Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / GEMS: The Fundamentals of a Successful Business with Mimi Ikonn from Intelligent Change

Transcript

GEMS: The Fundamentals of a Successful Business with Mimi Ikonn from Intelligent Change · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:08
  When you think back about, obviously the landscape has changed so much. You know, when you were building Luxie Hair, it's a different time to what it is now. What are you seeing that you're having to do differently to grow this business, you know, second time around?
• 0:26
  I think the landscape has changed, as you said. You know, we see a lot more video, but yet even 10 years ago, we used video to grow our business. So yes, there's new tools, there's new platforms, but I think the fundamentals
• 0:41
  are always the same. And what are the fundamentals? Is providing a kick-ass, incredible product. You know, so many people, and this really breaks my heart, started the business just for the sake of making money. This is extremely unhealthy, not only to our world, because you're creating essentially products,
• 1:02
  you know, crap that already exists in this world and you don't really care about the products you're creating. But also it's not good for you because you're not going to enjoy doing this day in, day out. And creating a business takes a lot of hard work. When people ask me about what business they should do or to give them ideas, I always say, you know, the best business you will create is the one that comes out of your own challenge.
• 1:27
  And problem. So if let's say you are looking for, I don't know, bags that are biodegradable, you know, for packing your lunch. I don't know. That's just an idea, right? Just throwing out there. A Ziploc, a paper bag Ziploc. I don't think it exists.
• 1:45
  And it doesn't exist. You wish it existed, but, you know, all of the ones that are out there are plastic. And then one day you're like, oh, I should be the one creating this product. This is how the best businesses are created.
• 1:58
  You're really into it. You feel like you're solving a problem in the world. And then you can create it in a way where you can easily tell a story, which is basically your marketing. You can make videos. You can take photos. Then you provide a kick-ass customer service. This is something that still most businesses lack.
• 2:17
  Really, it just breaks my heart. There's so many resources to have great customer service. And yet, you know, I buy things like the other day I bought something for my daughter and I bought I got an email saying, oh, there's a delay. And there were all these excuses and all these things in the email. And I'm like, oh, my God, the language is so negative. Like, yeah.
• 2:38
  I cannot believe these guys are doing this. Like, you can, you know, you can have problems in your business. You can have challenges, but it's how you communicate it to your customer. It was problem after problem after problem, and they didn't provide any solutions. And I felt like, oh, why did I even buy it from that website? It looks so professional and beautiful, and they have really nice products, but then...
• 2:59
  that is really sour experience. And I doubt I will ever purchase from them again, because from the first point, from the first point, you already have a bad, you know, like that negative, the after effect, you know? So having those fundamentals in place,
• 3:17
  It really is within your power. If you are the one running the show, if you're the entrepreneur, this is your business, you can create these basics that will have a solid foundation for your business. At this point in life, yes, regardless of whether you run a restaurant or you have a physical product, you need to have an Instagram page. You need to have a YouTube. Of course, not for everybody, but if you can, it will greatly benefit you. Yeah.
• 3:44
  in any industry, in any business. And yes, then you need to consistently post content about your products because if you don't share about your products, how will people find out? And if you don't care about sharing it, then, well, who will? Your customers won if you don't. So it's about first identifying your story. And that, again, as I said, that's why it's so important why you do what you do in the first place. If you do it for the right things,
• 4:10
  the rest will come so easy. And that's why even with Luxie Hair, I think the reason it grew so quick and so fast and became such a sensation is because it was a genuine story of how I wanted hair extensions. You know, I couldn't find anything that was affordable and good quality. Then we went on to creating that solution for me and for everybody else. And then people just told the story and it just spread like wildfire. And we just, you know...
• 4:38
  enjoyed the benefits of that. And there's a really great book or audio book you can listen to called Contagious. And it exactly shares what we did. So in a way, we weren't aware as we were doing it, that this is what we're doing. But years later, when we already had a successful business and I listened to that book, I remember thinking, ah, this is why we grew so quickly and so fast,
• 5:08
  For us, customer service then and now with the new business, with any business we create, it's like the most important part of the business is the touch point. The only touch point, especially if you only have a virtual business, is the only time people will ever come across you. And if that experience is sour, not only they're not coming back, they're telling their friends. The issue with bad experience is that people talk about it even more often than the positive experiences. Yeah.
• 5:37
  You know, funny enough, a friend was sharing a story how she went to this new coffee shop and, you know, they didn't have the right coffee. She wanted this filter coffee. And then the guy gave her something else and then double charged her. And then you see, she spent maybe 15, 20 minutes telling me about this bad experience. And I was thinking of going to that place. But after she shared the story, I'm like, well, I'm definitely not going there. But in my mind, I'm like, oh, my goodness, you know, one bad experience.
• 6:05
  And sometimes people will completely cancel you out. So we have to, as entrepreneurs, we have to be aware of that. And we have to do our best to avoid that happening in our own business. And that's why also hiring the right people is so important. People who are aligned with your values. But before that, of course, you have to identify the values. And then when you hire, it becomes easy to hire the right people because you can just ask the right questions to ask.
• 6:31
  to see if they're the right fit in the role and for the overall culture of your business. So, yeah, I mean, there's so many things to talk about, you know, how to run a successful business. But like, even though the platforms change, the basics are the same. People who ran successful business 100 years ago and are doing it now are still doing the same thing. Maybe we're using different tools, but...
• 6:55
  you know, kick-ass product, kick-ass customer service, and genuinely caring about what you do and the customers that you serve. Yeah, I love that. And it's so true. And I really think the customer service piece truly gets forgotten a lot of the time. There are so many times I have a really frustrating experience and I'm like, but how is this the thing that you forget? Because of course, I'm going to either tell my friends the same way if you have a great experience
• 7:22
  You're likely to tell your friends or you experience a great product. You're literally going to text your group of girlfriends and be like, hey, you should try this. And the next thing you know, everyone has the same deodorant. And you're like, yeah, this works. You can see why this business is doing well. But it's funny how people really do forget that customer service piece and can fall short on so many levels. And that even makes an even more, you know, a higher advantage for people who want to come in and be like providing incredible service. Yeah.
• 7:52
  and can blow it out of the park with that. It's yeah, it's incredible.
• 7:59
  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.
• 8:24
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• 8:46
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