Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Fave hits: From the kitchen table to Target & Ulta, with Three Ships Co-Founder Connie Lo

Transcript

Fave hits: From the kitchen table to Target & Ulta, with Three Ships Co-Founder Connie Lo · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hey, it's Dune here. This is just a quick message to let you know that the Female Startup Club team are taking some time over the holiday period to rest, recharge, and sip on champagne. During this time, we're bringing you a roundup of our favorite episodes from the year, like Jing from Fly by Jing and Alison, the founder of Poppy.
• 0:22
  So many crackers in here, so if you miss them the first time around, I hope you love them. I'm looking forward to being back in your ears in the new year and wishing you and your family a super cute holiday season packed with love and joy. This is Connie Lowe for Female Startup Club.
• 0:50
  Hey everyone, Dune here. Today's episode is brought to you by Klaviyo and today I'm joined by Connie Lowe, co-founder of Three Ships. Three Ships is an all-natural vegan skincare brand on a mission to make clean beauty accessible for all women. The products are 100% plant-derived, certified cruelty-free, and best of all, forever under $40.
• 1:14
  Founded in 2017, Three Ships was founded by chemical engineer Laura and business grad Connie after the two wondered why clean vegan skincare costs so much. With only $3,300 USD in their bank accounts, these female founders started making their own formulations in Connie's apartment kitchen with the goal to create effective and affordable natural skincare products.
• 1:38
  This is a ridiculously insightful episode and you are going to come away with plenty of actionable tips for your business. We talk about pro tips for retail expansion and how to make a partnership successful. We talk about key moments of growth and how to be scrappy in the beginning and some of the key trade shows you might want to invest in.
• 1:58
  And we have a very special offer for this episode. Listeners for the Female Startup Club podcast can use the promo code STARTUPCLUB to get a free pina colada lip exfoliator with any purchase on the Three Ships website through December 31st, 2021.
• 2:16
  You can also catch this episode on our YouTube channel, find our private Facebook group, or chat with us in the DMs all found under Female Startup Club. And if you love this episode, please do share the good word and pass it on to women who would benefit or a cheeky mention on social media. I always love to see your creative posts and I'm so grateful when you share.
• 2:40
  That's a lot of info to remember, so it's all linked in the show notes as well. But let's jump into this episode. This is Connie for Female Startup Club. Connie, hi, hello. Welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Me too. I'm so excited to be here chatting with you. Could you start by introducing yourself and tell us a little bit about your business and what it is?
• 3:04
  Yeah. So for those who don't know me, I'm Connie Lowe. I'm one of the co-founders of Three Ships. We're an all-natural vegan skincare company, really on a mission to be the most transparent natural beauty brand in the world. We started the brand four years ago with the equivalent of like $3,300 US dollars. So I can share lots of tips about how to bootstrap your business, literally started by hand-making products in my apartment kitchen. Today, you can find our skincare products at stores like Target and Whole Foods and Urban Outfitters.
• 3:32
  What a journey. That's so cool and such an accomplishment in four years. I feel like that's a really tight turn around there. I want to go to where your entrepreneurial story starts and what kind of gave you that light bulb moment to jump into making products in your kitchen.
• 3:47
  Yeah, it's been a long journey. So starting from the beginning, my dad is an entrepreneur. And I remember when I was young, I would always watch him at work, like working from home. He would bring me on business trips. And I remember I fell in love with the idea of starting my own company. But at the same time, you know, being a kid, you're like, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Like, should I go to business school? Should I go into sciences? So I was inspired by my dad, followed his footsteps, went into business. When I was at university, I started to compare myself a lot to what my peers were doing.
• 4:17
  So for any of your listeners who are a little younger, maybe even in school still, what I recommend is just really listen to your gut and trust your intuition because that is what I did not do. And I regretted it. So I remember really comparing myself and being like, oh, wait, marketing and sales and entrepreneurship, like that's not where all the smart kids are going.
• 4:35
  You know, it's all about finance and accounting and banking. So I'm going to go down that route too. And even though my heart didn't lie in accounting, that's what I went into full time after I graduated. And I absolutely hated it. Like every day after work, and it was long hours, like working until midnight.
• 4:52
  or longer than that. And I would just come home and I would cry. And I'd be like, what am I doing with my life? Like, I felt like I could be doing so much more. And at the same time, like when I was in high school, I ran my own small businesses. And when I was at Queens University, where I went for business school, I did partake in entrepreneurial extracurriculars too. But it was just like, I completely ignored that side of me. And I was like, it's not what smart people do.
• 5:15
  So I worked in accounting for eight months. I absolutely hated it. So I decided to quit actually before writing my accounting exams to be a full-time chartered accountant. And I remember at the time people were like, oh my gosh, what are you doing? Like, you're so close to getting those letters behind your name. And for me, what I thought was I don't see myself going into a career where having an accounting degree is going to help me. So why am I continuing to punish myself day over day for this?
• 5:39
  So what I did is I looked back at my time at university and I looked at which classes I really enjoyed. And those were always like marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, negotiation. And so I was like, you know what? Let me just trust myself here and decide to go into this route. So I decided to switch completely and go into marketing and sales. And I loved my job there. It was also during that time that I met my co-founder, Laura. And so Laura was the one who had the initial idea for this natural makeup remover company.
• 6:07
  And she was looking for someone to just bounce ideas off of. And she was speaking with one of our mutual friends. And he was like, you know what? I went to elementary school with this girl, Connie. And I remember back then she loved making her own natural skincare products.
• 6:22
  So you should probably just talk to her and get some ideas. So we met and it was meant to be like a 30 minute dinner. It turned into this like four hour business meeting of the minds where we just like we're vibing off of each other. We realized we're complete opposites in terms of personality types and skill sets, but completely aligned in terms of values. And at the end of that four hour business meeting, Laura just asked me like, Hey, do you want to be my co-founder on this? And that was how we started. So it was such a crazy story.
• 6:49
  And that was when we were 23 and we got started on the product literally the next day. And so for that first year and a half period, we would work our nine to fives and then meet up in the evenings and on weekends to work on our skincare company. Oh, my gosh. And so what were those initial products like? Like what were you coming up with in the kitchen?
• 7:07
  So it was pretty rudimentary products initially because we weren't able to use like complex natural preservatives. So everything was done literally in like, you know, stainless steel cooking bowls and stuff. So what we were making were products that didn't require any natural preservatives. So these would be products that were oil-based. So our first product was a natural makeup remover using fractionated coconut oil. And it works so well at removing even the toughest waterproof makeup. So you can give it a try.
• 7:34
  And then our second product line were our oil-based serums. And those are still some of our best-selling products. And then eventually we started to outsource manufacturing still within Canada. And that's when we started to use water-based formulas where you can use preservatives like white willow bark extract. And that works really well for things like cleansers or water-based serums. But initially it was all fairly simple products.
• 7:57
  Wow, that's incredible. I want to talk about what you used that initial $3,300 and how you kind of were able to bootstrap that in that early year, maybe the second year and that kind of thing to bring the brand to life.
• 8:12
  Yeah, having a small budget like $3,300 really makes you think carefully about where you're spending your money. So one of the first things that we spent on, which was like maybe $600 US, was applying for a trademark, but then also incorporating. So we didn't have a lawyer on our team
• 8:29
  So we decided to write our application to incorporate ourselves. I remember filling up the forms and I was just like, I have no idea what this means. N.A., N.A., like not sure, not sure, signed at the bottom. Somehow that got through. So we incorporated the company that way. And that was really important for us because we didn't want to be personally liable for anything that our company would be responsible for. So by incorporating, you're making your company a separate entity. So that way...
• 8:56
  say someone, you know, sues your company, they're not able to go after your personal assets, which let's be real at the time, Laura and I had very little personal assets, but still we just want to set ourselves up for success. And then initially we also spent on trademarking. So applying for the trademark process, which can take like two years to hear back from
• 9:13
  the Canadian US governments regarding your trademarks. So I highly recommend to your listeners, if they are starting a new business, first thing you should do is check out the trademarks for your name. See if there's any other companies that are similar in terms of naming, because if that's the case, you might want to start with a different brand name and then also look into incorporating.
• 9:30
  Another thing that we spent on was the initial ingredients for our products. So we went to Whole Foods and got a couple of different ingredients to play around with just for the first batch of like minimum viable products or MVP. And then eventually we started to look for larger distributors of the ingredients.
• 9:45
  And then one final thing that I remember spending on was a $600 laser printer. And the reason that we spent on that is because we didn't want to buy custom labels for our product packaging because those require larger minimum order quantities or MOQs. And so most label printers were requiring at least a minimum order quantity of a thousand labels. And we just could not spend on that at the moment. So what we did was we bought a laser printer and then we bought custom label sheets and we print off our own labels at home.
• 10:14
  And this was great because when we would go and talk to customers at farmers markets or at trade shows and they would look at our packaging, oftentimes they would be like, oh, you know, it'd be really cool if you guys put like a Made in Canada symbol on our label. We'd be like, oh yeah, great point. And then that night we would edit the label at home and print off the new round for the next batch. And so we were able to iterate on our product packaging really quickly.
• 10:37
  So again, highly recommend that for your listeners. Don't spend on things like labels and custom packaging at the beginning unless you're absolutely sure that that's going to be your final product for at least like six months to a year. Yeah, totally. And that customer feedback loop is so important to be able to implement what people actually want and get to that final label or final product.
• 10:57
  I'm interested to know about your efforts in the beginning to market and find the first customers who are going to become your loyal, true fans of the brand. Yeah. So what I did back then, because I managed marketing and sales at Three Ships, is I would spend hours per day on Instagram because that was one of the easiest and cheapest platforms for us to find new customers.
• 11:18
  So what I did is when I created our Instagram account, I actually created it even before our first product was available because I just want to start building a presence. And I would look at our competitors, like within the skincare industry, within the natural makeup industry, and I would see who was following them and follow all of those accounts and engage with them.
• 11:35
  But the level of engagement was pretty detailed. So it wasn't as simple as just like giving them a follow and just leaving it like that. What I would do is I would check out some of their recent posts and I would comment on their recent posts. And if they had their skin type in their Instagram bio, which a lot of skincare accounts do, then when our product launched, I would DM them and be like, Hey, looks like you have combination skin. This is our new makeup remover that's specifically made for a combo skin. And here's a 10% code for you to use. And so it's extremely manual.
• 12:02
  in the beginning days, like not gonna lie, I was spending probably three plus hours per day on Instagram. But because we had no marketing budget, that was where I would spend my time. It's like sweat equity versus spending money on an agency. So that was how we got a lot of our first customers. Then attending local flea markets was a big one too. So we would spend like a hundred bucks to get a booth at a local flea market.
• 12:24
  And then we would spend all day, like 8 a.m. to 6, 7 p.m. per day standing on our feet, just selling products to customers. But like you mentioned earlier, the customer feedback loop was so important. And we learned so much about our products and our customers and product market fit just by going to these markets. So we would go to one, at least one per weekend. And during the holidays from like October to December, we'd go to several per week. So some days we'd book off work from our nine to fives and go sell food.
• 12:52
  And yeah, and we were moonlighting during this time. So our companies had no idea what was going on and we would show up to work exhausted on Mondays and we just have to push through. But that's bootstrapping life. So if you choose to go down this route, like, you know what you're getting yourself into. Oh, my gosh. They're all like, did you party last night? You're like, yeah, yeah. Big party. Stayed up late. What point did you realize, oh, my gosh, we're onto something and kind of make the decision to actually quit the nine to five?
• 13:22
  Yeah, that's a really good question. I know that's something that a lot of people ask is like, how do you know when you're ready to make the leap? So there's different ways that you can go about this. Some people choose to go full-time with their startup from day one. We didn't choose to go down that route because we didn't have savings after we graduated to be able to live and sustain that lifestyle. So we decided to save up enough money where we would have six months runway, so we would
• 13:48
  So what this means is we're like, okay, once we get to a point in our bank accounts where we can live for six months going full time with three ships without paying ourselves, that's when we'll quit our jobs and go full time. So at that point, that was a year and a half into side hustling the business. And then it got to a point where we're like, okay, we definitely have enough savings. And also got to a point where we were so busy.
• 14:10
  So what it would look like is I would be struggling to find times to get on calls with buyers at small retailers or like calls to talk about different marketing opportunities. Because I was working my nine to five, which is more like an 8 a.m. to like 630 p.m. job. And I couldn't find time during the workday to talk to people for three ships related work. And so that was a struggle. And then also got to a point where we were still hand making products. So we were starting to make more and more products at home.
• 14:37
  And that was eating into time where we could be working on the business strategy-wise versus working in the business on like just manufacturing. So it was a really good time for us to quit because we'd saved up enough money and we just could not continue working at that pace. And so that's really when we decided like, okay, let's just go full force with this.
• 14:58
  Amazing. Are you able to share in that time where you were kind of really hustling, you're doing the balancing act, you're a year and a half in, what kind of revenue were you pulling in from all those organic efforts in that early phase of the business?
• 15:13
  Definitely. So for the first year, so our first year was 2017 and we started in March. So it's like partial year, also side hustling. We did $40,000 in revenue that year. And then the next year, which was 2018, we did $101,000, that extra $1,000.
• 15:30
  Still remember that in my head. And I remember that was the year that we went full time. But a lot of that was like from markets, from subscription boxes, which are another great acquisition tool, especially if you're able to partner with subscription boxes, say for like, for example, FabFitFun or Ipsy, that have a very specific target market that you're going after. So that was really great for revenue and acquisition.
• 15:53
  And also working with small retailers because you get initial cash flow upfront and then you can use that to fund your business. When you say the subscription boxes, how does it actually work? Like, do you have to pay for placement or do they just take the products? What's the kind of business model behind it there? Yeah.
• 16:12
  It depends on which box you're working with. So some boxes will not pay for product because they are just that well known and they have so many brands wanting to work with them. So we had to turn down those opportunities in the beginning because we just couldn't justify and we were still making the products by hand. So it should be like so many hours of work for zero dollars. And then some boxes, what they do is something called cost share. So it's usually a percent of your retail price of your product.
• 16:38
  So say it's like a $10 product that you have and they do a 20% cost share. They will pay you $2 per unit for you to give them that product. And then that is your revenue that comes in from the subscription box. So many boxes work on this cost share model. Cost share usually ranges from like 5% on the low end for reputable boxes that will purchase hundreds of thousands or millions of units from you up to maybe like 20% if it's a smaller subscription box. So that was really how we funded our initial days of our business.
• 17:06
  What we did was we partnered with subscription boxes that were within different areas of our target demographics. So one of our first subscription box partners was with a vegan subscription box called Petit Bois. And they ordered 6,700 units of our initial product. And I still remember that number because we made every single unit by hand for three weeks after working our nine to fives.
• 17:27
  So I will never forget the risk pain during that time. I think I still feel it. But they did help pay for those 6,700 units. And then we used that money to fund the business. And we also gave them a discount code so that their subscribers could convert and shop our site after. So that was a really good acquisition strategy. But that's in general how subscription boxes work. And they can order anything from like, you know, 100 units all the way up to millions of units. Yeah.
• 17:53
  Wow. Goodness. Definitely not making a million by hand. No, no, no, no. Over the years from those kind of moments of doing the hands-on high touch Instagram outreach, the markets, the subscription boxes that you were hand making the products, how did you start to scale your marketing and find what was really working for you and driving significant traffic and significant sales? Yeah, that is a really good question.
• 18:20
  I think that it was a lot of testing. So what I did initially, so I can talk about some of the mistakes that we made along the way too. So something that I thought was, you know, I'm not a PR expert. Maybe we should spend on a PR agency initially because we were getting so many inbounds from PR agencies asking if we needed help. And so I was like, yeah, sure. But I only had enough budget to spend a couple thousand per month initially.
• 18:43
  And even then, that was like a lot of our budget. But I was like, oh, I don't know editors. Like, this should be something that an expert handles. So we decided to sign on with the Canadian PR agency. And I immediately regretted it because the PR pitches that they were landing us were not the highest quality because, again, we weren't paying a lot. And what I realized is I could just do it myself. So I started DMing editors on Instagram and commenting on Twitter and reaching out on LinkedIn.
• 19:11
  And I would start sending them emails and products. And that was actually how we landed some of our best PR coverage initially. And what I realized from that is that was really great for raising awareness. So that was really good for scaling our marketing efforts initially, just like DMing editors and all of that. I know that it is very manual, but I think sometimes some of the best things for your business are actually some of the non-scalable elements that...
• 19:33
  So that was really great for us. And then I let go of our peer agency initially. And then we signed on with another peer agency years into the business after we were able to afford a higher quality peer agency. So that's something that I would recommend. It was a big mistake that we learned from is try doing most things yourself.
• 19:48
  Another thing that we learned was we were not experts at Facebook and Instagram advertising. So we tried to do that ourselves as well. So Lauren and I remember one night we sat down, we're like, okay, let's set up an ad. And then we're like, target audience, like probably someone who's into yoga and like it's vegan and lives in these cities. And then Facebook spit out our target audience. It was like five people or something. We're like, okay, we did this wrong. Something is not working here.
• 20:13
  So we decided to hire an agency and that was scalable because they were able to get 3x on our ads. So I recommend to your audience, like find a good agency for trying to do Facebook and Instagram ads, unless you're willing to put in hours of research into understanding how to optimize your own ads.
• 20:29
  So those are some of the things that we did initially for marketing. I'm trying to think what else is really scalable. Well, one last thing I'll say in terms of marketing to retailers that was scalable is actually attending trade shows. So going to beauty trade shows for us was really big. So Indie Beauty Expo is one that was a really big one that we wanted to attend. Another mistake that we learned was trying to attend smaller trade shows that weren't as reputable. We tested that out first.
• 20:56
  So we're like, you know what, we want to go to Indie Beauty Expo, but it's like $10,000 all in, including like flight, accommodation, getting the booth, printing out stuff to hand out, giving out samples. So we're like, yeah, given the fact that we're only at like $40,000 in revenue, let's go for a smaller trade show that's going to cost like $5,000.
• 21:14
  The quality of retailers, editors, like press, influencers that are attending the trade show were so much lower that we didn't make any ROI from the smaller trade show. So what we did instead was the next year we spent more on Indie Beauty Expo. And that's where you can meet really high quality retailers. And that's where we met Whole Foods, Target, like a bunch of large retailers. And I think that's scalable because you're only going to a few trade shows per year. But at each trade show, you're meeting so many buyers and editors.
• 21:43
  And you only get better each time. So if your listeners, especially if they have like a physical goods company, I recommend that they look into the best trade shows for their industry and try to save up to go to those. That sounds like a really good one. Indie beauty. So how do you actually get on the radar of those buyers that you wanted to see at the trade show? And how do you attract them? Yeah.
• 22:07
  Yeah, so I think one mistake that some founders make is they think like, I'm just gonna go to the trade show and all the business is gonna roll in. And that's definitely not the way to do it. And I know like sometimes when Laura and I would go to trade shows, we'd see people sitting down at their booths,
• 22:23
  looking on their phones and we're like, it looks like you don't want to be here. Like we were on our feet, standing in front of the booth, like talking to people, bringing them in. Even I would chase down people who walk past us if they walk past our booth and just try to bring them back. Like that's how you're going to get the high quality relationships. So some buyers, they just like to talk with you at trade shows and they won't really entertain you outside of trade shows. But some, even if you do see them at a trade show, it doesn't really mean like they're going to want to work with you.
• 22:51
  So one example I have is with Target. It was a really long sales cycle to get into Target. And what I did is I found through a friend of a friend, someone who worked in research at Target. So it wasn't even like the buying department for beauty. And the reason why I had to go to those sites is I was reaching out to the buyer on LinkedIn, trying to find other social platforms, no response, sent several emails.
• 23:13
  And so then I decided to reach out to this person in research. And we got on a call. She tried our products and she ended up loving them so much that she went into Target's internal email system and found the buyer's contact info. And then cold intro'd us, even though she didn't know who he was. And she was just like, hey, I just want to share this brand that I tried their products and I think you should try them out. And that was how we got our initial intro to Target. So he agreed to bring us on Target.com. But Laura and I really believe that
• 23:40
  our products would fit well within an in-store placement, which is a lot harder to get. So what I did is I found out that he was going to be at Indie Beauty Expo in New York the same time that we were going to be there. So I sent him our booth number and asked him to come by. And then the second day of the trade show, he still had not come by. And so one day I saw him walking into the men's room. And I remember I was like, you know what, this is my chance. So I walked to the front of the men's bathroom and I waited by the door for him to come out.
• 24:07
  And then I was like, hey, Kevin, like it's Connie from Three Ships. I know, you know, you haven't met me in person before, but we've been talking over email. I'd love to take like two minutes of your time. Just come by our booth. And I think he was so impressed with just like the grit and thick skin that I had that he decided to come by. And that was how we set up an in-person meeting at Target headquarters to discuss an in-store placement. And a year later, that's when we launched. So...
• 24:31
  This is all to say to your listeners, like sometimes you might feel discouraged. You know, you meet buyers. They're not into it. Keep trying. Like so many of our retail partnerships were me chasing buyers for two plus years to get into them. And now we're some of their highest performing brands.
• 24:47
  So just know that it's not like a one day thing or 30 day sales cycle. Sometimes it can be a couple of years. So just push through and continue to learn from your pitches in the past from other buyers. What resonates, refine your pitch, and then continuously improve when you're pitching new buyers.
• 25:03
  That's so interesting that you say, you know, some of the partnerships that you're after, it takes two years to land that retail store, for example. What's the actual process of like, if someone says no, what do you do to reactivate that contact? And how do you do it in a way that's not annoying?
• 25:20
  I think getting a no from someone is one of the best things that you can get. Because if someone's just saying yes, but then it's really a no, like they'll be like, oh, yeah, like this sounds great. Let's reconnect another time. You're not actually learning anything from that experience. Whereas if someone says no, then you can ask them like, OK, I completely respect your decision. Can you let me know how we can improve? And that's exactly what I do every time.
• 25:42
  So even when we were really small and I was walking up and down the streets of Toronto, where I live, going into store, gave me a product samples. If someone said no, I took that as an opportunity. So I'd be like, that's totally fine. Like, can you let me know how we can improve? And so if it was like, we just didn't have enough product assortment for them to want to launch us, I was like, great, we can work on that.
• 26:03
  Or if the price point was too high, then I'd be like, okay, this is really good to know. What's the average price point within the industry? And then the next time I pitched a new buyer, then I'd be like, oh, by the way, even though some of our products are like 40 bucks, our average retail price point is $27. Because I learned that from a past pitch. And then that would resonate better. So you craft your messaging every time. And then in terms of following up with buyers, I can give an example. So one of the retailers that we launched into this year was Halt Renfrew, which is one of Canada's premier retail locations.
• 26:32
  And I remember the first outreach I did was August of 2018. And we just launched January of 2021. So it's been a long sales cycle. So when I first reached out, I was like, hey, these are our products. Would love to set up a meeting, had a meeting with them. And then I kept following up with them for a year, no email response back. And in those email follow-ups,
• 26:51
  What I would say is like, hey, like, I know it's been a while. This is a new product that we just launched. Would love to send you samples. Even if they didn't reply, that's fine. Then the next time I'd be like, hey, I know Mother's Day is coming up. Like, these are the products that really would resonate with your audience. And knowing that your demographic is women who are older, probably with kids, like, this would be a really good fit. No response. That's fine. Reach out again. Like, hey, Happy New Year. Like, let's chat. And eventually, like...
• 27:17
  I think eventually they just realize like you're really in it for the long run. And as long as you're polite and professional with every outreach, I think that goes a really long way versus being like, you know what? They didn't respond a few times. I'm just going to stop replying. I think like that's really what has led us to the success we've had so far is everyone on our team has a level of grit. One of our company values is hustle. And I think it's really led us to where we are today. That is so amazing. Do you remember what the email was that got the response?
• 27:47
  I would need to dig that up for you. But it was probably honestly one of those ones where I'm like, I know it's been a while. Like these are the recent press hits that we've gotten. We just were on Dragon's Den. You know, we just won Bay Street Bowl 30 under 30. Like, you know, we're a great Canadian brand. You're a Canadian. Like it was probably something like that. I love that. That's so good. Definitely a 101 on persistence and keeping the hustle going.
• 28:14
  When you land a key partnership, say, for example, Target, what do you actually have to do to ensure that it's successful and you don't lose an account? Yeah, another great question, because I think a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that getting into a retailer is the hard part. That is actually the easier part. What's hard is getting the sell through. So it's like the hard part is getting the product off the shelf, not on the shelf.
• 28:39
  And we've learned so much over the past four years. So some of the things that you need to invest in are in-store marketing. So especially if it's like a brick and mortar physical store. So what that would look like is gratis, which means free product for the sales associates. That is really important because the best way for someone to sell a product is by trying the product themselves. So gratis is really important.
• 29:01
  Spending on in-store signage is something that I think goes a long way too. It depends on the retailer because some retailers don't allow you to put up your own sign. So that's an optional one. You can also spend on in-store promos. So seeing like a 20% off at shelf, that goes a really long way. Samples is another one. So creating sample size versions of your product and giving them to the stores to distribute to customers when they come by. That really is great for incentivizing purchase. So those are some examples of in-store marketing.
• 29:31
  Out-of-store marketing is also really important. So spending on like influencer partnerships to promote that retailer. So say we just launched at Holt Renfrew, you know, working with some macro influencers and having their call to action in their Instagram caption, be like, go shop three ships at Holt Renfrew.
• 29:49
  That's really important. You know, podcast ads, you know, even having content that is focused on that retailer. So when we launched at Target, we get a bunch of images and videos of our products with a Target bag. And then we edited those videos and images into launch campaign content. So those are some of the things that you can spend on. There's so many more things, too, that I can't think of off the top of my head. But those would be some of the main ones. What not to do...
• 30:16
  is to get the partnership and be like, okay, great. Like I'm done. And then just kind of see how it goes. Another thing I recommend to maintain your retail partnerships is to try to find weekly POS or point of sale data. So you can ask your buyer like, Hey, can you send me a report of our sales week over week? Or maybe that's too annoying for them bi-weekly or even monthly. And so that way you have a really solid understanding of how you're performing at store.
• 30:41
  And then what you can do is if you're seeing that certain weeks are not doing as well, work with your buyer and be like, hey, how else can we partner together? Do they have influencer partners that we can work with? Are there email marketing campaigns that we can get partnered with where they're sending out emails to their subscribers and you put our product image in that email? Sometimes you need to pay. Sometimes you can just work with them on a free email partnership.
• 31:02
  And what I also do is I do biweekly calls with my key relationships. So Indigo, Whole Renfrew, Hudson's Bay, Target, Whole Foods. I have biweekly calls with my buyers just to check in and see how things are going. So it does take a lot of time. But I think that setting up these processes early on for new key retail accounts goes such a long way. So that's what I'd recommend for your listeners.
• 31:24
  Holy moly, that is just a wealth of amazing insights there. I'm so grateful for that. Thank you so much. I want to ask you where the business is today and what fun things you can shout about that are upcoming.
• 31:37
  Yeah, things have definitely just grown so much in the past year or so. So this year, we're on track to do $5 million to $6 million in revenue. We're launching a bunch of new products this year. So we're launching something new in July. It's something that's been extremely highly requested by our customers. We actually only create products that our customers ask for. We do this through Instagram story polling.
• 32:00
  And we also just expanded our team a lot. So we just expanded to a team of seven really incredible women. And we're growing our team. Another few headcounts by the end of the year. So we're having a VP of marketing, a VP of R&D, and a VP of operations, and then early next year, VP of sales, because currently those roles are all done by like combination of people on our team. But we just really need
• 32:21
  some more experts within the area. And then next year, we're hoping to expand past skin care into hair care, body care, or cosmetics. Again, really focusing on natural. So we'll forever formulate according to the strictest global guidelines, which are based in Europe. So we avoid over 1,400 potential toxins.
• 32:39
  But those are some of the things that are coming up for us. And then the last thing I would say is by end of year, we are planning to raise a series A. So we'll probably raise five to seven million just to help really promote this growth that we're seeing. And then that would hopefully be the last round that we raise. We are not in this to be like a company that raises a series like CDE. Like that's not what we're about. We just want to raise one final round and then use that to fund our growth.
• 33:04
  And does that mean you're still thinking an exit potentially in the shorter term, or are you still thinking long-term, we want to grow with the business and see where it goes? Our goal from the beginning was always to sell the company. And our goal internally is 100 million. So when Laura and I started the brand, we were 23. And our lofty goal, our big, hairy, audacious goal, was to sell the company for 100 million by the time we were 30.
• 33:28
  So we have a couple of years to go, but even if it's past 30, that's totally fine, or that's just been our internal compass. And the reason why an exit is really important for us is within the beauty industry, most brands that are indie brands that have the longest term growth and success usually get acquired by a larger company like L'Oreal, Estee Lauder, Unilever, P&G. And the reason for this is they have a long-term home. And when you get acquired by one of these CPGs,
• 33:55
  They are able to vertically integrate your company into their supply chain. They have all these amazing advisors, like can really help with their expertise that, you know, as a small company, we just don't have that right now. So not only would it be great to have an exit and be able to use that money to fund lifestyles in the future, but it's really actually for the long-term home of three ships. So that's always been our goal. And everyone on the team is really excited about it as well.
• 34:23
  Oh, I love that. That's such a great goal and fresh perspective. Thank you for sharing. I want to ask you what your key piece of advice is for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business.
• 34:36
  Something that I recommend to two things. So one is just get started. I think that we always try to overthink, over plan. I think a lot of us perfectionists and we feel like ideas just not there yet. I need to talk to just a few more people and get their opinions before I launch. That was what I went through.
• 34:55
  And when Laura and I started, we knew that we were going to fall into this trap, which is why we set a three-month launch plan goal when we met. So from the day that we met, November 2016, we said, okay, by mid-February, we're going to launch the company. So it actually ended up being two weeks after that, March 1st, which is fine. But we knew we had to create this target for ourselves because if we didn't, we would kind of be too embarrassed to start talking about the company with our friends and family, and we would just want to keep working on it.
• 35:21
  I think it was Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, who said, if you're not embarrassed by your first product when it launches, then you've launched too slowly. And I full-heartedly agree with that. We were totally embarrassed by the first product that we launched, but we were able to get customer feedback and improve the product. Whereas I'm sure there were many potential founders at the time who waited a little longer and then we were able to outpace them. So that's the first piece of advice is just get started and you can continuously improve from there.
• 35:49
  The second piece of advice for your listeners who either have an idea or are thinking about creating one is to get some sort of sales experience. So both Laura and I have sales backgrounds. So I was working in marketing and sales at Kimberly Clark, which is a CPG company. Laura was working in software sales. And having a sales skill set is so important, especially as women.
• 36:12
  Because a lot of the time, surprisingly, most salespeople are still men. And I think that there's some sort of disconnect. Like maybe people don't understand what the sales industry is actually like. It's not as cutthroat as people think, but you actually learn a lot about negotiation. And sales is applicable to so many aspects of a business.
• 36:29
  It's not only selling to buyers, you're also selling your company to potential employees, like selling them on the vision that you have, pitching to investors. Like there's so many different facets of running a business where sales is important. Negotiating with suppliers is a big one. Like that's bringing your costs down. Negotiating with subscription boxes to raise the cost share. So that's a really solid piece of advice that I wish more people had in their toolkit is having some sort of sales knowledge.
• 36:57
  Is there any resources that you recommend for people to turn to? One book that I really loved was called Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. He's a former hostage FBI negotiator. And he has a lot of tips in there about negotiating. And for him, it was life or death negotiation. So for us, not that intense.
• 37:19
  But I really love that book because it taught me a lot about how not only to like negotiate and like take a piece of the pie, but actually expand the pie and make things win-win. And that's actually the book where I learned about getting to a no is much better than getting to a yes, because that's how you can uncover more details about why it's a no and then eventually get to a yes. So that's one great resource that I would recommend.
• 37:41
  YouTube also has a lot of great tips on sales or even doing something like a Skillshare or like one of those masterclass type courses. There's so much knowledge out there nowadays. I think we're really blessed to live in this day and age where we can find anything on Google. Oh, my gosh. So true. I love the school of YouTube and the school of Google. I'm definitely going to check out that book and I'm going to link it in the show notes below for anyone who wants to check it out.
• 38:05
  Oh my gosh. Amazing. We've covered so much. I have one last thing that I do at the end of every episode. I ask every woman on the show, the same six quick questions to be able to look back in a few years time and see if there's any trends or insights that stand out. Ready to go? Yeah. Sounds fun. Great. Question number one, what's your why? Why do you do what you do?
• 38:26
  I do what I do really for the customer reviews. Whenever we read customer reviews, that really is what funds our team. Like we have a Slack channel specifically dedicated to positive reviews. And anytime one comes in, we're just like, this is why we do it. People who are like, we had no idea natural could be so effective. We had no idea natural skincare could be so affordable. I felt so confident in my skin for the first time in 20 years that I can leave my house foundation free. Those are the sorts of reviews that are our way.
• 38:55
  Gosh, love that. Amazing. What a driver. Question number two is, what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop? Dragon's Den. So we were on Dragon's Den, which is like Canada's Shark Tank, October 2020. And that completely changed the trajectory of our business. So for your listeners, I highly recommend that you audition for one of those sorts of business shows because it honestly was game changer.
• 39:21
  Oh, amazing. I feel like we could have a whole other episode talking about that. So cool. Congrats. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading right now or subscribing to that is beneficial for others to hear about?
• 39:36
  Well, podcasts like this one are amazing for having a wealth of knowledge. Other podcasts I enjoy are How I Built This, Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan. I just love hearing different perspectives. Another thing that our team does is we have a monthly book club where we all share an Audible account and we read the same book.
• 39:52
  So this month's book club book is Nonviolent Communication. And that's been a really good one. Next month's book is Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. So we're always trying to learn new things. And another area where I learn a lot is honestly from my friends. Like I have a lot of founder friends that I'm super inspired by. And we do like bi-weekly calls. So I think just who you surround yourself with and your network is where you learn the most. So true. Love the book club idea. That's great.
• 40:19
  Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated?
• 40:28
  Yeah, the way that I see my days, I always want to be able to check off things within three buckets. So one is work, one's life, and one's self. So work, pretty self-explanatory, getting some sort of big project done. Self would be something just for myself. So it could be a hobby, it could be physical activity, it could be something for my mental health. So every morning I usually work out and also meditate. So those would be some that are qualified in self. And then life would be something that's like friends and family. So having a call with my mom or like,
• 40:56
  going on a walk and talking with a friend, like those would be things that I would qualify within life. So my best days are the ones where I have something within each bucket. That is such a great methodology to follow. Really love that. Thank you. Question number five is if you only had a thousand dollars left in the business bank account, where would you spend it? Oh, that's hard. I mean, I really hope we never get to that point. But if we did...
• 41:22
  I feel like with only a thousand dollars content would be where I'd spend because high quality content is so hard to come by, especially authentic high quality content. And that's usually where we see the biggest ROI come through. So, I mean, a grand, that's very little, but I'd probably spend on content. Amazing. And last question, question number six is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset when things don't go to plan?
• 41:48
  I mean, failure is where you learn the most. Like you're not learning the most when you succeed. Like, let's be real. So I think the way that I view failure is like, this is a learning moment. Something that I've had to work on over the past few years is not internalizing all the failures as being a personal failure.
• 42:05
  Some failures are just because of external circumstances and learning to separate my self-worth from my productivity or my work successes is something that I've had to work on a lot. So that's the way I view failure is, first of all, it's a learning moment. And second of all, how much of this was something that I can learn from and work on myself? And how much of it was based off of external circumstances that I have no control over? And then move on from there.
• 42:31
  Amazing. Connie, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show. I'm sure you hear this all the time, but your energy is just incredible. You are so cool. I loved chatting with you and I feel like so inspired now. Thank you so much for sharing so deeply. Thanks so much for having me. It was super fun. I can't believe the time just flew by. And if your listeners ever have any questions, they can always DM us on Instagram or send us an email. Ah, amazing. Thank you so much.
• 43:03
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 43:28
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 43:50
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that. Thank you.
• 44:07
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 44:31
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 44:54
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show, and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.