Creating Sustainable Growth After Sold Out Product Launches
Episode 402: Show Notes
Today we are giving Emylee the guest chair and are diving into her newish side-hustle, making clay earrings! You have probably heard it mentioned on the show in the past couple of months since she started hand-making everything from home and selling it through her personal Instagram account. She has kept the whole thing quite fun and casual, not wanting to put too much pressure on the fledgling business.
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In this episode, we talk about four major thoughts and ideas for growth in a product-based business and Emylee weighs in with her experience of each. The truth is her earring side-hustle might be a fully-blown business soon! So without further ado, let's hear what she has to say and get into some strategy!
Emylee's Business and Her First Product Launch
Just to recap in case you are not up to date, Emylee makes clay earrings from home and sells them online. It started as a project to fill a gap and stay creative on the side of her work at Boss Project. Remember she does have an art degree! She started out doing some painting and sketching and all of this helped her have some fun and get out of her funk. It was early spring in 2019 and she came across a Pinterest post about how to make DIY clay keychains and so she decided to try it out and mess around with it. She kept playing until August when she had her first product launch, just to test the waters. It was her first time selling products online and she sold out! To be honest she was hardly using her personal IG profile at the time, just the odd picture. Her numbers started to go up really quickly and she now receives loads of DM's about her earrings, and she responds to all of them!
The Impact of Social Media on this Business
Social media is so good at giving people some behind the scenes access and including them in the process. Using her profile has worked well for Emylee because she has managed to capture some of the Boss Project audience who have given her amazing support so far. People often like to be a part of something that is growing in the early stages and this is probably why Emylee experienced very quick growth initially. It has slowed down since then, which is leading her to wonder a bit about her next steps. There are a bunch of dials she can turn and choosing the right ones can make a huge impact. Our businesses often seem the sexiest in the beginning and it will definitely take some time to get to know the seasonality of the business. Emylee has chosen not to put any effort into blogging about her business but uses Pinterest and pins things from her site. Instagram has made up 60% of her orders, with Facebook also chipping in a small number of sales.
Why Emylee Could Not Ignore Email!
Emylee's first feeling about email was that she did not want yet another responsibility. But she agreed to test it and it worked. She had a free trial through Squarespace and her test run brought in hundreds of dollars of sales. This shows us that it is best if you can get an idea of the ROI of something without having to invest. Use free trials or applications with dual purposes. At the moment email marketing has brought in about 14% of Emylee's sales, so it has definitely been worth it. Squarespace offered an all in one service that ties into the website, so the analytics were all readily available. It is up to you to decide how you would like to handle these kinds of aspects of your business, but if you can stay consistent and stick with them, it will serve you well in the long-run. We have always chosen to place priority with our existing customers because they mean so much to us and loyalty counts for a lot!
What's Next as the Business Grows?
Emylee would like to try and convert some of her Pinterest traffic going forward. She is also asking herself if she needs more options in her earring range. These are not easy questions to answer. You can either become known for something in particular and push for that to be your signature item or try and cater to many different styles and tastes. Experimentation can be great and it is quite difficult to commit to a staple shape or style for her. Emylee has purposefully kept the stakes quite low with this biz, and feels it is more healthy that way. It is a balancing act of how do allow ourselves to care about the results, feel proud and ask the right questions and at the same time separate ourselves and our worth from these results. She does not want to dive in completely until she has a better grasp of this answer. One thing is for sure, she likes the extra money each month! She is also realizing that in her jewelry business she does not need to share everything and educate her customers, she has loads of new customers that are not entrepreneurs or online biz owners and this is all part of learning to run a product-based business for her!
Quote This
A lot of people love the beginning of stories and a lot of people like to support the underdog.
Highlights
Emylee's Business and Her First Product Launch. [0:03:28.8]
The Impact of Social Media on this Business. [0:10:16.5]
Blogging and Pinterest For a Product Business. [0:16:04.1]
Why Emylee Could Not Ignore Email! [0:23:28.5]
What's Next as the Business Grows? [0:30:13.2]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:37:59.8]
Get it out there.
Find ROI before investing.
Keep it simple and cheap.
Relationships still matter!
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Launching, Trello for Business, Strategy Academy, Email lists, Payment plans, Advertising & promotions, Long-term goals, Creative Template Shop
