Business is a Money Game (but also a life-long passion game)

Kathleen Shannon 0:00
Okay, wait, we need to like dive in here because I cannot wrap my head around like retail and wholesale. And I mean, I know what it means. But go ahead and explain it for...

Emily Thompson 0:14
For you, for Kathleen. All right, Kathleen. So, whenever you are maker, whenever you are making the product, you make the product and you have your like cost of goods. For a maker who is properly pricing themselves, the minimum markup that you do for your product to go to sell to wholesale. So that would be me selling to another business who will then sell it at retail would be 50% for wholesale. So let's say I make a candle for I'm just throwing out numbers here.

Kathleen Shannon 0:48
Would you use real numbers or do you not want to?

Emily Thompson 0:50
I could use real numbers Let me pull up my spreadsheet. From Being Boss, this is Making a Business.

Kathleen Shannon 0:59
A podcast about starting a business from scratch and overcoming the obstacles face when pursuing your dreams. I'm Kathleen Shannon.

Emily Thompson 1:07
And I'm Emily Thompson.

Kathleen Shannon 1:16
In this miniseries, we're following Emily's journey as she jumps into life as a maker and retailer with her new creative endeavor Almanac Supply Company.

Kathleen Shannon 1:31
In the last episode of making a business, Emily and I got real about how her habits and routines have helped her quickly and efficiently start her new business, Almanac Supply Company. These daily and weekly processes have helped her get this new business up and running quickly as she taps into the experience resources and her own rhythm of working to get it going.

Emily Thompson 1:53
In this episode, we're looking at the first three months of business for my new company. We're diving deep, getting real with numbers and strategy. And looking at what's worked and what hasn't worked. Follow along as we dive into some very important questions like, what does this business actually look like? What got it started? Where is it now? And what happens next?

Kathleen Shannon 2:20
Alright, Emily, I'm excited to talk to you today because we're gonna get into the meat of it.

Emily Thompson 2:29
Right? I'm most excited about this one. I feel like so many other parts, like or getting to this part is so I don't want to use the word ethereal. That is so not even the word that I mean. But you know what I mean? Like, it's just very like, mindset, obviously, it's all it's not very tangible, I guess is what I'm saying. But this is where we can actually get into talking about the meat of business, at Almanac Supply Company. All the mindset, boundaries, habits, and routines come first we got to get there. This is where it gets juicy.

Kathleen Shannon 3:02
So I think that one of the first things people think about whenever they think about their new business is the branding. So what is it going to be called? What's the name? What is the logo look like? And, you know, I'm a branding professional. So I get really excited about this stuff. Sometimes though, I feel like it's hard to know where this fits into the process. So I would love to hear more about your branding process. The name, the look, the feel, was it hard to come up with? Do you feel good about it? Tell me more about that.

Emily Thompson 3:34
Sure. So I think the name of it was probably the easiest. Actually, the name of it probably came first. And you know this.

Kathleen Shannon 3:42
Okay, the name gives me chills. Here's why, here's why.

Kathleen Shannon 3:45
Because you had been talking about writing an almanac for what a year, at least a year you had been talking about it probably thinking about it for even longer. And so you would bring this up to me and our business bestie conversations. Like I'm feeling like I'm wanting to write an almanac. And so then whenever you said I'm launching a business, and I was like are you are you kidding me? You said and it's going to be called Almanac. I mean it kind of made me want to cry a little bit.

Emily Thompson 4:16
Yeah, so the word Almanac came to me a little over a year before I decided to start Almanac Supply Company. And literally like a middle of the night similar to like a starting the Being Boss podcast where I just like had this big magic moment if your listeners are familiar with Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I know that starting the podcast was a big magic moment, like just this moment where I was like, Oh, I have to start a podcast and it needs to to be with Kathleen it's going to be for creative entrepreneurs and it's going to change our world and it did. Like doing the thing totally happened. So I was in New York City. The December before the December that I started Almanac and I it had been a really big trip, a really big like sort of coming together too in personal life, because of business and so many things were of culminating with this trip to New York City around Christmas time. It was really fun trip. Really fun to do with my family. And I woke up one morning with the word Almanac stuck in my head. And at the moment, I thought, that's going to be my next book. What or its funny next book, we hadn't even started writing Being Boss yet whenever that word had come to me, but I knew that this was a path that I was going to go down this idea of, of seasonal living, of working and living seasonally, I thought it was going to be a book and I sort of started traveling down that path of, alright, what could this book look like? I started researching a lot of almanacs. And just to sort of give a little background, you know, an almanac technically, is a reference guide, I think that communicates seasonality. Most people are familiar with the Old Farmer's Almanac, for example, which gives information about things like the tides or when you can expect the last frost of the year. And it also includes lots about moon phases. And I've always been super fascinated with almanacs. And also obviously about, I don't, just living life on Earth basically. And another weird thing that most people don't know about me is I love like historical fiction, like and really reading about times when people lived super seasonally. So, Almanac just sort of shoved itself into my brain and stuck there. I thought it was going to be a book. But once it came time to really flesh out what this business looked like Almanac fit in with it perfectly as well.

Kathleen Shannon 6:48
Okay, so I love the idea that you thought it was going to be a book but then it turned into this retail business and I think that's where the surprise came in, at least for me being privy to like all the behind the scenes. So what about like supply, Almanac Supply Company? It has this kind of like old timey vintage almost like the Farmers Almanac it does have this general store vibe. Is that what you were going for?

Emily Thompson 7:13
Yes, in a lot of ways. So it's funny, one of the one of the things we thought about in terms of what the store would be like my neighborhood desperately needs a general store so bad and so we even like played around with the idea of bringing it to my neighborhood, making it a general store. That's not currently what we're looking at. But we still have the ability to evolve it into that if we want to.

Kathleen Shannon 7:36
Okay, you've got to watch Shitts Creek on Netflix

Emily Thompson 7:40
Totally have watched it.

Kathleen Shannon 7:41
Oh you have? Because his General Store

Emily Thompson 7:44
Yeah.

Kathleen Shannon 7:44
I imagine you having that general store. Like you're like my neighborhood needs a general store, but is probably completely like your neighborhood. How many crystals and candles do they need, like you're just carrying weird stuff, you're not actually carrying paper.

Emily Thompson 7:56
But also bananas and potatoes. Right, like it could go really weird really fast, for sure. But I did want to summon this like, this really old school way of living and working because that's what like really living and working seasonally as it's touching back into the way we used to live. And by we, I mean humans obviously not us. We've never in our lives, at this moment. Ever super lived seasonally. But Almanac Supply Company is all about seasonality because everything has a season. Fishing, hunting, planting, you know, working all of these things, even back in the day, like there was a season for socialising. Like if you really want to live hardcore with the seasons. And I believe I believe in living seasonally and I believe that in living seasonally you're tapping into that flow that allows you to be more creative and live a more fulfilling life and so I wanted to I wanted to curate products and create a maker and retail brand that allowed me to express that. So Almanac worked for and then Supply Company really came from you know being a company that supplies you with the tools for living seasonally super practical very say what you mean Almanac Supply Company.

Kathleen Shannon 9:19
Naming your business carries a lot of weight. Emily took a few things into consideration when naming Almanac Supply Company. There are some practical things like the ability to trademark and buy a URL. Then there are branding considerations. Will this name be memorable? What kind of first impression will it make? What's the story behind it? What's the emotion it evokes for both the business owner and the dream customer? When naming your business, it's important to consider the longevity of it. Are you looking for something that speaks to current trends or something that feels classic and timeless? No matter what you name your business, it's up to you to make that name really mean something for everyone who crosses paths with your product, and I think Emily did just that with Almanac Supply Company. Okay, so the branding itself is kind of like dark and a little witchy and magical. So tell me more about the look and feel.

Emily Thompson 10:19
Sure I wanted to keep it really simple to begin with, because I was bootstrapping it. And I was doing it myself. And I also have to put out here like, obviously, Kathleen, you're a designer, you've done lots of design for me in the past. Totally wanting to tap you for this, but you were moving, you were like, literally like not even available for this. So it was really an interesting project. And even not getting you doing it, getting you to do it, but not even, not even being able to like bounce it off of you.

Kathleen Shannon 10:48
I know.

Emily Thompson 10:49
So difficult.

Kathleen Shannon 10:50
It's so funny, because I think though, there is some energy in that, because you're wanting to really bootstrap this. And while you do have the luxury of me, getting asked me to design anything for you. And you know that I would do it. And I would be honored and humbled. And I would love to do it. I think that you wanted to really do this from the ground up by yourself and with your business partner, obviously, but without the same kind of access that you have, because I think that what you're doing with this whole thing, and what this podcast is all about is kind of throwing you back into square one as almost a baby boss is the term that we use. And not all baby bosses are going to be able to hire me to do their logo or to hire Braid Creative to do all of their branding and positioning. And while you're familiar with that process, I think that this aspect of DIY it like kind of gave the whole thing that much more energy in a weird way. So as much as I would have loved to do it, I think that there was some magic in you doing it yourself.

Emily Thompson 11:54
I agree, which is why I did not pull you away from packing boxes to come help me do this. Like I knew I could do it myself, it was fine. So I really wanted to start with something super simple because I do have I do you have these visions for what Almanac Supply Company can become. But I wanted to start really simple so that it could mold into whatever it actually does become because I definitely have found that the more you box, your new business idea in, the more you're like cutting it off at the knees, because so much of what your business can become depends on you actually getting it started and seeing what the market wants, and what people are responding to. And I feel like those very, very early phases, you need to leave it a little more open. So I just chose a typeface that I liked. When I found some cool stock photos, and basically called it it like even our color scheme is more or less black, white and gray. Like really keeping it super simple. But all that to say there is a lot of strategy that still went into keeping it that simple, because I knew I wanted it to have a very strong contrast between light and dark, which is how the how the seasons are created. It's It's the difference between light and dark that makes the seasons. And it's a concept I see playing through everything that we do for a really, really long time. And so black and white, even though it sounds very simple, was very much so a strategy that I use going into it. And then in terms of positioning, I really, really wanted to be able to provide consciously curated products that help people live seasonally. And so bringing that sort of like those brand standards and ideas of simplicity into that it's how you it's how you start creating something that's super cohesive, from the very beginning.

Kathleen Shannon 13:41
Okay, so I want to keep talking about like business model and how you're actually making money with products and all of that. But one thing I want to make sure to touch on with branding, because I think it's so important. And obviously I love branding so much is that you are creating a brand that has room for organic growth, but you still have a vision that is specific enough that it's not confusing. And I think that there is this magical blend between those things whenever it does come to thinking about your branding, and really thinking about getting specific but leaving room to grow. So I love that you consider to all of those things whenever it came to the look and feel of your brand.

Emily Thompson 14:21
Yeah, I mean, I definitely did. I've been in this business long enough helping other people set up online businesses that I know the mess that happens whenever there's not enough clarity to the vision. And when there's too much clarity to the vision too early. Where you know, I've seen people go in and spend 10 grand on getting new branding and all the things done and then six months into it, they realize their dream customer is actually someone totally different, or the thing they're going to offer is not what they thought it was going to be. And that's a mess. I think there's a lot to say about taking your time, making do with what you have until you really know what the business is going to be like before you start investing a whole lot into something as like pivotal for sure, as your branding. And so yeah, for me, it was just starting off really, really simply, both in what I was putting into it, but also what it looks like. Because especially with maker businesses, I think too often, people with maker businesses make their brand and do something without consideration of their products. And I think for maker businesses, you have such an opportunity to allow your products to speak to your brand that you don't need to, you don't need to gloss over your products with a brand, if that makes sense.

Kathleen Shannon 15:45
Yeah, it does make sense. And I think that this actually applies to all businesses is that if you have something good to sell, it will sell itself, the branding, especially the logo is kind of just the cherry on top of the icing on the cake. And I think that a brand can help communicate who you are to whom like to the people that you want to attract really quickly. But it's not 100% necessary. So I want to get into the product, because we get a lot of people over at Braid Creative asking us like, Am I ready for branding? And my question back is, do you have something to sell? Are you clear on what you're selling? So how did you get clear on what you wanted to sell? And how did you decide what to start with first.

Emily Thompson 16:25
So much thought went into this, and maybe you guys can see a common theme here where strategy and thinking about things is definitely my forte, because we thought about this a whole lot. And we laid out a whole lot of options. Because obviously immediately I wanted to start with absolutely everything. But I quickly had to rein it in. And I think anyone does, you have to rein it in, and to really going out those like those really small first steps first. So the first thing that I did was I had to consider what our core product was going to be. And really ask myself those questions like, you know, what do we want to be known for? What is Almanac Supply Company going to be known for? And also because seasonality is such a focus of the business model. What can be you know, super seasonal, but can also stick around? Like how can I create some sort of process that no matter what the season is, we always have something that we're known for to sell. Because we don't want to completely recreate the wheel every single season, which is something that I know I'm going to get myself into with is super seasonal business. So all of that went into us thinking about what that first product was going to be. And the thing we kept coming back to was candles, because candles are something that we can more or less easily make ourselves that can be super seasonal, that can, you know, we can create the processes that allow us to that allow us to quickly and easily make them. And we can replicate those scents every single year. So really, once we get down those four core scents, one for each season. We're done.

Kathleen Shannon 18:04
Okay, but then did you feel like you had to become a candle expert?

Emily Thompson 18:08
Yes, a little bit. I definitely did. And we did tons of research, and again, doing our footwork and candles, it wasn't completely arbitrary. And not that I just explained it in any sort of arbitrary way. However, candles were something that I've been making personally for years at this point, I've been making them for the past several years for Christmas gifts, my daughter, and I make them for fun occasionally. So it's something that I knew enough about that I knew it could be done and what it would need to look like. But because we were doing it professionally, I really had to make sure I had all my ducks in a row. And I really knew what I was doing. So I spent, you know, the first month was spent just researching, just researching everything about, you know, website platforms and and payment processors and those business things but also how to make a really badass candle because they obviously want to have a really great product. So we ended up landing on a soy wax blend, we were going to hand pour them we're going to do seasonally themed. So one candle scent per season, we did do two the first two for winter, which is our first pour, we're going to end up doing one per season ongoing and then we can replicate them year after year. But I had to also go into this with a very clear line where I do not want to become a candle company like that is some like I don't want to just make candles and I don't want to be known only for candles. And I don't want to have a million different candle options. We may end up adding more to the product lineup in the future because again, the processes are there, but I don't want to become a candle company.

Emily Thompson 19:52
Alright makers and curators. This core product bit is an important piece of the puzzle that we're going to spend just a moment talking more about, I absolutely know how tempting it is to jump into all the things. But to build a strong brand, especially when you're starting tiny, you have to focus in and get really good at one thing

Kathleen Shannon 20:15
For Almanac Supply Company, the core products were candles and crystals. Two products Emily could focus on for a few weeks that let her do a couple of key things get clear on her process, ensure she was creating a killer product, and do some targeted research with her customers to see what would work and what wouldn't.

Emily Thompson 20:35
If I had started with the dozens of products that are still on my list of few important things would have happened, I wouldn't have started my business very lean, I wouldn't have been able to get really clear on curating and creating a stellar intro products. And I wouldn't have been able to really get the focus to feedback that I needed to move forward. And it would have taken me considerably longer to get off the ground, which means that it would have taken me even longer to start making money, all of which can kill a business, especially a brand new one.

Kathleen Shannon 21:11
Even if it's not as fun to rein it in and focus on only one or two things. Focusing on core products is how you begin to finding a strong brand, making sure that you're taking discerning action from the very beginning with the health of your business in mind. Okay, so you've got these candles, you've been pouring these candles, I think it's also interesting to note here that you're pouring them with the moon phases, which is just layering in another element of seasonality and specialness. And I think that that's also a brand experience that a lot of people might overlook whenever it comes to creating their own brand. But when that like it's this little special touch, it means a lot. And I love that you're just diving in and doing it and doing your research and doing things that you've already been kind of doing on the side. I've gotten your candles for Christmas before and it's awesome. Okay, but I want to talk a little bit then about managing the supply and inventory because I'm trying to visualize like, where are all these candles? How many are you pouring at one time? Where are they living? How are you shipping them? What this is the part where I'm like, Oh my gosh, what have you gotten yourself into?

Emily Thompson 22:22
Right? I've gotten myself into some fun. So yes, candles being well, and let's back up just half a second too, though, because part of me not wanting to be a candle company was also wanting to open with another product that wasn't candles.

Kathleen Shannon 22:39
So okay, so what else are you opening with?

Emily Thompson 22:41
Right? So we also opened with crystals. So for me that was doing one maker product and one not maker products or something that was just wholesale retail, which is easy turnaround.

Kathleen Shannon 22:51
And is this because you wanted alliteration, candles and crystals.

Emily Thompson 22:56
It wasn't. So here's the funny thing about that too, because you know what i want to call them, I want to call them rocks. Because to me, they're rocks and rocks just doesn't sell quite as well as crystals do. So alliteration has just kind of happened if it were up to me, they'd just be candles and rocks. But I did want to I didn't want to throw in that second product to get started so that we did have that blend of maker and retail and that we weren't only make our products and that would give us the ability that would give us the ability to more seamlessly and easily and with less confusion grow into other products that then if we had just started with candles.

Kathleen Shannon 23:36
Okay, wait, we need to like dive in here because I cannot wrap my head around like retail and wholesale. And I mean, I know what it means. But go ahead and explain it for

Emily Thompson 23:49
For you, for Kathleen. All right, Kathleen. So whenever you are maker, whenever you are making the product, you make the product and you have your like cost of goods. For a maker who is properly pricing themselves, the minimum markup that you do for your product to go to sell to wholesale. So that would be me selling to another business who will then sell it at retail would be 50% for wholesale. So let's say I make a candle for I'm just throwing out numbers here.

Kathleen Shannon 24:23
Would you use real numbers or do you not want to?

Emily Thompson 24:26
I could use real numbers. Let me pull up my spreadsheet.

Kathleen Shannon 24:28
Let's just do it.

Emily Thompson 24:31
Let's say it costs you $6 to make a candle and I'm just doing some round numbers here guys because quick and easy math please. Let's say it cost you $6 to make a candle if you were going to sell it to another business at wholesale so they can go sell them at retail you would double that price at least so you would be selling to another business for $12. If you are then going to take it and retail it yourself. So let's say you have a store, or you're going to sell online, or you're going to do pop up shops, you would then double that number again. So it goes from $6 cost of goods to $12 wholesale, to $24 retail. So it's four times your cost of goods is how you're going to price, price your maker products. That's pretty standard. And that should be what you're doing. Regardless of your product, that's how you make profit, for sure. Um, if I am going to be selling someone else's good, like from wholesale to retail, like crystals, for example, and those aren't maker, so it's a little bit different. But let's say I buy a crystal for 10 bucks, I'm going to retail it for at least $20. For crystals, I honestly love or for any other product for any retail product, I prefer a 65% mark, markup just to like, cover all the other things like shipping, and website hosting or rent, if you have it like there are so many other things that go into it. So it's not just not just doubling it, when you have the choice, it's actually marking it up a little bit higher. 65 is my preferred percentage.

Kathleen Shannon 26:13
you know, like I'm having this feeling like of like, Oh my gosh, I'm paying $24 or, you know, in some cases, like hundreds of dollars, I've never bought $100 candle, but you know, there are some candles out there that are really expensive. And they probably use more oils and blah, blah, blah. But there is some markup and and I think about it, like whenever I first hear that I'm like, Oh my gosh, why am I not just making my own candles, and I'm like, oh, because I don't want to be making my own candles. And it's the same as like whenever you go out to eat, you know, I sometimes hear about people who don't like tipping, and I'm like, but that's the cost of going out to eat. That is part of it. And the reason why food is more expensive, expensive, whenever you go out to eat is because you're experiencing it in a different place. And they have to pay rent on that. And they're paying, like, there's so many more costs that go into something than just the cost of the goods.

Emily Thompson 27:03
Yeah.

Kathleen Shannon 27:03
And I think there's like also paying yourself to pour the candle. I mean, there's so much that goes into it that I think people don't realize whenever it comes to wholesale and retail.

Emily Thompson 27:13
For sure. I mean, even if the cost of goods for something like a candle is $6. Think about the other $1,000 or more worth of worth of tools that they had to buy to even make that one batch of candle, whether it's the melters, or the pitchers or the stirs or like whatever it may be, there's so much more that goes into it. And that's not even accounting for labor, like the actual fact that you need to be paying someone to make the thing. So I always think that marking up just a little bit higher and knowing what your margins are. I and this is, I don't think I've ever talked to a creative maker in our realm of people who knew what their profit margins were.

Kathleen Shannon 27:57
So let's dig into that. What is the profit margin? And how does it differ between like making and selling your own product, for example, versus curating and selling other people's goods?

Emily Thompson 28:08
Sure. So profit margin, just what I was talking about in terms of like what you're marking up. So if you are buying something at $10 wholesale and retailing it for $20, your profit margin is 50%. If you are going to be, if you want to do a little bit better for yourself. And for you know, everyone basically is marking up 65%, your profit margin would be 65%. If you're a maker your cost of goods sold, or your I guess let's go let's just talk retail your retail divided by no Hold on. Which way is it always get confused when dividing it's your cost of goods sold divided by your retail price equates to your profit margin. And so there are some products where it's significantly easier to have a better profit margin. And this is why it's so important to know what your profit margins are, whenever you have more than one product is that if you are just consistently marking things at 50%, which is perfectly fine. But you're only ever going to have 50% margins. But what happens when you when something happens one day and you can't buy in bulk, or you can't do the thing that allows you to keep those margins, you end up losing margin. So one of the things that we've been very conscious of is we actually have better profit margins on our candles because the price of making candles is significantly lower than a lot of retail things. Well, we know we're not going to have better profit margins than about 50%. Again, the idea, my goal is to keep a 65% profit margin across the board. So that means some profit margins will be higher, some profit margins will be lower. My job is to make sure I know what all the profit margins are and they always equate to about that 65%.

Kathleen Shannon 29:51
Does your profit margin on the candles include the time it takes to make them?

Emily Thompson 29:55
They do not. They add the moment they do not because it is just us doing it. If in the future we or when in the future we start paying ourselves because we're not paying ourselves yet, or we start paying someone else to do them. Yes, the change in our cost of goods sold, actually hold up. Let's go over this really quick because I have factor that in. I currently do have really good margins on my candles so that whenever it does come to hiring someone, I don't have to change the price of my candles. I've already factored that in.

Kathleen Shannon 30:28
Okay, right? Because your candles don't retail at $24. They don't sell higher yet, right? Like around $40?

Emily Thompson 30:35
$32

Kathleen Shannon 30:36
Oh, 32. Okay, so like a steal for a candle.

Emily Thompson 30:40
I mean, right now, my profit margins for most of our, let's see, our 11 ounce candles is right at 80%, a little bit less than 80%. But in the near future, we'll have someone pouring them for us and our profit margins will go down. So I've already accounted for that so that later I'm not raising the prices on my customers. I'm simply dropping the profit margin in house.

Kathleen Shannon 31:06
Okay, here's my question. This is a mindset thing, because you do come from a world where you were selling $24,000 websites?

Emily Thompson 31:16
Yeah.

Kathleen Shannon 31:18
And now you're selling a $30 candle?

Emily Thompson 31:21
Yep.

Kathleen Shannon 31:23
Does that? How does that feel?

Emily Thompson 31:27
It hurts less than you would think. Honestly, I'm fine with it, I really am fine with it. Because I'll tell you something else is significantly easier to sell a $30 candle than it is to sell a $24,000 website. And I enjoy the work more in making the candle than I do making a $24,000 website. It's different. And I know that if I had not already been in this world, and you know, to know what to expect, it would hurt a lot more than it does. Honestly, it doesn't bother me. I'm super happy to be doing it in this way. I feel great about the profit margins, I know that I'm gonna have to push a shit ton of candles in order to get there. But I'm I'm ready to do it.

Kathleen Shannon 32:19
And you know what I kind of can relate to this whenever it comes to selling our books. So we definitely got an advance. And that's one thing. But after that advances paid back. I mean, we're making like $1 per book, basically. I think is what it comes out to.

Emily Thompson 32:33
Right and split it between the two of us, it's 50 cents a book guys.

Kathleen Shannon 32:37
But I'm still super stoked to be getting the book out there. And it's really not about the money. So that's my question for you here. Is it about the money? Is it not about the money? How are you? How are you balancing that because you are a boss, you are a business owner. And we see too many creatives saying it's not about the money and using that as an excuse to not get paid.

Emily Thompson 32:59
Right? It's not about the money, but I'm still going to get paid. For sure. Because again, because I know enough of this, and I know how to go at profit margins. And I know how to calculate my cost of goods sold. And I know, I know what is expected for genuine long term profitability. It's still a money game money or business is a money game, period. It's a number game where you have to be able to play your numbers, right. But it's also like a lifelong passion game. And the place where you can, the place where those two things come together is where is where I find myself most happy in this business where I can absolutely do this and not get paid at the moment and be completely fine with it. Because playing this money game is super fun to me. Super fun. And I know that it's going to do some good. I love the idea of going at this business in a way where I'm building something new. And I know it's not just new for me. And I know it's not just new for for Holly or even for you know, sort of maker retail business like that sort of land but it's really new for my community. And for me to be able to bring one this sort of expertise and know how and get shipped doneness, two where I live and to the community even online. But also, I don't know just be able to do this. At the moment. It's paying me just fine. Non monetary benefits for sure. However, that will not keep me from building a business that makes money and can make a difference in people's lives on that side as well.

Kathleen Shannon 34:44
You know one thing I always like to ask creatives who feel like they aren't getting paid monetarily what they want to be or you know, hitting their goals in that way is how are you being compensated though? Is it with creative fulfillment? Is it with creative control? How are you being compensated and as long Is there is some sort of energy input even if it isn't money, it's okay for the time being, but you got to pay your bills. And I think that you are cognizant of that. Okay, I want to come back to the supply and inventory because I'm still trying to imagine all of these candles and you know me, I'm like allergic to going to the post office. So I want to talk a little bit about supply, inventory and distribution. How's all that working?

Emily Thompson 35:25
So this is already a trip, for sure. So let me just like, lay out what has already happened with just like supply, just supply. So we started making candles in my kitchen, which I love my kitchen has since a good size, but very quickly was not large enough for sure

Kathleen Shannon 35:44
Do you have to get any permits for that?

Emily Thompson 35:46
No, I mean, now that you asked me that, I'm kind of nervous about it. No, no, we're not making food. We're not making food. It's just candles is perfectly fine. You just scared me with that question. No, it's fine, Kathleen. Thanks. Um, so we were making candles in my house, we had sourced all of the materials. Again, all that research, we'd ordered our first batch, or our first like, batch worth of like, raw goods. We made them, we almost sold, sold out of our first batch.

Kathleen Shannon 36:16
How many was that?

Emily Thompson 36:18
Oh, I don't know.

Kathleen Shannon 36:19
Are you gonna get into numbers like were you making 50 candles? 100 candles? 200?

Emily Thompson 36:23
So we started with, sure we started with the first case or the first order of containers, because that's the easiest thing to go out was four dozen.

Kathleen Shannon 36:35
So 48.

Emily Thompson 36:36
48 candles, and that's not counting the 10s we bought tins in bulk. So that's another thing too, we went into this again, with going back to that, that $4,000 we wanted to make sure we're buying everything super smart. Even though we're not a candle company. Obviously, candles are a core product. So we wanted to put some money into buying bulk. So we can get those profit margins as low as and not as low as we possibly can. Because we can definitely get them lower. But to get those profit margins low to begin with. So we bought in bulk, about 48 candles worth of containers. We, I designed and ordered our labels, which are probably my favorite parts, like the whole look of that jar candle makes me so stinking happy. We made them. We almost sold out of them. We went to buy our second batch of containers. And they were out of stock for the next five weeks.

Kathleen Shannon 37:26
Okay, so this is your first like hiccup.

Emily Thompson 37:29
This is the first hiccup the first and like a big long term hiccup or like we're just getting started, people want the candles. Let's go ahead and make our second third fourth batches. Oh, we have to wait at least a month. And at this point, actually, because we still don't have containers as of recording. This has been about six or seven weeks.

Kathleen Shannon 37:48
Wow. And that's a lot of that's a lot of money. And it's not just money, but like customers that could be coming back and buying, you know, like that investment in your?

Emily Thompson 37:58
Yeah, yeah. This has been a major poop on my parade. For sure.

Kathleen Shannon 38:05
So what are you doing to overcome that?

Emily Thompson 38:07
So a couple of things we've had to we've had to really rethink a couple. And we've started with let's rethink the containers then. But in all honesty, I designed a lot of the brand around these containers like around like, what is it what it is that these candles look like. And so

Kathleen Shannon 38:24
Like the label or you really like those specific containers, all of the above, I really love

Emily Thompson 38:29
this specific containers, I can't find them anywhere else we've gotten in touch with with glassmakers like all over the world. And either we're gonna have to buy crazy in bulk which we cannot afford, or we're going to have to go with something completely different. So we tried to source a couple of really different things. I didn't like it, I just didn't like it. And let's even talk about like part of buying in bulk was buying those labels in bulk and buying labels. Like, what's a variant data labels that are on really good paper? Like, again, a lot of strategy went into just the labels, guys. And to have those labels not even be any good anymore. I was like, No, we will wait for those containers. So it's been it's been a hurdle that we've had to deal with. And what we've sort of done is we've sort of been quiet about the candles for the moment.

Kathleen Shannon 39:23
And pushing those crystals.

Emily Thompson 39:25
Pushing those crystals. So hard core while we're waiting on these, these containers to come in. And it has this thinking a lot about, you know, supply chains are something that anyone who's a maker is familiar with this idea. Like I know our containers probably come from China, and I've thought about that a lot too. But guys, I love globalization. I'm sorry, not sorry about it, for sure. If I could buy them stateside, I would but stateside, glassmakers will not get back with us for actually if any, if any y'all listen this know a good stateside glassmaker, you let me know. And then send me info.

Kathleen Shannon 40:06
Wait like a glassmaker for the candles?

Emily Thompson 40:09
For, yes. For the containers.

Kathleen Shannon 40:10
What about like some mason jars?

Emily Thompson 40:12
Girl that is so over done. That's cheesy. And God bless anyone here who's making mason jar candles, I love you very much. Some of my very favorite candles are mason jar candles. However, that's not my style. Okay, so anyway, all of this to say we're already having hiccups, but we're already working through it for sure. So it's fine, we've been pushing crystals, we've been taking our time really like doing some test batches around really the scents for the next three seasons, because winter is figured out, we're trying to figure out spring, summer and fall. And we're going to going to go ahead and do that all in one whack so that we never have to test scents again, basically. So we've been doing lots of little test batches, and really trying to get like our processes down for that while we're we're just waiting for these candle containers to come in. And when they come in, we'll be able to launch our spring candle, we had originally planned on launching it on the spring equinox, however, we won't be able to because we don't have containers, it is what it is I had to very consciously not let it get me down. And I really got to see it as an opportunity to keep Almanac Supply Company from turning into a candle company, which is not something I wanted to happen. And so it really allowed me to like create some space even between me or between the brand. And candles. It's not a bad thing.

Kathleen Shannon 41:37
You know, and not to be that friend that's like, well, let's look at the bright side. But let's look at the bright side, at least that happened toward the end of one season, you know, and kind of the beginning of another way where you will still have plenty of spring to sell the candles once those come in.

Emily Thompson 41:52
Absolutely. And again, I'm really not once I got over the initial shock, unlike and God bless them if they're listening to this too. And like just the idea that the company we're getting them from didn't have enough foresight to have them in sooner, like just getting over that initial shock of somebody else's systems maybe not being as, as like, shored up as even my new businesses was, um, I was fine with it, I was really, really fine with it. And again, it allowed me to it allowed me to really focus on other parts of the business, which is not a bad thing, by any means.

Kathleen Shannon 42:30
Okay, so you shipped those 48, that first batch. That's all that's gone out.

Emily Thompson 42:37
So another thing we did, we once we realized that we weren't going to be able to get those containers in for a while we went and got a smaller container as well, we were able to buy that one in bulk, we had like 300 of those containers, those are not going to be running out. Actually, I hope they do run out soon, but probably won't be running out anytime soon. So we were able to a little bit diversify our candle line, going from one size to two sizes, which allowed us to sort of to keep things being created and sold. And we can pour the spring ones there whenever we have that scent finalized. And actually another thing that allowed us to do so being able to get in touch with the provider of the jars, and sort of have those conversations around, how long are we looking at? And, you know, what can we do in the future to keep this from happening, because if we're going to be starting this business and relying on you to supply us with the jars for our candles, we're gonna want to open these lines of communication, we actually ended up being able to negotiate some bulk order quantities with them as well. So we're going to be able to get those containers a little bit cheaper if we buy more in the future, which I don't think is something that we would have gotten if this sort of road bump hadn't happened. So again, many many reasons why this was not a bad thing.

Kathleen Shannon 43:51
Were you literally making that phone call or your business partner?

Emily Thompson 43:54
Holly was, Holly has taken the taking the driver's seat of most of those relationship building conversations, which is really, really nice. I will come in

Kathleen Shannon 44:05
Yeah, because you'll like throw the hammer in someone's head.

Emily Thompson 44:09
Because I'm not gonna be creating any long term relationships. No, I will.

Kathleen Shannon 44:15
You will burn every bridge you have to walk across if they're not getting shit done on time.

Emily Thompson 44:20
No, I won't burn a bridge. I'll just make sure their bridges in better shape. For sure, because things like that do drive me really, really nuts. Like if you are going to be a supplier for other businesses have your business in tip top shape, or don't bother.

Kathleen Shannon 44:38
Okay, I want to talk more about the process. Yeah. So I know from my maker friends or from my retail friends that are having an online store and then having an offline in person store that is basically two entirely separate businesses. I mean, it's almost like two whole businesses. So how are you navigating that and what are your hopes and right comes to online versus offline sales.

Emily Thompson 45:01
Yeah, the two are completely different. And it's funny, I knew that I've obviously been building online businesses for people for a long time. And part of that has included building online businesses, for people who had offline businesses. So lots of brick and mortar stores and those sorts of things. So I get it. And I understand it's, and it's, you know, adding a whole business worth of new systems to a business you already have. But I knew starting out that I wanted to do both, both are very important to me. I wonder if it would be easier to build one first before building the other or building them both simultaneously? I don't know. But we're building them simultaneously. And we've had to really focus on a couple of things. One of those is, what like digital system are we using to track sales. And one of the things that was one of my biggest tasks, and again, that sort of research phase that happened before we actually really got started, one of the things I spent most of my time doing was researching our website platform. But I also already kind of knew which one we were going to go with because of my experience doing websites. And that was Shopify, Shopify is one that has really great functionality for both online and offline selling, which is not something that I've seen in very many other platforms. And if nothing else, Shopify has probably done it the longest. So it has the functionality of giving me a website and a website where people can shop, I can track inventory, I can keep, you know, customer records, and fulfill orders, and do shipping and all of those things in that platform. But they also have what they call a point of sale system. So whenever we are doing pop up shops, or when we open our brick and mortar store, we can still use that exact same exact same platform to process all of those sales there as well. And the best thing about this is that it tracks inventory across both platforms. So whenever someone buys, you know a crystal that we only have one of online, I won't be selling it at a pop up shop, because it's no longer in the system. Or if someone buys it at a pop up shop, it will disappear from the online store. And that, for me was probably one of the most important things for me, but also for David, who's doing our bookkeeping, being able to seamlessly track inventory between online and offline sales.

Kathleen Shannon 47:26
I want to point out that Shopify is not sponsoring this podcast.

Emily Thompson 47:31
Right, but they should.

Kathleen Shannon 47:32
If you all would like to holler at us, we'd love to plug you in all of the episodes, we should just send them an invoice for this one.

Emily Thompson 47:41
Agreed. There were other parts of that story, though. What else? Was it? So? inventory fulfilling online, offline?

Kathleen Shannon 47:48
Yeah, if you had to, like think about a pie chart of how what percentage of sales, you would like to be online and offline, obviously, you have a huge online platform and community that is wanting to support you. But part of this business plan and idea and vision was to have a brick and mortar store one day, you've already had a pop up shop, it's really important for you to be engaged in your local community. And that's part of living seasonally. So if you had to, like make a pie chart of percentages, what would you want that to be online versus offline?

Emily Thompson 48:20
At the moment, I would love for it to be 75% online with 25% offline, because we're probably only doing like one pop up shop a month and there's only so much business we can do you know, in a six hour period offline with, I would love for online to triple that, whatever that may be. However, in the future, actually, in the future, I think I'd like it to be the same. And that is a like pipe dream, for sure. Because it's definitely rarely how it goes. But I feel like if you know starting in this way, if we were to continue to grow, let's say we make it to our let's say when we make it to the brick and mortar, I would still love for online to be a huge bulk of that one of my favorite things about doing business online, is that the overhead is so stinking cheap, like paying $100 a month for hosting versus $3,000 a month for rent. No, like there's a very large difference there. I would love for online sales and like you know, the brand and community that I've built online to be able to support the offline business. For sure.

Kathleen Shannon 49:32
I also think that this is where for our brick and mortar listeners, you have got to think about your brick and mortar being more like an advertising and marketing like tactic than even just a place for people to come and buy your stuff. So if you do have a brick and mortar and you're paying rent on it, I think you need to leverage the shit out of it by taking photos of your store uploading them online because that's part of connecting that online offline brand experience. We see so many creatives craving, I know that we're craving it that we want to bring everything that we're doing offline, like those offline vibes into an online space to make it feel more real. And so if you have a brick and mortar, you've got to leverage it more as a marketing tool than a physical space for people to just come buy your stuff.

Emily Thompson 50:18
Yeah, I mean, my own desire to go to stores that I find on Instagram when I travel is one of the things is definitely shaped my like hopes and dreams for Almanac like, I want to be one of those destination shops, so that whenever people come to Chattanooga, obviously you're going to go to Almanac because that is the place to go. Because we've done such a good job. You know, creating that online and offline brand that just sort of brings people to it. I do the same thing whenever I'm traveling around, whether that's going to House Witch in Salem.

Kathleen Shannon 50:50
Yes, I was just thinking of House Witch in Salem, that was huge for us.

Emily Thompson 50:53
Yeah, I mean, there's tons of places like that, where you know, whenever I'm traveling, that's always one of the first things I do is I like, look at the places that I follow on Instagram or social media, wherever it may be the places that I want to visit. I also do the same in Asheville, every time I go, I have a list of stores in Asheville that I want to go to because they've done such a good job sharing their awesomeness online that as an outsider, I still know they're there, and they've become a destination for me. So it's super important, and definitely how you should leverage one for the other. I also just want to point out for anyone who does have a brick and mortar store, how important it is to create that online presence, where you have the ability to, to attract those sorts of people, but also share or sell even in a different avenue that has a lower overhead that does wonders for your overall profitability.

Kathleen Shannon 51:49
I will say moving to a new city has been really enlightening whenever it comes to properly, like using SEO, even on your Instagram to attract people into your into your store.

Emily Thompson 52:01
Or Yelp guys. Yelp is one of those things that I use religiously. And I know there's like there's like some love hate there between brick and mortar and Yelp. But consumers use it period.

Kathleen Shannon 52:16
So I was even on Instagram, I was looking for a men's clothing store for my husband and typing in Instagram, like it's become a search engine, men's clothing store Ann Arbor to really see where I wanted to go. So that's making me realize more than ever, how that is becoming just as much of a search engine as it is a social platform. Okay, I'm going to talk about revenue goals.

Emily Thompson 52:39
I haven't gotten too crazy with revenue goals yet, honestly, which is weird. If you know me, I'm all about some revenue goals. I do have spreadsheets and I have spreadsheets to for you know tracking profitability for you know, looking at raw goods like what do we have in stock, what have we used all of those things like tracking all of those things are really important. Starting, I've really been focused on just tracking revenue to start seeing those trends because I feel like it can be so disheartening to create revenue goals when you don't even know what that's going to look like yet. So the first month of business, I did great some like weekly goals. And I'm going week by week, like week by week, not monthly, week by week of creating these little revenue goals week by week, and then trying to hit them as we go. I find those little bite size ones are so much more effective than trying to do overarching ones, which can be super disheartening when you're just starting out. I know that the goal, the real goal that I have, which probably won't get there for maybe two years is 40 grand a month. Because I know that 40 grand is the number I need to get to to make it to brick and mortar. So the moment that's my goal.

Kathleen Shannon 53:54
Wow, wait, so how did you calculate that?

Emily Thompson 53:56
Math. I didn't. So I actually use the Profit First model, which is something that we've talked about we had a conversation with Mike Michalowicz on the Being Boss podcast, he wrote the book Profit First with this idea of creating a revenue model or more like a Yeah, it's a revenue model, where so much of your money in this case, I think I calculated 50% of our revenue would go towards operating expenses. So I factored in a couple of things. How much rent in Chattanooga is, how much our owners compensation will be, what will be like to pay a couple of employees and in factoring things like utilities and our hosting platform and all of those things and realize that all of those things together would be about. Or I'd need about $40,000 in order to cover expenses, to be able to buy new product, and to be able to you know, pay myself and to pay Holly as well as well as keeps in profit back for distribution $40,000 a month using Profit First percentages and some hopes and dreams.

Kathleen Shannon 55:09
There are a few resources that we've come across in our journey that have changed the way we do business for the better. Shout out to Mike Michalowicz of Profit First, this is one of those books that has made a big difference.

Emily Thompson 55:22
Look, Kathleen and I both know that creatives aren't always the most number savvy. But if you want to be in business, you don't necessarily have to learn to love them. But you do have to get along really well. And we also know that you creatives love formulas for helping make it do. Profit First does just that. It provides basic formulas for where to allocate your revenue to run a healthy business. To learn more, check out the conversation Kathleen and I had with Mike in Episode 126 of the Being Boss podcast.

Kathleen Shannon 55:57
And because knowing your numbers is how you take control of your business, it's one of the things that Emily and I have worked hard to help our creative bosses do. Knowing the numbers that run your business turns you into the CEO. As we know many of you spend your time feeling more like unpaid help. To learn more about how to step into your roles as the boss of your business, check out beingboss.club/CEO.

Kathleen Shannon 56:24
Okay, so you're starting with candles and rocks. What are the next products coming in? I'm so curious to see.

Emily Thompson 56:34
Oooh, we have so many things planned and a couple of things have already been created. They just we're waiting for. We're waiting for spring and spring is just around the corner, they're coming out soon.

Kathleen Shannon 56:43
Do you feel like you kinda want to keep it? I want to talk about competition for a second.

Emily Thompson 56:46
Yeah.

Kathleen Shannon 56:46
Do you feel like do you feel competitive at all? Or do you feel like you want to keep things a secret because someone else might snag your idea.

Emily Thompson 56:55
I'm super blinders right now.

Kathleen Shannon 56:57
Okay, because I even think about the Mandela crystals. I haven't seen that anywhere else. And maybe it exists somewhere else. But like, I think that was so genius and creative and such a cool way to sell more than just one crystal at a time to create these kits for people. So I think it's brilliant. Are you like, Oh my gosh, what if someone else steals this idea?

Emily Thompson 57:19
Right? I mean, someone's going to sell the idea like at this point in being an online business owner aware, you know, we're all checking each other out on Instagram, like someone's going to take it so I'm not going to keep it back. Or else I'll never share anything for sure. And all of that to say too you know some of the things that came up for us like during creating the the candle concept like what these candles would be what they would look like what they would smell like all of those things, was you know, my partner Holly, she's not in the Instagram world like we are. She's not in the creative entrepreneur business world like we are by any means.

Kathleen Shannon 57:56
That mus be so nice.

Emily Thompson 57:57
It is. It's it is it's so great to have that like really fresh perspective.

Kathleen Shannon 58:02
What's her life like? She's not even here on this podcast.

Emily Thompson 58:06
Right?

Kathleen Shannon 58:06
Is she just living the dream in her basement with all those candles.

Emily Thompson 58:11
She can't hear anything from all the like, zen from the crystals that are surrounding her, for sure. But I remember one of the funny things that came up was she was she had this really great, like, original idea that we should put crystals in the tops of the candles. And I like kind of bursted out laughing because it to her that was like the most ingenious, like original idea of all time. But I know because I'm in the Instagram world that everybody is doing it. So it was one of those things where like, is it stealing someone else's idea if you don't even know that it's happening? Where.

Kathleen Shannon 58:49
I mean, I know that this even happens as a designer, I've got blinders on and you know, or I know another designer will have their blinders on. And it's just if something's like a similar or an easy solution, like someone else's probably thought of it too.

Emily Thompson 59:03
Right. Right. So it so at that point, I remember thinking, Oh, we can't do that, because I already have totally seen other people do that. Like we can also put crystals in our candles. But then, and we have that conversation about multiple things about multiple different things. Like she was like, we should only pour candles on the full moon. And like shit, I know people who do that. Like we can't like, we're not going to do that when there were several things that I had or that I started shooting down because I knew other people who did them. And then it got to a point where like, what really is an original idea. Like really, if she is not seeing it. She's not copying it. I'm seeing it.

Kathleen Shannon 59:42
I know well and then at that point, it's just like, well then you just don't sell anything at all. I think these are the fraudy feelings of getting people's way of not doing anything because it's all been done before you can strip your candle down to be basic as fuck and what do you have like a tea light candle and that's been done a scentless white candle, it's been done too.

Emily Thompson 1:00:03
Amen. And that was definitely some like, those are definitely some of the mindset things I had to like weighed myself through during the like creation of some of these first products. And I had to get over it, I had to get over it. So if I had to get over the idea that, you know, someone else was doing, what I was going to do, even though like these were ideas coming from someone who had no idea, then I have to get over sharing my things because someone else might copy them.

Kathleen Shannon 1:00:31
Okay, you know what this made me think of, I think that this is why so many new business owners have so much energy around their ideas, especially whenever they're like fresh into that career. So for example, I know for me, whenever I first started coaching, I was so enthusiastic about sharing every single coaching tool I was learning and doing. And I felt like everyone needs to know about this. And then I realized, oh, like the whole world already knows about this. And if but if I had gone into it with that perspective, I wouldn't have done it at all. And I wouldn't have positioned myself, as someone who likes to help people to help creative entrepreneurs, I would have never started this podcast. And so I do think that there is this enthusiasm that comes to a business whenever you're a little fresher or naive like Holly is because she hasn't been so saturated in the Instagram world or the witchy world or the product world.

Emily Thompson 1:01:24
Yeah, I mean, I don't really know where that goes either. But that definitely is something that I have had to come to terms with over and over again, where you know, I want to one day, let's talk about let's talk about some of their products, because they're like, not really that original, but I'm super fucking excited about them.

Kathleen Shannon 1:01:41
Well and then I want to talk about though maybe as you're talking about those, think about how do you bring your fresh perspective, even though you've maybe seen it like, how do you kind of at least shift your mindset to bring enthusiasm to the product? Like someone who's never seen it before would.

Emily Thompson 1:01:58
For sure. And I think part of it is curation? Like I think part of it, I mean, because we're not making everything we're going to be pulling in other people's products to do this. It's all about for me, Almanac is not it's not so much again, the candle or the rock, or you know, whatever it may be it is it is this experience. I want Almanac in that. Like, I just imagine I love Shark Tank, and I'm imagining like every one of those sharks being like, you're dead to me, just for me saying I want to be an experience. But I do. All this to say I do have a couple of products in mind. Spring is the next season. So one of the things that we have going and we'll be coming out super soon is birdhouses.

Kathleen Shannon 1:02:42
I don't know why that made me laugh.

Emily Thompson 1:02:43
Right, because it's funny. It's totally funny and totally not a rock or a crystal. And again, a way for us to like really do something completely different from we already have so we can start sort of creating that curation. I think that it's easy to keep doing different kinds of candles and it's easy to like expand the rock world. I don't even know what that would be like. But it feels scandalous almost to do something like a birdhouse.

Kathleen Shannon 1:03:07
Right? Like kind of Okay, so the other day on Instagram, you were talking about wanting to embroider your bathroom curtains. Yeah, and I was imagining crochet But either way, I was like, Wow, that's so old lady of you Emily. Like I just imagine 80 year old Emily embroidering something.

Emily Thompson 1:03:24
No 30 something year old Emily is embroidering something.

Kathleen Shannon 1:03:27
I feel like the same thing about bird bird house. So why bird houses I like it though. I like that I'm a little scandalized and titillated by

Emily Thompson 1:03:34
A bird house.

Kathleen Shannon 1:03:34
The contrast of you know, I hate to use the word hipster but like hipster Almanac Supply Co carrying birdhouses.

Emily Thompson 1:03:44
That's the most hipster of all is birdhouses because there's small batch locally made from reclaimed wood, if I'm not mistaken, so, they are like we're getting locally made birdhouses super rustic and adore actually one super rustic because there's two of them one super rustic, super simple, like, almost like a like like a, like a Quaker, almost like birdhouse like super simple. And then one's a little more stylish for the stylish hipster. Twoo birdhouses. And again, just going back to this idea, I want people to live closely with nature. So invite some birds into your yard, watch the Robins fight over who gets the new apartment, like all the things I love the idea of, of having of having people put one of our birdhouses in their yard to, you know, support bird communities because there are birds that are literally disappearing from their native habitats and if we can build birdhouses because there's some again, strategy that's going into this we have bluebirds specific houses, all this stuff will be on our website, this idea of of supporting some communities of birds that are struggling in human Earth. And giving people the opportunity to create those relationships with birds and their yard and the animals around. So birdhouses one of them. Another one is some crystal shelves. So we're selling people rocks Might as well give you some more to keep your rocks, some crystals shelves and we're also working on getting some some wholesale product for retail around herb gardens and curating a nice little like sampling of products that puts people either in touch with Earth in their rocks in their house or outside.

Kathleen Shannon 1:05:38
Wait sooner you say a wholesale product for retail that's like the equivalent of the candle like something that you're making that you have a higher margin on.

Emily Thompson 1:05:45
No no this would be is wholesaling something. So is actually like buying wholesale, some herb kits

Kathleen Shannon 1:05:54
Wait so are you not buying wholesale the birdhouses.

Emily Thompson 1:05:57
The birdhouses?

Kathleen Shannon 1:05:58
The shelves?

Emily Thompson 1:05:59
We are commissioning, how about that. So Holly and I are not personally making these birdhouses but we are commissioning these birdhouses to be made.

Kathleen Shannon 1:06:09
I see. So it's like you own the product. Okay, so I have a question about this, then what is your agreement with that vendor? Where what if they're like, Oh, this is cool. I'm gonna start wholesaling this to other companies that you have an agreement where you're the only one that can carry it. How does that work?

Emily Thompson 1:06:26
It's not official because it's Holly's husband. Which makes it really easy. He's, he's a woodworker of sorts, a hobbyist. And He's, uh, he designed us a couple of birdhouses and is making them and we've talked about what that means. And he's not trying to make them for anyone else. He's just okay.

Kathleen Shannon 1:06:47
I have a question about spouses and partners whenever it comes to building your business model. So I imagine that David is probably doing your books pro bono.

Emily Thompson 1:06:57
Yes.

Kathleen Shannon 1:06:57
Is Holly's husband doing this kind of in the same way, like pro bono? Are you paying him?

Emily Thompson 1:07:03
No, let's be super. Let's be super transparent about this. So actually, Holly, David, my David and I are partners. Technically. We pull David in as an official partner of Almanac, my David because hers is a David to again, I told you, this gets really weird really, really fast. My David, we pulled him in as an official partner, because one of the things that we know of Being Boss because he's not an official partner of Being Boss, is that he can't talk to the IRS. Or like, he can't make any of those decisions, or like, access most of our accounts and those things, and it's the hugest pain in the butt of all time. So we were really particular with this one that we made sure David had a bit of a stake, so that he could actually help us with all the things in our business without me sitting on the phone with him whispering in my ear.

Kathleen Shannon 1:07:57
Okay, we're getting juicy here. So is it 50/50? Like you and David are 50 total or how, what's this? What's the split?

Emily Thompson 1:08:05
I am 50.

Kathleen Shannon 1:08:07
Okay, so Emily is 50

Emily Thompson 1:08:09
I am 50. David, we David is two. And then Holly is 48.

Kathleen Shannon 1:08:16
Okay, so just enough that he has a little bit of

Emily Thompson 1:08:20
Acces. Yes. Is what I need him to have access.

Kathleen Shannon 1:08:26
Man, maybe we should give him 2% of Being Boss.

Emily Thompson 1:08:29
Just it would have to make all my life easier. But not but not. I mean, that's not well,

Kathleen Shannon 1:08:34
it does get it does get tricky whenever it comes to like, I mean, you can address all of this stuff in an operating agreement, but stuff like you guys could technically gang up on Holly. Right?

Emily Thompson 1:08:44
I could gang up on both of them. There you go. Right. I mean, that was something in the conversations that we had was, you know, I'm not going to take less than 50 guys like Almanac is my brainchild. And I appreciate your help, and you know, support and all the things in like, coming in with me to build this thing. But I went into it very specifically saying I would not I'm not taking less than 50.

Kathleen Shannon 1:09:09
So it's kind of a good strategic thing to even have ultimate control at the end of the day, right? Yes.

Emily Thompson 1:09:15
Yes. And that was very laid out there. Like because of me

Kathleen Shannon 1:09:19
now it's on a podcast right? It's

Emily Thompson 1:09:21
here now guys. Um, but Okay, so the three of us technically so her David whenever he's doing things we are going to pay and treat him like a vendor. So even though he is her husband, he is a vendor to Almanac

Kathleen Shannon 1:09:38
Okay, cool. Good to know I just I was even thinking about how we brought on a third partner over at Braid Creative and like her husband was over installing some TVs on our wall whenever we got our studio space and it was kind of like the the partner, the partner equity into the business.

Emily Thompson 1:09:53
Yes. And there is some of that like her David has definitely you know, done several things for us and I see him do doing lots more for us. He was really great. He made us our, our pop up shop display. But again, we paid him like a vendor for that. There have definitely been things that have been like, you know, thanks for being my hubby and doing the thing. or her hubby. Not my I was saying that is if I were her. But whenever it comes to him, like doing things like building us things, or especially things that we're going to sell, we will treat him like a vendor and pay him like a vendor.

Kathleen Shannon 1:10:31
Okay, I have another question. Because now you still have like very limited products you have. Are you using the word SKUs in your business?

Emily Thompson 1:10:38
Um, not officially. I love a good SKU.

Kathleen Shannon 1:10:43
Okay, getting there. So you have four SKUs between the candle, maybe even five. If your two sizes of candles.

Emily Thompson 1:10:50
We have. Yes, four candle SKUs. And then our crystals because most of those come in one of a kind or in like little batches of like three or four or whatever. There are more crystal SKUs. That will probably be the only place where we have that many SKUs for sure. But ongoing I see. So we do have a couple of collections of product, we have candles, we have crystals, or rocks, we have books. So let's talk about books for half a second too. Books was something whenever we did our pop up shop, I wanted to make sure that we had, we had something to help communicate the brand. Because when you walk in and you see this really awesome display Almanac Supply Company with candles and rocks, can be a little confusing. So we picked out three books that we could have displayed as well that would help communicate the brand. These books were the Naturalist Notebook, which is a really great book, and really focused on people who want to live with nature and record and a nice little journal along the way. The Garden Awakening which is from a woman that we've interviewed, Mary Reynolds, which is super inspiring to me is one of my favorite books, especially on living with nature. And then the third book was Elemental Energy. So a book that can help acquaint people with rocks or with crystals. So we had these three books at our pop up shop, and again, just bought two of each of them with the idea that we just needed them to be like that visual help to explain what our brand is.

Kathleen Shannon 1:12:30
So brilliant. I love that you were using books as like the other people have written as content to help position your brand and what it is.

Emily Thompson 1:12:39
Yeah, online, it doesn't make a ton of sense. Because why buy a book online when you can just go to Amazon because guys the book world.

Kathleen Shannon 1:12:47
Or anywhere books are sold.

Emily Thompson 1:12:51
Right? As we've learned from being writers.

Kathleen Shannon 1:12:53
We don't want to make Barnes and Noble mad.

Emily Thompson 1:12:55
You don't want to make people mad. But like legitimately, the story here is about Amazon and the Amazon does a really huge cut on books. And so whenever it comes, like if I'm ever going to buy a book online, it's going to be from Amazon. So we have them on our website, and we have sold a couple and thank you to everyone who buy our books, we super appreciate them. The margins on books, if we want to go back to profit margins really quickly, are super low. Like usually when you buy things wholesale, you're buying that 50% when you're buying books wholesale, you actually only get a 40% cut. So your profit margins already are only 40%. Amazon's profit margins, like if Amazon. If we were to match Amazon's price, our profit margins would be closer to 15 or 20%. In which case, what's the point? So all of that to say, we have books, we have some books, not for online so much though they're there if you'd like to go purchase them, but more to do some communication offline so that people can really see the context of the brand is a little more difficult to see if they're not there.

Kathleen Shannon 1:14:00
And I just want to explain to our listeners that for those of you who don't know, a SKU is a stock keeping unit. So that's how you track inventory in your retail store. And typically, each product gets its own SKU.

Emily Thompson 1:14:13
Yes. So we will keep a couple of book SKUs, always, especially as we're doing pop up shops and those sorts of things. And then so that was crystals. Books. candles are the three collections on our site as Shopify calls them, I've always called them categories, whatever. Whenever we do garden, I never imagine having more than six or so for example, of each category beyond those couple. Again, we're keeping this stuff. We're trying to keep our inventory relatively low because where are we going to store it or as we start doing more pop up shops and really moving towards brick and mortar. We'll obviously be adding more to it but we're just not there yet. I think there's a lot to be said about. Just holding back because guys, I want to have all the things, I want t shirts, I want, like, I would love, like fun, local, like stickers, which sounds dorky as hell I know. But like, in my mind, it all makes sense. And I wanted to I want to do all the things, basically all the things, but I'm trying to keep it to as few SKUs as possible as we grow as smartly as possible.

Kathleen Shannon 1:15:26
You know, I also think about the trend of capsule wardrobes and living seasonally. And I think part of that is almost living minimally, which is kind of probably a weird thing for you to balance having a retail store, like, kind of balancing this idea of carrying what people might want or need without cluttering things up. Right.

Emily Thompson 1:15:49
Yeah.

Kathleen Shannon 1:15:50
Okay. So I don't know. So I think that like, I think that there is this cool thing about having just a few things like I, as a consumer, I want to be someone who can go in and buy every single product that you have, because I'm a fan in that way. And I could see you building a brand in that way where people can just come in, I can even see you have a subscription series now too, right?

Emily Thompson 1:16:12
Yeah, so we're gonna play around with some subscription things. And again, like I'm all about testing and changing and adding some adding some subscription to the site. So having people be able to get a monthly candle and crystal subscription or a quarterly one, it's something we actually had people coming to us asking for, which was super exciting. So we're excited to offer that and allow people to allow people to enjoy our products in that way. Doing subscription boxes is super popular at the moment, I don't think I don't think they'll be around forever, but I'm happy to plug in and play while they are.

Kathleen Shannon 1:16:50
So this is what I wanted to say it's just I love the idea as a consumer, you're just being able to have a quarterly subscription or just knowing that I can come in and just buy all the things.

Emily Thompson 1:17:03
Right

Kathleen Shannon 1:17:03
Am I a dream customer?

Emily Thompson 1:17:04
As a as a shopkeep, you would be my dreamiest customer, I would love for you to come out in every quarter and buy all the things. And that's that's honestly what I'm trying to create in a lot of ways the sort of place where so let's say, you know, starting to do some garden things and spring having, you know, up to six SKUs for that, in the summer, I don't want that to be there, I want to sell out of all of spring things, and then move on to something else so that the online store, but also the physical store at some point is always fresh, because I think there's a lot to be said, and I know, not wanting to reinvent the wheel. So I say however, that pretty much equates to me reinventing the wheel. But I think that's how the world works. The world is constantly changing people's interest are constantly changing how it is that we interact with each other, and the planet is constantly changing. And I think, or I know that's that's how I that's how I shop. And I that's the sort of experience I want to create for my folks.

Kathleen Shannon 1:18:06
I think there's also something to be said for your customers learning to trust you to have that high level of taste where they're going to want everything that you carry as well. And so by not trying to be everything to everybody, you can have that smaller selection, but almost even. And to use some like online sales terms, or marketing terms. It's like this higher conversion where like more people are buying all of the things or less people are buying all of the things versus more people buying like a few things.

Emily Thompson 1:18:36
Yeah, I mean, to think about conversion rates, period, one of the things that I've been thinking about a whole lot is whenever we do do a brick and mortar store, where is it going to be. And so I've been like looking at all the places around town where there's lots of foot traffic, or there's great parking or all of these things, there's a couple of really key places that would on first look look very delicious, to someone who's wanting to have a brick and mortar store. And they're the kinds of places that are that have tons of foot traffic and the stores there, offer a little bit of everything to everyone. And whenever I go into those stores as someone who you know, lives here and who's you know, shopping usually for very specific things. I hate being in those stores. And as as someone who can see through the shop keeps eyes. I feel really bad for the people who work there were literally hundreds of people are streaming in there touching and moving everything but not buying anything. Like you don't want that kind of traffic, I don't think because your conversion rates are going to be super, super low. I would rather be able to create a sort of environment and experience where it is much more high impact both for me and for my customer.

Kathleen Shannon 1:19:55
Tell me about launch week. How did that go? Did it all go on plan. Were there any hiccups were was it more successful like what surprised you about launch week?

Emily Thompson 1:20:04
Launch week was a lot of fun. I remember like website launch week happened. He was end of January I think was like January 31. I think we'd planned on the first. But as things go, sometimes it was done a little bit early. So we were able to soft launch it a little bit early. And it went really, really well. I remember that week though, being very busy for us at Being Boss. And I remember being super happy that I you know, have some things in place so that so that the launch went super seamlessly. But then my brain was just like, on refreshing that page on the new website to see all the people who are visiting and buying and all of the things. I wish I had created myself a little more space to enjoy what I had done, like what I had, like built and launch super quickly. But I didn't I didn't give myself the space. But I did super enjoy it. And it went off really, really well. We sold out of all of our crystals by the end of the first day or two which was amazing. Except for these is one of the things that I'm it's not I'm learning and having to experience firsthand is how much of a difference of products photograph can make. Or one of the things that didn't sell out that first week are these really beautiful selenite candleholders. They're literally some of my favorite things that we have. They photo horribly, like they just the photos just do not do them justice. I have tried everything, so many different lights, and like cameras, and angles, all of these things, they just they don't look as great in photos as they do in real life. So seeing those not go as well as I wish they would have because they were so fantastic. was really hard. However, whenever it came to the pop up shop, those are one of our bestsellers.

Kathleen Shannon 1:21:52
So let's talk about your first pop up shop way. When was that in relation to launch week online? And did you pull back some inventory for that? And how did the pop up shop go? Did you like working on a Saturday? Did you like interacting with your customers? How did that go?

Emily Thompson 1:22:09
Right. So pop up shop happened probably two weeks after the website launched. And we did absolutely hold some product back. Whenever we did our first product buy, especially our first crystal product buy. You know, we don't have a million bucks just go buy every rock I could ever dream of even though I super want to we had to be super specific about what we were buying but also kind of playful too as to like really getting enough of a range of things that we can see what would sell and what wouldn't sell. And we could really try to find that sweet spot. So as we launched our website, we launched it with just a few products sort of a week. So just going at putting a little sprinkling of crystals here and there as we were trying to like hold back some good stuff so that we could have a full stock or a full display for sure for our pop up shop. So two or three weeks later, we had our pop up shop. I didn't want to do it guys I did not. I mean, I knew I had to do it. I didn't want to do it. I've been sitting behind this computer all by myself for far too long to get excited and like as an introvert to get excited about hanging out with customers all day.

Kathleen Shannon 1:23:17
Which is funny though because I feel like that's part of the dream is like this brick and mortar in person.

Emily Thompson 1:23:23
Right, I get. Hold on let me finish my story. So here's what happened. I loved it. I totally fucking loved it. It was fantastic and like getting it set up. And and it was hosted by my friend Hillary who owns Wildflower Tea Shop here in Chattanooga. I went and saw her. I actually had sent her an email a couple weeks before I was like, Hey, I'm starting this new thing. I'd really love to do a pop up shop Would you mind me doing your really beautiful store, I went and had a conversation with her. She was totally open to it really excited about you know, supporting any local business. And we've had a couple conversations before so it wasn't like a total cold call. And so we showed up the morning of it was a really shitty day like it was raining. It was like the rainiest day I think we've had maybe all year. And we sat there for a little while and no one really showed up at the tea shop and I was like oh my god, this is gonna be a bust. It's like what a waste of time and I'm like kind of have like butterflies because like, I have to talk to people.

Kathleen Shannon 1:24:23
What point were you like, what am I even doing? Yeah, I feel like there's this moment in every business where you're like, what am I even?

Emily Thompson 1:24:30
Yeah, yes.

Kathleen Shannon 1:24:31
Even the right thing like like making it mean that your whole business may be a failure a bad idea.

Emily Thompson 1:24:37
Like I knew this is a bad idea. Why don't I just listen to myself when I knew this is the bad idea. But then people started coming in and I went right back to like, you know, 20 year old Emily, who you know, loved working in retail and it was just like having conversations and helping people smell candles and talking about the rocks and all of these things. And before I knew it six, seven hours was gone. And we were done. And I had loved every second of it like it was fantastic. And I knew in that moment when I have to get out from behind this computer, I'm a better person, I think when I'm out from behind this computer, and and I do still want to do retail really hardcore, and the tea shop ended up being packed. Like they even said that it was one of the like busiest days they'd had all year. Like all of these things, it was a really fun time, we were able to push quite a bit of product. But I think my favorite thing was getting all of the really great feedback, like, there is something to be said. And I've done coaching with plenty of makers. And I'm like, you know, you should be hiring someone to go out and you know, do your holiday markets, and all of these things like it doesn't have to be you who does all of them. And I won't be doing all of our pop up shops. But there is something to be said about getting in there and getting that firsthand one experience, but then to feedback from the people who who are seeing your things and who are reacting to them. Because they were all so excited. We got some of the best feedback. Man, there are some women in this town who were really stoked about someone bringing crystals to town, which I was so a little bit surprised by, but really excited about. And another big thing that came from it was how, woo, all of these local people are about rocks. So and just to give you guys you know, if you're familiar with Being Boss podcast, you know that Kathleen and I will go there sometimes like we're a little bit woowoo we'll get into some metaphysical shit all day long, and we love it. But Kathleen knows for sure. One of those metaphysical things that I probably believe the least in is rocks, which I think is only illustrated by the fact that I call them rocks, or like crystals. I'm getting there, guys, I'm definitely getting there. But I've always been a rock collector, like I just love pretty rocks. It's not about like, how is this rock going to heal me like crystal healing is not something that is not a tool I have in my tool belt, for sure. Um, but a lot of people were very, very curious, or also really insightful and wanted to know more. So it was really interesting to understand what I need to be teaching myself and what I need to be the sort of knowledge I need to be gaining. Because, for me, it was just I want to sell rocks because I love rocks. And I've been collecting rocks my entire life. But for people who are seeing rocks, it's about how can I help dispel negativity, or what rock is going to help me you know, gain prosperity or whatever it may be. So it became very obvious to me that I need to step it up a couple notches and really get into some crystal healing.

Kathleen Shannon 1:27:41
I love that you're just diving into these products and you don't have to be an expert. And I even know from like listening to a ton of how I built this listening to who was it Kendra Scott, her episode about jewelry. She didn't know a lot about jewelry, she just dove in and started doing it. And it makes me think actually about my first job in college. Not my first job. I've had a lot of jobs since I was 15 and a half. But um, a job I had in college was working at a fabric store, I worked at Hancock Fabrics. And it wasn't because I could sew or any of that. But after working there for a couple years, I knew more about textiles and sewing than I ever could have imagined. So I love that idea of even using a business as a way to learn more. Or even if that's just a byproduct of it. I think that's so cool.

Emily Thompson 1:28:30
Yeah, and it it really set me up for sort of some next steps in the business like what I need to be doing next. And it was it was also really hard because everyone was like, Oh, do you have a physical location and like Bitch, not yet. But thanks for bringing it up. No, I mean, so we were really excited about what we were doing and what we were bringing and really wanted us to have a permanent location in town so it wasn't just a matter it wasn't just a matter of of hitting us up at a pop up shop or checking us out online because there's so much more to be said. You know, I think so many people talk about how and in a lot of ways that is how online shopping is replacing the retail world I mean even I think you know as of recording this Toys R Us is out like a huge corporation is filing bankruptcy because in closing down all of their stores because online shopping has killed them. And I think that i think that's totally true for you know mammoth companies.

Kathleen Shannon 1:29:27
I got to say not that like Toys R Us isn't a part of the man.

Emily Thompson 1:29:32
Oh right. There's something to be said about corporations and how they cannot pivot and change like they they're the same store they were in 1986 guys like is the exact same place if they're even that old. I don't even know. They haven't changed with the world. They haven't. That doesn't I don't think that retail is leaving. I think retail is changing a lot. I don't think that people I don't think that people do want to go into Walmart and buy their groceries. They definitely want to The app, you know, fill their shopping cart and have someone bring them out to them. For sure. whenever it comes to buying gifts, or fine buying meaningful, you know items for your life or going shopping, like going for real out on your feet shopping, people want a really awesome retail experience, I don't think Toys R Us has done a very good job of providing that long term. But it is something that I think about a lot whenever it comes to, you know, at the moment planning pop up shops, and how it is that we're showing up and what it is that we're delivering, and how it is that we're contributing to our community, also online and helping to create the sort of offline vibe online. And then how it is that I want this brick and mortar store to show up in the future. And what that can look like. It's going to be very different. And I think that retail in general is moving into a place of being very different, more engaging, more fun, more responsible, all of these things, and I'm excited to, to go in that direction with the rest of them.

Kathleen Shannon 1:31:03
I think that that's so important. And whenever it comes to your community, this is really huge. And this is where like my rallying cry of blending work and life. And shopping local is huge as some of my best friends I've made because I shopped at their store. And there's just something to be said for that. And I don't want that to go away. I don't think anybody wants that to go away. But then yet people are still so shocked and surprised whenever that store that they love but they haven't gone to in a year shuts its doors. So this is just like I'm not trying to preach at you all too much. But this is just a rallying cry to shop local. It doesn't even have to be Almanac Supply Company though we love that. But shop shop within your community and support within your community. Yes, we are Amazon Prime members. But we are also getting out and about.

Emily Thompson 1:31:55
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, whenever I do shopping, I definitely want to support other people's dreams. And not to say that Amazon isn't someone's dream because yo Jeff Bezos or Bezos, how do you say his last name is Bezos Bezos, like, live your dream, honey, for sure. However, there are lots of other people who are your neighbors, who are people in your community who have dreams of being shop keeps and sharing their message or vision with the world? I think, you know, if you want to keep those kinds of places, because that's one of like, whenever I'm moving somewhere or visiting somewhere, like I want to go to places that have cool economies.

Kathleen Shannon 1:32:37
Yes.

Emily Thompson 1:32:38
Right. And I support it as much as I possibly can. And I also want to be a part of it, but it's only possible if everyone else supports it as well.

Kathleen Shannon 1:32:48
All right, I want to talk about marketing for just a minute. I know we don't have very much more time left on this episode. But what are you using to market the business?

Emily Thompson 1:32:58
Email Marketing all day. So if again, if you're familiar with Being Boss at all, you know, Kathleen and I will preach email marketing until the cows come home. If I may be a proper Southern girl for a moment.

Kathleen Shannon 1:33:10
How big is your list right now?

Emily Thompson 1:33:12
Not big 100 or so. It's pretty small. And but we're still like, having at them regularly. And I send a weekly email every Wednesday morning, here's what's new in the shop. Here's what you can expect to hear some, you know, fun, interesting information about living seasonally, whatever it may be, I think it's really important to really own the platform that you have control of. And at the moment, that's really only email marketing. So that is first and foremost. I'm also having some fun with Instagram again, going at it pretty organically. Not really with a lot of strategy in mind. I've been enjoying doing some Instagram stories, we're pushing rocks because again, rocks are one of those things where people want to buy them online. But I would rather hold them myself or like really be able to see them that's done best video is just done best in video. So I've been playing a lot with how it is that I share products on the internet's whether that's email marketing, or Instagram, and then really just sticking it with that.

Kathleen Shannon 1:34:21
Alright, let's pause right here to focus on something really important. Emily is only focusing on two online platforms for marketing her business, Instagram and email marketing. All too often we see bosses starting businesses and creating accounts on every social media platform. And they quickly find themselves bogged down and overwhelmed leaving them to not marketing their business at all.

Emily Thompson 1:34:44
From the very beginning, I knew I wouldn't fall into that trap for this new business Almanac Supply Company will most likely never have a Twitter account or be on Snapchat. We do plan to get on Facebook and Pinterest but later when all our other systems are greeted and flowing easily. Just because you have these options available does not mean that you have to be using them. Be strategic with your time, spend time on the platforms where your dream customers are hanging out. And I'm not kidding here, focus on your email list is the platform that is least affected by changes and algorithms. You'll thank us later.

Kathleen Shannon 1:35:26
I have a branding challenge for you.

Emily Thompson 1:35:29
Oh, my God, what.

Kathleen Shannon 1:35:30
This might be terrible for SEO. But I would love for you to start bringing rocks in like that word instead of crystals.

Emily Thompson 1:35:38
Some rocks

Kathleen Shannon 1:35:39
I yeah.

Emily Thompson 1:35:40
I love that too.

Kathleen Shannon 1:35:41
It's hilarious. And I love it. And I think that you should own it.

Emily Thompson 1:35:44
All right, I accept.

Kathleen Shannon 1:35:46
Okay, question. Question about email marketing. Did you have like the notebook where people can write down their email address at the pop up shop?

Emily Thompson 1:35:53
Oh, my God, you know how we have this little exercise of Being Boss called what's working, what's kind of working, what's not working. I did it after the pop up shop. And what didn't work because I didn't do it was I did not collect email addresses. And I'll tell you guys, this is the thing that I preach to my maker bosses, whenever I'm coaching them or doing their website, or whatever it is, is like whenever you're doing in person events, you better have that notebook there, you better be capturing everybody's email address. And I remember that at the end of the day, and I thought that is like boss 101. And I completely failed.

Kathleen Shannon 1:36:28
Next time.

Emily Thompson 1:36:29
I know. And thanks, Kathleen for bringing that up kicking myself in the butt. Because I could have snagged so many people's email addresses who were interested in knowing like when we were going to be doing a pop up shop next, like all of the things and if you guys learn nothing else from this, all of you makers and cool folks listening this if you do in person events, collect email addresses, it's simple as having a piece of paper out and an ink pen, asking them to sign up because they will want to snag that I didn't and I regret it.

Kathleen Shannon 1:36:59
You know what I love that as boss as you are even you can make a mistake.

Emily Thompson 1:37:05
Thanks, Kathleen. Thanks.

Kathleen Shannon 1:37:08
Okay, so one of the things that whenever it comes to living seasonally is thinking about, you know, what a, what a business looks like through spring and summer and fall and winter. But we're also really bringing the idea of seasonality into the long term. So I know that you have a long term vision for this business, what do you think that looks like as far as like your business plan? Because you and I have both talked before about how it's really hard to create a business plan five years out, because the world is evolving so much, but I feel like this is so rooted in what we can trust, which is that the seasons will change. What does that mean for your business plan?

Emily Thompson 1:37:48
That's a big question. Um, I think I'm just moving into the place because again, just started, guys just sort of got it off the ground, I'm just now moving into a place where like, the chaos of just getting started is over. Like it's now officially more or less off the ground. And I can start thinking in those more long term things. I mean, obviously, I'm in the very like, first days of spring here, or like, I've popped out my little head. And like, I'm going to show you guys what I'm going to do. But I don't I don't know what that looks like yet my biggest goal, my big goal, and I don't have a timespan for it is that $40,000 a month and shit. That's a lot of candles, as a lot of candles for sure. So I'm doing a very careful balance between doing the work between writing that newsletter every week, posting on Instagram, keeping the website updated and fresh, taking photos that look fantastic. I'm doing the work. I'm trying to find the next pop up shop location and like, you know, settling in on dates and showing up and doing the work. I'm balancing all of that with staying open to the possibilities because I don't know what it can look like just yet. And I'm hoping very much so that this community, whether online or offline, is going to help support me in this mission that is significantly larger than me in ways that I can't even define yet.

Kathleen Shannon 1:39:29
So you know that you need $40,000 like, this is your big goal. Do you do you feel the urge to figure it out right now? Or do you know how you're going to get to there and you just know how many things you need to sell. Are you leaving that open as well?

Emily Thompson 1:39:44
No, I know what the numbers are. I don't know them off the top of my head but I've definitely run them. I know how many candles it is that I have to sell to get there. And we do have a couple of things in place. I know I just gave like a very pie in the sky answer there. But a couple things are is oh We're gonna start, we're going to open, we're going to do wholesale. So we're going to sell our candles and candles only wholesale. And we have a couple of places we're going to be cold pitching and but also following up with a lot of bosses who have even already gotten in touch with us who have listened to the podcast and who want to, you know, carry our products. So one of the ways is like scaling the brand in that like really small way with the idea of putting the Almanac brand, far and wide, but also giving other people the opportunity to share this seasonality with with their customers as well. So wholesale is one of the things that we are that we're going to be doing. And then also for me, you know, really tapping into my Instagram game, a little bit like crystal folks on Instagram are killing it at the moment. And I don't mind, you know, cutting myself off a piece of that pie. So just playing around with that and growing the community and supporting the people who are here, I've also been trying to make some super good connections offline. So people in the local community who either have pop up shop spaces, or know people who can help us or who are realtors who can get as in touch with, you know, people who have empty buildings that they need to have people in for a month or two or whatever it may be, there are lots of little opportunities. Right now, again, very begin, beginning phases, it's at the moment, it's building relationships, it's those very earliest building relationships, retaining their people we're going to be wholesaling with, or people in the community are the people who are going to buy us And beyond that, creating and curating really awesome products.

Kathleen Shannon 1:41:34
I love that and I cannot wait to cheer you along as you hit those big goals. On the next episode of Making a Business.

Emily Thompson 1:41:50
I have to pay so much more attention to my life, in order to pick out the things that can be curated into Almanac, which makes me more intentional about where I shop, or where I want to go on vacation, or how it is that you know, I'm making decisions for what I'm planting in my garden like, God bless my David but he gets really stressed out about invasive species. Whereas, you know, I usually don't care. But if I really want to, you know, hone my craft of living seasonally and where I live, those are things that I have to think about more so it actually is bringing significantly more intention into my life. Whereas before, most of my intention just bled into my business because intention in business helped me be better at business which helped me be better at my business, which is so meta it hurts. But now we being super intentional about my life is how it is that I'm going to, you know, build my business. So if nothing else, it just makes me pay more attention to the life that I'm building and understand that having those times away from my work will really on a whole other different level make my work better.

Emily Thompson 1:43:11
Mindset, boundaries, habits, and routines. These are what turn a creative into a boss. These foundations and more makeup our new book Being Boss, Take control of your work and live life on your own terms. A guide slash workbook slash sleep with it under your pillow book filled with what we've learned over the years as a working thriving creative entrepreneurs. Plus what we've picked up from the hundreds of conversations with industry leaders and experts on the Being Boss podcast.

Kathleen Shannon 1:43:44
And it's all so that you can cultivate confidence in your work, make good money doing what you're best at and live a life you love. To learn more about our book and order one for yourself. Go to beingboss.club.book

Emily Thompson 1:43:57
and to check out Almanac supply company head on over to AlmanacSupplyCo.com get 15% off of your first order with discount code being boss at checkout.

Kathleen Shannon 1:44:09
Do the work.

Emily Thompson 1:44:10
Be boss.