Today we’re going to talk about five projects that we’ve learned so really well for us. So we got a question the other day on Instagram. Go follow us on Instagram, if you haven’t already, but we got a question of somebody asking: what do you make that sells the best like because there’s a ton of different projects? What, as a beginning, woodworker trying to make some money, what should I go towards to make money, and so we were just replied with the five things that we made the most of we thought that would be a pretty good topic for a article, so we’re just Going to roll through the five projects that are just kind of our go-to explain: what’s good and bad about each project, what we’ve learned by building several of them and hopefully that’ll spark an idea for you.
Maybe you can use these as your go-to or it gives you the confidence to get off the ground with your business. Five projects are so versatile and so ubiquitous that, like you, can incorporate. Oh, I know it’s a big word whoa. I heard a B. You use it so yeah ubiquitous means it’s everywhere, so these are five projects that you can make so different and so unique that if a customer just says hey, can you show me something XYZ that you built? You can point to one of these projects and say: well, I can do it just like this, but in a door or in a shelf or in a cabinet, something like that and honestly in your portfolio, people like to see pictures of things that they could see Themselves buying, so if somebody wants a coffee table or they want some bar stools, but all your Instagram or whatever portfolio has in it like super tiny, detailed, keepsake boxes, there can be like.
I don’t know if they’re quite up my alley, let’s just get into it. Talking that’s the transition. Okay, so number one on our list of super common projects is a desk. We have made multiple articles on YouTube of us building desks. That’S just what people want lots. People want need desks whether it’s to fill space in a room or they genuinely just need a work area. We’Ll get a lot of requests to customize desks, whether that’s cable management, wireless charging, certain types of legs that they want, but it comes down to it.
They’Re super simple to make and customize. So if you have a picture of one in your portfolio that somebody thinks it’s cool, they can look at it and say: hey, that’s awesome and then can we do two extra holes for cable management, you’re, like yeah sure no problem super easy, so very versatile. There’S a lot of directions: you can go at this one, you can change the style of a little look of them, the feel of them and when it comes down to it, still just a really usable desk and then a little bit more on the sales side Of building desks and why we absolutely love the building of it.
It’S because it is great practice for you as a salesperson to up charge to add little extras to add accessories and customize it for them and and really as you customize. It takes more time and more materials, more skill. It’S going to naturally cost more, whether it’s labor or whether it’s your hourly rate, it’s the materials you buy all in all, it will cost more. So, for example, somebody comes to you and they say hey.
I need a desk, that’s great! That could be 8 million different desks. You can sit down and say hey. What are you going to use the desk for? Are you a computer gamer? Are you a college student? Do you want it for decoration from there? If they say you know, yeah, I’m a computer gamer, I like gaming, you say well from there. We can do multiple shelves for you. You can make different cubbies to hold tower for your desktop computer.
Cable management is a big one that people who do a lot of online gaming like to do. You can include wireless charging, so they can charge all of their little. I don’t know pieces accessories at the same time, while they’re playing I just want to put in here for just second, you remember, Sam the guy who built the liquor cabinet for a good friend of ours. We just built him a desk and we just did all the we just did all of those things to his little desk.
We have a matched furniture desk, just a pine top chamfered edges, hairpin legs built in that exact same desk. We normally sell it for 200 bucks whenever we batch out five or more, and we turned his almost the same exact style. We turned his into like an 800 dollar desk because we used an oak top he’s two by six oak. For the top note big thick and then I made a long tray that did all of his cable management.
We had a power strip in there and then I routed out a big hole in the bottom, so he could put a wireless phone charger through the top of the wood and with all those up charges. We changed it from a 200 dollar desk that we would make out a pine into an 800 dollar desk and it really only cost me and it cost me an extra like two or three hours worth of labor to get those other things finished. Okay, number: two piece of furniture that we do constantly is coffee tables.
Everybody loves coffee tables. Most of what we see is somebody is trying to achieve a certain style or they’re trying to tie together a certain look in their living room, and the coffee table is a really easy way to do that. So that’s what we see most of the time or somebody will come to us and say hey. I need to match another piece that I have in my living room. So I need the coffee table will look like that and honestly, that’s where we get a lot of repeat customers, alright.
So, on the sales things, coffee tables are really good because it teaches you and it trains you how to followup with your customers and get repeat sales, because if you think about it, where do people put coffee tables in their living rooms? And then, if you look at a living room, think of your living room, it’s probably where you have the most furniture in one small area. That reason being because that’s the room, everybody sees, you have guests and company come over and you sit on the couch in your living room around your coffee table.
You serve drinks. Maybe you have some end tables a shelf in the corner. A TV stand. There’S a ton of stuff in your living room. So if there’s any area of your house, where you want a really nice looking piece that you can, you know talk to people about for people to compliment and point out the cool design features. It’S your living room. So, starting with a coffee table, you build somebody, a coffee table, they really like it.
You follow up with them in a couple of months and you say: hey how do you like that coffee table? They say: hey yeah, I like it, it looks really cool. You can even say something like hey when I was in your living room. I noticed in that corner on the left side of your wall. There’S a little space open and I think it’d be super cool. If we put a bookshelf in there, we could make it match your coffee table by using the same kind of wood.
Oh that’s an awesome idea. I never thought about that. That’D be super cool to have a bookshelf in my living room that matched the coffee table and from there you can start another sale with a repeat customer. So you put a really nice piece of furniture in somebody’s living room and what do people automatically start doing? They start comparing everything they have to that one piece of furniture and when you’re, comparing MDF and particleboard furniture to that beautiful oak coffee table that you just built them they’re going to think wow.
I need to replace some of the stuff I have now with nicer stuff, or I simply want to replace some of my old stuff with newer, nicer stuff. So that’s another awesome way that coffee tables are going to bring you multiple sales. So coffee tables are really good catalysts to train you to find repeat customers and talk to people who have already bought from you all right. Next, up on the list, our cutting boards you’ve seen us make a bunch of cutting boards on this blog and that’s just because they sell really well it’s one of the it’s one of those things that everybody uses, there’s something that you can batch out and make A lot of in a short amount of time they don’t take up a whole lot of space, so you can kind of have them in the corner of your garage or in your basement, or something and just have them ready to go and the next time that You need to make a sale or get a few extra dollars of cash.
You can just start texting a ton of people that you haven’t talked to in a while and just said, hey running this business now was just batching down a ton of cutting boards, one if you wanted one and that’s a really easy way to make a you Know a couple hundred bucks very quickly. It’S also another thing that you can approach businesses with one thing, my buddy Bruce Aldrich that he does. He makes cutting boards for closing gifts, so he’s got a really good connection with a bunch of realtors in town, and he just asked him he’s like hey.
Can I make cutting boards and you give those to your clients as closing gifts when they buy a home or sell a home with you? He stays really busy making a lot of cutting boards and you can get super fancy with cutting boards. You can do the face grain cutting boards, which we do a lot of. You can also do edge and integrating cutting boards, which are also they take a little more time, but they’re really really nice.
And if you get a realtor, that’s got the money to spend on really nice closing gifts typically 50 to $ 100. You can really start to make a lot of money, especially once you start patching them out. That’S also a really good opportunity for you, as a business owner, to learn how to scale if all you need is an extra two or three clamps and you can make another two or three cutting boards per batch. That really raises your profit margins.
So this kind of teaches you how to scale with a small product that way when you get ready to do something like a restaurant or a department store and build all the display tables. You kind of already know how to think through a lot of products running through your shop at once. Yeah, that’s why we recommend cutting boards are a great place to start, if you’re a business, that’s just trying to get off the ground and learn how to do this production thing.
What’S a blanket ladder, it’s time for a field trip, taking a trip. Have your seat? Is it going to be lit? This next up is blanket ladders. Jenny made this one with just a jigsaw and a drill. It was going to be so mean if you just stopped in there stupid easy to make Jenny made this one. Alright. Next on the list, our blanket ladders – they’re very simple – to make Jenny made this one with just a jigsaw in a drill.
They do really well in a living room. They’Re, really versatile. You can get kind of intricate with them. If you want to all it takes. Is just a couple of two by fours you can screw them together plug the holes. This again is another good project. It’S a little bit larger, but you can batch them out really quickly. So it’s another really good learning opportunity for you, as a business owner to batch five to ten of these out and kind of move through the process of doing multiple pieces at once in your shop.
These do really well at craft fairs. Also, do the measuring sticks? You know where you measure your kids height on this stick and you can take the stick with you. If you move or something like that and blanket ladders are really easy to sell, because you can also sell decorating packages with them. This is something Jenny’s done. She’Ll, like bundles she’ll, take a like a burlap sack. You get it Walmart or something like that and she’ll put like four seasons worth of decorations in each one from like Hobby Lobby or somewhere and she’ll sell that bag of decorations for 20 bucks, along with the blanket ladder for about 50 or 60.
So for a hundred bucks, you’ve got a piece and decorations already put together ready for a year-round decorating in your living room, a lot of people in the East in the south, where my family’s from we have a whole bunch of blankets and quilts that are family. Heirlooms and they’re just collecting dust in the closet, but you could put them on a blanket ladder display them. That’S another sales angle that you can go for really.
These things are just so versatile for decorations. Just try to find out what’s popular in your area and try to throw together a decorating package to go with the blanket ladder, because that’s going to go way further than just having a ladder made out of wood that you’re trying to sell. So this is a good way to learn how to market and take good pictures too. Oh my god, so the last thing we’re going to talk about is kitchen tables.
This is where you can really flex your muscles as a maker. If somebody’s buying a kitchen table from you, it’s probably not the first thing they’ve ever bought from you. Maybe it is, but this is a pretty high-dollar item once you’re starting to talk about like custom kitchen tables you’re looking in the to $ 3,000 range, just kind of depending on the size of the table. This is where you can learn how to make bigger items.
You really have to think about your clamping strategy, your sanding and finishing strategies. It’S just everything’s different with a larger product. Everything changes when the project gets really big. It’S one thing to do a bunch of cutting boards and if you have the tables booked, when you get one or two kitchen tables in the workshop, you start to run out of space really quickly. So it’s a good exercise and learning how to you know, just manage your space.
I guess this is where you can really find out how well your shop is laid out, because if you can’t make a large item like a kitchen table in your shop, you may need to consider getting rid of some things or moving some stuff around, especially if You want to do any sort of like production. You, like my crocks you. These are my nice crocks, but yeah kitchen tables. If you’re at the point, where you’re selling kitchen tables to your clients, I’m pretty sure, you’ve made it because that’s something that they’re family touches eats on like people will trust you if it’s like a small cutting board or something.
But if they’re going to spend two or three thousand dollars with you to build a kitchen table, I feel like you’ve you’ve arrived, that person is definitely on your ferris wheel. I hope these tips have been helpful. These are just the five things that we make the most of that we will have the best learning opportunity for a small business or a side hustle trying to learn how to build things and there’s all different types of construction.
Like we’ve covered small things like cutting boards, two really big items like kitchen tables. If you can master those five products, part products, if you can master those five products, everything is going to go your way and it sounds like you’re off to a great start. As a business, so anything else Bruce, he says no all right. Well, if you like this article, please hit the thumbs up. Button helps out the blog a ton.
It really does make a difference hit the subscribe button, if you haven’t already and then, if you want to know even more detail about how we actually closed sales, what we sound like on the phone some scripts, our pricing structure, that sort of thing we have programs Available for purchase, we slow it way down and we don’t put as much fluff and b-roll. It’S literally just the information really in-depth, really solid.
We spend way more time on those programs than we spent on these silly weekly articles, but yeah check out links in the description all right, we’re going to have a couple more articles on the screen here for you to read. Thank you very much.
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I got you I’m going to tell you about. All the steps that I take on how I get don’t choose for retail, even regular Tops whatever it may be so go ahead, take some notes, sit back, relax, let’s get into This article welcome back to the blog.
What’S up with you guys how you doing How you’re being if you did not know by now, my name is DJ in this: is the DNA Show you haven’t already go ahead and hit that subscribe button brah, you don’t Read a couple articles already you seen my face before and you still ain’t hit. The subscribe button come on, brah smash, the button join, the family drop a Comment down below, let me know that you are now new to the family.
If this is Your first time, seeing a article was something you don’t win. So let’s go Ahead and get into this article brah, I am excited to talk about this topic. Just Because I know not just me, but each and every one of us sneaker heads out there In this world of the sneaker Kingdom, we all trying to get our shoes for retail Or under retail or whatever it may be, so I’m going to talk about how to get your Shoes for retail today, alright step number one.
Now this one is very, very Important now the reason why I say this one is so so important because to me I Feel like it’s all about who you know and how you can get things and why. I say: That is because you got a network if you don’t network, when you’re trying to be a Sneaker head: it’s just going to be so much harder. If you know more people, if you Know, owners of shops – if you know people that’s doing private parties special Releases any things like that when it comes to these rare drops not sure, take It in sometimes you never know who it is, that has the plug on what or whatever it Is but nine times out of ten if they’re interested in sneakers, I guarantee you They probably know somebody that might know somebody that knows somebody that One day down the road they’re able to get that random rare shoe that they Didn’T want, and you now want and the reason why I’m saying build your network Is not just to use people, but also to create lifelong friendships.
You never Know you might come across something like I’m a size 13 say I came across Something size 11 and I’m like hey. I know the homie that might want this shoe. So I could slide it to him and he could get the plug on it because it just Wasn’T for me now, I know we all want to get these rare Choose for herself, but sometimes it might be better just to plug the homie Because you never know they might be able to plug you down the road as well.
And the next thing you know you getting that other rare shoe that you want it. And you couldn’t get it and they got it. You know what I’m saying you get: the Memo, let’s take it a step number two. This one pertains to educating yourself: And understanding what’s going on around you and that is finding release news and How do you do those things? First thing, I’m going to say is: go to social media Platforms, so that’s going to be places like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter things like That, when you find different people like me on YouTube or somebody else that has Information for you that they can give to you about where to get stuff, for how To get it all, these different things take advantage of those platforms, dive Into different links that you see on Twitter and find feeds and places to Follow and things like that, I’m going to link different things down below in the Description on blogs that you should be following and instagrams and Twitter’S and all those different things so that way you can get more information.
From those places and they’ll be dropping more stuff for you, so that way, They can send you a direct link or whatever it is hey. This shoes dropping On this day, or this date got pushed back, these are now going to be coming out here. Or this is the store that they drop out or whatever maybe make sure you take. Advantage of those locations and then you want to go to sneaker blogs, I’Ll have this list of sneaker blogs down below as well, and what I mean by Sneaker blogs is they’re going to pertain specifically towards sneakers and Blogging about the topic whenever a new shoe is premiered to the public, nine Times out of ten, the sneaker bugs are going to get the information first they’re Going to take the photos, they’re going to find any leaked photos and they’re going to post Pictures about it say: hey this, you might be coming out in the summertime, whatever May be, and when the summertime comes around nine times out of ten they’re Probably going to already have that release information say: hey this shoe releases.
On July 14th, and go here for this information and click on this link to go. To this store to enter this raffle and all these different things, unfortunately, It’S not just easy to be like. Oh I’m not to go caption shoes for retail. That’S my Number one method, honestly of keeping track of just what’s going on, there’s so Many releases brands and all these different traps – Everything’S been kind of on hold with what’s happening right now, but I Guarantee you, with all these release, dates getting pushback, there’s going to be A lot of stuff dropping and there’s going to be a lot of dough.
That people want to go up so make sure that you stay tuned for that stuff at Understanding hey this release date was then, and now it’s now. So how can I get It step number three now this one right here is the direct-to-consumer right. We Understand we just did our research, we know where all the stores are that are Going to be getting the shoe, we made our phone calls, we’ve done everything that We needed to do, and now we want to go to the big headed monsters, who’s going to have The most pairs where they most easily accessible, those are the factors you Want to come to next so when it comes to that who has the most pairs and who’s Going where Nike and Adidas Jordan Brand easy, whatever you want to call it, they Fall under two different arm brothers, but let’s start with Nike.
First, so Everybody knows: Nike has what sneakers F. If you haven’t already download that out, That’S where you can get the latest and greatest it’s a very hard time. Sometimes On the very limited drops they do, raffles instead of first-come, First-Serve, a lot of people have different emotions when it comes to Sneakers app, I’m probably assuming the same thing with easy supply. We’Ll talk. About that in a second, but we could talk more about sneakers out in another article.
I’M not going to break down the whole checkout process and the fastest way of Doing all that, if you doesn’t want that drop a comment down below, let me know if You guys want that but stand on topic. We have Nike sneakers at Nike, calm down our Scene at the store, so then you have to go to the store and figure out hey what Is the Nike store doing what you got a call in a wouldn’t? You know you guys Doing around floor you guys know first cup served.
I need to come a week early Every store every city has different rules, so the best thing I can say is Call up your stores locally and understanding: where can you get it if You have no stores in your seat, your best bet is going to be online or a friend That you know that lives in a city that does have a store, and that comes back to Step number one with networking, because if you have a friend that doesn’t want The shoe call them up and be like hey bruh.
I need you to pick up this shoe for Me all I’m saying is you can definitely call up a couple of homies in different Cities, because sometimes I got ta – call the homie in LA and be like: hey bro, I Need you to slide over there and snag that for me, because I know it’s only out. In LA I’m in Portland right now, which is a whole nother topic, but sometimes you Got to do that, but let’s take it to the adidas topic now: Yeezy supply everybody Easy’S everybody loves Jeezy’s, as you know, on this blog, you don’t see.
Easy’S that often on this blog just because i’m not a fan of them like that, Do I got the answers? Man, you only got the answers on you and you ain’t got the Edges, you already got the answers. Swag, all that extra stuff I like Nikes, that’s Me I don’t like it either zizi’s. It is what it is. That’S where I’m at, but Anyways on another topic, I’m getting off topic because I already know I got ta Explain myself because people is just going to be mad, that I don’t like to where I did is easy, but anyways easy supply is at a website that you can go and get Easy from obviously adidas comm, those are some other options.
A lot of people Want to get the more limited stuff, so they go for easy supply and again you Always need to be on places like Twitter in different places like that to see Where other people are dropping information whatever it is, that’s going. On keep your ear to the streets, I understand. What’S going on around you, Because you don’t want to be the one where you get on Instagram Thirty minutes too late, just randomly not paying attention to your phone and Then you look at everyone’s like oh, I just got the shoes and you’re like damn.
Right I missed out, I didn’t even know you don’t want to do that. Keep asking Questions keep talking to people keep looking for. Answers so within that same category of all this stuff, it comes to apps in Different places where you can enter into raffles through our app or a Website and different places like the Flex app, which is done by Foot Locker in Different places like that, so I’m going to have links to different apps as well and Information for those, but you really want to dive into the apps and take your Chances because sometimes you might be able to enter a raffle on an app and be Able to go pick them up from your local shop.
That’S how you know at the mall or Whatever, why not try, if you’re trying to get shoes you might want to try the Worst thing you could do is download the apps and not at least try it’s free to Try it doesn’t hurt you to enter a raffle right, so go ahead and enter the Raffles for your local shops and don’t be always complaining. I never win the Raffle, I never win your avila well, you’re! Definitely not going to win.
If you Don’T enter so at least just try. It’S not going to hurt you. That’S not your only Option I guarantee you right now, there’s no way you can just try one Avenue to Get a pair of shoes for retail and expect it to work every single I get a lot of shoes for a retailer under retail and I have not got every Single one of my pair of shoes from the same direct source they always have to Come from different ways and different people and different stores and Different, you always got a network.
You always got ta get stuff from different Way so be open-minded, understand, hey, you can’t win them all, but you definitely Got to try another big thing is when it comes to the Raffles now nine times out, Of ten the raffles happen at a store, and then they say you got to pick up the Shoes by 1:00 p.M. Or 6 p.M. Or whatever it is, you want to go in and get in line. At that store or do whatever it is that you can, if you lost and see, if you can Wait for that 1 p.
M. Time slot, so just in case a raffle winner didn’t win. You Could be that first person to buy first-come, first-serve right there, so You got to check your city and understand like what are the rules at my Stores, how do they function, how many people are going to come out for this Release everything varies depending on the release as well. So it’s hard to say: Specifically, all you do go loose many hours early or whatever.
It is because I Couldn’T tell you every city is different: every shoe is different. Every Release is different. These are all variable things that are happening when It comes to shoe releases, even if you get a random size and then try it out. For your size sell it to buy another pair in your size, whatever you got to do, That way, you at least got the shoe for Reta, and then you can make moves from There ok step number four now this one again, I think, is I don’t know all these Steps are very important.
That’S why I’m telling you everything but step number Four is important to me because I feel like, as you increase your odds, you have A higher chance right, because that’s just kind of like anything right. So what I’M saying is: increase your odds. Ask people around you that are willing to Help you people that are willing to also wake up at 7 a.M. Or 11 a.M. Or whatever Time it is in your city to jump on sneakers app or try to buy them on this Website or whatever it is, enter this raffle for me and go pick them up and I’Ll pay you whatever it is, get more people to help you out the bigger net of People that you have around you that’s willing to help you out brah, I’m telling You right now it’s going to be a crazy thing.
That’S how I got to pierrat Travis Scott once for retail office sneakers at because I had three people, try and two Of us hit – and it was funny because I hate and I was like bill yeah – let’s go – I Got him and I just got another text right after that, and it’s like screenshot coddled by my Brother, I got two pair. This is crazy. I feel like Nellie for a minute. Gig stop It and sometimes you don’t win at all, even with all the people, but sometimes You might strike and get you know two or three or whatever it is and get Multiples and be like damn bro, I really just came up so I know that was a lot of Information to take in I know, there’s a lot of things to talk about, and I can’t Touch each and every store in each and every shop.
But if you have specific Questions to any of those things that I broke down, other those four topics go Ahead and ask me down below and then I’ll try to get a more in-depth article. That way, we can have more information for you guys as well and again, I’m going to Drop as much as I can down below in the description, so you guys can do your Research find places to get more information and things like that.
I hope This was helpful again. I really want you guys to get shoes for retail and get Them for that great price that you’re always trying to get them for, because I Understand how the game goes breath I’ve been doing this for a long time. Over 10 What 12 14 years now or something like that? I’Ve been doing it for a long time. I understand how it goes: I’ve seen the evolution of sneaker collecting and how To buy shoes it used to be, you didn’t even need to camp out, you could just go Buy the shoe and then it was like first-come, first-serve, and then it was Like, oh, you could buy six pairs and then I was like.
Oh, you could only get two Pairs then it was like damn. I ain’t even going to be able to get a pair now. It’S Like these raffle, as long as I understand bruh, I feel you on this whole System and how everything works, because I’m telling you right now the more hands In the higher chances you’re going to have to get that shoe that you own so with That being said, my name is DJ, don’t forget to Like comment share and Subscribe, you already know what it is.
I got. Ta go, I’m signing out, I’m going peace,
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Maybe you haven’t hit that first hundred or first thousand or even first ten thousand and in my opinion SoundCloud is still going to be super valuable. So this article is all about how you can gain traction and gain followers on SoundCloud in 2019. Let’S go so it’s 2019 and streaming is becoming more and more popular for music.
There’S SoundCloud, there’s Spotify, there’s Apple music. There’S all these different platforms. However, in my opinion, SoundCloud is still one of the most vital ones, because in a lot of ways it’s still the only kind of social network of music. You have Spotify, you have all these other ones, but SoundCloud is the only one where you can really comment. Communicate interact with your fans, interact with artists, you want to message and be in contact with, and I still think SoundCloud is still very valid.
It’S still very good, and you know who knows two months from now six months from now they could figure their stuff. Oh and they could still become one of the most popular platforms for music, especially underground music. So let’s just get into these ten tips now the first one doesn’t have to do with SoundCloud itself has to do with you and its quality. The quality of your music is going to be absolutely vital for standing out on SoundCloud SoundCloud.
You have to just dig through a constant pile of crap and, in my opinion, the only music that is going to continuously hook. People in is high quality music. Now, I’m not saying you have to be Skrillex or phlume or Diplo, or you know any of these levels of musicians. But what I recommend doing is listen to listening to your favorite artists, artists. You aspire to sound like or you think you sound like and really objectively try and look at it and see if you are 80 % as good as they are.
I would say to succeed on Soundcloud and to stand out. You really have to be at least 80 % as good as the people you aspire to sound like, and if you don’t honestly, I think you’ll just get forgotten and your music will quickly fall into the pile and you’re not going to stand out. And it’s just going to be a lot of effort when I think spending that time on social media could be better spent on trying to grow your skills versus that so step one before you really even think about getting yourself on soundcloud.
I would make sure your music is about 80 % as good as those of you aspire to sound like quality. So you can put your best foot forward now. Tip number two goes into the whole quality versus quantity debate and it comes down to quantity or more so consistency. I think consistency is very important. A song has a specific lifespan and it’s actually starting to get shorter and shorter. But what I mean by that and what I mean by the lifespan of a track is say: you put out a new track well over the course of say a month and even a short is now three weeks even two weeks, even one week in the day And age of music, we live in it kind of has a lifespan where you gain all this traction, maybe get YouTube.
Support blog support, support from your friends. You gain this new attention for it, you gain these followers. You gain these fans, you gain these listens and it reaches a peak and then it quickly steeply starts to cut off and the track quickly becomes forgotten for the most part in this day and age of music. Unless, of course, it’s a masterpiece and it’s a it’s a very standout song, but for the most part musics just going to go up, have a lifespan and it’s going to go down now.
If you’re, putting one song out every two months, you’re not going to stand out and you’re going to quickly be forgotten, just think about you as a listener. How many new artists are always on your radar, new music and how many of them to you really stand out and are ones you keep going back to and very likely it’s only the ones where they’re constantly in your face constantly providing you with a new song And for personally, I’m just speaking personally here, it takes about 4 to 5 songs from artists for that to kind of click in my head and be like.
Oh, I like this artist. This is an artist. I want to follow and pay attention to say. For example, I don’t know an artist I I recently fell in love with would be like bad computer, whose releases a lot on monstercat. I heard one song of his. I really liked it and I gave him a follow in the hopes that maybe he’ll put out more stuff that I’ll really like. And luckily I followed him around the time where he started to consistently release on monstercat, probably once a month, and those songs were just constantly on my radar, like good new song, good new song, good new song and that solidified him to me.
As one of my favorites, while there could be another artist where they put out a single and it’s like one of the best singles I’ve ever heard, but if they don’t put something out, I’m going to quickly forget about them and not consider them. One of my favorites one of those go-to artists, one of those artists that, if they played in my town, I’d, want to go see or one of those artists that I’d follow on Soundcloud form or I would eventually go through my soundcloud followers and be like.
Oh, I got the single from this person, I’m not going to follow them anymore unfollow, so you need a really good balance of quality and consistency, and it might take a while to get to that point where your skills are at the point where you can write At least one quality song and release it per month, but I recommend the quicker you can do that. The quicker that, consistent that that lifespan can build on itself, because once your track hits the peak of its plays and follows, then you drop that next track and every all those new people who just start paying attention to you are going to listen to that new Song and it’s going to keep going up, you’re going to keep going up instead of kind of getting a bunch of new followers and some of them disappearing or not interacting with your work anymore.
So number two was consistency. Now number three is a little less useful in 2019, but I still wouldn’t rule it out and that is download gates. Now, if you don’t know how to download gate, a download gate is a website in a a technique that you can use to set up a download for your song, where, when someone downloads your song, instead of asking for money, you ask for some sort of social Currency and that could be a SoundCloud follow.
That could be a Facebook light, and in this case, because we’re doing SoundCloud follows in SoundCloud growth, you do it for a SoundCloud follow, maybe even a repost, maybe even a comment, because a bunch of comments on your track will make it look really good and give Social proof to the fact that your track is worth listening to and people like it, so those are going to be websites like the artist Union tone.
Den hive fan gate, there’s there’s so many right now, they’re so easy to set up, and it’s it’s really as easy as you set up a download gate for a track go to any of those websites, easy breezy. And then, when someone wants to download your track, they’ll have to like it repost it follow you, and hopefully that repost and that follow will either lead them to listening to more of your music in the future or that repost getting the attention of others and the Reason I say it’s still valuable is even though the average listener is probably just streaming your track, putting it in a playlist putting it in their favorites DJs and people who still like to collect songs on their computer, primarily DJ’s are still going to want to download Your music, I know myself whenever I have a show coming up.
I probably download like a hundred new songs, and I have to go through those download gates pretty much for every single one I buy very little music or maybe a third to a quarter while most of the music I’m still going through a download gate to acquire. So this is going to be super beneficial because you’re going to get reposts you’re going to get likes, you can get favorites, maybe even comments, and it can take a track that has no traction and if it’s good enough people will download it and it will get Traction so I recommend still using to download gates in 2019.
Now the next technique is using download gates for stuff other than music and providing values, and what I mean by that is: yes: you’ll have DJ’s that use download gates, but that’s still very few. However, one way down low gates are still really valuable is to provide some sort of value for your audience or prospective audience, be it through a sound through a sample pack. Maybe you write a blog that can only be accessed through a download gate.
So what you can do is you can create a really desirable item, property of some sort, sample, packs presets inside look article. I could you can get really creative with it and you can actually put it behind a download gate where someone has to use a download gate to access it, and this is actually how I got a lot of my following and how cymatics the company I used To work for gained a ton of their following is where, if you want to download a sample pack, if you want to download preset something like that, you have to use a download gate or stems.
If someone wants to remix your song or something like that, they have to use this download gate and for me that gets way more downloads than a song to a download gate. So tip number four is provide value for your audience and put that behind it download Gate where they have to then follow you repost it or something like that now tip number five for growing. Your soundcloud is going to be repost trading or joining repost circles.
Now there’s two sort of different things here. The first is repost trading, where you can go to websites which I think like repost Network or things like that, where you can essentially put your song up on there and you can kind of get asked for a bid. Essentially that where someone can offer to repost it for you reposting one of their songs and the reason I say bid, because a lot of times has to do with how many followers you have so like.
I have a SoundCloud with 15k, so I can ask an account with 15k to do a trade, for example, and then I just you know, select their song hit, yes, make an offer. If we agree, I don’t even have to do any of the work it’ll actually manually, do it for you for 24 hours, so if you’re, really new to SoundCloud using these websites to just create all these repost trades and get songs to repost is really useful because Reposting on Soundcloud is, in my opinion, one of the best things and worse things about it and my opinion kind of ruins SoundCloud because it kind of ruined your feed and it ruined the cleanliness of just following people.
You like, however, I’m not going to avoid the elephant in the room I’m going to take advantage of it, so I’m going to use websites like that to set up these repost networks. Now, on top of that, you can also set up repost networks with your friends. If you have friends who are all producers create, like a a group, chat a discord, something like that, where every time one of you releases a song, all of you are going to repost it periodically, and that way you can join forces with your friends, and everyone Gets each other’s support every time you put out a song cuz, it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere and it can be just a great way to start snowballing and get the attention you want that you yourself may not have with a brand new or very small Soundcloud, the next tip is going to be using your other social media.
Now this may seem very obvious, but using your Twitter, your Facebook, your Instagram, your snapchat, to push a song when it when it’s out is very beneficial. Now my main order word of advice here, though, is to grow those social media or social media separately, and not just making those a self promotional platform. You want to give people a reason to follow your Facebook, a reason to follow your Instagram, a reason to follow your Twitter, so you want to be providing value content on those platforms that isn’t just always here’s my soundcloud link, here’s my soundcloud link because nothing is Going to get you unfollowed or liked quicker, however, that being said, those social medias are going to be a great way to just get that initial traction, especially your personal Facebook account, because your other social media is probably going to be as small as your soundcloud or Within the same range, but your personal Facebook has your friends and they already interact with you and communicate with you not to mention you can private message: people you can private message.
Your best friends give them a song, ask them for support and, if you’re fairly new, to growing a sound fairly new to growing social media over all your friends are very likely to support you now. Someone like me, who’s been at it for five years. If I sent people links they’re so tired of seeing it, so it’s probably not very effective, but this tutorial isn’t for people who have been on South Club for five years.
This is people who are just growing and some people who are pretty much starting 2018-2019 so use your other social media to grow your soundcloud. The next tip is going to be YouTube promotional blogs to grow your soundcloud, so on YouTube. There are tons of blogs that exclusively upload other people’s music and what you can do, every time you put out a song is you can connect with these blogs? They usually have submission emails in their About section, collect dozens of them in a spreadsheet email them all.
Personally, one by one, and even if just one picks it up, and they include your download gate in the description say, your song got a thousand to ten thousand plays on one of these blogs, which is very realistic. You know some of these blogs can do very well and, let’s even just be conservative, let’s say you got a thousand plays, even if one percent of that thousand decided to actually download the song.
So one in a hundred plays that’s still ten more followers than you had the day before, and ten followers is a big deal. You shouldn’t take that for granted. So using YouTube’s promotional networks to actually get your music heard is very beneficial and I recommend using a promo strategy and having a promo plan every time you release a song or maybe you’re, hitting them up two weeks before you’re telling them hey my songs.
Coming out. This date, would you be interested you’re, starting to communicate with these people and find out who they are on a personal level. Building connections with them YouTube is still a very valid way of promoting music in 2019, and I still highly recommend it, especially with YouTube music becoming a thing where now people will actually be listening to and streaming music through YouTube music specifically and then, if they ever Choose to download it or see your name and like it it’ll probably convert.
However many even however little will convert to followers on Soundcloud. The next step is going to be joining the community. So one of the things I was preaching in the beginning that I like about SoundCloud, is it still very much a social network you’re still very much communicating reposting, commenting private messaging, all these things and if you join the community and you start to find artists and Participate in their work, they’re so much more likely to check yours.
Oh now, I’m not recommending to go to you know a huge producer and spam their song with comments to check out your work, but I recommend finding musicians around your level and giving them really constructive. Creative or kind feedback that you truly mean listen to their music, tell them what you liked about it tell them what you think maybe check out a couple of their songs. Don’T ever ask them to check out yours, but just be a part of the community and participate in their work and you’re more likely to build a community and have people to start to connect with yours, one of my best friends in the world, Sam winter him And I actually met on soundcloud and he’s actually from Ottawa, and this was back when you’re both started, and I was doing just that.
Every day I was like grinding, I was just like finding music and I was participating. I was communicating, he was one of them. We started private messaging years later. He moved to live with me in Vancouver and we started a business. I eventually worked for cymatics and lived together for like a year and a half, so you never know you know. Being part of the community is a great way to just start to build your inner circle and just really grassroots connect and build a community from the ground up and lastly, I recommend branding and when I say branding I mean really perfecting how your soundcloud looks.
You want really clean links, a really clean bio, taking advantage of the image and the header on top of it, having a really good name. That’S really easy for people to search and remember memorable song names that are probably related and ideally even a consistent, sound or style. Now, if you’re still really new musician, you may still be finding that so don’t hurt yourself and beat yourself up too much about finding that.
However, I just really recommend the sooner you build a brand. You build a consistent, sound, a style and aesthetic something that really sticks in people’s minds when they see it. It’S going to help people want to follow you and will recognize your song in their feed and are more likely to check it out again later, so there we go guys. That was ten tips on how you can grow a SoundCloud in 2019. I still think SoundCloud is very valid and even if you’re just starting from Ground Zero, now it’s never too late and there’s still a lot of tips and tricks.
You can get to get that first hundred, first thousand, even first ten thousand followers on soundcloud. So I hope you guys got a lot out of this tutorial. I know it’s different than my typical music production tutorial. So if you liked it, let me know, I hope you guys got a lot out of it. My name is Cromartie thanks again and I’ll be back soon with another article peace
Do all that cool stuff right! So right here, I’m just going to give you a quick run-through of what we’re going to do today And then also I’ve actually got a really cool bonus for you guys, I’ve got a free tool for you of free software.
This can actually automatically post to Facebook. For you, So I’m going to show you guys that here at the very end of the article And if you guys want that, go ahead and comment down below, say Facebook, auto, post or comment Facebook Auto poster. And then I will shoot you over the link to be able to create your account. So you can get this hundred percent free lifetime access, guys, There’s never going to be a monthly fee or anything else.
It’S just kind of a special gift for you guys Being a viewer here on the blog right and you guys are brand new here. My name is Jason Wardrop and I launch new articles. I try to read people’s every single day on how to generate leads. Make more money and grow your business? So if you guys are not yet subscribed make sure you guys go ahead and subscribe to the blog right. So here is my Facebook page.
You can see I’ve got kind of this cover photo we’re going to Show you how exactly how to create this today got a profile picture of me coming down here. I’Ve got you know a little over 28,000 followers right now and then, if we come down, I’ve got this post up here at the top, because when somebody new comes to my Facebook page, I want a little bit of an intro a little bit like telling them Who I am and what I do, And you can kind of see down here: Hey, here’s, some essential tools and things to know.
There’S a software or some trainings, Here’s some Facebook groups or some different things, and so Basically, if someone’s brand new, but they see your Facebook page, they can come here and get to learn a lot about you now. They’Ve got an About section all that stuff, But also it’s sometimes nice, to have this as your first post, you guys can see here. I’Ve got about two hundred twenty-five likes.
I’Ve got tons of comments down here That you know people are just inter engaging with me. Alright, so let’s come over here to the main Facebook part, I’m going to show you guys exactly how to Create your Facebook page if you’re, starting completely from scratch for like Jason, have a personal profile, But I don’t know how to create the business page. Let’S walk you through how to do that. Alright, so we’re going to Do is click up here on this down arrow in the top right and we are going to go to a create page okay.
So now we can go through, and this is really easy. Facebook’S made it super easy for us, They’re going to say: hey: Do you want to do a local business or place a public figure entertainment? What do you want? I would recommend a public figure because you want to go brand yourself Or if you have a local business or a place, then you can go through and do that as well. But I’m going to stick with a public figure right now.
We’Re going to Do is choose a category, So we just come down here. We choose What best fits our. So we can do you know public figure. We can do entrepreneur, which I believe that’s what I did Blog or chef coach, whatever you guys want to do so, let’s just stay well Just to keep it kind of generic or whatever We’ll just say, public figure right here, Okay, and as far as the name, I like to you, I, like I just used my own name, so I just use Jason Wardrop But let’s say you’re like in real estate.
For example, You might want to say Jason Wardrop And then you know Dallas realtor or Park City realtor like wherever you are located and then Realtors. So people know. Okay, like I know what Jason were drops page is all about. Okay, So we’ll say: Jason, Wardrop and then we’ll say We’ll go with Dallas Realtor right there, okay, because then, when they see like your posts on the news feed, They know like what you’re all about all right.
So now We’re just going to hit get started or you could just leave it your name guys what it’s honestly up to you, your preference. Okay, now We’re going to go through, says upload a profile picture. Okay! Now I think I’ve got one. I’Ve got one right here, so just make this easy. You can just go through Upload your picture now. One tip right Here is whatever picture you use on Like Twitter or Instagram, or any of those other ones make sure you guys use the same picture Because then it kind of like brand, you and people kind of recognize that profile picture mutant.
If you use it a different picture on Every single social platform, it really gets hard to keep it consistent and make sure it’s like a clear head shot. Alright, Nothing like with With you with, like you know, in the background or like that, your dog And then they like people can’t really tell it is people want to see who you are especially on your business, Facebook page Right. You can keep that stuff for your personal profile.
Help maybe like weird pic of you know something else, But with this you want to have a clear head: shot right: Okay, upload a cover photo me to show you guys how to do this here in a second. So we’re just going to skip this for right now and then this will take us to the next step. So we’ve got initially it says now. You can invite your friends guys, And this is an awesome, easy way to go through anything, Just kind of walk you through.
Okay: Here’s how you make your first post, which is fairly simple, and you guys probably ought to know how to do that. Alright, So what you can do now – and you don’t have to invite all of your friends, But you can maybe invite some family members, some people that you know would be interested in you and your business. But you just coming over here and just hit, invite on all these k. Now, I’m not going to invite these people, because This is obviously a demo Facebook page to go through and help.
You learn some of these different aspects, But this is an easy way to go: get your first 100 likes on Facebook without having to spend any money on Facebook ads or anything else right now. What I want to do is show you guys how to change this cover photo right here and how to make one really easily. So what we’re going to do is use a free tool, it’s called canva Canv a.Com, and then you can it’s really cool guys.
Cuz. You can go through. This is create a design, We click on more right here and they have all the dimensions already pre-built for you. So if you want to do like a youtube thumbnail or a Facebook ad Facebook, post, Instagram post, you got all these different options. So if we want to come down here, social media, an email, headers, okay, You got a Facebook event cover YouTube. Thumbnail. You’Ve got all these different one.
Facebook cover This is the one that we’re going to want to use right here. Cuz, the Facebook event Cover is a little bit different than the Facebook page cover right. So we’re going to want to use this one right here so we’ll do. Is click on this and They’ve got some pre-built designs right here, for you guys that really make it pretty cool, So you can kind of come in here. You know: choose these different ones.
They’Ve got a ton of options. They have a few options that I think costs a little bit money, But a lot of these you can honestly go through and use without spending any money. Okay, so it’s really pretty cool. You can just you guys could see this over here on the left. There’S tons and tons of different options and then let’s say we want. Let’S say we want this one right here: Okay, so we can say We’ll, say: Jason, Wardrop, Realty, we’ll stick with that theme right here, okay and they’ll say like Dallas, Realtor.
Okay, then, what we could do is, and if you guys look over here, one thing I tend to do like I added my my picture right here. It’S kind of goofy picture, but I just kind of leave This is. I don’t really need My picture there, because I’ve got a picture of myself right over here on the side. Okay, So what am I do since it’s real estate? I think I’ve got some cool real estate images uploaded over here.
So I might come over here and throw that in there and now you got a nice-looking Cover phone right there, okay! So now, if we hit download Go over here download This, you guys like that, took me literally what 20 seconds to go through and do that. Put my name on there put like hey, I’m a dallas realtor which guys I’m not by the way. Just this is demo right, all right, so that downloaded. So, let’s come back over here to our page.
All we got to do is click on add a cover as cool. You can actually add a little article on here as well, okay, but for this one Just keep it easy, We’re just going to add an image at first, So we’re just going to go: hey upload, a photo or a article, and then this is the one I Believe yep, That’s one We just created so now you guys can see. This is already starting to look a lot more professional And really nice and we haven’t spent any money right like you’re.
Getting your first hundred likes by inviting your friends here. You’Ve got a really nice background image back. Facebook cover photo using canva, canv a.Com. We’Ve got our profile picture right here and guys if I I’m in real estate, if I’m working with high-end real estate, I Probably shouldn’t use a picture of me in a hoodie right. You probably want to have a shirt and a tie like looking nice. You Want to fit the brand fit the you know, whatever you’re going after okay.
So now what we can do is come down here. It says create a username for your page Okay. Now This is really cool because, like see how says facebook.Com four slash, Jason, wardrobe, realtor and then a huge long number, we can actually make it. So it’s a lot easier for people to search so we say create a Username for your page, so we could say: Jason, Wardrop, Dallas realtor. Something like that Cana says hey check and you know it’s good to go.
So we hit crate username and Now the cool thing is is look, we could say hey. These are some of the easy links that people could go to. You could say: hey at the username jason wardrobe, Dallas, realtor Facebook.Com or we could even say facebook.Com for Jason. Wardrop Dallas Realtor, so we just use that URL right there. Now It should go to the page. We just crazy right see this. Oh that’s! That’S right here at this page, Okay.
So now what I want to do is go through and kind of, maybe like make some a few other tweaks here. So I’ve got this paid this post right here at the top, like I showed you guys, So you want to go through and he’d do a little bit of an about you Section you can see here what I did was like: hey guys, my name’s Jason port Drop, I’m your real estate mortgage broker, business growth, automation guy, I’m awesome an entrepreneur.
I kind of tell a little bit about me and I say: hey Here’s your next step. Like my page, You can jump on my free training comment and introduce yourself below, and You can look forward to do some articles and different things so like go through and customize it to your your business. You can say: hey, there’s a link to my website Message me on Facebook of you, We’re looking to buy or sell a home and just have a few of those different intros there Right.
So what I’m going to Do is I’m just going to make this quicker for this article, I’m going to go through and upload the photo, So my same profile picture photo here. Okay, just so like it creates that consistent branding And I’m going to throw in this. All this copy and paste text you guys can go to my Facebook page check it out, See I’ll, throw a link down in the description, so you guys can have that so Anyway, and then I’m just going to hit publish now You don’t want to hit, publish And just leave it at that because then what happens is anytime.
You make another post, It’s just going to go down below alright. So what I’m going to do Is click on these three dots right here And I’m going to say: hey pinned this to the top of the page right. So now, if you come back over here to this one, like I did this July 27th of 2016 right now, It’s 2018, and so I like that normally would be like stacked way down in my feed. But what I’ve done is I’ve post this at the very top, so anyone new is going to come in and see this right So anyway, guys.
These are some of the basic main things to get your facebook cover photo. Looking nice, your Facebook profile, your top post, Getting your custom username, Inviting your friends and get your first 100 likes or so, and now let me just show you guys really quick, this 100 % Free tool that you guys can have that it’s got you guys can Set the schedule to pulse to your Facebook page your Facebook profile, any groups You’re a member of or even Twitter and LinkedIn all at the same time, And we have some pre-built content for you guys.
So I just want to show you guys that really quick, like I said guys. If you comment down below And say Facebook automation tool, then I will shoot you the link to get this 100 % for free and I mean you’ll never have to pay for it’s. Just a free resource For you being a viewer, you here on my youtube, blog right, so what you can do. Is you go through? You connect your Facebook Account. You can connect LinkedIn, you can connect Twitter.
You can see all this, so you got your personal profile And I’ve got you guys cuz here I’ve got a ton of business pages and then any groups that you create that you have to be the owner of the group. You can also post in those as well, so you can either come in here and create a test post, Throw in a link to your website or whatever It is, and then, let’s say, hey, let’s post this test group, You can see it like it’s going to Update in real time, So you can see what its going to look like on Facebook or even if you want to go to Twitter.
Okay, You can add an attachment, you can add a URL down here. It shows a post days to say: hey, let’s moat next January 31st, at 10:30 p.M. I want to post this and then you just hit Schedule and it goes through and schedules it and you can go through and create another post right now. One other cool thing that you guys can do is We’ve got this a library of content that you can go through, and you know like, let’s say We’re in real estate.
Ok, Because I work with a lot of real estate agents and help them generate leads and all that stuff. So we’ve got all these pre-built posts for you guys so, like hey check this place out How cool this hey, thoughts on this room and family room and kitchen? Is this your style? Okay? So these are just post like stay top of mind, with all your followers and get in front of them, And you know get some some likes and comments and get them gauging alright, so you can see these other ones They’re like quotes.
That means it’s like a link out to another profile and it takes a second to load sometimes, but we’ve got all these other ones that you can go through and and use. So what we’ll do is just hit schedule and Then we’ll go. We can add, like we could say, hey, let’s post it to our real-estate agent demo page And then we can say hey. We want to link back. You can link back to your website, Whatever it is, and then you can say hey.
I want to choose to post this on Tuesday at let’s do this one in the afternoon, so 1:30 p.M. And we just hit schedule, and then you got the schedule right here. You can come back and see. Okay, like you know, you’ve got one post going out to Facebook, Twitter Linkedin, And it just makes it super super easy. Alright, so, anyway, guys I’m not going to spend any more time on this not trying to like sell you guys hardcore.
This is just a free little bonus, so comment down below Facebook, automation tool And I will send you the link to create your free account and get started with this alright. So anyway, guys. Hopefully that was helpful as far as giddy your facebook business page created and Going through and getting that jump start making. It look professional Even if you’re not designed like guys, I’m not a designer, but I’d use, canva canv, a com – you guys can see up here and it makes it really easy to go through and make you have a professional nice looking design, Facebook page right so Anyway, guys, I hope you enjoyed the article today, if you did make sure you guys, like this article, also Share with any friends that you feel like might find this a value of magnifying.
It helpful Then also comment below facebook, automation, tools And I’ll. Send you guys the link to be able to get free access Lifetime access to that social automation tool as well, and also guys, if you guys want new articles like this every single day, make sure you guys subscribe the blog and Hit that little notification bell? And you guys will be notified every single time. We launch a new article right, so thanks so much for reading today.
Guys and with that said, we’ll see you all tomorrow.
I guess that’s the last time I can say that on this subject, but airplanes have always been a cornerstone of my identity, see here’s a picture of me as a kid. Here’S a picture of the first airplane that I built and flew in my yard and then here’s a picture of my bedroom after I’d started building RC airplanes to fly in the lot next to our house. And if you try really hard, I bet you could find some terribly cringy articles of me in my yard, flying RC airplanes in high school.
So when a friend of mine reached out and wanted me to build a gift box for his flight instructor, it really struck a chord. It’S been years since I sat in a cockpit, but I can’t wait to get back the past couple of years. I’Ve been distracting myself with other things in the name of maturity, more realistic goals, saving money or some other adult sounding thing, but I’m not going to let those things deter me anymore.
Life isn’t a dress rehearsal, it’s a live, show, there’s no do-overs, no what-ifs no repeats. I need to be back in the air where I belong, that’s how at least best I can figure I’m going to be motivated enough to work hard at my other goals. Now, you’re, probably thinking to yourself what does any of this have to do with woodworking? Hopefully, one day soon, this venture will bring in a lot of money and employ hundreds of people.
We could put food on their tables tables in their homes and funnel the excess profits and cash towards helping others, and I can mean the air again. I don’t want to buy a huge house. I don’t want everyone to know my name. I don’t want tons of exotic cars or a bunch of other crap. I just want to find a way to help other people, while scratching the itch on my soul, to be in the sky, so we’re leaving our jobs and moving to the south.
I know we’ve talked about it quite a bit, but here’s the real story on our current career paths. There’S no feasible way to chase the priorities I just outlined, or stick to our life mission of helping the most number of people possible. It’S time for a risk for a lot of reasons, mostly because we’re young enough to rebound if we fail, because those who we want to help are worth it, because our future employees and their families are worth it and honestly, because her sanity depends on it.
We can’t be employees anymore, at least not in the traditional sense. We just can’t breathe so in our new jobs. For a few months, every year, Jenny now will be flying in a research aircraft gathering storm data to help millions of people evacuate and prepare. In times of natural disaster, but more on that someday soon with the rest of our time, we’ll be trying to build this woodworking business that, hopefully one day provides hundreds of jobs to Americans who know the value of hard work.
Who want to see the smiling faces of a family sitting around a table that they built? Who don’t need to take out giant loans to learn enough to make a living and who will make a ton of money with which we can try to make the world a better place for everyone? We’Re so grateful for our experiences here in the great white north and at our first job. It’S been an amazing testing grounds to prepare us to do this at scale.
The people have been great too, but it’s time for us to go, and projects like this have come along the way to remind us that, with the right priorities and plenty of discipline and lots of hard work, we can have our cake and eat it too, or Whiskey or I guess airplane, if you’re thinking big picture, but you get the point. So that’s our story, that’s our next chapter of life. I know we’ve talked about it quite a bit, but that’s what’s going on with us.
That’S why we’re moving? That’S? Why we’re trying to learn sales is because everything that we want to do in life becomes unlocked by this woodworking business succeeding. I appreciate all of you for coming along for the ride and hitting that subscribe button if you’re new – and this is the first time you’re reading a article of ours – sorry, you kind of caught us in our feelings, but this is where we’re at in life.
Right now, and if this sounds exciting or intriguing, we hope that you’ll hit that subscribe button and join us alright. So the price breakdown on this whiskey gift box right up front. We did not charge enough on this project. Originally I wasn’t going to do finger joints on the corners. I was just going to do, but joist with nails and glue. Then I just decided you know what hey we’re going to get this box joint jig eventually like this is a good project as any.
At this point, we had stopped taking more orders, so our free time was more plentiful and I I’m doing a lot of rationalization, but the bottom line is we didn’t charge enough? So if you use our normal pricing structure for materials, it was about three board feet of walnut, which is about $ 24 in my area and then miscellaneous glue and stuff. Like that five bucks, when you counter in the labor at $ 30 an hour, this box took six hours to put together, which is ridiculous.
All right now I counted time of assembling the box joint jig and getting it all set up and dialed in so now that it’s set, I don’t think it’ll take near six hours. This box is probably a two or three hour job. Now, if I were to do it again, so the total quote should have been $ 24 plus five dollars, miscellaneous expenses for materials and then $ 90. So what are we looking at there? So we’re looking at a total of 119 dollars just for labor and materials multiply that times 1.
4 to get our 40 % markup and we’re looking at a hundred and sixty six dollars. Yeah but probably would have shot for 175. Probably would have taken anything around 150 or over that, but in all honesty we only charged a hundred dollars back. When I thought this box was going to be a bunch of butt joints. I yeah. I just thought that that would have been a great price and it would have been, but because we use the Box joints and everything else, it really slowed us down.
I still think we could have gotten this under two hours. If I wasn’t doing the Box joints, especially if I already had some walnut that was milled up, I didn’t realize how dull my planer blades were, after the big rolling sliding barn door that we have just done before this. So I could have saved time on milling. It could have saved time on the box joints if I already had the jig set up so anyway.
All those reasons aside, we lost money on this project and that’s okay. I learned from it. I there’s a lot of really good things that we learned. We optimized a few things with the Box joint jig. We understood that hey, we need to change our planer blades after we do a really big job with really hard plywood. We learned that so, even though we’ve lost money, it’s still a really good experience for us.
Overall – and we would definitely take this job again – but we’d probably price it higher at like 150 175 – something like that yeah, that’s pretty much the breakdown on this one. Let me know what you think. I thought it turned out. Really nice theyed it’s by no means fine craftsmanship. He kind of wanted the client wanted it pretty rustic. You know it’s a whiskey box. It’S not supposed to be some like ornate, beautiful, like gold, inlay sort of like gift box.
This was just a hey there’s. Some shredded paper in here that’s pretty cool. Let’S make it rustic and it’ll set up on a shelf and yeah it’s a really cool project so anyway, other than that, thanks for reading the article please hit the like button. If you thought this was valuable, really helps us grow and share this information with more people who can help get their businesses off the ground. So thanks so much for the help, and thanks for sticking around
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You is extremely important even more now than after mentioned. There are a few other options and Before we jump into why I chose the ice dagger, I do want to just start off with the importance of having a self-defense tool and why. I think you guys should all have some sort of self-defense tool, even if it isn’t the ice tower in particular.
Now there are many different options I actually have a few. Another notable option is the matriarch by Spyderco matriarch by Spyderco is another great option for how a self-defense tool, but overall you should try to have at all times some type of tool tool on you for self-defense, because this hack can happen at any time. And it’s nice to give yourself an advantage of having even just a small little knife like these.
Now I’ve talked about why I choose knives in the past. I still fully love knives and I take a knife over a gun every day because of the fact that guns, while they are superior to knives in most instances, a gun cannot go everywhere like one of these knives can so that’s the overall importance and why I Just urge you guys make sure you do have a self-defense tool, even if it isn’t the ice dagger go with something like a Spyderco matriarch, just something that you can use to protect yourself now now, let’s actually talk about why I chose the ice dagger now this Has been out for a hot minute: it’s not the newest coolest latest greatest kind of self-defense knife out there on the market, but I was immediately attracted to this knife just for the fact that I wanted something that was very tough, very durable and honestly were a Lot of people prefer something that just has a single blade on it.
I really do like the dagger for enhanced penetration and the fact that I cannot only cut with this knife, but I can also make a deep stabbing and penetrating wound with this knife, and so that’s what it was attractive to the ice dagger. Another reason why I prefer the ice dagger over something like a matriarch is, like, I said, the increased durability and I’m doing some up close shots. Pictures Roland fuller to this, but the ice dagger actually has a reinforced tip.
So the tip the actual, like tip part of this knife from about here forward, is full thickness and it actually retailers down to a point into an edge. So I like about this is there’s no worry about you going in stabbing something in the tip just snapping off on you. This is the type of knife that you can stab into a very hard object or even hit things like bone, and it’s not just going to break off, whereas a knife like this matriarch, which also Roland’s in pictures for you guys, is a very thin, extraordinarily thin.
At the tip and will actually break off very easily if it hits bow and if it hits thick muscle, it’s going to just snap right off, which may be an advantage. It may not. But what I like about this knife is from multiple aggressors, or just even for one likes, that having a very robust tip in a very robust overall build is nice now another thing I have enjoyed about the knife as I carried it and as you guys can See I’ve hard used it a little bit for y’all.
Is I, like the traction on the g10, tops an excellent job on that, especially in the ice pick or reverse grip. I didn’t feel, like my hand, was going to go anywhere. I will say it can be a little bit slick in gloves when you’re doing like a forward thrust. But then again, your thrusts in your anything. Going forward, like this motion kind of thing, isn’t going to have as much power as a reverse grip and what I like about the reverse flip, as you guys can see.
There’S a nice almost Karambit ask ring, so you can leap your thumb into this ring and then close your thumb down like this, and that gives you a lot of positive traction. So if you stab it into something, when you pull the knife back out, you could actually let go of the knife entirely and pull just because if your thumb is caught on that ring, it’s going to pull right back out of whatever it stabbed into so other Than that they have made a few really great cuts in the g10 to make it very aggressive, and it feels really great now.
Lastly, the other reason why I like this knife is, as I said, about the concealed ability. Now you can run this on your belt and that’s another great way of running it. I personally use the neck knife option and we’ll discuss it. The mod that I had to make with it, because you guys will notice the sheath is a little bit different looking, but we’ll discuss that in just a minute, but overall, with the fact that this has very flat thin g10 handles and the knife itself bolts thick Enough not to be weak, it’s also not a very thick knife in general, so it’s it’s very very thinly either was pressed up against your body, there’s no profiling at all with this knife because of the way it’s designed and how flat the sheath is, how flat The handles are, there’s no profiling and when it does sit under especially something like a coat like this you’re going to have no issues whatsoever.
Thank you. Moving on to the last part of this is the modification. Now I’m going to roll in a couple pictures of the bond I did, and I thought you had to do this with a few tops knives. While I do love tops Kydex, I will say their molds can at times be a little bit weak as far as retention goes, and I did find that this one found out the hard way that I was actually running up a flight of stairs and Boop.
The knife popped out and hit the ground. I was like never again on that, because this is a type of knife that you don’t really the public to see because when they see both of these edges and they kind of see the overall profile, it’s so scary. So what I did was, I just took a couple brass screws. I took put the sheath on my drill press punched, a couple holes just at two areas. Where that I could get some extra clamping power from the brass screws, like I said, I’ve done this before on other tops knives.
It’S really simple, and it’s so simple. You don’t even need nuts on the back, because the brass screws thread through the Kydex, so they’re going to hold up just fine. I wanted to make sure that the retention wasn’t too loose or too hard. I wanted it to hit that sweet spot, because when I got it, it was just a little bit too loose. Now it’s right in that sweet spot where it’s not so loose that it’s going to fall out under normal circumstances or slightly strenuous circumstances.
But at the same time, it’s going to have a nice pull and it’s going to be pretty easy to get out without having a wrench on your neck. So anyways, that’s all for the it’s kind of my overview and general thoughts of the ice dagger. It is a really awesome life and, if you’re looking for a really competent and heavy-duty self-defense option as far as knives go, I would very very much encourage you to take a look at least take a look at the ice stacker because, like I said, I think It’S a very smart design, anyways, I’m out
Welcome to social matica in this tutorial, we’re going to be showing you how to set up a Twitter blog now, since most of you probably know how to setup a new service like Twitter, by entering your name, email and password and going through the signup process.
What we’re actually going to focus on is how to actually set up the blog inside of the application once you’ve already signed up. So I’m going to go ahead and log in and then show you my interface now before I jump too far into the Twitter application itself. Let me tell you a little bit about it. Twitter is mostly like texting only on the internet. It’S a real-time communication application. What most people use it for is to cede information or release information about themselves or use it as a public communication application to talk to their followers about real-time updates or status updates that they may be interested in in the main interface.
There are a couple of things that you should be interested in. First there’s, the timeline there’s at mentions retweets searches and lists, I’m going to describe them in detail. The timeline is just what it sounds like it’s. The public timeline of the tweets of the people that you follow, I happen to be following about 496 people, so every time they tweet something it’ll show up in my timeline mentions are when any Twitter user on Twitter mentions your name, and they can do so with The designation of the @ symbol, so you may see something like this.
That would mention me in a timeline. The next item is retweets. Retweets are designated with an RT and can be done so inside the application. I’Ll show you how to do that or by prepending. Any message with an RT if you prepend a message with our tea and mention someone, the assumption is: is that your retweeting their message, this functionality is built into twitter and i’ll. Show you how to do that in a second, but conceptually that’s how it works.
The searches function gives us a bility to search for a specific topic or trend or hashtag, and then save that search for future use. Lists are also interesting because it gives us the ability to segment users into a list. For instance, if I wanted to focus on marketing bloggers, then I could set up a list of people that only contained marketing bloggers. This helps me break down many trends within the overarching trend of what’s going on in twitter itself.
It also helps me build a list of people that maybe I want to influence, or that perhaps influenced me and so segmenting them. This way gives me an easy way to always stay up to date. On what they’re doing now, as I said before, I will show you how to retweet and create mentions within the application. So, for instance, let’s find something that’s somewhat interesting check out this awesome lineup at word of mouth marketing association event in Las Vegas.
Now I can favorite this or I can retweet it or I can reply now we’re a reply will automatically mention somebody just so you know, but it’s not the only way I have to be able to do it. So Ekaterina is somebody that I know so I can retweet this just simply by going click. Retweet, okay and it’ll. Ask me if I want to retweet to my followers and I can click retweet now in some applications. I can actually edit this retweet before it goes out, but in this case I’m just going to go ahead and retweet it like that.
I can actually also just reply or mention Ekaterina by hitting reply. My tweet Ekaterina has been sent a couple of other things to think about from your overall network perspective. As a couple rules, one rule within Twitter. You can’t follow more than 2,000 people unless you have 2,000 people following you. This has created the this rule was created as a result of the follow me strategy, which essentially creates the idea of following people repetitively to get them to follow you it’s a way to game the Twitter tool.
If you see people following you consistently and unfollowing you and then following you back they’re trying to game up their actual followers, so this is the number of people that you’re following this is the number of people that are following you. This is the number of tweaks that you’ve actually sent out. These are some of the statistics that Twitter uses to assign your rank within Twitter and then some other applications outside of Twitter will use to assign your rank or your relative influence.
Let’S look at our specific profile, so we can actually set it up here. You see my account information. You can actually protect your tweets so that only people who you approve can actually follow your tweets. You would use this in some cases where you wanted to use twitter for more private means. I suggest that you always use HTTPS. You can add a location to your tweets and this is helpful for certain applications.
You can change your password. You can enable your mobile phone to do Twitter with text messaging. Can change your notification settings. You can update your profile with a different picture where you’re located in your website. You can add a bio which only allows you 160 characters, and then you can automatically post your tweets to facebook. Twitter allows you to select a theme or create different background images, and you can also tell Twitter what applications it has access to and manage that here.
All of these applications do something in or through the use of Twitter information, and so, if you ever want to revoke access, this is where you would do that you always grant access to these applications inside the application themselves. That is, cloud com was granted access to twitter from cloud you don’t grant access to twitter from twitter, it’s always from the application of origin. You can revoke access and twitter though, and that’s twitter, pretty simple, a couple of other things to keep in mind.
Hashtags. Think of hashtags like ideas, and they give people in twitter the ability to trend an idea. So if my idea was pancakes, then the number of people that tweeted pancakes as a hashtag would influence how much that hashtag trended. You can, of course subscribe to the hashtag. So that you can see the conversations that occur around pancakes, I hope that was helpful. Thank you for listening visit, socialmatic accom, to learn more.
Thank you. You are the bag, lady. Yes, what is the bag? Lady? The bag? Lady? Is a family owned and run curated kind of art collection that people can actually wear and it’s all new products and it ranges from bags to accessories and then all the way now we started with clothing and leggings and blankets and home goods. What is the most expensive bag you’ve ever sold? Oh, I think it was a $ 5,000 bag and one went to Peru, we’re so lucky.
We have a lot of international customers that seek us out and find us from the power of the Internet, and so that’s been one of our top-selling bags and you brought a couple bags with us to show us what you have sure Mary Francis is a line That we’ve been working with for 20-plus years, hand beaded made in the Philippines and every season and collection, it’s a new collection and it’s limited so she’s, wonderful, she’s based in California – and this is, we learned both of our sign.
Yes, it’s the horoscope collection and we did very well with us actually and that’s a new body shape and style, and people love the horoscope stuff, great yeah. That’S also a Mary Francis and it’s all hand beaded in the work is fantastic, she’s, very artsy she’s. Very, the names of the items are super cool and we love working with them have limited pieces of Gucci and we love the Gucci stuff, especially the florals.
We love what’s happening with the brand now that it’s just doing so well and he’s taking it to this eco. He took far out of the line. Alessandra Michel he’s the new director and he’s just with the rockstars and he’s doing great and transforming the company, and I really honor that there’s a lot of beautiful stuff here, coach and michael kors, our you know our everyday line and we do excellent with coach and Michael kors, those are our mainstay plain leather goods and beautiful stuff, and then johnny was they just came out with this new perfume and this oil, and we are doing well with that whole line great, I feel like we’re on the Home Shopping Network.
This is awesome. You know this is definitely not my world. This is your world. In fact, I learned that since 1976, your parents started a business with high-end shoes. Tell us a little bit about how about your parents business and how you kind of inherited the kind of luxury woman’s market. Well, they came to the states and they from Russia, and then they met in Israel. They both did the army and then they were in Israel and married and then they moved to the States.
My parents wanted the American Dream and they took over this man’s shop and started with shoes and all sorts of designer women’s comfort shoes from Italy from the United States, and then I was born a year or so later, and you know it’s just it’s interesting. My my parents, Mike on my mother’s side, are immigrants from Europe as well and to Philadelphia, and they actually ran a shoe store as well, but it was a low hand, okay store in kind of a rough neighborhood in Philadelphia, so kind of same business.
Other end of the spectrum, amazing: what was the name of the store when it started in 76? It started with shoe club and it was in Aventura Florida, yes, which is kind of just outside of Miami, and then it moved on and they named it Michels. After me yeah, so they called my dad Michele for a while, and so he would respond to it because he was the face of the business and everything and he’s so helpful and love talking to people and the stories.
We’D have like multi-generations come in to chop and it was fantastic, so many years and we’ve developed several stores and relationships with the local community and everyone knew if they needed something special for an event or for every day where to come to the store. And you worked at the stores. Yes talk a little bit about some of the things you did around the store. I did everything from merchandising to purchasing doing the buying behind the counter.
We did it old-school, so we were right down on the invoice from closing the shop and to opening it so the whole all of the logistics and then in the mid nineties. You left you have to South Florida. You left the shop, yes and, and you probably thought for good – you left the business I thought so I thought I was going to move on to something else and bigger and different, and and where do you go and how did you find your way back? Well, I went to school in University of Virginia and I love Charlotte’s though I love the mountains and the whole culture was a completely different one that I really ingratiate it into, and then I decided to come back after doing a little bit of time in Florence.
So I was in the mecca of art and fashion for a bit as well: we’ve always had Paris and Israel and Italy in our blood and this European boutique II feel so I bring it back to Florida. I went and moved to the Grove and started working on odd jobs here – Art Director, Marketing Manager and those sort of things, and then I kept the thread of the store. I will always woodwork like one or two days a week, and I saw this opportunity online.
That was a new versioning place for online goods and I started on eBay where I started telling $ 650 item products. At the time when people were selling vintage flea market finds so I started this whole new new items being sold online and I would go to the store to work and then I just ship out what I sold and things were moving online, that wouldn’t move in The store that people would just look at so it was a really different dynamic and I saw this opportunity so you specifically were selling handbags online on eBay.
Yes in the early 2000. Yes can you can you go back to like? How did you learn about eBay and how did you have the the insight / inspiration to sell? You know: multi-hundred dollar thousand dollar, handbags that were new yeah and what was essentially an auction site for flea market and used goods. I just start tried it out, and I do you remember that moment when you’re like okay, tell me about that, is the brand called Isabella Fiore and they did like really beautiful, hand-painted stuff somewhere from Italy somewhere from elsewhere, and they were just sitting and nothing was Moving in the store – and I thought let me check online – see see if so, anyone else in the world has been s or selling it, and I would seize things on eBay and at that time eBay was pretty big for the flea market world and I thought Why not? There is a new with tag option.
Why not try it so I put put a few on and I take like homemade pictures and they started to sell and just like that. It just was a quick happening and did you with eBay, were they auctioned or with a minimum bid yeah we did that and did you were you able to sell them at a higher price than the retail price in your store? No, to be honest, no nowadays I can do that, but those days now I would get MSRP, though, which was great, so it was a way to kind of move merchandise that you just can’t move any other.
Yes, how did it evolve from there from there? I wanted out of the shoes I wanted nothing to do with shoes, because she’s are very difficult. Shoes are tough. How did mom and dad feel about you getting out of their business? Oh, they liked the fact that and they liked it, because my mom wasn’t loving the going to the store every day and dealing with the public, so we iced all bags as an easy thing to ship.
There’S no real size to it. You can gift it easily. So I like the idea of it that it was simple yeah there’s, also not the challenge of whether they fit correct the fit is off and Zappos kind of took over at that time, and I couldn’t compete with as oppas scenario did okay. So then what happened at some point? The retail store, your parents closed the store. We closed the store, yes, the store closed because the rent went up triple yeah and they retired no they’re, still they’re still working a little bit with ya lady, the things flipped yeah.
Now, they’re working for you and well with with me, writing receipts and collecting. You know something like that and soon talk about what happened from that those first early days mm. You know 19 like what what happened over that you know 15 year period, how did the business grow, sir evolve and mature okay um? Over the years, we’ve tried out different products, different price points, different marketplaces and kind of had to go along with the times and where the technologies have been moving from desktop to mobile, to free returns, return shippings, all things have the picture.
Quality has to be really amazing, especially if you’re selling a $ 5,000 item. So we started hiring photographers going to different, shows and vegas atlanta different places to to get new brands. That would be ready for online and at this time a lot of the malls and brands were opening their own storefronts kind of competing with us. That makes sense, and that made a lot of stores close so mom and pops.
It became rare to have like a native family-run business and let alone being online. The dynamic is a little different because you’re not touching the product you’re shipping instead, so it becomes like almost like a catalog business, but a lot of the brand’s want you to maintain store Franz. They want you to go to trade, shows and still be in person. So over the years we found this different, different marketplaces, repeat: customers, brands that resonated and we’ve evolved to today, where we’re we have our own website and we’re on many marketplaces which marketplaces we’re on Amazon, which is one of our better ones that we do most of Our business and it’s really strict stringent policies to maintain turnaround with email messaging to products being, as is, and exactly what you’re selling and we’re happy to do.
So because, where you are very honorable in what we do and sell – and we want all the customers to know and have that exact thing that they’re ordering, so we’re really proud of that, when did you first get onto Amazon Amazon? We started about five six years ago and it transformed our business yeah yeah we’re doing many more sales, our Christmas December time as fantastic, and it beats going to a store yeah, I’m sitting all day waiting for someone to walk in because we reach the whole world.
What differentiates you as a vendor online? What what makes you special? Yes couple things the way we curate our stuff, it’s like a gallery of items and we have a lot of limited edition pieces and we have new stuff. So we not only have this amazing piece still that might be from the special season from last season and no one has it anymore and that someone’s looking for it. But it’s new and it’s in the original packaging and it comes with all its wealth bill bells and whistles anything that it should come with.
So it’s a way that people can trust our goods with tags and dust bags and and we ship it beautifully as well, and and how does that translate online? You know like, like you know, when you’re dealing with such demanding customers, people who are used to going to the Four Seasons who are used to kind of having their every whim met. Yes, how does it like translate to e-commerce kind of impersonal? You know it could be, it could be.
I like that. I have contact and communication with these buyers and discussed they killed, call me or whoever and have someone actually pick up the phone they’re so shocked. It’S amazing when they call – and I actually pick up and explain, answer all their questions. They love it. So, there’s that level of intimacy and all and communication, which is key and it’s different than calling a department store and getting the runaround or being put on hold for 20 minutes or whatever yeah.
I that’s my favorite. The discerning client is a favorite of mine and developing that relationship and continuing it so that I know next season or the next collection that comes in that I can reach out to that person and they’ll be excited to hear from me. Is there a bit of that, like you might call or text or whatsapp sure, absolutely personalized, yeah cuz? That makes that differentiates me from I’m shopping somewhere else, yeah yeah.
That brings us to me. Yes, what in the world sounds like you’re, a very successful businesswoman? Well, thank you. You’Ve been able to kind of take a family business and bring it into the 21st century. What can i, what can busy do for you? Well, I had so many good recommendations and referrals to come to you and since the class I’ve met even more people that have taken your class and known you, and I find your class to be the next step for us in expanding the social media presence.
Utilizing Facebook, as the main cog in the wheel and seeing how that will translate onto because online sales is what we do I’d like that and I think you’re what you do is perfect for our business in translating a high-end fashion, easy capturable social presence into sales Were you feeling a little captive to Amazon? Perhaps yes, talk about that like what they’re sort of what give, I guess, maybe what giveth can be taken away? Is that sort of how it felt it just feels like? I don’t want to be tied down and I would like the potential to grow a similar business on my own.
That has that I’m in control of right and explain what that means. For someone who isn’t in the e-commerce business. What does it mean to be in control of Amazon? Requires you to use UPC codes to use certain product details, to update your the catalog to use certain images and it’s a very stringent business seller performance that they expect from you, which is fine and it keeps everyone up to par.
But certain things that I’d like to sell may not have a UPC code, but I love the designer from Columbia and I would love to use her products, but she doesn’t have that code so that limits what I can sell to the world. So I see working with you as a potential of expanding the online business, the bag, lady shop site and being able to sell other products that I adore and that I have limits with on Amazon yeah.
That’S definitely one really interesting limitation. I mean another one with Amazon is when folks go to an amazon landing page with your product. Yeah amazon owns that traffic cause the data about that traffic. They don’t share that data. They don’t let you track that customer. You can’t retarget that customer you’re really limited and absolutely with that yeah. So if someone visits that landing page with your product and doesn’t buy, you have no way of advertising to them again.
Yes, that’s a big one if they were to go and visit that same product on your homepage on your website. You could absolutely and so driving traffic from ads on facebook to your home page versus an Amazon landing page allows you for share our sales, 100 % and so part of what I think. The opportunity that you see is to kind of own your destiny. A little bit more yes and I adore that relationship. I want to be in touch with these customers, they’re, essentially mine, and I would like to have that discussion with them and send them newsletters and all the latest yeah.
It would be great – and I mean you know somebody who’s looking at a one or two or three thousand dollar bag isn’t necessarily going to buy on the first visit right. You know so so you can expect them to kind of shop around a little bit, and so it’s particularly important with that kind of purchase which isn’t going to be an impulse, buy that you’re able to have build up a relationship, and it’s very very hard to Do that on Amazon, absolutely Lilley captive to their world the other thing about Amazon that we talked a little bit about when we were first kind of getting to know each other is what I sort of mentioned to you.
Is that what Amazon giveth Amazon can taketh away? Yes, which is to say that Amazon will drive traffic to your product pages through their search? Yes, but they control everything. How much traffic you get, of course, and if they decide another vendor is who they want to get traffic to or that they’re going to start selling, which they do they compete with your own statistics. You know those bags themselves or a knockoff version, mm-hm or they’re going to make you start to pay for what you’re getting now for free.
All of those become inhibitors to your growth start and risks for your business yeah. So there’s just a lot of risk. That’S kind of built in to relying on any one digital blog for your company’s future, absolutely put all your eggs in one basket and it’s not to say that there aren’t risks associated with Facebook. It’S just that you’re diversifying the risk by. If you have a good blog going with Facebook and it’s generating you traffic there and you have Amazon and then you have eBay, and maybe you have some other blogs going as well and then you have direct traffic and you have the direct relationship yeah.
Then you have a diversified business that could survive if Amazon changes its policies or start sending you less traffic and so forth, and then you also as you explore these new blogs can grow. Yes, what have you learned so far that you think is going to make a difference for your business, because this is so retail focused? I adore the look-alike audience aspect of the Facebook campaign. What’S it look like audience good question, you utilize an existing targeted audience that you have data from and you filter it through and it they create a symbiotic audience.
That means I’m a similar to audience. Okay and I’m really a like the idea that I’m going to learn who my audience is, his Facebook is so massive and it goes from grandmother’s to tweens and all in between, and I’m really curious to see that, because that’s really that will tell me the next Phase of this adventure in business is who, targeting for I’ll, go and buy leggings for that tween. If that’s my new customer that I know is going to be purchasing for me.
So it’s a great tool. I’M really excited to learn that and get the data from the Facebook. You know that Facebook, you know, does someone who likes coach also, like Gucci, does it work that way or is someone who likes Gucci, also like whatever this is Mary friends Mary Francis? Are there like partisans, like somebody who likes this designer, doesn’t like that kind of group? Yes, it groups for sure, but it’s fashion.
So it’s multi-level and there’s something that you’ll do during the day that maybe on a weekend or an event that you’ll need something else or – and you have ideas about those groupings right just from years of experience, absolutely it’s a different population. Have you gone into audience, insights and tested those assumptions? I started a little bit, but I’m really excited to delve in there and it would be really fun yeah to do that yeah.
We could even do it together, but what we could do is Facebook. Has this amazing tool, it’s called audience insights and basically leverages the data from two billion people and you can put in their interests like Gucci. Yes and then you can see according to Facebook’s data people who, like Gucci, also tend to like X yeah, and we can actually test some of your knowledge. So you know what we might have to do when I have to do a little quiz, okay and see if we could like test you and see.
If, ladies I’m excited, I can pass the Facebook test uh-huh all right. So, let’s project forward. Okay, it’s graduation! Yes, you’re at the end of this first stage of your journey is hack. The end min is 12 12 week journey with us together. What do you imagine you’ll say to your fellow graduates as you’re, giving your graduation speech? Well, that’s a good projection. I hope everyone’s happy and healthy and growing in their business at that time and that we’ve made good relationships.
That will because to me that’s one of the most important things as the relationships with people. I love creating new ones and helping people need others and to bring traffic to the website. That’S the main goal and to translate that into sales. That would be the greatest right talk a little bit about some of the people. You’Ve met some of the peers, the the other business owners that you’ve met. Yes, I’ve met and know Julia who’s, a realtor.
I love the class also because it’s so varied with so many different types of people and types of industries and levels. So that’s been great. Anthony is selling products on Amazon as well, and he’s he’s was interesting to get to know. Carmen Tati is a great role model, there’s a lot of great people in the class, so how you know it’s possible that Amazon could go away tomorrow? You know how is busy at preparing you for that with digital marketing and media, there’s that blog through Facebook to get quality audience the same.
That Amazon captures the two billion that are on Facebook or would be captured with digital marketing, and I want to learn how to do that with your class properly and funnel that information and make it into great sales yeah. And I guess another way to talk about. It’S like right now. What percentage of your sales are coming through Amazon versus, say your website or eBay, a majority I’d say: 60 percent is an Amazon sale and if you could, if, in a in an ideal world, what percentage would be, what would your ideal percentage be website versus Amazon? 90 % website would be ideal, so right now, you’re at is it 40 % on your website or less less? What is it on your website minimal? Got it so right now: you’re like below 5 % on your website and 60 % on Amazon yeah, and your goal is to get to 90 % on your web absolutely and 10 % everywhere else.
Yes, so what is your plan to get from under 5 % to 90 %, starting with your cloths, and to see what that will bring and tapping into the market that Facebook has to offer and how will Facebook help you get there? How will Facebook help you get more sales directly on your website? I really think it’s a powerful tool because you can see the behaviors the interest capture their eyes in a way that in article and really targeted ways right and then drive them to your drive to the website and collect their contact information.
So you can stay in touch absolutely so I guess the the way that the path there is to use or leverage the audience on Facebook, sir, to make them aware of you, mm-hmm collect their contact, information yeah and then begin a direct selling relationship kind of the The idea – and I guess that’s what and that’s what biz hack is teaching you how to do absolutely great yeah I’ll get you there. I hope. So, although ninety percent – I don’t know well, let’s increase it yeah well, you know, what’s going to happen, is we’ll keep your ebay portion the same okay and we’ll make the other portions so large yeah.
Then it will just dwarf the existing. So your business will become massive. That would be fantastic. Then it will become like a hundred million dollar business. Can you imagine by the way, do you know of anyone else who’s doing what you’re doing? That’S the thing I am not in the you’re one of the first people in my new networking journey trying to meet like-minded entrepreneurs that are doing what I’m doing.
I know a few, but they also sell this bad back, and so I need to know, of course, many in the business, but not quite that are on Amazon, some sell, diaper mats that are organic things like that very specified. Not I don’t know anyone that has like a collection, so you don’t know another bag. Lady person, I know mmm, no, I don’t it’s pretty wild. Actually it is so what you’re doing seems like. Why aren’t there like a million bag? Ladies, I think there are, and they might not have the same collection or breath of online presence, or there may be relationships that you’ve developed that are hard to manage relationships, because these designers won’t necessarily make their collections available to those other folks.
It’S just varied. Some. Don’T have the storefront, some don’t have the connection, there’s different levels. Yeah, you know you’ve heard of drop shipping right. I love drop shipping and and you’re a but you’re, but you also have a large inventory, correct, yeah. How large is like in terms of dollars? How I couldn’t even but a lot Millions there’s dollars in there.
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It cannot thank you all enough for coming today and I’m thrilled that we’re Able to have this gathering under these circumstances today we’re going to be Talking about your business alive during Coe bid 19 and we’re going to talk about Different ways in which, in which you guys can sort of cope with this Difficult moment and different tips and tools and resources that are available, To you for helping to deal with this kind of unprecedented crisis, I wanted to Just talk a little bit about what you can expect from today’s session, really Appreciate it, if you can stay till the end, I know this hour of time is Incredibly valuable to you and I’m going to make sure to give you as much as I can.
During this hour, um we’re going to talk with three different businesses to get Some tips from the trenches of what’s working and not for some of these other Companies in town – these are all three of them – are retail or storefront businesses? These are businesses that actually run physical operations. Um not too, unlike Biz hack Academy, which has been traditionally an in-person training, Academy we’ve now converted completely online and you’ll, see some really Creative ways in which these businesses are doing the same, I’m going to share with You three, you know, really simple, but I think important marketing principles.
That, I hope, will help you adapt to this sudden shift in consumer behavior and I’Ll talk a little bit about what that shift is and then what those principles That I would recommend you keep in mind as you’re thinking about what the heck To do with your yourself in your business and then finally um we have Collected a tremendous number of resources to help small businesses Weather the storm we’re going to have a representative from miami-dade County on The call who’s going to share some of the general small business resources.
That the local state and federal government is making available and then We’Ve actually curated a list of digital marketing resources, a lot of Software companies, Google, Facebook, are making available resources and funding To help small businesses – and this is a great opportunity for you to take Advantage of that, for those of you who don’t know me already, my name is Dan Gretch and I’m the founder of busy AK Academy, my background is actually as a Journalist and I was for many years on public radio – I was the news director at Wlr n Miami Herald News, I hosted a show on public radio called under the Sun.
I Was also in marketplace, the national business show. So for me, this kind of Setting is very reminiscent of a hour-long call-in radio show and so in Many ways that structured this in a similar way, We’Ve already solicited through a survey that many of you filled out and thank You for filling that out some of your input on what’s going on and then we Have lined up several special guests: three different businesses, an accounting Representative who we’re going to be hearing from during this hour, so it’s Kind of like a little radio show I was part of a Pulitzer Prize winning team When I was back at the Miami Herald kind of one of the, I call it the award for Being in the right place at the right time, but a highlight of my journalism, Career and then I transitioned more recently into communication and Marketing for businesses, where I’ve worked both at two software startups and A billion-dollar energy company and I’m a proud for instant and FIU graduate go Panthers, so I’ve been in this community for more than two decades and my attempt Here is to give back.
This community has been incredibly good to me to my family To my business – and my hope is that you will get as much out of this next hour. As possible, that won’t be helpful to you, as you guys are figuring out how to Weather this storm, so a little bit more about biz hack business hack, was named a Start-Up of the Year in 2019 by the Miami Herald – and we were part 10,000 small business accelerator program, we’ve partnered with the major Educational institutions in South Florida, including the idea Center at Miami-Dade College start-up FIU and the innovation hub, a Broward College.
We have Dozens and dozens of community partners in the nonprofit foundation and business Space and I think really our signature achievement and what makes me so proud. Of what biz has accomplished, and also the impact that we’re having in this Community is we run a 12-week program, that’s about helping businesses generate Leads and sales online and last year we had more than 100 businesses run through The program they spend $ 17,000 in advertising online and they made more Than half a million dollars for the local economy, this is something that it Drives everything we do.
We are basically here to help you learn how to market Yourself and communicate about yourself online and make more money by doing so. Well and the folks that we’re going to have here, starting with Rafael Sabino of the Sun Dance Studios are all folks who’ve gone through our program and then taken What they learned and used it for their businesses, Rafael Sabino, is from one of Our earliest cohorts of biz hack, he runs a dance studio called a Sun Dance Studios in Doral Florida in Doral and they’ve really been very aggressive.
And creative in turning ascendance, which has always been you, know an in person Dance studio into a virtual one, I’m actually happy to say that my Seven-Year-Old daughter, whose own dance studio here where I live in Surfside Wasn’T offering online classes got a chance to enjoy a jazz class last night. And she was just beaming afterwards, so um, you know here are examples of some of The posts that they’re putting on social media as they communicate about this Change um, one of the things that I think is really cool about.
Rafael, he’s, very Tech savvy is a former Amazon employee and their communications are almost Exclusively text message and through an app and so We’Re going to invite him now to chat and one of the things that he’ll talk about. Is how he’s communicating with his parents so Rafael, Sabina, welcome. Thank You so much for joining us dad. How are you guys doing today? Good Good good so raft: let’s talk about how you have Changed your products and services as a result of Corona 19 Copa dad so so for Us it’s kind of a difficult transition right, we depend on being in person and Massive gatherings to run our business right, Oh, since Miami Papa shut down, there are school programs.
You know we, we kind of Have to the simple thing for us to do was to follow that’s right and at that Point you know you have to way to to to continue delivering. You know, classics. Right and that’s when, when, when we figure well, we will have to move to Digital, it’s going to be a little odd at the beginning, but but if we get people To we did like a little NBP, I caught it right through Instagram live classes.
Right product: yes, yes and quick, quick for those of you don’t know the idea of A minimally Viable Product is spending as little time and money as possible to Test the concept to see if it works go ahead right exactly so so the idea Was to kind of test the concept of online through Instagram live classes; Right and then eventually, if we get with reception, moves some of our classes, Fully online and and obviously it’s not going to be, as you know, as profit, was it Might be to run our in-person classes, but in this time you just have to find a Way to kind of mitigate your losses right, so that was kind of a deployment What has worked and what has not in terms of the new products and services That you’re offering so in general, I think our so we have two different Programs right we have our company, Kitt’s and, and those have been you know, In general, they’re like seven and up I’ll, say seven years old enough and that Has been really successful like since day one you know the kids know the Platforms, they’re very you, know, they’re on Instagram all day, so for them it was An easy transition right now with the when we run into a little bit of an Issue is with the little ones right, because we we did pin on the mom to be Able to manage the technology, so we can deliver the class right now.
So you know We had questions like oh hi. What is Instagram life? You know like what I do. I Have to download to see that right. So so there has been some, even though Instagram is fairly popular. You know some people simply don’t use it as much Right and they’re not as familiar right so so that has been definitely a Challenge and then on the second phase right, where we kind of our Instagram Classes were open for the community, so anyone could join on the second phase of The test we we kind of open our own classes, but only to our customers right So we offer more than a hundred classes every week.
So how do I get people to be In the right, Simca or Chad, row or virtual classroom, you know what, while We’Re running through before classes at the same time, so you know people joining Into the wrong classroom – and you know not showing up on time, not using their Their microphones so a couple questions you know I use so when viz hack, Transitioned online we used zoom, which is what we’re using right now for this Gathering you, who actually were featured by Google in a national ad campaign for Your skilled use of Google AdWords to grow your business.
You guys have chosen To use a different tool, a tool that I wasn’t aware until you told me about it: Called Google meat, which is part of the hangout offering that they have but Specifically geared for like webinars and and online classes, you want to talk About Google meat and as well as the other technology tools that you’re using Like, for instance, your text messaging software, I’d love to hear more About what you’re, using to stay in touch with your your and communicate with your Your customers right so so I think it and you know nowadays are pretty much Two options right: you either go with zoom or you know: there’s Google Meads That it’s not as famous but for us it make more sense because behind Google me There’S an entire product called Google classroom.
Okay and Google classroom is Google’S effort to you know be able to share lessons from any teacher around The world right, so it doesn’t matter if you’re in the US or in the UK, you can Join a class on someone: that’s teaching online right um. So so, since we decided To use Google classrooms right that default, you know, meeting tool will be Google, meat, right and, and then what we do is we we’re hosting all of our Content right, so you know we, we ask our teachers to record themselves and do Their choreography right now, whatever we’re preparing for a recital right, we Have specific articles that we uploaded to Google classrooms right for the little Ones we upload and materials like you know something for them to draw.
Then mom Can print at home and they you know they can. You know, paint you know, be drawing Our butter in our painting, you know those kind of things right and also we We have, you know like messages for them right, like don’t don’t be sad, you know, We’Ll be back like at the end of the day, we wanted to keep the kids asses engage. As possible, right and Google classrooms set up help us out organize all the Content that we have by ages on by different classes – okay right, so your Classroom Google meet for the action, so Google classroom is the learning Management system to manage all the materials Google meet is how you’re Actually doing the live, chats and tell us about how you’re staying in touch via Text message right, so so the other thing you know, basically, we have everyone’s Email, right and and we can just send an email with the link of it to the Classroom from right, but honestly you know email, it’s 5050 right like it.
They May go into their spam box. They might give me their Spam email – because I don’t want to you – know – get emails from us. Whatever you Know like there’s like a Cillian things, I can go wrong with II right However, text messages is more direct. People usually only have one phone Number right and text messages are just you know, very personal right. So what we Do is every day around this time we send them a text message with the link to Their classroom, okay, so all they have to do, is just press on that right and and Open up their classroom and join the class, you know we’re just trying to make It as friction frictionless as possible, such a day.
They joined our online Classes, yeah, and I mean this is not a small task, because if you have a hundred Classes – and I would imagine hundreds and hundreds of parents that are to get them – The right link just in time is not a simple technical challenge, but you have That infrastructure built so that it’s yeah we had it so so every single class That we we have, we teach we group them. You know every student by class right And then we have the ability to message that class.
You know in a heartbeat, so What we do is we in in the backend of our of our software, we assign a link to The virtual classroom for each class and then you know three four hours before The classes system will automatically message them. You know with the location, Of their virtual meeting, on top of that, we we build in our website. We have a Schedule where people can just go in and and click on, you know they can just Filter by program, h or teacher – and they can find now the link to so we have a Couple of ways for them to kind of find that out perfect um lilia there was a Question about what phone number to dial in using! If you could put that into the Group chat that would be great and Andrea.
Richard was asking which text Messaging platform, are you using, so we use Twilio in our back-end to handle all Of our text messages and then we also are Our automation is powered by autopilot HQ Great so autopilot HQ is where the this is just for the for the folks on the Line is is the is where the automation is in the flows and the database of Customers is captain and Twilio is the the technology that actually enables the Text message, and then you also mentioned Google classroom for as an LMS and you Also mentioned Google Hangouts meet RAF, we’re going to move on, but please stay stay.
Close by because we’ll probably bring you into the conversation, you know, I we Have a capacity of a hundred people and we’re up to 96 I’m starting to get a Little nervous because we never expected this many folks to to join us. But Hopefully, hopefully everybody will anyway, you guys are here and that’s what Matters most so here we go, I’m going to just share my screen again, so I wanted To give you guys some data about how marketing has changed during coab in Nineteen, you know I was thinking about this marketing is about meeting your Customers where they are, what do I mean by that if your customers are on Instagram you meet them on Instagram, you communicate with them on Instagram.
If Your customers, like rap, said, prefer text message over email. You text message them And you figure out the tools to do that in an efficient way in a scalable way. That, in its essence, is what communications and marketing and digital Marketing is all about at its core. What makes this challenging in general is That people’s behaviors change with time so tick tock is in the platform that Young people love that wasn’t around even five years ago.
Snapchat emerged and became popular, and that was a little less popular Instagram. Has boomed so the landscape of how you communicate just during normal times, his Con stantly shifting – and this is hard for Resource contains too constrained, not necessarily marketing savvy small Businesses to keep up with koban nineteen Blew up this whole framework. People now have completely changed their behavior Overnight this lockdown in home this quarantine, if you will, has changed how All of us are behaving online and offline, and your marketing must change.
With it, I wanted to give a couple of examples of the profound ways in which People are now shifting their behaviors and how marketing has had to adapt with It so, as we all know, working from home is now the norm. We’Ve actually created a Tools sheet that we’re going to be sharing with you at the end of the Webinar with a list of some great tools that you can use if you’re in the Process of converting to telework that’ll be in an email follow-up for Everybody who registered for this um, not surprisingly internet usage, has Skyrocketed, which is putting a strain an internet download times, are slowing down.
Because of it, Facebook has seen a 50 % increase in messaging across all of its Platforms now remember: Facebook includes facebook, Messenger, Instagram messaging And whatsapp they own all of those and they’ve seen a 50 % increase in Communicating across their messaging platforms, but interestingly their online Advertising has plunged – and I have another slide that will help understand. That email, open rates have spiked people are sitting in front of their computers.
And they’re more attentive to their email and overall worldwide we’re seeing A 5 plus percent spike in email, open rates, so if it was in 20 percent before It’S a 25 percent now, in other words, now is a very good time for you to be email. Marketing the ads spend by in commerce companies has doubled, and I would expect That will increase even faster, so an e-commerce company is simply a company That sells online and obviously, if you sell online and now is your moment, You’Re going to spend even more on advertising to get to that audience that Is stuck at home and can’t go out to buy things now, b2b or business-to-business Companies, companies that sell to other companies um have traditionally relied On things like trade shows in person, meetings and phone calls for their sales.
Process, they’re increasingly now looking to digital marketing to help with that They have not been early adopters by and large b2b companies in the digital Marketing space but they’re now looking to places like LinkedIn and you know, Email marketing phone calls, of course, to start driving more of their sales. Um This is just a tiny slice of the changes that we’re starting to see. Um one point: I just wanted to make is, as with Facebook, while you’re seeing more usage, Of the platform you’re seeing a decrease in advertising on the platform as many Businesses don’t have a product to sell right now or that they’re not Comfortable with selling, during a time when everybody’s in crisis, so you’re Seeing a lot of people putting on pause, there are traditional campaigns and Starting to really promote what community service or resources that They’Re offering to help during this time, Jennifer Hudson mentioned that it’s Really nice news on email, she’s, a marketing and communications specialist So yeah absolutely email marketing is really having its moment right now by The way email, marketing and search engine optimization or the two most Profitable forms of advertising of digital marketing, so those of you who Think that email is dead.
It’S not true at all. It’S actually along with search Engine optimization, which is driving people to your website, the most Profitable form of marketing – and it’s even more so right now it’s getting a Huge boost right now, other platforms that like aren’t doing as well, are Things like and I’m talking now about, traditional platforms. Um, you know radio Which is largely listened to in the car is probably going to see a decrease in Listenership TV he’s going to see a spike in listenership Other types of advertising online through because someone’s called Over-The-Top through things like Netflix and variety, we’re going to see more Advertising on TV is people read more TV because their home all the time, Billboards like physical billboards on the highways – this is not a great time to Have a billboard on the highway.
I think this is actually going to be an Incredible moment for Direct Mail, you know just talking about traditional Marketing now you know people are at home, they’re, probably checking their Mail more closely, I think Direct Mail is going to be a great opportunity and Direct mail believe it or not, has seen a increase in its effectiveness in in the Last few years, because fewer people are using it so you’re in your mail boxes, Are less crowded your physical mail boxes, so Direct Mail is actually a Really great opportunity, by the way I wanted to also mention that you’re going to Be getting a link to this presentation in an email follow-up to everybody who Registered so you can take notes, of course, but you don’t need to you’ll, be Getting these slides shortly now there was a survey of almost 16,000 businesses, And this is a list of those businesses that have been most impacted by Cova That 19 nonprofits and charities, health and medical business management finance Beauty and personal care, on-demand media – that’s like Netflix, also social media, Readings, gifts and flowers, those are the ones that are seeing a boom in their Business there these are, these are industries that are right now, busier Than ever and enjoying a lot more business, the bad is real estate as a lot Of people hold off on big purchases, home improvement, same idea, home furniture, Same idea, so people right now are holding onto cash and avoiding big Purchases, just because we don’t know how long this is going to last Same thing with cars and automotive retail, a lot of these businesses are Shut some of the ideas that we’re going to be Talking about are ways that retailers can move into e-commerce, which we saw Are is having its moment, jobs and education and legal services with legal Services, you know, unfortunately bankrupt ajikko bankruptcy.
Attorneys are going to Have a field day um, my guess, is: divorce. Attorneys are going to probably have a lot. Of business coming up is we’re all stuck with our wives and husbands uh. We might Not have liked that much, you know there’s there, but other types of law: a Transactional law, for instance, litigation which involves having to be In a courtroom, that’s shut down, you know, they’re there different parts of them, What legal practice that are going to be struggling The the ugly travel and tourism they say that Florida is going to be the Most impacted by Koba 19 of any state in the country, and it’s because our travel Tourism industry is such a huge part of our local economy bars and restaurants.
Are shut down, we do have a restaurant owner anna robbins of two to two taco Who’S going to be presenting who’s actually seen a steady, steady flow of Business through her takeout offerings we’ll have her tell us about that. Momentarily, you know, live at entertainment, conferences, events, trade, Shows anything that involves in person is going to be struggling for a good While you know sports its kind of shocking to think about, you know major Sports teams shut down, you know the NBA canceled its season and so forth.
Fitness Um, I think, is going to be more of a mixed bag. You know, I think you know, for those Of us who have kids at home, who love dancing? You know Raphael hopefully, will be able to reach an audience that maybe doesn’t Live in Doral, but is thirsty for those kinds of classes that is now offering Building and construction and industrial and manufacturing so the point here is a Couple things number one: there is not one impact of kovat nineteen, it depends.
Based on the industry and even within industries like we talked about legal Services, it depends on which aspect you’re offering so you know if you’re in The fitness area, you know, as Michael pace, brought up pellet owned the online Platform and the at-home bikes, spin, bikes and other equipment is doing Well, Willie brought up that beauty and personal care or shut down indefinitely. Because we service the public, so beauty and personal care, that’s sold like Products based is going to do well, so if you have products that you’re selling They’Re doing very very well, but if you are like a nail salon, you’re in real Trouble so that’s another example of you know: And they, you know an area where, in the how in the beauty and personal There are some folks doing better than others.
Direct Mail area all brought up a point that it’s work. It works as long as we’re. Still delivering the mail and in some places in Europe, they’ve shut down mail. Delivery, so that is a risk that you might take if you do decide to go to the Direct mail route, but at least for now mail is still being delivered and I Think Direct Mail is definitely a marketing blog. You should be thinking About so I want to bring now Anna Robins from taco and if you could go ahead, And unmute yourself, um taco Anna Robbins, was part of our cohort 12.
The Most current cohort, she runs, and she was one of the she was behind the founding Of Koyo, taco and now her newest concept is a Cali Mexican. Restaurant called Taco it’s in North Bay Village, which is in basically in the north of Miami Beach. But along the barrier, islands and anna has been doing really well. With her takeout service they’re doing curbside takeout in boxes that are Actually, coronavirus safe and one of my favorite things, as I saw on her social Media, oh wait: you’re still you’re delivering margaritas.
Is there a maximum Quantity order so they’re now delivering margaritas to go something they weren’t Allowed to do before and they have a margarita bar and trust me. I think a lot Of people are taking advantage of that. So Anna welcome. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me no problem, so talk to us a little bit about the new Products and services that you’re offering to your customers around Takeout and delivery to help meet the demand for your.
You know: Mexican food Well, basically, we had to switch everything over to takeout and delivery. We decided to do an extra level of packaging. Those are the cardboard boxes. You’Re, seeing before we used to just use them for catering and big bigger orders, Now every order that’s placed in house whether it’s through the phone or Whether someone comes in comes in a box right, Oh sealed, with the box, and then we Put it inside the cardboard boxes, so people are feeling secure that their Food is safe, another switch to all to take out in delivery and kind of change.
Up our menu a little bit so items that don’t travel as well. We took off, we made A more consolidated menu to take pressure off the kitchen, because right Now we can only work with one cook at a time because of Labor issues and we are Still in the process of putting together a new menu with all of our larger Offerings with big boxes, big family-style, which we were doing in the Past so we weren’t promoting as much where you can order a box with a pound.
Of chicken and a dozen tortillas and all your sides and kind of build everything At home also working on combo boxes that will begin rolling out, so we can have Special of the week where you get maybe a quesadillas guac and chips and some Rice and beans trying to make it fun and, of course, very visual. What we’ve been Doing photo shoots and shooting articles and trying to get we’re getting ready to Launch all of our online campaigns and then we’ll start running digital ads for All that and also needing to launch online ordering, so all of these things Are kind of in the works with somebody maybe done by today, but it’s kind of a Lot when you have to change everything overnight, So once the online ordering is set up, we’ll run the odds when people see it They’Ll be targeted to our local community and they’ll, be able to click Go straight to our website and from there order their boxes for either Takeout and delivery, and trying to do all this to steer them away from Ordering with ubereats and post means, while we love our delivery partner, they Do take 30 % so right now it’s not the time for that.
So it’s also educating our Clients through messaging that in the most PC way to sway them to order Directly in house, and not order through the delivery partners, you know that That’S actually a really good point, because it brings up something that Marcelo Salib asked, which is: how is this impacting your margins, so you’re selling The piece you broke that protect okay, um. How is this impacting your margins? Your Selling the the same, you know the same price for the food, but You have now the box that you need to deliver it in sometimes post mates to Share the fee with how is this for your margins, so we right now we’re including A service charge that we were, including for table service, that was going mostly To the servers now the service charges being included, some of that is going Back to the house to cover things like extra packaging and just the expenses of Staying open without having the dining room open, I mean this is we’re only on The second weeks, accountant, still in the process of analyzing, all of that yeah It’S going to do you expect the margins to be lower or with the fee you’re going to Basically make the same amount per order.
I think that’d be walk. Well, I’ve said it Right, how much is the fee per order for years or based on is like a percentage Of the price, it’s a percentage of the price yeah to 18 %. Some of that goes Towards the server or towards the team whoever’s working that day and some Because some people come in and they don’t I’ll leave a tip when they get a Takeout order and they’re not realizing right now that my staff, that is actually Coming to work – and you know taking that risk being out in the public when they Are coming to work that they deserve? You know to get tipped like they’re, their Hourly is only as a minimum wage tipped employee hourly at 5:50.
So if people, if People don’t leave a tip for them, then they’re really not making anything that I have to subsidize that again, that’s hitting the margins, so the service Charge is also ensuring that the staff is being taken care of, and there I Haven’T had any complaints, I mean all all take it off. If a customer, it doesn’t Agree to it, but from what I’m seeing they agree, and then they also tip extra And they’re very they’re very grateful that we’re open that were there feeding Them that we have stepped up our packaging, they love the boxes, they feel Secure with this, so I haven’t had any pushback there and if anything, people Are trying to support they’ll come and they’ll order, a shot of tequila or Margarita, while they’re waiting for their for their box, we’re also now Selling the margaritas by the leader, the margaritas we have set up in a draft Machine so they come and they’ll take a leader home and put In the fridge, that’s awesome, you know they Harbor Islands, where you’re based Has been supportive of you know if a village, I’m sorry North Bay, Village, Sorry, North Bay Village, where you’re based is he’s, been very supportive of You could you talk a little bit about the local town is, is being helpful and In turn, because you’re obviously going to be servicing for take-out and pick up The local, exactly I mean from the beginning, the first day when we got the Announcement that we had to close the dining room, the mayor showed up to order.
Food for his family – and I actually mentioned to him that we Actually he he came two days before the whole shutdown happened and said: yeah I’Ll be in your commercial, so if you see the little clip that you would pose it That you showed at the beginning, that’s on Facebook, in a ton Instagram in the First, clip the second, the second scene for bringing food out to an SUV. That’S Actually, the mayor of North Bay, Village, Brad Latham who’s been very, very Supportive yeah: it’s when he’s going to be reposting it that all of North Bay Village has we have a Facebook group for Northland residents, so there’s a Facebook group, the town hall and the mayor, supportive of you, you had also Mentioned that are they making available to you, email addresses as well.
Yes, they Are they’re in angel me that well they I mean this was even before this epidemic. They said that it was just public information if I want the email Addresses of all the residents of North Bay Village so I’ll be getting that so That we can start targeting and now that that’s you know the point here – sometimes Is again no problem? Well, what we’re going to move on, just as we Have a lot to cover, but Anna stick around.
Thank you very much one other Thing I just wanted to mention is that a lot of towns and municipalities are Looking for ways to support their local small businesses, especially ones that do Geographically, based off retail and storefront, and so if you had you can’t Get it if you don’t ask, and so and I was bringing up the fact that they have an Email list, which we know now is much more effective than ever before.
That they’re willing to share that she can then use for her email, marketing, um She also can leverage that for Facebook advertising Google advertising targeted Ads for folks in the local community, Marcelo Salif also asked about geo Fencing so geo fencing just means carding targeting a geographic area, so That only people in that geography who live in that geography would actually See the ad and that’s also another thing – that’s done through Facebook and Instagram advertising, as well as Google, Adwords I sing so you have a tremendous number of tools at your fingertips.
We focus our 12-Week program on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram advertising and the geofencing Is a big part of that, so we show businesses how they can do it, but you Can do it in a lot of other places as well, so wanted to now take a minute. You Know I’ve been reflecting I’ve been speaking to a lot of business owners and I wanted to reflect a little bit on some marketing tips and marketing principles.
That, I feel, could be very helpful in terms of thinking about what you’re Doing in this moment, so the first one is, as we discussed earlier, customer Behavior has changed. Fundamentally, people are teleworking, student students, Are home from school and what I’ve heard a lot is people say things like Why, and by the way Chiara, I realize I forgot to get to your question about the Margarita delivery, so I hopefully Ana Robbins, if you could answer in the chat, Chiara was asking: did you have to get any special licensing to be able to Actually do your margaritas for delivery, if you could just put that in the chat That would be great and and angel Gonzalez asked earlier.
About which crm that Raphael used and the CRM he used is called autopilot HQ So we know that customer behavior is changed fundamentally and I put and Maybe forever the reason: why is, for instance, even though you it seems like a Lot of people buy online Walmart is much larger in terms of its retail sales, then Amazon is but what’s going to happen, is more people are going to try Amazon out Online purchasing out for the first time because they have to, and I believe that That’S going to cause a permanent shift from retail to e-commerce because once They’Re on the platform, many that will probably become Prime members they’re Now, locked into that way of buying that many of us quote early adopters have Already done same thing with telework, I don’t think everyone’s going to rush back.
Home rush rush back to the office when this all ends. You know, Teleworking, I think, is now going to become a much more standard practice. Across businesses of all size, it’s more convenient in some cases, if it doesn’t Impact productivity or businesses see ways to have people spend two or three Days at the office and the rest of the time working from home, they’re building Right now, all the infrastructure that will allow for that and they’re building The processes to allow for that, I just don’t see how that that’s going to change.
When, suddenly, you know everyone’s going back to work and rush, I just don’t see. That happening learning online is another one. Many of Us are taking an opportunity now to learn online. Even those of us like me, Who grew up in in-person education, so learning online and the business that I Run which is online education? I think people who are in my target demographic Which is 30 and above but people who do not grow up with digital.
I think they’re Going to become more and more comfortable with digital marketing, with learning Online and learning digital marketing online so because we’re seeing this Fundamental shift that may or may not be a forever shift in customer behavior. You Must change your marketing, so you must look at how you’re communicating with Your customers and make sure that you’re communicating with them to where they Are I would also add that now is not the time for the hard sell? You know most People are still kind of getting used to this new normal, really thinking more in Terms of how can you help and how can you communicate in a way? That’S helpful.
To them, rather than the hard sell tip number two is start with your audience. What your audiences need right now, so, if you’re trying to think about what the Heck, can I talk about online? What how the heck can I avoid just going dark and By the way, no business should go dark, even if you’re not able to do work right. Now, if you’re a you know a retail store that doesn’t have an e-commerce Component, you know when there’s a business in our program right now that Runs malls right, yeah, there’s not a heck of a lot for a mall to do right now that Doesn’T mean that you should not be communicating with your target customer So, for instance, if you’re a mall and you have hundreds of businesses that are Working with you, you could talk to them about tools to move from retail, to E-Commerce or you could talk to them about some resources for retailers that Are available so there’s a lot that you can do to communicate with your Customers that goes beyond just the direct product or service that you sell.
So really think about what is your audience or What are your audience’s need and there are different audiences and then try to Serve those audiences, and one big recommendation I would make – is do not Forget about communication with your employees, even if your folks are working From home, or not working at all, if you want them to come back to you after this You must be communicating with them and a near-daily basis, and for most of you, Everyday, you want them to know that you’re there that you’re thinking about Them and that you’re keeping them abreast of how this larger situation is.
Impacting their individual lives and then finally, you know Ana Robbins Doesn’T right now have a way to take orders online? She had been relying on Post maids and other options because she was primarily a in person. You know sit Down fast casual restaurant now is the moment that Ana can pick up that project. That was probably sitting on the shelf and get a really good online. Her online Ordering system up and running get an app going, get a process and a system to Do it efficiently? This is the moment for those of you who need to revise your Website who want us get started with your social media.
Now is the moment to Do it dust off those plans and get started communicating through these Digital tools, many many small businesses – have tended to be really slow to doing. This kind of thing – and now is the moment to do it, so I wanted to bring Andre inna From post, our Pilates on a hundred, you know was part of cohort seven. She is the Ceo of a international organization called pole star that not only runs four Or five studio hosts Pilates studios in the Miami area, but also is the number One educator worldwide of Pilates instructors and they provide a Certification, so she is kind of two sides of the business.
She has one side: Of the business which is offering classes – and you can see that they’re Offering now Virtual mat classes, but they also are an educator kind of like Biz hack, the does online and in-person education, and so you can see here that They’Re now giving a 50 percent discount on almost all of their Online courses, Andre inna, welcome hi Dan hi guys thanks for having me how Are you good to see you? You know, we’ve talked a lot about you.
Know the how you know a restaurant is transitioning, you know how Rafael is Transitioning to online classes, um, let’s talk about your post, our educational Component, you’ve graduated more than 10,000 Pilates instructors worldwide. How Are you guys shifting more aggressively into online Education well um. Thankfully we have a learning management. System that we’ve had for a couple of years now, and what most of so just to Give a little background on our courses: they’re Pilates teacher training courses, So most of our teacher trainings were used to being on on-site.
We would meet Every month for a weekend a month and have the labs and all of that and what We’Ve done with our current cohorts we’re running around, I want to say 25 Courses of people right now across the USA, what we’ve done is, depending on what Module they’re in right now we meet online to cover the theory, part of the Training and we’ve postponed all the labbing exercises until we can all meet In sight to test out the equipment and work on each other as it as a group, yeah And then what we’ve been doing is we’ve been focusing on our grants, the ten Thousand people worldwide and trying to see types of offering we can give them That’S considered continuing education for them to apply with their client base.
So these people are people who already know their body are know how to Use the equipment know enough about the basic Pilates theory that we can just Through virtual classes and workshops continue to educate them on new new ways, Of working with a population or how to work online or what things they should How do new ways or things that they can apply to this new virtual delivery of Courses, so are you seeing an uptick in the purchase of these courses? What are You seeing more people buying online courses from you.
Yes, so we’ve seen a Little spike on our courses right now we have around 20 virtual courses currently On in stock and what we did, what we’ve been doing is going back to the basics. Of our core curriculum and trying to dissect that and convert those into Virtual training courses to offer them to either new Pilates students or people Who wan na you know have been have had haven’t, had any training in a little While and are now that they have spare time, they can go in and read some Courses online, that’s great.
Another question I had for you is you’ve. Also Moved your student, you, you run one of the studios and you’ve moved your Pilates Reformer classes, reformer is a piece of equipment that you use to do. Pilates to mat classes. How is that going? How is that transition? It’S good. We have Five studios in the US and all our clients have been really really thankful. For our offerings, we are offering two Classes in the mornings and took classes in the evenings, mostly mat classes and Then, for those clients who have a have the equipment at home, we meet depending On it’s a small group, it’s a group of seven people we meet depending on on Their schedule we host a class with equipment online as well, and are these Classes you pay for a la carte, or these are for your members.
We most of our Members have kept their memberships, so we haven’t had to do much there that Were just there they’re happy to continue with their membership and as Long as we hold classes for them every day, another thing that we’ve been doing Is we created a new pricing offering for those people who were currently on a Groupon package, so that they can continue once their wants, their Groupon Is over, they can continue to purchase something that’s more.
It’S a lower cost. And what a regular membership would be right and unlimited for ninety five Dollars a month, so I wanted to take a second thank you. So much under you know. For for that insight, I want to take a second and just make a plug for our Three small businesses, if each of you guys could please in the chat, put your Website and so that people know where to go if they want to do business with you, Um one thing to think about is you know for Andrei Nina and for Raphael um.
They Are right now in a place where they can serve? You, no matter where you are in the County so, like I’ve always wanted to send my seven-year-old daughter to Raphael’S dance classes, and now I can so please support them and everybody else. Who runs a small business in town? Please feel free to put that in the chat as Well, um now is the moment guys to supports our small businesses. This is Going to be brutal, you know for Raps business for Andrea in This business, it looks like you and Robbins might be able to kind of Make it work as long as she’s allowed to continue to deliver, but this is the Moment now to support small businesses to try to do direct business, even if It’S a little less convenient to call versus using post mates.
You know please Do everything you can guys to support these small businesses, because I can Tell you as a small business owner in South Florida. This is a really hard and Scary time and your support is just incredibly important to us um I wanted To now welcome Rachel Cohen, she works with miami-dade, Commissioner Aileen Higgins, from district 5 Eileen was actually a graduate of the biz hack Program she then used what she learned to become an instructor in the biz hack, Program my first lead instructor and then because she’s, a digital marketing, Whiz leveraged that to become elected as a miami-dade County Commissioner, so she Was so generous to send Rachel Cohen and she’s created Rachael has a resource List for small businesses – all of you guys, are going to receive a copy of that As part of the email, a link to it and that list is constantly being updated, I’M Rachel Cohen, if we’re a small business, what message would you want to Send to us about what’s available hello, everybody.
Thank you so much for having Me so what we usually do in our district and district five, if you don’t know, Includes Miami Beach Little Havana downtown Brickell core away a lot of Really small local businesses, we send out a monthly resource, every single Month through email, I’m called strictly business where we put together a list of Classes going on mostly free programming grants loan applications, things like That, because the situation is changing so rapidly and more organizations are Coming forward with resources, we decided that this Google Doc that you’re all Going to be receiving was the best way to consistently update all of our Business owners, what I would say is that our local organizations are doing a Really good job by providing free consultations and assistance.
With loan applications in the resource guide, it’s it’s organized by local state. And federal for our office, specifically, we work a lot with Prospera to help our Hispanic business owners they do a lot of free work, a lot of free consultations, And sessions with people and they’re still open for business Most of our organizations have like most of your businesses adapted and realized. Ways that they can do consultations through webinars or phone or FaceTime They’Re there for you, I have most of their links in the guide and I would Just encourage you, if you’re struggling, if you can’t figure out what to do next, Please reach out to them because their that’s! What they’re there for Other things that we’re working on in our office is just working with the sea.
And federal representatives of this area so working a lot with Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez and congresswoman Donna shillelagh to provide more programs, so I Know on April, first Donna shillelagh is is hosting a town. Hall, where she’ll be discussing the loan applications with a representative from The SBA so we’re going to be promoting different things on all levels of Government that are going on to help you in this in this resource guide, I will Post my email in the chat – and I can add any of you to our normal newsletter list – That will be sending out, but this hold up and you’ll receive after this is Going to be constantly changing and constantly being updated, so please feel Free to send me any suggestions, if you know of any resources that are included, On it, please send them my way and I will update it as I get it.
So, thank you yeah. Thank you so much for the time and obviously for the work that You guys are doing. I wanted to share um, you know, biz hack. Does digital marketing Training, and so I wanted to share a couple of resources that are specific to Digital marketing that could be helpful to you guys so Facebook has launched a Hundred million dollar a small business grant program, I’m Assuming that most of this money they haven’t given a ton of detail around it, Yet, but I’m assuming most of that money is going to be advertising credits, but Facebook is getting a bump in usage, so if you have something to advertise this Small business grants program can help you.
Of course, you do need to know how to Advertise that’s what we teach Facebook also has created a business resource hub Which is a full list of all their resources for small businesses? Google Has done something similar, they call it the resource hub. They have a tremendous Amount of tip sheets and resources for you, I’ve been waiting to see if Google Was going to announce something similar like a small business fund or small Business grants and I haven’t seen it yet so I would expect that that will Come out shortly, it seems like you know.
Google does rely so much on businesses. Like yours for their advertising, I’d be surprised if they didn’t do something. Too um, but it’s not just Google in Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, HootSuite, Shopify, Moz we transfer box and more have been offering free reduced-price services in Some cases, funds for small businesses, we’ve been collecting a list of all of Those at Tribeca comm slash Cove at 19, similar to the list of resources that Rachel is doing for state, federal and and local resources for small businesses.
We’Re collecting digital marketing resources – and this is leads to my bonus – Tip of the day, which is if you’re using a software, ask them about their koban 19 Program, though, like if you’re, using a CRM or if you’re using you, know a Technology platform, if you say that then look I’m a small business, I’m struggling Right now, what can you do for me? I almost guarantee that they’re going to come.
Up with something maybe forgiving your fee for a few months, it’s worth the call It’S worth the Google search to see what they’re doing, because just about every Software company is offering something right now and just don’t be Shy to ask it now is the moment I wanted to you know: III, I am just inundated and Overwhelmed with an enormous amount of amazing responses, thank you all of you, Who filled out our survey so many insights and ideas and questions that we Definitely can address in this first webinar, but our plan is to do more.
I did Want to share one thing from Michelle Benesh. I think that that’s the way you Pronounce it from menu men, she wrote hoping I’m the last menu company Standing so we will gain market share. So the point there is that this is a moment. Obviously, of a challenge, but also of opportunity and we’re going to strike that Theme here in a minute as we wrap up so the first thing I wanted to do is I Wanted to announce that we’re going to be doing another community webinar next Week it’s Wednesday at 12:30 p.
M. Brewster Kahle has so generously agreed. He’S a branding expert, we’re calling it what now So, if you’re interested, please click that link and sign up, send it to friends. We actually hit capacity, which I never expected that we were going to do. We had More than a hundred people who wanted to join us and we’ll find a solution for That biz hack is also still in business. We’Ve moved all of our program offerings Online, we have traditionally done in-person classes, we’ll transition back To in-person, when the moment arrives, but we’re going to be continuing our online for Our 12-week program through online – I do not want to be selling right now, but I Do want to say that I am a small business.
I’M scared, like many of you, About what’s going to happen next, if you think, there’s someone that you Know who could benefit from learning how to market themselves online how to build Up their digital presence, that’s a link to our syllabus and our application and Then finally, I wanted to leave with a note our lead instructor for the current Business, a 12-week program which we’re offering online is Alex dr.
, bio, Of IBM and Constant Contact – and he intricate appointed me to this just Amazing quote in this amazing thing from Chinese in when written in Chinese, the Word crisis is composed of two characters: one represents danger and the Other represents opportunity, and I just want to leave by saying now is a moment: When we are all in danger – and we have unprecedented opportunity – and it’s Really a matter of frame of mind if you’re in a siege mentality and you’re Looking at just the erosion of your revenue and you’re, asking yourself how Am I going to survive this you’re, definitely feeling the danger? Part of crisis, but there is an opportunity part of crisis as well.
There’S an opportunity for you to reinvent your business to serve your Customers to think creatively about how to transition your business into an Online setting – and I just want to say that there is also a community of us who Are working on this with you? That’S what biz hack is all about is creating a Community of online marketers and businesses online to help you think, About how to deal with this incredible transition – and so I wanted to leave you With these words, which is focus as much as you can on the opportunity, when I say Thank you guys so much for being a part of this.
I am so grateful to all of you. For being here, thank you, 200 to Raphael and to Anna Robbins. I wish you guys the Best of luck with your businesses and everyone’s business, it’s online there Were a lot of questions that you asked that we weren’t able to get to in this Really packed setting we’re going to look for ways to continue to answer those Whether it’s on social media, on our blog on our website or perhaps in future Webinars stay in touch.
We have your email, Addresses all of you should have in your inboxes now a copy of this presentation. A list of tips for remote work, a list of tips for digital marketing resources, the County resource list of all the different things that you can Do and they link to RSVP for next week’s webinar looking forward to Brewster Kahle next Wednesday, at 12:30, and with that, thank you guys. Please send your Best regards in chat and we’ll see you really shortly.
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