I will never forget the New Year when I woke up to an overdrawn account. I was making money in my solopreneur business but in a way that made my financial margins really close. Heading to bed that New Year’s Eve I was crossing my fingers because I knew that money was coming in soon. Sadly, not as soon as I needed. Fortunately, I was able to move money over from my equally small savings account and then held my breath for several days hoping that nothing else would hit my account before the money came in. Why am I sharing this story? I suspect that many content creators building an online brand have had moments like this one but no one talks about it. Build a healthier and happier online biz in 2025.
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Helping Black, Brown and Allied Content Creators who’re creating spaces, services and communities that otherwise wouldn’t exist strategize how to earn money with their work. This is done through sharing case studies, conversations and tools developed by other creators who are earning money serving similar communities.
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7 Strategies You Need for 2025
While I wouldn’t wish the hard lesson that I learned that year on anyone, that experience was a fork in the road specific to how I was thinking about building and growing my business. I started observing what successful creators were and weren’t doing. And then I started inviting them onto Creators Getting Paid, onto my podcast and asking my friends questions.
So, many, questions.
Then, as the health of my business improved. There were several core components to a healthy business that I felt like needed to be talked about with a lot more urgency and frequency. Especially for the creators that I supported and the communities that they were building.
Here’s the 7 Strategies You Need
Grow Your List
What most creators who have large lists fail to mention is that “growing your list” is also a skillset that takes time to develop. Once you build the skillset, then you need time to grow your list. I also notice that people get way too in their heads about the type of lists that they’re building. It’s 2025 and list building happens in a number of different ways.
- Email List building
- Newsletter Subscribers
- SMS List Building
- ManyChat Opt-ins
- App Subscribers
The point is that you’re building a list of your community members that you can contact separate from social media or someone else’s third party platform that you don’t own. At the time that I’m working on this podcast, TikTok is hurtling towards being shutdown in the United States. Thousands of content creators are scrambling to find and implement a plan to save their creative businesses. Consistently working on building a list is the equivalent of laying a healthy foundation for your business. You MUST have a list. If Target, McDonalds (app) and Frontier (app and DEN Users) have lists-why don’t you?
Work Towards Building Predictable Cash Flow
Now that you’re building a list, you have tool to help you begin building predictable cash flow. Financially healthy online business owners think about how they can build predictable cash flow into their business. Here are some examples of how this could look.
- Negotiating with a brand partner to pay you monthly for the term of your brand partnership vs. one big lump sum.
- Paying attention to the cadence of your business. What times of year do you sell products/goods/affiliates? Strategize throughout the year to build up that income.
- Create a product/good or service that has a recurring payment or subscription feature. Examples include:
- Being on retainer for a certain type of service
- Building a membership community
- Newsletter Subscription
- Patreon Content
- Sell a at least a minimum number of a digital download/course/etc. with sales built into an evergreen funnel
- Ad revenue-Website building has had some hits in the past couple of years, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a website that earns money.
The point is to look at the brand that you’re building and build in recurring income based on your audience needs, your interests and your capacity.
Prioritize Time with People
Last year was a really quiet year for me. I just stayed at home for the most part and worked on my business. But one thing that was non-negotiable for me was spending time with the people that I care about. Whether they were friends in town, friends visiting or we ended up at the same event. I actually think focusing on and foster real connections with other creators should be a huge area of focus going into 2025.
Be the Boss You Always Wish You Had
For the longest time I was so puzzled by so many content creators using toxic corporate culture behind the scenes in their businesses. They weren’t taking going on vacations, they were working 12 hours a day and building business that seemed to mirror what many of us left behind. Then I figured out that in the beginning you’re working hard to make things happen because you have to get paid.
You’re in the zone.
Then as things slowly come together we forget to a minute to pause and reflect on what we’re building. Don’t forget to take that pause and evaluate the design of your business. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Does your workday make sense for how you show up best? I prefer connecting with people after 10:00 am MTN. I’m more awake and focused by that time. I very rarely schedule meeting before that time.
- Do you rest when tired?
- Are you thinking about how to add professional development into your learning process.
- How are you waking up each morning? Do you love a morning routine or to wake up naturally? I prefer to wake up naturally.
My point is-have you set aside time to think about and work on business design? How would you like to experience building YOUR business?
Build in the Benefits
I’ll keep this section short because it’s similar to the previous point. What benefits are you building into your business? There’s actual benefits and then there’s the stuff that tech companies made available to their teams to keep them excited about work. If you’re your boss, thoughtfully begin building benefits into your business.
Actual Benefits
- Vacation time
- Do you sit down at the beginning of the year and think about when you would like to take time off? When are the slow seasons that impact your business cycle?
- Sick leave
- I have a cold as I work on this post. Fortunately, it also happens to be a 4 day weekend (I include Friday) so I’m home already. What happens when you get sick on a random day, have you built out a savings so that you don’t have a loss of income. There are also part-time jobs that provide sick leave benefits that online entrepreneurs could work a few hours each month in order to get those benefits.
- Time off-Same as sick leave.
- Retirement
- Savings
- Investments
- Time with family and friends
- Co-Working Days
- Educational Incentives
- Right now I’m starting a free-certification offered by a well-known university. Make sure to apply for scholarships and grants!
- Fun days and experiences
- Personal Retreats
- Events-Holiday parties, Happy Hours, etc.
Many people fall out of love with their businesses because they forget to build in the benefits.
Do the Work vs. Vibes
This one is hard to hear but I feel like the majority of online content creators go through a “vibes” phase when building their brands. There’s so much you can do, experiment with and try out that it’s easy to get stuck in the headspace.
If you want to earn money with your work, you’ll have to show up differently. You’ll have to build structure into your business, systems and then the space for creativity. Why do you think I batch so much content? That’s the tedious but important part of building my brand.
Doing the work could look like the following:
- Showing up consistently with your content
- Outbound pitching
- Batching content
- Getting at least a month ahead with your content
- Delegating certain task to someone else
- Knowing what actually brings in revenue and doubling your efforts there
- Keeping track of data
- Marketing your work
Create the Work You Want to be Known (and Paid) For
People aren’t mind-readers. We don’t know what you want to be known for until you tell us. There several different approaches that you can take. The most important is to build a portfolio of work that helps to define who you are, what you do and what you’d like to get paid for and get it in front of people. Don’t wait for other people to offer you opportunities. Create the work to attract the opportunities you’re looking for. It’s a weird chicken before the egg or egg before the chicken situation. Most well-known content creators have gone through several iterations of their creative work by the time they’ve become “big”
- Design opportunities such as a podcast tour
- Self-publish a book and do a book tour
- Think outside the box
- Have fun
Be relentless in your pursuit of showing the world who you are, what you value and what you want to be known for.
Get paid.
