2018-05-15 08:00:00
Hey … I’m Susie Shaughnessy, owner and designer of Crawford Denim and Vintage Co. The small-batch denim brand is a mix of New + Vintage apparel for Men + Women, rooted in classic Americana style. The new designs are influenced by the vintage collection but made to fit modern silhouettes. Each piece is crafted in California from deadstock or USA made goods.
I’ve been teaming up with some great friends to collaborate on designs in order to increase the reach of the brand. Selling the vintage collection monthly at Long Beach Flea Market has also helped introduce Crawford Denim to a much larger audience. These steps have incrementally increased traffic to the site and sales.
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area as the middle child in a large family. Our Dad was a long time high school football coach and our Mom managed the teams while raising the family.
Every student was welcome in our home, making our house a constant hub of activity, sports and art. We learned early in life how rewarding working in service to others is and how to work well as a team. One person’s success is a reflection of the team’s hard work.
Having an alternate source of income will help minimize any lows in sales. It’s the insurance of making rent that allows you to focus on the brand or business that you are trying to grow.
I started my design career at Levi’s, working at some of the last US factories and learned from the true craftsmen how to build the iconic jeans. After years of designing for other American denim brands manufacturing overseas, I wanted to return to producing in the states. I did not want to lose the artform that had generated in California. Working with other small businesses + craftsmen, we can each benefit and help sustain our local economy.
I was looking at the Slow Food Movement at the time of shaping my plan for Crawford Denim. Their movement to eat local foods in support of small, sustainable farms to reduce waste and eliminate pesticides were practices I wanted to employ in the apparel industry. Working locally reduces the need for gas for overseas shipping and using deadstock + vintage fabrics keeps them from landfills. These fabrics not only have great character, but were often created from cotton grown without pesticides or GMOs.
While the head Designer at Old Navy, I started a small jewelry + crafts line with my sisters. It was a good introduction on how to set up an online business and sell in person. I was able to work on my skills without a huge investment for product inventory and develop best practices knowing eventually I would launch Crawford Denim.
After designing several denim blocks, testing both deadstock and USA made denim; I made 1st samples with a small, local manufacturer who had been referred by my patternmaker. They are unique in that they sew nearly every type of product, sample in house and have low minimums.
Creating the visual story for the brand was the biggest goal. Without a big budget, I asked friends to model and photograph for me.
Having developed a good relationship with them over the years have allowed us to grow together. They still remain devoted to small businesses; keeping their costs reasonable, while still paying fair, livable wages. Using deadstock fabrics utilizes great vintage cottons and rayons that had been shelved, and keeps them out of landfills.
The Men’s product did well immediately. The raw denim for the Straight Selvage and Skinny Jeans are still the most popular styles. There were some production issues with sizing for the Women’s denim, so we tried to solve the problems. After a couple of years of getting to know our female customer better - I’ve changed the denim silhouettes all together. Using a different fit model, we’ve modified the shape of the jeans and created more unique denim styles, evolving beyond the basic five pocket.
Creating the visual story for the brand was the biggest goal. Without a big budget, I asked friends to model and photograph for me. We went to the Crawford family ranch with motorcycles + ripped around the area, capturing what was meaningful to me: friends, family, quality goods and the quintessential California lifestyle.
Working in trade also allowed my friends to be able to wear the jeans + tops and give me feedback on the fit and fabrics. I was able to make some adjustments before adding the styles online. I created the site through Shopify which is an easy platform that’s highly customizable with secure payment options. Mostly friends were the 1st to purchase online as a show of support. I was fortunate to partner with Seaweed + Gravel, a motorcycle and apparel store in Leucadia, CA. My customer base grew immediately as they are able to try on the product in person. Because of that experience, I offer free return + exchange shipping so buying online is a little easier.
I put a lot of thought into the packaging of the product. Receiving a well packaged + thoughtful piece changes a consumer’s opinion immediately for a brand. The styles come in logo’d muslin bags with postcard from the lookbook along with the order receipt, tied together with denim selvage tape. Whether it is a gift for someone or for yourself, each of the boxes I ship are packaged like a present.
I spent a year developing the styles and working on ensuring all permits were filed properly. I couldn’t afford a lawyer or accountant to file all the necessary forms, so I taught myself how to. Now I’m able to assist other small businesses on how to set up their companies in California.
Before the algorithm of Instagram changed, I was making a sale with nearly every 100 new followers. Now, it is much harder to attract new followers, stay in the feeds of followers and convert to sales.
Instagram has a few key tools that are useful to businesses. Connecting the account with Facebook allowed me to track the analytics of my followers: when they are scrolling, what types of photos or products resonate with them, even to what days and times of the week are best for maximum penetration of a post. I try to track this information weekly so to better present the brand to my current followers and attract more.
Fortunately, I’ve been able to continue to team with events, friends + shops who help promote the brand. I now work with a group of female makers + designers to try to beat the algorithm. I wanted to focus on developing my female audience and have them understand my products + the value investing in a quality denim jean.
The pod group has worked in helping to grow the female demographic without depleting the male consumer. We each like + comment on one another’s posts within the hour that they are live. This helps override the algorithm + moves your post higher in the queue of the current followers. With more likes, Instagram will even push it to more non-followers as a recommended brand to follow. I will be launching the new women’s denim styles shortly, so I hope to increase the conversion of buyers utilizing this pod group + a friend who is an Instagram influencer.
Promoting the brand through social media is a new method for leveling the playing field with much larger brands. Most followers are attracted to the idea of discovering a company, having insider knowledge and peaks behind the scenes. I have been resistant to share much of this information, because I want folks to be attracted to the product rather than a personality. But I am learning that by utilizing the Stories Feature on Instagram, I can share more about the inner workings and small batch craft that goes into the designs without the longevity of a post. The story is just a quick snapshot to entice followers without overwhelming the consumer.
Participating in shows, pop ups and fleas has really grown the audience; building the number of consumer’s eyes on the product. Because denim generally sells more in the fall and winter, I try to keep folks involved in the brand with new shirts, tees and vintage during the spring and summer months.
Two major shows I participate in are Desert + Denim in Joshua Tree, CA and the Tennessee Motorcycle and Music Revival, hosted by the Loretta Lynn Family in Hurricane Mills, TN. These two events promote small, USA made vendors and makers. Having built the jeans with motorcycle riders in mind, allows them to try on the jeans and hop on their bike at the shows; illustrating how the gap at the waistband is minimized and the knees are comfortable even bent over long periods of riding.
Becoming a regular vendor at Long Beach Flea Market has also increased the number of local folks being introduced to the brand. The Crawford Denim and Vintage Co. booth is curated to the trends of the month, like a mini store - complete with a dressing room.
I scaled back last year, trying to manage the changes in the country with fewer people buying high end product at small, local boutiques.
Some of those businesses are no longer in operation or have moved away from USA made product. A percentage of those store’s customers continue to shop my product online. I only make the styles I can afford to. The goal is to keep incrementally growing the customer base and maintain steady, positive sales online + in select shops with more unique and limited edition product.
After years of perfecting the fit of the jeans, I’d like to introduce the brand to more established boutiques with great online businesses in addition to their brick and mortars. Working with fewer but more strategic locations will help establish the brand name and product.
I continue to sew the women’s smallest batches of styles and the customized product, which takes a lot of time. I gratefully have an intern to help during the busiest of times. Over the long term, I’d like to employ another full time person to help with all aspects of the business; design and sewing, customer service + fulfillment, photo shoots and website maintenance. Currently my sister Maggie steps into help, who’s assistance is invaluable!
Since I also work with and consult for other small brands, my time is very limited. I am still trying to balance each work obligation + my personal time, maintaining a healthy lifestyle while meeting deadlines. My goal in having another employee that can share my role will enable us both to accomplish it all.
Kindness gets you far. Being a brand that works to partner + help other businesses really helps to showcase each one of us all together. We can have our own individual voice within a community, unifying us as makers. We have all pitched in to help one another. One brand or boutique’s success is a reflection of all of our efforts.
Anything that could go wrong, did.
I worked with a larger company within the first year of business, that wanted to promote small California makers. I was nervous about overextending my budget and over taxing my small audience in the hopes of growing my business. Anything that could go wrong, did.
Even though my product was well received, I did not have control over how the larger company displayed it online. The company’s marketing team decided that they didn’t like the project and very purposefully minimized it online. Trying to deal with multiple divisions within their organization as a one-woman brand was unevenly pitted and unrealistic.
I luckily took some precautions within my contract to avoid major financial losses, but I am still trying to recover from those losses. It was a great lesson to listen to my instincts. It was also good to know not to overextend my customer’s or my own bandwidth. Just because they were willing to buy one piece, does not ensure they will buy all of your product month after month.
I use Shopify for the website, Square for selling in person and Paypal + Venmo to invoice personal sales.
I rely mostly on USPS … and have become great friends with my local post office. Shipping online through USPS is super easy and less expensive than any other carrier.
I am just starting to use MailChimp to reach a broad audience of newsletter readers. I try to send out a monthly message, so not to bombard customers but also let them know where we are going to be popping up.
Tumblr is a great vehicle in addition to Instagram for my showcasing the brand’s product through photography and inspirational images. I can tell a full story of what’s developing behind the scenes and influencing my designs. My Tumblr feed has been named one of the top denim trend blogs.
I listen religiously to How I Built This. I am a big fan of the Ted Radio Hour, but How I Built This directly relates to all of the ups and downs of being a business owner. It’s a great reminder that being a small business owner takes a lot of time and endurance for all the ups and downs. Being hard working and ready for everything really is the everlasting message in each of their stories. Luck is what you make of it.
Having an alternate source of income will help minimize any lows in sales. It’s the insurance of making rent that allows you to focus on the brand or business that you are trying to grow. It’s not easy, but every entrepreneur has had some source of steady income that can get them through the tough months.
I built the brand around the brand, not around myself. It helps eliminate the personal emotions that can get tied to product … meaning that if folks don’t all love a photo on Instagram, it’s the style or the photo, not how you look in the product.
I hardly ever show my own photo on Instagram or Tumblr. I focus instead on the product + showcase the folks and friends who embody the California lifestyle of the brand. The stories we can tell together through these visuals are most important in articulating the message of Crawford Denim and Vintage Co.
2018-05-13 08:00:00
Molly O’Connor here, the Founder + CEO of The Mobile Locker Co, an onsite storage solution for events. We are the first mobile locker service in the US and utilize an e-commerce strategy for selling locker rental sales.
We service both spectator and competitor events, such as concert venues, golf tournaments, mud runs, and half marathons where participants and attendees utilize our locker units to store their stuff.
We kicked off our growth phase last year, and have since grown from two vehicles in one region to five vehicles in five regions! Our year over year revenues have just about doubled each year for our past two fiscal years as we’ve expanded our fleet and coverage areas.
As a runner I was experiencing a need for a more secure, more convenient option for my valuables and gear at road races. Scratching my own itch, I launched the service with a focus solely on running events in New England.
Utilizing my connections with other runners and syncing up with event organizers, we tested the concept for 8 months with a locker trailer before bringing the trucks on the road and rebranding as The Mobile Locker Co.
The initial launch with the locker trailer was self-funded from my personal savings. This allowed us to test our systems with minimal overhead and also gather real world feedback on the concept. Luckily, it was well received and we were able to secure funding to get our first two trucks on the road from personal connections through my two initial sweat-equity partners.
I consider myself very fortunate because I was in a position where I could leave my job and focus full-time on the business with support I had from my then-boyfriend/now-husband. Without the freedom to make the jump, I don’t believe I would have been able to do what I’ve done with TMLC.
Before taking the big leap, I had worked in sales and marketing in several different capacities: Sales support, online copywriting, social media management and B2B marketing. I took a lot from my experience and applied it to our online sales and marketing strategies.
Our initial concept, the locker trailer, was the big challenge. I originally planned for it to be custom-made out of reclaimed wood to look a bit like an old Grand Wagoneer. After a meeting with a few woodworkers I saw their quotes and quickly ditched that design dream!
We ended up sourcing prefabricated units and partnering with a welding company to create the trailer. Start-up costs were reasonable, but the next several months were a sort of a trial of errors that threw many unexpected costs our way: Extended wear on our towing vehicle, custom tarps that needed replacement multiple times, and more less-than glamorous upkeep put our limited budget to the test. We realized that, while seeing great responses from clients and customers, there were real improvements that needed to be made in order to make the service something we can grow. So, we moved up to the trucks!
This seemingly went smoothly at first: We worked with a dealership to select the trucks, they set us up with a fabricator to install the lockers in each one, and planned to lease the two brand spanking new locker vehicles from them, with all costs of fabrication included. Then came the big shock! It turned out the sales rep had never gotten the lease approved. Even though we’d already made the initial payments and needed the trucks to be in operation the next week, the finance department wouldn’t approve the lease, because we were a brand new business.
This was probably the most stressful week of my life.
All of a sudden my entire business was at risk. I was 28, technically without an income, a renter, and that was not enough for the dealership to OK almost $100,000 dollars worth of trucks. After a lot of back and forth, the dealership finally agreed to finance the trucks for us if we bought them and paid hefty down payments for each one. This was a lifesaver in that we still actually had a business, but it basically drained all the funds we had raised that were meant to be our cushion as the trucks ramped up their schedules. We had to pay for the fabrication and truck skinning separately, which took another huge chunk out of our funds.
All in all, we are in a better place as a business now that we own our first two trucks, but it was a close call. Had we not been able to get the dealership to agree to finance, we would have been back at square one! We found a partner to lease our new vehicles.
While some may see us as a brick-and-mortar operation (on wheels!), the online component has been crucial not only in customer experience and boosting rental sales, but in creating a presence that enables us to attract the attention of event organizers.
We launched our site a couple of months before our first event, and at that time we had secured a series of small races with a local race organizer. I still remember the day the first online order came in and I was notified via email. While driving along Storrow Drive in Boston, I saw the email and screamed "YES!!" with, I admit, a couple of tears of joy forming. Each event we were seeing a dozen or so online renters, which we found were about 20% of our total rentals per event. Our first big success: The Run to Remember in Boston with over 100 online rentals. I was thrilled! This event gave us insight into what we needed in terms of event qualifications (size, distance, location, etc) and pre-race marketing on behalf of the event organizer to drive runners to our truck.
The biggest lesson learned initially was finding the right e-commerce platform for our website and online rental system. Being a small business with limited funding, I am a bit of a penny-pincher when it comes to the budget. And so our first pick for our site was inexpensive, but it was also clunky, inefficient, and awkward to manage. I finally realized making a bit more of an investment will save me time and give my customers a smoother experience. I still opted for a moderately priced platform, rather than a fancy custom site, but it’s working much, much better for us.
The biggest lesson learned with the launch was working on a smooth transition from an online order to an onsite rental. Again, this goes back to the e-commerce platform we initially used and the upgrade we later made. It took a bit of trial and error, but now the process is seamless from the time the renter puts their online order in until they pick it up onsite at their event.
Our business is a bit unique in that we need to first attract events and events then deliver customers directly to us. While we have identified a range of categories that we target for our event booking outreach, there is much more opportunity beyond our prospects list. So for us, a combination of SEO and paid search through Google AdWords has been very important.
At first, we assumed interested customers would be the key driver for sales. The thought was runners would want lockers at their races, ask for our service, and that would be our path of least resistance in terms of securing business. We invested in paid Facebook ads targeting users in our regions who were runners or interested in fitness. While this delivered a moderate increase in exposure to our posts, we did not see this translate into revenue. Neither through direct rentals nor requests for our service.
It felt frustrating. Our online presence wasn’t getting the attention or interest that we were seeing in person. But then the lightbulb went off and we realized our sales focus really needed to center on the event. We keep an active online presence through our social media accounts to keep our repeat customers informed about what events we’ll be servicing and as a great way for a potential event to see what we do. But we spend our marketing dollars solely on Google Adwords and our e-commerce platform enables us to incorporate and analyze our SEO efforts easily.
Based on my experience, I would advise anyone in the early phases to spend smart. Facebook and Instagram likes are great for the ego, but they’re not always likely to drive sales.
Think about how you yourself would be driven to try a new product or service. It’s probably by reading about it from a trusted source or having a friend suggest it. You can often do you own PR by simply emailing writers with your story. A little bit spent on Google AdWords can go a long way and a bit of research will enable you to target influencers who can promote your service for you.
We are growing, attracting new business, expanding our current partnerships, and seeing repeat business from the majority of our clients, which is all great! That said, I hesitate to paint this picture of an easy breezy expansion where everything is always smooth!
We’re still learning and always working on ways to streamline processes for clients and our staff. Our budget is tight and as an owner I am making sure everyone else is paid before I pay myself. I have been so used to handling everything myself that delegating can be a challenge. I think many small business owners would agree with me on that! However, I am working on bringing in regional sales reps to augment event booking efforts and expanding our event managers’ roles to cover more of the upkeep for their vehicles.
In the short term, we just launched our newest truck which will live in Charlotte, NC and service the Southeast. Our next truck will be coming in the fall, heading to Texas. We will continue with this pace of expansion until we offer coverage in every major hub in the US. All of our sales focus will be on securing agreements with event organizers who run multiple events.
Long term, we are working on upgrading our current vehicles and creating a secondary service targeted at longer rentals that require automated service. It’s an exciting move, and we are going to be seeking a second round of funding to get that project going.
Oh absolutely!
The current startup culture is so focused on whether or not your business is "cool" and at the start I was spending too much time on “cool” things: Facebook likes, contests with giveaways, free sunglasses. It all added up in terms of expenses but not in terms of ROI!
I realized actual revenue is much better than exposure or engagement. That’s when I turned my focus to getting better, more qualified events on our schedule by beefing up our SEO efforts and paid search spending.
Another thing I learned to do was to let go of my original idea and allow the business to find it’s groove a bit more organically.
At first, I had such a narrow focus on only the road races customer-segment, which I was desperately trying to make work. Even as inbound interest for spectator events grew (where we service attendees, not participants), I was still focusing my outreach on road races. People were proactively finding us online, because the need for a solution was so great, and instead of following the path of least resistance I was trying to make my dream happen! I finally accepted that my end goal was success, and that the smart thing to do is to follow the path that’s unfolding in front of you, rather than trying to clear through brush!
Starting a business is stressful, whether you have to be a bit scrappy like me, or you have a generous amount of funding to lean on. Handling stress in normal life was easy for me. I didn’t dwell or worry all that much and usually a quick run got me back on track. Business-owner stress hit me at a whole new level, and I found myself struggling to get out from under it.
I developed a coping mechanism that has helped me immensely. When I find myself stressing about something, I create the worst-case scenario and go through how I would deal with it. Then suddenly this big looming cloud of anxiety becomes something I own and can manage.
We use Shopify for our website and e-commerce. Their sleek templates are easy to manage and customize, so we can control everything internally rather than having to contract a company to manage the site for us. It has been a great asset for us.
Additionally, Later is a great social media scheduling tool (free for basic service!), and we use SurveyMonkey for our event reporting.
MailChimp is our email marketing software. We reserve our newsletter for only a handful of important messages annually and MailChimp has been an affordable option that again gives us great templates to customize.
And of course, Google Adwords!
I find that learning about others’ paths to success is the most interesting when I am not directly comparing their experience to my own.
Probably an expected answer, but Lean In was incredibly insightful, even if I don’t necessarily agree with all the elements of the concept.
On the other spectrum, I’ve found comedians’ biographies motivating. My favorites are Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Amy Poehler’s Yes Please. While of course I’m not trying to navigate the comedy world, I find I can relate to and gain insight from their stories of powering through and overcoming obstacles.
My number one piece of advice, assuming you’ve prepared and planned, is to schedule yourself time off and do not feel guilty about it!
In our culture it’s assumed that the only way to be successful in a startup is to work yourself to the bone. But when you get to that point, you’re not effective.
Even if it’s one day a week, or just one afternoon, take time for yourself. You business will not shut down if you take a day off, I promise! It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon!
Also, it’s imperative that your goal is to make what you’re creating a success, not a sale. You never know what will happen. Even if you have an exit plan, it may work perfectly, but it also may not. If it doesn’t happen by the time you plan for it, you still have a business to run.
The biggest mistakes I’m clued into, that I see others make are my competitors, so I’ll keep those hush hush!
In general, though, I do see a lot of money wasted (can you tell I’m super focused on my budget?). If you give someone a water bottle with your company name on it, will that turn into a sale faster than if you put the same investment into paid search where you can connect directly with a customer who’s looking for what you’re offering?
Sure, branded giveaways are fun and it is a way to get the word out, but a more focused investment means a better ROI (which means money!).
Check out our social media! It’s where we post most about company updates, new events, and of course pictures of our spokesdog and spokescat.
And check us out on social
2018-05-10 08:00:00
My name is David Greenfeld and I’m the CEO and Cofounder of Dream Pops.
Dream Pops is the first superfood ice cream on the market to leverage proprietary technology, a 3-star Michelin chef and plant-based ingredients to rethink the ice cream category. Our aim is to become the Willy Wonka of plant-based confections starting with our first product the Dream Pop and extending into adjacent better-for-you desserts.
Not only are all of our products vegan, but also they have less than 100 calories, less than 7g of total sugar (mainly derived from coconut blossom sugar; no cane sugar), and are gluten, dairy and soy-free. In addition to being one of the healthiest offerings in the category, we also are one of the first companies to offer ice cream affordably online via our vertically integrated direct-to-consumer channel.
We plan on launching our DTC e-commerce site on May 10th 2018. Five years ago, perishable and frozen online was impossible. With innovation in logistics and shipping, we now believe the DTC frozen channel is ripe for disruption.
Before jumping head-first into vegan ice cream, I spent quite a bit of time in the finance world. I previously was an investment banking analyst and associate at Houlihan Lokey in their TMT and Consumer Retail divisions.
While there, I was able to grasp an understanding of how businesses were built, capitalized and operated. I decided to leverage this skill-set to pursue my dream of building my own business.
But why ice cream? It’s kind of a funny story and begins in Cartagena, Colombia. After a rocky break-up, my closest friends from college convinced me to go on a boys trip to Cartagena. During that trip, I came across vibrant paletas shops and stands and was intrigued by the ice cream category.
With some inspiration from the booming pressed juice market, I wondered why the same model couldn’t be applied to frozen novelties and plant-based ice cream. I called my childhood friend David Cohen who had experience in the food space working for a company called Yeastie Boys Bagels and we began iterating and toying around with the idea of healthy popsicles.
By chance, my firm offered me the opportunity of a lifetime to move to Milan as an Associate investment banker and I was exposed to the birthplace of ice cream. I managed to come across my partner on an obscure food blog covering the future of ice cream in Europe. After reading about him, I left him multiple voicemails to which he finally answered and agreed to let me visit his lab in Berlin. After I had tried the product he developed, I knew he was onto something and convinced him to partner with us and launch what is now known today as Dream Pops in August of 2016.
Dream Pops has been a journey to say the least.
We made so many mistakes it’s hard to know where to start. To name a few, we purchased unnecessary equipment, lost 700 units due to an unplugged freezer incident, unhooked a trailer on a highway, lacked a concrete business model, and were trying to access too many channels simultaneously.
Our first beta tests were done in my mother’s kitchen. We would buy giant takes of liquid nitrogen, ship them to her office down the street and wheel them down the road getting strange looks from bypassers.
We initially went to market believing that the 3D printed mold would be the most compelling selling point to customers, but throughout the process learned to focus on maintaining one iconic shape, building a household plant-based brand, and on sourcing the highest quality ingredients. We are now building a plant based confection platform and lifestyle brand. The goal is launch vegan desserts across all categories with a chef and design-driven approach.
We built our B2B business originally by developing branded moments and experiences for reputable companies that aligned with our demographic. This has been a very beneficial channel for us for generating brand awareness. However, we never wanted to be in the events business which is why we’ve doubled down and built out our direct to consumer channel for 2018.
It all comes down to product. If you develop a product that is 5x-10x better than the status quo and also invest in building an authentic brand & story, your probability of success increases exponentially.
We have developed a unique content strategy by investing in short form content, lifestyle photography and other related digital assets.
Our core channel is Instagram (@dreampops) where we have built a sizeable community of plant-based enthusiasts. We are trying to showcase a new aesthetic for the vegan / plant-based world, which for some time has not been quite as "fashionable".
I would go back and try to narrow our focus.
In the early stages of a startup it is easy to try to be "everything to everyone". The fact that we can infuse all types of ingredients into our product and can 3D print our molds into any shape, design or logo allows for endless possibilities.
We definitely had a challenging time understanding our initial product market fit. We wanted to be in mass channels, quick service restaurants, online and at events all at once. It’s crucial to understand what channel you’re targeting and why and to do that really well at the outset. Staying focused is key for building traction.
We are investing in brand. We are building a plant-based lifestyle brand which focuses heavily on design, aesthetic and culinary innovation.
Other competitors are focused on 3D shapes, functional benefits, mass channel and / or brick and mortar store expansion.
We refuse to cut corners on our ingredients and are bringing food science and culinary innovation from some of the most coveted Michelin starred kitchens in the world. We are also focusing on e-commerce distribution which has multiple barriers to entry and is incredibly difficult from a logistics perspective.
We are building a plant-based confection platform. What that means is that we are starting with the age old novelty and extending into all plant-based products / indulgent treats.
We are bullish on the future of animal-free products and prioritize a clean label with each of our products. We refuse to reverse engineer our nutrition facts and are focused on real food and real ingredients.
It all comes down to product. If you develop a product that is 5x-10x better than the status quo and also invest in building an authentic brand & story, your probability of success increases exponentially.
Get the product, story and distribution right and the rest will fall into place.
2018-05-08 08:00:00
I’m Natalie, I founded my bath products brand Soak Society four years ago when I lived in Brisbane and was a student with not much money. At the time, I had just returned from six months living in Guadalajara, Mexico, and was full of business ideas.
Soak Society was the one that stuck, so I ran with it. I launched with a basic website with one product (the Originale Wellness Soak) and started an Instagram account. I really had not much idea about what I was doing, but was determined to create something for myself.
I gradually increased the range of Wellness Soaks as I had the money to, and late last year we introduced an all natural Bubble Bath, BathDew, to the product collection.
Our customers are primarily our stockists. They are generally small business owners of independent gift stores, spas and salons, florists, and online stores. In mid 2017, we partnered with a distributor in Japan, and we are now stocked in around 100 luxury department stores in Tokyo!
This financial year we are on track to turn over $200,000 and have tripled our profit from last financial year.
At the time, I was working in a cafe in Brisbane while I finished off my communications degree, and the apartment I was in had a shower/bath type tub. It wasn’t the nicest tub.
I tried to make Sunday evenings my time to relax and unwind after a big weekend working on my feet. I would light candles and read a magazine in the bath, and I was making epsom salt and clay mixes with essential oils. At that point I had been toying with a few other business ideas, but then I realised the answer for a business was right in front of me - I had been creating this product that I enjoyed using, and I couldn’t find any other product in Australia like it at that time. I especially couldn’t find a brand that was a niche bath products brand.
Some good decisions have been to focus on my own physical, mental and emotional health by making sure I am eating well, sleeping and exercising. If I’m not in good shape then my business definitely isn’t. This includes lots of baths, of course!
I had the products for a month or two before the name Soak Society came to me one day when I was driving from the Sunshine Coast back to Brisbane. I remember I had to go straight to uni, and I skipped the first part of whatever class I had to sit in the cafe and register the domain and business name - it seemed so urgent!
I didn’t have any background or expertise in manufacturing these kind of products, it was all research I did after I had the idea for the business.
I can’t say that I really validated the idea by doing focus groups or anything like that, I just knew in my gut that this was the product I wanted to make, and the vision was so clear - so I just followed my intuition.
I was so broke - I remember buying my first round of labels and it being like $60 or something and then I didn’t have that much money left over for food or petrol that week. I bought all the raw materials in very small quantities in the beginning, as I was only working 2-3 days per week in the cafe so I definitely didn’t have much spare cash. The thing I did have a lot of was spare time. And I think I did well to use that to my advantage.
Deciding on the actual formula was not a huge issue in the beginning because, as I said, I was already using the product and the essential oils we use are quite common in beauty products.
I had a few issues in the beginning with trying to choose the right packaging for the Wellness Soaks. I knew I didn’t want it to be glass so that it is safe in the bathroom, and I knew I wanted it to be black.
I decided on the ‘coffee bag’ type packaging as it’s lightweight and easy to post. I had a friend who was studying graphic design to create the labels for me for the packaging and I just started printing small runs of I think 100 at a time.
Because I took my time to launch each new soak, I already had in mind scent and type I wanted and it was like it was already obvious what the next one would be, if that makes sense! After Originale I launched Rose, then Sleep, then Noosa. They are all based on Epsom salt and Celtic Salt - so that made it easy to order raw materials in bulk. And each one has a different clay and petals and essential oils.
I made sure to trademark Soak Society within the first year, and since then have also trademarked BathDew.
I literally had no idea how to create a website! I somehow figured it out, although I can barely remember how. I first used Shopify, then switched to Wordpress, then to Squarespace (which we currently use) and we are about to change back to Shopify!
It has definitely been an ongoing challenge, but I have always taught myself how to design them using themes (to save money), it is only now that we are using an agency to create a custom site for us!
95% of our revenue is from wholesale, because a few years ago (after I quit my job to work full time on the business) that was my strategy to build the brand. We did two trade fairs and a whole lot of cold emailing. It is only in the last few weeks that I am working on the online retail strategy to create a more rounded business strategy, i.e. not just relying on wholesale.
I think a lot of our customers and stockists find us through Instagram and Facebook. Our Instagram has been slowly ticking organically along over the last four years and we are now at 12k followers.
In the beginning, I didn’t use any loans or credit cards, just my own money. It was only at the point when I quit my job (two years ago) that I got a business loan to finance a PR agency contract to boost our brand awareness, and the bond and months rent on a warehouse space (as it was getting too big for my spare room at home!). I have borrowed money from my very supportive partner at times, and we still have the business loan going, but now that our profit is increasing I’m looking to pay that back sooner and get the debt out of the way.
We have also had lots of growing pains costs over the last year or so as we’ve started to export (international trademarks, overseas trips etc), so this year was going to be a sort of ‘catch up’ year… although there are always things to spend money on! I guess my focus is increasing my profit margins in order to actually pay myself a proper wage!
We have been fairly consistent with posting on Instagram and Facebook and something that has worked really well to build our following and awareness has been collaborating with other brands and some influencers. Mainly brands though. Choosing another like minded brand with a similar audience and following and doing a small giveaway or Loop competition. It was definitely a slow build, but I feel like it has now paid off in getting the brand to where it is.
We’ve only just started doing Facebook ads so I’m yet to see how they go! Because we’ve been focussed on wholesale only, so just doing trade fairs and emailing stores we think would be the right fit.
The PR firm we hired was also a great move in terms of credibility. They got us featured in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, and about 20 other publications, plus loads of influencers photographed our products on social media. We are able to use that credibility now in our brand messaging and I think it helps when approaching stockists.
I like living close to the beach and working on my own schedule. I’m not looking for investment, I’m keen to keep bootstrapping and to own my business 100%.
I also believe that great customers service has been instrumental in the survival of my business. I always receive compliments from stockists on our service and I think that’s why we get repeat orders, along with having a great product at a great price point!
I would say that if you’re going to get into wholesaling, make sure you’ve included enough margin in your products from the very beginning, and keep a track of your profit. Plus, listening to the feedback from stockists can help with designing new products!
Things are looking good! I feel confident for the future of Soak Society as our profit has tripled from last financial year, which means I can pay myself a bit more often. Our cost of goods is good, but I am working every day to try to reduce it, by buying more of our materials and packaging in larger quantities.
It’s a constant struggle between spending money on marketing activities and spending money on a large bulk order of a particular item that will save us money by doing so.
We have a warehouse in Coolum Beach just five minutes from where I live, and I employ two women part time. Zita does manufacturing, shipping out orders and some graphic design, and Jill works on blog content, some social content and admin assistance.
I don’t feel like I want to have a big team and spend all my time on HR tasks! I’d rather keep it fairly small and try to be efficient in improving our processes and ultimately profit. I like having a business in the lifestyle and natural beauty category. And I like living close to the beach and working on my own schedule.
I’m not looking for investment, I’m keen to keep bootstrapping and to own my business 100%. For now, we won’t expand to any other countries, we’ll work on strengthening the relationship with Japan and Hong Kong, and we are also developing some new products just for the Asian market.
Hard things to learn have been to be frugal in the business - every dollar counts!
I’m pretty good at spending money. A couple of years ago I spent a big chunk of money on some toiletries cases that just didn’t sell quickly, so they were just sitting on the shelf. Also on a gift set that I think was just priced too high. I think I had to go through that though, to know it was the wrong thing to do when I had less cash available than I do now.
Some good decisions have been to focus on my own physical, mental and emotional health by making sure I am eating well, sleeping and exercising. If I’m not in good shape then my business definitely isn’t. This includes lots of baths, of course!
I don’t really believe in ‘luck’, I do believe that some things just happen as they’re meant to and we can’t control them. But it’s mainly just hard work, tenacity, stubbornness and a vision. I’m a Capricorn so I’m hard working and stubborn so that helps!
There is a solution to every problem. Don’t give up until you find it. There’s nothing that annoys me more than when people say it’s too hard. I think there is something to be said for brands that are successful after many years. It’s just because they’ve stuck around, evolved, grown, and learnt about their customers. The overnight successes are rare - I don’t know how they get their customers and products right, from the very beginning!
When you’re building a brand, especially if you’re bootstrapping, you need patience. It was never my goal to build my brand really quickly and sell loads of product by any means necessary, I am fairly happy with slow consistent growth and being able to keep up with demand.
That’s about it! I keep it pretty simple.
I truly believe that personal development is crucial to business success, so I spend as much time reading and learning about self discovery and spirituality as I do about business. Everything is intertwined.
You can shop at www.soaksociety.com and also follow us on Instagram @soaksociety and on facebook.com/soaksociety.
2018-05-06 08:00:00
Fragrancebuy is Canada’s largest online fragrance retailer. We give fragrance enthusiasts access to a variety of discounted designer & niche fragrances through an impeccable online shopping experience.
We've come to be known as one of the most dynamic and customer driven companies in Canada. Our professionalism is well known and appreciated, which has enabled us to continue to grow and become a point of reference throughout Canada and the USA.
It may come as a surprise to most, but we’re just a team of three dedicated and passionate individuals managing a multi-million dollar operation. Our secret lies below :)
Having a background in Business and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto, I’ve always had a passion for identifying opportunities and filling voids. Whether it was problem solving, negotiating a contract or simply brainstorming new ideas for upcoming programs and initiatives, I always have viewed life as a series of opportunities waiting to be taken. When I graduated, a saw a huge burst in the concept of warehouse sales and an equivalent explosion in online shopping. That got me thinking of ways to capture an untapped market ...
Customers love low prices online, but what if we coupled low prices with an online shopping experience that was satisfying, memorable and praiseworthy? We started what is now the most trusted online fragrance store in Canada with an aim to answer this fundamental question.
We began with the basic Five P marketing analysis, which in business terms we refer to as product, price, people, place and promotion. We had the product since fragrance wholesale was the crux of our business, and we had great prices due to the extensive network of partners we had developed over 18 years in the industry. We then proceeded with an action plan of adding value at every stage in a customer’s purchasing experience. Promoting our products through several fun social media initiatives and offering an unparalleled customer service experience are all value-added measures that now form the crux of our company’s success in the online ecommerce world.
From the moment they find a rare fragrance, to the moment its unboxed & shared with family and friends, our customers can now feel the unique retail experience through an e-commerce platform.
Fragrance wholesale was the crux of our business and we had developed an extensive network of supply chain partners over 18 years.
The most important lesson we learned throughout the process is that the most difficult part is the starting phase but it doesn’t need to be perfect.
But with a deteriorating global economy, wholesale clients were paying late and we needed to adapt to a rapidly changing economy. Using the online Shopify platform, we were able to expand our client base and reach Canadians across the country, and offer the same wholesale pricing we had been before but without the stress of late payments.
Shopify is an easy and intuitive platform that allows flexibility of making a website with minimal technical background experience. The most challenging part was the initial challenge in loading all the products on the website which admittingly took a very long time. But as a word of advice, if the groundwork (which is the hardest part) is done well, its create a solid foundation for the rest of your business. Shopify has now become the place we promote our products. Our cash flow has dramatically improved and we have emerged a stronger company than ever before.
With the Shopify platform, we started with a simple website design and used their inbuilt basic SEO to build product metadata for online exposure.
We expanded marketing with Google Adwords and over the months started gaining a following from users from different online forums. We held giveaways with blog partnerships, built a Facebook following and led exciting competitions and giveaway contests. All of this helped expand our reach and get people truly excited about our company and what we had to offer. Online advertisements and referrals from online fragrance forums of satisfied customers generate the most traffic and sales.
We started the online venture with a personal loan injection of just $1,000 and an all-inclusive monthly expenditure budget of $500. Within a few months we recouped the initial investment. As business grew and conversions multiplied, we then had a significant pool of funds which we reinvested to upgrade the website to add value and enhance the customer experience.
The most important lesson we learned throughout the process is that the most difficult part is the starting phase but it doesn’t need to be perfect. Our first website design was created by us internally using a Shopify free theme template. As business grew, we listened to feedback from online forums and we learned more about website elements that customers expected in trusting an online store. We slowly added new features (and still do even today) through reinvested profits in a strive to work towards a more ‘perfect’ website. Rome wasn’t built in a day and a successful website also requires perseverance, dedication and a whole lot of patience.
There is and always will be a fundamental difference between a brick and mortar store vs. an online business and that is the potential for exposure.
When we started operations years ago, the phenomenon of warehouse sales in brick mortar stores was exploding. But we posed a single idea in scoping our marketing SWOT (Strength/Weakness/Opportunity/Threat) analysis: a physical warehouse sale can get max exposure only from those who live near to that actual store, but with an online business, you have the world at your doorstep.
So not only do you have the ability to use traditional means of advertising that local retailers do (including print, radio, localized demographics) but you have the incredible power of social media and vast digital retargeted marketing to reach a customer that’s thousands of miles away.
The key to winning is to always keep ahead of the game in such a way that when your competitors reach the level you are today, you’ve already innovated and are still thousands of miles ahead of them.
We first created a map of all elements in an online transaction and then narrowed in on each element to find a way to add-value to the end consumer during each stage in the online transaction. This involved informing the customer about our company, the customer going through the online process and placing the order, the customer receiving the order and finally the customer’s post purchase experience with the order.
We started with maximizing metadata for products and relevant search metadata to increase SEO. We used Google Adwords/Facebook Ads to market to search terms we thought our customers would search for when looking for their products online. We partnered with Beauty vloggers to host informed giveaways to grow exposure on online forums, Youtube, BeautyBlog websites, etc. Of course we also engaged customers through our social media accounts to let them know about our company and our value added proposition.
We then focused on the customer’s actual process going through our website and identifying obstacles in their purchase completion. We used the power of social proof to build trust and created re-targeted marketing for abandoned carts and getting customers to engage with transactions they left hanging at the final checkout page. We used order follow-up receipt emails and shipping emails to again market additional products and keep the customers fully informed on the process. When customers shop online, there’s an inherent fear of not receiving an intended product as envisioned. To tackle this, we heavily promoted a perfect order guarantee and provided emails from order placement, to order processing, to shipping and finally order receipt. An informed customer, we learned is a happy one!
The next and what we feel is the most undiscovered and underrated part of the online process is physical order receipt - when the customer actually gets their order. When a customer shops in a retail store, there is an excitement in receiving the product including the packaging, the samples, the retail experience if you may call it.
We strived to recreate that retail experience coupled with a lower priced online sale. This involved us investing in custom boxes filled with exciting messages, a personalized CEO letter and of course company marketing. For example, the top of our shipping boxes say "Your latest #fragfaves have arrived. How’s that for excitement". When people receive our shipments, that time between opening this custom box and retrieving their products creates a fascination and excitement that is not only remembered (and shared on social media) but creates a deeply-rooted sense of trust and reassurance to the customer’s psychology that they made the right decision by buying from us.
The final step in our analysis was to add value to the post purchase. This includes engaging customers to recognize us not just as any online discounter, but an actual brand. This is what I call differentiating yourself from the Amazon effect. We realized the way to do this was to recognize and treat repeat traffic to be equally as important as new website traffic.
To drive repeat traffic, we kept our regular customers engaged. We introduced a personalized loyalty program, held fun celebratory events including a virtual East egg-hunt challenge (which now has become an annual tradition) and even created customized receipts when recognizing a customer had returned for a secondary or multiple follow-up order. A lot of companies forget the power of a happy repeat customer. Not only do they add monetary value through repeat purchases but they also become a spokesperson for your brand, without charging an ad fee ☺
It’s been just four years since we launched and we’re now regarded as one of the most customer-driven and fastest growing companies in Canada. Our professionalism is well known and appreciated, which has enabled us to continue to grow and become a point of reference throughout Canada and the USA (to where we started shipping just over a year ago).
The secret to creating a profitable online business can be summarized in the words of one of my former University of Toronto professors Tim Richardson: "adding value".
If you evaluate your entire business model with a value-added approach, similar to how we did in recreating a retail experience for an otherwise mundane online transaction, you can significantly grow your exposure and build a successful ecommerce business.
By doing this you can distinguish yourself from being regarded by the average online shopper as merely another Amazon/Ebay seller (if you sell on these platforms) or just any regular "online website". Instead a value added approach will help you become recognized by the online community as a truly unique brand in itself. We’re not just any fragrance company, we’re known by our customers as Fragrancebuy Canada!
But value-added doesn’t just mean adding value for a customer, its also about adding value to your business and recognizing shortfalls and opportunities in your day-to-day operations.
We incorporated SmileIO’s loyalty widget and Conversio’s email app to generate beautiful sales receipts to get customers excited about their purchases and keep them informed of their shipment every step of the way.
All of the aforementioned are simple apps to automate tasks, or should I say add value to your business. When you analyze your business, look for ways to help you reduce costs and be more efficient. Focus on your core competencies and fill the voids with a value added solution. There are tons of applications/website addons/csv formulas out there that can help you save time in running a business and help you grow your business instead. Examining your business and finding ways to add value this way is the secret to profitability.
In fact, if you’re keen to know, we’ll let you in on our little secret: our company has just three employees and we’re able to efficiently run this multi-million dollar business :)
They say you can have the lowest prices in the world, but if you don’t have the customer base to take benefit of those low prices, then having those low prices means absolutely nothing. In the beginning, we were heavily focused on our buying strategy entailing us buying low and selling low to compete. But we soon realized the flaw in such a strategy. Selling low makes you just like any Amazon marketplace vendor and focusing on being the lowest price may never be successful as there always will be someone out there that will try to come in and be lower.
We changed gears and focused on adding value to the customer’s purchasing process and adding value in our day to day operations to get customers their orders efficiently and fast. Now, we find some of our clients comfortable even paying a few bucks extra to us vs a competitor because they feel comfortable knowing that Fragrancebuy is reliable, that we care about the customer experience and that ultimately buying from Fragrancebuy is a memorable and satisfying shopping experience that is second to none.
In addition to the apps (which all add tremendous value to our day to day operations), the one app which is most crucial and we’ve yet to mention is our search partner, Instant Search Plus (ISP).
When a customer visits a website, they are in search of a particular product, although they sometimes don’t even know what it is. To help them complete their thought we’ve partnered with ISP to create an impeccable search experience.
Customers can perform searches with synonyms so even typos are recognized and corrected by the engine. For example a customer looking for Burberry might accidentally type Blueberry but the system will recognize and present them Burberry in an autocomplete search suggestion. ISP custom created an impeccable refined search page for us that further helps our customers narrow in with smart filters to present to them a product that matches their envisioned search.
Moreover using powerful website search analytics allows us to monitor what our customers are searching for and how we can fill that void between their envisioned search and the final presented search result. The result is a definitive value added to our bottom line.
When we started our ecommerce business, admittingly there was a point in time we didn’t know where to begin! Thankfully Shopify offered (and still does) blogs and articles to help entrepreneurs analyze their business and directs them to tools in place to meet commonly found roadblocks in strategy execution.
My single point of advice to all readers when it comes to finding information is this: If you don’t know how to do something, someone else likely has had the same problem before. Your roadblocks may be cleared with the help of a single point of advice found in reading a simple blog post or related resource on the Internet.
E-commerce is a different ball game now than it was 4 years ago. More and more competition is entering the game and it’s only going to get more crowded and challenging.
The key to winning is to always keep ahead of the game in such a way that when your competitors reach the level you are today, you’ve already innovated and are still thousands of miles ahead of them.
We hope we were able to inspire you to rethink your business with a value-added state of mind. We’ll leave you with the following custom message which we transcribe on all of our shipping boxes to showcase our commitment to an impeccable online shopping experience:
"Hello Fragrance Connoisseur,
Welcome to the revolution in online fragrance shopping!
Although we trust that you have received your fragrance(s) safe and sound, kindly take a moment to verify that everything arrived in perfect condition. If there is any reason you wouldn’t rate this as a 5-star experience, please contact us right away and we’ll do all we can to make it right!
If everything looks fantastic (just as it should be) we encourage you to leave us some feedback, join our Facebook community, hashtag us on Instagram via #FragFaves, tweet us, be inspired by our pins on Pinterest or upload your box-opening Fragcitement to YouTube.
Serving you great deals and exceeding your customer service expectations is - and always will - be an integral part of our philosophy. We thank you for choosing FragranceBuy. It has been our pleasure to serve you.
Happy Savings!"
