked up through the week.

1. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

🎵 Music to Vibe too

Stumbled into this gem on YouTube today. Never heard of Neo-Soul Guitar but I’m now a big fan. A great laid back set to kickback to.

Come join the listening party with one of my curated Spotify playlists

• 🤘 Rock Out | Belfast in the 00s

• 🧊 Vibe | Bali Beach Bar at Sunset

• 🔋 Energy | London Rave at 3am

🏝️ Lifestyle Entrepreneur AI Images

Today’s been all about making your first $1. This week we’re imagining making that $1 from this city apartment.

And that is it for this week's newsletter folks

Wishing you a great week ahead as always

Let's catch up soon

Matt

Stay awesome

🫶

P.s

Drop me an email back if you’ve got any stories about your journey to making your first $1.

P.p.s

Today’s writing might be a bit messier than normal. It takes 2-5 hours to put these newsletters together. This week was bigger than normal because I wanted to add in more actionable tips, steps & put together the AI too and spent less time editing the writing. It might be messy but I hope it’s packed with value which is the main thing.

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