Category: Interviews

“My unique selling point is one of the reasons I left the larger national company, I felt like my matchmaking clients needed a more tailored experience. In terms of matchmaking dating is not one size, fits all. And I felt like I wanted to give my clients unique experiences where I was able to coach them in their matchmaking experience and in their dating.

I take the time to get to know them better and understand their life history, relationship history, preferences, priorities, and deal breakers before I actually set them up on a date.”

Brigitte spends a lot of time with her clients, and asks a range of questions to really delve into who they are. This, she noted, was a huge part of her process. I was honored that she shared with me some of the important questions she asks clients like:

• Where did they grow up?
• Who they were as children?
• What their family life was like?
• Relationship history
• What are they looking for moving forward?
• Do they have specifics they’re looking for in terms of match?
• What is important to them?
• How do they see their life a year from now?

These are just some of the techniques Brigitte uses to shape her understanding of her customers. As I was later to find out, she also uses almost therapeutic techniques to coach people into happy, healthy relationships.

“I come from a lot of longevity in terms of relationships, my grandparents on one side were married for 76 years. My grandparents, on the other side, were married for less years, they got married during the war and developed a beautiful love. Also my parents are now celebrating their 59th anniversary.

So I’ve been surrounded by a lot of long-term relationships and I think to me it’s something that is incredibly special, and I’d like to help other people have the same experience.

The best part of the work I do, is when I get a text or an email from somebody and they say, oh my gosh, I totally forgot to tell you that, so-and-so and I are still together or I’ve been meaning to tell you that the guy that you set me up with three years ago, we are now engaged. Those are definitely the best moments of my day.”

“My coaching programs are tailored to whatever somebody actually needs to get them back on the dating scene or to become comfortable while dating.

When I take on a matchmaking client, there is a reasonable amount of coaching that comes along with that process. There’s two different ways you can work with me; I take you on as a private client or I take you on as a date coaching client, or we do a combination of both.

If somebody came to me and said, I would like to hire you as a matchmaker, but I have some commitment issues. I need to work through those first for a few months. The question is always, why?Why do you feel that way? What are you afraid of? Let’s break through that first before I start setting you up on dates.

A lot of clients come to me and they don’t want the coaching. Nobody thinks they need coaching. Everybody thinks I know how to date, I’ve done this before, I know what I want. And nine times out of ten, I drag them into the coaching room because they actually do need that.”

Yeah I can imagine many people not being aware of the need for coaching. What were you doing before that led you into your business?

“I’ve been coaching for over 25 years in the wellness space. I started out as a food coach, where I helped people figure out how to reach their weight loss goals without giving up all of the foods that they loved.

I had a blog for many years called, I Hate Celery Sticks, which was based on the premise that we can eat whatever we want and still reach our weight loss goals. Without giving up the foods we love or going on crazy diets or over-exercise routines, or following any fads. I started actually coaching a few years ago within the dating and relationship community.

I’m a small boutique matchmaker. I generally don’t take on more than 10 clients at a given period. My matchmaking packages range from 15 to 25k per client, but depends on the separate hourly costs.

I think the biggest realization was how important coaching was to the matchmaking process. When I first left the national company, I assumed I would focus only on matchmaking but when I started to build the website, and I started to add more to it, I realized how mandatory the coaching piece is to have a successful matchmaking business.”

Further Information

• How to Start a Wellness Business: inspired by Brigitte to start a wellness website? Here is our informative guide.

“One of the couples whose photograph is on my success page,had a long list of priorities. One of them was that she wanted to be matched with somebody who makes her laugh. And then all of the other priorities were were about physical qualities.

But I knew this guy and he cracked me up. And every time I spoke to him, he would make me laugh. I just had a really strong feeling that there would be a connection there. Some of the work I do, there is a methodology to it, but there’s also some intuition as well. And I presented him to her, she out right refused to even meet the guy, absolutely not! 

I kept on nudging her a little bit, and after two or three good dates with other individuals. She learned to trust me. And I talked her into going out with this guy and what happened?

She has a ring on her finger, and they are engaged. They’re getting married in the Cayman Islands in May, they’re gonna have a big family party over the summer which I will go to, that’s probably one of my favorite success stories. Because there was so much resistance. She really thought he did not look like the person that she imagined herself to be with.”

Do you think that blocks a lot of clients? The aspect of just focusing on appearance, rather than the contents of someone’s character?

“Absolutely, positively, yes. So you asked me about my favorite success story. I’m going to tell you about my favorite unsuccessful story, because there’s such meaning in this to me. I share this one with a lot of my clients too.

I took on a client who was very adamant of the person that she wanted. She wanted somebody who’s well educated, was professional and that came from a good family. And I set her up with somebody that I had date coached.

A gentleman who was professional attorney in private practice and done very well for himself. He came from a very prominent family, and I introduced the two of them over dinner. I also curate the entire date.  So I have both my calendars in front of me, I know when one and the other is available. I set up the date and make the reservation. I let them both know where they’re meeting.

I set up the date in a lovely Italian restaurant down in Soho, and they went on a date, so excited! I mean, I couldn’t sleep that night because I couldn’t wait to get the email from both of them!

The next morning I didn’t get an email, I got a phone call… A screaming phone call from my client who basically said, what were you thinking? How could you set me up with somebody that orders spaghetti and meatballs?

I thought it was a prank. I thought I was on like, matchmaker candid camera! I said, but what do you mean? And she said, how dare you set me up with somebody who ordered spaghetti and meatballs? I don’t want a commoner. First of all, this was a lovely, Italian restaurant. I guarantee the spaghetti meatballs were $30 a bowl, it was a beautiful establishment. She also didn’t like that he showed up in a t-shirt, probably a $100 t-shirt knowing him.And that was the end of what could have been a really good relationship.

The challenge with these expectations is that we don’t leave any room for surprises to happen. Maybe the person of one’s dreams does not have an Ivy League degree. Maybe they don’t have hair, maybe they have a couple of extra pounds. When you have those expectations, you immediately eliminate 80% of the population.”

“What a happy relationship looks like could be different for everybody, but I will tell you that the majority of relationships that I set up are people that clearly want to see each other again. Sometimes I’ll get a text simultaneously in the bathroom, like the men’s room and the women’s room. Both like oh my God, this is amazing. Thank you so much.

I have learned what qualities I want them to look for. For example, two people don’t need to make the same amount of money to be in a good relationship.But they have to have the same idea of how to spend their money. If they agree then they have a really good chance of having a good relationship. If not, that’s where the tension comes in.

Also how people relate to their family, right? I have couples where they first get together. And one person says, Thanksgiving let’s go to the Bahamas, and the other says, what Thanksgiving? No, I do that every year with my entire family. So when you have people that can agree on certain key issues such as vacation time, free time, money spending, work ethic, politics and religion –these are markers of areally good chance of a stronger connection.”

What do you think is the reason people can struggle to find the right relationship?

“I think a lot of people don’t find partners because they think their partner is gonna fall out of the sky, or they’re gonna meet them over the tomatoes at the Farmers Market. The white horse is gonna walk in with the shiny Prince and those things only happen on television and in the movies.

They don’t often happen in real life.

I encourage my clients to be open to the world around them. What I found is that you need to be intentional about what you really need.

Everybody’s so unique. It’s almost impossible to generalize which is what I really love about the work that I do. But some general rules are, before you go on the date I think it’s important to know what is important on that list. I suggest to my clients that they leave the list at home, and they go out on a date and they just be open. I generally do not suggest asking a ton of questions on the first date. I think the best experience is just to be yourself and talk about your day andtalk about yourself, but not necessarily turn the date into 20 questions.

Also don’t come from work, go home. Take a shower, change your clothes, put your date mode on, and go out and have a good time. Try to think that you are looking to meet somebody new and interesting, not necessarily looking for the man or the woman of your dreams.”

I often hear we bring baggage into new relationships, what are your thoughts on that?

“You know, baggage can be replaced by life experience. We don’t get into our 30s, 40s, and above without having experiences. Those experiences are what make us interesting and unique. They should be celebrated and not looked at in a negative way. If there are certain realities that are triggers for certain people, the more that we know ourselves and the better that we can share our vulnerabilities with our partners – the more success we can potentially have in a relationship.

So baggage to me is not intimidating, it’s just part of who we are. Unless you grew up in a bubble by yourself, and you didn’t have parents, siblings, a community, home, or a school, it just doesn’t exist. Nobody’s a clean slate.”

“I think the ease of the platform made it very simple for me to navigate. It’s very user friendly or at least it was Brigitte friendly, which means that it has to be extra user friendly! I felt like GoDaddy answered the question before I had it. And when it didn’t the phone support helped me, they would spend ages on the phone walking me through each step I had to take.

I know there are some features that I’ve not yet explored, some of the marketing features that I see and Google Analytics. I haven’t paid attention to that at all, but that’s on my list of resolutions for this year.

Any advice for new start ups I would say, to borrow a very famous term, just do it!

One barrier to a lot of businesses starting is that we spend too much time thinking about little things like, should the font be this, or should I make this red? I would say don’tspend too much time on the small steps, don’t sweat the small stuff. It can always be changed later.

The bigger decision is that you have an idea. You’re letting people know about your idea, you’re making yourself available to people. You’re not going to make a break your business, as far as I’m concerned, whether your logo is, you know, black or blue.”

Further Information

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• How To Build a Site With GoDaddy – ready to learn how to build a website with GoDaddy? Take a look here to find out how.

That’s wonderful advice, do you have any tips for those wanting to start a matchmaking business?

“I would say speak to other matchmakers and network with other matchmakers. The matchmaking community is beautifully collaborative, a community of people like myself. Who have small businesses. We need each other to share ideas, information, and networks. I’m part of two national matchmaking communities, one of them is the Matchmaking Institute and  Matchmaking Alliance. I’m certified through both of those.”

In many ways, Brigitte’s biggest lesson on love is similar to her thoughts on business. She told us, “the biggest lesson is to be open. Emotionally open. Physically open. Psychologically open. Open to falling in love with somebody that you did not expect.”

It’s my personal thought that we need to be open in business too, open to the possibilities, to our ideas, and to feedback and iterations along the way.

Jim and May’s story began with Jim needing to learn Spanish, through a language-learning website. Hestarted learning Spanish with May which eventually led to her inviting him to Mexico to meet her.

“And so, I went down to Mexico, for the first time I was leaving the country by myself. And we had this fantastic experience. I mean, not only did we fall in love, but she showed me around the country and taught me about her culture and taught me Spanish, it was really just this fantastic experience,” Jim told us.

“[May’s] a language teacher, and I’m a music producer. My background is in audio and video production, and so we thought, well, wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could start a business where we could provide this experience for other people? Where we could be a bridge for people to experience Spanish-speaking countries, and have a much more authentic experience while traveling abroad.”

This led the duo to begin crafting a podcast, which wouldn’t meet the light of day at first – because, as Jim explained to us that after doing their research, the ecommerce world was raving about YouTube instead.

Jim explained: “So early on we thought we would start as a podcast. So this is back in like 2011. It was really early on but we never published the podcast episodes that we released. Not sure exactly why, maybe I was a little embarrassed of my Spanish at the time because it was early on. 

But we ended up going to a travel conference for creators and bloggers. We went there and there were a couple of sessions focused on bloggers, then there were sessions that werereally pushing the idea of getting creators to get on YouTube, because Google owns YouTube.” 

The decision to move towards YouTube would prove to be the right call, as they managed to grow itfrom zero to 160,000 subscribers! Aiming for the awesome 200,000 subscriber milestone for 2023, Jim and May have also hit an incredible10 million views on their YouTube channel in a little under seven years – so we delved into the details of how they achieved these milestones.

“With theSpanish and Go YouTube channel, I remember just getting to 100 subscribers that was like, wow, we got a hundred people following us. And then it was a 1,000, and then 10,000, and then a 100,000. All of those little milestones were huge for us.” 

Jim noted that with YouTube, you not only get the video which you can post on your YouTube channel and website, “but you also have the audio [for the podcast] and you couldconvert a video into a blog post. So you could kind of have a little bit of everything, just in one form of content. So we decided to start a YouTube channel. And when we really started the business in full force in 2016, we launched our YouTube channel and started producing mainly video content.”

Jim and May started with ideas for evergreen content, the kind of YouTube content that will always provide value. But Jim also stated that consistency is key with YouTube.

It’s a wonderful thought to travel the world and start a business with your significant other, but we were curious about the working dynamics and how that might affect both your business and your relationship. We were delighted to see that May and Jim have been able to capture a lovely balance.

“You know, I was still living in Minnesota and when we met, we had to figure out how we could even be together to start this business. So we got married and then went through the immigration process to get May up to the States. Then together we worked for a while with the goal of saving up enough,” Jim tells us, so that they could test to see where there business would go in two years.

Jim explained that it was at a really early stage in the relationship that they came up with their business idea, just a few months of having met in person. He said that before they even discussed marriage they had the idea, due to May showing him around Mexico, as for him it was a “truly a life-changing experience.”

Working with your significant other he notes, “can be a little tricky. It has its challenges occasionally, but for the most part we work really well together. You knowMay is primarily responsible for the language instruction and cultural content so she does a lot of the research for us.”

May grew up in Mexico so she has the inside scoop into the culture and locations to visit, whileJim’s role is the more technical aspects of the business. Jim is responsible for “getting things up on the website, the audio and video production,” as well as marketing and email funnels. The duo alsowork with two others who handle editing, podcast management, and manage the immersion retreats. 

Their accomplishments are all the more impressive when it’s such a tight-knit team, in our opinion.

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TheSpanish and Go website is the central hub for everything they offer to their 160K plus audience. We wanted Jim’s honest opinion of what it was like building the business with Squarespace, and whether it was worth our readers building with it.

When we asked Jim why he created a website he said,“The biggest impact of having the website was we learned early on from travel conferences that you have to find away to convert your audience into a newsletter.Early on that was one of the primary reasons why we had the website. And so that’shelped us grow our email list tremendously over the years. [Our audience] watch a video and see that we mentioned that we have a PDF and then they can sign up and get that as a download.” 

Jim noted that the best part of working with Squarespace is itsflexibility and how quickly you can create content. Making it easier to sell their immersion retreats, having had to use Teachable to host the podcast membership and their language course before. 

“It’s nice that we can easily create a new product and update our inventory and add discount codes. Those are huge advantages and it’s just easy to maintain. I don’t think we’ve had much if any downtime at all with Squarespace. And it’s just been easy to implement our brand colors and have aconsistent look across our website.”

On the success that Squarespace has provided Jim and May, Jim stated, “I think it’s the integration of forms, we’ve used that to get people on our newsletter and that’s been fantastic.” He told us that it was an easy way to let people know that they could get free extra learning materials and tell them about the services they provide.

“Overall, I would say. We absolutely could scale considerably more with Squarespace. However, there is a major disadvantage of Squarespace that I see, and it’s just that it’s terribly slow. And it seems like no matter what we do in terms of optimizing images and trying to make everything as lightweight as possible on our end, we can’t keep load loading speeds down.”

Jim and May ran into some trouble with site speed, with help and support directing them to their image sizes multiple times. Despite their efforts to resolve the issue, they still have slow load times – which you should be aware of if you’re planning to create a website with Squarespace. Video and image optimization is there to greatly reduce load speeds. But sometimes, like in this case, it’s just due to the providers’ capabilities. 

When asked if Jim regrets using Squarespace due to this issue, and whether he should’ve opted for a WordPress blog, where you have more control over the backend, his response was unclear. On the one hand, he notes that it could’ve been better to have full control – but that when they began it was just the two of them, and it was an easy way to start the business.

Despite the pandemic dampening the duo’s efforts to create an amazing experience on their retreats over the last few years, the future for Spanish and Go looks bright, continuing on their mission to visit every Spanish-speaking country (21 in total). “And we want to provide useful content for audience, about the culture differences, language differences, and in slang.”

They’ll be continuing to innovate content on theSpanish and Go podcast, to provide excitingSpanish immersion program, their epic climb to YouTube’s 200k subscribers, and provideblog readers with some top notch learning resources. If you’re interested in learning Spanish authentically then Jim and May are there with friendly guidance.

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“I’m Lisa and I’m the founder and co-owner of The Wrinkly Elephant Company Ltd. I now work alongside my husband Stuart, making handmade soap, bath, and body products. We pride ourselves on making products with natural ingredients that are good for your skin and encourage that self-care that everyone needs.

I started in 2017, perfecting my recipes and having them assessed and registered with the EU portal which has now been replaced by the UK portal. I originally started from my self-contained soap room at home – a converted garage that is linked to the home. I set my website up and started selling in 2018. To begin with, it was mostly at craft fairs, but I quickly started to build up a community on social media, mostly Instagram.

COVID hit and craft fairs stopped but, fortunately, my online presence through Instagram meant we continued to sell. We had incredible growth over COVID and Christmas 2020. It continued into 2021 so we moved into a unit. We were there for two years and, at the end of 2022, we won a Worcestershire Small Business Award for product development.

However, with the cost of the rent, car park charges, and energy rising, plus a fall in sales, we decided to move the business back home where we originally started in the part of our garage that is converted into a soap studio. We still mainly sell online, but craft fairs are beginning to pick up again, so we’re doing a few of the larger ones to grow the brand again.”

Setting Your Own Schedule

“The best part about my daily work is that I’m in control of what I want to do that day. What I love most about it all is that I love being creative with my products and packaging and knowing that it’s something I put together myself. It’s such a strange feeling when I get customer reviews of how they love the products or pictures of my products in their bathrooms. It’s a very proud moment and probably one I need to think about more often.

On a daily basis, I try to start my day by doing something for myself. My products are all about self-care so I need to practice it myself – I love to start the day with an exercise session. It sets me up for the day and then, of course, showering with one of our lovely products. Then it’s generally checking emails and social media first while having breakfast.

Stu, my husband, will then package up any orders that have come in overnight or from the afternoon before and get them taken to the Royal Mail delivery office. Then, depending on what stock I have I will probably spend a couple of days a week making soap. Sometimes this may be every week, sometimes I do a week of just soap making so I then concentrate on the other products the rest of the month. It depends on how orders are coming through, and which products are popular. I would say I generally finish mid-afternoon, but will probably spend time on my laptop researching or updating myself on what’s happening within the industry. Fridays are normally the day that I catch up on admin – this can be anything from planning my social media content for the following week, answering more in-depth emails, updating the website, taking new pictures of products, or experimenting with new scents or new products.

Once a month, Stu and I will sit down and think about what events we want to do the following month or even for the next few months. Christmas ones have to be booked early!

We do have a business plan that we try to update on a yearly basis, but we try to set some quarterly targets so that we have a plan of where we want to be. Within this, we will set meetings that will decide on seasonal offers and products and when we’re to launch any new ones.”

Finding Family Time

“I have three boys who are all adults now so when I started this business it was really something about “doing something for me”. I was fed up with working for someone else and wanted to be able to do what I wanted when I wanted. I had always had good feedback that I was a hard worker, so I knew I could do things for myself.

What I enjoy most about working for myself and maintaining that work/life balance is that I can control it. I work when I want and take time off to be with my family when I want. That’s the beauty of it now, I find it much easier to maintain that work/life balance. Don’t get me wrong – I do put the hours in and I have to be careful that I make sure I switch off as I can be on the computer or doing social media at 10 or 11 at night. But, on the flip side, I can take time off in the day to go out for lunch with friends or a shopping trip with family. So, it does even itself out but I can control it.”

“There is so much waste in the packaging industry, and I didn’t want to be part of that. I’ve tried to keep my packaging as plastic-free as possible. My soap bars just have a cigar band around them as they legally need to have certain details on the packaging, and this was enough to get all those details on. However, this sometimes plays against me as I have contacted retailers about stocking my brand and they want the soap to be covered in a box or fully wrapped.

Generally using ingredients that are not tested on animals is straightforward as we have rules in place in the UK. Palm oil-free is becoming an issue now because of the war in Ukraine. We’re being told by suppliers that there’s a shortage and that, if there is any, it’s being used in the food industry. So, this is obviously having an impact on either not being able to source any or the price being ridiculously high. I am still standing by these principles, but it is having an effect on the cost of items at the moment.”

The Wrinkly Elephant’s products and packaging focus on being environmentally friendly.

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“This is where I have tried to work hard at building up, not just a brand, but a community. In the early days, I spent many hours on Instagram and showing behind-the-scenes footage of the ingredients and the products, building up relationships with customers and other accounts. I fiercely believe in my products so I would also send out samples for people to try as I was confident that they would love my products as much as I love making them. Of course, they did, and the recommendations started.

Customer service is at the heart of the business, so I always answer DMs and emails within 24 hours where possible. I encourage customers to contact me with questions and I will happily recommend products. I have tried to build up a trust between us. When packing products, although we want to be eco-friendly and use recyclable packaging, I don’t feel that the packaging has to be compromised. From when a customer places their order to actually unboxing it, I want it to be a pleasurable experience, as if it was Christmas Day every time they receive a parcel.

The products are wrapped nicely, and a personalized note is handwritten, even if it just says “Thank you for your order”. I want the customer to feel part of the Wrinkly family and not just an order number.

When they message me on Instagram, I try to remember what they’re saying – like if they’ve had a bad week and then they’ve just placed an order. I would then write something like “I hope your week has got better”. I’ve had such good comments about how they receive their happy post, and they look forward to it so much – the unboxing as well as using the gorgeous products.”

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A Note on Newsletters

“This is an area that I need to improve. Generally, at the moment, they usually go out saying what our soap of the month is, or what offers we have – occasionally a little update on what we have been up to. I sometimes do offers exclusively for email subscribers to encourage more people to sign up. I need to develop this more as this is an area I want to get better at.

Social media is great but if I lost my account, I would lose my followers. I’m trying to be more proactive in encouraging people to sign up for the newsletter so that I have more control over being able to contact my customers.”

Social Media Success

“I’ve dabbled with all platforms but have found my niche more with Instagram, closely followed by Facebook. My products and videos are very picture and video-friendly, so this suits the sort of style on Instagram. It’s very hard to keep up with the algorithms and posting consistently. I use Instagram to show how the products are being made, the ingredients we use, and behind-the-scenes footage. The customers love to get to know the face behind the brand.

I publicize my offers here too once the email subscribers have been notified first. I also try to collaborate with other businesses and influencers to try and gain more visibility for the brand.”

“I’ve had many photographs from customers with before and after pictures of skin problems, such as eczema or psoriasis. After a couple of weeks of using my natural unscented soap or Natural Oats soap bar, their skin condition improved immensely.

[The business has] enabled me to give up my job working in education and bring the same salary in. We saw incredible growth during COVID and have over 3,000 customers. The business is profitable but like any business at the moment, sales have dropped due to the cost of living crisis – but I still have many regular customers returning. We’re now seeing the signs of it improving once again and ready to take the business to the next level.”

“Well, firstly there are a lot of legal hoops to jump through when you’re bringing a product to market that comes into contact with the skin. When I originally started, we were in the EU so had to comply with EU rules. When Brexit happened, the UK continued their rules but has their own system now that we have to register our products through their new site which – obviously being new – had teething problems, plus we lost some overseas customers.

Also, getting brand visibility is hard but I was fortunate in making some contacts on Instagram so that initially helped a great deal. The problem is now continuing to gain visibility so that we can attract new customers, so marketing is always at the top of our agenda.

We didn’t face many struggles during the pandemic apart from coping with the number of orders – which was a good thing! We did have a couple of moments of there being a shortage of packaging boxes, but we managed to work through it and got our orders out in plenty of time. The war in Ukraine is beginning to affect us now as prices of some ingredients have tripled or even quadrupled. This is hard. We did have a price increase last year to try and offset this, and we have also reduced outgoing costs down to the bare minimum to try and not have to pass any further increases to our customers. This is obviously an area that we’re monitoring closely now.

We’re also struggling to obtain some of the palm-free ingredients. A new product was about to be launched but I’ve had to put it on hold because of this shortage. It’s no good launching a new product until I’m sure I’m still going to be able to get this particular ingredient at a reasonable price.”

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“I wanted to be able to control my own sales. I didn’t want to be controlled by some of those selling platforms where they dictate conditions and when they pay you, as well as taking a huge percentage. I think it’s also a necessity nowadays as most customers expect to be able to find you online and it looks more credible if you have a good website.

I fell upon Shopify and loved their free themes and the ease at which I could set the website up, as well as having an amazing customer helpdesk. There were lots of tutorials and support available to help me alongside different options for themes for the website to be built on, which all seemed fairly straightforward. I had plenty of free choices in how the layout could be set up as well as paid options if I wanted something more advanced.

We chose the Basic Shopify plan as it offered everything we needed it to do. However, on occasion there are more detailed reports that I feel that I need – for example, when approaching Christmas I like to look back at the last Christmas and see what our bestsellers were. I can upgrade my pricing plan to the next level to enable me to do this. I do it for the month that I need it and then revert back to the Basic plan. I love the flexibility of being able to do this.

The variety of apps that integrate seamlessly into the site are great. I have a customer review one, and a subscription service one, and have just recently launched a loyalty program. These were all so easy to install and, if I have queries, these too have had great customer service helpdesks. There’s a huge choice – for someone like me who knows nothing about building websites, these have been great add-on features to a free theme.”

“We want to scale our business and I definitely think there is potential with Shopify.”

Browsing Builders

“Do your research and look at more than one builder. Look at reviews and also what they offer. Does it meet your needs? Can it do what you want it to do? If your business is successful, can the builder grow with you? If you’re a product-based business, do you know how to add a new product? Can you do it yourself or are you always having to ask for help with this?

The main actions need to be simple. For me, adding products easily was key. I didn’t want to have to pay someone to do this every time I wanted to add a new product or new scent. Take advantage of the free themes and play around with them. Ask lots of questions and use their helpdesks – that’s what they’re there for. Speak to other small businesses about their experiences, but try to remember that every business is different. What worked for them may not work as well for you.”

“There’s always something happening – new offers and new products. We are currently just signing off our Christmas range so look out for new gift sets and some new products.

We’re still committed to growing the business further and growing our customer base and want to be a brand known for its gorgeous soap and products that encourage self-care.”

The Wrinkly Elephant has expanded its product range from natural soaps to other complementary items, like bath salts.

“Go for it. I wish I’d done it sooner but don’t be afraid of hard work and asking for help. You can’t know the answer to everything and there are always people out there that know more than you do. Also, don’t be afraid to learn from your mistakes.

And, research, research, research. It’s a minefield of legal documentation that you have to ensure you follow if you’re bringing a product to market. Be consistent with your brand message and what you want in your product line. Don’t just follow fads, stay true to what you believe in. Join different forum groups that are knowledgeable in the area and make those connections. There are some very supportive communities and groups that help each other out, even if we are all competing in the same market. Finally, always make sure you get your products cosmetically assessed!”

“My name is Eliana Bergman,  I sell self-cleaning lint brushes through an ecommerce platform and my company is calledDe Novo®.

I initiallystarted my business in February 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. I started it from home and built the website and the brand mostly in the waiting room of the Child Development Center where my son would go for various therapies

I mostly do B2B, meaning most of my sales come directly from other retailers, but I do generate organic sales on the website as well. Over time, we have brought in around $140,000.

Initially, it was very little sales, but lately, it’s around 2,000 [products sold] on a monthly basis. This year has been very good but it still fluctuates depending on the month.”

“De Novo®’s mission is to provide consumers with the option to generate less waste in the world by selling reusable, self-cleaning and fashionable lint brushes. Instead of the discardable sticky sheets andconstantly producing more trash, it’s just one product that will last you many years and you don’t have to constantly be producing trash or purchase refills.

In my household I mostly use it for pet hair. Our medium-sized schnauzer, Maya, sheds a lot twice a year, so these brushes certainly get put to the test. But you don’t have to have a pet to find these brushes useful. My mom, who has no pets, uses them after the dryer to remove the lint off her clothing. We also have a fair share of clients in northern states and Canada, who find our products helpful in the colder months when they wear sweaters and scarves which leave lint on finer textiles. 

I personally use myDe Novo® Back-To-Basics two-to-three times a day on my sofa and then the littleDe Novo® On-The-Go I keep in my purse so I have it when I’m out and about.”

“Since delivering my second child, I had been experiencing a whole lot of hair loss. Aside from our dog Maya, we also had a cat who sheds a whole lot. So we had all this hair from everyone everywhere. As a stay-at-home mom, I spent all day at home and needed to find a solution to this problem. It was also appealing to have a job that I could do remotely so that I wouldn’t need to be pulled away from my family. You might think that having three kids and pets is enough, but I’m just one of those people that can’t really sit still and do nothing, so I decided to go for it and give entrepreneurship a try.

I also felt like there was plenty of opportunity with these products. The reusable lint brushes you find in stores today are all black or white with red bristles, which is just ugly. And the traditional lint rollers with sticky sheets produce so much trash. 

I wanted something nicer but also effective. I wanted a product I could have on my coffee table or hanging with my winter coats and feel comfortable leaving it there because it is stylish. De Novo® lint brushes are always on my coffee table. I can easily pick it up and clean the couch and I just put it back and it looks nice. The traditional sticky sheet lint roller is not something you keep out, because it just doesn’t look nice. 

This brand came to fruition as a combination of everything. It was my own hair loss. My pets were shedding like crazy. The amount of trash produced by sticky sheets, how ugly your typical lint roller is, and ultimately, my own desire to make a difference.”

“This brand came into fruition as a combination of everything. It was my own hair loss. My pets were shedding like crazy. The amount of trashed produced by sticky sheets, how ugly your typical lint roller is, and ultimately, my own desire to make a difference.”

“The product designs are created by a Chinese manufacturer and De Novo® is the brand. I contacted a broker in China who helped me get in touch with the manufacturer. 

I had to ensure that I was not hiring just anyone to produce these products. It was also really important for me to do a social compliance audit and make sure they actually take care of their own team because that’s important to me. We also did a manufacturer audit and a raw material test before we started production. I recommend that you test your products.If you want to be a brand, you need to buy them, test them, see if you like them, test the market out, and then evaluate to make sure you feel there is enough potential for growth with the brand you create.

You don’t want to be just producing just another piece of trash. You’re producing something that hasquality and you need to know what is in your products and where it’s coming from and that this factory is treating their employees correctly.

Once you’ve tested everything and you’ve done all of your compliance, then I do think it’s important to trademark.There are so many products out there right now and so many people trying to make a quick buck.You don’t want your hard work to be capitalized on by someone else

It took about a year from start to finish to trademark De Novo® and it wasn’t so bad. I opted to hire a lawyer to help me do it, which was helpful as there was a bit of back and forth following the initial application.Now I have this trademark for 10 years and it’s my brand and it feels really nice to know that I have that protection. 

If it does expand and it does grow, I’ll do the same thing for the European market, but I’m not really there yet, so we’ll see.”

“I have worked since I was about 15 in various retail shops. Following my Masters, I started my career at the National Hispanic Leadership Institute (NHLI), a small nonprofit in Washington DC that promotes Latina leadership. From there, I went on to work in communications and marketing in a range of different sectors – from transportation to the wine industry. 

My background has helped tremendously in building the company. Because even though I don’t have a business background, my understanding of and experience in marketing and communications has helped me position De Novo® and its products. Being able to market the brand has been crucial.The way it will grow is through sales and marketing. 

Currently, I do Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, as well as email marketing, which is huge. I take my customers on a journey, telling a story and letting them know that they’re buying these products from this business – but behind the business is a real person. And that person is me.

I think that human connection is really important. You miss it so much these days. You just buy a product and you don’t even think about the fact that people are behind this product. And that human connection is really important because it creates customer loyalty. You’re going to come back and sayoh you know what, you gotta buy the brushes from Eliana, you gotta go there because she’s a real person. She sells these great brushes,and you’ll feel like you know me and that’s really important to me. 

I started the business during the pandemic and everything felt so quiet everywhere. I got opportunities very easily. So we were onUnivision, which is a national TV network in the USA for the Hispanic market. All it took was two weeks and the products were listed. I don’t think that would have happened in a normal time period, but I think it was quite difficult to get people to move. Everyone and everything was paralyzed during the pandemic.”

“I wanted something nicer that was also effective. I wanted a product I could have on my coffee table or hanging with my winter coats and feel comfortable leaving it there because it is stylish. De Novo® lint brushes are always on my coffee table.”

“Yeah, it’s hard. I have three kids, and my youngest just turned six months old. I feel like I’m a juggler but I enjoy it so much. It’s something that I love. I really love the flexibility that being a business owner gives me. I’m able to work from home and I’m able to be with my kids. I’ll take care of my baby and breastfeed while I send emails.

On a usual day, I’ll wake up at four to five, and during that time period is when I’m emailing or speaking with the manufacturers in China. I want to catch them before their day closes. 

Then my kids will be awake and I send them off to school right around 9:00. 

I do more work until they come home from school, and then I’m with my kids. Then in the evening, I do more work. So it’s a full cycle and around 9:00 pm I’ll go to sleep.

I did everything myself for a while. I recently hired a young woman from Canada to help me out with social media. She also does my photography and my posts on Facebook and Instagram.”

“It’s great to have a goal in mind. My goal from the beginning was to work withFabFitFun. When that partnership became a reality it was surreal. I sell on their marketplace and it goes very well on a monthly basis, so it’s nice. Their partnership has been very important to me.

With FabFitFun, you get a mystery box of products quarterly, and it is such a cool idea to introduce consumers to products.  I am such a big fan of what FabFitFun does and how it allows consumers to test out products without having to pay full price. Last fall, I was given the opportunity to showcase one of our brushes to potentially be added to one of their future boxes, and I was over the moon by the opportunity. I worked for about six months trying to ensure we were ready to submit the products to FabFitFun. I did this while pregnant and I actually worked while in labor. I’m crazy. 

However,  after everything was said and done, they did not select De Novo® to be in one of their upcoming boxes. This was a giant fall for me but it was also a big learning experience at the same time. Though the door is closed for me this time, going through the requirements has been a great experience and it has made us better for any future opportunity that might come along.”

“If you’re gonna do ecommerce, you need to have aShopify website.”

“If you take out your sticky sheet roller, you’re gonna use at least three or four sheets. And if you’re like me, you don’t actually go and buy the replacement for the sticky sheet. You just go out and you buy a new roller.Also, everything is in a box or it’s wrapped in plastic. It’s like plastic upon plastic upon plastic. And this is a requirement for many retailers. It’s all trash.

To me, product display is important, but we need to get to a new way of displaying products to reduce excess waste. Even though De Novo® is a very small business, this is still a core value of the company. All our products come in a linen bag, and that bag is recyclable and reusable, and while the product itself is not built on sustainable resources (yet), it does provide a moresustainable solution.

In a perfect world, I would love for these products to be produced sustainably from recycled plastics because I don’t want to waste any additional material. I’m trying to figure out what would be the best way to use recycled plastic to create a brush because that would be more of a niche item. It would be something that would make my product one hundred percent sustainable, and that would be great. 

I want to be able to get to the point where we are selling brushes made from recycled plastics that you can recycle again, which can in turn be made into another brush. So it would be a perfect cycle. That’s where I would like to take it. That is my goal and dream for the future.”

Extra Tips

• If you want more tips on how to make your online business more sustainable, why not try our3 Ways to Make Your Site More Eco-Friendly article?
• Or, for sustainable packaging-specific advice, check out our 10 Sustainable Packaging Tips for Your Online Store

“If you’re gonna do ecommerce, you need to have aShopify website. It’s easy because everybody integrates with it. I havemy warehouse with my products and orders to fulfill them to customers and each step is done by Shopify. So it’s like a process where I don’t even have to do anything.

The appAfterShip on Shopify has been such a huge help because it allows customers to easily track their own packages. I used to get so many emails from people who didn’t know how to track their packages, but those emails basically do not come anymore. With AftersShip, all you do is go to the website and you can track your order and you know exactly when it will be delivered. 

The AfterShip return app is also great because customers can start their own return process and then I just click approve and Shopify sends them a shipping label and that’s all it is.

That’s why Shopify has been an important partner for me. My biggest goal is to continue with business development. Since I mostly sell directly to retailers, my day-to-day is less busy and I don’t have too many direct-to-consumer interactions. My website is a platform for people and companies to be able to see the products and get to know the company a little bit more. If you want to dive in deep to get to know me better, you should sign up for our newsletter. 

If I were to start the process from the beginning again, I think I would initially just start with a Shopify free template. I would also download the apps that I already know work.Because I had to go through and download so many different kinds of apps with Shopify, I had to weed out the ones that made my website very slow. I even hired a consultant to go in and delete some of this additional code because they couldn’t find all of it. So there were some lessons learned.

I did buy one of their templates because I wanted the website to look a little bit different than their free options. The building was a learning experience – a bit of a plug-and-play. I don’t have a background in web design but I found it relatively easy. Plus, they have very good customer support. 

From a user perspective, I would have preferred a platform that I can easily turn on and off [the] features when I want it, instead of relying on third-party apps. I think that Shopify should try to consider doing things more in-house.”

“The most important lesson I’ve learned in my career and through De Novo is to not be held back by fear. That’s the biggest lesson. Fear cripples and makes you feel small in this environment. Being an entrepreneur, having a small business – it’s so easy to be afraid of sending that email and to lose a little bit of money. 

But you just have to not give up. And it’s a lot easier now. There are so many opportunities within ecommerce that you don’t even need to have products. You can easily just create a website and a whole ecommerce business and someone else will ship it out [your products] for you. Even Amazon is allowing you to publish your own books. For an additional cash flow or even just a hobby, it’s worth it to just see what happens.

Feelings of fear and giving up will stop eventually, they aren’t permanent. So just move forward and don’t be afraid.”

At Valley Rays, we make premium sunglasses without the big brand price tag.

We’re an independent sunglasses company based out of sunny Phoenix, Arizona. Living in one of the sunniest cities in the US inspired us to create a brand that was unique to our area and could stand up against the harsh desert sun.

We started our design process back in 2022 when we developed our flagship sunglass model, The Phoenix. The Phoenix was designed to be a modern take on a classic design, but we wanted them to be more versatile, so our customers could wear them anywhere. And when we say anywhere, we mean it. Mountain biking, cruising on the boat, or just out on the town – we wanted our sunglasses to be able to handle it. Of course, this type of versatility requires a little extra work, with a higher-performance design and premium materials.

 The Phoenix was officially launched in March 2023, and has since garnered rave reviews from our fans.

Despite this, we wanted to deliver a high-quality product without the big brand price tag. It’s no secret that almost all of the name brands in the industry are owned by the same company, and they notoriously overcharge for their sunglasses, sometimes even charging a 1000% markup. Learning this made us determined to match their quality, and do it at an affordable price point for our customers.

We started Valley Rays because we knew we could deliver the best value to the market, bringing honesty, quality, and affordability to our customers. Before Valley Rays, customers could choose between overpriced sunglasses or a cheap pair you’d find at a gas station. But we’ve combined best-in-class design, premium materials, and a lower price point to challenge that status quo.

Living in Arizona, there are 315 days of pure sunshine every year. You could say we’re the unofficial experts on living life in the sun, and we wanted to share that sunshine with the rest of the country.

Arizona is smack-dab in the middle of the desert. We’re literally called ‘the Valley of the Sun’. We thought our business was the perfect opportunity to give the world a taste of Arizona and give Arizona what it deserves: a local, premium sunglasses brand.

But it’s not just about the sun. We wanted to create a product that could tough the great outdoors. Both Shane and I are really into sports. We’re big fans of hiking and mountain biking, and if we get the opportunity, we love being out on the lake, too. If we’re stuck inside too long, we go a little stir-crazy!

This was a big factor when designing our sunglasses. We both have our preferred brands, and we used these as a base before making them better. In our opinion, of course!

The biggest changes were regarding the fit and comfort of wearing the sunglasses for a long period of time. We wanted them to be made out of materials that were light and it was important that the lenses were super clear so that our customers could wear them outdoors and barely notice they were even there.

We did a lot of prototyping. We had seven or eight prototypes in the end, but with the accessibility of 3D printing nowadays, this part of the process was really quick and easy. It was the design phase that was the trickiest. We started to nitpick at every little detail. That’s how we ended up with such a great product from the get-go, though! Because we spent so much time perfecting the basic design, we were really able to dial in the fit and make sure it was perfect.

Shane and I both have degrees in civil engineering and we’ve worked in the construction industry for the past 12 years. We’ve learned a lot about running new projects and presenting quality products. The one thing that has been drilled into our brains from day one is that quality can make or break a product. That, combined with our engineering background, has really had a strong influence on our business decisions.

Sustainability is very important to us, too. People are always losing their sunglasses, and sometimes it’s when they’re out on a trail or on the lake. For some peace of mind, we chose to use a bio-resin for our frame material. This offers the same strength and durability as TR-90, but instead of being petroleum-based, it’s actually made out of castor bean oil. This makes our frames 50% biodegradable, without sacrificing quality – something that was a huge win for the Valley Rays team.

We also put a lot of thought into our packaging, too. No one wants their sunglasses delivered in a box in a box in a box. We wanted to create something that could be reused, rather than recycled, so we chose to use a cylinder that people could then repurpose as a sunglasses holder. The cylinder fits in most car cup holders, too, so you can store them safely while driving.

Sustainability is so crucial when creating a business, especially when you see how much waste the industry creates. I think a lot of smaller brands really embrace this mentality. Not only is extra waste bad for the planet, but it’s not cost-effective, either!

Creating a brand isn’t an easy task and there have been many challenges. Shane and I both currently work 9 to 5 in the construction world and although there’s some pretty good flexibility, it can get a little hectic. Plus, we’re both new to the parenting game, so we try to keep ourselves as streamlined as possible. Family is the root of both our priorities. After all, none of this would be possible without the support from home.

But if you’re thinking about starting a sunglasses business, make sure you’re ready for the challenge of a lifetime. We thought it would be relatively cheap to get started, but the costs start to add up quickly.

 Shane and I both had millions of ideas. Trying to boil them all down to one succinct brand was really tough.

You have to really understand what sets your product apart and make sure your marketing is solid. The biggest thing that Shane and I realized is that we couldn’t cut corners when it came to branding and marketing. In the end, we reached out to a design company to help us out and they really smashed it out of the park. From there, putting the website together just fell into place.

We’ve actually outsourced a lot of stuff, mostly due to time but also creative blocks. Time is your best asset as an entrepreneur and it’s better to outsource things you’re not good at or have spent a lot of time trying to figure out.

Even with the extra help, it’s hard work. Whenever we have a free second in the day, we try to smash out as much work as possible. This can be anything from SEO optimization to working on Facebook, Instagram, or Google Ads. When we get out of the office, we create as much content as we can to fill social media and spread the word. It’s all about getting our product in front of as many people as possible. That’s just how it is for a startup!

So why do we do it? The love of entrepreneurship. The challenge. The thrills of success. And the thought that someday we could own something great. There was nothing better than finally receiving our finished product. It had taken us about eight months of hard design work and a constant back and forth with the manufacturer but to actually feel our creation in our hands was a pretty surreal feeling.

Ecommerce is the easiest way to start a business when you’re still working a day job. Once everything’s in place, it only requires small tweaks and it’s not as time-intensive as other businesses. The simplicity of setting up our Shopify store was a bonus, though.

We also really like that Shopify supports the integration of additional apps to help boost your website. Right now, we’re using Bold Upsell, which is great to increase the average order value. We also use Omnisend for our email marketing and LOOX for customer reviews. These apps are super important for our business at the minute, and we’d recommend them to anyone starting out with a website on Shopify.

We absolutely feel that Shopify is the right platform to help us grow. We’re just scratching the surface right now. Soon, we’ll be able to offer more sunglass models and we feel that we offer something unique in the industry. The sky’s the limit!

If you’re thinking about starting your own website, my advice would be to just do it. Just start it. You can even start with a free plan or trial. Starting is always the hardest step, but once you have something, you can tweak and test it to see if the market’s interested. Then, once you know people like what you have to offer, you can focus on growing.

Working with Shane has been so rewarding. We both have our strengths, and it’s nice because each person can focus on what they’re good at. It’s kind of like a divide-and-conquer thing. It’s just important to find someone like-minded that also shares the same motivation and willingness to get the job done.

One of the best parts of this journey so far has been seeing the reviews come in and talking with our customers. We spent so much time finding the right manufacturer, obsessing over the design, and struggling to get our name out there, that when we started seeing the stellar reviews come in, it all finally came into perspective that this is why we do it. We offer a great product that enhances people’s experiences and that has been very rewarding.

We have so many goals and aspirations to list, but right now, we’re focused on getting out next model launched and growing our fan base with our current model, The Phoenix. It’s important to have a good foundation, made up of great customer service and a quality product, so these are our short-term goals, too.

Entrepreneurship is a daily grind and you have to just keep at it. There are no overnight successes.

Go to the top

“The wine industry is a very cut-throat place, and our brand is unique to most vineyards and wineries. While we cater to all wine drinking, ranging from sweet to dry, our most popular wines are semi-sweet to sweet. Within the Midwest wine market, we are unique because we produce a line of sparkling wines. They have become our most popular wines across the board!

We did not have any financial investors [when building the business], but we did hire one employee in the very beginning. Other than a few contractors to execute some of the building processes, everything was built from the ground up financially and physically. We really did most of the plumbing, electrical, flooring, drywall, fixtures, painting, etc. It was an incredibly hard but rewarding process, and now we are so thankful as it allows us to be in the stage we are in.

Our business has truly taken off with growth in every direction.

We started with three employees including me and my husband. Now, we have grown to a team of over twenty employees spreading across every facet of the business. We are penetrating new markets in the Midwest wine industry, and we recently earned the title of South Dakota’s largest vineyard and winery!”

With the Wind produces a wide variety of wine.

Running a Family Business

“While there are definitely difficulties, it has been amazing because we have gotten to be stay-at-home parents as our business is located below where we live. Our kids have learned the value of hard work because they have participated in every step of the journey with us. To give balance to work life and home life, we highly prioritize family time and getaways. Now, our daughter and son-in-law have returned to join in the family venture, and we love that this has always been a family business.”

A Passion for Work

Lisa: “I love crushing my goals every day, and I love that I am constantly learning new things while overcoming new challenges. One of the best parts about my work is building relationships with stores and customers on the daily.”

Jeremiah: “Between shipping and wine club, on-site visitors, and events, my job is so fun because there is so much variety and activity. From month to month, there are many different focuses from wine club and seasonal events to weddings during the summer, as well as vineyard requirements, and the different wines being made. Every day is so busy, challenging, and fun. Every day is very different!”

Celebrating Customers

“We have guests who have known us for years and who have built strong relationships professionally and relationally. We keep very close contact and personal relationships with almost every business we work with! This is one of our core values within our business.

Our mission is to bring people together to joyously celebrate relationships and connection!We love being a part of that and value our strong customer base immensely.”

With the Wind holds events throughout the year to help build customer relationships.

More Information

• How to Sell Wine Online: Learn how to start selling wine online in our step-by-step guide
• How to Sell Wholesale: Five easy tips to help you kick things off

“From our establishment in 2014, we have always been a business built from our own immediate family. We have growth and have been very blessed with expansion capabilities to buy another eighty acres of land for vineyard, grown to sustain over twenty staff, and have recently undergone multiple vineyard, building, and product expansions.

With the Wind is currently producing about 5,000 cases per year and is set on track to increase to 10,000 cases within the next few years. Additionally, with our latest planting, we now grow almost 5,000 grapevines.

Our most recent success story is one of our favorites. This spring, with the addition of our newest vineyard, we have earned the title of South Dakota’s largest vineyard and winery! We are very proud of the work we and our team have put in.

Numerous accounts over the years have also been so fun and satisfying as we have become bestsellers in many of our stores, competing with national and worldwide brands!

It is the most amazing feeling when customers put back a national brand on the shelf after tasting our wines during in-store tastings.

One very proud moment for us was when one of our retailers ordered a sixteen-case purchase for an event back in our first year of business. We were so proud, and we framed the handwritten note order.

In the past six months, we launched our first sparkling wine, and it was ranked as the top seller at one of our retailers. It beat out international brands and was a very proud moment for us!”

“Truthfully, our greatest challenge has been our rural geographic area. We are located in the northeast corner of South Dakota, and it has both its strengths and weaknesses. While it is definitely rural, people are amazed at the peacefulness and the natural beauty that surrounds our area. We ship our wines all across the United States and are happy to be able to have the beauty of our area but still be able to access a customer base through shipping!”

“We chose to create our own website because we needed a way to reach people online. We originally had a website developer, but after that fell through, we needed a platform that would work for a novice to use. Squarespace’s professionalism appealed to us more than other platforms such as Wix. It had so many beautiful templates, and we have never regretted using Squarespace for a second.

We are currently on the Business plan because it is a good middle ground for us. It is cheaper than other plans but has all the features we need!

Not being an expert, there were certain things I was not aware of that we didn’t do right in the beginning. We have fixed those issues more recently and have dove into improving our SEO as well. As for managing and running events, we have found that many of our customers discover our upcoming events through the listing on our website which has been very helpful.

As we have hired marketing staff, Squarespace has seamlessly fit into our business even more. However, I would have loved to learn about SEO from Squarespace earlier in my journey. I find that part of the website builder is a little intimidating still.”

Scalability of Squarespace

“We feel we are still learning and perfecting our website. However, we are always looking for new innovations that will help us scale our business further.

Know that you will probably continue to change and improve your website, and that is okay! 

Work on taking one step at a time, and be patient with the progress. The more you work at it, the better your website will be! It’s a learning process I think we all should learn.”

With the Wind Website Gallery

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With the Wind makes it easy for website visitors to find what they want with a detailed navigation.

We love that With the Wind encourages readers to sign up to its newsletter while sharing its social links as well.

The use of image galleries and large visuals makes you feel like you’re actually visiting With the Wind’s vineyard.

Holding regular events, like With the Wind’s upcoming “Vine to Table” event, is a great way to engage with customers.

We love that With the Wind has broadened its offering by sharing wine-related recipes on the website.

More Information

• Squarespace Pricing: Find out which Squarespace plan is best for your website

Lisa: “I think I would tell my younger self that everything will come together as it should. I would tell her to remember that all her prior life experiences will come into play perfectly when she owns a business. I would tell her to trust the process, and enjoy the journey knowing that everything will line up for the future!”

Jeremiah: “A financial strategy I will always live by is lean startup. We established With the Wind Winery with no help from investors, so we learned to be scrappy with our finances while still working to keep consumer perceptions as high as possible. Additionally, you have to learn as you go, from your market, products, etc. Stay flexible and listen to those around you. That has been our mantra that we always tell people.”

“We have many upcoming goals and future plans including installing a commercial kitchen for serving food this winter, doubling our production over the next couple years, planting another eighty acres of vineyard, distributing further into the Midwest as well as nationally, and preparing ourselves for the next generation to come in. We have a lot of goals and are excited to see where the upcoming stages take us!”

This mother and daughter duo create affordable luxury Korean hair care products.

Our brand is calledPERSEVE. We’re a women founded and AAPI (Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander) owned haircare brand that is founded by me and my mom, Hyeri, who has been a hairstylist in New York City for over 25 years. We’re a clean and cruelty-freehaircare brand creating luxurious yet affordable formulas that are quality alternatives to prestige brands. Our mission is to make premium haircare formulas accessible to everyone. 

“As immigrants, our culture is super important to us so we focused on adding our background to the brand.”

My mom and I founded the brand together and are Korean-American immigrants. As immigrants, our culture is super important to us so we focused on adding our background to the brand. When we started we knew for sure we were going to have everything formulated and made in South Korea. Our products are all under $20, but equally equivalent in ingredients, standards, and performance of a prestige product that retails for $30.

Working Alongside Family

This is kind of corny, but the best part is working with my mom. We have polar opposite personalities, but we mesh well together. Also, the fact that my mom and I are working to build something together motivates us daily. We have polar opposite personalities and work styles, but that helps us a lot as a team. In areas I lack in, she thrives in. And areas she lacks in, I thrive in. We balance each other. And we also prioritize communication because it’s super important in every aspect, not justwhen running a company together.

My mom has been a hairstylist in New York City for over 25 years so she’s always had a passion for haircare. I think our love for hair care stems from the idea that it frames our face and helps us feel more beautiful, but also can help us in so many ways to change our style and identity at the snip of a scissor or flick of a curling iron.

As small business owners, we tend to wear a lot of hats – I usually manage our marketing, social media, and business development. And my mom takes more of a product development and operations role in the business. She does all the dirty work while I do all the pretty work.

I was experiencing intense hair loss after getting COVID and tried so many different products from high-end, drugstore, to personalized products. Not much worked except a $30 shampoo from Sephora, but it wasn’t realistic to spend $30 on a single bottle of shampoo.

“It almost felt like brands were gatekeeping prestige formulas by sticking overly expensive price tags on them. My mom and I had a lightbulb moment and made it our mission to make prestige formulas accessible to everyone.”

Our goal is to make affordable luxury hair care, like treat yourself vibes, but products on a budget. We want to make the ingredients of a prestige brand accessible to the everyday consumer with our clean and cruelty-free price inclusive products.

The very first thing we did was create a brand identity. My mom and I brainstormed so many names for the brand and landed on PERSEVE after about a month. Then started working with a graphic designer to create logos and content for the brand.

The hair loss was such a life-changing experience for me because it essentially gave me a whole new career path. When I got COVID, I was living in NYC and I had just lost my corporate job due to the pandemic, dealing with the aftermath of losing my hair was extremely stressful.

Probably a few weeks after I recovered from COVID, my hair would come out in clumps and I would see it mostly while washing my hair, or when I brushed it. I was so desperate for a fix so I tried everything. The only product that worked was a $30 shampoo, but being out of a job in the middle of a pandemic I couldn’t justify paying that much for a single product.

My mom and co-founder, Hyeri, has been a professional hairstylist in New York City for over 25 years and actually created one of the first non-toxic keratin smoothing treatments before launching PERSEVE, so she has experience with manufacturing and that definitely helped us a lot with our brand.

Prior to PERSEVE, I was an event planner for hospitality groups mostly doing corporate events. It’s a world of difference from what I’m doing now.

As a small business owner, your hours aren’t the typical nine to five. Everyday is different, but I typically start my day out at around nine at our office. The first thing I do when I get to the office is check my emails. Then my mom and I will usually go and help our warehouse team in the back with packing orders and preparing wholesale shipments for pickup or delivery that day.

After that, I’ll go to the office and do some work. Mostly consisting of prospecting, sending cold emails, and working on our social media platforms or marketing initiatives. Usually throughout the week when I have a free moment, I’ll work with our photographer who has a studio nearby to plan and create content. Every week is filled with different projects, but that’s typically what my day to day is like.

For $22 you can get the PERSEVE luxury shampoo and conditioner.

I think a core moment for us was when we finally received our finished products. Our products are made in South Korea so it was a long and extremely stressful process to get our products delivered due to the pandemic and importing restrictions. It was delay after delay so when we finally got it, it was unreal. It felt like our hard work finally paid off.

“We’re immensely proud that we’ve sold about 15K products so far and a lot of them are returning customers.”

One tip is patience is key, you’re not gonna see instant results. For example, in marketing especially if you’re bootstrapping and not throwing thousands into Facebook ads, you are not going to see an instant return. We’re immensely proud that we’ve sold about 15K products so far and a lot of them are returning customers.

The Wix-made website is sleek as a well made hair conditioner.

Creating an online presence especially for a CPG (consumer packaged goods) is so important. You need to have a consumer facing website to capture consumers. And a website is the most cost effective selling channel especially if your brand is new and haven’t entered major retailers yet.

We launched our business on our website. We bootstrapped and built the brand ourselves. The only thing we really outsourced for our business was a photographer and a graphic designer, but beyond that we kind of do everything ourselves.

Experiences of Building with Wix

The templates are absolutely the best thing about Wix. The Wix templates are easy to use and actually aesthetically pleasing. There’s so many design templates you can choose from too. And you literally drop and click to design and you’re done.

Wix made everything user-friendly and also automated a lot of the actions, so it’s very hands off compared to other platforms. Also, the analytics and email marketing features have been the most helpful tools for our business.

The only problem I do have with Wix is that sometimes the website editing tools glitch and freeze, but beyond that I have nothing bad to say about it. It’s one of the best website builders.

Invest in a better chair – just kidding! But in all honesty, I would maybe tell myself to “have patience.” And I say that because in the first few months of launch, I was so anxious and constantly beating myself down for not getting instant results. Then once our brand started getting some traction I realized that all I needed was some patience.

 “Also plan and organize everything. Creating content and copy for the website prior to starting is always a good idea so that everything is more organized and you’ll definitely finish the website a lot quicker.”

I would also say don’t give up. It’s so hard being a business owner, but the empowerment from building something from the bottom up with your own two hands is priceless. I feel so proud to say I created a brand on my own.

Do your due diligence and research everything. Research the industry, your competition, trends, and ingredients. It’s so important to know your information because the hair care industry is one the most saturated sectors in beauty and you want your products to differentiate within that mountain of competition.

For the future we have some retail partnerships in the works so hopefully we’ll have some exciting news soon. But our ultimate goal is to have our products available at major retailers like Sephora and Ulta.

“I started Timberdog in 2017 after adopting my rescue puppy, Kashi. She had terrible trauma, including separation anxiety, and I knew it would take a long time to train her. In the meantime, I wanted her close to me everywhere we went, and so I invented the multifunctional pet bed – RuffRest® – that could travel with us, whether we were camping, staying in a hotel, going to the office, road-tripping, or flying to a destination.

The best part of my day is when someone tells me that they love their RuffRest and can’t live without it, and don’t know what they did before it came into their lives! I feel the same way – I never leave home without it.”

A Green Commitment

“The environment is the most important thing to me in my business. What would be the use of an outdoor pet bed if we had no destinations to travel to or camp in, due to forest fires and polluted water and airways? My dog’s love of nature and wanting to be in it as much as possible drove me to craft the perfect outdoor adventure pet bed. I love nature too and need to be able to escape to it. So, preserving the great outdoors has been of the utmost importance to me.

That’s why Timberdog has partnered with One Tree Planted to plant two trees for every RuffRest sold. This will help us with our ambitious plan to be carbon negative by 2027.

It’s extremely pricey to be sustainable, but I didn’t want to be one of those companies who does it later on just for optics. Even though it hurts my bottom line, it was imperative for Timberdog to be a green company from its very inception. Brand and brand equity is everything to a company, and I want everyone to know that Timberdog doesn’t just do things to “look good”. We do things because we want to be good.”

The Daily Grind

“The average day has me going through emails for about 3-4 hours per day, and then working on organic SEO through things like internal linking, blogging, and guest blogging – as well as responding to journalist queries in order to get additional exposure. I also spend quite a bit of time connecting with influencers and signing them up to showcase RuffRest via their user-generated content.”

Building Connections & Influence

“I offer a direct line to me to anyone who seems like they need one – usually it’s folks who are hesitant to buy and tell me they need to be convinced, or people who wish I had a brick-and-mortar presence as they don’t trust buying things off the internet because they can’t touch or test them in person. I also look at every comment as an opportunity to engage in dialogue and demonstrate why RuffRest is, say, at its price point, or why it’s the best pet bed on the market.

After trying to contact Gear Junkie for two years, I finally got through and word of RuffRest has traveled all the way to the editor-in-chief, who will have one of his reviewers do a full spread on RuffRest in the next few months. Also, getting 22 influencers with a combined following of 6.2 million people to sign with Timberdog hasn’t been bad either!”

More Information

• How to Sell Pet Supplies Online: Read our guide if you’re thinking about building an online store to sell pet-related products
• Sustainable Business Ideas: For more ideas to help you get started
• How to Make Your Website More Eco-Friendly: Minimize your website’s impact with these simple steps

“Our pet bed is the first of its kind in the world. Usually travel items for dogs are either a thin roll-up mat, or travel bag, or a simple pet bed made from durable nylon, or simply a sleeping bag for dogs. But it’s never all four of those items in one. RuffRest accomplishes all of that plus 10 more features with its patent-pending design.

[When it comes to creating a new product]… Sketching things out helps me take the visual stuff in my brain and organize it on paper. Drawings are universal and don’t need much language to explain it – when working with prototypers overseas, sketches have proved invaluable. I also keep a master to-do list on Monday.com, keep a Google calendar for meetings, and a paper pad for daily items. It’s a lot, but it keeps me organized.

Amazingly, I went from a drawing on the back of a loan to a fully-fleshed, commercially viable product within 4 years. It took another year to perfect it, get it manufactured, and get it on the market. I’m working on building the brand and community in the meantime. It’s very exciting work.

I did most of it [the work] myself as I could not afford outside help. But I did have to invest in a few expensive things, such as the tech pack, and some help to customize the website theme I purchased. I also needed help shooting the videos and professional photos of the product. I cut costs by doing most of the setup work myself and just having the pros come in to do the last bits which I could not figure out.

I had to go through many tech packs, many manufacturers, many disbelievers, and thousands of other missteps before finally landing on a manufacturer who could bring my vision to life. But even here there were communication, tech, and knowledge barriers. It was a steep learning curve for the both of us since I knew nothing of textiles and manufacturing, and they were encountering a complex product like mine for the first time.”

Timberdog gives potential customers all of the information they could need about the RuffRest.

More Information

• Best Selling Pet Products: Find out which pet products are trending

“[The pet industry] is a saturated, highly-competitive market. You better have something that stands out. And you must stick by it for several years before seeing success.

Be patient and keep grinding. There’s room in the market for everyone – don’t worry about copycats. If you stand by your product, your product is here to stay. There will always be copycats, but you’re the original, and if you’ve built your brand properly, the people will know that.”

“Kickstarter inspired me [to build a website]. I noticed that innovators on there had these endless, scroll-type landing pages which explained products exhaustively. This is critical when you’re new to a market with a product and early adopters need to read all about it. It has to be informative, anticipate all possible questions, and be visually stunning. The devil is in the details.

I chose Shopify because they were the most popular choice at the time, had incredible themes, and had real-time phone support. Now that they’ve nixed their phone support, I am considering other options.

Nothing really sets it apart from other major players, to be honest. Google Analytics 4 has been very helpful as a tool but you don’t need Shopify to get on it.

I’m on the hunt for a platform which won’t cut corners on their customers. Shopify has steadily been going down, in my opinion, for the past couple of years.”

More Information

• Best Website Builders: Check out Shopify’s competition in our list of the top-rated website builders on the market

I am happiest when… my customers are happy.

To me, success looks like… my customers’ satisfaction.

If I could go back in time, I would advise myself to… relax and not worry so much.

Having a business website has… been hugely gratifying and helpful. People are impressed with the site, so I’m very proud of it.

Being an entrepreneur means… strapping in for a marathon, not a sprint.

“I had gone to school for film and cinematography, and then I switched to photography after graduating about four years ago. From there I started doing weddings, just as a way to pick up jobs, and then I realized I liked it. Before I knew it, I was getting referrals and stuff. So that then kind of snowballed into me having my own business.

I went full-time between two and three years ago, just on my own – so now it’s just me and then I’ll hire contractors sometimes to help out with some work. I shoot 20-30 weddings and elopements per year. Mostly in the Midwest of the US, and then a few abroad as well.”

Finding Brand Values

“I think one thing that sets me apart – and it’s a big philosophy of mine and my photography – is consent-informed posing. So I approach photography through a trauma-informed lens, which then kind of takes away – or I think supports people – to feel more comfortable with me.

“It allows us to create photographs without me making any assumptions about who they are, or what they want. Keeping the collaboration open.”

I started making monthly donations pretty early on in my business. Without mentioning it or telling anyone – it was a personal thing at that time. But I realized as I kept working with people that the clients I really enjoyed working with, and that were getting the most out of working with me, had a similar passion for supporting the community and we would lean towards supporting the same causes.

Putting it on my website is another way to communicate who I am as a person and also a way for clients to know what to expect from me and where my passions outside of work lie. I can’t leave myself at home when I go to work, I’m always showing up with these pieces of myself too. So I wanted to use it as another way to narrow down my clientele – to be people that knew what I stood for and that felt like knowing that I was a good fit for them. It’s also a good conversation starter too, and it also just feels good working knowing that I’m supporting these two places monthly [The Gentle Barn and The Innocence Project].”

Hannah makes her values clear to potential clients.

The Magic of Fantasy

“I think as far as my niche goes, I think something else that sets me apart – and is very central to my business – is wanting to focus on, or take inspiration from, fantasy books and movies. Like folklore and stuff like that, and trying to incorporate that into my work. I work with a lot of people who are really passionate about fantasy movies and films, and different stories. So I find it fun to try to incorporate the things that they like into the photography.

I take a lot of inspiration from Celtic folklore, especially images, right now. That’s kind of like it’s less specific but I’m really inspired by the scenery and colors of Ireland. And the history of it – the Celtic folklore stories. And, as for films or shows, I would say visually that I take a lot of inspiration from the show Outlander – I think it’s shot in a way that I really like to emulate with the colors and the composition. And the same with the more magical elements of The Lord of the Rings.”

Bringing Personality to Your Business

“I wanted to avoid the more generic personality things that people will put on their websites. The first time I made a website and started writing about myself, I wanted to be very approachable to everyone and be kind of generic in a way. I wanted to have details that wouldn’t make anyone not like me, if that makes sense.

So when I redid my website over the past two years, I worked with a copywriter and she was really helpful, but I leaned into mentioning things that not every person can relate to – but are true to me. And I’ve found that I’ve met with and worked with clients that then align more with what I like because I’ll mention kind of obscure things, but they’re pretty important in my life.”

The Joys of Work

“My favorite thing about work is meeting the people that I end up working with and getting to know them and getting to know their families. Just being able to support them through a process that – I mean quite a few people may do more than once – but for a lot of people, it’s just one time and they’ve never done it before. It comes with a lot of emotions and baggage and stuff like that, so I like to be a support person in that way.

I also like to be able to empower peoplewhen it comes to trying to encourage them to make their wedding or elopement or portrait session – make it whatever they want it to be. So that’s really rewarding.

And day-to-day, I really enjoy editing, especially when I feel like I’m doing something where I have a little bit of artistic freedom. I’m able to really give people what they want, or what they hope that they could get.”

“My services and process definitely evolved, especially with things like permitting and the legal checks that come with destination weddings and more adventurous elopements in national parks and things. Because a lot of people – I mean, most people – haven’t eloped to a national park before. So how would you know that you need a permit in order to take photos on a mountain or need to get permission?

My first one, I had to do serious research and I realized that I wanted that to be a part of what I do for my clients and not something they have to do. I want to provide that education and, if I’m the expert in our relationship, I want to provide all of that. So that definitely came from learning and working.”

“It’s helpful now that people can know what to expect through my website, and it’s a reminder of what to expect of myself.”

Growing a Business

“Over the years, my business has grown and as it’s grown, I’ve had to learn more about efficiency and making sure that I’m hitting deadlines since I have more clients. And I’ve been wanting to maintain the personalization, the one-to-one process. Even having, you know, 50 clients a year, or however many, I didn’t want to lose that personal feeling.

So that’s been a learning curve and there’s been a lot of things I’ve had to learn as I’ve grown. A lot of it has to do with marketing and my website and trying to find ways to be more efficient in that department, but also learning when to delegate – or when I’ve hit a roadblock and need a contractor or professional who can help me take the next step.

I’ve also had to adapt my contracts a bit too. Going through the pandemic, I learned a lot about how to deal with cancellations and rescheduling – that kind of stuff that didn’t come up a lot before COVID. That’s when I had to learn about adding it to my contract and setting expectations early too.”

Planning Ahead – Preparing for Busy Seasons

“For me, fall is my busiest season, and summer is wedding season in the industry.

It’s something else I’ve learned over the years – I’ve had to be strategic about scheduling because I’ve learned that one of the best things I can do for myself is give myself breaks so it’s not back-to-back every weekend. And there are quite a few back-to-back weekends, but I’m still trying to be intentional about how far I’m traveling and giving myself time to decompress and get editing done in between. So that helps me seasonally.

Something else that helps me deal with the rush is trying to get as much backend stuff done as possible during the off-season. So that’d be December, January, February, March – I try to set up marketing as much as I can. I try to get ahead of any website updates and changes and do that when I’m not my busiest because then that takes something off my plate for future me.”

“I have the goal of doing more destination weddings. I have one booked for next year (2024) which will be fun, but I’d like to lean into making more social media posts and blog posts with education about destination weddings and putting out more content that’s helpful to people. Trying to be more of a resource in the future for people, even people who don’t end up booking with me.

I just think that there are a lot of misconceptions and legal gray areas with destination weddings and some things that some photographers and vendors may skip out on learning about that I think are really important, so I’d like to lean into that education piece more in the future of my business.

And same for my more personal passions, like environmentalism. I’d like to do more in the sphere of eco-conscious weddings and elopements. So I think overall doing more education and maybe one day trying to host some kind of workshop or something of the sort would be on my goals list. Overall, I think just booking more adventurous National Park elopements around the US, I would enjoy too… so those are my upcoming goals.”

Hannah already shares helpful blog posts and guides on elopements.

“When I was first starting out, I was accepting any client that inquired without getting to know them and without doing my full due diligence of making sure they were a good fit. I haven’t had any crazy difficult people but I’ve had clients that I’ve learned maybe I could’ve been more diligent about making sure that we were what was best for each other. And especially in shorter sessions, like portrait sessions, there’s less of a relationship-building element as weddings.

So I find that the more I know a person and the more we’ve spent time talking and feeling comfortable, the better. With shorter sessions, I think it’s easier to end up just pushing through, despite whether you think it was a good fit or not. Usually, I handle it by doing the best work I can for them and make a note to myself that down the road, if they wanted to work together again, I would probably point them in the direction of someone who I think would be a better fit for them. And just keep mental notes about stuff like that so that I can serve people the best way.

As much as you can, don’t work for freeeither. Especially in creative fields – you know, art, writing, theater, music, photography, all of that – I think it can be easy to say you just want to do it. So you’ll do it for free – and there’s definitely space for collaborations and exchanges and donating your time. I still do that, but I think that a lot of people just starting out in the photography field will do any work for anyone for any price. And I think that just does a disservice to the people working and is a quick way to burn out in the field.

So I would say to remember to honor what you need, so then you can do the best work for the people you work with.

I still need to work on learning when to delegate andoutsource and when to push through – time is money, as people say, so you may be able to do something yourself, but is it worth the 40 hours of time spent learning and rewriting and reworking things? So I kind of wish at the start that I had reached out for more support, especially in a lot of the administrative stuff.”

“I wanted a place where people could go to basically get everything they needed about working with me. So I wanted a place to put all of the photos and a place to have an FAQ – like a home base where people could access everything they needed to book me.

I was on Squarespace for my first year, and I think Squarespace has a great user interface and it’s really user-friendly but I did feel limited in customization after a point. So it was helpful in getting my website up really quickly and it looking pretty clean and straightforward in a short period of time. It felt super easy to use, but after that first year, I realized I wanted to do a bit more with altering my code and doing more with Google Analytics and tracking things. And overall, it just felt like it wasn’t easy anymore for me to make design changes, so I ended up going to WordPress because I’d worked with it a little bit in the past and had heard really good things from other photographers working with WordPress and how they were getting good SEO results from it.

I would say my SEO performance has been probably one of the better things I’ve noticed since switching, and I also really like how customizable everything is in WordPress. And the amount of plugins that they have available is helpful as well.”

Revamping The Business

“I was noticing that I was getting less inquiries of the sort that I wanted to work with and that I wanted to shoot. So I was getting more cold leads – people just messaging every photographer that comes up on Google. People who hadn’t picked a date yet, or weren’t really sure… less inquiries that were real leads of people that wanted to see if we’d be a good fit. When those leads got less frequent, I decided to revamp my website so that it reflected more of me and what I wanted to shoot. That’s what kind of drove the changes.

This year, I did a full overhaul of my homepage and my pricing page – for that, I hired a copywriter that specializes in elopements because I found that I wanted to lean more toward elopements. She was really helpful in getting that big chunk of copy done, and then I updated the other pages on my website myself, having that as an inspiration or framework.”

Website Building Tips

“My advice to someone who has never touched a website would be to start with the most user-friendly and straightforward experience you can find. Because with web building, I think it gets overwhelming really quickly, and there’s so much you can do with it. For me, a big part of being able to get a website up quickly was finding that Squarespace was really simple for me to use and then just running with that because it allowed me to get my first draft up, so to speak. Even as I was working on customizing it and working on my business overall, I still had that framework up.

Whatever seems the most doable for you, and you can always change down the road.

My other advice would be to watch YouTube videos and to read blogs and to try and learn as much as you can about it and how it works, because it can be very complicated.”

More Information

• Squarespace Review: See if Squarespace is a good fit for you with our detailed review.
• WordPress Review: Read all about the pros and cons of WordPress.
• Squarespace vs WordPress: We put these two website builders head-to-head.
• Best Photography Website Builders: Check out our list of the best website builders for photography.
• How to Build a Website: Use our beginner-friendly guide to help you get started.
• How to Create a Photography Website: Build your dream photography website by following these steps.

The key takeaway we found from speaking with Hannah is how important it is to connect with your clients or customers, and why bringing your personal values and passions to your work can help to build those strong relationships.

Every business faces hurdles, but you should always be ready to adapt – Hannah did just that by revamping her website and by letting her processes evolve with experience.

I am happiest when… I’m reading a book outside with a cup of coffee.

To me, success looks like…serving myself and my community in the best way that I can.

If I could go back in time, I would advise myself to… travel more.

Having a business website has… been a very rewarding time suck.

Being an entrepreneur means…connecting with and sharing my skills with people.