How To Run Your Substack Like A Business

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

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

‘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

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

A newsletter-centric business.

Quick context: 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 newsletter business fits.

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

My TBS 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 detailing the art of writing, comments, or Substack Notes. But I will be covering their importance in your newsletter-centric business.

If you need writing advice, awesome resources already exist on Substack (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 TBS 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.