Intro (00:01):
Pixie Dust & Profits is a podcast for small business owners who love Disney and want to sprinkle some of that magic onto their own businesses. Join your host, Nicole Boucher and Yasmine Spencer as they explore the mouse’s $12.6 billion operation and break down exactly how you can apply these big scale concepts to your own.

Yasmine (00:26):
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Pixie Dust & Profits. Last Tuesday, we answered your business questions about launching your products, sales, and more in your business. We’re going to continue that in advance of black Friday. We’ve got three more questions that we picked out that we’ll answer and yeah, let’s just get right into things. Nicole, I taken away with the first question.

Nicole (00:47):
Sure. Our first question is from Kim. Who’s actually a member of the Profitable &Productive Party. So we know this business very well. We’ve been working with her since it started up and we’re excited to share it with you and you can check it out on Black Friday as well. So Kim creates brand kits, which are done for you templates that you can use in Canva, totally customizable. So you can give yourself that professional brand and really, you know, work your work and show it. So Kim is asking my business is brand new and I need to get the word out about it. So that business owners know that there’s a new option out there for content creation and branding that won’t break the bank. So she’s asking for ways to get out there more. And you know, we’ve worked with her over the last few months. She’s already doing some awesome stuff like starting up Facebook ads, she’s doing webinars and summits to get her brand out there more and more. She’s posting consistently on social media. And Yasmine’s going to go into a couple of extra suggestions we have for her.

Yasmine (01:52):
There’s two things that we would recommend that you try next, Kim, the first thing being, and we’re really big fans of this, but a JV partnership to launch your product. If there is someone who has an aligned audience, that would be perfect for your grandkids, you could work with them to do a joint venture webinar, promoting your kids, promoting the product. And the way that it works is they basically get a bit of an affiliate commission because you’re leveraging their audience. The reason why we’re such big fans of JV partnerships. And that’s when the audiences makes sense. We’re not saying to partner up with just anyone is that you are basically pitching your product to a credible audience. And on top of that, their audience might not know you, but they know the person who’s, you know, audience that they’re in the person that you partnered up with. So they trust them. And if they recommend you, they’re more inclined to buy. You typically see with JV webinars that you get conversion rates almost as high as what you would see with like a really warm or hot audience is familiar with you. So when you’re expanding your reach and trying to get in touch with new people, it’s a great way to generate those conversions, build that trust and also get continued testimonials that you can then pixie use to you know, get your product out there in front of colder. Audience members

Nicole (03:06):
Jump in and say that joint ventures don’t need to be something complex for huge or this big thing or production that you normally see online. It can be someone that, you know, for example, a copywriter that you know, and they have an audience of junior copywriters or other friends of theirs that need some better branding. So that way they can get in front of other people. And you come in saying, look, I have this really easy solution for you. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be a big scale production, almost think about it in terms of like a house party for Mary Kay or something like that, where, you know, you’re getting a small group of friends together and you’re just saying, look, I have this for you. And it will make things so much easier because people have their zones of genius and yours are branding.

Nicole (03:55):
And for someone who’s sitting there spending all of their time, tweaking things a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right, or having trouble putting two colors together or choosing their fonts or anything like that, you can come in and save them a boatload of time so they can make more money selling their actual services or products. And so don’t think about this as a huge scale thing. Look at it as who do I know who has an audience that might benefit from this? So if you have an accountant that you use in your business or a bookkeeper, you can ask them like, do you know anyone who probably needs this and maybe get in front of people that way too? So don’t be afraid to ask the worst thing you’re going to hear as a no. And I actually did this exercise in a negotiation class in grad school where we had our assignment was to journal.

Nicole (04:44):
I’m getting 10 nos. So we would just make ridiculous requests at the grocery store or of friends or anything just to see when we could, when we would get that. No, and it was such a powerful exercise because we’re scared to ask because we’re afraid to hear no, but it doesn’t really come that often. And if it does, it doesn’t mean no forever. It just means no for right now and this opportunity. So I just want to encourage you to not make it a big, not be afraid that it might be a big thing. It could be a small targeted joint venture, and we could listen to the term to joint venture, to like a group referral. So the other thing that I would suggest doing to get more exposure is to go ahead and see if you can do a case study.

Nicole (05:33):
I mean, our entire podcast is based around taking what Disney does from our perspective. We’ve never worked at Disney. We don’t have that back office experience. We don’t know what their actual agenda is, but we just talk about it from our point of view. And we give a case study of here’s, how we experienced something at Disney, let’s turn it into your business and do things in that same magical delight. So can you make some case studies, it could be an imaginary business that you make up, but even better, it’s a business that actually exists. So if you have a couple of friends who have just started a business, or maybe there’s someone who you’re following on Instagram, or I know moms that just make side businesses at times, just for their hobbies, they might need a little bit of a brand. So meaning turn to one of those people and say, Hey, I really just want to test what this, how this all works. I’ll give you a copy for free. You can use it. And I just want to really show like before and after pictures of like what you created using these pre-made kits for you. And so those were two really great ideas I think could bring the brand more awareness, definitely bring it the before and after everyone loves to see before and after. I mean, think about interior designers. Think about like paint companies, go look at their Instagram, see what they’re doing and try to replicate some of that for your business.

Yasmine (06:55):
Yeah. That visual is really your calling card because it shows the transformation that’s possible. And it also shows the flexibility of your kids that they can take something and make it customized for them, but still elevated from where they were at previously. So Kim is actually going to have a sale on her grandkids for black Friday. So we’ll link the details below. But we highly recommend that you check them out. If you’re looking for refreshing your brand.

Nicole (07:23):
Our next question comes from Amanda Warfield, who is a big fan of the show, and we have been on her podcast and we’re super excited for her to submit a question today. So her question today is all about being booked out. So she is booked out for one-on-one clients who doesn’t have any time left for the rest of the year to sell to anybody else. But she has a wait list of people who want to work with her in quarter one and quarter two of 2021. And so that’s great that she has a wait list, but what does she do with those people? In the meantime, when there could be up to eight weeks before she can actually work with them. And so I think this is a great question, first of all, that you’re booked out. Congratulations. And then second of all, that you actually stopped and created the wait list.

Nicole (08:08):
And didn’t just say, Oh, sorry, I’m booked out. Try it again later. But I do want to say that a waitlist is only an interest list until they actually give you some money or a down payment or deposit toward working with you. So when you create this waitlist, it is completely okay to take a deposit upfront and say, we’re going to work together. This is when the window will be, I’ll be back in touch with you soon. Let’s put that deposit down and get it on the calendar because you need this. And I think that it’s important to look at people like graphic designers or website developers who do this type of work often, and they book out ahead of time. So for example, when you’re working on a $10,000 website custom design, you don’t book it and then start working together a week later, you book it into their schedule.

Nicole (09:00):
You probably don’t even start working together for another month and a half. And then you go through the whole process of working together, which is months and months. And so if you look at models like that, it is completely normal to say, let’s put a deposit on and we’ll work together in a few weeks. I do that in my own business because I only book one to two consultation, deep dives every quarter. And so I need to book ahead to make sure that there’s time for each client. I can’t just squeeze them in because that’s a disservice to them and it’s just service to me too. So definitely make sure that you’re trying upfront to get the proposal book, get a deposit in, turn that waitlist into a true waitlist and not an interest.

Yasmine (09:42):
So just one other thing to add there is like, what you don’t want is for them to say that they’re interested in working with you and, you know, sort of anticipating that we’re coming down the pipeline and realizing you might not have someone there to work with at that time because they started working with someone else or you know, they changed their mind. So getting that deposit is so key because it commits them to working with you. And usually depending on your terms and conditions, which we totally recommend that you have this in your contract, it’s nonrefundable. So if you do end up not working together, when the time comes around, for any reason, at least you’re not completely out. And it gives you some security financially. So what do you do and tell them though, like either if you book them or if they are on your wait list, how do you engage them?

Yasmine (10:25):
And one of the questions that Amanda asks as a followup is surprising and delighting her her list. So there’s a few things that you can do. The number one thing that I would recommend is just check in with them, schedule it in your calendar. I have like a monthly reminder just to see how they’re doing, how their project is going along. You know, I know that you help them with time management and your business strategists. So just checking in with like how their workload is going, how things are progressing along in their businesses is key. The other thing, make sure you’re engaging with them on social media regularly. If you’re a friends on Facebook comment on their posts, if you follow them on Instagram, make sure that you’re like reading their content and engaging. They’re liking things, watching their stories. DM-Ing them not in an artificial way. Like we’re not saying that you should force this, but if you’re going to work with someone, it probably helps to get a sense of like who they are and you can foster this connection through Instagram. And what it does for them is they know that, you know, you’re around, you’re still here. So you remain top of mind for them. So if this is a situation where maybe you haven’t taken a deposit, yet, at least they know that you’re still going to be that go-to person.

Nicole (11:35):
Yeah, exactly. And it doesn’t even need to be an alert in your system for this particular person, like follow up with pixie Dustin profits. It can be just a generic, a monthly alert to follow up with anyone on your wait list. So that way it’s always there for you to go look and contact people. So the other thing to in mind is that someone might be on your interest list right now. And when weeks go by, they may not need you more immediately anymore. And so they’ve kind of cooled off and decided that, you know, this isn’t for me right now, it’s still a great service, but I’m just not interested. Or maybe they found somebody else to do it when they were like really in the need. And so what I want you to remember in all of this is that it’s still important to engage with them and keep yourself top of mind.

Nicole (12:19):
They might need you in the future if they didn’t book right away or they didn’t go to someone else for those services and needs. So don’t worry if things cool off a little bit, think of it as a sign of, we can keep this going. There have been so many situations and my business and I’m sure in Yasmin’s where I talked to somebody, maybe we had a consultation call even, or maybe we met at a conference and then I met with them two years later and finally did some work together. So don’t take it as a bad sign. If someone’s cooled off, don’t take it as that. They didn’t want to work with you. It just might’ve been a different priority. Popped up. The other thing that I wanted to mention is that it’s also a good practice, especially where you’re not taking deposits to continue marketing yourself, continue putting out there that you have spots available that you want to work with people because like Yasmin mentioned, if you go in it with the assumption that you have this job booked and they haven’t paid any money yet, or signed any contract, you might’ve stopped marketing thinking that you had your quarter one and quarter two booked out and you might not because they didn’t sign any papers.

Nicole (13:26):
So don’t take interest and assume that you will be booked, continue to market yourself. Even when you are booked out, even when you can’t sign someone that day continue to market yourself and your services, because that’s how people know what you do. That’s how people come to you when they need you. And I just think that’s a good practice to always be talking about yourself, even if it doesn’t feel comfortable to do so. Hopefully that was a lot of insight for you, Amanda. And we also wanted to let everyone know that she has a simplified and balanced sisterhood, which she’ll be offering a black Friday deal on. And Amanda talks all about like time management and being able to be more productive with your time. And she gets into the, like the task and detail oriented things that I think are really important to manage yourself either personally or in your business. But they’re mostly about like managing your own productivity habits. So if you have any interest in that, please check out Amanda, and we’ll leave all of her information in the show notes.

Yasmine (14:26):
All right. So we have one more question. And this actually comes from someone who hasn’t launched their business. I have another Instagram that I manage it’s called Montessori mompreneur. And as you probably have heard, I do have a little one that, you know, we raise at home while I work and we are very interested in incorporating Montessori principles in her. Day-To-Day I won’t get too much into Montessori thing if you’re interested in checking out, we’ll link it below. But I had asked the moms who follow me, who are all like female business owners, if any of them had any questions that they wanted us to answer. And one of them, Angela actually reached out to me via DM and asked me if she should launch a business on black Friday, just because it’s like a, such a busy shopping period. And when I heard this question, I had an immediate reaction, but it actually made me think of another sort of related question, which I’m going to answer first.

Yasmine (15:20):
And then Angela, get to your actual question. So a lot of the times you might wonder if you should launch a product for your existing business. That’s the key thing on black Friday, or if it’s too like noisy and my answer there is, it depends like one thing to keep in mind is if you’re going to be launching something new and you know, that people are just sort of primed to shop around that period, if you can offer it at like an introductory price point, black Friday might be a good time to launch it, because what it does is it basically gives you a promo to push out to your audience. You can sell them on the fact that it’s going to be launched at the lowest price ever, which we recommend that you do. You always want your introductory price point to actually be the lowest price that you offer things to people, because you don’t want them to find out that they could have gotten a deal later on.

Yasmine (16:06):
That’s not good for your customer experience whatsoever. And it could be a great way to like fill a program initially because people are prime to shop. They are looking for a deal and it’ll give you like an engaged audience to watch your product too. One thing to keep in mind though, is around black Friday, things are noisy. So this is why we say it depends. It’s dependent on your audience. If your audience is one that, you know, doesn’t really open your emails a lot to begin with, or there might be just like what you’re offering might just have like a ton of competition during that time period. It may not make the most sense to get it launched right then and there because people are being bombarded with offers and it might just not stand out as much as you would want.

Nicole (16:53):
Also, if you just had a sale, you know, if you just launched a product in the last like month or so, it might not be a good time to go ahead and say, Oh, I have something else that’s new because especially if you’re a business to consumer audience where their cashflow is a little bit different than a business to business audience, if you just tapped them out for a hundred dollars goodie box don’t go ahead and ask them to buy some other fun object. It’s just competing with it before. And it, it might leave a bad taste in their mouth from, you know, the product they just purchased from you.

Yasmine (17:28):
Yeah. Actually one of my clients has recently launched like she redid her course and launched it a couple of weeks ago and we are bringing it back for black Friday. And I can say this because her early bird sale has already started, but what we’re doing is we’re bringing it back at a higher price. So the way that this actually benefits her is she’s gotten testimonials now from that newer course, there’s lots of like talk about it. People are excited and there’s more momentum around it. So just sort of launching it again at Black Friday at a higher price point, but still not the full price still gets people in, lets her build off of the positive sentiment and helps her generate sales because it’s still a discounted offer. Now I’m going to go to Angela’s question, which is, should I launch a new business?

Yasmine (18:11):
And I have to say, I don’t think it’s a good idea for a lot of the reasons I already mentioned Black Friday is a noisy period there. I feel like this year more than ever is there’s so much like emails going out. There’s so many notifications ads like everywhere. I look it’s black Friday, black, Friday, black Friday. And it’s really interesting because when Nicole and I started working with one of our clients on black Friday sales, like two, three years ago, no one else in our industry was really doing much. It was mostly like retail brands and black Friday happened on black Friday. It wasn’t black Friday week. It wasn’t black Friday like until December. And all the craziness that we’re seeing right now, we’re just feels like basically November 1st hit somewhere like cost and promotion mode until Christmas.

Nicole (18:55):
Some of it started before November 1st because of COVID and shipping delays. Everyone started launching before Halloween,

Yasmine (19:04):
Very valid point. Like if you have a physical product it might make sense to like, literally start your sale like now. Because you want to get ahead of that like big shipping rush. Like the mail system is already overloaded. When you add black Friday volumes on top of it, things might not make it by Christmas. And you would, I would recommend that you like make sure that you’re not guaranteeing anything as delivered by Christmas unless you’re shipping it express. But launching a new business during this time period will ultimately I think results in a bit of a lackluster launch in the sense that you’re not giving your business the opportunity to shine in the way that it needs to. I would wait until after the black Friday period or even better yet maybe the new year, if things can wait that long, just so you can actually shine a spotlight on your business, who would, who you are, what it is and what you have to offer and not have it get like glossed over or lost in the whole, like say 50% type deals. And the other thing is, is because you don’t have the added benefit of like trust and testimonials that you can leverage to like push your product. Someone might go to a competitor because at least there’s reviews and positive sentiment out there that explains like, you know why their product is a good deal and why people should buy it.

Nicole (20:17):
I’d also say that you as a business owner, don’t have the experience or trust in the process of what black Friday is. And so it’s a disservice to yourself to launch your brand and then, and then go through all of the feelings of worthiness and troubles and struggles that happen when you launch a business like at a time like that. Because most of us who have gone through quite a few seasons of this, understand that there’s usually a huge rush around black Friday. There’s a lot of noise. A lot of competition open rates are going to be so low that you have to send more emails to get in front of people. And then on top of that, there is this crash that happens afterward. Like after cyber Monday, everything, just everyone burrows. And they start getting into their holidays, they start getting into their personal lives.

Nicole (21:05):
They’re not thinking about their businesses. They don’t want to think about their businesses or those who have product based businesses are so busy, shipping and fulfilling and everything. They don’t even see their family. So you see this complete nose dive and interest and engagement. And so to start a business where you are fighting for notice, and then everyone goes, it is not like, and mentally speaking, where you want to be when you start your business. So I wouldn’t recommend it either, unless you were launching like a side brand that is very related to an existing, successful, sustainable business that you have. That would probably be the exception that I’d list, but brand new business that you haven’t done before. That needs a new audience has no clout yet just don’t don’t do yourself that disservice it’s you’re not going to love it. It’s not going to feel finding and successful. And then your, your chances of, and here at pixie doesn’t profits, we’re all about a sustainable business. Your chances of sustainably succeeding after launching in that period is just much lower. And so that doesn’t mean don’t launch ever get ready to launch in January, you know, and get your ducks in a row. But launching on black Friday, we’ll have a whole roller coaster of emotions on top of the roller coaster of entrepreneurship.

Yasmine (22:24):
Those are such great points, Nicole. Nicole, and I actually recorded Pixie Dust & Profits over Zoom, not via Zoom, but so we can see each other. And every time she makes a great point, I’m just like giving her a thumbs up. And like, literally I was like thumbs up in her for that entire bit. So fantastic points about like the, I guess like the emotional load that comes with like launching a business and how black Friday is not the best time to put yourself through that.

Nicole (22:51):
Yeah. Black Friday has enough emotions even for the same owner because you’re sitting there staring at all these numbers and figures and neither disbelief or you know, happiness because your projections were right or, you know, trying to tweak those emails. I mean, I know that I’m already got my alarm scheduled to be available at 1201 on black Friday to make sure my client’s sales go live on the website time and crashed and all of that stuff. So there’s a lot of feelings going into black Friday on top of the business side of things. So thank you guys so much for tuning in today. I hope you loved listening to some of the questions that came in. Some of the feedback that we give, if you love getting feedback or want feedback on demand, we have the Profitable & Productive Party, which you can find at magic.pixiedustandprofits.com/party.

Nicole (23:41):
And we’ll link that in the show notes, but it’s essentially our consulting mastermind. We’re there to help you grow that uniquely you sustainable business with real business tools, not formulas, not gimmicks, not guru telling you to copy what I did. We do this type of feedback on demand where you ask a question, we know your business intimately, because we’ve worked with you for months. You could see that at the beginning of the episode, when we talked about Kim, we know the things that she has tried. We know the things that she’s working on. We know what her product is, and so we can give much more specific feedback to her. So if that’s something that you would like to join, we do have our sale going on for Black Friday and the price will go up with the new year, but it’s one 85 a month right now. And it’s a mastermind group experience that does not take place on Facebook. We have coaching calls and we have working sessions together and it’s a really great, wonderful community of people. So again, if you’re interested in joining that, you can go to pixiedustandprofits.com/party, and you will find it there.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
See you real soon. Bye.