Seed for Success | Empowering Women Entreprenuers

Wow, time seems to go faster and faster every year. Now that I’m managing a business and three kids I just can’t seem to get ahead!

I decided last Christmas that I would offer Christmas and holiday décor and ornaments this year. However it’s now mid-November and I haven’t had a chance to get the holiday items on my website yet… where does the time go? I have finally completed the product catalogs for our retail partners and can now focus on this, but I wasn’t expecting such a late start. I might as well plan on some late nights this week! I have come to accept that busy days and busy nights are just part of the overall package of being a Mom and an entrepreneur.

I also want to take a moment to thank all of the wonderful people who have supported me and my dreams for the Red Koala Canvas Art Co. Thank you to my family, friends, neighbors, Hillside UMC preschool, the UGA alumni association and Terry College of Business, Moms United in Business, and the many other associates and customers that help to spread the word and support me on this wonderful journey. I am amazed everyday by the graciousness of the people who surround me! There is no better blessing than to be loved, supported, and encouraged by others!

The voting phase of the Seeds for Success grant program certainly takes me out of my comfort zone. The process of getting people to vote for me is not natural to my personality. I don’t like to single myself out as more deserving of something than someone else. Both Dana and Karla have done a great job with their companies and if it were up to me, we would all get the additional money and mentoring from Yahoo and fwm. I want every woman entrepreneur to succeed. We must all help each other. However, in this case it unfortunately doesn’t work that way.

I’ve put in too much time, sweat, and probably some tears, over the past six months to now just sit back and not do anything because I’m uncomfortable asking people to vote for me. It took over 4 months to redo my website, and in the past two months I’ve put almost 100 products on it and have retail partners in four states and online. I’ve exhibited at three tradeshows and have built a product catalog. All of this while staying home with three small children and managing a household of five. I’m not going to say I didn’t get any help. My mom and mother-in-law have been amazing. Their constant support and willingness to help out have made all of this possible. However, when it comes to the business, it’s been mostly me making all of the decisions and doing most of the work. I don’t have a partner to split the work with (or even help me gather votes for that matter). As a CEO I must learn to rally people and gain their support. The voting phase has been a good exercise in reaching out to people and asking them to support me and the Red Koala. This is something I should continue to work on even after the voting has subsided. I have learned so much over the past six months and continue to grow in so many ways. The mentors have of course been very helpful. They have given me great direction, but the decisions and the work are still all mine. So if you have just started a new business or are thinking about it, make sure you have a good support system and are willing to leave your comfort zone in order to benefit your company.

Selling art online poses some challenges. Many customers want to see and feel the quality of the art before purchasing it. I am a believer in the school of thought that challenges always present opportunities. So in order to turn this negative into a positive, I decided to approach retailers about selling my products in store. Red Koala products are now being sold in Ohio, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and in a few online boutiques. These retail outlets increase our reach and provide us an outlet for customers to have a tangible product to view before purchasing.

As a new company, I need a risk free and enticing entry point for retail partners. To accomplish this I offer a free sample for display along with a full catalog of images, background choices, and framing options for customers to flip through. We also provide free shipping to the store and a fee for drop shipping to the customer. With no upfront costs from the retailer and no display space required, the retailer can carry our products risk free. This gives the retailer the advantage of carrying a tangible product and providing no shipping costs to the customer.

However, selling through retailers cuts into our profit margin significantly. I am hopiong that in the long run the volume will compensate for the loss of profit per piece sold. I’m thrilled to go down this road and look forward to the future of the Red Koala.

I am always asking for feedback, so please visit our website at www.RedKoala.com and tell us what you think and don’t forget to vote in the Seeds for Success contest!

I have had several conversations lately with friends and neighbors about the economy and where it’s headed. We all seem to be asking the same thing, “When did I start caring so much?” The consistent answer has been “since having children”. Never, in most of our lives, have we had so much to worry about. What happens to your family if your income is gone and you can’t get a loan or credit? It’s a very scary scenario. Now consider the families that own and operate small businesses that rely on a strong economy and credit to survive. The bar is raised past scary to terrifying! That’s where I am right now. My husband’s business is suffering and my business hasn’t had the chance to take off. So what do you do? My first instinct is to panic, but that won’t get me or my family very far. It’s time to be logical. The economy will turn around, it always does. So it’s a matter of how long can we hang on? My backup plan has always been: “if this doesn’t work, I’ll go back to a full-time job and do this on the side.” With a sports marketing background, this isn’t a very realistic backup plan in the current economic situation. So I’ll stick with the Red Koala and work extra hard to get the word out there about my products; knowing that when the economy starts to rebound I will be there ready to sell to consumers. As the old adage goes, there’s always a silver lining, and in this case it has been the realization of how great my family, friends, and neighbors are… their support and encouragement keep me going when I feel like giving up. I will be forever grateful for each of them. I also have fabulous mentors that remind me almost daily of how much I’ve already accomplished and how much I will continue to accomplish on my path of making the Red Koala a successful family owned business. For anyone else in a similar situation, just keep moving forward and we’ll all come out stronger on the other end!

To be truly successful it is important to have both a plan for marketing online through SEO and offline through events and advertising.

Art is a tricky product to sell online without an established amount of trust from consumers. They can’t feel it or really see it to make sure it is as high quality as I say it is. That is why events such as consumer tradeshows are so valuable at this point in time. They allow me to show my products in a setting where consumers can see the vibrant colors and feel the high quality canvas before ordering it online.

Last weekend I participated in my first consumer tradeshow. I had the opportunity to share a booth with a very talented and successful interior designer and online retailer. We built an impressive space complete with drywall and fully furnished. Red Koala art hung on the walls to show consumers how they can have that one special piece of artwork in their child’s room that is personalized just for them. I distributed brochures with a 10% off coupon on the back and encouraged consumers to go to redkoala.com to see the rest of our products. In addition to the art, I also had on display Halloween wall hangings that are perfect for the front door and a growth chart. The consumer feedback on these two new products was great! Even though my website isn’t exactly where I want it to be just yet, I’m excited about the branding opportunity and the increase in traffic generated from the weekend.

I have struggled in the area of developing an online marketing plan. There is so much literature on the subject and so many different opinions on the best way to do it, that I just get overwhelmed and find something else on my list to do instead. I typically try to do things myself, but in this area I’ve decided to ask for help. Scott Smigler with Exclusive Concepts, Inc has come to my rescue. My site was designed by Fast Pivot and they did a great job building a beautiful site, but now I need help with making it more functional and easy to navigate for the customer. That’s where Scott comes in. He is an expert in website marketing. He has walked me through my site and shown me where I probably lose customers because of confusion. All of his suggested changes have made total sense. Once we finish making all of the changes, he is going to help me develop a game plan for moving forward into the wonderful world of search engine optimization. He has gone out of his way to help me and I appreciate everything he has done. My suggestion for any body with a website is to hire an expert to evaluate the functionality and have it optimized for closing sales. The difference between a designer and an online marketing expert is pretty clear and both are valuable.

Keep watching at www.RedKoala.com as we continue to make changes to improve the site and grow the company.

It seems to me that search engine optimization, or SEO as I’ve come to know it, is vital to the success of a new online business. Before starting Red Koala I didn’t know the first thing about marketing a business online. My background is in sports, and more specifically sports sponsorship, managing deals that ranged from $250,000 to $575 million. I’ve worked with some of the most recognizable brands in the world. It’s an entirely different ballgame to come down a notch and work with a brand that no one has heard of because I just developed it in my home office a year ago. I don’t have the big marketing budgets or the brand awareness of these larger corporations, so how do I get started? Millions of people surf the internet everyday and a big percentage of those are women with children. With a defined target market in mind, how do I find my consumers, or better yet, how do they find me? Blogging has come up as a good strategy from several of my mentors. However, I can hardly keep up with this blog while running my business and managing three kids. Evan Carmichael provided a great solution to this problem. He suggested that I write content that is informative on a subject, such as decorating a nursery, and let other people use it for their blogs and sites. This may not sound attractive at first, but the inclusion of a link to my website makes this a very lucrative approach. Instead of trying to write blogs all over the place, let others include you in their blogs. In addition to getting your name out there, you’re also getting valuable links to your websites.

I have just recently learned about the value of links. I have not started an online marketing campaign yet. I get stuck striving for perfection before I start advertising. I finally got over this stumbling block last night as I worked on my site well past midnight. I realize that a website is a constantly changing thing so there will never be perfection. Currently the Red Koala website is not ranked. This means I miss out on a great deal of traffic because my site can’t be found when my target market is searching for art. I have recently learned that linking is more valuable than I thought. Apparently linking is what gets your website ranked higher on Yahoo and Goggle. Wow… that’s big. So besides writing content for blogs and informational websites, I need to find good quality sites that are willing to put a link to redkoala.com on their site. This will take some time, but in the interim Evan also suggested that I buy some AdWords from Yahoo and Google. I’ve started to dabble in this, but haven’t really felt comfortable enough to jump in. However I think I will up my involvement based on the suggestions provided by my mentors. So the basic strategy is to buy AdWords so people can find www.redkoala.com in the sponsored section when they search for my keywords, provide content for blogging sites, and find at least ten good companies that will put a link on their website. This will take time, but in the end www.redkoala.com should have a good page ranking and start getting the traffic needed to drive sales. I hope this information is helpful for other sites just starting out!

On another note…I just got off the phone with a sales person from the American Baby Faire. They have a show here in Atlanta on September 20th and 21st. She offered me a deeply discounted booth to display my company products. The timing is great, I just introduced two new product lines including growth charts and seasonal wall hangings (check them out at www.redkoala.com) that I would like to promote in addition to the custom art. This will be my first chance to get in front of consumers. I hope I can get it all together by then! Wish me luck.

I have worked very hard to build a website that is easy to maneuver, while allowing consumers plenty of options to create a customized product. Over time I have acquired wonderful artists, the equipment/vendors needed to print and frame high quality art, and the desire to start filling orders. Now that I have all of this in place, what’s next? Marketing seems like the logical answer. This requires me to completely change gears from the past 11 months of operations and business implementation to the more exciting area of marketing and sales.

I need to get the word out to consumers and build a distribution system. I have a three step approach: 1) get my products in retail; 2) educate interior designers on my product attributes; and 3) get my product displayed in baby publications, TV shows, and online.

I started on the first step this past weekend. One of my really good friends reps high-end baby apparel. She has a showroom at the Mart in Atlanta, which she allowed me to hang my art in during the largest show of the year. I had the opportunity to speak with a dozen high-end baby boutique owners. I was looking for feedback, and they all said I was right on track by offering something custom and easy to order. I encouraged each of them to go through the art on my site and test the canvas designer. I will follow up and hopefully get my products into a couple of their stores. More importantly I have the needed feedback and the confidence to approach other store owners about carrying Red Koala products.

The second step is to get in front of interior designers. I have no doubt that the flexibility and design elements offered on my site will be very appealing to this market. I plan to advertise through publications specific to the designer segment, and product placement through cable shows on networks such as HGTV. I am working on a press kit to send out to media outlets and an ad to place in various publications.

The third step in my plan is to reach my core consumer via publications and programming targeted at moms and gift givers. This seems like the most overwhelming part of my plan. There are so many magazines, TV shows, and websites targeted at Moms and young to middle-aged women. Not to mention the amount of clutter in the baby industry. This is an area that I am going to get advice on from my mentors and friends. As I learn tricks and processes for establishing an advertising strategy I will share them here through my blog. So keep checking back. The fun is just starting!

It has been a long and challenging summer, but well worth the effort… www.RedKoala.com is open for business! Now the fun begins: Branding, Marketing, Sales, Partnerships, etc…

This week I am preparing for a large tradeshow at the AmericasMart in Atlanta over the weekend. Many of the major boutique owners from the East Coast will be there shopping for items to sell in their stores. This is a great opportunity to get my products in front of them without having to travel from door to door. People are amazed by the outstanding quality of our art and I’m confident that many of these boutique owners will feel the same. I have worked frantically to have samples produced and brochures printed.

It took me a while to develop a plan for retail and I think I have come up with the best solution. I am offering retail outlets access to my online canvas designer to create custom designed pieces of art, at a wholesale price, to sell in their stores. The store owner, or a designer, will create art to match the store’s other offerings such as crib sets and drapery. The custom designed art will be showcased on the store walls. The store itself will be able to sell the art for a premium because it was custom designed to match a particular bed set or room decor. This system allows for some personalization by the customer and no inventory for the store to carry.

In addition to retail, I will market my services and products to interior designers who are always looking for fresh and innovative products for their clients. Not only is our art fabulous, but you can find something to match any room. We currently have 6 artists that all have unique styles and provide exclusive images for the Red Koala Canvas Co. We will work with designers or customers to commission our artists to paint an image not currently offered on our site. It’s a one stop shop for custom art.

In total, there are three major markets for our business: retail, interior designers, and customers/moms who like to design or want to give a special gift. This market will be challenging to reach through all of the clutter in magazines and online. However, there are plenty of moms out there that would love this service so I will work hard to make sure they know about the Red Koala.

Each segment in of itself is a large market. In the next month I will put together a detailed marketing plan on how to reach each of these segments. I am really excited to have some great conversations with my mentors and get their advice on marketing and partnerships. So please go visit www.RedKoala.com and give me your feedback or even better buy some art!

Here I am on vacation in Florida with good friends, family, and sunshine. The kids are having a blast and my friends are enjoying their time away from work. All the while I’m thinking about everything I need to get done to get my website up and running. The kids run around me as I work away on my laptop responding to e-mails, talking to artists, and putting together graphics. Will there ever be a time when I can go on vacation and actually RELAX? Those days seem so far away to me right now. I am in a constant state of GO, GO, GO! However, I know the day is coming when I’ll have time to spare and I’ll think about how much I miss my three small children and the excitement of starting a new business. Life is all about perspective. Most people would love to be in my shoes and I am grateful every day for all of the blessings in my life! Next week will be a big week as I get my site functioning and start selling products. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say, but for right now I’m going to close the laptop and try to enjoy some time with my family.

I have always valued advice. Even constructive criticism can be tough to swallow, but so valuable. Starting this business and winning this grant have opened my eyes to the amount of resources available all around me. Since I was a kid I have always asked my Mom for her input. As I’ve gotten older, this hasn’t changed. She is a very smart and experienced business woman and entrepreneur. I’m not sure I could have gotten this far without her. However as I get deeper and deeper into the different aspects of the Red Koala Canvas Co., I realize that learning from a larger group of people is exponentially better than trying to take on the world with the advice from just one other person (no matter how great that person is). My advice to other entrepreneurs is to develop a network of intelligent people, some in your target market and some in your industry, to assist you in making the tough decisions. I have really leaned on my family, my friends, and my mentors to guide me through the process.

Another great source of information is books authored by people you admire. I have read two books in the past month written by two of my mentors: Cathie Black’s “Basic Black” and David Vinjamuri’s “Accidental Branding”. Both offer great information in very different formats. Cathie Black, based on her own experiences moving up the ladder, gives valuable insight into dealing with people from bosses, to co-workers, to clients. In any business, building relationships with people is probably the most important skill you can learn.

David’s “Accidental Branding” left me wanting more. I was so intrigued by the entrepreneurs he interviewed that I wanted to learn more about their stories. They are an inspiration and a confirmation of my dreams to build a great brand. I think a separate book could be written on each one of these amazing people.

I am now looking for the next great book to read that will continue to teach and inspire me to fulfill my dreams. If you have any good suggestions please leave a comment. I hope to someday be an inspiration to other people starting on their journey, just as these people have all been such an inspiration to me!