How To Start A Planner Business Successfully
If you have a creative mind, an eye for detail, and some basic graphic design skills, it may be the perfect side hustle or full-time venture for you to learn how to start a planner business.
Both print and digital planners are extremely popular, and the demand is only increasing. Creating planners could be your ticket to finally working for yourself while doing something you enjoy.
Our guidelines will walk you through how to start a planner business with some helpful tips along the way.
Why Start a Planner Business?
You may wonder why a planner business is worth the effort. You may assume people don’t use planners, especially print planners these days.
As a matter of fact, planners are a rapidly growing market for both digital and print. There’s a rapidly increasing demand for unique, customized, and aesthetically pleasing planners.
Following the best practices of other successful planner businesses will put you at a huge advantage and set you up for long-term success. These best practices include:
- Prioritizing customer service
- Creating unique and niche planners that stand out in a competitive market
- Using quality materials
- Marketing efforts to sell products directly to customers
- Outsourcing manufacturing, shipping, and fulfillment
- Understanding your costs
- Adequate pricing that does not appear “cheap”, yet not overpriced
Additionally, the potential profits you can achieve from a successful planner business are no joke. With minimal time and investment, you could have a respectable $50-$60k side hustle income. If you work at it full time, you could make as much as $250k per year as a sole owner/operator.
Print vs. Digital Planners
There are two ways you can offer planners to your customers. Digital planners used on a computer or mobile device, or physical print planners constructed of paper and bindings. Both digital and print planners offer great potential for starting a business.
Digital planners are great because no storage or shipping is required. They can be sold to customers and delivered immediately, and there are plenty of consumers who prefer a digital planner. Though not exceptionally difficult to create, digital planners require some level of software skills that may take time to learn.
Print planners have been around for a very long time and show no signs of going away any time soon. Many consumers prefer a physical planner and admire the look and feel of them. The downsides to print planners include storage, fulfillment, and shipping, which require additional costs and time for your planner business.
You can specialize in digital, print, or both, or start with one and try the other at a later time. Offering both print and digital planners will allow you to reach the most customers possible.
First Steps and Startup Costs
One of the biggest advantages of starting a planner business is the startup costs and time commitment can be as little or as much as you want.
If you start with free design software, a small starting inventory, and shipping orders yourself, you can start a planner business for little startup costs and reinvest the profits down the road.
With a bigger startup budget, you can jump into gear with a large inventory, several designs, and multiple sales channels. The choice is up to you.
Design
Before you start selling planners, you’ll obviously have to make some designs and get some prototypes. Programs such as Google Slides, Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote, and Adobe InDesign have free versions and are popular apps used by planner designers.
Once you have a design, your next step is to submit it to a manufacturer for a prototype if you’re making a print planner. This will allow you to assess the quality of the supplier you’re considering and if your design looks good in person.
Domain and Website
Although not essential when you start out, creating your own website with a custom domain is great for a print or digital planner business. Running your own website with an online store allows you to sell products directly to the customer without the added costs and fees of selling on platforms such as Amazon.
Shopify is arguably the best web and online store hosting service for starting a planner business because of its ease of use and variety of features. Shopify can also integrate with several eCommerce and social media platforms for a streamlined experience.
Marketing
You could have the best-looking and highest-quality planners, but if nobody knows about your product, it’s impossible to make any sales. That’s where marketing comes in.
Arguably the best marketing platform for a planner business is Pinterest. Through Pinterest, you can showcase your planners and other users can pin your planners to their boards for everyone to see. When Pinterest users follow the links from your posts, they can be directed to where they can buy your product.
Other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are great for showing off your planners through posts or paid ads.
Inventory and Distribution
Before you officially launch a print planner business, you’ll want to ensure you have a good starting inventory. This will give you the opportunity to figure out the market and decide when you need to order more inventory. It will be a startup cost you’ll have to budget for, which will depend on how much initial inventory you order.
Distribution will also be a startup cost for print planners you’ll need to consider, which will increase over time as your business grows. Inventory storage, fulfillment, and shipping all need to be considered.
For print planners, you can choose to handle all distribution yourself or outsource through other companies and services.
Selling Your Planners
There are several ways you can sell planners. While you can have a brick-and-mortar storefront, a larger startup budget is needed. Consumer trends for digital and print planners are leaning towards eCommerce, so selling planners online will most likely be your best option.
Once you have the design, manufacturer, shipping, and fulfillment aspects figured out, you can sell planners on several platforms including but not limited to:
- Shopify (or your own website)
- Etsy
- Amazon
- Social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
- Craft is art
- Storenvy
Conclusion
Starting a planner business doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. It may seem intimidating to put yourself out there, but the results are well worth it.
Planners are in high demand and if you love creating things that people will enjoy in their everyday life, a planner business is a great option.
As long as you strive to create great products, look out for your customers, and follow the best practices of the planner industry leaders, you’ll have an enjoyable and profitable business for the long run.