Launch Your Box Podcast with Sarah Williams | Start, Launch, and Grow Your Subscription Box

Being an entrepreneur is hard. It takes a lot of physical, mental, and emotional energy to start a business. It takes even more energy to continue to grow a successful business. And it seems every day brings challenges, obstacles, and issues that threaten to deplete that energy. Energy we need to keep moving forward. In this episode, we’re talking about things in your business that threaten your energy. As a subscription box owner, you’re going to deal with cancellations. Every subscription box owner does. You may even deal with negative feedback. As entrepreneurs, our businesses are personal. We put our own blood, sweat, and tears into them. Managing these customer service issues can affect us. They can make us doubt ourselves and our businesses, draining us of the mental and emotional energy we need to run our businesses well. Protect your energy by puting these tips and strategies in place: Give customer service issues to someone else. If you have a VA you can delegate responses to, do so. Putting a buffer between yourself and customer service issues keeps it impersonal but still professional. Reset yourself. Take a walk, run a bath, or do something that helps you disconnect from the stress of work. Remember it’s not about you, it’s about them. You never know what a person is dealing with, especially in these situations. Cancellations happen for any number of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with the box itself. Use that perspective to try not to take these issues personally. Keep reminders of positive feedback visible. Keep positive comments and reviews where you can see them to help remind you what’s important: delivering a VIP experience to your subscribers. Cancellations and negative feedback are a fact of life as a business owner, but they don’t need to be something that robs you of precious time and energy. The longer you’re in business, the more you’ll see that if you are professional in your responses and positive in your outlook, there is a good chance many of those subscribers will come back! Join me for this episode to learn why protecting your energy is so important, especially for entrepreneurs. I’ll share strategies and tips to help you protect the energy you have and gain more! Get my Retention Rate Calculator HERE. Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today! Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

An online marketplace that connects buyers with sellers with a HUGE reach and the potential to sell a lot of products without having to spend time or money building your own audience? Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn’t it? And for thousands of sellers on Jane.com it ended up being exactly that. The collapse of Jane.com highlights important lessons all small business owners need to learn. How did Jane.com work and why was it so attractive to so many sellers? To sell on Jane.com, small businesses had to submit an application and meet certain requirements. Sellers set their own shipping prices and were expected to pack and deliver items to customers within six days of purchase. Jane.com collected payment from the customer, kept 20-25% of sales and distributed the remaining funds to the seller. Jane.com had tens of thousands of sellers. There was always a good variety of products available to customers. A big part of what made Jane.com so attractive to buyers was their flash sales. Every three days, they ran 72 hour flash sales. Jane.com promoted these sales through multiple channels including email. Sellers would sell hundreds to thousands of products in only 72 hours. Small business owners who sold their products on Jane.com didn’t have to build an audience - they used Jane.com’s audience. All they needed to do was provide product at a great price and deliver it quickly. This feels like a huge win to small business owners who know how hard it is to build an audience. So what happened? Had there been signs of trouble? The fall of Jane.com and what it means to these sellers shines a bright light on three things all small business owners MUST do to ensure something like this doesn’t happen to them. Can you benefit from a platform with a built-in audience? Absolutely. But, realize you cannot take shortcuts in business. You cannot skip the work of building your audience yourself. You have control of your business. For much more about what is working now to build your business, listen to episode 144. Join me for this episode to find out what led to the fall of Jane.com, what it means for tens of thousands of small business owners, and what you can do to ensure something like this won’t happen to your business. Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today! Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

Can you imagine bringing in over $1 Million in revenue in one year? What if I told you anyone can do it? Anyone who is willing to work hard, to never give up. Anyone who is willing to get up every day, hustle, and implement. In this episode, I’m joined by three members of my Elevate Mastermind. All three have wildly successful businesses. And all three hit $1 Million in revenue this year! All three are past guests on this podcast, so you might be familiar with their stories. Tamara Bennett, Tracey Pounds, and Cindy Manly are here to share some of the “secrets” to their success and to inspire you to pursue your subscription box dreams. These successful business owners have several things in common. They’re all in the arts & crafts space. They all have memberships and subscription boxes - multiple streams of income. They all have both physical and digital offerings. Learn from Tamara. Start with one thing, get super clear about it, and work out the kinks. Give it six or eight months or even a year. Don’t be in a rush to add something else. Learn from Tracy. Stay focused, be consistent, and pour into serving your audience. Learn from Cindy. Give your audience more of what they want. Use an SLO to fund Facebook Ads that bring new people into your world, people who will become customers of various offers. Cindy put strategies into play that resulted in a $300,000 month in October! Dreaming big is easy. Doing what it takes to make those big dreams come true takes work. It takes a willingness to expand. Expand your thinking Expand audience building Expand ad spend Wondering how much of these ladies’ total revenue is recurring revenue? The kind of recurring revenue that means not hustling to make sales every day. The kind of recurring revenue that brings stability to your business. Tracey - 57% Tamara - 75% (this is my number, too) Cindy - 70% One thing each of these ladies does so well is staying in their lane. They each have a niche - a sweet spot. Instead of trying to appeal to a wide range of people, they stay true to their perfect person. Their incredible growth has come from filling all the little gaps over the years, serving their perfect person’s needs, and creating multiple revenue streams. The riches truly are in the niches. I asked each of these million-dollar business owners to give listeners one piece of advice. Their advice - and mine - is to: Show up. Be consistent. Surround yourself with people who lift you up and support you. Give it time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Join me and three of my Mastermind students to find out how they hit $1 Million in sales this year, what they contributed their success to, and how you can take what they did and apply it to your own business. Find and follow Tracey Miss Tracey Creates on Facebook Miss Tracey Creates on Instagram Miss Tracey Creates Website Find and follow Tamara Southern Adoornments Decor on Facebook Southern Adoornments Decor on Instagram Southern Adoornments Decor Website Find and follow Cindy Art Shattered on Facebook Art Shattered on Instagram Art Shattered Website Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today! Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

2023 has been a rollercoaster year for e-commerce businesses. Yes, there have been ups, but wow, have there ever been downs, too. And there were certainly times this year that left all of us scratching our heads and wondering, “What’s working now?” In this episode, I’m going to do my best to answer that question along with one of my biz besties, Susan Bradley of the E-Commerce Roadmap podcast. We each share the top 3 things working right now in e-Commerce. The best news? You can implement any one of them in your business starting right now. It’s important to understand you have way more control over your results than you think you do. Even if this year has been more downs than ups, there is always a way to come back and get what you want. My year had big jumps and dips. I took my eye off my business for personal and professional reasons and it showed. But there were three things I did to get sales back on track. And they all had to do with getting back to basics. I doubled up on LIVE selling. I sent 2-3 additional emails each week. I realized my email list wasn’t growing and changed my opt-in. Go back to the basics, but be innovative within those basics. I started running page-like ads in the spring - remember, audience building never ends - after I realized my Facebook and Instagram audiences had grown stale. The result? Almost 7K new followers! What’s working for Susan now? Susan recommends doubling down on what’s working. Three things that have been working for her and her members: Building audiences using a brand video strategy. Susan Bradley’s Brand Video Bootcamp Lead generation Email automations All the time you spend on these tried and true strategies allows you to maximize what you have. This pays off so much more than going off and finding new ways to accomplish the same goal. Take one or two of these ideas and implement them now. Then add more - get to where you’ve implemented all of them. They’re working for a LOT of people right now! Join me and my biz bestie Susan Bradley for this episode to learn what’s working in e-commerce now and how you can start implementing these strategies in your business today. The Social Sales Girls Brand Video Bootcamp Find and follow Susan: The Social Sales Girls on Facebook The Social Sales Girls Website The Ecommerce Roadmap Podcast Brand Video Bootcamp Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today! Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

Every month I do a LIVE unboxing video for my audience. It’s one of my favorite things to do and one of the best ways to engage with my audience, subscribers and non-subscribers. I teach members of Launch Your Box to do a LIVE unboxing every month as part of their marketing plan. It is SUCH a great way to connect with your subscribers and build community. It’s also an opportunity to create FOMO - showing potential subscribers what they’re missing out on and why they should join. In this episode, I walk you through my step-by-step LIVE unboxing process. Follow this process to take the stress and uncertainty out of doing your LIVE unboxing… every month. Doing the prep work makes your LIVE stress-free and more likely to reach a lot of people in your audience. 1. Set a date for your Subscription Box Unboxing Setting a firm time for your live session lets your audience know when to expect the event and allows you to set reminders to help build interest. 2. Set the stage, starting with an active background and good lighting. 3. Create a hook to pique your audience’s interest and stop the scroll. Tell your audience what the video is about and what to expect in the first 15 seconds. During your LIVE unboxing video: 1. Encourage engagement with your audience. As soon as you hit that live button and deliver your hook, start interacting with your audience (even if there’s nobody in your chat). Realize most of your views will come from the replay. Ask questions then come back and engage. 2. Tell the story of your box. Share the inspiration behind your subscription box and how you curated it. Help them see how it all fits together. Get your audience invested in the box before they see it. 3. Show off your highest-level subscription (if you have tiers). Sharing your top-level box allows you to show off what you’re capable of and gets subscribers who might have gotten a lower-level box interested. 4. Include a Call to Action (subscribe, get on the waitlist, etc). 5. Thank your audience for being there and review the items in your box as you repack it. Your LIVE unboxing video should be at least 20 to 30 minutes long, but don’t be afraid to go a little longer if you have good engagement. You’re not finished when the LIVE ends. Put that video into an email and send it to your mailing list. You’ll snag some of your audience that didn’t watch the LIVE session and get some more views and more people to follow your CTA. Don’t miss this chance to engage with your subscribers and show off the box you’ve put so much time into. Join me for this episode as I walk you through the process of one of your most important marketing tools - a monthly LIVE unboxing video. Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today! Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

Have you launched your subscription box but found yourself struggling to grow? Launching your subscription box is a HUGE milestone. Celebrate that! The next HUGE milestone for so many of my members is reaching 100 subscribers. Some - those with large, engaged audiences - do this during their first launch. Most don’t. I didn’t. Growing your subscription box to 100 subscribers and beyond takes time. It’s important to give yourself grace and time to get there while still staying focused and holding yourself accountable. Inside Launch Your Box, I walk my members through what it takes to get their subscription boxes launched. But the launch is not the end. There is more work to do to keep it going - and growing - each month. Which is why we talk about much more than just launching inside LYB. It’s constant curation. Keeping up with trends and what your subscribers want. It’s constant marketing. Getting yourself out there and in front of new people consistently. It’s constant retention. So many subscription box owners make the mistake of focusing only on the acquisition of new subscribers, losing sight of the subscribers they already have. Focusing on these three things should drive your business and create long-term recurring revenue. So, what got me to my first 100 subscribers and what should you do to get to yours? Don’t stop talking about your subscription box. You think everyone has seen it. They haven’t. You think you’re talking about it enough. You’re not. Inside the Launch Your Box Training Library - in the Marketing Module - you’ll find a Subscription Box Social Media resource with posting ideas for EVERY day of the month! Not an LYB member yet? Text LAUNCH to 940-204-0023 for a link to join! Engage. Consistently. Be social before and after the sale. Retention is a HUGE part of growth - make sure you’re engaging with your subscribers, letting them know how much you appreciate them. Your excitement is contagious. Create FOMO for those not signed up! Create connections with and for your subscribers. I don’t recommend private Facebook groups for our subscriptions - you lose a valuable opportunity to create FOMO. Create value - it’s not always about the stuff. What makes you different and unique? Why should someone buy from you and not a big box store? Curate the experience your subscribers are looking for - the experience they can’t get from big box stores or even big box subscriptions. Everyone can do these simple things to grow their subscriptions. Your launch is only the beginning. When you’re ready to take your subscription box to the next level, when you’re ready to go deeper… you’re ready for my Scale Your Box course. There’s so much to scaling your box - so many things you can do to grow your business in a manageable, profitable way. Join me for this episode where I talk you through what it takes to get you to your first 100 subscribers and beyond! Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join the waitlist today! Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

“You can’t just put it out there and expect it to work.” - Pam Rogers This is a special episode. It’s a replay of our 50th episode! Thank you to all of you who’ve listened and shared - and special thanks for all your 5 Star Reviews! It means so much to me! I compiled the top ten episodes for the year and found something interesting. All ten of them had a common theme - audience building. Each of the top ten episodes - and so many others - shows us just how important audience building is. You can’t start your subscription box without an audience. And you can’t grow your subscription box business without continually growing your audience. On today’s episode, I revisit these top ten episodes and review 5 ways my guests built their audiences. Episode 3 - The Riches are in the Niches: Anne went specific when she created a subscription box for women dentists. She knew her ideal customer because she was her ideal customer. Episode 14 - 4 Ways to Build Your Audience: Tiffany ran a giveaway, posted on social media consistently, made connections, and partnered with an influencer to build her audience. Episode 31 - From an Audience of Zero to 100 Subscribers in 60 Days: Claudia posted consistently on Facebook and Instagram, created IG reels and stories, and added an early bird bonus. Episode 33 - Small Audience, No Problem! How Amanda Built 100+ Subscribers from an Audience of 600: Amanda went very specific andserved her audience before she sold. Episode 38 - From Nurse Practitioner to Subscription Box Owner: Pam set up social media accounts, followed colleagues, and did some very creative in-person marketing when she attended a conference. Join me for this special episode as I revisit these top ten episodes and these wonderful subscription box owners. Each of these women shared her inspiring subscription box journey with us. Each of them also shared actionable tips and strategies - things they did to grow their audiences which in turn helped them grow their businesses. Important Links: Links to Top-Ten episodes: Episode 3 - The Riches are in the Niches - How one LYB Member Hit $10K Monthly with Her Subscription Box Business Episode 5 - Who Will Buy My Box and How Do I Find Them? - Subscription Box Strategies with Damon Oates Episode 7 - Get Started Right Away with Fast and Messy Action Episode 9 - Why am I Scared to Show Up Live? | Build an Audience for Your Subscription Box Episode 14 - 4 Ways to Build Your Audience with Tiffany LeBaron Episode 39 - Launch Tips with The Lettering Box Episode 38 - From Nurse Practitioner to Subscription Box Owner Episode 31 - From an Audience of Zero to 100 Subscribers in 60 Days Episode 33 - Small Audience, No Problem! How Amanda Built 100+ Subscribers from an Audience of 600 Episode 42 - Consistency Pays Off with Jamie Shahan of CRNA Swag Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join the waitlist today! Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

“When you listen to your mentor, things will work.” - Cathy Schwartz Collecting people, finding your hottest leads, building a foundation for your subscription box launch… It’s all part of the Waitlist Plan I teach inside Launch Your Box. And by following that Waitlist Plan, Cathy Schwartz of Decorator Crafts sold out the launch of her Luxury Loops subscription box in only 24 hours. Cathy’s subscription box journey started when she learned to make wreaths and work with ribbon as a way to deal with a stressful corporate job. She fell in love with ribbon, particularly high-end, designer ribbon. She soon realized she wasn’t alone in her love for luxury ribbon - there were a LOT of people who wanted to learn how to decorate with high-end ribbon. Soon, Cathy decided to take the passion and knowledge and launch a monthly subscription box. She also started a private Facebook Group where subscribers go to learn how to decorate with their ribbons and build community. Cathy is a member of Launch Your Box and Scale Your Box. She is a dream student who soaks up the training and implements it in her business. This includes the Waitlist Plan. The Waitlist Plan is all about consistently driving traffic to your subscription box waitlist. It’s a list of people who have said “Yes, I’m interested in what you’re selling.” They are your warmest leads. A waitlist is not only for your first launch. You need to consistently build your waitlist between launches as well. Just like Cathy does. Due to the quantities Cathy’s exclusive ribbons are available in, she adds new subscribers in groups of 48. When she recently launched to new subscribers, she of course started with her waitlist. Just like I teach inside Launch Your Box. But, unlike most subscription box owners, Cathy never had to move on to the next phase of her launch. She sold out her launch to her waitlist in only 24 hours! Cathy had a waitlist of 300 people when it was time to launch. 300 very warm leads. She grew that waitlist - and continues to grow it consistently. Recently, Cathy posted a video of a Christmas Urn project. The response was beyond anything she could have imagined. She gained 6,000 Facebook followers in 72 hours and the video has more than 150,000 views on TikTok. Cathy realized she needed to capture all these people’s emails to bring them into her world. She quickly put together an opt-in for the project and has been busy driving people to her waitlist. Cathy serves her audience. She teaches them, she engages with them, and she builds excitement and FOMO with the help of her subscribers. She’s doing all the right things, especially when it comes to following the Waitlist Plan. I’m so proud of all Cathy has accomplished in her business. She now has over 500 subscribers and I know that number will continue to grow. Join me for this episode and be inspired as Cathy tells us what can happen when you get consistent, follow the plan, and curate an exclusive experience for your subscribers. Find and follow Cathy: Decorator Crafts on Instagram Decorator Crafts on Facebook Luxury Loops Subscription Box Decorator Crafts Website Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today!  Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

If you’re a small business owner, you are probably experiencing some degree of overwhelm in your business or personal life. Probably both. Because when you’re a small business owner, business and personal overlap and intertwine. A lot. Overwhelm can become a major obstacle to success. It can affect your business growth and your personal growth. Personal overwhelm affects your business and business overwhelm affects your personal life. How many times have you been impatient or snippy or overreacted to something because of stress in another part of your life? So many business owners operate in a constant state of overwhelm. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this episode, I’m walking you through five things you can do to help reduce your overwhelm so you can thrive instead of just surviving. 1. Time Management - There will never be enough hours in the day to get everything done. How we manage our time is crucial to reducing overwhelm. Get more done by: Identifying high-priority tasks. Time blocking those tasks. Removing distractions. Using a timer to stay focused. 2. Hiring, Outsourcing, Delegating - you can’t keep doing business alone. This means knowing when it’s time to: Hire Outsource Delegate 3. Setting Realistic Goals and Timelines - entrepreneurs are guilty of always thinking we can get more done in a set amount of time than we actually can. Be honest with yourself. Plan only ONE big rock per quarter. (detailed in my Strategic Yearly Planning Workshop - linked below) 4. Getting Support - feeling supported makes a huge difference to the amount of overwhelm you feel. How can your team support you? How can your spouse support you? How can your children support you? How can your friends and family support you? Seek out other support - housekeeper, grocery deliveries, etc. 5. Self-care - you need to take time for yourself. Don’t feel guilty about it. Plan self-care time - put it on your calendar. Make time to spend with friends and family. Start with one of these items and build it into your routine. Then layer in another. And another. Stop operating in fight or flight mode. Your health and the health of your business depend on it! Join me for this episode and learn five things you can do to tackle overwhelm in your subscription box business. Take my Strategic Yearly Planning Workshop. Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today! Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code LAUNCHWELCOME at https://www.boxup.com/ to get 10% off your first order

Have you gotten stuck trying to decide what to include in your subscription box? You want to give your subscribers everything they could possibly want - but you know it’s not possible to do that and stay profitable. It is so easy for new subscription box owners to overthink everything and end up overwhelmed. One subscription box owner decided to keep things simple - really simple - and now has more than 500 monthly subscribers! Meet Launch Your Box member Emily Vincent of The Polka Dot Poodle. Emily is creative and fun and loves to give gifts. She doesn’t just “give” gifts, though - she presents them in a way that makes them seem personal and extra special. Emily is passionate about gift-giving and adding the special touches that take a gift and turn it into an experience for the recipient. When Emily first started her business, she was creating all the things. She and I share a love for monograms and she was creating and monogramming products for her many customers. But she quickly found that creating the same item over and over again didn’t bring her joy. When she examined what she loved about her business, she realized what she really loved was designing gift tags for people to give the items she made as gifts. So Emily decided to focus on just that. Gift tags. She started a digital subscription where subscribers receive a digital file with that month’s designs and print them themselves. How easy is that?! No printing, no packing, no shipping. Emily’s workload is the same whether she has 10 subscribers or hundreds. Emily soon realized that some of her subscribers wanted to receive the gift tags already printed and ready to go. They wanted her to make things even easier and more convenient for them. She was happy to oblige and started another version of her subscription. For these subscribers, Emilly prints the physical gift tags and ships them - just the tags - to her subscribers. Still simple and easy to fulfill. Because Emily likes to serve her audience, she recently added another subscription. This one is more custom, more personalized, and more labor-intensive. And yes, it involves monograms. But Emily loves it and so do her subscribers. And she is careful not to take on more subscribers than she can comfortably handle. When Emily started her first subscription, she had 37 subscribers. That number has grown to more than 500 subscribers. 500 people who receive gift tags designed by Emily every month. Gift tags. How simple is that? Emily’s advice to anyone thinking about starting a subscription box? Just start. Develop your idea, create a landing page, grow your email list and social media followers, and just start. She promises it will be worth it. Join me for this episode and learn how Emily found subscription box success by focusing on what she loves to do and keeping things simple. Find and follow Emily: The Polka Dot Poodle on Instagram The Polka Dot Poodle on Facebook The Polka Dot Poodle Website Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today! Get 30 Days FREE when you switch to Subbly: https://join.subbly.co/sarah-williams Use code BOXPROOF at https://www.boxup.com/ to get one free custom-printed box