192 – Be the BEST Product Boss Minna Khounlo-Sithep
Minna is one busy woman owning two separate businesses, Lil’ Labels and The Product Boss Podcast.
Lil’ Labels are writable, waterproof labels for baby items for daycare and is an Amazon bestseller.
Minna also co-owns and co-hosts The Product Boss Podcast and coaches product-based business owners how to grow their businesses and connect with other product entrepreneurs through Masterminds.
She lives in Iowa, is the mom of two little girls, and loves living her passion as mom and CEO.
Business Building Insights
- One way to identify a product to create is to look for problems in your life that can be solved.
- Be okay with the slow months and use them strategically to build inventory and test new concepts.
- Push the busier months based on the results and learning from slow month testing.
- Focus on growing annual revenue and margin rather than the unit sold at a consistent rate throughout the year.
- On slow months, work on building an email list and waiting list so you’re primed when it’s your strong season.
- For product inserts, add only one call to action for it be effective.
Challenges
Start ups – mindset, self doubt, burning time and money, knowing what your options are.
Growth – How do you make more money? How do you make more sales?
Expansion – Figuring out the process for scaling.
Resources Mentioned
Jen Eby from Eby Farms – Great example of using social media videos and live streaming
Contact Links
Gift Biz Resources
Join our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you.
Thanks! Sue
Transcript
You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 192 This is it.
Speaker:This is my light bulb moment.
Speaker:I'm going to see if I can figure this out.
Speaker:Attention gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun whether
Speaker:you have an established business or looking to start one now
Speaker:you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:it's Sue And thank you for spending a little bit of
Speaker:time with me today.
Speaker:If you're listening to this right as it's going live,
Speaker:we are in the midst of the holiday scurry.
Speaker:There's shopping,
Speaker:there's planning and there's parties.
Speaker:Oh, so much fun.
Speaker:It's also the last week to promote your product in my
Speaker:free Facebook group called gift biz breeze.
Speaker:We have a holiday product showcase over there where you can
Speaker:join the group and promote what you have going for the
Speaker:holidays. I love this concept because all of us can support
Speaker:each other and at the same time do some little check
Speaker:marks off of our holiday gift list.
Speaker:If you aren't part of the group already,
Speaker:just jump over to gift biz breeze.com
Speaker:ask to join and I welcome you in with a big
Speaker:holiday hug and without further ado,
Speaker:let's get into the show.
Speaker:My guest today is Mina
Mina is one busy woman owning two separate businesses.
Speaker:She's the owner of little labels which are writeable waterproof labels
Speaker:for baby items for daycare and is also an Amazon best
Speaker:seller. She's the co owner and cohost of the product boss
Speaker:podcast and coaches,
Speaker:product based business owners how to grow their businesses and connect
Speaker:with other product entrepreneurs through masterminds.
Speaker:She lives in Iowa,
Speaker:is the mom of two little girls and loves living her
Speaker:mission as mom and CEO.
Speaker:Welcome to the gift biz unrepped podcast.
Speaker:MENA, Thanks you.
Speaker:I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker:It's going to be such a fun conversation because from one
Speaker:product based person to another.
Speaker:So I'm really excited to dive in.
Speaker:But before we do,
Speaker:I like our listeners to get to know you in a
Speaker:little bit of a different way and that is through a
Speaker:motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to help us envision what type of
Speaker:a candle describes you,
Speaker:Mina, what color would it be and what would be the
Speaker:quote on your candle?
Speaker:It would be a really simple white candle,
Speaker:but the,
Speaker:I really took it from a quote that I absolutely love.
Speaker:It used to actually be on my Instagram bio,
Speaker:my personal one,
Speaker:and it is,
Speaker:don't be afraid to go out on a limb.
Speaker:That's where the fruit is.
Speaker:So I feel like my candle be kind of a fruity,
Speaker:citrusy scent,
Speaker:but a white candle and then maybe some like floral back
Speaker:notes. Kind of like Clinique happy if you've ever smelled that
Speaker:perfume. I used to wear that back when I left my
Speaker:house to work,
Speaker:but no longer because I'm here in sweat pants every single
Speaker:day now.
Speaker:I used to wear that too.
Speaker:My sister actually used to give it to me for my
Speaker:birthday. Isn't it wonderful?
Speaker:Yeah, it really is.
Speaker:And so the fruit on the end of the branch,
Speaker:and so what does that mean to you?
Speaker:It's just all the things that you really long for your
Speaker:own idea of success,
Speaker:whether that's in motherhood or in business,
Speaker:but you have to go out on a limb.
Speaker:That's the thing.
Speaker:If you want to reach the fruit of whatever you want
Speaker:it to be,
Speaker:but you can't just close the world off,
Speaker:I guess.
Speaker:And that's the hardest part.
Speaker:Putting yourself out there,
Speaker:Putting yourself out there.
Speaker:And I think to continue with your analogy,
Speaker:going out on a limb,
Speaker:when you go further and further out,
Speaker:that limb gets a little less stable.
Speaker:Yeah. But then you're reaching and you're going for your goal,
Speaker:so you have to go through that time of instability,
Speaker:I guess,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:Yeah. It's a risk out there That it is.
Speaker:Well, talk to me.
Speaker:I'm really,
Speaker:really interested in hearing about little labels and how that all
Speaker:developed. So share with us a little bit about that and
Speaker:the journey there and then we'll get into the product boss.
Speaker:So I'm going to keep it really shorter.
Speaker:It's such a long story.
Speaker:Chapter titles or something.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Yes, so it started about three years ago and I have
Speaker:been an entrepreneur since:Speaker:And I did graphic design for those years and I used
Speaker:to work out of agencies and doing corporate graphic design.
Speaker:So I have big clients like banks and real estate management
Speaker:companies and things like that.
Speaker:And I would do their newsletters and annual report.
Speaker:So I was doing that for,
Speaker:at that time,
Speaker:12 years and I was really burnt out.
Speaker:So I'll doing all the creative work at night.
Speaker:I just,
Speaker:I didn't want to do it anymore.
Speaker:So my daughter at that time was five,
Speaker:but I was pregnant with my second daughter at the time.
Speaker:I already knew who she was or what gender she was.
Speaker:So I knew I was going to have another little girl
Speaker:and I knew,
Speaker:Oh well I guess I was assuming they would be very
Speaker:similar pregnancies.
Speaker:So I was just tired all the time and I gained
Speaker:50 pounds for each birth and just a lot.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:you know what,
Speaker:I need to step away from doing graphic design because it
Speaker:is just too much for me and I want to do
Speaker:something else.
Speaker:So all along being in in a entrepreneur for forever,
Speaker:I knew I wanted to come up with a product and
Speaker:so that's kind of how little labels came about was I
Speaker:had decided if I walked through my day,
Speaker:what problems could I solve?
Speaker:And so a little labels was born out of me getting
Speaker:my second daughter ready for daycare and needing waterproof labels for
Speaker:her baby bottles cause I had to label every single one
Speaker:and then also date them and everything like that.
Speaker:And I did not want to do it with masking tape,
Speaker:which is what I did last time.
Speaker:And I went onto Amazon,
Speaker:my favorite site,
Speaker:and there was nothing that was just really simple labels.
Speaker:I didn't want to order custom ones.
Speaker:So I thought,
Speaker:you know what?
Speaker:This is it.
Speaker:This is my light bulb moment.
Speaker:I'm going to see if I can figure this out.
Speaker:And so having had the background of commercial printing from those
Speaker:annual reports,
Speaker:I started from there.
Speaker:Actually when I did that in your reports,
Speaker:I would manage all the manufacturing of those annual reports too.
Speaker:So it was like I knew the printing process,
Speaker:I knew the project management,
Speaker:end of manufacturing,
Speaker:something start to finish.
Speaker:And so I started with that knowledge of kind of manufacturing
Speaker:in a printing setting and then started figuring out the process
Speaker:because I knew that there was some way it could be
Speaker:done in my head,
Speaker:it was the version of an extreme label.
Speaker:So it would go in a bottle,
Speaker:but it would be able to go through a dishwasher and
Speaker:it would be able to go through a microwave and it
Speaker:would be able to go through steamer,
Speaker:any of those things.
Speaker:So that's kind of where I started in my adventure of
Speaker:low labels.
Speaker:I love that story and it almost sounds like we set
Speaker:it up this way and we really didn't.
Speaker:But the reason I love this so much is I talk
Speaker:a lot with our listeners,
Speaker:Mina, about if you're in a nine to five while you're
Speaker:listening to this podcast,
Speaker:but you have the interest in doing something different,
Speaker:maybe you know,
Speaker:whatever type of art or craft or anything that you have
Speaker:that you're looking at monetizing and turning into a business for
Speaker:yourself, the time that you're spending in your nine to five,
Speaker:whatever it is,
Speaker:could be really advantageous to the development of what you're looking
Speaker:at doing next.
Speaker:So you're talking about you knew production,
Speaker:you had resources,
Speaker:all of that from the graphics end.
Speaker:And look,
Speaker:you were able to apply it and probably move so much
Speaker:faster to get little labels up and going.
Speaker:And maybe it was the key to being able to figure
Speaker:out how to produce it in the first place.
Speaker:But the point being you're taking your nine to five a
Speaker:paid job when you're working for someone else and you're able
Speaker:to use that as a booster to get you into something
Speaker:for yourself.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure,
Speaker:and I felt like I understood the problem because I was
Speaker:serving one of my own needs,
Speaker:so when you initially know you're meeting your own problems,
Speaker:you understand that that's a problem.
Speaker:Instead of someone being like,
Speaker:Hey, you know what you should create and it's a lot
Speaker:harder to tap into the,
Speaker:Hey, you know what?
Speaker:I think you should create type of mentality because people will
Speaker:get that a lot because they're looking for a product and
Speaker:then other people will naturally give them ideas,
Speaker:but it has to STEM from something that you can solve
Speaker:for yourself in a way because otherwise you don't identify with
Speaker:the solution as well.
Speaker:Can you share just a little bit without going into all
Speaker:the details,
Speaker:how long did it take you from when you had the
Speaker:idea and you started getting samples and maybe testing and doing
Speaker:all of that?
Speaker:How long from when there was that idea to when you
Speaker:actually had a product on the market?
Speaker:Probably five months and that's extremely fast in my mind,
Speaker:but I had a baby that was going to come out
Speaker:of me.
Speaker:I knew at a deadline I did and so I knew
Speaker:that by the time that she needed to go to daycare,
Speaker:I wanted to have something that I could actually be like,
Speaker:Hey, this is actually something we produce,
Speaker:which I didn't end up actually doing.
Speaker:I didn't present it to her daycare,
Speaker:but in my mind at that time I thought,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:this is brilliant and this is falling right into the right
Speaker:timing. Got it.
Speaker:Perfect all and so let's continue on with the story because
Speaker:I want to get into some of the other things we
Speaker:said we were going to chat about with our listeners here
Speaker:today. When does the product boss enter into scheme of things
Speaker:here? Not until much,
Speaker:much later.
Speaker:So fast forward a little bit.
Speaker:When my daughter was four months old,
Speaker:she had open heart surgery and so I did not do
Speaker:anything with the business.
Speaker:I kind of just let it sit there.
Speaker:But it was already at Amazon at that time.
Speaker:And so the month before I had put it into Amazon
Speaker:and then a month later we were living at the hospital
Speaker:for another month and this is how life happens.
Speaker:Right. And then four more months.
Speaker:I just didn't do anything with it.
Speaker:Well, when I decided to come back to looking at my
Speaker:listing, cause I would peek in there every once in a
Speaker:while when I wasn't with my daughter.
Speaker:It was just sustaining itself.
Speaker:So all that leg work that I had done in the
Speaker:beginning about figuring out Amazon and figuring out fulfillment and shipping
Speaker:on that end was being utilized in that time that I
Speaker:wasn't spending on the business.
Speaker:So by the time that my daughter healed and it was
Speaker:super fast,
Speaker:she was back to normal and like,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:like a month I would say.
Speaker:I appreciate you sharing that because of course that was a
Speaker:question on all of our minds.
Speaker:How is she?
Speaker:She's perfect and she never has to go into heart surgery
Speaker:again. She's like this miracle little wild child of mine and
Speaker:now she's really big and crazy and wild.
Speaker:Okay. And then that let me focus on the business too.
Speaker:Once she got into her normal routine,
Speaker:it took me a long while to get into being,
Speaker:feeling normal to like,
Speaker:there's so many mindset issues at the very beginning of being
Speaker:an entrepreneur,
Speaker:but add onto that being a scared mom.
Speaker:Right. And it was like debilitating for me for a long
Speaker:while. Plus I have anxiety tendencies,
Speaker:so I was anxious all the time.
Speaker:And so then once I got over that I started reaching
Speaker:out to people to have coffee chats.
Speaker:And this might've been at the beginning of how coffee chats
Speaker:happened on the online world because I feel like I was
Speaker:there and I was like,
Speaker:people would say,
Speaker:Hey, you have a really cool product.
Speaker:You want to do a coffee chat?
Speaker:And we'd hop on and we talk about our businesses.
Speaker:So it was even before the term coffee chat was coined
Speaker:in a way.
Speaker:And then I met my now cohost and biz bestie and
Speaker:business partner,
Speaker:Jacqueline Snyder on one of those coffee chats.
Speaker:And it was probably a year after I had even started
Speaker:putting myself out there.
Speaker:And then it was actually her idea,
Speaker:just start the product's boss.
Speaker:She owns her own consulting business for fashion apparel brands and
Speaker:she helps them launch.
Speaker:And I had all this knowledge of the retail online platforms
Speaker:of Amazon and Walmart and jet and various platforms.
Speaker:And we thought,
Speaker:Hey, this is a really cool combination because we would have
Speaker:the most fun and crazy and wonderful conversations,
Speaker:just the two of us.
Speaker:And she had the idea of starting masterminds and I initially
Speaker:said no because I had just stopped working with clients in
Speaker:the graphic design,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:just the year previous.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:I really don't want to work with clients again.
Speaker:And so we did a beta group,
Speaker:she convinced me to do a beta group and we said,
Speaker:Hey, would you like to,
Speaker:to have some coaching from us for this beta round?
Speaker:And we had a whole bunch of people sign up.
Speaker:And then I found out that I really,
Speaker:really loved it and that it actually helped me in gathering
Speaker:my information and then figuring out what my tasks that I
Speaker:needed to do for my own business because I was coaching
Speaker:other people in how to break things down.
Speaker:And then we started the podcast a couple of months after
Speaker:that and the rest is pretty much history from there.
Speaker:You make a perfect duo in those of you who haven't
Speaker:listened, you definitely want to listen to the product boss.
Speaker:Tell me if this is accurate to say.
Speaker:I think for our listeners,
Speaker:everyone here is a maker of some sort.
Speaker:So they have a tangible product and one of the challenges
Speaker:always is you can only grow so much if you're a
Speaker:one person business because you only have so much time.
Speaker:The more business you get,
Speaker:the more work you've just made for yourself.
Speaker:So at some point you need to either bring in more
Speaker:people to make the designs,
Speaker:have a factory,
Speaker:start making it for you.
Speaker:Somehow your business has to change.
Speaker:So that's a lot of what you guys are doing on
Speaker:the product boss,
Speaker:right? I mean obviously with different elements.
Speaker:You know like Jacqueline is more women's apparel,
Speaker:but you're teaching people how to grow past just making their
Speaker:own product themselves.
Speaker:Right. I would say most of our listeners are manufactured products,
Speaker:but we do have handmade ones too,
Speaker:so they listen because I think there's a lot that applies
Speaker:to just all product people.
Speaker:Whereas there are so many service based tips and advice and
Speaker:content out there that it's not so product oriented,
Speaker:so I think it fits all product people.
Speaker:Jacqueline specializes in startups,
Speaker:so if you're launching something,
Speaker:she's great.
Speaker:I like to say I'm more comfortable with growth because I
Speaker:love having data and then saying,
Speaker:here's what I think you should do because in the coaching
Speaker:of the product boss,
Speaker:we don't actually have a lot of apparel and fashion lines.
Speaker:She does that on her other business designer consulting co-op.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Okay. What are you seeing are some of the biggest challenges
Speaker:people are coming with hot tea topics for masterminds or just
Speaker:overall challenges?
Speaker:It differs for startup and for growth and for expansion or
Speaker:scale. So for startup I would say it's almost always mindset
Speaker:stuff. It's like that self doubt,
Speaker:that feeling like you're burning time and money and then also
Speaker:just knowing what your options are.
Speaker:You don't know where to go and where to turn for
Speaker:growth. A lot of it is how do you make more
Speaker:money, how do you make more sales?
Speaker:And then we help a lot of people with visibility and
Speaker:what they should do for that.
Speaker:And then for expansion,
Speaker:it's the hiring and figuring out the processes of scaling from
Speaker:there. So I think they're all different in our masterminds.
Speaker:We have separate because of how deep we can go in
Speaker:every single one of those topics with everybody because it's,
Speaker:it gets really hard,
Speaker:especially if you're trying to do it alone.
Speaker:One of the things that we talked about,
Speaker:certain tips that you can use for specific seasons selling objectives.
Speaker:Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Speaker:Yeah, I think that the tips that I'll go over is
Speaker:there's more like for how to scale a handmade business.
Speaker:And you can definitely do that seasonally for making sure that
Speaker:like in a service based business it's like if your content
Speaker:is relevant,
Speaker:right? So then in the products way version of saying that
Speaker:it'd be if your product is really scalable in that timing
Speaker:and in that season.
Speaker:And so for instance,
Speaker:if I were to scale little labels in the winter time
Speaker:and then during Christmas season or if I would try to,
Speaker:let's say I started putting my money towards Facebook ads and
Speaker:everything during Christmas,
Speaker:it would be far less effective than if I waited till
Speaker:summer months where it's my busy month.
Speaker:So you're pushing the busier seasons versus trying to outweigh the
Speaker:slow months of being busy all the time.
Speaker:So you're just okay with a slow month and you just
Speaker:push the busier months,
Speaker:if that makes sense.
Speaker:So you would say,
Speaker:I think this is an obvious yes,
Speaker:but you weight your strategy so that you're presenting your product
Speaker:during the time when people need it most.
Speaker:You're presenting your best strategies.
Speaker:So let's say your handmade and you have knitted hats instead
Speaker:of trying to freak out in July when no hats are
Speaker:selling, you try to just sell more in the winter months.
Speaker:During this whole months you're putting together the hats.
Speaker:This is your making season and then during the busy season
Speaker:when it's winter time,
Speaker:that's when you have products that you cross sell to.
Speaker:In other words,
Speaker:you would upsell or down sell or cross sell and then
Speaker:you would try to make your transaction bigger instead of trying
Speaker:to rely on units sold being the same all the time.
Speaker:So you're just trying to grow the revenue and the margin
Speaker:rather than the unit sold at a consistent rate.
Speaker:It's a good point and something to consider for everybody who
Speaker:has a seasonal type product because I do think that people
Speaker:freak out a little bit if come the summer months to
Speaker:stick with what you're talking about with knitting,
Speaker:their sales are all down.
Speaker:It's obvious people aren't needing the hats and the knitted booties
Speaker:necessarily. Maybe you will because of air conditioning,
Speaker:but things are going to slow down.
Speaker:So the thought of taking a calendar and really thinking strategically
Speaker:based on whatever product you have,
Speaker:if it's only one or your product mix,
Speaker:where are the heavier months?
Speaker:And then I like what you're talking about is planning that
Speaker:those summer months are the time that you're making the product.
Speaker:So you're all ready,
Speaker:you're primed for the craft show you're going to go to
Speaker:or the heavy months when you're really going to be selling
Speaker:heavy on at T or Amazon,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:And a lot of our products that we work with are
Speaker:not obviously seasonal.
Speaker:It's like lactation cookies and certain things that aren't,
Speaker:like I gave a bad example with it being a hat,
Speaker:but they don't have clear seasons.
Speaker:But you do of have to pick a season for yourself.
Speaker:So you can't be in launch mode all the time.
Speaker:It's far more effective to just pick months where you're going
Speaker:to be launching better deals and better transactions.
Speaker:So in those months you're testing and then you can use
Speaker:that to grow your business.
Speaker:So instead of coming out with,
Speaker:let's say like a new product for instance,
Speaker:we often coach people to take their best seller and come
Speaker:out with a variation of that best seller.
Speaker:If it was a handmade good,
Speaker:you would be coming out with a bundled version of that.
Speaker:If it's lactation cookies,
Speaker:it would be,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a two pack of lactation cookies.
Speaker:It's very simple versus a whole new product that has a
Speaker:whole new strategy behind it,
Speaker:if that makes sense.
Speaker:So it does make sense.
Speaker:So you're using the down months for testing to perfect.
Speaker:It might be price points,
Speaker:it might be the combo.
Speaker:It's like you're talking about,
Speaker:it might be a product enhancement off of whatever your core
Speaker:product is.
Speaker:So you're testing all of that so that you're ready when
Speaker:your heavy season starts to launch it based on the learnings
Speaker:that you've had.
Speaker:Is that right?
Speaker:Yeah. So then you can scale in your busy months.
Speaker:So during those times,
Speaker:let's say,
Speaker:I'll just give a few examples of what you should be
Speaker:doing in your slow months.
Speaker:You should be testing out different strategies.
Speaker:That's where you're figuring out in your soul months,
Speaker:Hey, these products are still selling.
Speaker:Those are going to go on my all-star list for when
Speaker:I'm actually deep into promotion.
Speaker:So these are when I'm in my busy month and then
Speaker:this is the price point I'm at.
Speaker:During those slow months,
Speaker:you could actually,
Speaker:since your handmade,
Speaker:you have the limit of your own time.
Speaker:You could actually be getting a backlog of a waiting list.
Speaker:So when you're able to launch in your busy months with,
Speaker:Hey, we came out with this version or this variation,
Speaker:then you're able to sell more,
Speaker:like three times more rather than one exiting rather than keeping
Speaker:it consistent.
Speaker:And then you also test out where can I scale instead
Speaker:of scaling my own work,
Speaker:you could outsource your fulfillment.
Speaker:For instance,
Speaker:you could outsource your emails,
Speaker:but if you don't want to check them yourself,
Speaker:you could hire somebody on instead of doing the design work
Speaker:with you or the actually hand execution of being a maker,
Speaker:then you could have them instead package up something and send
Speaker:it out.
Speaker:So there's different ways to figure out your scaling.
Speaker:And your slow season so you can actually implement in your
Speaker:busy season.
Speaker:It's a little bit of figuring out what your capacity is.
Speaker:How can I streamline this?
Speaker:What's my capacity and my slow months so I can whatever,
Speaker:10 exit in my busy really go get a months.
Speaker:What I'm hearing from you is you're really looking at that
Speaker:from two different angles.
Speaker:One is how do I become more productive just in the
Speaker:business side overall to the point of do I hire a
Speaker:bookkeeper, do I have someone helping me with emails,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:and then the other is how can I really scale my
Speaker:product? Either prepping and preparing,
Speaker:building an audience.
Speaker:To your point about the waitlist and keeping people with you
Speaker:too, because I'm thinking that in slower months people have a
Speaker:tendency then to stray where they might've really been a follower
Speaker:of yours for a long time.
Speaker:All of a sudden they might stray because your product isn't
Speaker:relevant for them during that time,
Speaker:so how do you keep them with you for the time?
Speaker:Then when it's winter again or whatever your season is For
Speaker:a handmade business,
Speaker:it's especially important because you're trying to build that loyalty.
Speaker:A lot of times you're buying from a person,
Speaker:right? A small business.
Speaker:So you have to keep that person as your loyal customer
Speaker:because during the,
Speaker:like, let's say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we just had black Friday and cyber Monday.
Speaker:A lot of times people would just come in as a
Speaker:revolving door and those people are looking for deals,
Speaker:but those deals tend to not work for handmade because they're
Speaker:just looking for deals.
Speaker:So if your deal is not with a person that's a,
Speaker:like it could be just a coupon or that stumbled upon
Speaker:your deal.
Speaker:But if that person happens to be a loyal customer,
Speaker:then during that time it's so much easier to convert because
Speaker:they've already,
Speaker:it's like they know you as a person.
Speaker:Right. What do you think about a blog for someone who's
Speaker:handmade to try and keep people with you?
Speaker:I think that blogs are starting to be less and less
Speaker:popular. So I think that if I would give a tip
Speaker:for any maker,
Speaker:it would be to do a lot of Instastories because that's
Speaker:where people are consuming their content now and I mean,
Speaker:do you read blogs anymore?
Speaker:SU? I don't actually.
Speaker:That was probably not a good example.
Speaker:Okay. I'm thinking of one person in particular.
Speaker:Her name is Jen and she owns a company.
Speaker:Abby farms.
Speaker:Jen, I wasn't expecting to use you as an example here,
Speaker:but for you,
Speaker:and she was on the podcast.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Way back,
Speaker:but she does a lot of exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker:MENA Facebook lives,
Speaker:Instagram stories about on the farm because they take and make
Speaker:soaps and different types of products and they're based right on
Speaker:the farm,
Speaker:so they have so much fun content.
Speaker:They show the kids running around in the fields and they
Speaker:show the animals.
Speaker:Then she's out at craft shows,
Speaker:selling everything and it's so fun.
Speaker:Even if you're not using her product just to watch what
Speaker:she's up to because it's a life so different from mine
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:That kind of thing.
Speaker:I think to the point of what do you do during
Speaker:downtime and how do you retain your customers?
Speaker:If you could employ something like that,
Speaker:we're a traditional blog might come into play is if you
Speaker:were documenting recipes that you wanted to share with an audience
Speaker:or if you are an artist and you share designs for
Speaker:adult coloring,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:things like that For the soap business,
Speaker:that is wonderful that they are able to build that clientele
Speaker:because no matter what,
Speaker:it's still that seven touchpoints or whatever,
Speaker:and actually nowadays they say it's even more like it's more
Speaker:like 14 like double the touch points.
Speaker:No kidding.
Speaker:Yeah, so don't your slow seasons just keep touch,
Speaker:touch, touch,
Speaker:touch, touch,
Speaker:and then that way they convert easier in your busy season
Speaker:because then it's easier to sell snow or in summertime or
Speaker:whatever. You know,
Speaker:you can't sell ice in winter time,
Speaker:you know what I mean?
Speaker:Right. So you've already touched them those many times and then
Speaker:it's an easy ask.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Okay. We've spent ton of time on this seasonal tip.
Speaker:Move onto another one,
Speaker:Which is Exactly what we're going to do right after a
Speaker:word from our sponsor.
Speaker:This podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the
Speaker:ribbon print company.
Speaker:Create custom ribbons right in your store or craft studio in
Speaker:seconds. Visit the ribbon,
Speaker:print company.com
Speaker:for more information.
Speaker:I just wanted to make sure that everybody who's listening to
Speaker:it, some maker knows that there's very creative ways to scale.
Speaker:Even if you're a maker and you're still making your own
Speaker:things. So touched on this previously about looking at your processes
Speaker:and making them more clean,
Speaker:making your business really lean,
Speaker:but even if you're going to say,
Speaker:let's say you want to get into manufacturing but you don't
Speaker:want to lose that handmade touch,
Speaker:you could shorten up the process a little bit.
Speaker:Like let's say you did ceramic bulls,
Speaker:you could create a mold that got the ceramic bulls to
Speaker:a certain point and then at the end you do the
Speaker:finished hand painting instead of the same idea of buying a
Speaker:kill and hiring somebody else to make their own version of
Speaker:what you created.
Speaker:Do you see what I'm saying?
Speaker:Like semi manufactured.
Speaker:Yeah. Do you ever,
Speaker:when you suggest that,
Speaker:do you ever get kickback from anybody saying,
Speaker:well then it's not really handmade?
Speaker:A little bit.
Speaker:Yeah. There's this perception that people feel like they need to
Speaker:be a starving artist to confirm or validate that something is
Speaker:handmade and that's simply not true.
Speaker:I think that people invest more in the story of a
Speaker:handmade person in that they finished this up,
Speaker:not that they have to have the actual legit certain percentage
Speaker:of blood,
Speaker:sweat and tears that went into it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:when you think about music artists,
Speaker:just because they're able to make it really big doesn't mean
Speaker:that they're only playing in dive bars.
Speaker:Well and they didn't build the piano,
Speaker:the guitar they're playing on.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:There's some people that they had to hire to help compose
Speaker:the music for them and other people that they might've written
Speaker:the lyrics,
Speaker:but other people that cleaned it up for them.
Speaker:So it's the same things like having part of your process
Speaker:cleaned up for you.
Speaker:That's a really good point.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:the other thing,
Speaker:just to talk about it a little bit further,
Speaker:is your still also creating whatever that mold is,
Speaker:so it's still your style and your design?
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:absolutely. You'll see it even more in the maker world and
Speaker:in the overall product world,
Speaker:but starving artists and CEOs are not what they used to
Speaker:look like there.
Speaker:Now mom's doing side hustles.
Speaker:They're now mom's building empires.
Speaker:It's not like this person that's like in New York and
Speaker:this one bedroom apartment painting all hours and then making no
Speaker:money. Right.
Speaker:It's not the principal.
Speaker:The principal now is I have little baby mouths to feed
Speaker:and I'm the new version of a CEO and maker,
Speaker:so I think that it's getting away from that a lot
Speaker:more because more people are bringing in extra income to their
Speaker:households. No,
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Scaling it at a different way by shortening the processes.
Speaker:What do you think about more production line instead of just
Speaker:one off,
Speaker:like making one bull from start to finish versus making five
Speaker:then putting them all in the kiln and then painting them
Speaker:all. I think that's another way to shorten the process.
Speaker:Oh, for sure.
Speaker:Like you know,
Speaker:Jacqueline gave us example of even when you're filling up your
Speaker:kid's party bags,
Speaker:right? You're not one party bag move to the next,
Speaker:you fill those party bags in an assembly line.
Speaker:That's kind of the way that you have to think about
Speaker:it. Also,
Speaker:if you're setting up your shop,
Speaker:you need to fulfill like have all your bubble envelopes in
Speaker:a certain place and it's not pretty all the time,
Speaker:but that's how you figure out where the bottlenecks are.
Speaker:So if you need to hire,
Speaker:you can hire somebody and here's their station and here's what
Speaker:they need to do so you can still work on your
Speaker:handmade stuff.
Speaker:Oh good.
Speaker:A tip that I like to give people that really want
Speaker:to stay in handmade is that just base it off collections.
Speaker:Let's say somebody has like what we were saying,
Speaker:ceramic bowls and they're all handmade.
Speaker:Those are probably a different category and might be like the
Speaker:Luxe premium tier of your products.
Speaker:Then you can have a middle tier for those people that
Speaker:are going to your shop and being like,
Speaker:Oh, I really need a gift really fast.
Speaker:So you might take the same design and put it onto
Speaker:a different process.
Speaker:It could be like a print or maybe even even like
Speaker:I produce product,
Speaker:like the design goes onto an umbrella or something.
Speaker:So then it's a cross product.
Speaker:But just remember,
Speaker:keep in mind you're serving the same avatar,
Speaker:so make sure that your product,
Speaker:if it's an umbrella,
Speaker:it should hit someone who would buy an umbrella too.
Speaker:So it can't be something that's completely a different product like
Speaker:men versus women or something.
Speaker:And then you're able to scale that way instead.
Speaker:Yeah, and I've seen this in play.
Speaker:I never really thought about this one before either.
Speaker:This is so great,
Speaker:but I've seen this in play even at our local craft
Speaker:markets. We have a big juried fine arts market where the
Speaker:artists still have their paintings,
Speaker:their original paintings,
Speaker:but then they'll have prints of the painting.
Speaker:They might have one of their paintings on a coaster,
Speaker:different types of things.
Speaker:But it's all spinning off of their original artwork.
Speaker:And of course the pricing is all different too.
Speaker:Yeah, and those are for people who want like a GoTo
Speaker:gift or we call them off the shelf items and then
Speaker:if they want an original piece,
Speaker:they have accessibility to that too.
Speaker:And it could be a different product too,
Speaker:but keeping in mind that it should be something that's based
Speaker:off of bestseller of yours.
Speaker:So don't just create a whole bunch and create versions of
Speaker:that thing.
Speaker:Only do this replication model in a way to your best
Speaker:seller because then you know what sells and you'll also knows
Speaker:what sells to your audience.
Speaker:That's why you keep the avatar the same.
Speaker:Perfect advice.
Speaker:Okay, so you've given us three overall tips here,
Speaker:seasonal, how to scale in terms of shortening the processes and
Speaker:then collections,
Speaker:building on collections.
Speaker:Those are fabulous.
Speaker:Yeah. Any final one we want to add or are we
Speaker:good with the three?
Speaker:I think So.
Speaker:With collections.
Speaker:Think about how you're selling in your busy season.
Speaker:Going back to where I started on this whole conversation.
Speaker:So are you cross selling your products?
Speaker:Are you bundling them up?
Speaker:So then your average sale goes from $9 $15 something like
Speaker:that. And then based off your bestseller always because you know
Speaker:what sells and then that way you're able to have kind
Speaker:of a signature item without calling it that.
Speaker:But you know what sells to your market.
Speaker:And that's honestly what you're trying to figure out in your
Speaker:first year is what is your best seller?
Speaker:What's your most popular product?
Speaker:Always try to spin off of your best seller is what
Speaker:you're saying Always.
Speaker:Because otherwise you're going in blindly and not using that data,
Speaker:right? Because when you go off of your bestseller,
Speaker:you're just doing like nothing fancy like a Tupac or a
Speaker:bundle with it.
Speaker:But those people are coming in for that one product,
Speaker:like a gateway product.
Speaker:And then you're able to say,
Speaker:Hey, we also have this instead.
Speaker:So that way you're not having to convert to all these
Speaker:different options for them.
Speaker:They're coming in and it's a really simple buying decision for
Speaker:them. Perfect.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Okay. You were referencing a little bit earlier,
Speaker:right in the beginning actually about different types of platforms and
Speaker:leveraging them in different ways.
Speaker:Let's get into that.
Speaker:Yeah, so many platforms,
Speaker:especially for products,
Speaker:right? There's the retail platforms,
Speaker:which we're talking big retail like Walmart,
Speaker:Amazon and everything,
Speaker:and of course there's Etsy,
Speaker:there's people who make a ton and scale on Etsy,
Speaker:and then there's flash deal sites,
Speaker:so we're talking Jane,
Speaker:Groupon, Zulily,
Speaker:and then there is brick and mortar,
Speaker:so you could actually get into wholesale and boutiques and then
Speaker:there's popup shops.
Speaker:You create your own,
Speaker:so a pop up shop at a local place or you
Speaker:create your own website and drive traffic there and they all
Speaker:can go hand in hand.
Speaker:There's new platforms coming out all the time.
Speaker:For instance,
Speaker:Instagram is becoming its own buying platform because it's you're able
Speaker:to buy right there.
Speaker:You don't even have to leave the platform.
Speaker:Right. Same with Pinterest and same with Poshmark.
Speaker:That's another platform that came out for clothing and subscription boxes.
Speaker:Now, subscription boxes are as big as boutiques with buying wholesale
Speaker:from people.
Speaker:How do you feel about,
Speaker:how many platforms should you really be on to do them?
Speaker:Well, I think that you should start off with one.
Speaker:You should test as much as you can,
Speaker:but when you figure out your main one,
Speaker:you'll be able to at least have that and optimize.
Speaker:So you're on one and then you optimize it like crazy.
Speaker:So when I say optimize,
Speaker:figure out what your keywords are,
Speaker:make sure your ads are there.
Speaker:If you're doing paper click figuring out that whole system.
Speaker:So if you're on Etsy,
Speaker:figure out whatever you can about Etsy and try to scale
Speaker:on there and then move to the next one.
Speaker:If you're hitting a whole bunch of walls,
Speaker:that might not be your platform.
Speaker:That's when you move over to,
Speaker:let's say Zulily or Jane or whatever you can get onto
Speaker:as far as handmade or semi handmade.
Speaker:That way you can use that data to get onto the
Speaker:other platforms.
Speaker:So in this case it would be like,
Speaker:Hey, I'm a bestseller on Amazon.
Speaker:Can I get into your subscription box?
Speaker:Or this is our most popular product on Etsy.
Speaker:Do you think that we could bring this into the stores?
Speaker:Cause I think it would really sell with your customers as
Speaker:well. So you're able to pull data and expertise from a
Speaker:platform and parlay that a different one.
Speaker:Use it as a jumping board or something to get into
Speaker:another one.
Speaker:W so well we've talked about a lot of these platforms
Speaker:on other shows,
Speaker:but never the flash Zulilly all of that.
Speaker:We've never talked about that before.
Speaker:Can you go into more of what all those platforms are
Speaker:about? Yeah,
Speaker:sure. And we actually have a podcast episode about this too.
Speaker:There are so many,
Speaker:Zulily and Groupon,
Speaker:those are probably the biggest ones.
Speaker:The ones that are really known to a lot of people,
Speaker:they take a big cut.
Speaker:So unless you're manufactured,
Speaker:and just remember,
Speaker:even if you're hand-making right now,
Speaker:you can manufacture a product that you could serve as getting
Speaker:into these platforms.
Speaker:And then they would leverage into,
Speaker:Hey, here's our website and a coupon.
Speaker:Come over here and buy this other product over here.
Speaker:So keeping that in mind.
Speaker:Okay, so you're using it as a funnel.
Speaker:So if you get onto Groupon and Zulily,
Speaker:they take a certain cut.
Speaker:So let's say you're suddenly at $20 normal retail,
Speaker:you were selling on like $10 for Groupon and then $5
Speaker:of it goes to Groupon and $5 of it goes to
Speaker:you. So just imagine you have to cover costs.
Speaker:So that's a really steep discount one.
Speaker:So it's similar to wholesale.
Speaker:It is,
Speaker:but at a larger scale and a deeper discount,
Speaker:in a way,
Speaker:it started out in that way of these are popups and
Speaker:then people would be exclusive to those sales,
Speaker:but now they're all online and even jane.com
Speaker:if you're a handmade person,
Speaker:you have to have 50 in your queue,
Speaker:like 50 in inventory minimum.
Speaker:Whereas if you're manufactured,
Speaker:you have to have a hundred so there's all these different
Speaker:sites, they're sassy steals,
Speaker:there's group deals,
Speaker:that's a deals with a Z at the end and they
Speaker:have the traffic.
Speaker:So they do flash seals to only last for three days
Speaker:with different vendors.
Speaker:And then you're getting on there as one of those deals
Speaker:and then you're seeing what sells and what doesn't sell.
Speaker:I found that they're very,
Speaker:very time sensitive.
Speaker:So if it's Mondays it's sometimes a better day than a
Speaker:Sunday or a Saturday when moms are out doing kids' stuff
Speaker:and mom life.
Speaker:And then also in summer months they do themes and everything.
Speaker:They could be like off to the beach or something.
Speaker:And so then if you fit into that,
Speaker:that's really helpful for them.
Speaker:Pushing sales to pick your plum is another one as well.
Speaker:Do you get customer information when people buy or do you
Speaker:just provide the product and they fulfill and you just,
Speaker:so it's strictly a money play really.
Speaker:So you don't get the information and a lot of them
Speaker:don't even let you put in an insert,
Speaker:but sometimes they do.
Speaker:So it's something to keep you read the contract.
Speaker:Some of them are,
Speaker:they fulfill for you.
Speaker:So then it's like Groupon and Zulily.
Speaker:You send it into them and they distribute for you.
Speaker:But for Jane,
Speaker:you distribute yourself So you would get information.
Speaker:You've just mentioned so many platforms,
Speaker:so I'm sure all of them are very different.
Speaker:You don't get their information,
Speaker:you go onto their platform.
Speaker:So you have their name and address,
Speaker:but you don't get their like email address.
Speaker:So it's like Amazon then.
Speaker:Yeah, so you're fulfilling and then you put in the tracking
Speaker:numbers and it's all done through their system.
Speaker:But the main thing that's really nice about it is that
Speaker:you get surges of money into your business that you normally
Speaker:wouldn't get.
Speaker:So with the product business,
Speaker:and you know this,
Speaker:you have to have a certain amount of inventory and money
Speaker:that you can convert,
Speaker:right? That you can turn over.
Speaker:And so you always need that incoming money because you have
Speaker:to invest it in either more inventory or pay yourself or
Speaker:any of those.
Speaker:So it's nice to have that surge of money.
Speaker:On top of that,
Speaker:you're gathering data to what's reselling really well,
Speaker:why did it sell?
Speaker:Who is it appealing to?
Speaker:What is their customer?
Speaker:Is it a mom?
Speaker:Is it a millennial?
Speaker:So you're gathering data so it's even if you come out
Speaker:even, I feel like you're learning a lot in the process.
Speaker:Thank you so much for that information because as I said,
Speaker:we haven't really talked about that before.
Speaker:You mentioned product inserts.
Speaker:Yeah, I love products insert so much.
Speaker:I talk about this on the podcast so much too because
Speaker:they're so cheap and they're pretty effective if you hit the
Speaker:right person.
Speaker:So like you could put something in there that's like,
Speaker:Hey, on your next purchase,
Speaker:get 30% off.
Speaker:Or you could say here's an exclusive that we only give
Speaker:to our customers and it's a different product that you're pushing
Speaker:to their website.
Speaker:You could say,
Speaker:Hey did you know that 10% goes to this charity from
Speaker:us if you go to this website and then they input
Speaker:their email.
Speaker:So it's just super simple because I mean inserts are like
Speaker:you can do a business card size at like 3 cents
Speaker:or something,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and you're just putting it in there cause you're fulfilling those
Speaker:anyways. It's like having an optin but it's an insert.
Speaker:Are there any don'ts for product inserts?
Speaker:Don't put too much information.
Speaker:One call to action.
Speaker:Don't say follow us on Instagram.
Speaker:Also by this year also here we are over here.
Speaker:It's just too much.
Speaker:It is too much for sure.
Speaker:I'm kind of thinking with those product inserts,
Speaker:if there was a way to capture email addresses to add
Speaker:people to your list,
Speaker:customer lists,
Speaker:that could be a good thing.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I tried to do with the charity thing
Speaker:because then people,
Speaker:it gives them a reason,
Speaker:right? It has to be incentive enough for them to go
Speaker:to your website and put in their email.
Speaker:So then like a lot of times charity is that or
Speaker:a really good coupon or an exclusive product that only they
Speaker:get because they were previous buyers and they happened to get
Speaker:that insert.
Speaker:Let's go now just as we're closing out to one final
Speaker:piece of advice.
Speaker:You'd give somebody who has a product,
Speaker:they're making it on the side.
Speaker:They haven't really started a business yet,
Speaker:but they're thinking about it.
Speaker:What would you say to that person?
Speaker:I would say be very cautious of the advice and the
Speaker:strategies that you get for service-based that do not apply to
Speaker:product based.
Speaker:This is something I've seen a lot of that people,
Speaker:because I'm in masterminds myself and then I coach masterminds,
Speaker:but the advice that's out there is very specific to service
Speaker:base. So for instance,
Speaker:I heard somebody give somebody advice about how to scale a
Speaker:handmade business.
Speaker:Their idea was to get into a whole bunch of trade
Speaker:shows and be in like let's say five trade at once.
Speaker:They pay for the boots,
Speaker:they hire out people to be at the booze and then
Speaker:they scale that way because they're in more visible places.
Speaker:But that is like the most expensive strategy they could ever
Speaker:have and they don't even know if those trade shows are
Speaker:effective or the timing is right or if that's the audience
Speaker:that will be wanting the product at that time.
Speaker:Well and you can't train the staff so you don't know
Speaker:how they're interacting.
Speaker:You don't get any feedback from your customer or your potential
Speaker:customers either.
Speaker:Cause I think trade shows are such a great opportunity.
Speaker:If you're there to interact with customers,
Speaker:see how they're feeling about your product,
Speaker:getting new ideas,
Speaker:so many things,
Speaker:Even picking up verbiage,
Speaker:nobody's going to care as much as you about the stuff
Speaker:that people say about your product.
Speaker:So that instance,
Speaker:it's because in a service based world that's the way to
Speaker:scale is to get into more places.
Speaker:But that doesn't work for product based businesses because it's so
Speaker:risky and it's so money heavy.
Speaker:And then on top of it it's just not the same
Speaker:as simply isn't.
Speaker:And I give this example all the time about for service-based,
Speaker:they say to have a really good opt in,
Speaker:right? Like have a checklist or have a free download that
Speaker:people can not resist.
Speaker:But for a product based person you should just give them
Speaker:a coupon for their first purchase and they will almost always
Speaker:pick that over a free checklist.
Speaker:I love what you're talking about here in terms of service
Speaker:versus product based.
Speaker:Great information on that.
Speaker:I really appreciate it.
Speaker:So Mina,
Speaker:at this point I'd like to invite you to dare to
Speaker:dream. I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:So I have to say,
Speaker:Sue, this was actually a really hard question for me to
Speaker:think about.
Speaker:I couldn't come up with anything that was really super specific,
Speaker:but if I had to choose something because I was trying
Speaker:to think of what's my idea of success,
Speaker:right? It would be,
Speaker:I would open that box and it would be utter and
Speaker:unbelievable financial freedom.
Speaker:So I have of course,
Speaker:yacht in some financial freedom to a certain level,
Speaker:but I would like utter unbelievable financial freedom.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I put this question out there because I don't think a
Speaker:lot of people really think and define where they want to
Speaker:go, but I also do it because it's the law of
Speaker:attraction type thing.
Speaker:If you voice it and say it,
Speaker:why shouldn't it come to you?
Speaker:It's 100% too.
Speaker:That's why journaling and being in masterminds or anything are so
Speaker:productive is because it forces you to say things or write
Speaker:things down and then all of a sudden you've done it
Speaker:and you haven't even realized the universe blessed you with what
Speaker:you were asking for.
Speaker:Right, and I know that this is true for me is
Speaker:I'll think things,
Speaker:but when I'm thinking it,
Speaker:that image is still a little bit blurry.
Speaker:But when you're forced to put it into words,
Speaker:it gets really sharp and clear.
Speaker:Yeah. Oh gosh.
Speaker:Words are so powerful.
Speaker:That's why I said under financial freedom,
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:There, you know,
Speaker:so gift is listener is I absolutely suggest direct you all
Speaker:of that to listen to the product boss where you can
Speaker:listen to Mina and Jacqueline talking all product based.
Speaker:You can hear by what she's been sharing today,
Speaker:how much great information she has in good direction.
Speaker:So definitely go over and listen to them there.
Speaker:Where else would you direct people to go?
Speaker:Meena Our Instagram.
Speaker:We have been totally an investing time into that platform for
Speaker:sure. So stories,
Speaker:I presume stories and our feet as well,
Speaker:but it's the product boss is our handle and so you
Speaker:can catch us on there and we're doing all kinds of
Speaker:funny stuff.
Speaker:I feel like in regular stuff we're just living mom life
Speaker:a lot of the times.
Speaker:Oh that's good.
Speaker:The behind the scenes,
Speaker:here's what else is happening.
Speaker:Rounding out the life.
Speaker:Yeah. Yup.
Speaker:Juggling poopy diapers and spreadsheets at the same time.
Speaker:No, that's an image.
Speaker:I'm pretty certain now when isn't it on the page?
Speaker:Well Mina,
Speaker:thank you so much.
Speaker:You have really brought us in a direction here with product
Speaker:information in several cases that we've not touched on before,
Speaker:so really,
Speaker:really great quality information,
Speaker:new concepts for my listeners to consider and direction to take,
Speaker:that's really going to be valuable for them.
Speaker:So for that,
Speaker:I appreciate it and I've so enjoyed having you on the
Speaker:podcast. Thanks so much Sue.
Speaker:I love to being on here and I appreciate you having
Speaker:me on.
Speaker:Wow. Didn't mean to share with us such valuable information.
Speaker:I agree with her online.
Speaker:There is so much available for service based businesses but not
Speaker:as much for product based businesses and she is an expert
Speaker:here so I really appreciated her coming on the show to
Speaker:talk with us.
Speaker:I suggest that you relisten and apply what mean is talked
Speaker:about that's right for you and your business.
Speaker:We're coming on the end of the year and it's smart
Speaker:for us to start thinking of how we can adjust our
Speaker:strategies for:Speaker:up next week.
Speaker:I'm going to stick with the holiday season here and I
Speaker:can't wait for you to hear about a business from the
Speaker:baking industry.
Speaker:She is a product that we can all use.
Speaker:Think Christmas cookies that's coming up next week on gift biz
Speaker:unwrapped. I'll see you then.
Speaker:Are you discouraged because your business is not performing as you
Speaker:had envisioned?
Speaker:Are you stuck and confused about how to turn things around?
Speaker:Sue's new best selling book is structured to help you identify
Speaker:where the holes are in your business and show you exactly
Speaker:how to fix them.
Speaker:You'll learn from Sue and owners just like you who are
Speaker:seeing real growth and are living their dream maker to master
Speaker:find and fix what's not working in your small business.
Speaker:Get it on Amazon or through www.
Speaker:Doug gift biz,