594. “I want to be a top name in my niche. What systems do I need to get there?” | Coaching Session

It's good to know, right, that like, at every stage it feels messy. And in every stage, you know, if we're growing, it's messy, things start to break again and then we kind of have to put it back together and think about, okay, what's next? Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is the Product Boss podcast. I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what are mistakes they could avoid, how did they turn an idea into successful business? And what are strategies they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. This is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. Let's do this. Hey, hey, product boss. All right, so today's coaching call is perfect for entrepreneurs at all levels, whether you're just starting out or you're hitting new levels of growth. Now today I'm speaking with Claire of Musically Minted, a thriving product business selling music themed merchandise. Her goal is to be one of the go to names in her niche and we love that kind of ambition. She's taking her business full time, but she's also hitting that pivotal moment where the way things have been done aren't working anymore. If and she needs to know what comes next. So we're talking about what systems she can put into place when she needs them and how to go about implementing them. We get into the nitty gritty details here, but you get to see a real example of how to do the same thing in your business. So let's dive into it. Hey, hey, Product Boss. Okay, so are you struggling with elevating your branding and taking your video content to that next level? If so, I have just the software for you and it's called Riverside fm. Wouldn't it be a game changer if you could have crystal clear audio and video for your product launches, interviews and even virtual events? With Riverside fm, it's not just a recording platform, but your backstage pass to professional quality content creation. No more worrying about tech issues because we all know sometimes the Tech gods just aren't on our side. Riverside FM allows you to connect with influencers, collaborate with partners and engage your audience like never before. Plus, you can easily turn your recordings into shareable content for various platforms. It's exactly what we do here at the product class. I'm actually recording on Riverside FM right now and when you see the clips of me that look amazing and crystal clear on social media, it has been all recorded and created on Riverside fm. So it's time to grow your brand with beautiful visuals and captivating storytelling all in one place. So, product boss, if you're ready to stand out in a crowded market and elevate your brand, head to Riverside FM and enter the code, the productboss, all one word to receive a 15% discount. All right, Claire, I'm so excited to work with you today. So tell me a little bit about your business. What you make, what you sell and then where you sell it.

So I used to be a music teacher. When I was teaching, I started musically minted and I would draw just like random designs. I actually didn't want to be the music person at all. And then it just kind of fell into my lap that I wanted to draw music, like stickers and things because I liked music. And then that's when the business started taking off. I continued the business when I was teaching virtually and then last spring I resigned. So now I'm doing it full time. I sell mostly online. A lot of people follow me on Instagram. We just started doing conferences all around the US So now I feel like it's growing in the past two to three years.

Amazing. And I mean, you said that it's in growth, messy stage, which I like. Yes, because it's true, you know, like you're already a multi six figure business and you want to move towards becoming a million dollar business, which is totally possible. But I think it's good to know, right, that like at every stage it feels messy and in every stage, you know, if we're growing, it's messy, things start to break again and then we kind of have to put it back together and think about, okay, what's next? Where do I want to go? What do I need to fix, what I need to do better.

Yeah. When I went full time, I was like, okay, it's finally going to be easier. Like I'll finally have all the time. I'll be able to do everything. And then that like immediately went out the window.

Like so much time. I'm going to take day naps.

I'm going to Draw all the time. I'm going to work at a coffee shop and now we're like, okay, there's not enough hours in the day to pack these orders.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, it's a great problem to have and I'm really excited because we're working together inside the inner circle Mastermind. So I think as you have these really big goals because it looks like you want to double your revenue and then that's really putting you very close to a million dollar business. So I think it's all very possible and hopefully in the next hour or so we can dig into what would be those next steps to get you there.

Yeah.

Okay. So what are your biggest struggles currently?

Which one?

No, what do you want to talk about most? Like what could help you?

I feel like the systems, like I have zero business experience, like I don't have a business degree, I don't really know the back end stuff. So all of that is new. All of the, like inventory management, having employees is new. All of you know, marketing, email, sms, like all these like back end things are like all new. So I would say, honestly, any advice but like mostly systems to how to scale and not like fall apart in like a year or two.

Or next month.

Or next month.

Yeah. Because if something really big were to happen, like if you were to get a really big opportunity coming your way, do you feel like you have a strong enough foundation to support that?

Yes and no. I feel like now more than before when it was just me, we did just have a really big launch, bigger than we've had before and we were slightly prepared. Not too prepared I would say, but.

More prepared than before.

Yeah, it would be difficult but like we had a big conference last year and that was our biggest ever and we were not prepared, but we wouldn't have known until we did it. So I feel like we'd be okay, but it would be some panic moments.

Okay. So digging into your systems, currently you're running your business out of your house. I get that you don't have business experience. Most of us don't. Especially when you're creatives. And like for me, even as I was coming up, I kept thinking like, God, I wish I had like a partner that understood business. Like, I always wanted to outsource the business part because I didn't believe in myself enough. And I remember speaking to one of my clients, he was paying me $10,000 a month to help him start, grow, build his fashion company. And I remember saying that to him, like, God, you know, I Just like, sometimes I really wish I had a business partner, like someone who knew business. And he's like, what are you talking about? I was like, what do you mean? He's like, I literally hired you because you know a lot about business. You know, he's like, look at what you've done with my business. And I was like, oh, you know, and it's that self doubt. I think there's a lot of imposter syndrome, you know, especially for some of us, that when we grew up, it was like, go to college, get degrees. The degrees mean something more. But what I'm realizing now, you know, entrepreneurship is huge. We all have the ability to make something out of nothing. And just because you learned it in school, like the difference between net profit and gross profit and how to balance a balance sheet and whatever, it doesn't mean that you have the drive, the tenacity, the courage, the confidence, the creativity and the vision to create a business. And I think entrepreneurs, like, we're a very special breed. And then really everything else we can learn, we could figure it out or we could hire for. So knowing that about yourself and feeling like that, what are the systems that you would like to get into place that you feel like are like a gap? You're like, gosh, if only I had this system. Or do you not know what systems you should even have?

Sometimes it's not knowing, Okay. I liked working in our inner circle Mastermind because I've learned so much from all these other businesses that I'll hear them say something and I'm like, oh, I should be doing that. That's a really good idea. And then I go back and do it and it's like, oh, wow, this is so much better than it was before. But I think the imposter syndrome is real. And you don't know what you don't know, but as you're growing, you're obviously learning it. So I mean, the systems right now that I feel like we struggle with are for me, like manufacturing timelines, planning more than like six months in advance, because that's a new thing for me. And then we just improved our customer support system. So I feel good about that for right now, but with just me and one other full time employee getting the orders out quickly, if you don't have the shirts or if you don't have the product, it can be hard to organize all of that.

Okay, so then let's talk about it. Let's dig a little deeper so I can get into the nitty gritty. How are you making your product Right.

Now we have a lot of different product types. Most of the products we have are manufactured and they arrive finished. But the apparel that we make, which is one of our big sellers, is made in house. So we buy the blank apparel from a wholesaler, we press the transfers on and then we pack it.

Okay, and are you doing customization or are you showing me a shirt that says something and I buy it in my size.

So everything we have on the site is as is. We just did a mystery bag sale and that's where we got rid of like colors. We don't sell anymore. They don't have a choice on those ones. But we only sell what's online.

Okay. So like off the shelf, like what it is. It is. Okay. And then when you are coming out with a new design or idea, do you make and manufacture a certain amount of them and then have those available to sell or are you being responsive to an order comes in, then I'm going to make it.

We used to have a bunch on hand and I used to use a screen printer before we moved. And so then we had a ton. And then it's, you know, hit or miss if it sells or not. So now this is like really behind the scenes for those who might listen to not know, but we actually just order one, press the design, market it, and then we order as soon as people place orders. Because we have a really good wholesale blank apparel that gets here really quickly.

Okay, and how does that feel in your body, in your system, like your internal system of do you feel settled into that and confident or does it feel uneasy? Like, how does that feel for you?

It feels uneasy. But right now I think it's what makes the most sense. I would like to have inventory on the shelf because I like to see it. I also like that like limited, like once it's gone, it sells out. We have to like work on getting it back. But I also know that when I did a launch where I didn't do that, we did significantly better because anyone who wanted it was able to purchase it.

You did better because you had more.

To sell because we were gonna order it after the launch.

Okay.

But we don't have room in my one room to hold thousands of shirts.

You don't need thousands of shirts. You just need to place orders against yourself as a manufacturer. So the hard part is, is like where overwhelm happens and where systems start to break. And if you're wanting to scale to a million dollar business, you really have to at this point, there is A switch over from when we're just solo in our business to then hiring. Because people who work for you are also going to want to have systems. They're going to want to have a process in place because if they feel like they're flying by the seat of their pants, you're flying by the seat of your pants. There's no system or process. Then how can you grow and build a business that generates over $80,000 a month? Because that's about like what it makes to get $10 million. Like there's just no way. And so if you don't start to implement it now, the further and further you get away from like still a controllable point and also thinking long term you're like, well, how can I fit it in my house? Well, again, everything we can solve for. So if you want to expand, then it might be that you eventually expand into a warehouse or you have a storage facility that you go to and you pick up the product. When things, you know, every day someone goes and they pick up the product, they pick and pack there and then they bring it back to ship. You get some sort of container depending on what kind of land you have, you know. So there's solutions to these problems, but what there won't be a solution for is systems breaking down when you need them the most. As your business grows, you're going to run into problems. It's just inevitable, right? The way you run a five figure business will not work for the way you run a six figure business or a seven figure business. And what got you to six figures won't work at seven. So if you want to grow, you need to expect, even welcome these new problems. But don't worry, everything is figureoutable, as Marie Forleo says, because not only are new problems going to come up, but new solutions that weren't even available to you will suddenly become possible. Don't let your limiting beliefs and thoughts hold you back. So knowing that and knowing this full time employee, it sounds to me like you're right on track with you've hired someone for inventory and fulfillment and production. And so it does make a lot of sense that systems need to get put into place right now to help this person with their job and then this person can also help you in that portion. So whether it's a spreadsheet, a clipboard, I don't care what it is, you start to identify each product and thinking how one you want to always track inventory. So this person should like probably monthly, if not like every six to Eight weeks, physically count in the inventory and make sure it matches what's in the computer. Then. Same thing with when they're counting in the inventory, they have a trigger number where they're like, when we get down to a hundred pieces of this tumbler blur, we need to place another order. Or you need to let Claire know. And again, I know you're using the new software as well. Like, we have a software that we recommend in Multi Street Machine. I think you're using one. So there's also inventory tracking software that can let you know, but you're going to need to, from a manual level, say, what is the amount I'm comfortable having? And then when do I need to reorder? Or am I comfortable selling out and actually being done with the product? Because if that's the case, that's a whole marketing moment where you can say, very few left. Get them before they're gone. Like, once they're gone, they're gone. You can literally move product based on things just expiring and going back in the vault.

Good idea.

Do you have any questions around that?

I'm glad that you're putting my thoughts into words because I didn't know what a trigger number was because we were just sitting down thinking about we should decide what number is the number that we should probably reorder stuff. And now it all makes sense.

And you need to know the date. So each of your products is going to have a different timing to it too, right? So something that's manufactured domestically, that might only take you three weeks, you have a shorter amount of time. So you can maybe get down to less units even. And, you know, maybe you're down to 50 units because you're like, oh, I can get that in four weeks. But then something that takes you 90 days and you need more time, you're going to have to have more inventory on hand. The other part I want to kind of help you with is the manufacturing that you're doing on your own. So the shirts, it will be more effective and more efficient within your company if things can be batched into, you know, batches and blocks. What that means is. So Samantha's working and she's got her whole plan for the day, and she's like, today I'm counting inventory and da, da, da, da, da, da. And then all of a sudden she gets three orders in and it's three different shirts that she needs to make. She's like, well, we ship in like two days, right? I don't know what your shipping time is but do you have a timeline to the order comes in? This is how fast you have to move through it.

Our processing time is seven to ten business days.

Okay, so she gets the order in. There should be. And you want to come up with like a system or flow to order comes in. What does this process look like? Systemize it, right? So she knows, okay, the order comes in, I have, I don't know, three days to start working on it or five days to start working on it or whatever, you know, and then I have X amount of days to ship it out. But what if she had a plan or a project? Like now she's needing to be reactive in her job. Almost as if it's customization versus being able to just pack and ship and that there might be a week every month that she does production, she goes through. And that's her one process. You're just going to get more efficiency, more bang for your buck, more efficiency out of the team member or employee per hour versus context switching. So what I would recommend is oftentimes when we make and sell things and we're making them ourselves, we're operating in this like reactive way versus realizing that we in fact are the manufacturer as well, whether it's handmade, whatever. And then our online store should be treated just like a retailer, which means that our online store is placing orders against our inventory as well as whatever retailers are buying. And so I'll give you like a broader example. You have 200 tumblers sitting in stock, sitting in inventory. It's there. Let's say you're selling wholesale or you're selling on Amazon, right? There's certain inventory that needs to be available and open to sell for. Someone comes to you for wholesale or you need to restock Amazon. So the manufacturer, the company of your stuff, has 200 units of something in stock. The 200 units then needs to sit as its own inventory. So that if a retailer were to come buy from you, like a wholesale order were to come in that gets pulled out of inventory. The problem that I see so many people do is that they take all their inventory, they put it on their online e commerce shop, and then all of a sudden a wholesale order comes in or some order from somewhere else comes in and it's pulling inventory from the product. You have to sell direct to consumer. So the other option is you have your inventory and your inventory is your inventory. It's sitting in a warehouse, imaginary, like in your brain warehouse. Okay? And then your online shop buys from you, the manufacturer, meaning you might even write Purchase orders against it. This is like next level. You don't have to do it, but just I'm going to give you like the concept. You write a purchase order and you're like, for the month of June, our E commerce shop is going to pull X amount of pieces from our total inventory and, and have it available to sell. So their inventory is still sitting there. So if someone else were to come in, if you had a boutique, if you had a trade show, like let's say you're going to the trade show, you might say, I'm pulling 50 pieces of everything for the trade show. And that sits in trade show inventory. It doesn't get to get sold online because we need the inventory. So saying that to you about that, I'm not telling you to make 100 pieces of shirts. That's not necessary when a store orders. Let's just say about the T shirts, let's say you were a store and you found shirts that you could buy from someone else, you would place an order with a certain minimum amount. So traditionally, if we were selling extra small, small, medium, large, let's just go with that. A store might buy one extra small, two smalls, two mediums and one large. Okay, so that's six pieces of one style across the sizes. Now if you sell plus size extended sizes, you don't sell extra small. Whatever it is, you just get to choose how many of every size want. Now if I was a retailer and I was buying from you and I knew that the sizing, I actually sold more large, extra large and double xl, I may not order in that I might not do like a one extra small, two small, two medium, one large. I might do no extra smalls, one small, one medium, two largest, two extra larges kind of thing. Because you know the inventory you're going to sell through. So that's another thing of you knowing your numbers, going back and looking at your shirts and saying, what are the sizes I sell the most of? Like, who's my customer? And what are the sizes I sell the most of? And then I would split the order that you place. And then let's say you're like, okay, I want to have 12 pieces made of a black shirt with music notes, then you would decide the size run that you would print out. Like if it's like 1, 2, 22 2, 2, 1, right? And then that's what's in inventory. And that inventory is now available to sell on your website. So now it's like we have 12 pieces of this black shirt to sell and you may then decide that you're actually going to say sold out or not available or get on the wait list or message us if a size isn't available because I'd love for you to get data on, oh, okay, I sold out of two and the next day someone else wants another one and I'm sold out of a medium. Wow, I need to make more mediums. Then maybe I'll always have 10 mediums available. And the same idea as what we talked about before. When I get down to two mediums, we go back in and go into production again. So I'm not asking you to hold a whole bunch of inventory, but I just think that if you were to be able to process out these numbers and say like, again, this is what our sell through is, this is how many we need on hand. Let her go through a production round, make the product and just sit with it and also then track your sell through rate on it. Because then my hopes and goals for you are like, this person levels up and maybe they're managing this department and then all of a sudden you know again, if you're getting a million dollar business, then you have someone who's constantly in production or you know these numbers so well that eventually you actually can manufacture shirts and not have to do it in house, just potentially. Because now you're selling that product and you can place orders the same way you place for the rest of your product. Does that make sense?

It's like you're in my brain.

So you had all the thoughts, you just couldn't do it.

We just couldn't figure out like what the process would be to like make more than we needed, but not too much because we didn't want to have a ton sitting on the shelf, but it makes sense to make a few of them just to have extra and not have to make constantly. Because now it's like she's printing orders and making to pack. Making pack. There's no, like we have some extra.

Yes. And that leads to burnout, that leads to frustration, that leads to mistakes when we're not systematizing like you said, and creating processes and standard operating procedures within our business. Oh, this is fun. I love the process of building out a good system for product businesses. Because here's the thing. Moving from reacting every time there's a sale to predicting the flow of business and preparing for it in advance is not only going to reduce stress and overwhelm, but it will save you on your employees time and, and ultimately money. Right. And it's also Going to save you time. So we dug really into the weeds here with Claire's business, but I hope you understand how you can start making these types of decisions in your own business. All right, product boss, I have a serious question. Does it ever feel like you've tried everything and you still aren't making the sales you want to be? Or maybe, maybe you've poured countless hours, days and nights, there's been tears into your product biz and you're starting to think that maybe you're just bad at business. I mean, trust me, I have literally been there. So I'm here to tell you that you aren't bad at business and that selling your products doesn't have to feel this hard. So what I've seen from coaching thousands and thousands of product based business owners like you is that they just don't know how to to get their products in front of more customers to make more sales. And listen, I get it because I used to have that exact same issue with my product biz until I figured out the one thing that took my business from one or two sales every two weeks to people I knew, to making six figures in my first year of business. That's right. I was able to take a piece of fabric that I folded over three, three times and turn it into a six figure international success which was worn by countless celebrities all in just one year. And the best part is that I did it without spending a single cent on ads or having an audience or a following or an email list to sell to. Now listen, I want this for you too. Which is why I'm sharing my secrets. So you can learn how to turn your product based business into, into a money making machine that provides the stability and financial security that you're looking for. And it's all happening inside of my free masterclass, the three part framework to building a consistent, profitable, revenue generating, product based business in 2024. So if you're ready to get clarity, get profitable and take that next step, all you need to do is head over to the product boss.com framework to save your spot. Again, that's the productboss.com framework. Or you can just click the link in the show notes and I'll see you inside. All right, now back to the show. Okay, so that's really like digging into forecasting, manufacturing, inventory. What is another system that you want to dig into? Is there something else you want to dig into?

It's just like the similar thing. It's planning for these big events that are far in advance that we do have to hold inventory for, but need to ship so far in advance. Like, we ship pallets of stuff to the advanced warehouses. So just making sure that that manufacturing process isn't lined up with everything else we're doing. We did our first year. Last year was all our conferences and we were making shirts up until like the day before, we had to ship the palette. Like, we're barcoding everything. So now this year, I think it'll be a little bit easier, but we're just doing more each one. So it'll probably be just as complicated.

You just have to pre plan, right?

Yeah.

So I think the first thing to tackle is these internal numbers. You're like, oh, I'm excited to dig in. Awesome. Music brain, math brain. Sounds like very aligned for you.

I can count to 16. That's fine.

Sixteen of those increments of four and two. I remember, like, I'd count because same thing. Like when I count an inventory, that's like another system. Right. You have to tell people. Okay, sorry. When I worked at Baskin Robbins when I was 15, it was like my first job. And I remember my job at the very end, we closed it up and the guy was like, okay, mop. You get to mop. Bottom totem pole. I got to mop the sticky floor. So I started to mop, and he goes, what are you doing? And I was like, what do you mean, what am I doing? I started at, like behind the counter, but I was working my way to the front door, which means I'd be out the front door. I wouldn't be able to walk back through. I didn't know. So he's like, no, you go to the front door and you work your way all the way to the back of house versus towards front of house. I did not know that. We expect people to know common sense. But there's things either that we learn because we're experts at it, we're in it, we're doing it all the time, that kind of thing. Even for this Samantha who you hired, as simple as saying, when you count inventory, count in tens, for example. And that's part of the. Like when you count it in. So then you can tally every 10. One, you know, 10, two. Because when we start to count up to a hundred, you all know we'd like, wait, where was I? I mean, I'd even be counting in tens, and I'd be like, was I at 8, 9? Like, what am I doing? And then you just like, tally it, tally it, tally it. Right. Like, just come up with a simple process. And they can always improve on your process. But what we don't realize is that there's, like, simple things that people don't know how to do. So that's what I want you to do. I want you to first clean up internally so you just feel more secure, you're more aware of your product, and it sounds like you're prepping for the fall. When you have this next event, then you think through, I would work it backwards, and I would say, how much money do I want to make at that event? Like, what's my goal? I made 50,000 last year. I'd like to make 65,000 this year if all goes right. Right. And then you start to really think through, well, then how many units would I need to sell? What would the average order value be? It looks like last year, 100 people walked by and they all bought stuff for me. So you're going to again, need to dig back into your numbers and see how many people came, not how many people attend the event, but how many people did you really interact with? What did they buy? How much did they spend? And then get curious about how you can increase that average order value in person. Can they buy a bundle? Can you have a show special? Like, what is the thing that can actually make them walk away with more? They tell us to people all the time. People want you to tell them what to buy. So you can very easily manipulate, in the nicest way possible what people purchase based on how you sell it, based on how you merchandise it, based on how you present it. So when you start to think through how you want that event to unfold, then you can work backwards and think, all right, with my goal of this, then I need to order X amount of inventory, and then I need to prep. I need to make X amount of shirts, knowing that and it's due. I don't know, I'm just gonna say September 1st, then I need to order, you know, blanks. And then I want her to be making a hundred a month for the next three months, and I'll have enough in inventory. Right. And then you just wanna work backwards from your big goal. And then really what we're doing is we're, like, doing production management right now and working it backwards. I've never actually coached on this before. I think on the podcast, this is my normal, like, manufacturing coaching that I would always do. So it's kind of fun to share it. I'm always like, this is how you sell more. This is how you market. And we're like, no, this is how we dig in to making sure internally like things feel like you said, more systematized so you don't feel like it's.

Just messy and that you're not like the day before the pallet ship, like making sure it's unfolding them and tagging them and throwing them in and packing the last box.

Yes. So I really think it's internally, like, you start to treat yourself as you're a retailer, but you're also a manufacturer. So as a manufacturing company, what processes do you need in place? And then as the person who sells stuff, which is the inventory and fulfillment, it's different than pre production production, management of it all, ordering all that. If and when your company is bigger, they're going to actually be held by two different people. One's going to be like warehousing and fulfillment, and the other one's going to be the ones projecting and needing to run like production, needing to make sure the orders are fulfilled, making sure that everything's in place to sell.

So the inventory fulfillment will eventually branch into two, is what you're saying.

They're different. So when I used to work at Cosabella, it was mom and pop. The way they were running, it was mom and pop, even though it was like a $25 million business when I worked for them. We were in a huge warehouse in Miami and we were in the front. We were like the design room. We had our sample makers kind of behind us, like our graphic designers, our sample makers, the people who would just like make up the samples. But we actually had to make the production in Italy because it's an Italian company. So while we did development in house, then there was somebody who was in charge of saying, okay, like, this is the final collection or the orders have come in. Now we have to go into production. Someone was in charge of placing that order with our manufacturers. And then there's people who are in charge of quality control and all that. That's like a different job. Then when it would all get shipped back to us because we would fulfill from Miami, it ended up in the warehouse. And the warehouse team was a totally different team. In fact, I dated one of the warehouse guys. So I was like, I was always hearing about the warehouse. That was like my early 20s. Like, by the way, don't date people at your first job at work. That was a lesson I learned. But quick memory. So they would then have to count it in, right? So then the boxes would come. They'd know what the company had ordered. They would then look at the inventory that came in. They would make sure, like, hey, what we ordered came in, and then they would put it in the boxes. Right? They'd put it up in the warehouse. They'd put it all in there. And then the warehouse is the one that when an online order came through or a wholesale order came through, it went to the warehouse. The warehouse then got the order picked, packed, and fulfilled.

Okay.

Long term, they will be different people, but they will work together because we need it. Like, marry inventory with, well, what do we need to order? Right. What needs to happen? What do people need to get for me so that I have it to ship? So it's fine right now how it is. But just knowing as you grow, like, they will be different roles within the company. Most likely, yeah.

Because I feel like we're working together. Like, I'm doing a lot of the purchasing and the ordering, and then she's making and packing, which is. We're noticing kind of a lot because it's, you know, there's a lot going on behind the scenes, so.

And partially it's because she has to be reactive to the orders. So if her job is that she has X amount of inventory in stock of the things that she's making and she knows that, then there is a time that she will be making and let's just say like Thursday and Friday of next week, she's making to make X amount of product. Like, you're going to need to know, like, how long it takes to make something. Right. Here's the other thing. It's the setup. To pay somebody per hour to make one shirt would actually probably cost you less in labor per shirt if she was able to repeat her process fast, right? So it's like, okay, I'm gonna pull all the shirts, I'm gonna lay the shirts down, I'm gonna put them in the machine. I'm gonna print, print, print, print, print. I'm gonna get all the shirts off, then I'm gonna take them all off, and then I'm gonna do the. I don't know if there's steaming or cutting or putting little tags on each thing as a process together. That is gonna be way more cost effective to you in terms of labor then one hour on something just to make one shirt. Now you're paying, you know, if you're paying your 20 bucks an hour, you're like. And I'm just making up these numbers, but $20 an hour to make one shirt versus she could make 20 shirts in two hours. Your cost per unit is Lower.

Right.

So you're just going to also want to think through because like I said, if let's say next Thursday and Friday she was in manufacturing mode and making stuff, then perhaps you ship all orders that came in by Wednesday and then on Monday, because you're already telling me you have like a 7 to 10 days time and then your fulfillment will actually be faster on that product too typically. Because now you're going to have inventory in house and then when you start to see that break or that you're like, oh, we need to be making stuff all the time, then it's really easy for you to then go hire another person that now that person's your maker and then she stays in one the other part. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I didn't think about it in like having set days for making and order packing. We've always just printed out everything and then gone and made what we needed. But it would make more sense to have dedicated shirt days and then dedicated order days.

Yeah. So you do not need to ship every day because a lot of times too, forget Amazon, but even Amazon, like if you order after five, like it'll tell you like the two day is actually switched to like it feels like three days. Even though you're like, I'm ordering it here. So what you just have to have and it just needs to be in your terms and conditions on your website. Your shipping terms and conditions is orders will be fulfilled in X amount of time. All orders placed after X time will be fulfilled on this. Orders placed on weekends will be fulfilled by the second business day. Right. Like, and you can always go to other people's websites and look at their terms and conditions and see like, how do they say it? So yeah, anytime you can think like actions with like actions. Same thing with like people who are still driving their packages to the post office to ship them. Right. If you're going to do that, well then we all know this is like a product boss meme, like triggered by everybody's listening. Everyone's like, oh God, we all. I literally feel it in my chest right now, racing to try and get there in time before like they close. Rolling up with all your packages, trying to get it shipped out. The thing is, you can set it that the post office or UPS or whatever comes and picks it up from your doorstep. So that's just a process that gets put in place. Or if we still are at the point that we're still driving stuff to ship from somewhere else, then again you block it in and be like, okay, all orders have to be done by noon on a Wednesday because at 12:30 we leave and we drive to the post office, for example. It's just setting processes in place and you can make whatever process you want. It's your house, it's your business, it's your life, you know, and then the people who work for you, they want to be told what to do. They want the guardrails up, they want the, oh, okay, all right. That's the process. Otherwise they're going to also feel like I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know if I'm doing it right.

I mean, hearing someone say like, I can decide is like so helpful. I mean, I used to teach full time and have an hour commute. So like we'd pack orders at like six to midnight. Like now we don't have to do that. They don't have to pack orders when it comes in at 9pm like we can be done for the day and like ship it the next day. So yeah, I guess just deciding now that I have an employee that only can work eight hours, I'm like, oh, this is not that much time to actually, I work all the time.

We are literally the worst bosses that we've ever had for ourselves. Like, you know, there's also like when you leave your full time job just to work, like a double full time job for less pay.

Yeah, I love teaching and I was like, oh, I have more time now and actually I work more.

Yeah, but you're doing something that you're building for yourself, you know, and a lot of us really like it. My friend, you are a product boss. That means you get to decide how to run your business. Sure, in the early days of your business, you may have had to pack and ship in the spare pockets of time while you were balancing a day job, parenting or whatever other obligations you might have had. But over time, as your business grows, you, you get to make decisions about how things are running. We get into the habit of thinking the way things are done is the way they need to be done moving forward. But that's not the case. You're the boss, so start acting like it. I think this is a lot to work with in terms of looking at your week, thinking, what do I want the week to look like? Do I like the idea of every other day? They don't need to know. When you ship, you can say, you know, like someone places an order on a Saturday, then it's not going to go out till the Tuesday. If someone Places an order on a Monday, it's not going to go out till the Thursday.

Yeah, I didn't realize how fast 8 hours went until I hired someone. And then all of a sudden she's like, I only have two hours left. And I'm like, what? That is not enough.

So as your business grows and you might be like, that's not enough. That's when you know, I can hire someone else. I need to hire someone else. A lot of times I think, and especially the size business that you're at now, like multi6 wanting to get to a million. And I was given this advice where it's like you're kind of leaving money on the table when you don't hire because you're actually becoming the bottleneck to your own growth, like your own abilities to do things right. Like what would your life look like if you had more spaciousness to make the bigger connections, to get into more shows, to call more places right. Like all the amazing things that are happening for you. If you're sucked into inventory management or needing to place orders with China, like yes. And is it necessary for you to do it? So you may eventually find that I'm going to hire another person to do something. It could be that you hire someone for production twice a week. That's another option. It could actually be not Samantha. And you're like, I'm actually going to hire someone and train them to do this part and they're actually going to be a part time employee. And I know that every Tuesday and Thursday they come in or every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday they come in and that's all they do is production. So you'll know that the more you play with it, next level for you when you have figured out the systemization of it and she starts to have batch time and processes in place and stuff. When you're like that eight hours went by fast. You may eventually decide then to do time tracking with her. This is like a very next level CEO level conversation. But you may decide to do time tracking where once she has these processes in place and you then ask her to track her time and there's software that you can use because then you can look at the inefficiencies in the business. So, oh, it looks like she's spending a ton of time, I don't know, cutting off the tags for something or ton of time for this. You might look at it and say like, hey, let me train you on how to improve on this. You might say, we actually, why am I paying her for two hours? Of that per week. And like, it's not even necessary. Right. You might cut it, you might find more essential ways, or you might be like, you know what, this is a big sore thumb and it's really getting in the way of her doing her job. I actually need to take that off of her plate and hire someone for that part. So time tracking will be a way for you to be like, where'd the eight hours go? Well, next level, once systems are in place and she's maybe been operating for like 30 days or 60 days in this new way, then you could time track it. I do this with my team every day because we're a totally virtual team. We call them our end of day reports. And because again, they're all virtual, we ask them what they worked on, how many hours they spent. There's all these things that we ask them. And so what's good about that is when we look at their hours, like one person said she worked 3.5 hours, but we're paying her full time. So that's a big problem. Right? Meaning like, well, if we're paying someone full time and she worked 3.5 hours, well, then she doesn't have enough work she needs for eight hours. Right. Or if someone's like, I worked 12 hours today, we're either like, is there a really big project that people are working on and that it was a 12 hour day? Or are they consistently hitting 12 hours? Which means they either are not managing their time well or they have too much on their plate and then that allows us to really look and decide.

Yeah, because that was one of the first things I know Samantha's asked me is, you know, how fast should I be going or how quickly should I be? And I didn't know. I've only known what I've done right. And I haven't ever timed or batched, like how long it would take to make a certain amount of shirts. So there's no like, reference point.

So that's what you will do, right? Like, either you do something with her where you're like, okay, today you're going to make 20 shirts or 50 shirts, whatever it is, that's all you're going to do today. And I want you to see how efficient you can. But you're going to work in batches. So you go through the process, maybe the two of you together, you ask her to do it and be like, write down every part of this process. I unpack the blink T shirts from the plastic bags that came in. If that's a Process, every step gets documented. Handwrite, type it in, voice note, I don't care what it is, but we want to every single step because that will create a system that's a standard operating procedure of every step that goes through that process. Then you can ask her to time how long it takes. Okay, I got 100 shirts, I have to unpack 100 shirts. How long did that take me? Time it. So each process gets time now she'll get better and more efficient when she's working in blocks. Same thing with like laying out the shirt and heat pressing. Heat pressing, heat pressing. And how long does that take if she was going to do a hundred back to back, right. She's not context switching. She's like, that's what she's doing, she's heat pressing. So the more somebody works in batching like that, in typical like manufacturing assembly line ish ways, they just get faster and better, faster and better. And so that's how first she'll start out like that and then you can gamify it for her. Be like cool now without compromising quality. What if we up this by 5%? And she will, she will be more effective the more she does the same thing over and over. And this is for like you hiring somebody or you doing it yourself. I think that the thing is like you said, you never did it for yourself. That's what happens with us as makers. We're like, I'm just gonna do it right? Everything's just like, I'm just gonna do it without thought from a system or structure sort of perspective. So the sooner you can do this, like if you had done this a year ago when you were doing it all yourself, then you would be like, oh, I know I can knock it out in X amount of time. My expectation for this person is they can do it. So I think it's never too early to start to create these systems. And then what's great is then you just slip people into the systems versus needing to build the systems once they're already hired.

I also like the end of day report that you mentioned because I also have a part time remote employee who lives in a different time zone, which is really fun. But it's also hard to know. Even though I feel like on her the process and systems are very clear because it's customer service and we already have policies and we already have everything kind of lined up. It's sometimes difficult to know how long things would take or like what she's working on and how much is getting done. Because I'm not physically there. So I also like the end of day reports too.

Yeah, I think it's important. We're not micromanaging, but we are being managers. So my responsibility at my business now is actually not to worry about the hours because I have a big enough team that I have someone in charge of operations and they're the ones who. Their responsibility would be looking at all these numbers, all the hours you're spending and then bringing it to me if I need to. Or they might make the decision themselves. Like we need to hire for someone because this person's working too many hours or this person's not working enough. What else should we give them? But in the beginning part of it, it is. It's just like it's tracking time so that you're just like, oh, that's what you got done.

Operations. I'm like, oh, that would make sense with that person. They would be called operations. So even that stuff, like knowing what the roles. When you said inventory and manufacturing are different, hearing all those and like connecting, that is so helpful because you just don't know what roles should be grouped together and who should be doing what. So even hearing that is helpful.

Good. And you know, I think when we think about it, when we're just starting out and when we're hiring, we really need doers. So we really need people who are just going to get things done, they're going to keep moving things forward. And you might be in the role of operations to start, or you might have someone that's so good at what they do that you're like, oh, they are very operationally minded. They might come up to management. So I even taught some of our masterminders that had retail stores. And the worst is managing a retail store. And then people are like, I can't come in because, you know, I have to take my dog to the vet or whatever it is. And then the owner is the one needing to run into the store and operate the store. Another trigger moment. I should have like a trigger warning at the beginning of this one, like process. Like things that trigger product bosses. And so I was like, who? I've asked them like, who on your team shows responsibility? Who on your team shows that they've got management skills? Can we train them up to be the person that deals with the person who says they can't come to work because of xyz? And then that person is the person who would sub in and come in for that person, not the store owner. Right. So it's really just, you will get There in the very beginning, we find doers and then as we give them responsibility, certain people will rise to the top and show you leadership skills and show you that they can handle more, that they're more efficient, all the things. And then those people will stay and like and grow up and elevated in your company. And then you'll hire more doers underneath. And then each person. You can have one person be responsible for multiple roles in your business. That's okay. So they can hold and be responsible for multiple roles. Where it gets complicated is when you start to have lots of people in your business and they don't know what they're responsible for. So again, people can sit in a lot of different seats, but they hold and they're responsible for a key function in your company. And so you're not there yet. And when you do get there, we'll cross that bridge. But just knowing that, yeah, she can hold multiple roles until she can't. And then she'll show you what she's really good at and that's what you keep her in. And then you hire for the other thing.

Yeah.

So this is awesome. I hope this is helpful. I know it was like water hose to the face.

So helpful.

So cool what you're doing. So if people want to buy from you, support you, follow you, how could they do that?

They can either go to my website. It is www.musically minted.com and then my Instagram handle is the same. Musically minted. And that's everything. TikTok, YouTube, it's all the same.

All the same.

Yeah.

Amazing. Thank you, Claire. And can't wait to hug you in real life.

Hey. Yes. Thank you so much. I really, really appreciate everything.

This was a bit of a different coaching session than our typical coaching sessions. We went over some familiar ground like how you have to constantly reinvent systems as your business grows. But we really dug into the details looking at how to build out those next level systems. The strategies we used in Claire's business can apply to yours as well. But the conclusions you come to will be unique to you. That's what I love about our coaching calls. You get to hear actual examples from real product based business owners so you can understand things in theory and in practice. So if there's one thing I want you to take away from this episode is it's taking a closer look at the systems that are in place in your business. Are they still working for you? Are you starting to see any cracks anywhere? And what can you do next? These are actually exciting questions to ask because the day you have to implement these changes is the day your business has reached a new level. All right my friend, I am rooting for you and if you could do me a favor, would you mind sharing this episode with one person you think it may impact? And make sure to follow the show. You just have to hit that follow button wherever you listen to podcasts so that you know when we post a new episode. And we do this twice a week. All right, I'll see you at the next one. Thank you for being here and listening all the way through the Product Boss podcast. If you love our show and it has helped you in any way in your business, would you mind doing two things for us? Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and leave us a review. Reviews help other product entrepreneurs know that this is the place to be to grow their businesses and realize that they're not alone. And we know that you all know that a five star and honest review helps you sell more products to more people. So you know that your reviews help us reach more listeners around the world. Remember, what we give is what we receive and we are all, all about helping each other in the Product Boss community. We are all in this together. We would be so appreciative of you if you could take the time right now to subscribe, leave a review and even share this episode on social or someone you know so we can impact more lives. And remember, subscribing means that you will get notified each time we release a new episode so you never miss a thing. You have helped us grow and climb into the top 10 of all marketing podcasts and together we can keep climbing. Thank you friends and remember, there is room at the top for all of us.