Paul Goodman & PuraVida Bracelets Execution on an Idea – SBS 56

The Small business show at businessshow co. Episode number 56 for Wednesday, March 2, 2016. Greetings, folks, and welcome to the Small Business show at businessshow Co. The show where we talk about all things that small business owners care about each and every week when we come together here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. How are you, sir?

I am well. Yeah. Yeah, awesome. Had a little vacation last week and we did.

I saw that.

Yeah, we did a whole lot of. Not a whole lot, which was.

Which was good, you know. That's pretty awesome.

Yeah, that's good to do every now and again.

That's great. Yeah. So, hey, you know, a few weeks ago, I sat on a panel at the PayPal Asia Pacific Conference down in Half Moon Bay, and I got to meet some awesome people. And one of the folks that I met was Paul Goodman from Pura Vita Bracelets, and he's joining us today to hang out and talk about his business experience. Paul, thanks for joining us, man.

Yeah, no problem. Happy to be here.

Yeah, we really appreciate you giving us some time. Time is the most valuable commodity all of us have, and so getting people to come hang out for a half hour, so is really great. We definitely appreciate it.

Yeah, I feel you.

Yeah, for sure. So that was a cool conference. I thought it was a pretty good way to spend the day and meet some of those folks. Did you get some good stuff out of it?

Yeah, I mean, I thought it was cool to actually go and see that PayPal cares about their customers and actually cares to hear what your problems are, what your challenges are, and actually do take action on them. You know, I feel like a lot of companies don't do that nowadays.

That's true. Yeah. That's cool. So, hey, so we're gonna talk about Pura Vita. So give us a little bit of background, you know, what you folks do, how you got started. I heard your story, which was, you know, one of the reasons why I followed up with you. And I know our listeners would like to hear as well.

Yeah, for sure. So me and my partner, my business partner, Griffin, we started pura Vida in 2010. We graduated San Diego State University and decided you we were going to go on a surf trip. Five weeks, we're going to go to Costa Rica, Panama, travel around and, you know, come back and really get. Get down to business and get real jobs. So we went down to Costa Rica. We're surfing, you know, hanging out on the beach. And one day we. We saw these Bracelet, bracelets on the beach being sold by, by two vendors. And you know, we bought a couple and the next day went back and bought a couple more. And we were laying on the beach later that day and it kind of just hit us like, hey, what if we, what if we buy these bracelets from these guys in Costa Rica, bring them back with us and see if we can sell them to all of our friends back home and in turn, you know, make a little bit of money and help these guys on the beach and give them more of a way to provide more jobs. So we brought 400 bracelets back with us. Brought them in the little plastic bag. You know, I get off the plane and my dad looks at me like, you're crazy, right? You're joking. You're gonna sell bracelets like you just got a finance degree. Like, what are you doing? So, you know, next thing we know, we sold 400 bracelets in a little over a week. And we were like, hey, like, this is, this is something we could do. So, you know, before we left Costa Rica, we had set up the guys with an email and a bank account just in case anything happened. And you know, we emailed them and we're like, let's order a thousand more bracelets. So they wrote back, we ordered a thousand bracelets. And that snowballed into, you know, what we have today. And now we support 100 artisans in Costa Rica, provide them with full time jobs, and, you know, we bring in about 30 to 50,000 bracelets a week.

Wow, that is so cool, man. That is so great. But you know that the critical part is that jump from laying on the beach, you know, and then talking about that idea and then actually coming back in here and executing it. Because I'm sure there's countless people, you know, myself included, that lay on the beach and, oh, we should do this, we should do that. So I really commend you for the execution, man. That's awesome.

Well, and your commitment too. Not only is it important to execute, I mean, it's, it is most important to execute. But you did so in the face of people telling you, especially people that, you know, like your parents, right? Your dad said this is crazy. People are telling you this is crazy. You did it and you, you followed through on your plan anyway. And that's the key.

Yeah, I mean, definitely, like, if we would have just, you know, listened to what everyone was saying in the beginning, nothing would have happened. You know, everyone was kind of like looking at us like we were idiots. You know, it's A simple string bracelet that, you know, most people do see when they go on vacation to, you know, Central America or Latin America, people selling them on the beach. And we just. We kind of felt like it captured our journey. We wanted to share that with the people we were selling the bracelets to.

That's great. Did you work for anybody else before.

That, or was this your, like, my first job? I've actually. Every job I had, I was fired from.

That's why. Yeah, we always say on this show, you know, you're patently unemployable. Right. So you have to start something.

Yeah, pretty much.

That's very cool. So what was the most, you know, challenging thing that you guys faced when you came back and. And to really build it into a business?

Sorry, what was that?

What was, you know, what did you find was the most, you know, or one of the most challenging things that you guys overcame when you got back to the States and, you know, started to turn the, you know, the idea into a viable business?

I mean, biggest, biggest challenge was kind of like the communication barrier from the start. Like, um, you know, they speak Spanish, we speak English, we speak a little bit of Spanish. But, like, trying to communicate through email when we first got back was. Was pretty difficult. So we would, you know, tell them what we want. Then we would get the order in, and it would kind of be like a little off.

I see.

And so we just kind of had to, like, really go through the processes and determine, like, how we can make it more efficient.

Got it.

Well, yeah, I mean, it's. It sounds like you. There's many businesses that, you know, kind of outsource their production. Right. Which is effectively what you're doing here. However, most businesses that outsource their production do so to someone that's used to supplying people in other countries with, you know, product and might you have a different design and they retool their factory and then boom. But this. You were basically teaching your suppliers how to be in business?

Oh, yeah. I mean, 100%. I mean, when we. When we met them, they were literally homeless, living on the beach, traveling from city to city in Costa Rica. Basically. You know, when it would rain, they'd go to the next city so they could sell more bracelets to make money to eat and kind of get around. You know, they didn't have a business. They didn't know how to make more than 400 bracelets at a time. You know, when we told them our initial order, they closed up their little, you know, their little table on the beach. And went back and spent four days, five days making all these bracelets that they had. No, you know, it's the biggest story they ever got.

Of course.

Sure.

So we kind of had to build out their, you know, their structure as well.

Right.

Yeah. That's crazy. So. And you said you sent them over the bank account. I mean, were you sending them, you know, wire transferring or using PayPal, that kind of thing to do?

Yeah. In the beginning we were using Western Union, which was terrible. I'd go to. I'd go to cvs, I'd pick up the little, like, red phone and, you know, do that whole, that whole thing, which was like, awful.

Yeah.

And the, you know, the first time we there, the second time we paid and when, you know, when we're sending money through Western Union, I didn't know if I was gonna send these people money and never receive product or anything like that, but sure, yeah, we just, we just went for it.

That's awesome.

That's. That. Yeah. I admire your persistence, man, because that, I mean, they're not just people telling you it's a crazy idea. But you probably told yourself many times, what am I doing here? You know, and yet you did it anyway, and here you are.

Yeah. I mean, it was always in our head that, like, this was our. I don't know, it just like seemed like it was so right at the time.

It's awesome.

Yeah, that's great. And that, that initial batch that you, you know, brought back, where did you guys wind up selling them? I mean, I assume you didn't go take the table, the Costa Rican's idea, and sit at the beach, right?

No. So my business partner's mom at the time for a pretty trendy boutique in Malibu called Planet Blue, so she was the buyer there. So she was like, hey, what if you give me some and I'll put, put them in a bowl on the counter and I'll just write, you know, puri beater bracelets, $5. And so she put them in there and, you know, she called, Called us at the end of the week and was like, hey, like, I have a bunch of cash for you sitting here. We're out of bracelets. Like, you need to give me more. And so that's when we were like, wow, we need to, we need to order more and figure this out.

Yeah, that's great. That's very cool. So, you know, so you guys get started. So, you know, and you're out. You're trying to market this stuff. What have you found over the years? You Know what marketing works best for you guys? I know you've been really creative in the social media space, and we're all trying to figure that out. And I'd love to hear about, you know, what your strategies are.

Yeah, I mean, we've marketed all of our brand on social media. So literally from the start, we grew everything through social media and email marketing. So in the beginning, we were, you know, at the time, we just graduated college, so we were walking around San Diego State University passing out bracelets to, like, literally every girl we saw. Hey, you want a bracelet? Here's a bracelet. Go like our page on, on Facebook, walk around to the sororities, having all the sororities join our Facebook page. And, you know, that was the time when Facebook organic reach hadn't been limited at all. So the more fans we got, the more people we could, we could get in touch with. And then as soon as Facebook started limiting the organic reach, that's when we kind of started hopping on the. The Instagram train.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So now on Instagram, we have over 500,000 followers. Our Facebook fan page has right around the same amount. So we have a pretty large social following.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I mean, it's just a great way to connect with our customers, especially with, you know, our customers being the 16 to 24 year old, you know, 80% female.

Well, that's it. I told my daughter, and, you know, I'm here in New Hampshire, so other side of the country from you. I told my daughter, oh, yeah, we're doing this interview with these Pura Vita bracelets. You ever heard of them? And she freaked out. Now she's 16 years old and she said, oh, I love Pura Vita. My friend modeled for them. I was stalking their Instagram last night. You know, I mean, this whole thing I get from her and it's like, really? Oh, all right. I guess that's good. Cool.

That is good. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. When I, when I got back from the PayPal conference and I mentioned to my daughter, scatter, she was like, hang on a minute. And she walked upstairs and you like, you know that bowl you had on the counter of people of bracelets? I guarantee you my, my kid has.

The same thing, except she's not selling them.

Yeah, that's right. That's it. Yeah. So you've done a great job of, you know, penetrating that, you know, that demographic, man. It's great.

Coast to coast.

Yeah. Very, very cool. Very cool.

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, that's great.

So, you know, one of the Things we always talk about here on the show is, you know, how we spend our time and, you know, schedule your day and, you know, your, your background's finance. Is that. Are you still in that role with Pura Vita or do you find yourself wearing many, many hats?

Yeah, so, I mean, I do handle all the finance here. Finance, logistics, payments. And my business partner does all like the marketing, branding side of the business. So, you know, I'm, I'm dealing with the, you know, the shipments, the purchase orders, our cash flow, credit card statements, all that stuff. And he's dealing with like the email marketing, the Facebook marketing, Instagram, all that side.

That's cool. So are, you know, are you kind of a tight agenda type guy where you have your day set out or do you roll in and kind of just, you know, like we talked about earlier, management, walking around or, you know, taking care of things as they come in? What do you prefer to do?

I mean, I'm in the office every day, like 8, 8 to 8:30, leave it, you know, 5 to 5:30. So pretty normal day there. But once I'm in the office, I don't like to, you know, micromanage at all. Like, I kind of want people to have their tasks and work on their tasks. If they have a problem, come talk to me. But, you know, we try and kind of like be hands off here and let people do their work. I think people work better that way.

Yeah, for sure. I agree. I love that. Yeah, that's great.

How many employees do you have?

We have 15 in our office.

Okay. Wow.

And where are you guys located? Your office is still down in Southern California?

Yeah, we're in. In La Jolla.

That's beautiful down there. Nice.

Yeah.

And so on your product mix and on your website and the bracelets, have you guys, you know, are you working on expanding into other vertical markets and kind of taking your brand out further?

Yeah. So actually no one really knows this yet, but I'll let you guys get a little inside scoop on. Yeah. On Tuesday, we're, we're coming out with our new clothing launch.

Oh, nice.

So we are going to be launching a full line of clothing. We've, we've never really branched out our bracelets besides like, you know, some, some clutches and never kind of made this leap. So this is a pretty big leap for us.

Awesome.

Yeah. And then a month and a half after that, we're going to be coming out with bikinis.

Very cool. Very great.

Yeah. So the bikinis, we actually used our social media to determine what to Purchase. So we set up a survey that basically outlined, like, seven different styles and different colors of bikinis. And we sent that out to our entire email list, our Instagram, our Facebook, and basically had the customers essentially pick what. What we were going to order for them. So we took those results, and we had 75,000 people take this. This survey.

Wow.

And the survey basically told us, like, hey, these are your top two styles, these are your top two colors, and these are your. Your top four style sizes. So from there, we just placed our order, and then we'll be launching it beginning of May and having people essentially buy what they've already told us they want. So that's a little bit how we use our social media and our reach.

Yeah, that's powerful. And did you offer some kind of reward or incentive for people that took the survey?

Yeah. So basically everyone that took the survey entered their email, and they'll be the first ones to have access to purchase them.

That's great.

That's awesome, huh? Wow. That's pretty cool, man.

Yeah.

Building it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Very nice.

More stuff for our daughters to buy, Shannon.

Exactly. I'm targeting you guys.

It sounds like it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. Very cool. So, you know, you're a finance guy, and I'm sure, you know, we talk a lot about how cash is king, and, you know, that's obviously a measurement of your success and that kind of stuff. But it certainly sounds that, you know, with Pura Vita, you have some other, you know, ways that you've measured your success and different types of things. I mean, what beyond, you know, the cash flow and profit to. Does your team, you know, measures. How do you measure your success?

So we focus a lot on average order value and lifetime value and CPA on all of our Facebook ads.

Okay.

So it's. It's a constant, you know, daily, daily battle with how cheap we can basically purchase customers for what they're checking out for and kind of like, monitoring. That makes sense.

And do you have someone on staff that, you know, delves into all those analytics and, you know, that data to parse all that information out for you?

Yeah, so that's. It's kind of, like, done between me, my partner Griffin and I, and then our Facebook ad agency that we work with, which is actually. They're up in San Francisco. So, you know, we have weekly calls that we go over, like, the average order values and, you know, what we're acquiring customers for and how we can improve, how we can, you know, better optimize and, and further that.

So you've. You've contracted an agency that does nothing but for you anyway. Does nothing but build and, and, and place Facebook ads for you.

Yeah.

Huh.

Yeah. I mean, you know, smart. At first, we were doing it ourselves, and, and, you know, we kind of figured like, hey, someone else has. Has more knowledge than us in this, so we need to hire outside sources that can do it better than us.

Yeah, well, that's the. That. That's one of the hardest things to. To do when you get into business. Right. Because when you start, whether you know it all or not, you have to do it all because you probably don't have the money to hire somebody. Right. And. But then when you do have the money, identifying those things that other people can do better and just delegating those tasks, that's. That's the key to growth, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, someone's. Someone is always going to be probably smarter than you at doing it. So if you can find those people and build your team around those people, then, you know, that's how you're going to be moving forward.

Yep.

Yeah, that's great. That makes a lot of sense. So one of our favorite questions that we always ask everybody that comes on is, you know, tell us about, you know, the best mistake you've ever made. You know, we, we have a lot of love for, you know, the mistakes and being able to look back and what they've taught us. And can you share one of those mistakes you might have made that really taught you a good lesson in your. Your business career?

Yeah, I think the, the biggest mistake is, like, me and my partner easily or like, very easily think there's always, like, a shinier, brighter, easier way to do something. So, I mean, last, last year, for example, we got pitched on, you know, switching our website and, you know, kind of like overhauling our whole back end. And we're promised that it's going to increase conversion rates and, you know, more customers, more transactions, more checkouts, higher dollar amount. And, you know, we agreed to this, make this switch, and with the switch came a. You know, they charged us a percentage of sales, and we kind of just got sold. And I think, you know, we're now back on our old platform. But I think you got to realize, like, if something's working and it's working well, like, you got to really, really, really, you know, have to make a switch if it's. If it's necessary, if it's working and it's going. Going how you want it to be, there's no reason to make a switch just like for some other shiny platform, you know?

Yeah, yeah. Especially software like you say. I've been down that road and you know, we've talked about it here before. Whether using a software as a service or building your own, and let alone the money, your, your time investment can be phenomenal. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, by the way, Shannon, I got a new platform I want to record the podcast on. Let me tell you about it later.

Yeah, okay, good, good.

I've never realized how, how much time a system conversion would take until I. This past year, like converting a system when you already have like an up and running system is, is a nightmare.

Yeah, yeah. It takes years off your life, I'm convinced.

Nightmare.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's. And, and I, but I think we all have to go through it. I mean, I, I've made that exact same mistake that, you know, you're talking about and it is tough and you do, you're constantly getting pitched on. This is a new service and this is why it's better. And we're going to promise you this. And you know, I, I get them every day now, it seems like. So that's a good one. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, you know, you guys are expanding out these other things and trying new things. So, and this is, you know, question. If you could go back for when you, you know, looking back now, if you had the same experience and you could tell yourself, you know, when you're getting started, one thing that would have just really made everything easier for you or better, you know, what would you tell yourself sitting on the beach there in Costa Rica or maybe once you got back, what tidbit?

I think, you know, don't take it so seriously. I. Sometimes when you, when you're running a biz or trying to grow something, it's, it's so serious. And if you're take a step back every day and realize that you are running your own business and you're in charge of your own freedom, I think it makes everything a little easier.

That's good advice. That's great advice. Yeah, I like that. Especially from a finance guy. That's good. Yeah, I think that's fantastic. So it's great. So what's the best way for people to learn more about Pura Vita? What's the best way for them to find you?

Yeah, I think the easiest would be to go to puravitabracelets.com and check out our website, click on our story. You can read a little bit about more about our story. And, you know, check out our new arrivals. We got some. Some great new products out.

That's cool. And with this new products and, you know, new product line, are you. Are you building a new site? Are you gonna. Is it always gonna be Pura Vita bracelets or are you branding it a little different?

For right now, it's on our site.

Okay, cool. That's great. Well, that's awesome. Well, I really appreciate you hanging out with us for a little bit today and sharing your story and anything else you'd like to share, please let us know. We'll be glad to put it up on the website. And we've enjoyed having you.

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

It's been a blast, man. Thank you so much for your time. My daughter texted me. She says she's a small.

Perfect.

I like that.

Thanks so much, Paul. We'll see you folks next time. Feedbackus show co is where you can find us, or you can reach us and you can find us at businessshow Co and of course, Business show on Facebook as well. We'll see you next time.

Take care.

Later.