Scaling Smart: How Sara Built a Thriving Business by Keeping It Simple
Nearly every time I speak to a really successful seller on SendOwl they tell me the same thing: part of the secret to their success is their ability to keep it simple. It’s what helped them get started and then what’s allowed them to expand.
But what exactly do they mean by keep it simple?
A few weeks ago I got the most precise description I’ve gotten of this to date when I talked to a founder who has been routinely achieving ratings of 4.6+ (out of 5) across hundreds of products. Her ratings stuck out to me because few sellers are able to achieve that level of consistency at that level of volume.
Sara Borgstede is the founder of The Holy Mess, a woman-focused health and wellness brand that’s been thriving for over a decade.
For Sara, the secret to long-term success hasn’t been about building massive, complicated products. Instead, it’s been about creating small, tangible wins that truly resonate with her audience.
Learning Through Trial and Error
Like many entrepreneurs, Sara’s early products weren’t all winners. “My first digital product wasn’t good—and my first customers told me that,” she laughs. “But I listened to the feedback, fixed it, and made it better.”
Throughout the years she has also experimented with glossier, more heavily designed products but her early commitment to listening to her customers and following the data about what they want has proved that less can be more.
Her best-seller? A simple three-day meal plan.
“People love it because it’s doable,” she explains. “I could spend months building a beautiful, in-depth program, but the truth is, quick wins that customers can implement right away often sell better. They’re less intimidating and more practical.”
When she said this, it really clicked for me why simple products can be more successful than complicated ones. The more complex a product is, the more time it might demand from a buyer and time just might be the thing they don’t have. For instance, if sara was selling a month-long meal plan, in order to feel ready to buy that plan I’d have to feel ready to sit down and plan my meals for a month. No matter how simple the system, a month feels like a long time. But three days? Well, anyone can commit to that!
This bias for combining simplicity and usefulness extends to Sara's free products too. “Our most popular free products are one or two pages,” Sara told me. These one page freebies often take the form of one-page checklists and mini-guides that not only provide value but also bring new customers onto her email list—where every freebie comes with a thoughtful upsell to a paid product.
Advice for up and coming entrepreneurs
Given Sara’s success, I had to ask - what advice would you give someone who wants to have the kind of success you’ve had? Sara’s advice:
“You don’t always need more customers. Sometimes you just need to create better or higher-value products for the ones you already have. And don’t overcomplicate things—small, practical, actionable products can be your biggest winners.”
Dani is the GM of SendOwl. She joined in August 2025 after working with creators on platforms like Skillshare (creative education platform that mixed direct and UGC content creation) and Wattpad (UGC creative writing that funnelled stories, content and trends to Hollywood). She loves nothing more than helping creators turn dreams into money.
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