Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 7 Tips to Launch Your Dream Biz in 2024
Transcript
- 0:09Hey you. Happy New Year. Hello. Happy 2024. So exciting. Oh my God, I can't believe that we're saying 2024. That is too weird. It feels good though, huh? It feels so good. I'm so excited for 2024.
- 0:27going to be a good year. Absolutely. It's going to be a great year. I've spoken to so many people that I'm like, this is our year. It is our year, including you. It is our year. The year of female startup club. Absolutely. Let's make it happen. Exactly. Exactly. I feel like it's the year also for so many people listening. It's the year to launch your business, launch your side hustle, take those next steps. The
- 0:55Absolutely. We asked in Magic, our private community earlier this week, you know, do you have any goals for the new year? Any big thing that you're aiming towards? And I think everyone said launching a business, launching a business. So it really is. 2024 is the year of launching your business.
- 1:12Love it. So exciting. Let's talk about some like goals or resolutions or, you know, thoughts coming off the back of, you know, the festive season and having time to reflect. Do you have something? Yeah, absolutely. A big one for me. I think work-wise goal this year is going to be to absolutely nail down short form video content. Absolutely.
- 1:36And I've dabbled in this. Yeah, it's time. It's absolutely time. It's time. I've dabbled a little in, you know, Instagram Reels and TikToks. And we repost a lot of really, really great things from brilliant creators. But I think it's time that we start becoming a authority in the space ourselves. And we start creating some cool things. There's so many great apps and platforms.
- 2:05learnings and YouTube videos. And I'm just going to dive into all of the things. And the aim is to really get this nailed down in 2024, because I think everything's going to be about short form video content this year. We spoke about it last year in our prediction episode for 2024 and the year ahead. And I think this is just going to be the thing that you have to be on top of marketing wise, content wise. It's the year of short form, short form video.
- 2:32Amen, girlfriend. I am so excited for us. I love this for us. I love this for you. I love this for me. Everyone, you've heard it here first. Josephine is going to be out there testing new things. I'm being held accountable now. Being held accountable. Go and support her. Be on the Instagram.
- 2:53Absolutely. I'm so excited. I still haven't figured out like what my big kind of work goal is. I usually have like one big juicy goal, but I haven't kind of, I'm not 100% there yet. So I don't have anything like that to share. But for me, I was thinking more about my theme for this year and my word for this year. I know we spoke about this in the kind of like wrap up episode series.
- 3:19about like frameworks and things like that. But for me, my word this year is variety. Because last year, I feel like we had this weird transition year. We just moved from the UK back to Australia. We were like settling back into home life. It was a really, it was a year of like stability last year. And I feel like I got a bit suburban. Like I spent too much time behind my computer, too much time in this little room. And
- 3:47I need more variety in my day. I want to travel more. I want to say yes to different opportunities and different things. Meet more people. Yeah, and variety is my word and my theme.
- 4:00I love that. And it's so funny that you say that because I really feel the exact same. I had a conversation about this just last week that last year was it was needed this year of recuperation and suburban. I love that. Exactly that. Taking it easy and slowing down a little bit. Like a suburban woman these days. Suburban woman.
- 4:22But 2024 is more about daring and being brave and going out there and not playing it safe and reaping all the benefits of all this, you know, rejuvenation we've been doing over this last year. Love it. Love it. Love this for us.
- 4:40Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm excited to get into this episode. Do you want to kick us off? Absolutely. So in terms of 2024 being the year to launch your biz, we thought it could be a great opportunity at the start of this year to dive into some points of if we were starting a brand right now, this is exactly what we would want to hit.
- 5:02What steps can you be taking right now to make sure 2024 is going to be the year that you launch? Because it's a big goal. It's a big kind of overarching goal to have in your year. And thinking of ways that we can break that down into practical, actionable steps that you can get started on today to make sure that you're on the right track.
- 5:23I'm so excited. I feel like mine, I don't know if I have like, well, I mean, there's lots of practical steps in here, but I'm giving the advice from the perspective of like, if I was going to start a brand in 2024, these are the things that I would be thinking about. These are the things that I would be like pursuing and exploring and kind of like diving into. So I think I have about seven. I'm going to start with one. Let's go. Let's go through them all. The first thing,
- 5:50I feel like this is so obvious, but I feel like people really can forget about this when they're starting a brand. You need to solve a real problem that people will pay money for. And I think we can get caught up in more like the solution and the idea and all this thing. But we need to go back to what is the core problem that you're trying to solve for a customer?
- 6:12And actually, will people spend money to fix that problem with your product? Because over time, like as you're building a brand, you will get customer feedback and you'll iterate your product and the solution will change or maybe you pivot or whatever. You need to be obsessed with the problem, not the solution. Like being like, no matter what, in the next 10 years, I'm going to solve this problem for this customer demographic. Yeah.
- 6:36And I feel like it's a really obvious one, but people forget about it. Oh, 100%. This business idea really needs to be solidified. And I think we get into the flow of things and we maybe get started on branding and we start thinking about our logo and we start. It's easy to lean into the fun aspects of the business or the things that you find fun and to lose track of, hey, is this a viable business? Am I going to be able to make money from this? Is there a real need for this in the market?
- 7:05spending extra time figuring out that 100% this is the right thing before you do any of the fun stuff? 100%. Ideas need to be validated first before jumping into all of that kind of stuff. And I speak from experience. In 2021, I was building a non-alc brand. I did all the romantic, fun, cool stuff like branding and
- 7:34dreaming up partnerships and all that kind of cool stuff. And the branding looked absolutely incredible. But in the end, it was not a viable business model. And we decided to cut our losses at the 20K mark instead of investing the 100K into the inventory that we needed to actually get started. And I just feel like even though it was so much fun, I just, I don't know, I didn't validate enough and I didn't figure out the numbers enough before going all into it. And I just think
- 8:03Yeah, you need to be really clear on a real problem. And like off the back of that, my second point is actually, it's a kind of like similar thing. It's you really need to have a real point of difference with the brand that you're building. We live in such a, I love the video that you posted on Instagram with Margo walking through, you know, launching a brand in a saturated space in 2024. And I think it's so true.
- 8:30everything is saturated, like every industry. And so you want to make it as easy for yourself as possible when it comes to being able to like easily market and sell your product. And by setting that up at the beginning, by making sure that you have a real point of difference with your product, something truly unique, a real gap in the market, then you're able to like give yourself the best leg up to get started. And I wrote down a really quick note that I
- 8:55people can kind of take away from this. Anyone listening can take away from this. A quick exercise, if you're wanting to be in a really saturated space, maybe you're wanting to create, you know, something in the beauty industry and something in a very kind of, maybe some skincare within beauty or whatever it might be. But if you...
- 9:14Go to all the big players, like whatever the giant kind of company is in the space or the big competitors. Look at all their negative reviews. Go through all of those sites, troll Amazon, troll their websites, troll Trustpilot, whatever it is. Find all the one star, two star, maybe even three stars and look at all the negatives of those products and be like, great, I'm going to create the solution that doesn't have...
- 9:40that negative thing. I'm going to create like the answer to those negative problems. I think that's a really good quick exercise that you can do to kind of like make sure that you're building something that's unique.
- 9:50Oh, that is so good, Dune. I love that. Making it as obvious for people as possible to choose your brand over the others. 100%. What's your third? Totally. And that customers might hate the smell of something. Like they might love the product but hate the smell. Or they might like love what the product does in terms of results but hate the texture. And so when you can pick up on those tiny little gems and be like, oh, okay, well, I'm going to improve on this by doing X.
- 10:18Moving on to point number three, if it were me in today's world, I would be aiming for a product that is mass market. It's a broad customer profile group or customer profile groups and consumer goods over high ticket products that are harder to move. I think, you know, we're seeing this world kind of global change where people.
- 10:43We have less disposable income. Interest rates are going up. It's harder to justify big expenses, especially if it's not something that you already kind of like know and trust. So if it were me, I would be thinking like, okay, what is a brand that is a snap decision that you can try and buy really easily? Because...
- 11:04it just makes the whole funnel a lot easier, right? Like if you want a nationwide brand or you want a global brand, what are the products that just make sense to buy? And consumer goods when it comes to food or when it comes to beauty or when it comes to hygiene products or, you know, something for pets or something for babies, like they're the kind of things that I would be thinking about for mass market broad audiences versus super niche and high ticket.
- 11:32And you're also making your own life a lot easier in terms of gifting, in terms of sampling. I think the more hands you can get in in those early stages, the better. And that's just simply something that's easier when you have a low ticket item. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Being able to get it into the hands of thousands of people really, really easily is definitely a win.
- 11:56Again, kind of on a similar note here, I guess I would personally be trying to work with something that has like a price point and a profit margin that would work really well on Amazon and with ads. So if you are a beauty product and you're able to leverage ads or you're able to leverage the fact that Amazon drives millions of consumers to these categories, I'd just be wanting to put
- 12:27It just works, basically. And those platforms are key in the piece of the puzzle. 100%. Yeah, to already build that into the business model instead of feeling like that's a hit later down the line when that's suddenly a big cost or if that suddenly doesn't make sense in the margins anymore. Really building that in from day zero.
- 12:48Yes. I think I'm up to number five. Okay. So this is a really important one. I feel like, again, this is really obvious, but people can forget. Founders can forget. You need to build a brand that is absolutely social first. It needs to be able to have X factor on social media. It needs to look good in a video. It needs to look really sexy. You need to be able to make it pop
- 13:18you know, the way that the product shows up or the packaging has a pop of color or whatever it might be. It just needs to be built in a way that it's going to work in video content and just social media in general. So that, again, you're putting your best foot forward and allowing this product to kind of like spread out.
- 13:36you know, through word of mouth via social media. I love that. And also stand out, stand out on the shelves, right? And give people a conversation point. It's something that when you have that crazy cool branding, brands like Belly Welly with the bright pink and the glitter, and it becomes a point of conversation within groups of friends or wherever you are. People notice that from across the room and your word of mouth marketing also really benefits from that. Yeah.
- 14:04Yes, literally. I was thinking about brands that do this really well, like Sarah from Contour Cube or Sarah and Lou from Contour Cube. You know, their product is an ice facial tool. So it's in like, it's the perfect thing to have in a selfie style video. It's a bright color. It sparks curiosity because people are like, what is that? It just works so well in a social setting or something like Le Mini Macaron where, you know, it's the nail, the at-home kind of like nail product.
- 14:33kit and it just works so good in video content and you want to be able to like leverage the fact that social is absolutely where you need to be focusing organic content needs to work in your favor short form video content needs to work in your favor and so if you can design your product from and reverse engineer so that it kind of suits those channels you're setting yourself up for success that's a great one
- 14:58Number six, this is products that work really well on a subscription model or products that are a repeat buy. And so this falls back into kind of that idea of like mass market consumer goods. You want a product that people will just be able to buy again and again and again. Because...
- 15:20I feel like a lot of people will start a brand and be like, cool, I'm just going to run ads and acquire every customer through an ad. But actually, it costs five times more to acquire a customer than it does to retain a customer that you already have. So if you're able to use an ad to acquire a customer once, but then that customer becomes a loyal repeat buyer, either through a subscription model or product.
- 15:43you know, they buy the same shampoo and conditioner every month, like yada, yada, yada. The lifetime value of that customer and not having to acquire it makes it so profitable. Whereas if you're just acquiring and burning a customer by like one item, you know,
- 16:00a year or something like that it's not as sustainable so I would be trying to find things that absolutely have that kind of repeat purchase thing and you know like an obvious one is like this isn't sexy batteries like you're always going to continue to buy batteries or like whatever your face cream is that you religiously use every night you're gonna you're gonna buy that like every month so yeah making sure it's a repeat purchase
- 16:24I love that. And I think there's a lot of great companies out there that have this model completely down right now that you can really take inspiration from. There's a company called, I think it's called Estrid. It's a razor black brand. And with your first purchase, you'll get the entire razor. And then after that, you'll get just the blade to put at the end. But just getting this full package the first time is a great way to get it.
- 16:48your loyalty to the brand already increases. And then they have a really easy system set up. So you get the raises every two weeks, every four weeks, however much you need them. They've just launched a second sister company called April, which is a supplement brand where when you first buy these supplements, they give you a super cute pot to put it in. And following on from that, they just send you the supplements in small packaging. It's also good for the environment. It goes well with their messaging.
- 17:16But just carrying that kind of first product with you, you already have this loyalty to the brand. And it's something that's really easy to copy and easy to look at brands that are really doing this well and see how you can make that work for you.
- 17:30Another really good example is Day in the UK. You know, they are like tampons and they're kind of like toxic free, chemical free. And you sign up on a subscription, they just deliver it once a month. It comes in the letterbox. It's like really a fun kind of experience where you open the box and unbox it. And again, like you just sign up. It's something that you know that you need every month. You're 100% going to be a repeat customer. And
- 17:55The thing is, is that if you can retain a customer and treat a customer like, basically treat them like gold because they literally are gold, then you can have a customer for years, you know. And I just think if you're thinking about that kind of thing at the very beginning, you know.
- 18:14You should. You should. You should be. Okay, last one. If it were me, especially in the e-commerce space, especially if it were early days, I would be aiming to build a brand that doesn't require raising any capital to get started.
- 18:32I am a bootstrapped gal through and through. It's fine to want to raise capital from investors and have them in your business. But the thing with e-commerce is it's like you have so many things at your fingertips to be able to take advantage of when it comes to like TikTok and Reels and growing these brands that if you can wait as long as possible to get so many proof points under your
- 18:56social proof through press or whether that's purchase orders through retailers or whether that's a really strong, consistently growing brand through organic sales. Then you've got leverage that down the track you can negotiate better terms and you might not even need to raise money. I think if you're raising money straight off the bat, you almost like shoot yourself in the foot a little bit. If you can hold on and like wait, you have more power. And I would be trying to
- 19:26I'd be looking at things like grants or debt or, you know, trying to figure it out that I have like a way to use my nine to five or consulting or something to fuel that as the investment into the business versus going out and getting investors.
- 19:41Yeah, I think that's a really important one. I think limits in terms of anything in life, but especially in terms of budget, don't necessarily need to be seen as a bad thing, but rather as a really great opportunity to get creative with something. It allows you to think outside the box, to think about things that you otherwise wouldn't. And money equals options. And options can be overwhelming and it can get you to make a decision without really testing it out properly.
- 20:12kind of great bootstrapped founding stories, have been able to test out their concepts with very little investment and then use the learnings from that to build on. And I think that's a lot in part because of the creativity and the being forced to think outside the box that way. 100 percent. 100 percent. I totally agree. And I feel like as well,
- 20:37the come up story, like the rags to riches story of like, you know, I started making these things like at home and I would drive all over town looking for retailers or going to markets or whatever it is and like building that really organic first thousand true fans base that you can then like build upon and build upon and build upon and iterate and find product market fit and then scale. Like it's just amazing.
- 21:02I mean, it's just a damn good story. Really? A hundred percent. And that's what you want. That's what I love to see. That's what I love to hear about. Yeah. But that's just my two cents. This is just if it was me thinking about me starting a business in the climate today, 2024, that's where I would be thinking. That's the seven things that I'd be looking at.
- 21:20Yeah, but I love that. Thank you. If I was starting a brand right now, I think that's exactly what I'd want to hear. So that's great. Love. Okay, you have a framework. Talk us through the framework that you have come across. 100%. Yes, we thought for the end of these episodes, instead of diving into the six quick questions, it could be cool to talk through a cool framework or something cool that we've learned in the last week that might be relevant for the conversation.
- 21:47And earlier this week, came back from holiday, back to work, and I was feeling rested in many ways, but in other ways, I wasn't feeling rested at all. Classic story of, you know, we missed the last flight home to get back in time for work. My partner was super sick, 40 degree fever. There's
- 22:05always things that happen that might not mean that on Monday morning, you're there at your desk at 9am feeling like a refreshed, amazing person. And I think this is relatable for a lot of people. And it just got me thinking about why that is and what that means. And I came across this brilliant TED talk from Dr. Sondra Dalton-Smith.
- 22:29And I just felt like I wanted to share that. So I am excited. Yeah, I think you'd also find this interesting. And how she breaks it down is that every person essentially needs seven different types of rest. Yeah.
- 22:44It's very easy in our culture nowadays to think that, you know, when we're tired, that just means that we haven't had enough sleep. And it's because we're always on the go. And that one night of good sleep should solve all of these problems or a holiday like we've just had or a break away from work. And this is just to tell you that if you've come back after the break and you've had a bit of time away from things and you still don't feel 100 percent rested.
- 23:12That's completely normal because there are different types of rest that we need. And the first one she breaks down is physical rest. So this is the one that sleep solves, but also yoga and different restorative exercises and napping during the day. The second type of rest is mental rest. And I think this is something that we suffer from a lot in our society nowadays is that we're constantly busy. We're constantly on the go with work and sleep.
- 23:41By scheduling short breaks during your day, you can kind of get out of this cycle and allow your mind to get some rest in the day instead of feeling like you need to sleep all the time or feeling like you just need to catch up and sleep when actually it's shorter breaks from mental thinking that you need.
- 23:59The third type of rest she talks about is sensory rest. I don't know about you, but I'm a real sucker for this one after a day of bright lights. So do you ever feel, walk into a room and the lighting's just so bright and it just completely frazzles you? Or you've had a day with a lot of background noise or a lot of kids around, a lot of screaming or, oh, yeah.
- 24:23A day with a lot of Zoom calls and your senses at the end of the day are just completely overwhelmed from staring at a screen, from having this light, from having this noise. And all you want to do is just... And dogs barking. Dogs barking. Yeah, you are.
- 24:38Dogs barking. This is going back to me being very suburban. There's a freaking dog next door and it barks for like seven hours at a time and it will drive me insane. I like reach my limit and I like march down and knock on the door and then I'm like, no, it's here. Please put your dog inside. Yeah, the worst. Exactly what you mean. And it's super normal to need some rest from that every once in a while. And I'm sure that
- 25:03People with kids can agree I stayed with my sister over the holidays. It's a lot of noise. And that every once in a while you need to find a way to take a break from that, whether it's, you know, a bath in a low lit room or a walk at night when there's not so much around. But taking that sensory break.
- 25:24The fourth type of rest is creative rest. Have you ever heard the phrase go touch grass? I don't know if it's a very Gen Z thing. I mean, are we talking about grounding? Yeah. So it's, I think my understanding of it is when someone's kind of...
- 25:41unhinged or acting in a way that's kind of strange, then people would say, you know, go, go touch some grass, go and find, find your peace again, go and find yourself. And this fourth type of rest, which is creative rest, I think the solution to that one is to basically go outside and touch some grass. So,
- 26:04This one is especially important for anyone who spends their day solving problems or brainstorming new ideas like founders, like entrepreneurs, that you need to charge this battery up with a walk in nature.
- 26:19going to touch some grass, taking a note of things that you otherwise wouldn't really look at. Take a look at the color of the leaves today. That's always changing. And just taking that second for yourself to build up that creative battery again so you have the energy to brainstorm new ideas, to go into work mode and to get creative with your business.
- 26:42I love that. And I feel like in those moments, it's like a leave your phone at home moment and like kind of not have this thing that you're always pulled to look at.
- 26:53I also feel like to the extreme of that last year, I think I spoke about this on the show, but last year when we went to the unyoked cabin, like out in the bush and we like disconnected our phone for 48 hours, having that like really disconnect from like checking my phone, which I do obsessively, is something that was just so good for the soul. And I'm like, the more I think about the fact that
- 27:21I'd never even disconnected from my phone for 48 hours. The more I'm like, that is so weird. And we should be doing more of those kind of like a weekend disconnecting, no screens, no phones, just out in nature. I feel seen with all the things that you're saying right now.
- 27:36And it also, that one especially also feeds into social rest, which we need, which I think a lot of people can relate to this feeling of when your social battery runs out and you just need to be alone or you just need to be around that one friend that doesn't require a social battery to be around. And it's the same with our phones now. It's that that's coming through there. So a breakaway from your phone might also be required to get that social rest in order.
- 28:04And finally, the final type of rest that she speaks about is spiritual rest, which is, this is a tricky one, but it essentially comes down to a deep sense of belonging and purpose and that you're on the right path with what you're doing and being.
- 28:22If you stray from that for long periods of time, this can also, this can be exhausting. This can be tiring. You can feel confused about what's going on. And that's also a type of rest that you need and a type of exhaustion that you can feel. That one feels harder, though. Like, how would you get spiritual rest and know how to get back? That one, I'm like, Beth, how? How would you do that? To get really real with yourself and your purpose and...
- 28:51where you are right now. And I think it's also, it's not necessarily a bad thing that this, that this happens. It's a great thing that this gets flagged and then you have a sense of, okay, something needs to change here, you know, and then you can start figuring out which areas of your life aren't, aren't really working right now, but it's a hard one. Oh yeah. I do love that. For, for Christmas PA bought me, for anyone listening who might be new here, PA is my husband.
- 29:17Pierre Antoine, but PA for short. He bought me a, I don't know the official word for it, but like, you know, those kind of courts bowls, like meditation gong kind of bowls where you like hit it and it like creates this amazing sound. Because remember last year when we were in London and Natalia was telling us about that kind of meditation music that she thought that I would suit because I struggle with meditation. She was like, you would suit like chanting and like...
- 29:43noise and but what's the kind of yoga I mean meditation that she told us about did it start with K it's just like slipped my mind what was it I don't know exactly but I remember the concept of it was all around chanting and feeling the sound vibrations and that it's good for people that don't necessarily need or can handle the silence of meditation and
- 30:09Yes. Damn, I'm so annoyed that I can't remember what it's called. I'm going to find it and link it in the show notes, like an example, because I found this amazing... They're kind of more like a band, but they do yoga. I keep saying yoga, but I mean meditation. Meditation chanting. And because I've got such a busy brain, meditation I just really struggle with. And this bowl sounds this sound, and it's so interesting to focus on the sound. It's really, really nice.
- 30:36I don't know where I was going with that, but the other thing I just wanted to quickly say before we wrap up is with all the things that you just said, I feel like we were talking about this the other day, PA and I. The other thing is, you know, on the weekends, especially for anyone listening who works from home, the...
- 30:51the kind of like switch from like work life to home life and then the fact that just everything is inside the house can be kind of overwhelming. And then I felt like at the last kind of month of last year or the last couple of months of last year, I was so burnt out and I was so always wanting to like sleep and rest and all this kind of thing. But actually, when you're feeling like that, and especially if you work from home,
- 31:15what like fills your cup is to go and explore like a new neighborhood or go somewhere that you literally have never been before so that your brain is stimulated with these new things. And then that kind of like re-energizes you. And we were just talking about on the weekend that we need to do more of these things to
- 31:31Again, going back to variety, that even if it's just walking around a new neighborhood or going further than we usually would or going like to a different beach or whatever it might be, but like getting different stimulation so that when you come home, you're like, ah, like, cool. I did this like adventure basically. And I feel like that fits in with what you're saying. Absolutely. And that especially when you don't feel like these things, that you should still go ahead and do them.
- 31:58Yeah, I think it was just a good lesson in that if you're not feeling 100% rejuvenated after the holidays, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you, for starters. And that it might just be time to start focusing, getting the right type of rest that you need right now, which changes all the time. Yes. Oh, my gosh.
- 32:20Logged that. That was a great framework. Oh, I just remembered it's Kirtan. Kirtan Chante. Oh, great. I think it's actually called Kirtan Yoga and that's why I was getting confused with that. Yeah. Linking it in the show notes. Anyway, that's the pod. That's the pod. Thanks. See you next week. Catch you next week.
- 32:45Hey, 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.
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