5 Steps to Stress-Free Subscription Box Planning

Good morning, good morning. Happy Monday. We're coming— man, I feel like I was just here. I was just here last night doing the Six in Sixty workshop with everybody. We had an amazing workshop last night, and I wanted to kind of work off of that workshop with you guys this morning. I just want to talk about planning. And, um, we're going to talk about why it's so crucial for your subscription box business. But I also want to talk about some actionable things that can really help you in your business, because sometimes when things aren't planned out, it causes chaos, it causes stress, it causes a reaction instead of proactiveness. It causes, sometimes more costs are involved. And so we're gonna spend a little time this morning just kind of getting those actionable tips checked off our list so that you can feel better about planning your subscription box business. And so if you're a note taker, definitely grab your notebook because we're gonna talk about these things and I want you to jot 'em down so that you can really use them to move forward and help you be less stressed, more calm, more in control of your business. So let me come to the chat and say hi to everybody this morning, and then we're going to dig right in. Um, let me know if you were on the workshop last night. We had hundreds of people on the workshop, um, last night, and there was so much energy. I loved it so much. Um, the chat was going so fast I couldn't keep up with it. I opened my text app this morning this morning to text all of you about Monday Momentum. And there are so many texts I got last night of people completing the 6 in 60. So I'm going to go through that today, respond, and get you some good information. Jasmine, I'm so sorry you couldn't, you couldn't log into the workshop. We do have the replay available for, I think, until tomorrow night. So make sure you go in and, and watch that before it's gone. There was a little, there was a little hiccup with our tech last night. On Crowdcast, which is the software I was using to host the workshop last night, it made you create a login on their side. And so it tripped a lot of people up last night. So it's a free account. They just want your email address. Don't we all? And so when you go in, just sign in, create a little account, and that will allow you to watch the replay there. Okay, Nikki says, I was on the workshop, it was fun to be part of the energy. Again, we're gonna talk about that because it's super important. Good morning everybody, let me come to the chat. Good morning Lexi, I talked about you last night. Good morning Andrea, good to see you. Good morning Rebecca, good morning Myra. Good morning to all my people with business names on their YouTube channels. Good morning Claudia, good Good morning, Jasmine. Good morning, Christina. I saw you there. Um, good morning, Meredith. Um, good morning, everybody. Good morning, Carolyn. Good morning, Teresa. Okay, so let's, let's talk about this a little bit because I'm going to tell you, stressed Sarah. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna, I've been there, y'all. I have been everywhere that you're at in your business. I have been in every one of those little pain points that you have. Let me tell you about stressed out Sarah. Sarah started her subscription box. I love talking about myself in third person. Sarah started her subscription box in 2017. By 2019, I had over 1,000 subscribers. It happened very, very fast, and it happened very— sorry, there's stuff going on with the team this morning. It happened very fast. I was overwhelmed. I was mostly a solo entrepreneur. I had maybe one employee that helped me at that time. Um, the subscription was growing and growing. I was monogramming all the things. I was stuck behind an embroidery machine for like a week at a time every time the boxes went out. And, um, it left little time for me to get ahead of planning. And so what would happen is I'm like, okay, let me figure out what we're going to do next month. And, and then, okay, we got that one settled. Okay, let me figure out what we're going to do the next month. And then, and then I would get that, and then I would get busy. I'm like, oh crap, I haven't figured out what we're gonna do for next month. It's 3 weeks away and I haven't bought any product, and I don't know what doing, and I'm stressed out, and I haven't bought boxes, and I don't know what we're putting in the box. And does this sound like you? Does it— does this sound like anybody? Um, it's just— say that's me in the chat, um, and let me know if that sounds like you, because it was like this constant pressure and stress. I didn't have enough help, but I also wasn't planned out well enough, and I was reacting, okay, what can I find? What can I get? I need 500 of this, I need 600 of this, I need 1,000 of this. And at that point, when you need that much product, it's not easy just to, you know, buy something. Okay. So I was in this rat race and I end up paying rush shipping. I would end up paying more for things. I would end up paying— it was just costing me and it was completely stressing me out. Then stuff was coming in last minute and I'm like biting my nails off, wondering if I was going to get it on time, if my shipments were going to go out late. And then it would come in and then it wouldn't fit in the box and I didn't have any alternative to put it in a box. And I was just constantly stressed out, like I was constantly stressed. Out. And so in that moment is when I developed the 6 in 60 workshop. And I really just developed it for me, not knowing it was going to help thousands of people. But I was like, okay, I'm gonna block out an hour, I'm gonna sit down, and I'm gonna brainstorm 6 months because I'm sick of being stressed. I'm sick of this feeling chaotic for me. I'm sick of not knowing what I'm doing, and I'm sick of like falling behind on things. And so I sat down for an hour and I put that timer on and I worked through my notes and I did all of that just like I did in the workshop last night. And at the end of that hour, I was like, oh, this feels so good. I'm gonna also tell you, this is what happened in January. I have been a little behind in the business, and so I had up until May planned out in January. Normally I'm a year out at a time, so I was already feeling a little stressed that I had only had till May planned out. I was like, I've got to get on this because I I've got to get on the manufacturing, right? And so I— when I was sitting down to do my slide notes for last night's webinar, I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna plan my 6 months in this and I'm gonna teach it and I'm gonna do it right here. And I sat down and made all my slide notes for the 6 in 60. This is late January. And so I started with June and I got through the end of the year and I was like, why haven't I done this sooner? I know this works. I know this helps me. Now we're— we're— have all the boxes like we just We just, um, ordered stuff for November, uh, yesterday. So it's like, I know this works, I know I just have to put it in place, I know I need to sit down and do it, so I just need to do it. And it's so crucial for us because when we're feeling that stress, our anxiety levels at our all-time high, and then we don't make decisions clearly. We're making rash decisions, we're not thinking through, um, there's no longer these last-minute product hunts where like, I guess that's I have to go with because I can't find anything else. I guess that's what I'm going to use because it fits my budget, right? It's going to reduce your stress. It's going to save you money because you have time to negotiate and plan and avoid those, you know, rush shipping fees. It's going to improve your customer experience because your box is going to be more cohesive, more thought out, more curated. It's also going to increase your retention rates. Okay? And then you're gonna be able to really boost your marketing efforts because now that I'm planned out for the rest of the year, I can build on content that's gonna build on these boxes and it just makes my marketing efforts so much better because I know what's coming up, I know what we're doing, I know what our themes are and I can keep building on that through my marketing efforts. Okay? So I see some of you are, are just like me. That's me. So me, that's me. I was just like that frantically all the time and it was so stressful. And then I would just stress eat. I would bite my nails. It was so awful. And all I had to do was a few little things. So I am going to give you some actionable steps. I have got like 5 of them here and I want you to write these down and we are going to go through that. OK. So, number 1. Once I did that Post-it note challenge, okay, so once I laid out those 6 months, that 6 in 60 workshop that I just taught last night, I then decided to use Trello to plan out those boxes and those tasks. I'm gonna pull up my Trello board for you and show you that this morning because last night I had a bonus And if you watch on the replay this morning, you can still get in the bonus. Let me go through and find you some really great content here. We'll go 2024. Okay, let me show you what I did from Trello. So hang on, let me share my screen. Leslie, I'm gonna come back to your question in just a second. So I started to organize what I was buying into these Trello boards, and I still use this today. But I did a training last night. So last night I, I've recorded a brand new training. It's called From Brainstorm to Blueprint. I was like, what do we call it? It's called From Brainstorm to Blueprint, and it was a bonus that I gave away last night. Now here's the good news. If you are already a member of LauncherBox prior to last night, um, you get this bonus too. We're going to load it into your library this week, but it is how I took those notes, those ideas, that inspiration that I went through, and pop them into these boards month after month so that I could then start to plan it. I then could start to work on it. I would show you my 2025 board and how I'm planning that, but I have some subscribers here, and so I don't to ruin the surprise. But basically what we're going to do is pop our ideas into the March board, pop our ideas into the April board, and then this becomes a working document until that month is over. And then the final product is in here. So this is the final product. But if we dig into this, you'll see where I started, um, because each one of these cards is a working document. This might have been sweatshirt with a Chanel patch. That might have been how this card started because I knew that was the product I wanted to put in the November box. And then once I developed the design, it starts to work through itself, and, and then it becomes the actual sweatshirt in the box. But one of the most important things you can do is, um, you can start to create product boards in a program like Trello, which is completely free, and I still use the free version of it. And I have a brand new training for all of our Launch Your Box members for that. And, and if you want to go watch the replay of the workshop and do all of this, you can. It's only going to be up until tomorrow night and that is at 6in60workshop.com. So you can go do that. But let's go back to my notes here because I want to make sure I'm giving you these actionable things is that the first thing you have to do is organize your months. And put them in a place that you can work off of it. You need a working document to start working through the product procurement of these items. Okay, so that's step number 1. Step number 2, if you're struggling a little bit— and we talked about this in the workshop if you want to go watch the replay— um, but we gotta set monthly themes. Okay, this makes curation easier. Last night I was showing them the June box and I had a cup and a trucker hat and a monogram t-shirt, um, and some scrunchies in that June monogram box that I'm planning last night. But once I told them I want to do a patriotic theme for this box, now everything comes to life. Okay, I want to do a red t-shirt, I want to do a red and blue trucker hat, I want to do some sort of red, white, and blue, uh, tumbler. That starts to bring things to life when you can put theme around it, and it really makes the final, you know, curation of that box easier for you. So go ahead and set monthly themes for each of your boxes. Okay, then number 3, these are your actionable steps to make your life easier so you can plan and not be reactive. But I want you to use time blocking on your schedule for product sourcing. So whether that's a block once a month, a block once a week, a block every other week, we've got to have dedicated time to sit down and work through those cards on our Trello board. Right. So once a month I sit down with the team. We have a dedicated time block on our schedule and I say, here's what I've planned, here's what I'm thinking. This is what I want you guys to work on. So they're going and searching, you know, our wholesalers, they're going and looking at manufacturing. Now, if you're a solopreneur, this is your time block to do that. So I've got my plan for 6 months. Let's start with the most— what I need first. I'm going to work through those cards. That sweatshirt that I just showed you, okay, what color sweatshirt am I going to pick? What patch am I going to put on it, or what design? Um, am I going to buy that design? Am I going to create that design? Let me work on that design so I can get it off to the factory to make me a patch. And then I'm gonna pick this color sweatshirt and I'm putting all those notes into that card, into that Trello board. And then I'm looking at the next thing and next thing. And once I have something settled, I go to the next month. So that hour that I blocked off, I'm using the complete hour and I'm gonna get as far as I can in that hour. And then the next week I'm gonna spend another hour on it. Okay, let me follow up. Have I got, have I got the design sent over to the factory for the patches? Did I get a quote back on the sweatshirt so that I can get a bulk price? Okay, check, check. Do I have this? Do I have this? Let me keep working through the next month. And I spend an hour following up and working on the next things. And if it's time blocked on my schedule, it doesn't get shoved to the last of my to-do list. Do you know what I'm saying? Because there's so many things that we do in a day. There's so many fires that we put out in a day. Sometimes you think, oh, well, I don't need that until August. Oh, I gotta work on this today. And then here you are at the beginning of July and you've not finished curating the stuff for August and now you're panicked and now you're stressed and now things are chaotic. And that's what I'm trying to prevent. So if we can get ahead of things a little bit and we can time block our product, you know, sourcing our product work in a block, if that's weekly for you, if that's every other week, if that's once a month, whatever the time that you need to do that, we've got to put it on our calendar. Okay? We've got to start locking in our product procurement for months at a time. Now, number 4, I want you to build in a buffer for product delays. Okay? I like a good 4-week buffer. I want my stuff here 4 weeks before I need it. And this also has to happen only— that can only happen if I'm planned ahead. If I'm not planned ahead, there's no way, no way I can have a 4-week buffer on my products. Because how many times— raise your hand in the chat— has your product been delayed? How many times? I'm going to say almost monthly I have a product delay, maybe every other month. Sometimes some seasons are better than others. But how many times have you had product delays that then make you stress stress out, like, whether it's coming, what am I gonna do, do I have a backup plan, how is this gonna work out, right? Like, all those things create that stress and anxiety. And we've got— if we can get planned ahead, then we can work a 4-week buffer into our plan, and then that relieves the stress. I have stuff here for April, I have stuff here for May, I have the buffer here, and I can relax, and I can continue to show up in the way that I want to and not in anxiety, stressful, driven manner. Okay, now number 5, this is something I've had to learn the hard way a few times, but this is also why it's great to have a 4-week buffer. Okay, um, you've got to test your product fit early. Um, also tell me in the chat how many times you've got product and it doesn't fit in your boxes. Me. Multiple, at least once a year. It happens to me at least once a year. Um, we've got to get our samples in, we've got to do a test pack to make sure everything fits in that box. And you don't want to get to packing day and realize your packaging doesn't work for this, and then you're paying rush shipping, you're paying for something that's more expensive. Again, it's all those things that we end up doing with products, we end up doing it with packaging. Okay, so let's just review these 5 things because I think it's gonna help you streamline, it's gonna help you be a better business owner, it's gonna help you be a less stressed subscription box owner. But number 1, we've got to use a program or a project management system like Trello to start putting our items in there and using it as a working document for every product. Okay, number 2, I want you to set monthly themes, it's going to help you curate easier. So it doesn't always have to be seasonal or a holiday. It could just be a theme around, you know, colors. It could be a theme around like cactuses. It could be a theme around stripes. Like, just pick a theme and work off of that. It's going to help you tremendously. Number 3, I want you to time block your product curation and sourcing. So when you're developing your own products or looking to purchase them, I want you to time block that on your schedule, um, if that's weekly, biweekly, or monthly, whatever you need, so that it's constantly coming up on your schedule. Know what, I'm going to put all the emails aside, I'm going to put all the tasks I have to do aside, because for this next hour I'm going to work on my product development and, and sourcing. Okay. Number 4, you've got to build in that buffer, and you can't build in the buffer unless you're planned out. So we've got to build in a buffer to create less stress for us, and that buffer will also give us number 5, and that is to test the product fit early. We've got to make sure we do a test pack on these products before packing day arrives. If you do those— these 5 things, it's going to remove so much stress from your business. And it's just lessons I've had to learn the hard way, um, so I'm bringing them to you. Now, if you're sitting here and you're thinking, Sarah, I'm not planned out for the rest of the year, I'm not even planned out more than 2 months out right now, um, or if you're sitting here thinking, this is great, but I don't even know what I'm going to put in my subscription box, so how can I launch the dang thing? I want you to go over and watch the workshop from last night. Team, will you drop a link in here for Facebook and YouTube? It's 6in60workshop.com. It's free, but the, the deal is that it goes away tomorrow night. Okay, so that's my website. It's 6in60workshop.com. You'll register on my site. It will give you a link to go to the workshop You'll have to create an account on the workshop page as well. It's free account. They just again want your email. So you'll sign in and create an account there and you'll start watching. Just block— this is your first time block. Time block this on your schedule today. Time block it on your schedule in the morning. You're going to need an hour and a half and you're going to go through this workshop and you're going to plan things out. Okay. And what we need to do is we've got to get better at this too. Eliminate the overwhelm in our business. So I want you to get clear on what you're selling, what month it goes in, and what are the next steps for each of those, okay? And if you can do that, you're going to be in a much better position going forward. And then you need to continue to do that, right? So this was my problem. I got planned out for the rest of the year, then I'm in the middle of fourth quarter and I'm like, oh crap, I'm super busy. I don't have time to plan out the first 6 months. I need to do that in September. I need to do that in October before I get to November and December. I need to do that early. And the earlier I do that, the better I feel, the more calm I feel, the more control I feel. And I want you to feel that for your business too. Okay. Okay. Let me go back up to this question. For Leslie. Leslie says, what if you get a lot more subscribers? How much extra will you order for a box 10 months away? So this is where the closed cart comes in, Leslie. And so in Launch Your Box, we have a lesson called open or closed cart model. So you have to plan for your launches. So what I do is I have a specific number And that number will not change until I get to my launch month. Okay. So just for easy math, let's say that number is 100. Say you have 100 subscribers, or maybe you have like 90 subscribers or something like that, like build in a little extra. And I'm going to plan for 100 subscribers. So I'm going to plan for 100 subscribers for March, for April, and then May I'm going to do a launch and I'm going to work really hard. I'm going to pull the launch plan from library. I'm going to go all in. I'm going to, I'm going to kill it and I'm going to plan to increase that number by 50. So now in May, I'm ordering 150. In June, I'm ordering 150. In July, I'm ordering 150. In August, I'm ordering 150. And then September, I'm going to launch again and I'm going to add 75 more. So now September, I'm going to order 225. And so I put this on my calendar that way. That's also in my Trello board. You'll see it when I go through. How many I'm going to order each month based around my launches. Now, what happens if I get to April and I'm sold out at 100? I close cart and I put my waitlist up. This is how we're building for the next launch. If I'm not sold out, maybe I'm still at 96 and I got 4 more spots, I'm going to leave my cart open and I'm going to encourage people to grab those 4 spots before they are sold out. But that's how I operate when I plan 10 months ahead. I I plan those launches to increase the number and then I get there. And if I don't get there, say I get to 135 on that launch, I'm gonna spend the next few months with email campaign or a text campaign or a live campaign trying to sell those last 15 boxes. And then when I do, I'll close the cart and I'll put the waitlist up for the September launch. So that's how I operate with those kinds of numbers planning out that far ahead. I hope that helps you. All right. So this is your goal for your Monday this week. Well, today or tomorrow, time block, go watch Six in Sixty. It's at sixin60workshop.com. So make sure you get that. It will be gone tomorrow night. It will not be accessible after tomorrow night. So make sure you go, just put that time on your calendar to sit down, grab a drink, grab some Post-its, and let's get some stuff planned out. And then go through this checklist and let's start feeling better about how we're planned out for our subscription box businesses. All right, y'all have a great week. I'll see you soon.