Cheryl from Made on Sundays: Turn your services into templates you can sell

TL;DR: We’re continuing the template sharing launch celebration by giving you three beautiful email templates designed by Cheryl at Made on Sundays. Discover Cheryl’s journey as a solopreneur and claim your free templates.

If you’re ready to stop solely trading your time for money and diversify your income streams, this story is for you. A few years ago, Cheryl Chan began turning time-consuming creative services into digital products she can sell. Now, four years later, her creative studio Made on Sundays generates 60% of its income from passive revenue streams—so the money she makes isn’t dependent on the amount of time she puts in. 

And the #1 passive income stream that started it all? Templates. Learn about Cheryl’s entrepreneurial journey and how she’s used templates to build a thriving brand design studio for mindful entrepreneurs.

When Cheryl realized that solely relying on 1:1 client work wasn’t a sustainable way to grow her business long-term, she focused on diversifying her income and creating multiple passive income streams. Four years later, her business has nine different sources of income—most of which are passive.

Now, she’ll show you how easy it is to transform your Flodesk emails into passive income. Watch the video to learn more!

In 2019, Cheryl decided to do something completely out of her comfort zone. She packed her whole life into two suitcases, left her hometown of Vancouver, and quit her corporate job for the chance to build a business and live abroad.

Leaving her 9-5 wasn’t an easy decision, but something inside of Cheryl was calling her to give entrepreneurship a try and create something of her own. As she and her husband settled into their new life in the Netherlands, she began dreaming up Made on Sundays while strolling along Amsterdam’s canals, stroopwafel in hand. She wanted her business to feel how those moments felt—spacious, calm, and full of intention.

Having previously worked as a brand manager for a Fortune 50 company, Cheryl pursued a career that blended her branding expertise with her creative passions. She founded Made on Sundays to help service-based entrepreneurs design a life of creativity, clarity, and intention. The name sprouted from her belief that your life gets to feel like a peaceful, cozy Sunday—any day of the week.

She adds, “My ideal customers and clients are service-based solopreneurs or businesses with small teams. Many are designers, copywriters, interior designers, therapists, and other service-based professionals that run online businesses.”

Now, Cheryl runs a thriving business, designing brand identities and websites, sharing helpful resources on YouTube, and creating courses to help other entrepreneurs grow intentionally. You can find her strolling along local markets, eating poffertjes (mini Dutch pancakes) with friends, or—her favorite—on a slow boat ride down the canals with her husband.

We asked Cheryl to share her thoughts on templates and email marketing for small businesses. Here’s what she had to say.

Templates have had a huge impact on my business, especially in the beginning. When you’re first starting out as a creative entrepreneur, the number of tasks and things you want to accomplish can be so daunting! From designing your first website to creating social posts and learning how to SEO copywrite for the first time, the list goes on and on. 

When I learned that you can use templates to get started on all of these things, that was truly a game-changing moment. The thing I love most about templates is that you never have to start from a blank page again. While you still need to put in the work to customize and personalize templates to fit into your business, having something on the page already helps me stay inspired and boosts my productivity to another level. Templates are truly the best time-saving hack!

A few years into my business, I realized I could easily package some of the creative work I’ve already done and sell it as templates. My mind was blown!  

My clients often ask me if I have any smaller, more affordable offerings as most of my 1:1 design packages can be out of budget—especially for those who are just starting out. Who knew those inquiries would kickstart my journey into creating more diversified income streams for my business? 

I went from earning 100% of my business income on 1:1 design clients to making more than 60% from passive income streams just four years into my business! Getting started with digital products definitely takes time and patience to test out what works, but it’s so worth it for the time and financial freedom that you can experience down the road.

Email marketing has become the backbone of my business. It’s the channel through which I connect directly with my audience, update them about the latest projects I’m working on, and share valuable content. 

It’s an amazing way to nurture the relationships I’ve built with my clients, and it plays a key role in driving more sales to my digital products, courses, and design clients.

My number one tip is to pick an email marketing platform that truly inspires you to actually want to open it up and write your email. Being consistent is one of the hardest parts of creating an effective email marketing plan. Trust me—I’ve tried a few platforms in the past, and you would not believe how many times I’ve given up on writing an email newsletter just because of how hard it was to navigate the platform or personalize the design with my branding and aesthetics. 

When I finally discovered Flodesk, it was 10x easier to whip out a beautiful email design and stay consistent.

Providing valuable content is the most important email marketing strategy that I use in my business. 

From the moment someone signs up, send your audience a freebie that’s highly relevant to your business offerings. Making sure you create a value-packed, high-quality freebie will show them the quality you stand for and what they can expect from you if they choose to work with you in the future!

One of the key lessons I’ve learned through email marketing is the importance of building a genuine relationship with your audience. It’s not just about sending out sales pitches but about providing real value and engaging with your audience in a meaningful way. This approach fosters trust and loyalty and ultimately leads to higher conversion rates.

Cheryl designed three beautiful Flodesk Email templates to help you elevate your emails with designs that exude warmth, clarity, and creativity. You won’t find these templates anywhere else, and we’re thrilled to see what you do with them! Claim yours now.