086: One Year Later - An Update from a Past Guest One Year After Her Subscription Box Launch with...

You get to the point of launching your box. It's a success, but everything is about to change. On this episode, I'm catching back up from an interview I did a year ago. Where is she now, one year later, and how has her business completely changed? Come listen.

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.

Welcome back to the Launch Your Box podcast. I have an update for you today, and it's really fun because I have Amanda with me today. Say hi, Amanda. Hi, I have Amanda, and if you are a Launch Your Box podcast junkie, you're gonna know Amanda from episode number 33. I introduced you to her then, and we talked about this thing that I had no idea what it was. It was called a Hobonichi planner, but I recently was with Amanda, and I don't know if I've mentioned it here on the podcast, but I'm writing a book and it's been a hard process, but Amanda's gonna be featured in the book. And so I was chatting with her a few weeks ago about the chapter that she's gonna be featured in. And I said, you know what? We need to do an update on your story. We need our podcast listeners to get an update on where you're at because we recorded that podcast a year ago. And so we're gonna break down what has happened with Amanda in her business over the last year and just kind of let you see what the process looks like when you start your subscription box business. It really stabilizes your business, and you're going to hear that from Amanda of how it stabilized her business and what she's been able to do since then because she has this stable recurring revenue coming into her business. So Amanda, let's just start for anyone that maybe hasn't listened to your episode before, but write that down, episode 33, go back and listen to it. It's a great one, but let's just give quick recap on where you were then, what your business is, and then we'll, we'll talk about what's happened over the last year.

Sure. So last year we had been in business. We sell planner stickers for Hobonichi and Wonderland 222, and we're currently in the adding more planners to our lineup phase right now. But last year we had a subscription box for only about 3 months, and we were loving the recurring revenue. We launched with 100 members, and we were so excited. And we were in the Mark, what if you could quit your job? Like, idea. Like, that would be so fabulous.

Well, even before— let's, let's even go back a little bit further before we get into that exciting news, because that's a big deal. Let's go back. Let's tell them a little bit about who you are. Okay. So tell them about your business. And I also want you to give them a little bit of insight of how you built your business, how you built your audience, because I think that's what makes your story so super special is the way that you showed up for people and the way your business came about. So let's take them back a little bit. Tell them about your business, and then let's talk about that YouTube channel, and let's tell them how you grew that audience.

Sure. Yes. So when I was home with a newborn— I, we have a 4-year-old now, but when she was a newborn, I got into planning. I started watching a bunch of bullet journal planning videos, and I thought it would be so fun, but I'm not artistic, and I started finding stickers, but I couldn't find any stickers for the planner I was using, the Hobonichi. And so I looked and looked and looked, and there were some, but they weren't my style. So I started getting the more popular planner stickers for Erin Condren planners, and I was using an X-Acto knife to like slice off the sticker. And I was like, I wonder if anybody else would be curious how I modify these stickers for my planner. So I started a YouTube channel, and that grew. And so I had, I think, I don't know, 100 or 150 subscribers at that time, and I was just getting fed up with cutting stickers. So in it with an X-Acto knife, and I thought, what if, what if they want to buy— like, would they buy some if I made them? So asked them, and they were like, yes, please make them.

And so when you're, you're talking about 100 and 150 subscribers, I want to make it clear, these are YouTube subscribers. You haven't launched your subscription box yet.

Not even—

no, these were just subscribers to your channel, right? Because you were just showing up and you were modifying these stickers. You were showing them how you were using them in your Hobonichi planner, and people are like, oh, I have one of those too. Oh, I could do this too. Okay, keep going.

Yes. So then, once we launched our Etsy store, slowly growing, growing, growing, people pretty much right off the gate was like, hey, I want to get these every month. Like, I don't even want to think about it. I just want these to show up at my door every month, and I get to Plan Pretty Things. I was like, I don't want to do a subscription box. Like, that's too, that's too overwhelming. Like, no, no, no, just come to my Etsy, buy what you want, and you can, you know, do it that way. And it took us over 2 years of being in business to actually, when I found you, to actually like, no, we can do this. We could totally do this. This is not a big deal.

So here's what Amanda has that a lot of us never get: someone begging us to start a subscription box. So Amanda has these amazing, you know, audience that have been buying from her Etsy shop and they're begging her for a subscription subscription, and she's telling them, no, no, I don't want to do that, because it felt overwhelming, right? Like, it felt cumbersome. It felt like, okay, I have to do this over and over and over again, and I just want to do it on my time, right? Like, I just want to make the things and then put them in my shop and sell the things. I don't want to be committed to this. Like, it felt like a big commitment, right?

Yes. Well, and by the time that we had actually launched our Etsy, I was pregnant with number 2. So I had a toddler. They're only like 20 months apart. I had a toddler and I was pregnant. Like, I don't want to— like, we just launched a business. I don't want to throw a subscription box in the mix too. Like, that's just—

ah, yeah. So what— so then you, then you found a little ad in your feed of just Sarah in your face and you were like, okay, let me check this subscription thing out, right?

Yes. And what happened? Well, I binged— so your doors were closed for Lunch Box. I binged your podcast. I think you had maybe 4 or 5 episodes up. And I think I launched the week that I actually was able to join the group. So like we went gangbusters. We just like, you know, so I didn't do it all right. Cause I hadn't been in Launch Your Box, but I was so excited because the week that I joined, I was like, hey, I just launched. Oh my goodness. And I think like the first month of being in Launch Your Box, you opened my box and I was so excited. Yes.

It was a big deal. You launched. And, and let's go back to this little YouTube following that you had, because I remember it was like about 600 followers. Is that right? Like you had like not even 1,000 followers or, or subscribers, YouTube subscribers, right? So you had this little pool of people, about 600 people, and you launched your subscription box and you sold out at 100 boxes. Like you had planned for them. You're like, I don't know if they're gonna, if it's gonna work or not, but I'm gonna plan for 100. And you sold out very, very quickly, right?

Yes, we did.

Yes. And so that was, that was a recap of what we talked about on episode 33. We, we go a little bit more in depth on her audience building and stuff like that, but it just shows you that you could have a small audience if they are the right people and you nurtured them and you showed up for them. You created products for not only yourself, but for them. You found this little gap in the market, right? And you showed up and you delivered what they were at, they were begging for, begging for it. And so now We're a year later from that launch date. And so I wanted to check back in with you and bring you back on the podcast so that we can show someone that's maybe brand new, maybe just launched, maybe still in the pre-launch stage, what happens to your business after a year or after you launch in that next year, what has happened. Now, you mentioned briefly when we started that shortly after this launch, you were able to bring your husband home from his, his job and to work in the business with you. Was there a goal set behind, like, if I get X number of subscribers, he's gonna be able to quit your job? Talk me through that thought process.

Sure. It wasn't so much the number of subscribers is that it was a proven concept. So we already had 2.5 years of business and it ebbs and flows quarters, you know, it's retail, it just happens. And so it was kind of like, I don't know, like it's really hard to say like, oh, we had a really good quarter. Like, yeah, you can quit, but there's a whole year, you know? And so just knowing that, okay, we've had 3 months of people, they're still sticking around, like this could actually work. And so we had a lot of personal things that we needed to, you know, we had an X number of this and pay off the house and all these things that we wanted to do financially before that happened. But then the security of the monthly, okay, this is going to happen every month. And so that has really been great.

And so what has that been like working with him? And I don't know, like, I think about my own husband's job, like, you know, he's got a good job, but he doesn't love it, right? Like, he just goes to work, punches the time clock, does his job, and comes home. And I don't know if that's how your husband was, but how has this changed, like, his lifestyle and your lifestyle together?

Yes, it has been so great. He loves not having to be in the office from 8 to 5. He did enjoy his job. But there's so much more creativity. So he does a lot of the backend stuff, the website, the— I might have like an idea for a washi design and I'm like, okay, here's what I want, you make it happen. And so he is definitely like the brains and the behind the scenes guy, and I'm kind of more of the, you know, the one on YouTube and the one doing like the social media stuff.

So it's like you guys complement each other very well. And what, what I wouldn't give to have the tech person in my business in my house. Like, hey, I got an idea. Can you make it happen before midnight? Thanks. You know, you know, the turnaround time for a web developer is real long. So I think it's awesome. So you brought your husband home from his job. Y'all are working together. Everything's going well. Now the business is growing. You're increasing your subscribers. You can see the retention on your own subscription box is really great. And you think, I got a real strong thing here. I'm gonna, I need to hire someone else, right? And so talk me through, because this is one of the like biggest, I think, hangups, maybe the biggest fears for small business owners is actually hiring that first person. Like we hold off on hiring that first person for a long, long time and it's at a detriment to us because we're overworked, we're doing all the jobs, we're running ragged. A lot of us have families at home that we're like working from sunup to sundown. I was guilty of this too, but hiring that first person, person felt like this really, really hard thing. So you've got your husband working in the business with you. Now what's the next step for you?

Yeah, so actually we had 2 additional team members before hubby quit, and then we got 2 more after. So it was different. The process was a little bit different. The first gal we hired, she was a high school student. She loves to like do personal crafty things, and so it was really great. I didn't have to hire her full-time. And honestly, none of our additional team members are full-time. And I think that was part of the thing that helped to get over the mental, like, oh, if I'm going to hire somebody, I have to keep them busy, like all the time. What am I going to have them do? And I started making lists. So with each additional team member, so we have 4 in addition to my husband and I, and with each additional team member, it was like, okay, well, what am I going to have them do to keep them? And once I started the list, like it was super easy to come up with things. We had one gal have to switch roles from cutting stickers to doing more, I guess, like office manager type things, printing things, checking inventory. Some more of the things that I didn't realize I was so busy doing myself that it was hindering my creative time, and I felt really pressured to have to design things in the evening or get up really early in the morning, which is not my thing. And so the question is always, how can I keep them busy and not just feel like it's busy work, but actually make them feel like they're, you know, doing something. But it's, in my experience, it has been a lot easier to fill their time than I originally thought. I had no idea how much I was actually doing in one day. Yes.

And I love what you said about hiring part-time because that's exactly what I did too, because then it doesn't feel like this huge commitment, right? Like if somebody, if this isn't someone's full-time job, Okay, I'm not responsible for all their household income, right? Because that freaked me out too. And if I, if they just need this job as kind of an extra for their household, for some fun money, like you said, you hired a teenager, which they, you know, they may need to help pay their car insurance or something like that. It wasn't like this big pressure that you put on yourself that you were hiring your very first person full-time and now you had to create like this living situation for them and the pressure that that puts on you because you don't realize how much task-driven work that you do as a small business owner every single day. And those jobs, you're doing the $10 an hour job half or more of your day when you should be doing the $50 an hour job or the $100 an hour job. And we get so caught up in, oh, it's just one thing I can do, it's just this thing I can do it. And all those little pieces of the task puzzle that to just get through your day are consumed. And I mentioned this before too. I love that you said the creative time. I was spending so much time on tasks and just— I was packing boxes, I was printing shipping labels. I would have like an hour to make the next t-shirt design. And you know how hard it is to be creative in a time crunch? Like, it is stressful and you hate everything and nothing is looking good. And, and but if I know today all I have to do is make 3 or 4 t-shirt designs for the fall, I'm like, yeah, let me grab my coffee. Let me sit down. They're working on all the tasks. I'm going to get to be creative today and I have space in my schedule to do that. Where when we start our businesses, we're just doing all the jobs. So hiring your first person part-time, wondering if you're going to be able to fulfill that. I was worried too. I thought, well, I just need help packing boxes. That was my, that was my idea in my head. I just need someone to help pack boxes. So I really only need them one week a month. No. Do you know how much stuff we do all month long? Who was going to want to work one week a month? No, I use them every week. And that built into the next hire. And then as we grew our subscription, we realized we needed more hands. And I got nervous as we kept hiring. I knew we needed hands for packing week, but I also wasn't sure if I could keep all of them busy the rest of the month. And, and so it's been interesting to see, like, I'm just giving them more and more things off of my plate because they're here and they're ready to work. And I'm like, oh, Well, you guys can do this today, and they do a great job, and they take ownership of it too.

Yes, and I think that's good for them too, to start maybe with one job, and then whenever they feel confident in that, like, we can give them more. I mean, if we threw everything at them the first day, they would be overwhelmed. We would be overwhelmed, you know. And so it is a nice, steady, gradual process, which I really like. Also, when you were mentioning the— if you have more time to be creative, you're product is going to be way better too. And so one of the questions, I think, whenever we were trying to decide if Mark could quit was, yeah, we're making like— so I don't remember exactly how he phrased it, but would we make more revenue if we quit? We forgot about the fact that he would be here more and we could make all these products that we had, you know, oh, maybe one day. But because he's been able to help me design more, we have been able to put out more product. And so not only the— can we be home with our kids more and be more present with them in the evenings, but also we're making more revenue because he's able to help more with the product.

You're producing more products. Your, your creativity has grown because he's taking a chunk of work off of you. You're able to put your vision out there. He's able to take it and make it actually a product that you can sell. And so now, not only is your subscription growing, but your one-time products in your shop are growing. And I always tell people like that first hire doesn't double what you produce. It actually quadruples what you produce. Like it's more than double. You don't realize how in the weeds you are with the everyday if you don't have someone. And it could look like part-time teenager. It could look like, you know, a 10-hour-a-week VA that lives somewhere else that's taking admin away from you and answering all the dang questions like in your email box and your DMs and your whatever, you know, like that takes time. And all of those things add up to a little bit of time. So even if you, you're not sure if you can hire someone, just having someone part-time to help you, it's gonna open your eyes to how much more you can produce, how much more revenue that you can make, just like Amanda said here, and then how your business is gonna grow. So you've talked about like these 4 people, do they have defined roles? Can you talk me through like what their jobs are?

Yeah, so they all started as cutters. So we have Silhouette cutting machines, and they basically take the stickers off the mats, count them, feed them back in, and just— they're continually doing that. So that's how they all started. One has moved on to, like I mentioned before, more of a— she— I give her a list of things to print, she prints them, she makes sure that the, the cuts are accurate, and then puts them into inventory. And another one of our gals has started to— she wrote a blog post for me. So I said, here, watch this, my most popular YouTube video, turn it into a blog post for me. So that'll be fun. She likes to write, so it'll be fun to see how she takes on that new role. Our very first one, she is leaving for college next week, and so we are really excited that she's going to be able to do more design, creativity, computer work while she's away at college. So we'll just have 3 in addition to like the actual manual cutting. But we got a fancy like auto cutter thing to replace her.

Not really replace her, because nobody can replace her, but to help with the workflow.

Yes, yes, yes. So it'll be really great.

I love that. I love that you all— you started all of them as the official Job Term Cutters, and, and they've grown into so much more. And I think the same way with my business, like they were all just like hands to pack. But then, as we learned what they liked to do, and they, they've learned monogramming, they're doing flat lays for our socials and our website, they're creating content, they're helping with all the things around the store that you originally just need extra hands like you needed extra cutters. I needed extra packers, and one, my very first hire, is now my shipping and receiving manager. So she's in charge of what comes in and what goes out of the warehouse. So I love the way that you evolved, and just remember, if you've not Hired anyone. It just starts with one. You don't have to go hire four. Amanda started with one. I started with one. And as the business grows and your needs grow, you can continue to add those people into your, your business. So not only has the people grown, but the space has grown. Let's talk about the next steps for your space. Were you working out of home all the time?

Yes. So we started just in our home basement and then it eventually took over the entire basement. Like we had rooms redone and rearranged. Changing, the kids were like, where are we gonna play? And in January, we actually signed a lease, and it's a— it's, we thought, a way bigger space than we needed. It wasn't. It's perfect. And if we wanted to be a retail walk-up, we could. Our doors are locked right now. We're in the middle of Kansas. People don't know what this planner is. Like, we would not survive as a retail store. But so it's our office. We— it's like offices of Mandolin Plans, and It's so great. We absolutely love it. And it's good for our team members too, because it's easier for them to come in and out. I mean, if they wanna work in the evening or whatever, like they don't feel like they're coming in on our family time. And so that's really great for them too.

So let's talk about that a little bit because you were having employees come into your home and I know that that's a hangup for people to hire someone physically. Can you talk about a little bit about how that worked for you and how you felt about that?

Well, I was very cautious in who we hired. So I personally know everybody that we hired. And so I was comfortable with, I mean, we just left the door unlocked and they would just come and go as they were here. And a lot of them, well, okay, two of them have kids. And so they would bring their young kids with them. And so they could play in the little play area that, you know, was shrinking. Right now it's actually great because we have like a big toy room for them in the office, but but I didn't like put out open applications so that anybody could apply. So we were really careful about how we did that so that we would be comfortable with them in our home.

And so when you started to look for spaces, does it make you nervous? Because now you have this new overhead, you have this new expense for your business, and sometimes it's a difficult decision of, do I keep doing this at home, which I did for a long time, or do I spend some money and have a space? Because for me, and maybe this was— you were the same, I just was sick of looking at it all day. Like it was in my home and my home did not feel peaceful and calm. It always felt like I could see something in the corner of my eye that I needed to be working on, and therefore I needed to be working. Yeah. So tell me, tell me how you felt about that.

Yes. Or, oh, let me run down and just print one thing. And then 2 hours later, 5 minutes later, I definitely needed the work-home separation, and we were fortunate enough to find a place that's just like a quarter of a mile down the road. So it's close enough to where, oh, I forgot that at the office, let me go grab it. But it's not a, oh, let me run down. And I mean, I don't do that. I don't go run to the office to print one thing and then come back home. Like the temptation isn't there. And the kids have, they can tell. They're just 4 and 3, but like they can tell they have their space back and they have like mom and dad when we're home. I mean, there are some things that we do on our phones. We do email or social media occasionally, but if we're home, we're home and it's better for them. They don't see us on our laptops doing whatever or working all the time. Yeah. So it's really good.

Mommy's in her office working again.

Yes. Yes. Yes. It's very, very good.

Were you nervous about the additional expenses that you were now creating for your business. Can you walk me through that?

Absolutely.

Yeah, you were.

Absolutely. But we knew that, uh, it was a risk that had— that we had to do if we wanted to continue to grow. And we were, we're limited here. We have a— I did like a Black Friday reel and all, all 5 of us working, we were like on top of each other. Like, this is not gonna work next fourth quarter. We cannot do this. So we just— it, it was risky, but also kind of not at the same time. Like, we had continuing growth, not just in our subscription box but also on our Etsy side. Like, okay, we can see that the growth is there, and if we, if we don't do what we have to do, then it's good— we're gonna put a cap on it and you're gonna stunt your growth.

And you knew you created this recurring revenue, so no matter what, no matter how many products you put out there in a month on your Etsy shop, you had this recurring revenue that was cover some of those expenses and you knew that, okay, I have this stable piece in my business with my subscription box. I'm going to continue to grow the online shop as well and we're going to be okay because I know it's coming in every single month. And if something happens, I still have the subscription, right?

Yes.

That's the one of the best things that we can do with our subscription. But it just stabilizes. It helps us hire because we know we can provide a paycheck. It helps us grow into a space because we know we can pay the rent and we don't have to show up and sell every single day. And it also helps us build in some creativity because we have a sense of calm about our business. We have a sense of leveling with our business and we will have those spikes and we'll have a lot of subscribers and we will have those lows as the, you know, economy changes. We'll have, but we still have a good chunk of recurring revenue to where no matter where those spikes and falls come in, But it's a matter of just stabilizing our business and continuing to grow. So I'm so excited for you and I love this recap cuz we touched on a lot of things that I know that a lot of business owners are considering of, you know, hiring and expanding into a, a different space. Is there anything through that transition that you would do differently?

I'm a big believer and you learn from the mistakes you made. And so I think that the more we've done things, the more we learn and I don't know. I'm not sure that I would do anything differently.

I love that answer. So what does the future hold for Mandelin Plans? You're growing, you've got the new space, you've got new employees. What does it look like for you?

Yeah, I think that we'll continue to add new planners in that right now our current box offerings are for 6 different planners. And with revamping kits for 2023, we're looking at adding some new planners in with that. So we'll add in new options for our subscription box. And now we have a Wash of the Month Club. So you talk about the one thing of the month. So we have that too. We launched in January. And so just, there's, you know, who knows?

The possibilities are endless. And I can see it. I can see it in your smile. I mean, my listeners can't see your smile, but I can see it in the way that you kind of are lighting up because the future is unknown, but it's filled full of different possibilities for you now. And I love that. And I love watching you grow. And if you are a planner junkie like Amanda is, where can they find you?

Where Mandolin Plans everywhere. So Instagram, we have a private Facebook group, our Etsy, um, our website mandolinplans.com. So just, um, Lynn is L-Y-N-N.

Yeah, we'll put that in the show notes for you so you can click on that and head over to Amanda's thing. So thank you for joining me on the podcast today and giving them a little update. I love your story. I love your growth. So let's just keep on growing. I can't wait to see where you're going to be in a year from now.

Oh, thank you so much for having me, Sarah.

Thank you. We'll talk to you soon and we'll be back on the podcast next week for another great episode. 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.