How giving away stuff for free will make you money long term?
I helped one of my friends start a cookie business from scratch.
This is far away from my expertise in online business, but the principle stands so I want to show you how this idea of giving things away for free actually works with any business model.
She baked great cookies, like really viral type of cookies, but she had one big problem or two big problems to be honest.
One- nobody knew about her cookies yet.
Two- she would give up after two IG posts because one video got 1,705 views and zero likes and the second got 61 views and she felt like she posted two times so that's plenty for her to get momentum going.
What we did to make her business work?
We agreed that every time she would bake, she would record everything, do a voiceover and post it. Not looking at likes, not looking at views or follows, just record what you do and post it.
Then we agreed she will go to every baker near her house, she would ask if she can give them her cookies for free, if they would sell the bakeries and coffeeshops could then buy them off her.
Another thing we did, she would go to every farmers market for 6 months and would give out one free cookie to new customers and sell some.
After 6 months she was making $3k off her cookie side hustle, after 2 years she was baking for 7 coffeeshops and would hire people to go to the farmers markets for her.
So what was the trick?
She posted every time she would bake, gave away almost 90% of whatever she would bake at the beginning and now she makes $25k a month by selling cookies.
Give away things for free so strangers learn about your product, make that free stuff exceptionally good and they will come back for more.