Boost your sales 20% with a simple holiday campaign

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Updated: November 3rd, 2021

This is an archive of the Starter Story newsletter, which is read by 225K people every week.

In each issue, we share the biggest business ideas that are working today, along with case studies of founders who are making millions every month. Sign up today ➜

I bootstrapped a $3.6M/year business in 180 days

Ian created a software that helps businesses get more reviews from their customers. He developed the first version with someone he hired on Upwork and since, he’s been able to grow to $300K/month. You can tell Ian is a real hustler by reading how he got the first clients (always one of the toughest steps).

Plus, learn how other starters from different spaces bootstrapped their businesses and were able to grow them into huge companies:

Boost your sales 20% with a simple holiday campaign

Let me start with 2 quick stats:

Holiday emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened
Email marketing accounts for 20% of holiday sales

With Black Friday (and Christmas) right around the corner, I’ve put together a guide (with real examples) to help you take advantage of the holiday mood to drive more sales by sending holiday email campaigns to your subscribers.

Last year we created a special Holiday Campaign following that same guide and the results speak for themselves:

And if you need even more inspiration, here are some case studies of businesses that grew thanks to mastering email campaigns:

From personal blog to $5B IPO

Launched in 2009, NerdWallet is a company that provides financial support to consumers through educational content, and could seek a valuation of up to $5bn. According to Coverager, the company had an average of 21 million monthly unique users in the first half of this year and a revenue of $181.6M.

This is a great example of how blogs can become huge businesses. These are my 3 favorite things about them:

They can be easily run by one person
Require low maintenance
Lots of monetization options (ads, premium content, sponsorships)

I’ve put together an inspiring list of 40 people making lots of money with their blogs. Here are a few case studies that I especially like:

How to come up with an idea for your business

So you want to start a business but you don't have a good idea?

Don't worry, you are not alone! This is probably the most common thing that we hear from readers at Starter Story.

Finding a "good idea" is not only hard, but it's a really big decision. Once you pick something, you might be stuck with it for a while - so it's important to make sure you do your due diligence.

In this post, I’ll give you 12 ways to find an idea with real-world examples from proven entrepreneurs. If you want even more inspiration check out these 52 business ideas you can start with little capital and our Ideas Database with 6.400+ business ideas.

Thanks for reading!

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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I bootstrapped a $3.6M/year business in 180 days

Boost your sales 20% with a simple holiday campaign

From personal blog to $5B IPO

How to come up with an idea for your business

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