How can passion drive innovation and fuel the success of your business? That’s exactly what we broke down with Sven Platte, CEO of Digistore24. In fact, the mission of his company is to empower people to do sales online by monetizing their passion.

Digistore24 is one of the world’s leading infrastructures for online payments, affiliate marketing, and online sales in general. Traffic and conversion are this platform’s most important factors. So, now that we have a platform dedicated to your business’ success, what do you need to do to make that happen.

Here are the things you absolutely must do to sustain your business, according to Sven. Read below, watch on YouTube, or listen here.

Find What Drives You

Platforms like Digistore24 make it more than possible to succeed in online information/digital sales. But it’s not the only thing that will keep momentum for your business nor is it the sole factor contributing to your business’ success. You need to find what drives you, what your passion is. That is how to sustain your business for the long term.

One of the biggest tips Sven gave us is to remember that you’re not going to be great at everything. Instead of trying to be the do-it-all small business owner, you need to find what drives you, personally, to continue your business. Then you need to discover what aspects really drag you down. Maybe it’s accounting or marketing or customer service. Those are the areas where you should hire someone to take over—someone who is driven by that field.

Organize Your Day, Week, Month

Organization doesn’t come easily to everyone. But even through your own disorganization, you understand what takes top priority. That’s the takeaway. You don’t need to hire a Marie Kondo to come in and box every task up nice and neat with a bow.

Like Sven says, you should discover the one thing you want to accomplish on this day (or week or month). That’s your priority. Everything else is a nice-to-have and can be taken care of later. For now, focus on the must-have.

Build Your Team

The best team members aren’t going to be local. Don’t be afraid to look abroad. Digistore24 has team members from all over the world because the best talent is distributed everywhere.

If you only look locally, you’re severely limiting your reach. Instead, if you look in other parts of your country, neighboring countries, or across the world, then you’ll understand new markets. Potentially, those could be markets you sell in. But even if you don’t have plans for going global, getting a new perspective is always helpful when selling a product online.

Self-Care Is Essential

Thankfully in recent years, self-care has become part of the norm. There are so many apps and services, like online therapy and advice, that really help you take care of you.

Why is self-care important for sustaining a new business? Because if you’re tired or weak or burnt out, your business suffers.

You need to take a break and do something that you enjoy or at the very least is soothing. Something like meditating, yoga, going to the gym, swimming, a walk through the park, or pursuing a hobby. Above all, you really do need a full night’s sleep.

Sven also made it a point to say scrolling through social media isn’t taking a break. So don’t think sitting on the couch and browsing Instagram counts.

The Challenges of Going Global

Many entrepreneurs akin the idea of going global to their success. While branching out beyond your local market can contribute to the sustainability and success of your business, it doesn’t definitely mean that will happen.

The biggest challenge is discovering what interests new customers, potential customers, and current customers in both markets. In the case of Digistore24, the customers are merchants. So Sven has to look at what interests merchants in one market versus another and analyze if the platform can provide what both markets want.

For example, German merchants are heavily focused on preventing refunds and debt collection whereas Americans are focused on increasing revenue and sales. The trick to succeeding in both markets is for Digistore24 to offer a service that provides both, prioritizing sales for Americans and security for Germans.

Since Sven has built two 9-figure companies, we can say with confidence that he’s got a lead on this business sustainability tip.

What would it take for a product in one market to succeed in the global market?

Again, a lot of people who own businesses want their product to succeed worldwide. Bad news: according to Sven, it just isn’t likely. You will probably have to release an entirely new product instead. But it’s also heavily dependent on what the product is. The likelihood of business success here is low because it depends on far more than simply bringing the sales process from one market to the next.

Every market has their own method: sales, marketing, customers, etc. You can’t bring an American product to Spain and expect the same reaction.

It’s also incredibly costly to bring a product to a new market. Most of the time, you have to double the work by opening a local support team to handle customer relationships, possibly incorporating in the new market, doubling ad spend, ensuring a positive customer experience and more.

Sven says this is a good idea for businesses that are stable and automated in one market already so they can give their full attention to the new market.

When is the right time to expand into a new market?

Digistore24 is a global business. For Sven, his purpose for pushing the company to go outside of Germany was for economic stability. If for some reason one market collapses, there is always a backup protecting not only the business, itself, but also the employees that work there and the customers who rely on it.

This is a great idea for many businesses when they’ve already nailed it in their local market and are ready for a second stream of cash flow. But a lot of the time, expanding and growing in your local market is far more lucrative and sustainable as a business practice than going abroad. There are many growth strategies you can develop that target markets closer to home and increase your customer base.

The right time to do so really depends on the lifestyle you want. There’s a lot of travel involved, twice as many meetings, webinars, networking events, partnerships, marketing efforts and initiatives, market research, business loans, and far more requirements that will take up all of your time. It’s not a short-term business plan going global. It’s like launching a your own business all over again.

Top 2 Tips for Making a Digital Program Successful

Since Digistore24 is a platform designed for digital content sellers, we thought it would be appropriate to ask Sven his top two tips for making a digital program successful.

Positioning is first. You need to learn how to position your product/service, targeting the right market. If you’re a small player in a sea of competitors, you’re not likely to succeed. This is why it’s so important to find your niche, shrink that sea (and the competitors within) so you can really target an audience that wants your product.

Quality is second. The second tip he gave us is one you should already be following: offer a high-quality product. The best digital marketing is recommendations from others. Word of mouth. Not necessarily affiliate marketing strategies or referrals, but a passion-filled recommendation from a fan/customer. If your product is no good, people won’t recommend it. And if you pay them to do so, it’ll be an empty advertisement that gets you very little leads. Which also leads into not overselling your product. You might have a good one, but if you oversell it then customers may not receive the quality they expected and that turns into chargebacks and refunds.

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