Latest / Let's talk Marketplace / Low margins on marketplaces - how does it work? #LTM122

Transcript

Low margins on marketplaces - how does it work? #LTM122 · Let's talk Marketplace

• 0:13
  Hi everyone, welcome back.
• 0:15
  Let's talk marketplaces here.
• 0:16
  I'm Ingrid.
• 0:16
  With me as always is Valerie.
• 0:18
  And today we are quite delighted to introduce you to a very special e-commerce founder and marketplace expert and to learn a lot more about seeds and flowers, I guess.
• 0:28
  Yeah, absolutely Ingrid.
• 0:30
  Well, actually after our last um Marketplace Universe Connect dinner with eBay, um we got to know our guest of today and we were really blown away about what she does and um what
• 0:46
  she builds and um actually somehow as a side business, which is like really impressive.
• 0:52
  So I was like, what as a side business?
• 0:55
  Are you really serious?
• 0:57
  So welcome.
• 0:58
  I'm really happy to have you here, Caroline Langer, founder and CEO of Lakato, a German startup which sells flower seeds on marketplaces.
• 1:06
  So how are you doing, Caro?
• 1:08
  I hope the connection to India works well.
• 1:10
  You
• 1:11
  Yes, hello everyone.
• 1:12
  Yeah, the connection here in India is quite good.
• 1:15
  So I'm happy to hear um today and to tell you a little bit about my marketplace story and how flowers and seeds can be amazing online business.
• 1:26
  Great you're with us Caro.
• 1:27
  uh Why don't you first tell us a bit about yourself, about Lakato and so what is your company, what are you doing since when, when did you found it and what are you doing in
• 1:38
  India at the moment anyway?
• 1:40
  Yeah, so I founded my company in 2020.
• 1:44
  So right after my studies.
• 1:46
  So I studied mechanics and started a normal day to day job em as an engineer.
• 1:52
  And as a side hustle during my studies, yeah, sell stuff on eBay.
• 1:58
  em So I started with selling stuff from the garage or from em stuff you don't need anymore in the household.
• 2:05
  So I sold.
• 2:06
  or I cleaned out of my parents' home, then I started with all the other neighbors, so I told them, I sell your stuff on eBay, I get 50 % and you get 50%.
• 2:16
  And with the money I collected there during my studies, yeah, spent the money to go skiing.
• 2:21
  So I really enjoy skiing, so during studies, em yeah, so I earned the money the whole year to go on skiing vacations.
• 2:31
  And...
• 2:31
  em
• 2:32
  Yeah, then my parents, have a really unique tree in their garden, which is really not common in Germany.
• 2:39
  yeah, this tree, the seeds, they were always in the garden in autumn.
• 2:45
  So I collected these seeds and put them on eBay.
• 2:49
  And because this tree was so unique, I was the only seller who was offering these seeds to the eBay community.
• 2:56
  And then I sold out um quite fast because...
• 3:00
  there was a big interest and an article in a newspaper for beekeepers.
• 3:04
  So dates became popular and uh I got a really high interest into that seed.
• 3:09
  then at the end of my studies, so I did a dual study system in Germany, so your work and studying at the same time.
• 3:16
  So at end of it, you have to take all your holidays after you've given your bachelor thesis um to correcting.
• 3:23
  And I walked three weeks through all the botanical gardens and they're collecting.
• 3:29
  all the seeds and put them on eBay.
• 3:31
  And it was in autumn and I said, okay, now you have to raise one more time a little bit of money to afford skiing in winter.
• 3:39
  But it was so interesting and I had so much interest of the people into these seeds and I found there my passion.
• 3:49
  So my passion is to sell.
• 3:51
  And the niche I'm into is now so bee friendly seeds.
• 3:54
  So my father is a beekeeper and we had a lot of bee friendly
• 3:58
  flowers in the garden.
• 3:59
  So when I started I also collected some flower seeds and I put them uh on eBay.
• 4:04
  So eBay is where uh I have been started and where uh my passion is.
• 4:09
  And since today I have still my main job because I like it.
• 4:13
  I have now a master in mechanics um and I still like it.
• 4:18
  It's something totally different.
• 4:20
  And I have two passions and um currently I'm following both.
• 4:24
  And that's why I'm in India at the moment.
• 4:26
  I help here the local team to increase their capabilities on the production side.
• 4:31
  I'm here for FIF for four weeks and helping them to grow.
• 4:36
  And the seed business is running as normal.
• 4:39
  So all the employees are handling all the daily tasks.
• 4:44
  yeah, if they have questions, they call in the evenings or something.
• 4:48
  I'm not that deep involved into the daily business, so that's why I can go for four weeks to India.
• 4:53
  So I look more about how can we grow in the companies, what are maybe new tools we can use, how can we optimize ourselves and stay a little bit away from the daily business.
• 5:02
  So em that's one of my first secrets, I would say.
• 5:06
  Stay away of the daily business and have space and capabilities and em yeah, new ideas which you can develop for the company.
• 5:14
  Mm-hmm stay away from the daily business Valerie.
• 5:17
  Did you hear that?
• 5:17
  That's a topic for us as well
• 5:20
  was like, okay, now I need to go somewhere else.
• 5:24
  Yeah, because it's not working the way that we wanted to to stay away from the daily business so far at least and I just made a mental note I can't have my my son hear this
• 5:34
  podcast today because I just made an arrangement with him that he's going to clear out my seller and sell stuff on eBay he's 12 and I just pay him 30 % so I will not let him listen
• 5:47
  to this because this is going to ruin my deal with him.
• 5:52
  Yeah.
• 5:52
  but still really impressive, Caro, that you're just doing that as a side business.
• 5:56
  It's like, yeah, some people just got more energy or more motivation when it comes to skiing, obviously.
• 6:02
  Yeah, so I still use a lot of time for skiing or lot of money I make with this so you can do amazing trips to New Zealand for skiing.
• 6:11
  there's, you can do everything.
• 6:13
  So now it's a totally cool freedom I have with this two jobs.
• 6:20
  Yeah.
• 6:21
  Wow.
• 6:21
  So, what would you say, Carol?
• 6:25
  Um, what would you do best in the marketplace business?
• 6:29
  Because, I mean, this is a podcast about marketplace business, right?
• 6:32
  And I feel that you have like so many interesting topics to tell about, but let's focus maybe for now on marketplace business.
• 6:39
  Yes, so yeah, so I think um so we are in a unique or not a unique but we are in a specific marketplace situation.
• 6:49
  So we are on the low price end because a lot of sellers they um search for products which are 20 euros or above.
• 6:57
  So to make the calculation easier and have some margin but often seeds you can get for four euros including shipping.
• 7:04
  So we are really on the low end of the price and everything.
• 7:07
  has to run automatically.
• 7:10
  um from the start, we were pushed to do everything from the order to the bill, into the accounting, everything full automotive with any touch.
• 7:21
  And this is something I think we make really good.
• 7:25
  So our automation, also how often we review our programs we are using.
• 7:30
  So every half a year, I review all the programs.
• 7:33
  to see, if there is something better to list the product, something better to add to the photos, to always be updated because especially now with em AI, there are a lot of new
• 7:43
  features which helps you to save time, for example.
• 7:46
  And I think also, which is really important, um if you sell products in a low price range, you have to have to spend the same effort if the product would cost 200 euros because the
• 7:59
  customer from the outside perspective is
• 8:02
  is expecting the same, so they want to have a good title, good photos and good um descriptions, really good manuals for all the stuff.
• 8:10
  um And even if it costs just four euros, the customer would like to have the same journey as a 200 euro product.
• 8:17
  I think that's one of the keys why we are so successful and why we did grow so much, because we really spend a lot of effort into how we present ourselves to the customers.
• 8:28
  Mm-hmm.
• 8:31
  Yeah.
• 8:31
  Okay.
• 8:32
  I have like so many questions while we come to this later.
• 8:36
  So I'm, um, maybe Carol, I don't know if you really asked this, like tell us a fun fact about yourself because I have the feeling you already told us so much, but maybe tell us a
• 8:47
  fun fact, which is like connected to our, um, to the eBay dinner, to this story.
• 8:53
  Ah, a fun fact.
• 8:55
  So, I mean just a basic fact.
• 8:57
  So, I think a fun fact is that I grow up without any television or medias.
• 9:06
  So, I have maybe seen less than 10 movies in my life and I always told during my studies to my colleagues, you all could have a side-tusle if you don't have a watch Netflix.
• 9:18
  Everybody can start a side-tusle if they don't just spend the time with you.
• 9:21
  use on Netflix for your side hustle.
• 9:23
  And I think one of the fun facts or the keys of this much powerment is that I don't use so much social media and advertisement in movies like Netflix or Amazon Prime.
• 9:36
  I think that's a key for when you ask how much, how is my time management working?
• 9:42
  It's working without social media and movies.
• 9:45
  Yeah.
• 9:46
  Great.
• 9:47
  Yeah, that's yeah.
• 9:50
  You and everyone else on that eBay dinner as well, Valerie, because the topic on just cancel your Netflix and everything is going to work out fine.
• 9:59
  Came up several times and everyone in the round was like, okay, but I only don't, don't only have Netflix.
• 10:05
  I also have Amazon prime and Disney plus.
• 10:10
  So yeah.
• 10:11
  Anyway, yeah, I think you can already hear why we invited Caro and why we're looking forward to this discussion.
• 10:18
  And as I said, I think we have lots to debate just if you focus on the automation part of what you just told us about.
• 10:25
  Yeah.
• 10:26
  And we will do so and come back to that after a very quick outbreak in which we will like to tell you about our partner X-Poto.
• 10:40
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• 10:44
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• 10:55
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• 10:56
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• 10:58
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• 11:06
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• 11:12
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• 11:21
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• 11:32
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• 11:42
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• 11:44
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• 11:48
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• 11:56
  Okay, let's go back to Caro.
• 11:58
  um And you just told us about your founding story, but which I really like going through the garden and going through the parks and just collecting seeds.
• 12:07
  But how do you come from that stage selling your little seed packages to you have a fully automated business in which you can just leave the company for four weeks and go off to
• 12:17
  India and are not really needed.
• 12:19
  So how did you go about
• 12:23
  being so automated.
• 12:25
  How did that work?
• 12:27
  Yeah.
• 12:28
  So I like working tools together.
• 12:31
  So I spend a lot of time for research and from the beginning when we were small companies, I choose programs which are way too big for us.
• 12:40
  But this brings you into the situation that after one or two years when the program which you use for the size of your companies, you have to change it after a certain way.
• 12:49
  So that's why we use really programs which are
• 12:52
  the most common one.
• 12:53
  So normally I go for the most m common one.
• 12:55
  So for example, for our own shop, we use Shopify.
• 12:59
  and Shopify is maybe not the easiest to start when you found a company, but you have the benefits after two or three years because then you don't have to change your setup, for
• 13:09
  example.
• 13:10
  So that's em one really basic thing.
• 13:13
  And we were a long time happy with Bilby.
• 13:17
  So Bilby was for all our...
• 13:20
  management of the warehouse um and that.
• 13:23
  So we choose at the beginning really big programs which need a lot of effort to get into because they are a little bit more complex but then after one or two years you have to
• 13:32
  return back.
• 13:34
  And yeah I started with collecting the seeds but so my both grandparents on both sides are farmers so I have a farming background which helps me a lot to find
• 13:46
  also the farmers in Germany.
• 13:48
  It's also a network community.
• 13:49
  They know each other and they know that I buy seeds for a much better price than big companies would buy their seeds for.
• 13:59
  And that's how I started and how I still do it since today.
• 14:02
  So I have a network of local farmers.
• 14:04
  The most are in South Germany.
• 14:06
  So we get every autumn the shipments from them.
• 14:09
  And then in a really early stage we invested into an automatic packaging machine.
• 14:16
  So we get from the farmer, for example, 10 kilograms in a big bag.
• 14:19
  And then we put one kilogram in the machine and make our automating packages.
• 14:24
  And I'm really into innovation.
• 14:27
  So I just closed an innovation with the Fraunhofer Institute, which is, I think, common here.
• 14:34
  And they did for us, for example, an innovation of labeling.
• 14:38
  So we want to reduce also our impact to the environment.
• 14:41
  So our goal is to reduce the waste and all the trash which you get within a delivery.
• 14:50
  Often it's packed with a lot of stuff around and a lot of colors and paintings and all that is around the packages, but you throw it at the end after five minutes into the
• 15:01
  trash.
• 15:02
  So with the Fraunhofer we invented, for example, an automatic em
• 15:08
  labeling which is plastic free.
• 15:10
  So which is directly on our package and when you work with them together as really a small business so they have much more employees and much bigger companies they work together but
• 15:21
  even they are interested when you go to them as a small company and say hey I have a cool idea I have really something that hurts me they also like this kind because they're not
• 15:31
  much small companies going there and say hey can you help me in my e-commerce business because they are normally
• 15:37
  doing something in the industry or something.
• 15:39
  So that was a really unique story, em how you can also get help, external help for automatization, which is also em cross sponsored by the government.
• 15:50
  So.
• 15:50
  m
• 15:52
  And, um, Carol, how do you get your business profitable?
• 15:55
  I mean, you said like, you have like four euros or I don't know how much is your average basket.
• 16:00
  I mean, if I think about, um, just like postal fees, um, how do you do this?
• 16:06
  I mean, um, and then you have like all the other fees, et cetera.
• 16:09
  And how much like big is your volume?
• 16:12
  Because then it's in the end, drive what drives you is the volume, right?
• 16:16
  Yes, so what I strive at the end is the volume.
• 16:19
  So everything has to be done over the volume.
• 16:22
  And there we had, I think, maybe a good position.
• 16:25
  So when we started in 2020, there were not much seed companies.
• 16:30
  So seeds, flower seeds especially, is something really traditional.
• 16:34
  So there were not much competitors on Amazon or on eBay.
• 16:39
  So we've got really good spots, which we still hold until today.
• 16:43
  And we could...
• 16:44
  really raised from the beginning.
• 16:46
  was not a raise, it was a jump to a certain level and that's the turnover what we are still have there.
• 16:57
  And yeah, it's increasing since that, but yeah, you have to have a certain level and some feeds, we sell less on them, so we also have our best sellers which are on the Amazon rank
• 17:08
  in the top five, but we also have then some which get just...
• 17:11
  sold once a week, but in the average you have to have a certain level of selling.
• 17:19
  Are you comfortable with giving us a bit of an idea of how many, what is a big volume in your field?
• 17:26
  oh I don't know how many packages of seeds would you typically ship in a month?
• 17:32
  so we are very seasonal.
• 17:34
  So in our season, which is March and April, we ship up to 1,500 packages per day, all in-house.
• 17:45
  So we all do our in-house um shipping.
• 17:49
  And it could happen that, for example, for the best sellers, which are on place in the first five places on Amazon, we ship 200 times a day the same package.
• 17:57
  So there's just a different
• 17:59
  address on the outside.
• 18:01
  um
• 18:06
  And yeah, that's in the, and in the side season.
• 18:10
  we're just now here in August or also over Christmas, we have maybe up to 50 or a hundred orders a day, depending on some, yeah, when there are newspapers or we have sometimes we
• 18:22
  are also television.
• 18:24
  So sometimes I'm in television, they get some news.
• 18:26
  So then it's increasing, but so in the average in the winter spring, we have between 50 and 100 packages.
• 18:33
  Yeah.
• 18:34
  and the total volume per year we have now last year around 40,000 customers.
• 18:40
  um So that was the volume.
• 18:43
  people do you have?
• 18:45
  At the moment we are nine people.
• 18:49
  So not all full time, but some full time, some part time.
• 18:53
  have also some which are still studying for, for example, graphics.
• 18:57
  So we do all the Amazon layouting, we do our in-house.
• 19:02
  And for the I have they are just then working on the 4, 565 euro.
• 19:09
  So it depends.
• 19:11
  But in total we are nine, everything from
• 19:14
  um Accounting to Amazon, eBay, so every marketplace has also their own person.
• 19:20
  So I like to have specific persons for each marketplace.
• 19:24
  So I have two persons who does just to Amazon, one person just for eBay and one for Shopify and they own a really detailed trained in their marketplace.
• 19:34
  um And I do the training by myself or by watching videos or reading books.
• 19:41
  uh
• 19:42
  because it's hard to get employees with your drink for Amazon or something.
• 19:45
  So there's also lot of development needed.
• 19:48
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:50
  So in total, you would say you have like three main sales channels.
• 19:54
  It's your own online shop with Shopify, right?
• 19:57
  It's Amazon and eBay and you grew up with eBay.
• 20:00
  Yes, I grew up with eBay.
• 20:02
  They have a really good relationship, I would say.
• 20:07
  And eBay is the heart passion, I would say.
• 20:11
  We make a little bit more turnover on Amazon because just the people are more used to Amazon.
• 20:18
  And when eBay, we could really fear when eBay canceled the bank transfer that our customer base gets really reduced on eBay during the, because we had
• 20:29
  So seeds, it's also interested for a lot of people which are old, so 70 or older.
• 20:35
  So just today we received a handwritten letter with a bank note inside.
• 20:40
  I wanted to order these because they are not able to order online, but they see us.
• 20:44
  Somehow they search for our address.
• 20:46
  And for these people, which they have been former on eBay, but since they canceled the bank transfer and they don't using PayPal or Klana or all that stuff, we receive letters
• 20:55
  from them.
• 20:56
  Yeah.
• 20:58
  That's, yeah.
• 20:59
  Yeah.
• 21:00
  Okay.
• 21:01
  And what is your best product, your best setup product?
• 21:06
  So the best seller product is a flour mixture.
• 21:10
  So on Amazon, it's really depending on the rating.
• 21:13
  So when we have some which we maybe are in the top 10, top five, then this will be the best seller.
• 21:19
  But it could be for eBay, it could be something totally um different.
• 21:23
  em So for eBay, it's more not that we have like a best seller, we have more average over the product.
• 21:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 21:32
  But which we also now found out why.
• 21:35
  So I, because we have now, so we are into seasonal products and we thought we have to list them once.
• 21:41
  So we list, you list your product once and then you don't touch it.
• 21:44
  But during the off season, the product falls in the rating because other gardening products go more in the, in the, in the, in the first draw because, and for Amazon, they
• 21:55
  have a better algorithm for seasonal products because then you stay in that.
• 21:59
  And for eBay, you,
• 22:01
  for the products which we launch each year new, they are the best sellers because they are new to the system and they have not run through an off season.
• 22:09
  So for eBay, we will change a little bit, I think our strategy and resell some of the items which are five years old or something because they have gone through a lot of off
• 22:20
  season and this unstable validity in sales is not the best for the eBay algorithm, I would say.
• 22:29
  Mm-hmm.
• 22:30
  at least what we noticed.
• 22:31
  So best sellers can vary on the things.
• 22:34
  And I think for the Shopify shop, which he is the most depending on advertisement.
• 22:39
  So we had, for example, with TikTok, a video which go viral, which we had a lot of views.
• 22:45
  So you could see raising then this product because a lot of people have seen it on TikTok and then they switch to the Shopify shop and just uh get it.
• 22:54
  Mm-hmm.
• 22:56
  Okay, I would say let's do another short break and...
• 22:59
  this TikTok and social media topic, I think.
• 23:03
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• 24:10
  Yeah.
• 24:10
  So Carol, let's go into this a bit because, that's something that we also talked about at the eBay connect, dinner that you said you sort of started TikTok as a side thing, by the
• 24:20
  way, to just plant your TikTok videos from now until next March.
• 24:24
  So how important is social media in, uh, in for your business at the moment?
• 24:31
  So, due to our low value of the product for the customer, we cannot use the classic funnels for Google Ads or something because we can't pay even five cents per click.
• 24:44
  It's too much for us on the margin side because it's a really high amount.
• 24:49
  you reduce the tax, if you reduce the shipment, we have two euro 90s left and so it hurts when you have to pay all these advertisements.
• 24:58
  So we just do...
• 25:01
  all the advertisements, you do not have to pay.
• 25:03
  So TikTok was one of the ideas I came up em with because we already produce a lot of videos.
• 25:09
  So I'm really, I think it falls easy for me to do videos.
• 25:14
  I just stand in the middle of the field and you can hold a camera and I just start speaking without taking any notes before I just speak.
• 25:22
  I tell them something about flowers.
• 25:24
  It's just my nature to tell my passion.
• 25:26
  And em
• 25:28
  That's how we posted them and we used to post them on Instagram and Facebook.
• 25:33
  Facebook also important because the customer age is higher, so they are still on Facebook.
• 25:38
  And then we started, okay, let's just post them on TikTok.
• 25:40
  We have them anyways and we posted them and we got really, really good feedback and views.
• 25:45
  So our views on TikTok are much higher than um on the, yeah, I would say Instagram.
• 25:53
  So the algorithm is different.
• 25:55
  And we also experience what we never thought that there was the high generation of that age.
• 26:00
  So even people which are 50 or 60 are on TikTok.
• 26:04
  And I did not know that before.
• 26:05
  I thought it's for the generation which is even younger than me, but no, they are still there and we have really good interaction.
• 26:12
  So I think TikTok is really good.
• 26:13
  And what we also use is YouTube Shorts.
• 26:16
  YouTube Shorts is also really good because people use it to search.
• 26:19
  So when you got one again, how do I sell flowers or something you judge on?
• 26:24
  YouTube for some, yeah, manuals, video manuals.
• 26:28
  And that's also why we have YouTube there to show how to do um the stuff, yeah.
• 26:35
  Yeah.
• 26:37
  And so you did also start recently than the TikTok shop or how did you do this?
• 26:43
  Yes, so TikTok shop is connected to our Shopify shop.
• 26:47
  So I'm really happy with Shopify at all.
• 26:50
  So I recommended everybody who is asking me because Shopify is always there when something new started.
• 26:56
  So when an opportunity shows up like in TikTok shop, Shopify will be there the same now for AI.
• 27:01
  I just read today in the morning that they will be the first who were working together with JetGBT for JetGBT.
• 27:08
  um So they are really there in the first spot and we are connected for
• 27:13
  The shop is connected over Shopify, so it is easy, m very easy for somebody to onboard because you have already all the products in there and TikTok shop, but we don't.
• 27:25
  So what we notice is that the people do not buy over the TikTok shop.
• 27:29
  They see it and then they change to the home page.
• 27:31
  So m for some videos which go viral, we can say, OK, I would say 80 % buy in the shop directly.
• 27:38
  They search just then in the web, buy in the shop directly and just 20 % buy over the TikTok shop.
• 27:43
  actually.
• 27:44
  Yeah.
• 27:46
  you track this?
• 27:47
  is this more like a feeling?
• 27:50
  Yeah.
• 27:50
  And we cannot track it, but we can see, okay, if we have a video, for example, we had a poppy video of a special flower we grow by my parents.
• 27:58
  We were there on the fields.
• 27:59
  I posted it and it got viral.
• 28:01
  And then you can see, okay, now it increases.
• 28:03
  So normally you sell a package a day and now it's 20 or 30 a day.
• 28:07
  see, okay, they come because of the video.
• 28:10
  And so many others come over TikTok and come through the normal shop, I think.
• 28:13
  Yeah.
• 28:14
  Mm-hmm.
• 28:15
  Mm-hmm.
• 28:16
  So um you said it's doing videos is sort of in your nature and is something that em you like to do.
• 28:23
  So would you consider em giving that to one of your employees as well?
• 28:29
  Or is that something that you at the moment so marketing keep it to the founder side?
• 28:34
  ah No, have they do the they do the market.
• 28:37
  They do the planning side of the marketing.
• 28:39
  Sometimes I get notes.
• 28:41
  OK, Caroline, we need this kind of video or we need this.
• 28:44
  And so we do a lot of.
• 28:46
  Yeah.
• 28:46
  So when so when I was now, I'm now four weeks in India.
• 28:49
  So I had to pre produce some of the videos or at least I'm now pre produced since March.
• 28:54
  I have a tight schedule.
• 28:55
  So we go into a sunflower seed and then they we do like short clips of 30 seconds for social media and.
• 29:02
  It looks like when we arrive there, I go in the sunflower seed and we do all the clips which I have in mind.
• 29:06
  And at the end then, or at the middle, I would say they come up with the list.
• 29:10
  Okay, now all of your ideas are freestyle is done.
• 29:12
  And now we would like to have these kind of 10 videos.
• 29:16
  So that's how we work together.
• 29:17
  And then at the end, now we pre-produced four um videos per week as our schedule, our time, what we do.
• 29:27
  So two during the week and two on the weekend.
• 29:30
  And then they look in a way so because then we have filmed for example 15 sunflower videos that they come in a good in a good so that they are not autumn.
• 29:40
  um Yeah and we look what we get so I think seeds is also really cool because you have a lot of varieties of videos you can actually do.
• 29:49
  So not everybody if you sell a chair you cannot do 15 videos of the same chair and then go a week later again and say do you see this.
• 29:57
  this bee there and this is a special German nature bee and you can tell something about the bees and something about the flowers and something about the sunflower oil.
• 30:05
  You can tell so much about seeds.
• 30:07
  So that's really a big benefit for us and why we can produce so much videos.
• 30:13
  videos in that seasonal field?
• 30:15
  I mean you can talk about sunflowers at the moment but you can't talk about, I don't know, any kind of spring flower for example.
• 30:24
  Yeah, so we filmed the whole season.
• 30:26
  we have different schedules.
• 30:27
  So my family is driving around with the car and everybody says, oh, I have seen this field there.
• 30:32
  I have seen this field there.
• 30:33
  And then every Saturday I have a working colleague or a good friend of mine.
• 30:37
  We also work together.
• 30:38
  She likes to do the filming and all that.
• 30:41
  So every Saturday we go out to the different fields and say, OK, this we film and this we film and then we do the uploading and then they...
• 30:49
  Yeah, that's the secret.
• 30:50
  It's a really good thing to go off of the desk.
• 30:53
  Doing videos is really good.
• 30:55
  sometimes also when I'm...
• 30:57
  So I have one rule.
• 30:59
  So every evening, normally at 9.30, I shut down the PC.
• 31:03
  So this is the latest point, 9.30.
• 31:05
  And then I go for a walk.
• 31:07
  And when I see then some new flowers in the area, in the neighborhood, I just do a small video and then you can post it.
• 31:12
  So it's really easy to do for me at least.
• 31:15
  Yeah, but I'm this nature kind of nature trip.
• 31:17
  For me, it's easy to do videos, to post online and to show them and...
• 31:21
  Also recently now with the eBay event, which they've launched eBay on tour, I did a video of the eBay on tour.
• 31:27
  So I try also more now for this year to get the people more at what I'm doing the whole day as a founder of a site hustle and how is that all gonna work?
• 31:38
  So to show a little bit more about what you can do if you do not watch Netflix.
• 31:46
  That's sort of a recurring topic here.
• 31:48
  I have to look a bit at the time, um but I think we all got a good idea of your grit and drive and passion for your business.
• 31:59
  What are your plans for the next 12 months for Lakatoa?
• 32:03
  Do you even have a strict strategic outline or are you just taking the challenges as they come?
• 32:10
  No, so I'm an engineer.
• 32:12
  for sure I have a strategic plan.
• 32:15
  so I use my favorite tool is the balance scorecard.
• 32:18
  I think it's a known method for management to figure out what you would like to do.
• 32:23
  So I have a balance scorecard where I shown, okay, these are the KPIs we want to reach.
• 32:27
  These are the other stuff we would like to do.
• 32:32
  yeah, for the next year, we increase a little bit our variety of seeds.
• 32:38
  I would like to go.
• 32:39
  a little bit more into the seeds and flowers which you can use for your health, for example, which you can make tea out of it or which you can just eat, example, eatable
• 32:52
  flowers, for example, a little bit into these to get it a little bit more usable for us.
• 32:58
  At the moment, it's very, most of the flowers are looking, just nice looking flowers, and now I wanna give us a benefit as humans to use it in your smoothie, to use it for eating.
• 33:08
  And also we increase a little bit the variety on tree seeds.
• 33:12
  So mainly we are only in flower seeds, but there are also a lot of cool, unique trees here in Germany, which are really bee-friendly.
• 33:22
  So we have some, also some plants which we sell.
• 33:25
  um We visit three markets a year, so we sell their own uh stuff.
• 33:33
  I would like to also get a little bit more into the tree topic because it's not that known that also trees are very good for bees.
• 33:40
  And Carol, one final question.
• 33:42
  In which market do you sell?
• 33:44
  Do you just focus on Germany or German speaking countries or how do you do that?
• 33:50
  So at the moment it's just Germany because otherwise we could not keep up with the growing.
• 33:54
  But for next year, so we are now settled, I now feel comfortable to take a next step.
• 34:00
  And we would like to try to sell to Austria and France.
• 34:04
  So these are the next two.
• 34:06
  They have also with these, I cannot sell them too much north or south because of the environment.
• 34:14
  So it has to be the same.
• 34:16
  um or at least a little bit um the same.
• 34:18
  um so we want to do some of these also.
• 34:23
  Yeah.
• 34:25
  Interesting plans and I'm sure it would be great to have em a...
• 34:30
  to just check up on you what you're doing next year because you're moving so fast and things are happening so quickly at Lakato.
• 34:37
  Thank you for today, that was Carole Lange.
• 34:39
  Thanks for your insights and joining us today.
• 34:42
  Caro.
• 34:43
  And yeah, if you found our today's episode interesting to make us happy, um you could sign up for our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.
• 34:53
  And of course, tune in again in two weeks time, where we'll be talking about how community benefits your marketplace business in a very real, intendable way.
• 35:03
  And yeah, thanks for listening to the day.
• 35:05
  Bye bye.
• 35:06
  bye bye.
• 35:07
  Thanks.