This year I have decided to do something new and that is to have a monthly Spotlight for one of my customers and/or students. These are people who have taken action and are creating their own home business income stream. This might be publishing books on Amazon, creating an Etsy or Shopify store, starting a new blog or setting up their own website or planner business. 

Our next Spotlight for August 2022 is Sheila Anderson Mochrie from Pretty Printables By Sheila

I am so glad to see that Sheila has a new store and am excited to share it with you all.  Here's her story. 

Sheila Anderson Mochrie

Solopreneur

Sheila Anderson Mochrie

Hello everyone!


I am Sheila from the site called Pretty Printables By Sheila.


You may wonder where I popped up from …I am originally British from the NE of England, so be prepared for a little quirky humour/humor and some phrasing that isn’t totally American. I think if you hear me speak you can still find a bit of English in my accent although after 32 years here it is fading.


I was a teacher in England and then travelled to Germany to teach British Forces children in the 1970s and that ended after 5 years when I returned to Wiltshire in UK.


I eventually ended up in the Bahamas as my Naval Submarine Commander’s secretary in the mid 80’s . As part of our job, we had to be in West Palm Beach, Florida every month and so when he retired from naval life we decided to see if we could live in Florida for a few years rather than return to UK immediately…. And here we are 32 years later lol. Still here!!


Along the way we acquired a son, a few houses and more than a few cars – and envious friends!


I spent about 20 years teaching and at the same time doing side gigs of Ebay, Amazon Books, Amazon Merch, Redbubble and finally Amazon KDP.


And it was that last one on the list that led me to finding Sue – which then led me to the wonderful world of PLR, Printables on Etsy and Affiliate marketing.


I have been doing the Printables by Sheila site for just over a year now – but that was my second attempt at it. To begin with I started with A Touch of British Charm as I had a FB page and Etsy store called that. I sell POD items there. However, I just felt that with the term British it was bit limiting so I changed it. (Another pivot!)


I am now totally retired and have been for a few years. Until the Pandemic hit us, I was still doing Merch by Amazon and had risen to the 4000 level of selling ability (that means I am allowed 4000 products on Amazon – not that I actually have them.!!) However, as we all know the Pandemic changed many things and Amazon shut down their Merch Department and limited a lot of other things they would sell.


That was when I decided that as I was at home anyway, I might as well learn new things and try another ‘egg for my basket’.


The problem was that as a teacher I knew nothing about business, nothing about design creation or producing PowerPoint products. It was also before Canva had turned itself into a mega design asset and learning center. My first job was to struggle to learn PowerPoint with the help of Sue’s course about turning our content into something we could sell. I even advertised in my local community FB group to see if someone who had knowledge could help me. Alas no help appeared.


I struggled on taking lots of workshops and training so that I could get a WordPress blog working and then a place to sell from and figure out a lead page and thank you page.


Along the way I found lots of wonderful people like Sue…Melody….Ruthie….Maureen, Di, Fran….Faith…Becky…Carmen, Lori, Jen and Ana who all seemed to be so wonderful at what they were doing. Some of the earliest things I bought were from Sue, Melody and Jen.


I remember buying their premade items and struggling so much to get them to move the way I wanted them to inside PowerPoint. However, I was determined not to give up!


Eventually I found Faith and her mentoring program she had only just started, and I jumped into that. It was so great to have someone to help and just tell me the tiny simple things that technically were holding me back.


Now it is over 18 months since I first was introduced to the Printables World – and such a wonderful world of nice people and kind hearts.


I have moved on to making PLR items myself – can’t really believe that when I struggled so much – and even shed a few tears of self-pity!  I took lots of courses with people like Lori, and others to improve my skills and invested in graphics galore. I must admit I have a bit of a hoarder syndrome going on there. My designs reflect that really, as I love adding graphics to my designs and not just color.


I now have a PLR shop and have quite a lot products in there.


Funny to think that to begin with I even struggled to know the difference between PLR and personal license. Now the designers give much more instruction so that new people are clear on the terms.


I use the PLR products I buy from other designers or acquire in bundle deals or freebies in my Etsy store and do not mix the 2 types together. The originals are changed up to recreate a similar but different product.


Coming up with new ideas is always on my mind as we all don’t want to create the same products to promote to what really is a similar audience. I would like to bet that everyone reading this sees the same content being promoted in at least 5 letters from different people!


One surprising thing that I never contemplated is how I became an affiliate marketer. That was never on my horizon – but it does take up at least a third of my day. I sort of fell into it – because after all how are we going to sell our lovely products if we don’t have an audience! I am always very grateful to those lovely readers who have stuck with me reading my rambles daily!


I actually enjoy doing them except for the part where ‘it is hanging over me’ to get done – a bit like grading kids’ work – it’s always there to be done.  So, if you ever feel like trying me out – and my longish missives – go to my printable store on my WordPress site at https://sheilaandersonmochrie.com and sign up there.


I have a pretty peach notepaper or journal paper set and A Very British Teatime mini recipe book for Free. And of course, you will get my letter 5 days out of 7. But you can easily unsubscribe if my letters are not your cup of tea!


Now I have come so far as a senior citizen – I have lots of ambition before I truly actually retire! I want to get my Amazon Merch Account back to life again, add more items to My Touch of British Charm Store and revitalize my ‘A Touch of British Charm Blog’ and FB page.


As far as my printable World goes, I would love to be able to start a Subscription membership and I have some ideas for that. I would also like to introduce some items based on written PLR articles so I am keen to learn how to do that.


About 8 months ago I knew that if I was to make any progress, I had to get some help and I now have 3 VAs from the Philippines – wonderful young ladies – who help me with the different strands of my business. I took a course called OneVAaway to help me learn how to choose the right help. My aim is to eventually have them totally run different parts of the mix so that I am just responsible for smaller parts and keeping it running. To that end I am in the process of training one VA to take over the KDP side of my business that has stagnated since I started Printables.


If I was to offer any advice to anyone thinking of starting a new business in the online selling world – I would say “go for it”


I think I have tried them all - POD, Dropshipping on Shopify, Amazon FBA, Amazon Merch, Ebay, Etsy and now my own store.


Don’t let age hold you back – you can do anything if you persevere and learn to make habits that propel you forward. You must take action and be prepared to fail – you learn by not always succeeding.


Just move on with new knowledge and don’t repeat the mistakes.


There are many helpful people in ‘our little world’ so just ask for help or for a direction to go in to find what you need. You can do it – if you really want to.

Pretty Printables PLR


Sheila was kind enough to set up a special coupon for us as well. Use the code below to select your choice and it may be used one time per customer

COUPON CODE: SUE27


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