011: Over 1000 Subscribers in Less Than a Year with Miss Tracy Creates

Hey everyone. We had such an amazing time in Subscription Box Coaching Week last week that I wanted to share one of the group's favorite interviews. This was a Facebook Live I did inside the group. I want you to meet Tracy. In less than a year, she's launched and grown her two subscriptions to over 1,000 subscribers. She will definitely inspire you. Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams. Hey, everybody. If you are joining us today, I have Tracy here from Miss Tracy Creates. Tracy, just say hi to everybody.

Hello, everyone. I'm so glad to be here today.

We are streaming in two places, so I want you to tell me if you're watching us from coaching week. If you're in coaching week, I want you to put CW into the comments so we can see who's here on coaching week. And then we're also streaming out in my public page. So I just want to say hi to everybody real quick. This is a super fun live because Tracy is a Launch Your Box member of mine. And last night during coaching week, we were talking a lot about doing the one thing of the month. And Tracy has nailed the one thing of the month. And so we're going to share her story. We're going to talk about what her one thing is because it's really unexpected, but it's really fun. And I just can't wait for you to hear a story. I'm going to let you ask her some questions when we get done. But I hope that if you are inside Coaching Week, you maybe couldn't sleep last night because all the things were going on in your brain about your subscription boxes. But I hope that you got a good basis for what you want to do and that we are just going to keep building on that all week long. So, Traci, first, let's talk a little bit about your journey, because like me, we have gone through a little bit of a journey with our physical retail locations during the pandemic. So let's just tell everybody what you did a year ago, and then what has happened in the last year. So let's just talk about it.

Okay, well, let me just give you a little bit of background history on me. I am Miss Tracy. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Miss Tracy Creates.

My—

I actually originated as a brick and mortar. I have a brick and mortar creative art studio. Where we just dabble in all forms of creative play. I, I love it all. I'm a maker at heart. I love making like all the things. So my brick and mortar is about, is going on its 11th year of business. So about 10 years when the pandemic hit, and I have to tell you that really our sales had started to decline. Um, you know, online purchasing, online learning, Everything online has taken such a precedence now that it really has impacted those of us that have independent brick-and-mortar businesses. So I had these ideas swirling around in my head, honestly, Sarah, maybe even a couple of years.

Yeah, I know that mine was like in my head for over a year and I just kept pushing it back. I'm like, there's no way I'm going to be able to figure all of this out.

And I knew as watching retail, the retail industry change, right? Watching it evolve, I knew I had to pivot my business if I was gonna remain successful, if I was gonna embark, you know, and continue to thrive, I had to pivot my business. So I had these ideas rolling around in my head about starting a subscription kit club, okay? And kept thinking on it, kept thinking on it. I would start to plan it and then I would get nervous and I would back off and I would be like, no, I'm not I'm not quite ready for it. Well, then bam, what happens this past year in 2020? The pandemic hit. And I knew, oh my goodness, I was just like, as much as obviously it was a very hard thing for our country, it honestly, it gave me the kind of the kick in the pants that I needed to just take that leap of faith. Run with those ideas that I had been planning and nurturing and kind of growing in my head and on paper. For months.

It almost forced you, right? You know, like, I have no choice, I'm gonna have to do this or I'm out of business, right?

Right. It was kind of a sink or swim kind of moment. And I even panicked a little bit, um, in the beginning. I was thinking, okay, I'm going to launch this, but, you know, are people going to buy it? Are they going to jump on it? Is it, you know, are people during the pandemic, are they going to be hanging on to their pennies? Are they not going to want to, you know, embrace this? And I thought, well, What do I have to lose? At this point, I've met Sarah and I'm like, oh my goodness, you know, she is right there. She's teaching me. She really— the group itself, the coaching group really gave me that confidence to be like, okay, I can do this scared. I can do this. I can, can do this. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But y'all, it worked out. And it worked out big time. And I'm so, so thankful for the direction and the advice that I've been given. So this is what I did. I, like I mentioned, I love to dabble in all kinds of things, and one of the things that I love to create with and repurpose is napkins. I love napkin art, I love napkin crafting. You know, these are things that I taught in the store, and I decided I wanted to create a solution for people. Because people like me that love to create with napkins, right, we— it kind of becomes an addiction. Okay, like, oh my gosh, I love this napkin. I love it.

Can you hold on for just a minute? Because I think you're talking a language that a lot of people don't understand. And it's funny because I'm in my warehouse today and they're out there working on stuff, and I said I'm going to do a live, and I was closing my door, and, and they were like, what are you doing a live about? And I'm like, Well, I'm going to talk with Tracy and how she's created this napkin subscription with 800 people in it. And they're like, napkin subscription? Like, what is it? What is that? I'm like, you make these awesome crafts with it. And they're like, what? So I know there's people here that are like, I don't even understand what you're talking about, Tracy. And this is what I want you to open your mind to. And we were talking through this last night. The one thing, it doesn't have to be hard and complicated. So show us what— if we're not in the crafting world and we understand, show us. I can see my friend Tamara is watching and she says napkinizing until she— she didn't know what it was until she met you. Show us what that is.

Okay, so napkinizing, basically that's my word for it. That's when you take a napkin and you repurpose it into some sort of craft or art form or something. You can do anything you want with napkins. So I'm going to show you a little canvas because these are so fun and easy to create. So look at this cute little canvas here, this cute little shelf sitter. Y'all, this is a napkin.

That's a napkin.

This is a napkin. So there's all kinds of things that you can do with napkin art and napkin crafting. And so what happens is when you get— when you start doing it, it's like easy art. I didn't have to paint this, but I can take a watercolor napkin and it looks like I hand-painted something. Right? So what happens is when you get addicted to napkins, you go out and you're buying these packages and packages and packages. Well, one napkin that you like, the package might have 40 napkins in it. We don't need that many, right? So I realized in, in the problem that had— that I had, you know, going on in my crafting life, right? I have all these packages of napkins. I'm not using all of them. I just want a few to create with, right? So I decided, um, a long time ago, started thinking about this, and I was like, you know, I need to offer a solution for my crafters that love to create with napkins. And so I decided to create the Napkin Club. So in the Napkin Club, this is how it works. Every month, every month, there's sometimes there's a different theme, or I do it by seasons, but every month you get a napkin bundle that has different napkins in it.

Okay, so you're not buying the one bundle with all of them that you're not going to use. Exactly.

So you're getting one of each napkin. So typically there's 16 or 17, um, usually around 15 to 17 napkins in every monthly bundle. But it solved a problem for my crafter because now they have all these beautiful napkins that they can create with Right? But they don't have to have packs and packs and packs. And so the solution is it saves them money. It also saves them time because they're not the one that's having to go out and source and find all these napkins. I'm doing it for them.

You created a super convenience for them.

Yes. So, and I love it. So I'm self, I'm curating this special collection of napkins for them. And one thing you're going to learn in the coaching group that Sarah's going to say repeatedly, the riches are in the niches. And it's so true, Sarah. So when you niche down to something very, very specific, then you can target to that specific audience, to that specific person.

People can find you because they know you as the napkin lady, just like people know me as the subscription box lady. They know Tracy as the napkin lady because you can do all kinds of crafts. You could do a whole craft box, but you went super duper specific. You saw that there was a problem, you solved the need of that problem. That's right. And you're creating convenience, you're creating loyalty, you're creating this little secret group of people that get to do the thing that they love with you.

Yes.

And it's shown up at their door every single month. And it's not rocket science. No. It is an easy way to create a subscription box. And let's just talk about how you have 800 subscribers.

Yes, we're— we have about 800 subscribers. We're about to launch for next month, for April. And we anticipate to grow to 1,000 very, very soon. It has really been an amazing experience. And one more thing I just want to tell you, for those of you that are on the art side of things or the creative side of things. The other thing that I offer for my napkin club members is a membership group, an actual closed private Facebook group that's our little personal hangout, which is a lot like, Sarah, like the Launch Your Box group is. And it's great because we can connect in there and then every single month, every week actually, I go live and I show them a different project or a different technique that they can do with the napkins they just got. So I'm also helping them to consume consume the products, right?

That's actually one of the— that's one of the pillars, get them to consume what's in your subscription, right? So she's showing them how to use that, um, so that they're using them up and their napkins aren't stacking up and just sitting there month after month.

Exactly. And then that is so fulfilling to me because, uh, I love to share my passion for creativity. So now not only am I able to, to source these things and give them these beautiful, awesome napkins that it would have taken them forever to find, and they would have spent a ton of money on buying full packages of all of them. I'm showing them what to do with them, and that is so fun. And then they have the group where they can show what they've made. They're all making friends. It's such an awesome, uplifting community.

And I know we were talking a little bit before we jumped on the live, but we were talking about these after effects, like having all these subscribers. And I've seen it too in my own business, but there's these after effects that you don't necessarily plan on. And when I was talking with Tracy, we talked about the aftereffects of all these people being in her little club and doing the crafts. But now they want more from Tracy. They want to buy the things that she's using. And she also has a fabric subscription too, we'll talk about that. But they want to use the same thread, they want to use the same supplies. So now she's able to sell more one-off product, um, because she's created this super loyal, engaged fan base with her subscription box. And it's been the same for me. I mean, Tracy's wearing my shirt right now. I know somebody wanted to say, what does it say? It says beautiful things are never perfect. That is our February t-shirt club. But when I show up live, people want to know what are those earrings that I'm wearing? What's the cardigan I have on? And I put those— those are ways to upsell your subscription or up— do more sales on your site that are not subscriptions because people want the things that you're doing. You're creating this loyalty. And that's kind of an aftereffect of building a successful subscription.

Definitely. And, you know, especially those of you that are going down the creative route, they will want the surface that you're using. They will want the paints that you're using. I mean, there's certain things that they will, will want. And honestly, in the beginning, Sarah, I didn't anticipate that. I wasn't prepared for that. And I'm still just— I mean, I'm still working at getting those numbers just right, because whatever I do, I am offering, it's selling out, uh, too quickly.

Yes, I have to be careful what I show up on a live wearing because I have to look at the warehouse. I'm like, okay, are these earrings that I have on in stock? Is this before I go live? And if not, I gotta change them really quick because they're going to want to buy that.

Yes, exactly. And so now I'm an affiliate for Sarah's T-Shirt of the Month Club because everybody was asking me. I'm a t-shirt girl anyway. I love graphic tees. That's kind of my thing. And they're always asking me, well, where'd you get that t-shirt? Like, they want it all. So it's a great way to bring in another little revenue source too.

Yes.

Um, and I say little, I shouldn't, because it can be a big revenue source. Yeah, with those, I call them upsells, with the upsells.

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit, um, let's, let's talk a little bit about how having these subscriptions has not only changed your business but changed your personal life.

Oh my goodness. Well, as I mentioned, you know, um, independent store sales had been down and we've been trying all these things to kind of, uh, make it better. We built up quite a bit of debt during that time, and I mean, it's hard to believe during a pandemic though, by, by launching the Napkin Club, and then a month later I launched something called the Fabric Fan Club, um, Sarah, I have been able to pay off all of the store debt completely. I've been able to pay off a lot of my own personal debt. I have 5 kids So we've had a lot of tuition and things to pay, um, our last two finally finishing up college, you know, things like that. But, uh, it just has really been a huge blessing, and it's taking a— it's taken a huge weight off of our shoulders, um, not only on the business side of things but even on the personal side of things, um, especially at a time when I was like so scared like that this was the end of the end, you know. Um, so I'm so forever thankful for the group, Launch Your Box group, because it really did help me. It gave me that confidence to trust my gut. You know, a lot of times you have the idea, girls, like you've got it, it's swirling around in your head, you've been— it's like your baby, you've been nurturing it for a while, you've been writing out plans all of these things, but it's just getting that confidence to take that leap of faith. And by being in a group like Launch Your Box, not only are you getting expert direction from Sarah, who I'm going to talk about in just a second, but you're also building this community of business besties is what I want to call them. You've got people that are in that same boat with you. You're learning so much. Not only do I learn from Sarah, but I learn from the other people in the group. And it's so nice to learn from Sarah. I'm gonna tell you one reason why I was so drawn to her and still am. I like learning from someone that's in the trenches with me, okay? And Sarah is. She had a brick and mortar, she has a brick and mortar store. She's done all of these things. She's in the trenches with us girls. She's packing boxes every month. She's sourcing product every month. She's right there with us. So her advice to me is so much more helpful and meaningful than maybe someone else looking, you know, outside looking in. She's actually in here with us. She gets it. I do.

Yep. And I, and things change, right? Because like things that we were doing a year ago or even 6 months ago, they have changed now. Software changes. We just went through a lot of those changes with Bold and Shopify. And so being able to know what's happening and bring that information to the group is super helpful. I just wrote a course and put it in there and said, good luck, that, that might help you, that might help you get started. But it's really an ongoing support system. And I'm very protective of that group. Like, we are like a family. And it's— there's a lot of people in there, but we are very close. We're a tight-knit family. And there's a lot of support from everybody inside that group.

It's, it's such an encouraging, uplifting group, but it's also, I mean, it's, it's a group where you're actually going to get help. I have been in other coaching groups before where my questions kind of just get left and unanswered because there's so many, you know, I don't know, they just, it's just not as close-knit of a group as this group is. Um, they, Sarah and her team really want you to succeed.

And here's the other amazing I love about the community is like, I'm sure, and I don't know because we haven't talked about this, but if you, if you told your spouse like, I'm going to start a napkin club, and they're like, what? Like, they, they don't get it. And we didn't want to go home talking about our subscription all night long with our spouse. Like, they're just sick of that. Our friends don't get it. We have these entrepreneurial minds where we want to like geek out on what color box we should have and if we have tissue paper or shreds. Nobody else understands that language like the people in our group, the people that do this every day. So it's really a great way just to have that resource when you, you know, you're having— or I saw yesterday in the group somebody got a terrible review on their box, and so instantly I saw other members helping them through what, how they should respond and what they should do next. And those kind of things are really invaluable to to have at your fingertips at all the time.

It is so invaluable because here's the thing, girls, we're— you— there, there's so much learning that you're going to do along this path, right? Um, and you're going to learn just as much from some of an experience that you perceive to be negative. You're going to learn just as much from that as you will from a positive, if even— if not even more, really. And just having, um, the tribe here— I'm going to call them a tribe because that's what it feels like, because they're, they're our people. Like, it's our people. It's our people. Okay. So by having our people here that understand, you can talk through these things. And there's so many ways that constructively everybody works together to help us all kind of achieve success. And ultimately we want wins for all of us here in the group. The other thing I want to mention just really quick is I love— one thing that I really love about Launch Your Box is they help you with the tech. Um, the tech part was scary for me, Sarah, because I, I was, I was comfortable in my brick-and-mortar location. I was comfortable with what we were doing. Um, I just turned— I'm 54 years old, um, and I know that's not like super old. It's not, but it's also not super young. And the tech was, was a challenge because things have changed. Things are constantly changing. And so I love the tech help that I have received in Launch Your Box and I just wanna thank you for that because it's not, it's the kind of tech help that I actually could, like actually helped me. Does that make any sense? Like it could actually, actually help me. It was something that I could actually do on my own. And Sarah is amazing at bringing in the most awesome guests to help us. Guests that will help you that are experts on Shopify. Guests that will help you that are experts on WooCommerce. Experts on shipping. I now use ShipStation, which is exactly what Sarah— I believe that's what you're still using, correct? Yep. That helped me tremendously when it came to the actual execution of my club of shipping things. Um, also one more thing I'm going to pop in here and say is I know Sarah always says subscription boxes, but y'all, mine aren't in boxes.

Can you show us how you package them? Because one, the way that you can package a box not in a box is with a dealer, and it will actually save you a lot of money on shipping.

Yes, and actually, and I should have had a Napkin Club bundle here, but all I have is a Fabric Club bundle, but the napkins are bundled pretty much the same way. So in my Fabric Club, you actually get 6 fat quarters. So I'm going to show you what this looks like. Okay, it's just in this cute, just clear package, uh, packaging, right? It's got like a, you know, a little You package those yourself? We package them ourselves. We cut and then they're folded a certain way and put in. We have a cute little label. It's important to have a label. We, um, give— I love giving names to things. So like every month, you know, that napkin bundle has a certain name. Um, this fabric bundle is called Spring Market, so it has a certain name. All of our information is on the label here, okay, as far as, um, where to find me. The website, you know, those kinds of things. And then, um, we put these then into poly bags, poly mailers, instead of a box. A poly mailer actually is a lot less expensive to ship, but because it's all soft, it's not— it's less expensive to buy, can't break. So for us, it made more sense to put them into a poly bag like you do your T-Shirt of the Month Club, um, Sarah. And then we're currently still just using regular white poly bags because Sarah teaches you in the Launch Your Box to start, start out, um, kind of generic, start small, um, start making your profit before you start getting into really cute, um, you know, private label packaging. That's exactly where we're about to go. We're at that point where we're about to, to cross over into private label packaging, um, because we have the extra money to do that now.

We want to be profitable from day one. So I don't want you sinking all your profits into this really cute packaging from the get-go. I want you to build up your subscriber base. I want you to make some money and then we can invest in that packaging. So, and we're going to talk more about that on Thursday when I do the box openings, because I have some that are in custom boxes and I have some that are in kind of dressed up generic boxes. And there's lots of ways that we can do that. So we'll talk about that on Thursday here in coaching week.

Yes, that's awesome. It's just, it's just really impacted everything that we do because it's that consistent income now. It's coming in every month. And yes, you will lose some people, but you will gain some people. And in the beginning it was really hard when I lost people. Like I was just like, oh no, you know, someone's leaving. Like they, they, they left the membership. But what, what the group has helped me to realize is when that person leaves, it's because they're not really truly my target customer. It's just making room for someone who is, okay? And so just, you know, that's just part of it. And so it really helped me to just see all of this as just a wonderful growth process.

Yeah, okay. So I've got, I've got, let's take a few, let's take a few questions. I know there's a lot of questions questions here already, but if you have a question for Tracy or I, if you'll pop the word question in and then type your question— again, try to keep them short and sweet because the comments are coming pretty fast. Um, let's take, let's take this one here. Do you instruct on suppliers to use to create private label products within a box? So we talk a lot about products inside the group. We talk about how to buy wholesale, how to go to market. We also talk about manufacturing and sourcing. And so you can do private labeling. I do that a little bit, um, but we talk about all different ways to buy products and then and have them manufactured for you. Okay, let's see. Jan says, so Tracy, did you join the monthly Launch Your Box group and consider that as a business coaching expense? I'm such a newbie in my small business and getting the age thing has held me back for too long. Time to dive in. So Is this a business expense?

Yes, this is a business expense. This is something that you can write off to, you could call it professional fees or whatever you want to call it. But yes, this is a write-off for you.

Absolutely.

And I highly recommend it because not only are you getting the coaching, it's also kind of that source of accountability and that push that you need. Because we, as quickly as we can talk ourselves into something, we can talk ourselves right back out of it. Yes.

For sure.

I need the coaching environment.

It kind of helps you to stay accountable too. Yeah. Um, this one's for you, Tracy. Do you teach them how to use the napkins too?

Yes, I do. I have, um, everybody that signs up to be a Napkin Club member or a Fabric Fan Club member is put into a private Facebook group, which is our little personal hangout. And then every week I do a live. I go live in the group every single week, and of course I'm active in there chatting and all the things, but I actually go live with a workshop or a technique class or something every week, and I show them, them things that they can use with their napkins. And that's really important because otherwise they would just become a collector.

Yep.

I want them to become a user. I want them to create with them.

Yes. Um, can you tell me about some apps for Shopify to manage the subscriptions? Tracy, do you use Shopify?

I don't use Shopify currently. I'm a WooCommerce WooCommerce.

Okay, so I'm WooCommerce too for my subscriptions. But on Shopify, there are 3 main apps that you can choose from. You don't need all 3 of them. You need one of them. There is Bold, there is Recharge, and there is Paywhirl. And they all essentially do the same thing. They all have a little bit of quirks. I don't know of one that is better than the other, but you can choose from those 3. Yes. Curious how much your shipping costs to ship your napkins.

Okay, that's a really good question. Um, so our napkins, obviously you're going to weigh your package, you want to make sure that you have your weights accurate. And in the poly mailers, those are very light, so, um, they don't, um, you know, it doesn't add hardly anything to your shipping costs. So typically what we do is we ship just first class mail. Okay, and first class mail for us, if it's anything is under 16 ounces you can ship it first-class mail. So like for my napkin bundle, I think it averages, um, around maybe $3 to $4 depending on what zip codes it's going to. Currently I am only shipping in the United States. That's with the exception of a couple of Canadians that just begged to be in the club, and we haven't quite gotten to the whole international shipping thing yet. Um, but Uh, it's been great. And what I do, girls, is I actually roll that shipping fee into the price, so it's rolled into the price of the monthly club. So, um, so they're just paying that dollar amount every month, and I tell them their shipping is included, and they love that. So they know that is their price. Their price isn't going to change. And then also, uh, the other thing that I tell them is that because there will be times— and I'm about to go through it— where we may raise the price of a club. Okay, so if we raise the price of a club, I tell all the current members their pricing is going to stay the same no matter what. So whatever they signed up as— now, if they leave and come back, the price could be different. But, you know, so that works out really well. But yeah, I roll it in, and that way you can basically— when you're advertising it, you know, they're not paying any additional cost for shipping. So that way they know, okay, it's $22 a month. It's $24 a month, it's $27 a month. Whatever price you determine is going to be, you know, your price.

Okay, awesome.

Do you do that too, Sarah?

So I charge shipping on top of my subscription, and I do that because I offer local pickup. So I have about 38% of my subscribers are local to the town I live in, which is huge. And it's because I had a brick and mortar and I started that way. But I do offer local pickup. I actually, I love seeing them. I love when they come in and pick up. We do some pickup parties every now and then. Where we have a big party, we do a warehouse sale, we have food and drinks. So, um, we offer local pickups. I don't want to charge everyone that shipping cost, so it's an add-on for me.

Okay.

Casey has a question: what is your suggested charge and cutoff dates?

Okay, um, cutoff dates were hard for me at first because I was trying to figure out, okay, at some point you have to cut it off, right? Um, or it's going to run into, you know, the monthly, um, um, shipment. Okay, so for us, we chose the 10th of the month. So as long as they sign up for the club before the 10th of the month, they will get that month's subscription. If it's after the 10th, then their first subscription is the upcoming month.

Yes, so if they sign up on the 11th, they're getting the next month's.

That's right. And it's very clear in our verbiage on the website 8th, so that they know if they sign up before the 10th. And of course, I go live and I do things just to make sure everybody's aware, you know, hey, it's coming up on the 10th, you know, if you want this month's package, make sure you get it in. And also, we always, we always add this on the end too, as you know, if supplies last. Yes, because sometimes you can sell out. Yeah, you can sell out. And so it's up until the 10th, as long as we still have supplies.

Awesome. Okay. Tina says, what do you advise if you already invested the brand in fancy packaging? So I say use it. If you've already made the investment, start it off, use it, go all in. You've already, you've already purchased it. You don't need to backpedal now. Just use your fancy packaging. They're going to love it. But my thing is you don't have to have that when you get started. I literally had a brown box with a rubber stamp with my logo on the outside of it, and that's all I used for months until I could afford the custom packaging. But if you already have it, definitely use it.

The other thing you could do if you don't have the custom packaging yet is a postcard, some sort of postcard or a flyer, something that you can put inside that also is a little special something for them. It could be a thank you, a little thank you note or something like that. That really goes goes a long way, I think, for retaining those customers.

Question: is your membership separate from your subscription? Are your subscribers automatically in your membership?

Yeah, it is a monthly recurring paid membership. So if you, you are a— it's more of a membership community, I guess, than a subscriber community. However, one of the things you'll learn in Launch Your Box is whether to go with an open model or a closed model. I'm currently on an open model just because I do have a different product every single month because it is a monthly kit. Yes, but it is treated just like a membership group where they're, they're being charged monthly. Once they're a member, they're a member. They'll keep getting charged. They'll keep getting a monthly kit shipped to them every single month until they opt to cancel.

Okay. What comes first, building buzz and getting a waitlist for your subscription box or launch and hope they come. So you never want to launch and hope they come. It's not like if you build it, they will come. Like that really doesn't exist, only in baseball. So you really have to create the excitement. You have to create the buzz. You have to start getting them on a list, getting them taken care of, nurturing them, and then you launch. Because if you do that backwards, your launch is going to fall flat. You've got to collect the people before you put your awesome thing out in the world. Because if you have your awesome thing and nobody's there, you're going to be disappointed and it's going to fall flat. Absolutely.

You've got to build your audience. And, um, and that's so important because that's who you're selling to. You need to build your audience and building your audience of the right people, attracting the right people. And remember that riches are in the niches. So finding the people that are for that niche, that target audience, and you'll learn a lot about that in the L.Y.B. group.

Okay, let's see. Um, I'm trying to check some questions. Marion wants to know how much are your subscriptions?

Okay, um, currently the Napkin Club subscription is $22 a month. Um, the Fabric Fan Club subscription is $24 a month.

Okay. Pamela says, Sarah, you mentioned the WooCommerce plugin you use for subscription. Is this a paid Is the paid plugin or free? When I research, I believe the paid one. Yes, so I use WooCommerce subscriptions. I believe it's $199 for a year, but that's the one that you're gonna want. And Tracy and I both use that and it's really easy to use. Okay, so let me answer just a couple questions and then we're gonna wrap it up for today. Here's one for you, Tracy. Where do you get your options for fabric, and do you offer ideas for those fabric bundles?

Yes, I most definitely do. Um, yes, so again, just like the Napkin Club, we have a private Facebook group for our Fabric Fan Club members, and then I go in and show them different projects, um, that are made with that fabric and teach them and, and have lots of fun with them in there. Um, so as far as sourcing goes, it is important. Obviously, sourcing is just a fancy word for finding. Okay, so you're trying to find, uh, the best rates. You're trying to find wholesale options. Obviously, I needed wholesale options for my fabric club. We have to, we have to bring in bolts and bolts and bolts. And in fact, we kind of limited our growth on the Fabric Fan Club because of the pandemic. A lot of the fabric mills are like way behind, um, and so, um, we kind of had to be careful and not to grow that one too fast because I wanted to be sure that I could get, you know, the fabric for them. But typically you're going to reach out and find wholesalers, and that's another great networking thing that happens here in our Launch Your Box group is we all network together and we share our wholesaler information. A lot of times one of the best things you can do is go straight to the manufacturer and just ask, do you offer wholesale accounts? Ask what the requirements are. If you can't quite meet that, that level of commitment, you can go through a wholesale distributor. Distributors carry lots of different brands, and so they're kind of like the middleman between the wholesaler and you. So there are lots of different options for finding those wholesale resources that you need for your boxes or your bags.

Yes.

Okay.

Do you show what's going to be in the boxes ahead of time, or is it a surprise? We'll talk about, let's talk about yours first and then we'll talk about mine.

I do show mine. Um, I don't show them like the whole month long. I don't. I show them about like the week or so before they start to ship. Um, in the beginning it'll be just some fun little sneak peeks, little anticipation kind of things, you know, little teasers I call them. So I might show the graphic of the name of what's going to be, you know, that next club, and then show maybe one or two of the napkins or a little you know, a sneak peek of one of the fabrics or something like that. But eventually I do show them and I do a live reveal. So we built— we do a lot of buildup up to the live reveal night, and then I go live on my business Facebook page, my public page, and I actually do the live reveal to show everyone what's going to be in that bundle.

And I do the opposite. So I, I will do a sneak peek and I will tease it out. So I'm going to show you and we talk about this inside the membership too, but we talk about how to create that sneak peek and how to create some excitement without showing them because mine is completely a surprise. I don't do the reveal until at least 90% of my boxes show they have been delivered and then I'll do a box opening and I'll do a reveal there. Either way you do it, you just have to test it out and see what your customer wants.

And I think in the beginning, or at least with my customer, my customer is so visual, like they're just, creative people are just so visual and they just needed to see. I think now that I have— I have their faith, like they have faith in me, they have confidence in me and what I'm providing for them, I probably could swing the other direction like Sarah. But for now, I'm still, I'm still showing.

I'm still like it and they're used to it and they expect it. So I think you've built that expectation and that excitement in that reveal. So I don't think you need to change change it. Yeah, we're going to wrap it up a little bit, but I want you to end this on what piece of advice would you give to anyone sitting here watching that's been thinking about starting a subscription box? They've gone through coaching week or that, or not, either way, what advice would you give them to just get going?

I think it's one of those things where really, girls, you need to trust your gut and then follow it up with good counsel. And that's what you get in Launch Your Box. You get that, that great advice. You— it's going to give you the confidence, um, not just confidence but the real life, um, you know, how should I say it, Sarah? It's going to give you the, the—

it's the knowledge, right?

Yeah, like the real life knowledge, not just the like written out knowledge, like here you go. They're going to give you really great ideas, great concepts that you can totally implement.

Implement.

That's the word I was looking for. Things that you can actually implement, and that continues to help build your confidence. And then eventually, I'm just going to tell you to take the leap. Take the leap. You can see by the other members that are in the club the amazing things that are happening when we just put ourselves out there and take that leap.

And sometimes it's just like there's bite-sized training. Like what we did last night was an hour and a half, but inside the membership I break things up into bite-sized size, like 15 minutes, 20 minutes. Take one thing at a time. Start with one thing, get it nailed down, figure it out, and then move on to the next piece. And that's how you start putting one foot forward and, and keep going.

Exactly. And that's exactly what I did. It's just, I love the bite-sized pieces because you can take that knowledge. But here's the thing, it doesn't— it won't happen unless you implement it.

You got to do it.

So by having that coaching group you know, having that push, it helps you to grab onto that one thing and actually implement it. And I am, I am living proof that it works. So just following these steps and you can most definitely grow your business into something that I couldn't have even fathomed.

If the idea of creating a subscription box is swirling around in your head, I encourage you to head over to launchyourboxwithsarah.com Get on our waitlist and grab some of our free downloads to help you get started. That's launchyourboxwithsarah.com.