How To Run Your Substack Like A Business

I'm focusing (for the moment) on the the mechanics of operating a Substack-based business.

‘Dog-fooding is using your own products so that you understand from inside out what it is you’re providing the customers. It’s another way to gain insights and to gain intelligence. You use it yourself; you eat your own dog food. Every time we do that, we discover something that we can improve.’ - Joe Gebbia

The premise of my newsletter The Banana Stand is to guide aspiring and existing business owners how to start, operate and grow a business that doesn’t take over their life.

So I got to thinking that here on Substack, there are plenty of nascent entrepreneurs who have ideas about starting a newsletter that generates income. Income that may augment their full time salary, pay down a loan, or even completely replace their income.

In other words, turn their Substack into a business.

My real job is to help small- and medium-sized business owners achieve what I said above. I’ve done this for 20 years. I think I’m pretty good at it.

What I haven’t done is apply these principles to micro businesses, which is, I guess, where a Substack-based business would fit.

So for the next few months I’m going off on a tangent.

My articles will cover the systems, technologies, processes and operations that guide Substack newsletter owners towards building a dream business that, like I said, won’t dominate their every waking moment.

I won’t be covering the art of writing, or comments, or Substack Notes, or anything similar. There are some awesome resources already on Substack that deal with these aspects (send me a DM or comment if you want some pointers).

Nope. I plan to limit things to the mechanics of running a micro business.

My dirty little secret.

The Banana Stand has not made a single dollar since I started it almost 12 months ago. My main income is from consulting work but, like you, I want to reclaim some time and prove to myself that additional income is not some empty Internet promise.

So I’ll be following along and eating my own dog food.

I would love for you to follow along with me. Which you can do by subscribing to The Banana Stand.

All Banana Stand content is free. Nothing is paywalled. It’s all there for you, as long as you take the trouble to subscribe.

So… join the Banana Stand crew and be part of the journey.

📌 PS - If this post is helpful, please consider restacking it and sharing it with your crew? It helps spread the word, and keeps me writing content that keeps your business running like it should.

Please leave a comment, too. Your opinions and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks for reading The Banana Stand! I truly appreciate the gift of your attention.