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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, I'm Austin.
Speaker 1: Hankwitz and I'm Jennis Torres.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another episode of Mind the Business Small Business
Speaker 2: Success Stories, a podcast by iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 2: In each episode, Jennie and I chat with small business
Speaker 2: owners as they share their stories about the ups and
Speaker 2: downs of owning a small business. Plus we'll learn from
Speaker 2: their experience about how you can help fortify and strengthen
Speaker 2: your own business.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. And today we have two incredibly special guests.
Speaker 1: But before we meet them, Austin, I want to know
Speaker 1: your thoughts on how your business has adapted to the
Speaker 1: unexpected changes in the economy. We're currently still dealing with
Speaker 1: high inflation rates in the country, and many businesses are
Speaker 1: still recovering from COVID challenges. So how have you been
Speaker 1: able to adapt to these changes that the economy has
Speaker 1: thrown at you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So, I think macroeconomic uncertainty impacts every business differently. Right
Speaker 2: for those who sell hard goods, inflation and supply chain
Speaker 2: are certainly a big deal. For those service based businesses
Speaker 2: like myself, tighter monetary policy by the Federal Reserve is
Speaker 2: likely causing some turbulence. Personally, I run a sponsor supported business,
Speaker 2: I think advertisers, and when I've realized the macroeconomic conditions
Speaker 2: are beginning to tighten up and folks weren't spending ad
Speaker 2: dollars like they used to, I was forced to pivot
Speaker 2: my business and adapt or realize that it might die.
Speaker 2: So in my experience, that meant two things. Specifically, one
Speaker 2: was to monetize my audience directly, not just having to
Speaker 2: rely on these brand sponsors. And I did this through
Speaker 2: a subscription newsletter. But for small business owners listening right now,
Speaker 2: that might instead me and meeting customers closer to where
Speaker 2: they're spending their money right, so that might be at church,
Speaker 2: outside of grocery stores or other central meeting places and gatherings.
Speaker 2: Now the second thing here for me was controlling the controllables.
Speaker 2: So as a small business owner, you can only control
Speaker 2: the controllables, which also means if life throws you a
Speaker 2: curve ball, it's up to you to do everything you
Speaker 2: can to take control and turn things around. A few
Speaker 2: months ago, we had two huge clients cut their monthly
Speaker 2: spend with us in a big way and this definitely
Speaker 2: impacted our bottom lines in the short term. But back
Speaker 2: to that idea of controlling the controllables, I went back
Speaker 2: and thought what am I especially good at as an entrepreneur,
Speaker 2: and to me, that's marketing. So in response to these cuts,
Speaker 2: over the last three weeks, my team and I have
Speaker 2: begun ramping up our marketing efforts, which we think will
Speaker 2: completely make up for the drop and spend by those
Speaker 2: two clients by at the end of the summer. So
Speaker 2: it's all about having the self awareness to know what
Speaker 2: you're good at as a small business owner and then
Speaker 2: doubling down on that during times of uncertainty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for me, I have always been the type of
Speaker 1: business owner that's believed in the idea of multiple income streams,
Speaker 1: and so I've diversified the way that I earn money
Speaker 1: throughout my ten year career now as a content creator.
Speaker 1: So instead of just relying on things like sponsored content
Speaker 1: or affiliate marketing, I take advantage of all those different
Speaker 1: streams of income and have about ten at this point
Speaker 1: that I can kind of use as you know, levers,
Speaker 1: if you will, that I can turn on and off
Speaker 1: just depending on what's going on and also depending on
Speaker 1: what kind of energy I have to invest in the business.
Speaker 1: At some point, you're going to want to be able
Speaker 1: to take a step back, and creating income streams that
Speaker 1: aren't relying one hundred percent on your active effort are
Speaker 1: something that I really focus on. So looking at opportunities
Speaker 1: for passive income streams is a big thing for me.
Speaker 1: And also I had to realize that as a business
Speaker 1: coach and someone who sells higher ticket offers in times
Speaker 1: of inflation, folks are going to have to decide when
Speaker 1: and where they can spend money. And so how can I,
Speaker 1: as business owner offer them access to my products but
Speaker 1: not making them fork out, you know, multiple thousand dollars
Speaker 1: at one time. So For me, that's looked like offering
Speaker 1: payment plans for my different services and offerings so that
Speaker 1: people can invest in my services but can do it
Speaker 1: in a way that's more sustainable and allows them to
Speaker 1: spread those payments over time.
Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense. And I really want
Speaker 2: to unpack what you said there about like managing the
Speaker 2: sort of cash flows and understanding these different sort of
Speaker 2: income streams. How are you I mean, is there a
Speaker 2: dashboard you have? What are you doing to specifically see Okay,
Speaker 2: this income stream is going up, this one's coming down.
Speaker 2: How do I double down on what's going up and
Speaker 2: what's working versus how do I pull back time energy
Speaker 2: away from what's not working? Walk me through that process.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's where you need a very robust accounting
Speaker 1: system like QuickBooks.
Speaker 2: Okay, you know, you got.
Speaker 1: To know where this money is coming from, and so
Speaker 1: being able to isolate where those different income streams are
Speaker 1: coming from and also the cost associated with those income
Speaker 1: streams is great because then you know how much is
Speaker 1: this costing me to earn? And where are some areas
Speaker 1: where I think I'm making money, but it's actually costing
Speaker 1: me more than the effort that I'm putting behind it
Speaker 1: and so quickbook's ability to have your chart of accounts
Speaker 1: and your cost of goods and all that stuff is
Speaker 1: really helpful for me to know exactly where I should
Speaker 1: be focusing my effort as a business owner and what
Speaker 1: income streams make the most sense for me to double
Speaker 1: down on.
Speaker 2: If you will, that makes a lot of sense. Well,
Speaker 2: today on the show, we have two people who absolutely
Speaker 2: know what it's like to deal with tough economic changes.
Speaker 2: Innisips is your one stop shop for premium organic coffee
Speaker 2: and tea. Created by Marine Corps veteran Gulaid is mailing
Speaker 2: his wife Divina, Innisips is proud to be amongst the
Speaker 2: growing population of community centered, family operated businesses in Connecticut
Speaker 2: and North Carolina. Gulaid and Divina started Indisips in the
Speaker 2: fall of twenty nineteen after finding themselves wanting to start
Speaker 2: a business that involved their love of coffee and tea.
Speaker 2: In January of twenty twenty, they opened their first coffee
Speaker 2: and tea shop in New Britain, Connecticut, and two months
Speaker 2: later the world shut down due to a global pandemic.
Speaker 2: They changed Innisips in every possible way and expanded their
Speaker 2: organic coffee and loosely ta options to better serve their
Speaker 2: customer's requests. Indeesips put the community at their forefront and
Speaker 2: has a goal of giving back to community heroes, first responders,
Speaker 2: essential health workers, and nonprofits. So far, any SIPs has
Speaker 2: already given away over four hundred pounds of coffee and
Speaker 2: donates a portion of sales to numerous organizations within the
Speaker 2: communities they serve. Ghulaid Divina, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: joining us on today's episode.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for having us really excited.
Speaker 2: So the name ANYSIPS. I love it. It's unique. I
Speaker 2: gotta know how did you come up with it? And
Speaker 2: does it have any significance?
Speaker 3: Absolutely so.
Speaker 4: When we were trying to find a name, of course
Speaker 4: there's a lot of coffee and tea companies out there.
Speaker 4: We wanted something that meant something to us. So any
Speaker 4: that I and I are the first letters of our
Speaker 4: three children's names.
Speaker 2: Got it okay? Very cool? Was that a quick realization?
Speaker 3: No, Actually, Gulay came up with it.
Speaker 5: We played around with a few names and we would
Speaker 5: just try to figure out how can we incorporate the children.
Speaker 5: It just rang and then we went from there with it.
Speaker 2: So was any SIPs. Y'all's first business venture it was.
Speaker 4: Not the one that we've done mostly together, was a
Speaker 4: children's clothing company. It was Culturable Babies, and we started
Speaker 4: that when the kids were three and about one years old.
Speaker 5: The kids have been the center of a lot of
Speaker 5: the ideas we've come up with.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that this is a super family
Speaker 1: oriented business and that you guys are using real life
Speaker 1: inspiration and real life problems to figure out what that
Speaker 1: next solution is that you're going to offer as a
Speaker 1: business owner. So kudos to you guys for taking inspiration
Speaker 1: from real life.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: So you start this business and just two months later
Speaker 1: the pandemic happens, what's your initial reaction?
Speaker 3: Panic? For sure.
Speaker 4: We had started the business with the idea of opening
Speaker 4: a coffee shop and making it more community centered. We
Speaker 4: had two long tables in there so that people could
Speaker 4: sit together, talk with each other, communicate. It was bright,
Speaker 4: it was small and cozy. Yeah, so everything we thought
Speaker 4: we were going to be kind of just changed. Luckily,
Speaker 4: we both had the foresight to have three packaged items
Speaker 4: of coffee and three packaged items of tea, and we
Speaker 4: had a website. We had learned how to do that
Speaker 4: from our previous business, But after we dealt with the panic,
Speaker 4: we realized, like, we have to do something to kind
Speaker 4: of stay relevant and keep going, and luckily internet allows
Speaker 4: people to do that. With Gulaid work and at the
Speaker 4: VA hospital at the time, we knew that there was
Speaker 4: difficulties and stress with the people that were still working.
Speaker 4: So we wanted to find a way that we could
Speaker 4: continue business, give back to the community in a different way,
Speaker 4: but also grow the business as well, and keep going
Speaker 4: in that time of uncertainty.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's the nature of business, right It's just
Speaker 1: being able to adapt to anything. And that's really the
Speaker 1: theme of today's conversation. So how did you make that
Speaker 1: determination of what you needed to do to keep the
Speaker 1: business alive? Like, take me behind the scenes of what
Speaker 1: you guys were brainstorming.
Speaker 4: First, we had to kind of talk ourselves through the
Speaker 4: process of not being too attached to what we thought
Speaker 4: we were going to be. I think that's one of
Speaker 4: the things that we did right early on. As I said,
Speaker 4: the community part of it was just coming into fruition.
Speaker 4: We were having our regulars come in and order their
Speaker 4: regular drinks and things, so detaching from what we thought
Speaker 4: we were going to be and pretty quickly coming up
Speaker 4: with what we could be and how that would look.
Speaker 4: And then gulaid, maybe you could talk about what you
Speaker 4: saw at the hospital that made us want to give
Speaker 4: back to the community in a different way.
Speaker 5: Like Davina said, the beginning part was panic because we
Speaker 5: had invested quite a bit construction in the side of
Speaker 5: the building. We've had the table setup, We've had customers
Speaker 5: that we were starting to get to know. But at
Speaker 5: the Via Hospital when I was working, I was screening
Speaker 5: people for the coronavirus. There were just a lot of stress,
Speaker 5: a lot of tired individuals, especially the healthcare work because
Speaker 5: like the nurses, the nurses and assistants, you know, we
Speaker 5: haven't lived through anything like this in our generation. So
Speaker 5: just seeing the fair the unknown. It kind of reminded
Speaker 5: me of being in a military. When you're going through
Speaker 5: a city that you've never been through a combat zone.
Speaker 5: You get nervous, but with that nervousness, you tend to
Speaker 5: draw closer to those who are left and right of you.
Speaker 5: And so I started to see the healthcare workers really
Speaker 5: start to rely on each other and things just change.
Speaker 5: It was like you know, we got to find a way.
Speaker 5: We don't want to feel like we're not doing our
Speaker 5: part as far as like coming together. So we figured
Speaker 5: what better way to do that than a cup of coffee,
Speaker 5: and what better way to do that than to donate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it weaves into the story that you mentioned in
Speaker 1: the beginning, wanting to foster community, right, and so it's
Speaker 1: just finding a different way to create that. So we
Speaker 1: know that supply chain issues were and probably still are
Speaker 1: to some extent, affecting a lot of business owners. And
Speaker 1: I'm curious how your business was affected by the supply
Speaker 1: chain and what did you do to keep your product
Speaker 1: moving at a time when maybe the access that you
Speaker 1: would expect is limited because of what's going on.
Speaker 4: I mean, it all ties together really as glid mentions.
Speaker 4: We donated, so we did buy two bags of coffee,
Speaker 4: we would donate one and that allowed us to grow
Speaker 4: online and thanks to social media, now we had people
Speaker 4: all over the country and in a few other countries
Speaker 4: that were sharing about us and spreading the word, which
Speaker 4: was awesome.
Speaker 3: We grew in a way that we wouldn't.
Speaker 4: Have expected or had ever thought about happening so quickly
Speaker 4: as far as supply chain. We definitely experienced supply chain
Speaker 4: issues and still currently if I'm being honest, as we
Speaker 4: started to grow where we started off with three coffees
Speaker 4: in three t's, by the end of twenty twenty, we
Speaker 4: had about ten different coffee options and then about thirty
Speaker 4: or forty different tea options. More recent in the last
Speaker 4: couple of years, I think the trickle down effect from
Speaker 4: the pandemic has affected a number of companies. Some place
Speaker 4: is n't able to get the same ingredients and therefore
Speaker 4: we can't make the same teas, so we've had to
Speaker 4: adjust what we offer, but we've also had to adjust
Speaker 4: our pricing, and on top of that, we've had to
Speaker 4: adjust our customers expectations on what we can and can
Speaker 4: offer and when things are going to be available. So
Speaker 4: that's been an ongoing struggle. Most of the companies we
Speaker 4: work with are other small businesses and they're dealing with
Speaker 4: the same things. They might not have a bunch of
Speaker 4: staff members, so it's not just the supply chain parts
Speaker 4: of the business, but COVID has affected people medically and
Speaker 4: then just normal family issues that happen.
Speaker 3: So we just created a really loyal.
Speaker 4: Customer base that have hung on there with us through
Speaker 4: the ups and downs.
Speaker 2: I love all that perspective to Vienna, and I really
Speaker 2: want to double click actually into the e commerce side.
Speaker 2: Right when businesses go from just brick and mortar to
Speaker 2: now offering e commerce products, there is a massive influx
Speaker 2: of demand, and I'm sure the supply chain also gets
Speaker 2: kind of reworked a little bit. Can you walk us
Speaker 2: through the specific things that you all adjusted or changed
Speaker 2: to make sure that this e commerce side of the
Speaker 2: business was successful.
Speaker 4: So one of the biggest things that we wanted to
Speaker 4: do as we transition to e commerce was keep our
Speaker 4: pricing at a fair rate. Our customer base is generally
Speaker 4: between the dunkin Donuts customer maybe as Starbucks, where people
Speaker 4: are interested in coffee and tea, but they want something
Speaker 4: that's just a little bit more of an experience. So
Speaker 4: what we've done is we've got high quality products. All
Speaker 4: of our ingredients are direct trade and organic where we can,
Speaker 4: and we keep the packaging simple, clean so that we
Speaker 4: can spend more attention to quality products. And that's also
Speaker 4: how during this time when we haven't been able to
Speaker 4: get certain things in stock, because we're really focused on
Speaker 4: sourcing quality ingredients and keeping true to that mantra for
Speaker 4: any SIPs.
Speaker 5: Just to add too, Divina does a great job keeping
Speaker 5: a communication with the customers. We let them know it,
Speaker 5: you know, please continue to work with us as we
Speaker 5: go through these growing pains. And I think because you're
Speaker 5: continually communicating, because communication is key, that's also what helps
Speaker 5: with the brand loyalty and people actually want to continue
Speaker 5: to stay with us.
Speaker 4: One thing that we started when we were doing the
Speaker 4: online was we wrote handwritten notes on the invoices for people,
Speaker 4: and when we had a few customers that was easy
Speaker 4: to do, but we decided to continue doing that for
Speaker 4: every single customer. By mid June, we should have reached
Speaker 4: ten thousand orders on Why, which for us is huge,
Speaker 4: and we even get Christmas cars. We get handwritten letters
Speaker 4: from customers, which is really great, and we try to
Speaker 4: remember things. If we have a conversation with someone online,
Speaker 4: then we might write a note about it or send
Speaker 4: them an email or something that's really personal to try
Speaker 4: to keep connecting with them.
Speaker 2: How were you able to successfully build that sense of
Speaker 2: community while everyone was not exactly meeting in person, Especially.
Speaker 4: In twenty twenty, the buy too Donate one really got
Speaker 4: people on board. I think that helped people feel connected
Speaker 4: because what we would do is we would ask them
Speaker 4: for their social media handle, and we showed pictures of
Speaker 4: us dropping it at the hospital or the fire station
Speaker 4: or the police station, and then we would tag those
Speaker 4: individuals online, so we would say this purchase is because
Speaker 4: of so and so, and if we didn't have this
Speaker 4: social media handle, we would just write the first name
Speaker 4: and last initial. That way people could definitely see that
Speaker 4: it was real, right.
Speaker 5: And then also you we were to ask customers they
Speaker 5: put and try to come up with names, fa tease
Speaker 5: like little things like that to get the social media
Speaker 5: presence and engagement because a lot of people are missing engagement.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so those are one of the things. And then
Speaker 4: working with various nonprofits as well, that's been another way
Speaker 4: that we've helped people to feel connected. One of them
Speaker 4: is coming up on three years since we've been working
Speaker 4: with them, and that's Kids to Heart. What they do
Speaker 4: is provide cancer care kits to patients for free. So
Speaker 4: if you know someone who has cancer or has just
Speaker 4: been diagnosed, you can send them a care kit. And
Speaker 4: those care kits have a number of items.
Speaker 3: They have.
Speaker 4: Two of our popularities in them. That's been really exciting
Speaker 4: for us to be a part of that. And then
Speaker 4: another one is Bromley Enterprises and we just collaborated with
Speaker 4: them to create an actual coffee it's called the Neighborhood.
Speaker 4: It's a Sumatra blend and a portion of sales from
Speaker 4: that coffee goes to them. And what they do is
Speaker 4: they help small businesses in the community in a various
Speaker 4: number of ways, whether it's training, consulting, there's a number
Speaker 4: of different things that they do to help other small
Speaker 4: businesses in the area as well.
Speaker 1: Coming up on Mind the Business Small Business success Stories.
Speaker 5: There's to of the gourgules out there, but the reality
Speaker 5: is you're going to be your old bank. How would
Speaker 5: that they look?
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after the break. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories brought to you
Speaker 1: by iHeartRadio and Into It Quick Books. Okay, so we
Speaker 1: know that there's a lot of money that goes into
Speaker 1: opening a store and when you have to close, there's
Speaker 1: potentially a lot of losses. So how are you able
Speaker 1: to pivot from a storefront into an e commerce business
Speaker 1: with the least amount of cash flow loss?
Speaker 4: Definitely was cash flow loss, but Ghulaid had the idea
Speaker 4: before we started into SIPs and during the time that
Speaker 4: we had Dribble Babies, was to buy real estate. If
Speaker 4: you want to talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 5: We bought a commercial unit back in twenty sixteen, right
Speaker 5: when the market was still kind of going through us
Speaker 5: ups and down. So we got it at a great price,
Speaker 5: and we realized that we needed to rent from ourselves
Speaker 5: instead of going somewhere else. We were getting ready to
Speaker 5: rent when we first started an entrepreneur adventure and we
Speaker 5: met with the landlord and it was going to be
Speaker 5: twelve hundred dollars a month for a year, and then
Speaker 5: it would go up consecutively for the first three years.
Speaker 5: You're locked in no matter if your business is doing
Speaker 5: well or not. And so we realized we was like,
Speaker 5: h you know, that doesn't necessarily sound too great when
Speaker 5: you're starting out a venture. So luckily we were able
Speaker 5: to get up small commercial unit, which we still have today,
Speaker 5: and then I was still working my full time job.
Speaker 5: I always tell people, you know, it's always good to
Speaker 5: start something with passion, but you need capital to keep
Speaker 5: it going. We were blessed because d Vena was able
Speaker 5: and I don't want to minimize this at all, but
Speaker 5: was able to stay home with our three children and
Speaker 5: run the business while I worked at the VA hospital
Speaker 5: did the nine to five thing. Why she was able
Speaker 5: to stay with the children, incorporate them with the business,
Speaker 5: making sure they were doing it online schooling, and also
Speaker 5: making sure that the business was staying up and running.
Speaker 5: So because we were renting out the space from ourselves,
Speaker 5: there was no impact financially if we couldn't pay it
Speaker 5: because I was still working. So it was kind of
Speaker 5: that ecosystem that we kind of figured out that A,
Speaker 5: if we have to stop paying rent, it's okay because
Speaker 5: we'll figure it out from there. But that's how we
Speaker 5: minimize the laws and I continue to work. That was essential.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those multiple income streams are super important.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I think that with a lot of small businesses.
Speaker 4: Goyd said it right, it's fueled by passion, But the
Speaker 4: reality is passion can only put you through for so long.
Speaker 4: It's not lost on us that we've been lucky in
Speaker 4: some of the decisions we made early on and been
Speaker 4: able to continue.
Speaker 1: You moving forward, I'd challenge you and say it's not luck,
Speaker 1: it's strategy.
Speaker 3: It's very strategic. So give yourself the credit that you deserve.
Speaker 3: Absolutely so.
Speaker 1: Did you see any difference in your overhead and operational
Speaker 1: costs with that shift to e commerce versus the physical
Speaker 1: in person business.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it was less about the shift from
Speaker 4: in the store to e commerce and more about the
Speaker 4: increased product offerings. Twenty twenty, we kind of had the
Speaker 4: discussion that this isn't a typical year. It's our first
Speaker 4: year in business, full year in business, but there was
Speaker 4: a lot of things that happened for us that wouldn't
Speaker 4: have normally happened. So we were a bit cautious rolling
Speaker 4: with the idea that every year was going to be
Speaker 4: as fruitful as twenty twenty was for us.
Speaker 3: Specifically.
Speaker 4: We got shared a lot, we got a lot of press,
Speaker 4: but we knew that may be twenty one, twenty two
Speaker 4: and onwards would be very different, and so trying to
Speaker 4: keep up with all the product offerings that we had
Speaker 4: became quite challenging, and we're just now this year really
Speaker 4: scaling back significantly in terms of what we offer, really
Speaker 4: digging down kind of doing what we had to do
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty and narrowing down our product offerings in
Speaker 4: terms of detaching our emotional connection with some of the
Speaker 4: blends that we have and that we love, and maybe
Speaker 4: we're really big in the past, but the numbers aren't there.
Speaker 4: We're scaling back in terms of making sure that we
Speaker 4: can offer what we can offer consistently without having to
Speaker 4: do as much up and down that we've had to
Speaker 4: do in the last few years.
Speaker 5: And just the chime in too also, So the overhead
Speaker 5: changed in a sense when we had customers. The two
Speaker 5: months that we had customers, they were sitting in and
Speaker 5: they were stayed pretty much all day, so you will
Speaker 5: be losing electricity. Internet. Those type of things would change
Speaker 5: though after twenty twenty and only twenty one twenty two,
Speaker 5: as more people started to create businesses online, you start
Speaker 5: to see duplicates of what you were doing online. So
Speaker 5: then we had to compete as far as our finances
Speaker 5: went up in different ways. How do we shift with
Speaker 5: our social media, how do we increase our presence. So
Speaker 5: we saw an overhead costs that way, So it just
Speaker 5: switched from being a brick and mortar now to being online.
Speaker 5: And what we realize is that people have a very
Speaker 5: short attention span, right, so you have to continue with
Speaker 5: the creativity and even now going into twenty three, now
Speaker 5: that the country's open more again and people are feel
Speaker 5: the more comfortable, you're seeing more people going back into
Speaker 5: the stores than they were in twenty two and twenty one.
Speaker 5: So there's always a constant pivot. So to says, how
Speaker 5: do you continue to keep your business in people's minds?
Speaker 5: And so it's just the cost change to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, when you are making that transition from
Speaker 1: a storefront to an online business, maybe your goals have
Speaker 1: to change, right, So how did you transition those sales
Speaker 1: goals and your overall metris of success? Because you can
Speaker 1: think about, Okay, if I have a coffee shop, I
Speaker 1: want to line out the door. That's how I know
Speaker 1: I'm successful. But what does that look like when you're
Speaker 1: transitioning to online.
Speaker 4: We went by how many people were getting referred back
Speaker 4: to us, So we looked at new customers, we looked
Speaker 4: at messages that we were getting on all the data
Speaker 4: analytics side, we looked at returning customers because we really
Speaker 4: wanted to create a loyal customer base. So we started
Speaker 4: focusing a little less on obtaining new customers and focusing
Speaker 4: on keeping the customers that we had we have a
Speaker 4: pretty high I think it's above seventy percent returning customer rate.
Speaker 4: That's one thing that we've tried to maintain. How do
Speaker 4: we keep customers coming back? And that's been our focus
Speaker 4: as opposed to trying to grow our online social media base.
Speaker 4: It's more about how do we cater to those customers
Speaker 4: that have come our way and how do we keep
Speaker 4: them here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a gem, right, because I think
Speaker 1: some people can think that followers equals dollars. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, you know, those customers that
Speaker 1: have already made that investment in you are the ones
Speaker 1: that you really should be focusing on because they've already
Speaker 1: proven that. You know, you've made that connection and you've
Speaker 1: built that trust. Okay, So I would consider y'all to
Speaker 1: be experts of the pivot at this point. So tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about how this experience has taught
Speaker 1: you to prepare for the nature of business, which is
Speaker 1: ever volatile, ever changing. You know, you don't have control
Speaker 1: over a lot of things, but how can you prepare
Speaker 1: for the volatility that comes with entrepreneurship.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure that you can prepare. I think it's
Speaker 4: just a mindset that you have to have that things
Speaker 4: are going to change. We're currently in a place of
Speaker 4: change right now, making some big decisions on the direction
Speaker 4: of the business and knowing that you want the business
Speaker 4: to be successful should be the premise, but what that
Speaker 4: looks like should be continuously flexible, and how you're going
Speaker 4: to get this should also be continuously flexible from a
Speaker 4: business standpoint. This new technology all the time, different apps
Speaker 4: that you can use on your website, there's so much.
Speaker 4: I know, the hot topic right now is AI and
Speaker 4: how you can help that to leverage your business. So
Speaker 4: it's just using the technology that's available out there and
Speaker 4: not being tied to any one idea of what your
Speaker 4: business looks like, because it's okay if it changes.
Speaker 5: Like Devina said too, you have to be mindful not
Speaker 5: to fall in love with your the way you think
Speaker 5: things will go, because customers ultimately dictate the direction that
Speaker 5: things should go. I think we've kind of lived our
Speaker 5: lives in a sense of, you know, always be prepared
Speaker 5: for the next because you just don't know what's coming.
Speaker 5: You don't want to be that company that continue to
Speaker 5: go down the same way and thought it would work
Speaker 5: and then eventually they end up going out of business,
Speaker 5: so you constantly got to In the military, we always
Speaker 5: say you have to learn your enemy, right, not necessarily anyway,
Speaker 5: you got to learn your competitor and make sure that
Speaker 5: you're keeping up and seeing what they're doing that may
Speaker 5: be different or finding out new ways. You have to
Speaker 5: stay innovative or you will disappear. Like we've seen some
Speaker 5: great companies, but I think the key thing is not
Speaker 5: to fall in love, which you think might work, because
Speaker 5: they you'll end up becoming a dinosaur and everyone else
Speaker 5: will move on while you're stuck with all this product.
Speaker 2: Don't want to be stuck with a bunch of product.
Speaker 2: I will say, though, t Rex is, those are some
Speaker 2: pretty cool dinosaurs. I feel like if I could be
Speaker 2: any dinosaur, i'd be a t Rex. Hey, so here's
Speaker 2: here's something I got for you. You've mentioned supply chain a
Speaker 2: few times, but I haven't yet heard the word inflation.
Speaker 2: Has inflation impacted your business at all?
Speaker 4: Oh? Definitely, Oh god, it definitely has. We're trying to
Speaker 4: keep our costs at a place where our customers are
Speaker 4: used to but also we can continue the business. It's
Speaker 4: a very delicate balance in scale on being able to
Speaker 4: pay for the things we need to pay for while
Speaker 4: also making money. We're a for profit business, so we
Speaker 4: have to have a balance between the two. So that's
Speaker 4: one of the things that we've been continuously working on
Speaker 4: the biggest place where we see the inflation issues is
Speaker 4: just with the vendors that we work with, and they're
Speaker 4: increased pricing and making sure that we're covering that and
Speaker 4: absorbing that with our margins.
Speaker 2: Do you have any maybe words of advice for small
Speaker 2: business owners listening right now who might be struggling with
Speaker 2: inflation or supply chain challenges.
Speaker 4: Small businesses should be looking at what the last few
Speaker 4: years has looked like, even if they're in a startup phase.
Speaker 4: Speaking to business other small businesses and finding out what
Speaker 4: they did, it can kind of give you a pretext
Speaker 4: on how to run your business. Pricing needs to be
Speaker 4: at a point that it can absorb surprise price hikes.
Speaker 4: Have multiple vendors that offer the same thing, so I
Speaker 4: think if you can keep an eye on who you're
Speaker 4: working with, what their values are, and talking to them
Speaker 4: about that. Being transparent with customers is also important if
Speaker 4: you are dealing with issues, letting them know, like, look,
Speaker 4: we didn't get this in on time. Our apologies. Do
Speaker 4: you want a refund or do you want to wait?
Speaker 4: Are you willing to wait? A lot of times people
Speaker 4: await and it's fine if they ask for a refund.
Speaker 4: We don't take it personal and we understand. Sometimes you
Speaker 4: want your coffee and you want it now, so we
Speaker 4: get that and we totally understand.
Speaker 5: And just to add to that too, always make sure
Speaker 5: that you have enough capital. There's always these things where
Speaker 5: you can start off with one hundred dollars and five
Speaker 5: hundred dollars and that's it. But if it works, kudos steel.
Speaker 5: But the reality is you need capital to run a business.
Speaker 5: There's different platforms that will allow you to get loans.
Speaker 5: Sometimes you won't get them from the banks. But always
Speaker 5: have a social income. If you're working. I always say,
Speaker 5: do not give up that job just yet. Passion doesn't
Speaker 5: feed the capital needed for a business. Do a projection,
Speaker 5: See what happens if you have a loan on do
Speaker 5: studies find out? Okay, if I want to go into
Speaker 5: I don't know, furniture business, find out one are the
Speaker 5: times that they're not making money. You have to study
Speaker 5: the market because again, capital is one of the huge
Speaker 5: issues that could come up with the company, especially a
Speaker 5: small business. Lucky for us, we started off small at
Speaker 5: the farmer's market. We tested our products. We were all
Speaker 5: a small quantity, figure out how we're going to do things,
Speaker 5: and then people say, hey, this is great, Okay, how
Speaker 5: can we scale from there? There's tons of gurules out there,
Speaker 5: But the reality is you're going to be your.
Speaker 3: Own bank out of that day.
Speaker 5: Look, I'm gonna just be honest with you, especially when
Speaker 5: you're starting out small.
Speaker 2: I mean we've all watched Shark Tank, right, Mister Wonderful
Speaker 2: always says cash gotta get that cash flow exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'd just like to add gooad. You made
Speaker 4: me think about something like, as a small business, it's
Speaker 4: really hard to work with some vendors because they might
Speaker 4: want a minimum order quantity of I don't know, for
Speaker 4: the ginger in your tea, you need to spend one
Speaker 4: thousand dollars on just ginger. If you can't afford it,
Speaker 4: don't go with that company because then you're stuck with
Speaker 4: things that you might not be able to use. Just
Speaker 4: go small and work with smaller companies until your capital
Speaker 4: is increased and you can maybe expand and get those
Speaker 4: larger quantity.
Speaker 5: Orders and relationships are everything you have to build not
Speaker 5: only relationships with your customers but also with your vendors
Speaker 5: because when you build those relationships, you lay out the expectation,
Speaker 5: this is what we're able to do. Are you able
Speaker 5: to meet that? Because again, it's the business that you're
Speaker 5: trying to create. To me, that's everything.
Speaker 2: I appreciate all that added color, and you know I
Speaker 2: couldn't agree more so.
Speaker 1: Tell us what is next for any SIPs.
Speaker 4: Well, that's a great question right now. Right now we
Speaker 4: are seeing what any SIPs will look like for the
Speaker 4: next few years. We're at a pivotal point. We've got
Speaker 4: a lot of data to kind of comb through and
Speaker 4: figure out what our next move is and how we
Speaker 4: can do that sustainably. One of the biggest things that
Speaker 4: we're kind of focused on right now is e commerce
Speaker 4: will kind of be for our direct consumer customer relationships,
Speaker 4: but then working with bigger organizations like the grocery stores
Speaker 4: and that kind of a thing is something that we're
Speaker 4: definitely looking at. It's worked really well for us so far,
Speaker 4: and it's brought customers to our website after they found
Speaker 4: us in grocery stores.
Speaker 3: As well. I love it.
Speaker 1: I think this last question is kind of like the
Speaker 1: equivalent of asking which of your children is your favorite child?
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna risk it.
Speaker 1: What is your favorite flavor that you sell at any SIPs?
Speaker 4: Oh? So for coffee flavored coffee? I love our salted
Speaker 4: caramel Coffee's that sounds cool.
Speaker 3: Chris right, It's so good.
Speaker 4: It started off as just being offered during the Christmas time,
Speaker 4: and then our customers immediately told us that they want
Speaker 4: to year around, so we have salted caramel all the time.
Speaker 4: That's my favorite coffee, and turmeric ginger is my favorite tea.
Speaker 5: I love the Moto. That's one of those things you
Speaker 5: used to say, the Marine Corp and the Moto just
Speaker 5: because it has a it's a nice bowl taste, but
Speaker 5: it gives you that charge that you need. So you know,
Speaker 5: if I'm being given my honey to do list, I'll
Speaker 5: drink a cup of Moto first to make sure I
Speaker 5: get everything shacked off and as far as the t goes.
Speaker 5: Like the Earl gray lavender, which is one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely a fan of Earl gray lavender. I make
Speaker 1: lemonade with it all the time. Oh yeah, so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to pick up some of that.
Speaker 2: Okay, awesome, Oh yeah, I cannot wait to try that
Speaker 2: salted caramel.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: Thank you all so much for joining us on this
Speaker 2: episode of Mind the Business Small Business success Stories. We'll
Speaker 2: see you soon.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Gosh, that was such an awesome conversation with Tavina and
Speaker 2: Gulaid Genius. I gotta know what's stuck out from that
Speaker 2: conversation to you the most well.
Speaker 1: Ghulaid's quote around you're going to be your own bank
Speaker 1: was definitely something that I can relate to. I think
Speaker 1: I was a little naive in the idea that because
Speaker 1: I had great personal credit that it was just going
Speaker 1: to automatically translate to my business. And so when I
Speaker 1: got rejected from my first business credit card, I was like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, what's going on. I have excellent credit.
Speaker 1: Why are they not able to see that? And so
Speaker 1: I had to understand that like your business builds its
Speaker 1: own credit, and you have to basically prove to the
Speaker 1: banks that your business is going to be successful for
Speaker 1: the long term before they decide to give you lines
Speaker 1: of credit. And so my paycheck was my first angel investor,
Speaker 1: if you will, into my business, and I always tell
Speaker 1: my own students that that paycheck is going to be
Speaker 1: usually where you're going to get your first capital to
Speaker 1: invest in your business. So that was definitely number one
Speaker 1: for me. And I really love their risk mitigation strategies
Speaker 1: where they purchased real estate a commercial property and kind
Speaker 1: of use that as sort of a protection, a risk
Speaker 1: mitigation process in order to deal with, you know, the
Speaker 1: fluctuations that come with the economy. So I really love
Speaker 1: to see kind of that. Trying to predict the future.
Speaker 1: Obviously we never know what's going to happen, but trying
Speaker 1: to put those things in place that can give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of that runway that we need as
Speaker 1: new business owners. I think it's really important. How about you, Austin, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, shout out to Gooley for buying real estate in
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen. I'm sure that has appreciated a lot, so
Speaker 2: that is very cool for him. I think two things
Speaker 2: stuck out to me. The first one is when Divina
Speaker 2: was talking about how she also had some experience building
Speaker 2: websites for her previous venture that her and her husband
Speaker 2: had together. She kind of took those experiences and that
Speaker 2: skill set and moved it over and leaned into it
Speaker 2: when they started doing this e commerce kind of pivot.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So I think just like learning from past experiences and
Speaker 2: bringing that skill set into your new venture and adapting
Speaker 2: and making sure that you're doing all these cool things
Speaker 2: in a new way is just super super important. So
Speaker 2: I having that self awareness, I think, is that first step.
Speaker 2: And then back to what you were saying before. You know,
Speaker 2: passion fuels the small business in the beginning, but capital
Speaker 2: is what keeps it going, right, And so in my
Speaker 2: personal experience, I was working my nine to five job
Speaker 2: out of college while simultaneously building my business on the side. Right,
Speaker 2: So some nine to five hours working, I'd have some dinner,
Speaker 2: and then from like eight to midnight, that was the
Speaker 2: time I'd use to build the business. Right. That was
Speaker 2: that passion. But to your point too about that paycheck,
Speaker 2: the paycheck is what fueled the business. After the passion
Speaker 2: was like, dang, I'm getting real tired working till midnight
Speaker 2: every night, right, So I think, you know, this conversation
Speaker 2: was absolutely incredible. Well, I learned a lot. The gems
Speaker 2: that both Gulaid and Divina shared with us were absolutely incredible,
Speaker 2: And I'm really really excited to buy some salted caramel coffee.
Speaker 3: Me too, Me too.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks everyone, that's it for today's episode. You can
Speaker 2: find me on social media at Austin Hankwitz and you.
Speaker 3: Can find me at jochierro dinetto podcast.
Speaker 2: You can follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media
Speaker 2: at QuickBooks, and to get the tools you need to start,
Speaker 2: run and grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 1: Catch the season finale episode of Mind the Business Small
Speaker 1: Business success Stories on Thursday, July sixth, where we speak
Speaker 1: to Chris Treebis about how he scaled his event venue
Speaker 1: and concert booking business in the Greater Chicago area.
Speaker 2: You won't want to miss that one, so don't forget
Speaker 2: to follow, rate, and review this show wherever you listen
Speaker 2: to podcasts so you can stay updated on our future episodes, and.
Speaker 1: Check out our episode show notes for more information from
Speaker 1: this episode about adjusting to an economic shock, and a
Speaker 1: huge thank you to our guests Gulaid and Divina. You
Speaker 1: can order their premium coffee and tea at any SIPs
Speaker 1: dot com. That's I N I S I p s
Speaker 1: dot com.
Speaker 2: This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Molly Soosha, our supervising producer is
Speaker 1: Nikia Swinton, and our writer is Tyree Rush.
Speaker 2: Our Head of post production is James Foster. And we
Speaker 2: will see you next time.