Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Britney Saunders, and welcome to Big Business, the
Speaker 1: place where business is far from boring, and today I'm
Speaker 1: recording on gaddigul Land. Now I somehow manage to build
Speaker 1: an empire from the garage underneath my house, and I'm
Speaker 1: here to share it all with you, from the winds,
Speaker 1: the huge mistakes, the challenging times and funny moments in between.
Speaker 2: And that's a good little segue.
Speaker 1: Into this episode because I am definitely talking about the
Speaker 1: mistakes today. So whether you're in business already wanting to
Speaker 1: start one, or you're not even in business at all
Speaker 1: and you're just looking for some inspiration, or you want
Speaker 1: to hear a funny story or the tea.
Speaker 2: This is the podcast for you.
Speaker 1: Coming up on today's episode, I'm going to be sharing
Speaker 1: with you a list of fuck ups I have made
Speaker 1: in my business journey.
Speaker 2: It's as simple as that. So let's just get straight
Speaker 2: into it.
Speaker 1: Now. I want to start out this episode with a
Speaker 1: little bit of an acknowledgment or a disclaimer. I do
Speaker 1: not regret any of the following things that I'm going
Speaker 1: to be sharing with you. This is quite literally how
Speaker 1: you learn in business by making mistakes. You mess something up,
Speaker 1: you get yourself in a bit of shit, you're in trouble,
Speaker 1: you come out on the other side, and you learn
Speaker 1: better for next time. That is quite literally how business works.
Speaker 1: We must make mistakes in business in order to grow.
Speaker 1: That's my little acknowledgment. Let's get into it. The first
Speaker 1: mistake I have made, not so much in my business,
Speaker 1: but in my career, was when I was an influencer.
Speaker 2: For those of you that don't know, I'm sure a lot.
Speaker 1: Of you do by now, but before I was a
Speaker 1: business owner, I was an influencer. I became a full
Speaker 1: time influencer when I was twenty one, so I was
Speaker 1: really young and silly, and I all of a sudden
Speaker 1: started earning a lot of money, like a lot of money,
Speaker 1: and I thought, wow, this is amazing. You know, I've
Speaker 1: gone from dreaming of earning one thousand dollars a week.
Speaker 1: That used to be a goal of mine when I
Speaker 1: was working full time in my life eighteen's and twenty
Speaker 1: years old, my goal was fifty two grand a year,
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a week. And then when I became
Speaker 1: an influencer, I was earning, you know, at the start,
Speaker 1: not much at all. Because I had to start at
Speaker 1: the bottom and work my way up. But once I
Speaker 1: got to the point where I was able to make
Speaker 1: it my full time career, I was making just enough
Speaker 1: to live. And then over those few years of me
Speaker 1: becoming a more popular influencer, I started earning one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year, one hundred and twenty thousand, one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred and something thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year, and I think at my peak I would
Speaker 1: have been earning yeah, maybe two to three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year as an influencer, which is insane. I know,
Speaker 1: trust me. And I was in my early twenties, so
Speaker 1: my life had essentially completely changed. I was still the
Speaker 1: same old me that I am today, and I was
Speaker 1: the same back then. But I didn't know anything about money,
Speaker 1: and because I was earning all this money, I thought
Speaker 1: this is great and I would just spend it lucky.
Speaker 1: I also was saving, like I don't know what it was,
Speaker 1: but I I was saving in this time. But I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to be self employed. I didn't know
Speaker 1: how it worked. I was so used to working my
Speaker 1: Monday to Friday full time job. And getting my pay
Speaker 1: slip every week and seeing the tax being taken out,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, I'm working for myself.
Speaker 1: At twenty one years old, I didn't know how tax worked.
Speaker 1: I also didn't have like a supportive family network, like
Speaker 1: no one ever taught me.
Speaker 2: About money or how to save or tax or anything
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: So when I became a full time YouTuber, like I
Speaker 1: had no one in my life that was going to say, hey,
Speaker 1: like this is great that you're becoming self employed, but
Speaker 1: here's what you need to do.
Speaker 2: I didn't have an accountant. I didn't know that I
Speaker 2: needed an accountant. And I think a lot of.
Speaker 1: People that do go into business will experience this, like
Speaker 1: they just don't know what to do. They don't have
Speaker 1: an accountant, Like no one's around, like dad's not in
Speaker 1: the picture. Mum isn't educated, you know, so no offense,
Speaker 1: but she wouldn't know.
Speaker 2: Like she'd never been self employed either.
Speaker 1: So for around two two years, when I was an
Speaker 1: influencer and earning all this money, I just simply didn't
Speaker 1: pay tax because when you own your own business or
Speaker 1: you're working for yourself, because I essentially was my own
Speaker 1: business as an influencer, Like, I didn't know how I
Speaker 1: was meant to pay.
Speaker 2: Tax, Like how do you do that? Like what do
Speaker 2: you genuinely do?
Speaker 1: Because when you're getting paid as a self employed person
Speaker 1: and you've got payments coming in I was working with brands,
Speaker 1: the money just goes into your account and that's it.
Speaker 1: Then you have to work out how you're going to
Speaker 1: pay tax on that. But you don't pay tax every
Speaker 1: week the way that employees do. You have to collect
Speaker 1: that all together and then have an accountant process.
Speaker 2: It for you, like for the end of financial year.
Speaker 2: And I just I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: And I was living in Sydney and living my best
Speaker 1: life and traveling around the world. And I ended up
Speaker 1: getting an accountant because I thought, shit, like it got
Speaker 1: to two years of I hadn't done my tax for
Speaker 1: two years, I'm gonna need to get an accountant. So
Speaker 1: I finally got one, and I was like, you need
Speaker 1: to help me out because I haven't paid tax for
Speaker 1: two years. Mind you, I hadn't been chased up by
Speaker 1: the ATO or anything by this point. You eventually will,
Speaker 1: of course, And I was so embarrassed too. I think
Speaker 1: that's why I kept putting it off.
Speaker 2: As well, Like.
Speaker 1: It was this weird feeling of I haven't paid my tax.
Speaker 1: I'm too embarrassed to go to account and then tell them.
Speaker 1: But I eventually got one and I said, look, help
Speaker 1: me out. I haven't paid my tax for two years.
Speaker 1: And I know a lot of small business owners would
Speaker 1: do this, like just say they've been running their small
Speaker 1: business for two years, they're probably not paying tax because
Speaker 1: they don't know how. And I then had this accountant
Speaker 1: work out the last two financial years for me, and
Speaker 1: then I got a call from the ATO and I
Speaker 1: owed one hundred thousand dollars. And I'm in my early
Speaker 1: twenties and I owe one hundred thousand dollars, which in
Speaker 1: saying that, I know that's a crazy amount, but if
Speaker 1: you're owing that amount, you're earning quite a decent amount.
Speaker 2: So it was like two years built up one hundred grand.
Speaker 1: So then I went on a payment plan and it
Speaker 1: was like a certain amount every month that I was
Speaker 1: paying or whatever. And I did have a lot of
Speaker 1: money in savings by this point as well, So I
Speaker 1: remember I started on the payment plan and then I
Speaker 1: just ended up paying like big, bigger chunks than I
Speaker 1: was supper too, because when you're in debt to the
Speaker 1: tax man, the interest that you get charged is like
Speaker 1: twelve point five percent or something. So I owed one
Speaker 1: hundred grand and was paying twelve point five percent interest.
Speaker 1: So I paid it a lot quicker than I was
Speaker 1: supposed to. And that was a great lesson for me
Speaker 1: in my early twenties is you need to understand your finances.
Speaker 1: So that was a great lesson for me in my
Speaker 1: early twenties and something that I will never forget. I
Speaker 1: remember I felt sick over it, like owing that amount
Speaker 1: of money and just having to pay it down. But
Speaker 1: it was a great lesson for me to be more
Speaker 1: smart with my money and have my finances in order.
Speaker 1: And this was before fate that I learned this lesson.
Speaker 1: The next mistake, I had a massive blunder with money
Speaker 1: that ended up costing me seven or eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: When you are importing any goods into Australia that you
Speaker 1: have made overseas and you're importing them in, you will
Speaker 1: get charge import tax when it arrives at the port.
Speaker 1: The Australian government will want you to pay to bring
Speaker 1: that into the country because you're going to be making
Speaker 1: money off it.
Speaker 2: It's really great. I love paying import tax.
Speaker 1: And this was this was years ago, this might have
Speaker 1: been two thousand and nineteen. Maybe we had launched our
Speaker 1: swimwear range, which is called Staple Swim and our swimwear
Speaker 1: is made in Bali, and so I did all the importing.
Speaker 1: And again this was my first time kind of doing
Speaker 1: something like this, like importing from Bali.
Speaker 2: So I think I went through DHL.
Speaker 1: And when you're importing stuff, like you have to fill
Speaker 1: out a lot of documentation and I was just feeling
Speaker 1: it out myself, like no clue if I'm doing it
Speaker 1: right or not. And then in on the form when
Speaker 1: you're importing stuff, you have to declare the value of
Speaker 1: those goods, and so I thought, all right, and this
Speaker 1: was like a quite a decent size collection. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, the value of goods. So then I looked
Speaker 1: at like all the stock, and then looked at what
Speaker 1: it would be if I sold it all, like the
Speaker 1: retail value, And in that little box I put the
Speaker 1: retail value if we were to sell, like I don't
Speaker 1: know why I didn't think twice, because again this was
Speaker 1: the first time doing this, so I don't know how
Speaker 1: much money this was so long ago. But maybe if
Speaker 1: we'd sold it all, like, we would have made fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, let's say, so I put fifty thousand or
Speaker 1: sixty thousand dollars on that declaration to say that's the value.
Speaker 2: The lesson in this is you just.
Speaker 1: Need to put the value of what it cost you
Speaker 1: to make the cost of the goods, not the retail price.
Speaker 2: But I had no idea.
Speaker 1: So then I filled that out, and then I got
Speaker 1: a call off the people at the port or whatever,
Speaker 1: like where you pay the tax to and it was
Speaker 1: like seven thousand and something dollars for the import tax.
Speaker 1: And because at the time when i'd filled this out,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that I was feeling it out wrong,
Speaker 1: and it was my first time importing from BALI, I
Speaker 1: was like, shit, that's expensive, Like man, like, that's fucking
Speaker 1: a lot of money. But I thought, oh, well, like
Speaker 1: this must be the price that I have to pay.
Speaker 1: So I went right ahead and paid that seven thousand
Speaker 1: and something because your products won't get released to you
Speaker 1: unless you pay it, and I was really desperate because
Speaker 1: I really want to launch that collection. I didn't learn
Speaker 1: until maybe months later that I put the wrong value
Speaker 1: in that I should have just put what it cost
Speaker 1: me instead, which would have it still would have been
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars, but it wouldn't have been seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Looking back now, like I feel like I almost could
Speaker 1: have gone back to them and said, hey, like I
Speaker 1: put the wrong value, but I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: took it as a lesson at that time, a very
Speaker 1: expensive one at that and I learned for next time.
Speaker 1: The next mistake that I made and have made many
Speaker 1: times over the years and especially in the early days
Speaker 1: of Fate, was not setting my pieces at a cost
Speaker 1: that I was happy with and that would keep my
Speaker 1: business going in fear of people saying it's too expensive.
Speaker 2: I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm still not good with numbers, Like, don't
Speaker 1: come to me for financial advice. Ask aj he does
Speaker 1: all of our numbers. Like, I'm not good with that.
Speaker 1: But I remember in those early days of Fate, I
Speaker 1: had no idea that I should be pricing my styles
Speaker 1: at a calculated number. In I would say, well, if
Speaker 1: this hoodie costs US thirty dollars to make, I'll sell
Speaker 1: it for fifty because that's more than what I've paid.
Speaker 1: And like if you're making something for thirty dollars and
Speaker 1: selling it for fifty. Like in my mind, I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's more than what I paid for it. Like
Speaker 1: that was my mentality. It was never calculated mathematically, and
Speaker 1: I did that for honestly, like the first three years
Speaker 1: of Fate, I would say where I wasn't thinking about
Speaker 1: the prices. I was just going, yeah, I cant fifty
Speaker 1: dollars or I go or maybe forty five because I
Speaker 1: don't want people to say it's too expensive. As long
Speaker 1: as it was higher than what it was costing me,
Speaker 1: I was happy with that. And again, like I was
Speaker 1: just none the wiser and didn't know that you can't
Speaker 1: just make up a price out of thin air. And
Speaker 1: I also did majorly have that fear of my customers
Speaker 1: in those early days saying this is too expensive, and
Speaker 1: like you get that guilt of like, oh, I really
Speaker 1: should sell that for eighty five dollars, but then what
Speaker 1: if people say it's too expensive? But you really have
Speaker 1: to let go of that mentality as a business owner
Speaker 1: and set your prices at what you know the peace
Speaker 1: is a worth and also what's going to keep your
Speaker 1: business moving forward. And that's something over the years that
Speaker 1: I've become a lot more comfortable with. I even remember
Speaker 1: the first time we ever made items over one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars because I always wanted to keep everything like sixty
Speaker 1: dollars seventy dollars, and we've slowly allowed ourselves to, I guess,
Speaker 1: make styles that need to be more expensive, For example,
Speaker 1: coats and blazers that are more tailored. They cost us
Speaker 1: a whole lot more to make, so we have to
Speaker 1: sell them at a higher price. And I still remember
Speaker 1: being so scared, like, no one's going to want to
Speaker 1: buy from me if something's like one hundred and nine dollars,
Speaker 1: you know, But you've got to like let go of
Speaker 1: that mentality and understand you need to price your genes
Speaker 1: at one hundred and ten dollars because that's the price
Speaker 1: they need to be to reflect their quality, but also
Speaker 1: because you need to keep your business moving forward. It's
Speaker 1: not about like what you want to sell it for,
Speaker 1: It's about what the business needs you to sell it for.
Speaker 1: So that was another great lesson for me. The next one,
Speaker 1: and I've spoken about this before on the pod mistake,
Speaker 1: I guess that I made a lot in those early
Speaker 1: years of fate is not knowing when to speak up
Speaker 1: and have tough conversations with staff. I feel like I've
Speaker 1: done a whole episode on this about being way too nice.
Speaker 1: I feel like it was one of my very first
Speaker 1: episodes of this pod. But I really want to stress
Speaker 1: to all of you business owners out there, hard conversations
Speaker 1: easy life. Easy conversations, hard life. I've said that before
Speaker 1: in the pod, and over the years, I have definitely
Speaker 1: learned that you just need to have those uncomfortable conversations
Speaker 1: in order to just keep everything flowing. In those early days,
Speaker 1: I was way too scared. I didn't want to upset people.
Speaker 1: I had friendships with staff members, which I've spoken about
Speaker 1: as well already on the pod. Being too personal with
Speaker 1: staff it can just create a world of problems for
Speaker 1: you in the future. So if I could do my
Speaker 1: time over again, I would have more confidence in myself
Speaker 1: to have tough conversations with people. And by tough, I
Speaker 1: don't mean you're being nasty or whatever, but just having
Speaker 1: those uncomfort conversations or pulling someone up on something if
Speaker 1: you've noticed something, Whereas back in the day, I would
Speaker 1: just brush it to the side and hope that it
Speaker 1: would go away.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that was another thing that I did.
Speaker 1: It was way too nice in those early days and
Speaker 1: avoided tough conversations and I've definitely learned differently now. Another
Speaker 1: huge mistake that I made that I know a lot
Speaker 1: of business owners will is by signing.
Speaker 2: Up to marketing agencies.
Speaker 1: I spoke about this in my episode with my good
Speaker 1: friend Anita if you want to go and have listened
Speaker 1: to that one if you haven't already. And I also
Speaker 1: spoke about the exact same topic with Mlusen from Napoleon
Speaker 1: as well, So there's two episodes out there already if
Speaker 1: you want to hear more about it in detail. But
Speaker 1: I put trust in companies that I had no idea
Speaker 1: about to run our Facebook ads, and the thing with
Speaker 1: these agencies, and look, I'm sure there are some good
Speaker 1: ones out there.
Speaker 2: I'm not shaming all agencies. I think that's important to mention.
Speaker 1: But I signed up and you get yourself locked into
Speaker 1: a contract and you have to pay them. I think
Speaker 1: the one that I was in, it was eight thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a month just to be in their agency and
Speaker 1: to have them run your ads, and then you're spending
Speaker 1: your ad money on top of that. So we were
Speaker 1: doing what to maybe two thousand dollars a day on ads,
Speaker 1: plus eight grand a month to them just to run them.
Speaker 1: And I wasted so much money with them running our ads.
Speaker 1: I had no idea how well the ads were performing
Speaker 1: because I didn't understand how to run ads. I had
Speaker 1: no idea if they were making money. I had no
Speaker 1: fucking clue. And it's just the biggest waste of money ever.
Speaker 1: And I got out of that, and they were really
Speaker 1: upset about it, and like really tried to win us
Speaker 1: over and I'm like, no, Like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: give you my money anymore. And I then took the
Speaker 1: time and learned how to do our Facebook ads myself,
Speaker 1: and now that is my job. Like I run our
Speaker 1: Facebook ads every single day, and now that I know
Speaker 1: how to do it, it can be really tricky to learn.
Speaker 1: Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm like, how
Speaker 1: the fuck were they charging me eight thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: run my ads? Because I do it now? And so yeah, huge.
Speaker 1: I know some people are with agencies and they are
Speaker 1: amazing and it works for them. And if you can
Speaker 1: find an agency that's going to run your ads for
Speaker 1: you and you're going to see, you know, a good
Speaker 1: return on ad spend by all means, go for it.
Speaker 1: But that was a huge mistake on my part. I never, ever,
Speaker 1: ever should have partnered with them. I wish I had
Speaker 1: just learned it myself from the start. But again, like
Speaker 1: I said at the start of this episode, you got
Speaker 1: to do these things to learn for next time, and
Speaker 1: now I know I'm never paying another market date marketing
Speaker 1: agency ever. Again, sorry to all of the marketing agency
Speaker 1: owners out there. Another mistake is just not having a
Speaker 1: thorough enough hiring process and hiring people after just chatting
Speaker 1: with them once. This is a big one and something
Speaker 1: that we all learn as business owners. I have always
Speaker 1: said that hiring and staffing in general is the hardest
Speaker 1: part of business. That's the hardest part of business for
Speaker 1: me and I'm sure for a lot of others. And
Speaker 1: in those early days, as I mentioned in my main
Speaker 1: episode about hiring, I would hire people after talking with
Speaker 1: them once and it's just resulted in getting not the
Speaker 1: best people on your team. Now we have a thorough
Speaker 1: hiring process, which I have an entire episode out on
Speaker 1: as well. If you want to hear, like every single
Speaker 1: step of our hiring process is a whole episode out
Speaker 1: there on it, and it's just been a game changer
Speaker 1: for us because now.
Speaker 2: We're only getting the best of the best. But you
Speaker 2: live and you learn.
Speaker 1: I've got two more mistakes I'm going to share with you,
Speaker 1: and trust me, there's about fifty more that I could share,
Speaker 1: but I can't sit here all day. The next mistake
Speaker 1: that I have made, and you know what I continue
Speaker 1: to make this is doubting myself. This is something that
Speaker 1: all of us experience in our life in general. If
Speaker 1: you want to throw yourself into owning a business, you'll
Speaker 1: get a whole new level of doubting yourself because you're
Speaker 1: making crazy decisions that scare the shit out of you,
Speaker 1: and you'll just constantly doubt yourself. I've doubted myself a
Speaker 1: lot in my business journey, even though it obviously will
Speaker 1: come across like I'm super confident and I am now,
Speaker 1: But in those earlier, earlier years, I would always.
Speaker 2: Doubt myself and go, oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And I just think it's really important to back yourself,
Speaker 1: especially in your business journey where you are making bold moves,
Speaker 1: because that's the way that you're going to continue to
Speaker 1: grow is by just believing in yourself and being confident
Speaker 1: and if anything, doubting yourself will only limit yourself and
Speaker 1: your growth. And the last mistake that I have made
Speaker 1: in my business journey, and it's been a great lesson
Speaker 1: for me, it's not so much a mistake, but it's
Speaker 1: playing it too safe when I should have pushed the limits,
Speaker 1: not realizing that I had to spend more money to
Speaker 1: continue growing and to make more money. You get to
Speaker 1: a point in business where you're at a good point,
Speaker 1: let's say, like your sales are great and you're really happy,
Speaker 1: and you could stay there, or you can take it
Speaker 1: to the next level if you want to keep growing.
Speaker 1: But the way that you have to do that is
Speaker 1: by not being safe, and you need to throw more
Speaker 1: money into your business in order to grow. For example,
Speaker 1: we had to up our stock levels. While there, I
Speaker 1: was playing it really safe with our stock orders and
Speaker 1: we were selling out all the time. I mean, we
Speaker 1: still do sell out, which is a great thing. You
Speaker 1: want to sell out of your products. But if you
Speaker 1: want to take it to the next level and like
Speaker 1: increase the revenue of your business and keep growing and
Speaker 1: be able to hire more people, you need to spend
Speaker 1: more money on your business to make more money. And
Speaker 1: I think, if anything, I've held myself back a little
Speaker 1: over the years by playing it too safe in some
Speaker 1: areas or not taking that risk. And I know this sounds,
Speaker 1: I don't know, counterintuitive because we're doing so much, but
Speaker 1: I've definitely learned over the years, if I want to
Speaker 1: continue making this thing grow, I've got to make that
Speaker 1: next scary decision or invest in that collection, even though
Speaker 1: it's going to be huge and really expensive, because it's
Speaker 1: the results that come from doing that that will continue
Speaker 1: your business growth. That's a whole lot of talk, man
Speaker 1: oh man, but that's another episode of Big Business wrapped
Speaker 1: up for the week. Thank you all so much for listening,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to leave you with a tip of
Speaker 1: the week. As always, I'm gonna keep it nice and
Speaker 1: easy for this one. Don't let your mistakes define you.
Speaker 1: I feel like when we do make mistakes, they can
Speaker 1: be really embarrassing. You can feel embarrassed and always go
Speaker 1: back and.
Speaker 2: Think about it, but in business, you're gonna make hundreds.
Speaker 1: I still make mistakes every day of the week, but
Speaker 1: I'm still out here going for it. So that is
Speaker 1: my tip as always make sure to subscribe to my
Speaker 1: podcast if you aren't already, and turn on your notifications
Speaker 1: so you don't miss an episode. I upload my main
Speaker 1: shows every Monday and bonus episodes on Wednesday, which are
Speaker 1: a little bit more rogue if I don't say so myself,
Speaker 1: And if you haven't already, I would love if you
Speaker 1: could leave me a review five stars, preferably only only
Speaker 1: only five stars anyway, my friends. Until next time, remember
Speaker 1: to chase after your dreams as if they owe you money.