Behind the Design Weekly Series: Mastering the Data Merge Tool in Affinity Publisher for Automated Digital Planner Dates | Episode 7
Welcome back, The Pink Ink® community! This is Behind the Design, a weekly series for aspiring entrepreneurs and creatives where we document the process of building a digital planner business from scratch. We’re following Claudia, a student of The Pink Ink’s Digital Planner Academy®, and we welcome you to implement her weekly strategies alongside her.
This Week’s Goal
After 4 weeks in Germany, Claudia is now back home in Italy and looking forward to the next step in her digital planner journey. It can be sad saying goodbye to meaningful times and places, but remember to look forward to the adventures ahead!
This Week’s Accomplishment
Claudia is proud to share that she’s officially finished with the design of her Creative Flow Digital Planner! This means she worked on final touches of adding dates and additional details. Claudia received a helping hand from Shay by implementing a program that utilizes the data merge manager in Affinity Publisher.
Shay created a CSV file in Google Sheets, in which she formatted all the dates for 2024, and then Claudia connected the file to her planner using a merge manager so that the CSV file auto adds the dates into the planner. It’s a brilliant idea to speed up the process and save useful time!
The Pink Ink® offers tools like this in the Digital Planner Academy® for entrepreneurs and designers with the goal of creating an efficient and streamlined process for students. Claudia is taking it a step further by saving it as a file to use later, like when she needs to auto populate for 2025.
At this point, the work of creating a planner is essentially done and Claudia can now focus on the business aspect. The yearly planner can be repurposed and updated each year, but the hard work is finished!
Takeaway
As you continue on your own business journey, don’t forget to take inspiration from daily life– whether that’s through new places, activities that spark your interest, or other planners. Claudia stopped by a moleskine store on her way through the Hamburg airport and had the opportunity to see how they were using new technology to promote digital planners. Let us know your thoughts on it!
Tools & Resources
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Join us on our weekly series by subscribing to follow the blog for updates! We’d love to hear your comments and thoughts on the series, whether on how it’s helped you, where we can improve, or what you’ve learned from Claudia’s story. If you know other entrepreneurs or creatives who could benefit from this series, share this blog post to spread the word and help someone else. We’re excited to take this journey with you. See you next week!
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About The Pink Ink®
At The Pink Ink®, we’ve turned our own digital planner business into a successful enterprise that now teaches others to do the same. Shay established The Pink Ink® in 2018 as one of the first digital planner sellers on Etsy and grew it to help aspiring designers to create, launch, and market their planners to create passive income and diversify revenue streams. Within 2 weeks, her store made its first sale, and within 2 months, it covered Shay’s full-time income!
With our experience and knowledge, we want to watch others reach financial freedom in their own lives and experience the benefits of running an online shop for themselves and loved ones. To read our full story, check out The Pink Ink’s About Us page.
About The Digital Planner Academy® Hybrid Program
The Digital Planner Academy Hybrid Program is designed to teach other entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners how to create their own digital planners through design software and real-world advice from mentors. We walk students through the process of creating and selling their own digital product from beginning to end with a goal of helping you reach financial freedom.
Every year, we do updates on our customers’ needs and shifts in online business. In 2023, we turned this into a hybrid program where you not only get access to video lessons, but you also receive 1:1 feedback and support from The Pink Ink® team, whether for general support, design ideas, or initial launch.
If you’re ready to get started in building your digital planner business, check out our blog The Digital Planner Academy® Program - the Best Online Course for Aspiring Digital Planner Business Owners and follow along with our weekly Behind the Design series.
The Purpose of This Weekly Series
What exactly is Behind the Design and why did we create it?
Shay was once an aspiring business owner, so she understands the stressful process of building a company from the ground up. Especially as one of the first in her niche, Shay paved the way for other business owners and picked up valuable skills that she now shares with others. She hopes to ignite creativity and help others do the same.
The best way to accomplish this is by demonstrating how it’s done through a step-by-step process– and what better way than to watch an entrepreneur reach success in real-time? There’s potential challenges that lie in the path of any creative individual – it’s inevitable – but it’s important to overcome these obstacles. Following another designer provides motivation to overcome these challenges, practical guidance and advice, and realistic steps and expectations.
Getting started is often the hardest part, but it’s never too late. In fact, now’s the perfect time! Take this opportunity to take the first step and build your business alongside Claudia. You’ll learn so much through this process, and you’ll reap the rewards of hard work and dedication. Let’s take that first leap together!
Join Us on an Adventure
With a goal to empower individuals to unlock their true creative potential like Claudia is doing, The Pink Ink® team is excited to see where this series leads. We invite you to join us on this exciting adventure and take grasp of the unique opportunity provided. With Claudia and The Pink Ink® members at your side, you have the tools and support to achieve success.
To stay up to date with each piece of the series, you can sign up to receive weekly email updates. We’re looking forward to the insights and creativity that each week offers, and we’re excited to welcome you into our community!