7 Microhabits I Learned Building A $9,000/Month Side Business

Once I saw the results, it became an addiction.

I built a $9,000/month pet travel niche e-commerce side business from my desk in my early 20s called Whisker Bag. Along the way, I stumbled upon a few habits that, up to this day I obsess about.

At first, people laughed at me.

They called me weird.

They called my habits extra.

Then the laughter stopped.

Then they asked me for advice.

This time I giggled.

My advice: To build a successful business in the digital age, you’ve got to do the extra things that other people can’t do, won’t do, or are too busy to do.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

1. Reply to all comments within 2 hours

By responding to comments, you’re improving the experience of your fans and will increase the likelihood that they’ll return.

I like to keep my replies short and personal — no more than 4–5 sentences.

Top tips:

• Thank them for their comment.
• Speak in your personal voice.
• Don’t copy and paste replies.
• Get to know each commenter.
• Respond to all comments, not just the positive ones.

2. Sleep 1 extra hour every morning

The science is in.

You cannot sleep too much.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what a groundbreaking Oxford-reviewed study says:

“In response to the question: “Can I sleep too much?,” the answer is “No,” since “too much” implies sleeping longer than is biologically necessary.”

Navy SEALs lied.

Fuck waking up at 5 AM.

It is time we destigmatize the bullshit that people are lazy because they sleep late.

After reading Dr. Matthew Walker’s book Why We Sleep, I decided to make sleep my number one priority.

You see, I used to sleep 5 to 6 hours every night — waking up at 5 am.

I felt like shit.

I tried sleeping 9 hours a night for 30 days and my productivity went up threefold.

• It felt like I swallowed an Energizer bunny.
• As a runner, I just kept beating my personal best times.
• My happiness skyrocketed.

3. Write down 3 must-do tasks of the day

I love to figure out the 3 most important win-the-day tasks first.

Instead of starting with the most important or difficult task of the three, I start with the easiest to get me into a state of flow. Before I know it, the snowball effect takes over, and as my self-confidence grows throughout the day — the bigger tasks feel much easier.

I like to break large tasks into small steps.

Anyone can do nearly anything for 5 minutes.

The first 5 minutes feel long, but every subsequent 5-minute session feels shorter and shorter.

Whenever my 3 win-the-day tasks are done — I reward myself with a good book.

4. Phone 5 customers every day

Even as a CEO, you need to stay in touch with who really matters.

This was terrifying at the beginning.

In my world, I was thinking my voice sounds terrible over the phone. In their world, they were like “holy shit, the CEO of my cat’s backpack company just phoned to check in on how my cat is enjoying her new backpack.”

At first, I thought it would creep them out, but they really enjoyed the calls.

I heard all the incredible stories from how Mr. Longclaw Of The Westcoast traveled the world with his dad to how our bag helped a lady in New Zealand use our product as an emergency evacuation bag for her cats.

They gave me a few tips on how to improve our products which I would directly hand over to our research and development team.

5. Snoop on the competition for 10 minutes a day

To stay ahead of the competition means to keep a close eye on their every move.

I like to start at the beginning of the funnel and work my way down.

What ads are they running?

Facebook Ad Library shows you all the active ads on a page.

Chances are the page wouldn’t keep an ad running for too long if it isn’t generating sales. Learn from it.

How are people responding in comments?

If a post has a lot of comments — it is a sign that something has gone very well, or very badly.

• Learn from the complaints. Prevent them.
• Learn from the compliments. Implement them.

What recent changes did they make to their websites?

The Way Back Machine is a fantastic tool to keep track of how your competitors are optimizing their websites over time.

Over the span of a year, it is easy to determine which elements won the A/B tests.

I don’t copy them directly.

But I do copy the reasoning for why they work.

6. Consume 1 hour of quality content

Quality in. Quality out.

If you consume mindless shit all day, mindless shit will come out the other side.

The ultimate cure for creative block is simply to consume quality content.

Studies show the more we immerse ourselves in quality, the more our neuroplastic brain builds neural roads that over time turn into neural highways.

The more we learn, the better we get at learning.

7. Send handwritten postcards to customers

How many brands do you know that still send handwritten postcards to customers?

A few if you’re lucky.

How many brands do you know that send postcards handwritten by the CEO to their customers?

None.

Where no people go is where the opportunity lies.

So I started doing it. A few days went by and I got a postcard back. Then another one. Then another one. Then a lot.

Without my knowing, I cultivated a tribe of loving cat owners.

When you spend an exorbitant amount of energy on things that other people don’t think about — that is where the magic lies.

Elevator success doesn’t exist.

Success is created by climbing the stairs.

One 1% improvement step at a time.

And that’s a good thing.

Because a good habit cannot be thrown out the window.

It needs to go step by step down the same stairway it came up.