Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, current business planner, or simply want to explore the options beyond a typical 9-5, digital planners are a growing topic that people should be focusing on. There’s a great potential in selling planners, as they create passive income that grows long after the product is launched. 

The market is also expansive, with individuals from all professions and walks of life needing a way to organize their schedules and tasks. Some designers have caught onto this and are building successful digital planner businesses. Today, we’ll be covering success stories from The Pink Ink and looking at what they’re doing to reach their income goals. It’s the perfect way to gather advice and tips for implementation in your own business.

Importance of Digital Planners in Today’s Digital Age

The societal shift from traditional, physical products to technological products is undeniable. It’s also understandable, because with the widespread use and prevalence of technology, why not go digital? There are a lot of advantages of using digital products, planners in particular, including the ease of use, accessibility in multiple locations on multiple devices, and an intuitive, aesthetically pleasing interface.

Overall, there’s a growing market for digital planners with the benefits they provide. It’s the perfect time to jump in and create your own digital planner if you’re looking for a passive income source to diversify your income streams. Take advice from these 5 business owners and think about the strategies they used to overcome challenges and reach success.

Success Story 1: From Struggling Architect to Thriving Digital Designer with Alice Lima

Our first success story focuses on Alice, an architect turned digital designer. Alice Lima is an avid traveler and was looking for a well-paying job that also provides location freedom, which she ended up finding through designing and selling digital planners.

Alice began as a graphic designer, which meant she had experience with InDesign and Adobe Illustrator, giving her a head start in designing planners. This doesn’t mean it cannot be learned, though. Alice found herself looking for online courses that could help her create journals, planners, and notebooks, which led her to discover The Pink Ink®.

Alice says in her DPA Interview that she loved our course, the Digital Planner Design Academy® Program, which guided her through the entire process of creating and selling a digital planner. She found the course format to be easy to follow and helpful since the videos are short and straightforward.

Alice learned how to create high-quality planners, but also picked up skills in creating optimized websites and other business skills. Her hard work resulted in Alice creating a personal brand called InMotion, a digital planner business that targets French-speaking travelers, solopreneurs, content creators, and digital nomads like herself.

While Alice’s determination eventually paid off, she still faced obstacles along the way, including long hours, tough brand decisions, and the overall risk of failing. As a designer yourself, you may be familiar with challenges, but it’s important to keep the end vision in mind and stick with your project. You can reach success like Alice did.

Within only 2 days, she had her first sale! She’s currently enjoying a life of freedom and flexibility in location and lifestyle. Each day looks different, depending on her daily needs and how she’s feeling. She’s making 2.5k-3.5k per month, with her highest revenue month reaching 6k! 

It’s impressive to see how far Alice has gotten, but it couldn’t have been done without persistence and guidance from the course she completed. She put months of work into the Digital Planner Academy®, gathering information that could be applied to her business. It obviously paid off!

From Alice’s story, we learn that persistence in overcoming challenges is crucial in building a business. It’s also important to create a planner that integrates your personal experiences and skills, like how Alice created a French-based planner as a French speaker. This makes your product unique and adds value. 

If you want to dive deeper into Alice’s story, check out our article and video interview [DPA Interview] How Alice Lima Reached Freedom in Starting Her Own Digital Stationery Business. It covers more tips on how you can build your own business and reach flexibility and freedom like Alice.

Success Story 2: Building a $3K per Month Digital Planner Business with Yuval Hacohen

One of our star students in our program, the Digital Planner Academy®, Yuval Hacohen is running a successful online digital planner business, Demiz Designs. Her story is inspiring and proves that anyone can create a thriving planner business if they set their mind to it and get past the obstacles.

Yuval faced lots of struggles before joining the Academy. She felt lost and confused on how to step up her shop, with her main challenges focusing on SEO, Pinterest, and Instagram. Everyone will find some steps of the process easy and other parts difficult, whether that’s the idea conception, technical design, or business aspect.

Despite her struggles, Yuval launched her website with the help of the Digital Planner Academy®– and with great success! She made $3k in one month and is now expanding her team to include three new members. In Yuval’s DPA Interview, she says she’s proud of sticking with her shop and joining the Digital Planner Academy® since it taught her how to properly run a business. 

Yuval was clever in her methods of design. She identified a gap in the market for planners targeting Hebrew-speaking students, which went viral. Yuval was the first person in Israel to create this type of business and by finding an in-demand, unique idea, she was able to grow quickly and reach her income goals. This is a great tip for aspiring entrepreneurs– think about gaps in the market and how you can fill them with a unique and valuable planner.

This is one key strategy that led Yuval to success, with another being her openness to learn from courses. Though it’s possible to design a planner and build a business by yourself, it can bring better results if you work with mentors and a community. Not to mention, a course holds students accountable and offers structured steps to follow.

Yuval says she learned skills needed to become her own boss and run a business effectively, as well as how to price her products. She also learned design skills in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, which were programs she didn’t know how to use beforehand. The Digital Planner Academy®also taught her how to use Apple Keynote and apply those principles to the Adobe Suite.

We can learn a lot from Yuval’s story, like her determination to overcome obstacles and creativity in finding a gap in the market. If you want to learn more about Yuval, you can read her full story in our article, [ DPA INTERVIEW ] Yuval — From struggling employee to successful digital planner business owner. 

Success Story 3: Targeting a Niche and Developing a Unique Brand with LayTonia Bailey

LayTonia Bailey shares her personal story of business success, and it’s an inspiring one! She went from struggling with difficult to use platforms to enrolling in the Digital Planner Academy® and learning valuable information that led her to a thriving digital planner business. 

LayTonia is a planner by nature, so she loves stationary and notebooks that allow her to organize her schedule and goals. She was originally on the path to becoming a fitness strategist, but she discovered the lifestyle and monetary benefits that digital planning provides and changed paths.

As part of her strategy, LayTonia focuses on creating valuable content with beneficial features that keep customers coming back. She targets “The Octane Woman”, a term coined by LayTonia herself, which includes women of all roles that need planning to organize their lives. This includes business women, mothers, athletes, wives, and more.

LayTonia didn’t know much about designing and she was looking for something simplified, which led to her discovering the Digital Planner Academy®. LayTonia says the academy helped connect all the dots to be able to use Keynotes and Affinity Publisher. The Academy provided a solution to save time, make sure she was using the programs properly, and offer advice that helped her improve.

One of her favorite parts about being a designer is the flexibility it offers, similar to what Alice Lima says. She can watch her son practice sports and work anywhere she wants– the beauty of running an online business. It seems like this is everyone’s favorite part, but in a world of long hours and being stuck where you work, flexibility is a huge deal.

LayTonia offers the advice of using a course or program that takes you step-by-step through the process. She also reminds business owners that it’ll take effort and to not get frustrated with the technical piece. This is where the Digital Planner Academy® comes in and can provide step-by-step methods and advice to solve any technical struggles or answer questions.

If you want to read more about LayTonia and her success with the BeFab Planner, check out her interview in our article and interview [DPA Interview] LayTonia - Reaching Freedom Through Online Business with Digital Designer LayTonia Bailey. She offers some great advice that any business owner could use.

Success Story 4: Paving Your Own Digital Planner Design Path with Cara Dempsey

Next up we have Cara Dempsey, the founder of Wellnest Creations. After leaving her career of 9 years to search for freedom and flexibility, she found it in designing and selling digital planners. Cara started her planner to improve her own productivity, but it ended up helping other women also become the best version of themselves.

Cara took a unique perspective with her planner by focusing on a woman’s cycle and how aligning with each part can ultimately lead to better productivity and health. It’s a very specific topic but the audience includes all women, so it’s actually a very creative and smart idea. The planner teaches the user about each menstrual phase and the movements, tasks, and nutrition that should be followed to maximize productivity.

Cara left her career because she wanted a path that would bring more fulfillment to her life, which led her to discover The Pink Ink and digital planners. She joined the Digital Planner Academy® and learned lots of great insights on what it takes to build a digital product in a software space. 

Cara says in her DPA interview that while she’s always been into productivity, it reached a point where she was trying to do all things all the time, which became overwhelming. This is where the Digital Planner Academy® came in. Cara learned how to understand the design aspect better and created an organized system to keep her on track.

She’s also taken her own path within the world of digital planning by selling through both Etsy and a personal website. Some people pick one or the other, but Cara shows that you can approach selling your product however works best, whether that’s joining a platform or taking a step on your own.

Either way, Cara recommends using the Digital Planner Academy® as a tool to streamline the process and connect with other designers. She even goes as far to say in the interview that “if I would’ve decided to go down this route without DPA, I would’ve given up.” The Academy provides a change to ask questions, seek advice, and learn from peers– a win for both you and other aspiring designers.

Cara’s story is also very influential and provides some great tips for entrepreneurs. She loves the freedom that’s been gained through her business and the ability to work from home with her kids around. 

Her full story can be found in our article, [DPA Interview] Achieving Success Through a Unique Productivity Solution with Designer Cara Dempsey, if you want to learn more about Cara’s success and how she got there.

Success Story 5: Becoming Your Own Boss and Inspiring Others with Alanna

Last, but certainly not least, we have Alanna, another successful digital planner business woman. She’s in the “girl boss” niche, which helps boss babes organize their business and their life. Alanna takes a fun and personable twist to the digital planner niche, even calling herself “their digital planning bestie”.

She offers digital planners, notebooks, and stickers, all with the goal of keeping women organized in an enjoyable way. Alanna is currently on Etsy and offers a variety of designs and features under her business name, lifewithlanny.

She’s also a Digital Planner Academy® student and has learned a lot about designing and business through the step-by-step programs. You can follow Alanna’s story on her Etsy and Pinterest, or visit her page on our digital planner creative directory. Stay tuned for more from Alanna as we release our interview with her!

Key Takeaways From the Success Stories

These 5 success stories pack in a lot of information, but there are some valuable takeaways that are key to achieving goals in your own business. Think about the common themes across each story. Each business owner faced challenges, but overcame them through persistence and problem solving. 

Each individual also took a unique perspective with their planner, targeting wide audiences with specific needs. It’s important to integrate your own skills and experience into your product as well because it adds value and creates a relatable, personal planner that your audience will be drawn to.

As you begin designing, it’s important to find a community and support to provide advice and pull you through the obstacles. At The Pink Ink®, we have a welcoming community of designers that are here to cheer you on. We have faith in you and your abilities! Just think about the end results, when you’re enjoying a life of flexibility, freedom, and monetary success.

Final thoughts

There’s a lot that can be learned from these stories, from advice on how to work through obstacles to motivation to create your own business. Just remember that nothing is perfect and building your business is a journey, so enjoy it! 

The Pink Ink team is here to encourage and support you through each step. We provide valuable insights and step-by-step guidance in our Digital Planner Design Mastery course. Our Digital Planner Academy® also has great resources and a design community that’s ready to welcome you. We wish you the best on your design journey and can’t wait to work with you!