019: 250 Subscribers in 2 Months with an “Ugly” Box

Getting out of your own way, realizing things don't have to be perfect, and finding 250 subscribers is exactly what Amy did. Come listen to her story. She got super specific with her Power Surger subscription box and amazing things are happening.

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, I'm so glad you're joining me today because I have Amy Bachman here with Sew and Quilt. She has the Power Surger subscription box. She is in month 2 of her subscription box with 250 boxes already. Um, she calls it launching ugly, and so we're going to break that down for you today and also tackle some of the challenges that she has faced through this journey. So Amy, welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad that you're here. Why don't we start with just your journey, your, your business journey and how this has unfolded because you've been in business for a long time. So I'd love for them to hear. So welcome to the podcast. Let's just get started.

Thank you, Sarah. Well, it has been kind of a weird journey. It's a 30-year journey. And I started when I was 26. I had no clue and my whole life has been I've had no clue, but I've worked it out. So that's kind of my mantra. But It started when my husband lost his job. I went to work for another fabric retailer, chain store that sold sewing machines. I found out I was really good at it, but they restricted me so much. I couldn't change the color of the thread. I couldn't have people touch the machines. I couldn't teach a class. I'm like, this is stupid. So when my husband got another job, actually started another business, I'm like, I'm out of here. So I In the meantime, our house burnt down, which is a different sad story, but I had an empty living room. So there it was. I filled it up with inventory and classroom space. And the customers who knew me followed me and realizing this is 20, 30 years ago, there was no Facebook. There was no Instagram. You had a telephone that hung on the wall in your kitchen. That was the marketing. That was it.

So how did that transition? So that's where we started. And then what happened along your journey? Tell me how the business unfolded.

So I went and found a little dinky retail space in the middle of no man's land that I felt like I could afford. I signed my first lease and I cried because how was I ever going to pay $400 a month rent?

It's a scary feeling, isn't it? Like, you've instantly have this responsibility of— it's no longer I'm doing it in my home. I was there too. And if I don't make any money, it's not a big deal. But now I have bills to pay, right? And there's this huge responsibility and weight as a business owner when you start taking on bills like that.

Right. My son was just in kindergarten, so I had to work around the mommy stuff as well. And I went to a county fair. It rained. You have to understand where I live is very country. Um, 6 inches of water, my pants rolled up, sewing machines plugged into electricity, thinking like it could have been my last day with business. But, um, people come on, like, lady goes, oh my gosh, I can't wait to tell the sewing guild. Oh my gosh, I can't take— and And boom, it just took off. There was nothing around us. So I was in the right space at the right time. And it grew. And 30 years later, I'm 12,000 square feet and kind of some offshoots of that business. The retail store is my core. And then I have a couple other things and now I have a box. And so it just was organically over 30 years with tons of ups and downs. The failure, it makes you better.

It makes you learn, right?

Yeah.

Let's talk about your subscription box. So your box is called the Power Surger Subscription Box. I know what a serger is, but I bet there's a lot of people in our audience listening right now that has no idea what a serger is. So let's talk a little bit about your subscription box. And it's very specific, like this is one specific machine in all the sewing machines that you could pick. And let's talk a little bit about that box and why you niche down so far into that, into that machine.

Right, so a serger or overlocker, depending on what part of the world you live in, if you take your t-shirt inside out, that's what the seams are. They, you know, they're seamed and overcast at the same time. This serger, the serger is like the microwave to your oven. It's a companion to your sewing machine. You have to have— can't have just a serger, you have to have both. But what it is, is everybody's so intimidated because it uses 4 threads instead of 2 or 5 threads instead of 2. And so the threading is daunting, the thought about tensions are scary. It looks like it's too mechanical, like it's overly complicated to use. And we sell a lot of them and people like the idea, but then they never master it or do anything but just do a straight seam and that, you know, that's it. So I did a little bit of research. There's tons of quilt, quilting boxes out there or fabric boxes out there. Um, even on the embroidery side, there's some powerful embroidery people out there that have a great online business that are now sending kits. And, um, I thought, well, let's go where nobody else has gone. So I just took a left turn, as I've done my whole life. Everybody goes right, I go left. And, uh, it took off. And now the waitlist— I think, I think there's another 40 or 50 on the waitlist as of some— of this morning.

So let's, let's just deep dive into what you just said here. So you have this machine that you've been selling a lot of, so you had this proof of concept that I have this machine, I'm selling a lot of these machines. Let me, one, help my people be able to use this machine because we need to consume the items that we're selling. We need, we need them to consume them so that they'll come back for more. They're going to come back for more stuff from you. They want to feel good about that high-end purchase that they made from you, right? And so you want to help them do that. So you're helping them not only consume the big purchase that they just made from you, but you're helping them by providing them a subscription box. And tell me what's in that subscription box.

So retail-wise, there's not a lot in the box. At least I really valued the class. So there's, um, let's see, uh, 3/8 of a yard of fabric. There's a zipper. I put a pair of tweezers in there that I like to use. There's some dental floss threaders which help us thread the loopers in the serger. I put a little pattern in there with where they can mark their settings. Just a postcard on where they can find me on my social media and to get into the Facebook group, group with a QR code.

So the real value of that box is your lessons. Is that what you're saying? Like, it's just a companion to what you're teaching them. So they're going to get a digital component with your box, but then they get this box of tools that they get to use with your lessons. Is that what you're saying?

Yep.

Okay. So let's talk about this ugly launch. So I know there, I know there are people listening that are thinking I'm not ready to start my subscription box because I don't have all the things together. I don't have all the tech pieces together. I don't know what my marketing strategy is. I'm just not ready to do a box yet, but sometimes we just do things messy and we, and they turn out really well. You've built your audience. You have the people there, you've spent years nurturing them and helping them and they know, like, and trust you. So now it's just a matter of putting it in front of them and letting them buy it. But you say it was ugly. You said my box and marketing are really ugly. Tell me, tell me about that.

So I kind of— my mind works a little odd. It's like squirrels. They go left, they right, and then they pause and they freeze. So as all things, I'm like, well, I'm teaching these classes and I do— in the store we do kits, right? You come to class, here's everything sitting in front of you and I had an online subscription membership doing sewing classes like 15 years ago, before social media, before anything, and I got sick of it and let it go. So I was familiar with the online class thing. So I was like, ah, let's just do it, let's see who does it. So, um, we— I still was paying for Infusionsoft even though I wasn't using it, and I thought, well, let's just stick a landing page out there and see who wants to sign up. All of a sudden I woke up the next day, I'm like, oh my Lord, I thought, oh, I thought it would just be my local people, right? I just thought it would be. But they post in their Facebook group, they post in their quilting group, and they quote, you know, all of a sudden it was like 100 people, 120 people, 150 people. I'm like, oh my gosh. So on the wait list, and again, it was nothing but a black and yellow graphic I made in Canva with a lightning bolt. I mean, I didn't think, I didn't think logo, I didn't think anything. I just like, well, let's just put a name in there and call it that. And I was like, I was like, holy smokes. And then I converted almost 83% of my waitlist.

Okay. So tell me what happened. So you, you closed down. So your first month, I'm going back to my notes that you gave me.

It's okay.

You had 150 sold on that very first launch, which you thought would be more like what, 50?

50. I would be tickled with 50. And I'm thinking they're going to be my local customers. I'm thinking, well, I can just do a class. They don't have to come in. I don't have to deal with it. I don't have to rethread surger because they're home, and it just went crazy.

And so then now we're on month 2. So you just closed your cart yesterday, right?

Right.

And where are we at on month 2?

So month 2, we're 250.

250, and probably could go higher if you had more supplies, right?

Right. People are calling the retail store and saying, can I get in? Can I get in? I said, I have bought every black and white and red zipper. Between here and California. No, you can't get in. That's amazing. Yeah, my vendors were calling, what are you doing? What are you doing?

And, you know, and here's what it is, Amy.

It's—

you went very specific into what you felt like was a need in your community, in the sewing community. You went, you found something that not a lot of people were doing You— it was a need because you could see it as you were selling these machines. And now you've got this whole awesome community of people that have these machines and they're learning from you, and they're— you're building this community up. And I just see growth and growth and growth. And so many people get caught up in, I need to go broad to reach a lot of people. But when you get so specific about what you're doing, you people find you because you become the expert. You become the go-to person for sergers. I'm sure that you could teach all kinds of classes, all kinds of different things on all kinds of different machines, but when you go super specific like this, you become the expert in your industry. And that's what's happening right now, and I'm really excited for you because this can really grow and grow and grow for you and really take over, take a lot of weight off of things. And I know 250 subscribers is a lot, and I want, I want to talk a little bit about what that's done for you and your business, and then we'll get into some challenges. But let's talk about the great things about having 250 subscribers. What has it changed for you?

It is— well, I moved it as a separate entity outside of my business, right? So, you know, the money is separate from my retail store. I am 58 I'm almost 59 years old, and I don't say I'm tired, but I want to be able to just go do something. Like, you know, anybody works retail knows it could be brutal. But, you know, I wanted to say, oh, you know, my grandson needs new braces. Fine, here you go. Let's do the braces. Let's— it just— I have a sense of relief now. And when I opened up my checking account, when I looked at my balance, for this business. I was like, ooh, it startled me. Right. I was like, I was startled.

So it's like pressure, pressure lifted off of you that you don't have to show up and hustle your face off every single day to make money in your retail shop. And, and you have the burden, you have a dozen employees, you have the burden of their paychecks every month. You have the burden of the bills of the business. And sometimes that can get very overwhelming, especially if you don't have a great sales month. Like you're depending on this. Sales to happen every single month. And sometimes it just doesn't happen. But knowing that you have 250 subscribers, that their payments are going to hit your bank account every single month. And that has the— it's a game changer. And it has the ability to keep growing for you. So that if you decide you want to change things, when you're ready to stop doing the retail business, if you want to do something else, you know that you have this stream of income coming in, that allows you to pick choose what you want to do for your future and for your business. And that's super duper powerful.

It's very powerful because if I know if the retail store has— is weird, I'm worried about coming up inflation, and, and I'm worried because I, I barely survived 2008 by the skin of my teeth. Um, so I'm worried about that. But now I have this money that I don't need to go spend it, but I know I have a buffer for my store, I have a buffer for me if I don't need to take a paycheck. And so it's just, I woke up this morning with like, holy cow, you know, it was a, it was nice.

It's amazing. And I hope that you celebrate it because it's a big deal when we're in the product-based business industry. We have a lot of costs involved with that. And people in the digital industry don't really understand that the way that we do, but there's a lot of costs involved in product and shipping and overhead. And so having this recurring revenue in our business can really just level things out for us. And make us, you know, just that much better. We don't have the worries every single month, and that allows us to be creative and create the next thing and curate the boxes. But I do want to talk about some of the challenges because I know that with going from 0 to 250 boxes in a matter of 60 days creates some challenges. And, um, the challenge is sometimes what we think our customers want is not always exactly what they want. What challenge did you face there?

Well, with my retail, I do a lot of Facebook Live. So I thought, well, I'll just get a private group. I'll just do everything in Facebook. And then I started to get pushback. Well, I don't have Facebook. And I'm like, okay. So I said, okay, I'll post the recorded videos on amysews.com and I'll tag you and go in and watch them as many times as you want to watch them. Okay, but I really want the live experience. I really want to be a part of the community. I'm like, all right. So not knowing anything about anything, right, you start doing some research. This old girl got to figure it out. So I decided to do YouTube Live, like, through the link within my website, and it's been great. The quality of the video was better, people responded, and we had too many for Zoom unless I wanted to spend a million bucks for Zoom. But at the same time, with YouTube, they can type in a question, but they can't interject a question. Okay, sometimes that's what's hard with live classes. Everybody has a question, and you control your audience very nicely, I have to say. But it's just like when their voices and they can unmute themselves, it becomes this whole tornado of confusion. But switching to YouTube Live, I was shocked how easy it was and how people loved it. And I'm still posting in the Facebook, so we have a page where people can anybody can pop in and see what's going on. And then I have the group that I keep private for lessons and tips and that kind of thing.

I love that. I love how, I love how you just said, you know, this old girl had to learn something new because it's scary and it's technology and it's changing all the time. And I love how you just, you said, okay, here's the problem. And this, I'm going to find a solution for it. And not only did you find one solution, but you found two solutions. You're really trying to help your customers consume the lessons. And if the more we can help them consume what comes with our box, the longer they're going to stay subscribers. So you figuring out a platform that they could consume in a way they wanted to is priceless for them. So I love that. I love that challenge that you figured out there. The other thing that you said to me, as far as your challenges was going from 0 to 250 boxes, I got to get my staff to stop rolling their eyes. So tell me what's going on because you just put a whole pile of workload onto your staff. Right. And so how are they How are they feeling about it?

So they're, they've kind of, it's surprisingly, once they understood the idea of it, right? Because they think, oh, I'm, you know, they didn't have really not a clue what a subscription box really was. So once they kind of got their head wrapped around it, you have the ones that are better internal workers where they don't, they're better without customer contact. And a hand went up and said, I would really like to do this. And so once the dust settled and I explained how it was, and then everybody saw her folding 250 boxes, everybody just pitched in in between customers. So it was pretty good.

Yeah, I think that's the, the strategy that I would give you is when you create this awesome thing and then you have your employees that actually have to do the work for it, it's how do we get their buy-in on this? And so for me, there's a couple things that I do. One, I want to give them ownership in, in the, the components of the box. So who's in charge of what? Who's in charge of making sure we have boxes, that they're folded, that they're stamped, that they're whatever they are? This is now your job. This is your role every single month. You're in charge of this. Who's— for me, we personalize. So who's in charge of the personalization, keeping up with the cancellations and the new members? And so everybody has a role. So that gives them ownership. And when people have ownership, ownership, they're more likely to step up to the plate for you. So I would challenge you to give them a little, give them little pieces of ownership to the box. The other thing that I really like to do with my employees is like, I like to include them when we're curating the boxes. Now I have the big picture all in my head all the time, but when it comes down to designs or colors or themes, I like to get their input. So we'll have a quick meeting and I'll lay out what I'm thinking and I'll let them tell me what they think. Because when they get, when they feel like they're a part of it, they take more ownership to it as well. So I would challenge you to have them help you with some of the curation of it and then give them some ownership in some of the parts. Because also the other thing is like, once they can see what this does for your business, and once they see how it's going to uplevel your business and it's going to make it stable and steady and they don't have to worry about their jobs or hours or anything like that, they're going to be on board 100% with this.

Yeah, thank you. I, yeah, I think now that the dust has settled, there's kind of a process in place. We're just doing every other month, but I told them in July we're going to be launching another box. We'll see how that works out.

Get them on board, help them, get them to help you brainstorm, get them to help you research things, like get them on board with it so that they feel just as excited about it as you do. Because that's the amazing thing about my staff is that they are just as excited about what's happening every every month, but they want to know, they don't want to, you know, I'm a little, I'm a little chaotic, but I'm a creative, right? So I'm just like, here's what we're doing. And then it just shows up. They want to have a plan. They want to know what the plan is and who's in charge of each piece of the plan. And that makes them feel empowered. So that's my advice for you on there. But I would love to know what advice you would have for anyone listening today that's maybe been stuck on their idea or they've been sitting there waiting. For the perfect time to get their subscription box started, what advice would you give them?

First, there's no perfect time. And I've never been a person that made sure all my ducks were in a row before I did anything, because there's nothing like pressure to figure something out. Like if you just say I'm launching tomorrow and okay, if I get 100 people, then I'll figure out the backdoor, right? That's why I found you after I launched. And I was like, I'm like, well, that was silly. But anyhow, I'm glad you're— I'm glad I'm with you guys because it's been good. But I think my biggest thing is you just have to do it. If you're smart enough to come up with the concept, you're smart enough to build the social media platform, you are smart enough to figure out everything else. And, and nothing has to be beautiful. You just have to have your message. And I think people have to trust you. I was fortunate enough to have, you know, a good base going into this, but I think if you're believable and I think they feel a warmth from you, I think they'll follow through. And I say video is the way to go. If you stink at words, hold your box up and say, hey, this is what I'm doing, and just let her rip. And then you'll be, you know, you can always backpedal. This community is great for answers and questions. So I would say just, just do it. There's no other way to say it. Just let it go. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just let it go. You'll figure it out. Or because Because when you look at the end game and you look at your— know what your checking account is going to look like, even with 20 subscribers or 30 subscribers, you're like, oh, you figure it out. Or you pick up the phone and you call the local college or you call the 12-year-old next door and say, how does this work? And I just say, just don't get in front of yourself.

I love that, Amy. I love that you're just kind of a go-for-it kind of person. Like, you don't know all the tech. You figured out YouTube Live. You had an ugly landing page or an ugly marketing. Ugly box. Like, you'll figure it out, right? And that's what I love. That's the beauty of it, is don't be so scared to put one foot in front of the other and just go for it. And then we're just all figuring it out. Like, we're just all figuring out every day. Nobody's going into this 100% perfect. So Amy, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast, and thank you so much. I know you're going to inspire, um, all of those— all of our listeners today. If they want to check you out and figure out if they need a surger in their life, where should they— where can they find you at?

Um, the store website is amybachman.com, and then amysews.com is where we host the videos. And again, it's ugly, but come and join us.

Yes, and I'll put, I'll put those links in the show notes today so that you can come find Amy. But thank you for listening, and you guys have a great rest of your day. Make sure you subscribe to the Launch Your Box podcast. I'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review it. Let me know which episode is your favorite so far. Don't forget to join me next week right here.