0:07

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Ideas

0:09

to Life podcast, practical

0:12

advice and inspiration to help you

0:14

create and sell your own physical

0:16

products. Here's your host,

0:19

Vicki Weinberg.

0:21

Today I'm talking with Vic Wood from Greener Beauty.

0:24

So Greener Beauty is an online store where

0:26

you can find all the ethical, vegan and cruelty-free

0:29

and natural beauty products that you love all in

0:31

one place. So we spoke a lot

0:33

about Vic's inspiration for setting up her business,

0:36

how she, she went about it, um, sort

0:38

of the vigorous testing she goes through for every

0:40

product that lands on her site. We

0:42

spoke about her Advent calendar, which is available

0:45

to buy as you listen to this right

0:47

now. We also spoke about

0:49

an experience Vic had with another company earlier

0:51

this year, a bigger well known company, and,

0:53

um, shares a bit of a cautionary tale that I think

0:56

we can hopefully all learn from. So

0:58

I would now love to introduce you to Vic and

1:00

for you to hear her story. So,

1:06

hi Vic. Thank you so much for being here. Thank

1:09

you so much for having me.

1:10

Oh, you're so welcome.

1:11

I'm so excited to talk to you today. So

1:14

let's start with you. Please give an introduction to yourself,

1:16

your business, and what you sell.

1:18

Uh, so hi everyone. My name's Vic and

1:21

my business, or my

1:23

baby, as I like to call it, is called Greener

1:25

Beauty. And basically

1:27

I'm like, someone called me the

1:29

ethical version of Boots once, which

1:32

is quite accurate. I sell

1:34

lots of different brands of products that are

1:36

all vegan and ethical,

1:39

um, natural and

1:41

a lot of plastic free aswell.

1:43

Amazing. Thank you. And what was

1:45

your inspiration for doing that?

1:48

Yeah. Um, when I first set up

1:51

the business, um, so we'd been running

1:53

for about five, we'll be five years early next

1:55

year. Um, I'd been vegan

1:57

for about five years at that point.

2:00

And, um, I was really

2:03

finding it so frustrating because

2:05

I knew all the good products and I knew all the good brands.

2:08

Um, and being very passionate about natural beauty,

2:10

which is not so easy to find on the high street.

2:13

Um, I was having to shop in like

2:15

multiple different websites. You

2:17

know, I'd have to get my deodorant from one place,

2:19

my toothpaste from somewhere else. And I

2:21

just thought like, I can't be the only person

2:23

having this problem. So it

2:26

just sort of one day I was like, that's it, I'm

2:28

going do it myself. And you

2:30

know, and luckily lots of other

2:32

people have, have found me and used me as well.

2:34

But initially it was for selfish reasons

2:36

really. I just set out for me

2:38

because I wanted to, to have everything in one.

2:43

No, that make, that makes total sense. And I think

2:45

as you've probably found out, because you're experiencing

2:48

that issue, there probably are so many other people

2:50

out there with exactly the same thing

2:52

because yeah. Yeah. I find that myself,

2:54

you just can't get all

2:56

the products you want in in one place

2:59

because there is, there isn't like a, well,

3:01

until you came along there wasn't like a boots for beauty

3:03

products that were sustainable and ethical.

3:06

Yeah. And it was, it was frustrating.

3:08

Like the amount of time I stood in

3:11

various shops, like checking labels

3:13

and researching the brands, do they

3:15

test on animals? Who are they owned by?

3:18

You know, what is their ethical stance?

3:20

And it just like shopping became such

3:23

a mission.

3:25

I, I expect though that research is paid

3:27

off now though, hasn't it? Because I was about to ask.

3:29

Oh, absolutely.

3:30

Yeah. How you research products

3:32

for your site and I guess having

3:35

sort of gone through all that, which must have been quite

3:37

painful, I guess that did give you a bit of a head

3:39

start when choosing which brands you were going to include.

3:42

Oh, a hundred percent. I think when we launched,

3:44

we launched with about 35, 40

3:46

brands, which is quite unusual

3:48

for, you know, a startup business

3:51

to have that volume of products. I mean,

3:53

you know, we've probably three folded that now,

3:56

but, um, yeah, a hundred

3:58

percent, like when, as soon as the

4:00

idea came to me, I knew exactly what brands

4:02

I wanted to start with. So,

4:04

yeah, it really did help.

4:05

That's great. So it sounds like you, so you knew

4:08

which brand you wanted, so how did you go about sourcing,

4:10

of do the sourcing side of it?

4:13

Yeah. Um, I

4:15

think, honestly, I, I'm

4:18

a very spiritual person, so for someone

4:21

who's not, this might sound a bit hippie, but I

4:23

do feel that if you're on the right path, that

4:25

things will align and things will just happen

4:28

as they're meant to happen. And I was just

4:30

very lucky. Um, one of the brands I wanted

4:32

to stock, um, I contacted

4:34

their distributor in the UK and

4:36

do you know what? He's been amazing.

4:38

Like I still talk to him on a weekly basis now,

4:41

and he put me in touch with other distributors

4:44

and he's sort of, he

4:46

almost handheld me to start

4:48

the business up. Um, so

4:51

whereby I was like, I knew, knew what

4:53

brands I wanted, I didn't know how to go about getting

4:55

them. He was a big support to me,

4:57

to be honest.

4:59

Well, that's amazing. Um, yeah. And

5:02

uh, and I'm just curious, and you don't need to

5:04

sort of go into detail, but are you expected

5:06

as a small business to, to buy quite

5:08

large quantities or are distributors

5:10

sort of okay at you just testing

5:13

the waters as it were?

5:14

Yeah, I think it depends. So

5:17

some of the products we, we sell, we

5:19

buy directly from the brands, and brands

5:21

tend to have a larger minimum order

5:24

quantity. Um, when you are shopping

5:26

from a distributor, you tend to be able to buy

5:28

in lower volumes. Um,

5:30

and to be honest, that's what we tend to do

5:32

because they're natural products. We prefer

5:35

to order more frequently from suppliers and

5:37

make sure that everything is fresh as possible

5:39

and not keep a huge volume of stock.

5:42

So, yeah, I mean it, it very

5:44

much depends.

5:45

Yeah, that does. That makes total sense though actually.

5:48

And I didn't think about the fact that obviously because they're natural

5:50

products, they're not packed full of preservatives,

5:52

so you don't want to have them sitting around for

5:54

months or years.

5:56

No, absolutely. So, you know,

5:58

it's, it works really well to order in low

6:00

volumes. I mean, the brands that sell well,

6:02

obviously you want to keep a larger volume because you

6:04

don't want to be ordering every other day. Yeah,

6:07

I mean it definitely works for us.

6:09

And how did, I'm just, I'm sorry. I'm going, I'm

6:11

asking so many questions that I didn't prepare you for,

6:13

because I'm really interested. But given that now

6:15

you stock, you know, more, presumably

6:18

more brands than you started five years ago, I mean,

6:20

you must have hundreds of SKUs now. How

6:22

are you keeping.

6:23

Thousands!

6:23

On top of stock management because

6:26

this must be a full-time job.

6:28

Yeah, it pretty much is. To be honest, we

6:31

probably have, so we have around

6:33

5,000 product lines now.

6:35

Wow.

6:36

So it is, it is a huge volume of

6:38

stock. Um, and it

6:40

is a weekly job. Um,

6:43

and we are a very small team here. We're

6:45

not like a team of hundreds or thousands,

6:48

you know, So it, it does take

6:50

up an amount of time to ensure that we have

6:52

stock, but that's just part

6:54

and parcel. As we get bigger and as,

6:57

as we make more and more sales, I think that will get

6:59

even easier. But for

7:01

now, I mean, it's manageable.

7:03

That's good. And obviously you've grown

7:05

tremendously in five years in terms of even,

7:07

even if we just, even in just terms of the

7:09

amount of brands and, and SKUs

7:11

that you are stocking. So how are you going about

7:14

finding new products to add? Are you get,

7:16

are you finding that businesses are coming directly

7:18

to you now or are you still going out and looking

7:21

or is it a bit of both?

7:23

It is, it's definitely a bit of both. We

7:25

get contacted and awful lot by brands

7:27

who want to, to work with us.

7:29

Which is amazing, you know. When

7:31

you set up, you never think that's going to happen,

7:33

but we probably get about 10, 15

7:36

brands contact us a week, which is just

7:38

incredible. Um, and

7:40

then we also, you know, social media's great

7:42

to see what other brands are out there, you know, the

7:44

influences and people we follow, what products

7:47

they're using. They, we quite often find out

7:49

new brands through those people.

7:51

Um, so it's a real mix. Um, I

7:54

mean, I think we are quite unique. I

7:57

have super sensitive skin, I had really

7:59

bad eczema as a child, and that's why I'm really

8:01

passionate about natural beauty. Um,

8:04

but what sets us apart from a lot of other brands

8:06

is we test all the products we sell first.

8:09

So if a brand contacts us,

8:11

it does not necessarily mean that we will definitely be retailing

8:13

their products. We get the products in, we

8:15

test them, which is so hard.

8:17

Isn't it awful, Just having to use all these new

8:19

products.

8:20

What a terrible job.

8:21

Oh, so hard. Um,

8:24

and then obviously if the products are good enough, then

8:26

we would, we would retail them. And that. We

8:28

don't retail or we test, I

8:30

would say we probably only retail about 40%

8:33

of what we test just because, you know, we

8:35

might not think that the price point is right or

8:37

it doesn't smell that great, or it doesn't

8:39

do what it says it's going to do, or

8:41

you know, there could be loads of different reasons. But yeah, we

8:43

probably only take on about 40% of what we test.

8:46

Oh, that's amazing. And I think that's also really

8:49

good, um, for everyone to know that,

8:51

you know, you're not just stocking every product

8:54

and every brand out there that you are going through this process.

8:57

And actually, in terms of the criteria, what other things

8:59

are you looking for? So if a brand wanted to

9:01

be stocked with you, um, what are

9:03

some of the other things? Because obviously you don't, no animal

9:05

testing and.

9:06

Yeah.

9:07

Um, is it a hundred percent vegan products? What are

9:09

some of the other things.

9:10

So, yeah, everything's a hundred percent vegan.

9:12

Everything is cruelty free. Um,

9:15

we don't have any brands that, um,

9:18

have animal testing parent companies,

9:20

so they won't be owned by the likes of L'Oreal

9:22

or Estee Lauder, or, you

9:24

know, Johnson Johnson, Procter and Gamble.

9:27

I mean, the list goes on, right. I'm, I'm

9:29

not going to tell you all of them, but yeah. Uh,

9:31

so we don't have any brands that are owned by

9:34

animal testing parent companies. Um,

9:37

and we also don't sell any brands

9:39

that sell in China. Now, China's a bit of a wobbly

9:41

one because there was the law change out there.

9:43

So for anyone who didn't know, for a long time,

9:46

China have only allowed products to be sold

9:48

in China that were tested on animals.

9:51

Um, and recently that was changed,

9:53

but it's not for all beauty products.

9:56

There are definite loopholes. But

9:58

we, we made a stance and we've

10:01

decided we just won't sell any brands

10:03

that sell in China. And until

10:05

the law changes a hundred percent, that

10:07

won't change.

10:09

Well that's fantastic and it's great

10:11

that, yeah, I think people, you're really giving me this sense that

10:13

people can buy a view for so much confidence that you've

10:15

done all the due diligence for them. Because I guess

10:17

coming back to what you were saying earlier, um,

10:20

you can spend a long time reading labels and Googling

10:22

and trying to work out, okay, is this product

10:24

actually ethical? And it's really nice to know

10:27

that you've done all the work.

10:28

Yeah. Yeah, and it is a lot of

10:30

work. I mean, when we sign up with new brands,

10:33

we make them sign a contract to ensure

10:35

that any, if anything changes in their

10:37

circumstances, but as soon as

10:39

it does, they let us know. So if they're going to

10:41

sell out to L'Oreal, that's obviously their

10:43

choice, but they have to tell us,

10:46

and at that point, we'd decide not to sell them. Even

10:48

if it's my favorite mascara, it

10:50

would be hard, but, that would be

10:52

it.

10:53

Yeah, no, that would, but that would be, yeah, hard

10:55

and really sad as well, so I hope that, isn't it something

10:58

that happens? I really hope that isn't something that happens

11:00

too often.

11:01

It hasn't happened at all in the five years

11:04

with me going, so it's not something

11:06

that I foresee because a lot of the brands I work with

11:08

are really ethical brands, so you

11:10

know, they're unlikely to sell out to the big,

11:13

the big animal testing giant.

11:15

Yeah, I would've thought so because I guess they're coming from a very

11:17

similar place, aren't they?

11:18

Yeah. Although, I mean,

11:20

what I always find interesting is Anita

11:22

Roddick with the body shop, because she obviously sold

11:24

out to L'Oreal and her plans

11:26

were to change L'Oreal from the inside,

11:29

which unfortunately due to her health, that never

11:32

happened. But, you know, ethical

11:34

people obviously have a different stance and everyone

11:36

has a different way of doing things, so never

11:38

say never. I hope it never happens,

11:40

but you never know.

11:42

Yeah. So let's, um,

11:44

talk a little, if you don't mind, talk a little bit more about

11:47

your advent calendar. So, I know we're going completely

11:49

off topic, but I know this has been a massive

11:51

thing, but there's been a lot of hard work.

11:54

So can you start by telling everybody what your adcent

11:56

calendar is and then we'll talk a bit more about

11:58

how you developed it?

12:00

Yeah. Um. My

12:02

advent calendar, I have to say like, if Greener

12:05

Beauty was my baby, like this, this would

12:07

be the main, the main part of it. Like

12:09

it takes so much time. Um, I think

12:11

this year I started working on it in April

12:13

and I've decided next year I'm going to start it even earlier

12:16

because it still wasn't early enough, which

12:18

is ridiculous, isn't it? The sun shining

12:20

outside and everyone's talking about where they're going on a

12:22

summer holiday and I'm sitting looking

12:24

at Christmas designs. But

12:27

we, um, so basically what I do is I pull

12:29

in lots of different brands. They're all

12:31

brands that I love, they're all products I love, um,

12:34

the stipulation, obviously vegan, cruelty free,

12:37

um, and ethical. But with the advent

12:39

coming, everything is plastic free as well. Um,

12:42

just because typically advent calendars

12:44

generate so much waste, you

12:46

know, and they're normally in a really glossy box, and

12:48

even though the box is cardboard, it often can't

12:50

be recycled. Um, so

12:52

everything is plastic free. The

12:54

packaging is fully recyclable,

12:57

and yeah, so we just, it's

12:59

just all the products I love.

13:02

And are they in mini version

13:04

or are they, are they full sized?

13:06

No. We do full size,

13:09

so everything is full size in it. So you get

13:11

24 full size products.

13:13

That's amazing. So obviously with most event calendars,

13:15

particularly beauty ones, you get miniatures,

13:17

you might get a few full size products, but the majority

13:20

of them are quite small.

13:21

No, no. All of ours are full size.

13:23

Well, actually there's one that's the mini and that's a

13:26

perfume, and you get 10 mls instead

13:28

of 30. Just because perfume is

13:30

such a personal thing. I don't want to put in 30

13:32

mls and then for it just to be a waste,

13:35

you know, if the fragrance isn't right or something.

13:38

Yeah. That does that make sense.

13:39

But yes, everything else is full size

13:41

and the value of the contents is over 350

13:44

pounds.

13:45

What, and what does the calendar retail for out of interest?

13:47

Um, it's a hundred and seventy seven,

13:50

ninety five. So you're sort of paying

13:52

half what the retail would be for the individual

13:55

products.

13:56

It's a lovely gift as well though, isn't it?

13:58

Yeah. I mean, the majority of the ones that sell

14:00

are sold to men and it's

14:02

for their wives. Like we get gift notes

14:05

added and all sorts.

14:06

That's really lovely. Yeah, that's lovely. And so

14:08

we are recording this, well, as you will know, but

14:10

nobody else will know it in October, but when

14:13

everyone listens to this, it'll be November. So, um,

14:16

are we still going to be able to get hold of these in November or

14:18

are they going to sell out, do you think?

14:20

Um, I mean, it's difficult to know.

14:23

Um, obviously this year with the climate

14:26

that we're in, who knows? We,

14:28

um, the last we've only done the advent calendar

14:31

for three years. This is our third year. Um,

14:33

and we have sold out every single. Um,

14:36

but who knows? We've, we've still

14:38

got a volume of stock now left.

14:40

They're selling well and they're selling frequently,

14:42

but as it stands today in October,

14:45

we still have stock. And I'd imagine we still have a

14:47

few left in November too.

14:49

Okay. So if you're listening to this and you're interested,

14:51

get over there quickly, I think is the message I'm

14:54

taking from this

14:55

Yeah.

14:57

So something else, obviously coming up in

14:59

November is Black Friday.

15:01

Now I know that you don't partake in that and

15:03

that you do greener Friday instead.

15:05

So can you tell us a bit about that, please?

15:08

Yeah, of course. So, um, as

15:11

an ethical business, it, Black Friday

15:13

just doesn't feel ethical to me at all.

15:15

Um, it's just about mass consumerism

15:18

and discounting stuff that's not selling

15:20

and people just stock piling, sorry

15:23

for my language crap, which just ends

15:25

up in landfill, which as, you know,

15:27

planet faced and focused business. I

15:29

just can't subscribe to that. So

15:32

what we try and do is, um, I think

15:34

we've done it for four years now, is we plant,

15:37

well every order, we, we,

15:39

we have, we plant one tree anyway

15:41

all year round, but during

15:43

Black Friday weekend, we plant 10 trees

15:45

per order in the hope that it would

15:47

negate some of the carbon footprint of the other

15:50

businesses out there as well.

15:52

Oh, that's amazing. And I didn't

15:54

realize you planted a tree per order anyway. You

15:56

kept that quiet, but that's.

15:58

Yes, sorry. Yeah, we've

16:00

planted over, um, 13

16:02

and a half thousand trees so far.

16:04

Wow. That's a huge impact.

16:06

Yeah.

16:06

That's amazing.

16:07

Isn't it great, Isn't it great?

16:09

That's really great. Yeah. Thank you.

16:12

Um, something else I'd like to talk

16:14

about if that's okay, because I did see this

16:16

on, I think I might have seen this on social media,

16:18

but you do say, if you don't want to talk about it,

16:20

is, I know that there was a big retailer

16:23

earlier this year that you had, um, you

16:25

know, that you really went into business with.

16:28

Um, yeah. Is that something you don't

16:30

mind sharing and obviously only

16:33

go into as much detail as you feel comfortable?

16:35

Because I just think it might be quite eye opening for other

16:37

businesses that are listening.

16:39

Yeah, I'm, you know what, like,

16:41

I, I'm totally fine with sharing it because

16:44

I, I don't see why you would hide it.

16:49

That's their policy and that's, they approached

16:51

me. Um, but I, I was approached

16:54

by Feel Unique, who are

16:56

one of the biggest, you

16:58

know, UK beauty retailers in,

17:01

you know, as it stands. And

17:03

they wanted me to set up a shop in

17:05

their shop. And

17:08

I'd have my own page and the products

17:10

would look the same to the customer.

17:13

Um, and what they would do is they would take commission

17:15

off everything I sell, and then they would

17:17

send me the orders and I would send them out like

17:19

they'd been ordered from my website.

17:23

Um, now I

17:26

asked a few questions because

17:28

it all looked very normal. In

17:30

the emails that, that were going back and forth

17:32

at the beginning, and I don't know,

17:34

this is where my spiritual side comes in because

17:36

it was almost like someone whispered it in my

17:38

ear. Um, and I said to them is,

17:40

is there a contract in place that if,

17:43

if I bring a brand on board

17:46

and they sell really well, is

17:48

there anything to protect my business?

17:51

Um, and basically it turns out

17:53

that if I, if I came on board with all the brands

17:55

I was selling and some of the brands sold

17:58

well, they would just buy them in themselves.

18:00

And then I contractually can't sell

18:02

them because they are then sold by them.

18:04

So they were basically using me and my

18:07

stock to test out what

18:09

brands were selling. Which

18:12

just, it's, it's just so unethical.

18:14

I mean, that is how you, in my opinion,

18:16

that's how you screw small businesses over,

18:19

you know. It's just.

18:21

Absolutely, because I mean, let's face it,

18:23

their, they're competition,

18:26

well, not competition, they are kind of competition anyway.

18:28

As in, if you've on their website, presumably you'd

18:30

still have your own website going as well.

18:32

Yeah. So you would be, Yeah,

18:35

that, that's really. I'm

18:38

trying to think of the right word. They mean unethical or part of unethical,

18:41

but yeah, it seems to me that they knew

18:43

that you would be at a disadvantage and

18:45

they didn't really care.

18:47

No, no. And I mean, worst

18:49

case scenario, I come on and

18:52

I start signing up with their website

18:54

and I list my 5,000 products. And

18:56

let's say I've got a hundred brands that I retail,

18:59

and they all sell well, they'll just get all

19:01

those a hundred brands. You

19:04

know, and their marketing power, their

19:07

business power, their budgets, everything is so much

19:09

higher. I think they'd put me out of business

19:11

very quickly.

19:13

I think so too. I was just about to say that

19:15

they could effectively just take everything

19:17

you were doing. And do it for themselves

19:19

and overnight your business is gone because

19:22

suddenly, because there will be people who

19:25

I don't actually do, you know, I don't shop on Feel Unique, so

19:27

I don't know if they do sell any ethical products at

19:29

the moment. Um, but let's assume

19:31

that they do. Let's hope they do. So there might

19:34

be people who are already buying bits and pieces from there

19:36

anyway, and then suddenly they can get everything

19:38

they're buying from you over there. I'm not

19:40

saying that you won't have loyal customers who'll stick with you

19:42

because I'm sure you will. Yeah. There

19:44

are also other types of consumers who are going

19:46

to be like, well, I'm on Feel Unique anyway,

19:49

so yeah, I'll just fill my

19:51

basket here because it's more convenient.

19:53

So yeah, that's, yeah,

19:55

that's really not on, is it? Um, no,

19:58

and I thank you for being honest

20:00

and sharing that because I do think it's

20:03

eyeopening because we all like to think, well

20:05

I certainly do as one of life's optimists. I

20:07

like to think that there aren't people out there trying

20:09

to take advantage of us. But of course there are

20:11

no. And also

20:14

I think it was great that you asked

20:16

that question as well because it's all too easy

20:19

to get caught up in the excitement of something

20:21

'Oh i'm being approached by this brand and

20:23

they want to do this of me'. And obviously

20:25

it would be huge for you,

20:27

but as you said, it would've been only lasted five

20:29

minutes.

20:30

Yeah, I mean, it, it potentially would've,

20:33

it potentially would've made my business. I mean,

20:35

their, their turnover is millions

20:37

and millions each year, you know,

20:39

which is nowhere near where I am currently.

20:42

And I did, I got very excited when

20:44

I saw that email come in. But, yeah, I'm glad

20:46

I asked the question too.

20:48

Yeah, so I think that's such a good point

20:51

to sort of make sure that you really go into the fine

20:53

print and perhaps even, you know, if you're not

20:55

confident doing that yourself, find someone else. Because

20:57

I'm sure we, I'm sure there are people out

20:59

there that can do this sort of thing for you of,

21:01

if you're not confident enough to know, okay,

21:03

what should I be asking and what should I be asking

21:05

to see? I'm sure you can get

21:07

someone on board to, to help with this as well

21:10

because, um, and were they

21:12

out of interest, willing to negotiate when

21:14

you sort of said 'Okay, that's not on' what was their

21:17

response?

21:17

No. So I actually approached them

21:19

and I thought, you know what, if, if we can do

21:21

two years where I have the exclusivity

21:24

on the brands that I'm selling, that

21:26

I'm bringing on board, that you can't stock

21:28

them. And they refused flat

21:30

out right. They

21:33

just said, we won't, we wouldn't, we wouldn't sign a contract

21:35

like that. Hmm.

21:38

And that was the end of the conversation because I'm,

21:40

I'm not, I'm not going to join.

21:42

No, of course not. That

21:45

I'm just, I, I am still

21:47

quite shocked that because it, because based on

21:49

that it does seem that, yeah, there

21:51

was no intention of this being a negotiation.

21:55

Right.

21:55

Which is, which is a shame because actually I think

21:57

I generally and I'm not just saying this because I'm talking to you, but I genuinely

22:00

think you would've bought something to them

22:02

as well. And obviously they could see the potential because

22:04

they asked you. So yeah,

22:06

it is, it is a shame it had to end that way.

22:09

Yeah, I mean I'm,

22:11

I'm glad it did though. I mean, if I'd

22:13

signed up, I think it was earlier this year this

22:16

happened, if I'd signed up, my turnover

22:19

and the volume of sales coming in and out would

22:21

be much higher now. But

22:23

God knows what would've happened in a year's time,

22:26

you know?

22:27

Yeah, I think, I think you're right.

22:29

It would've been perhaps great in the short term,

22:31

but yeah long term, as you said, it could

22:33

have destroyed your business.

22:35

Yeah, I think it probably would have done if i'm honest.

22:39

That's, yeah, that's really, really scary. So

22:42

let's talk about some happy things. Yeah.

22:45

Because I have seen that recently you have had

22:47

loads of award wins. I'm not

22:49

exaggerating when I say loads, am I?

22:51

No, no. It's been an amazing year.

22:54

Yeah.

22:54

Tell us, tell us about some of the awards you've won

22:56

and how they came about.

22:58

Um, so it's, it's

23:01

kind of been mind blowing to be honest this year.

23:03

Um, you can, obviously, we are on

23:05

video. You can see all the awards behind me on

23:07

the wall. I must have about 15

23:10

frames up there with different awards now. Um,

23:12

this year probably the biggest win for us

23:15

was best online retailer

23:17

with the natural beauty retail awards,

23:20

which is huge because, um, businesses

23:22

that have won that in the past have been really big

23:24

retailers. So for a small,

23:26

independent, like myself to win, yeah,

23:29

I mean I still remember the evening that I heard

23:31

and I just screamed so loudly. My poor neighbors

23:34

were probably like, because I was at home,

23:36

what is going on? Um,

23:39

so yeah, that was a really big one that was, um,

23:41

put together by the people who run the natural

23:44

organic products events in London.

23:46

So it's, it's a very prestigious

23:49

award, um, in the natural beauty

23:51

realm. And

23:54

then I also, for the third year

23:56

running recently found out I'm on the

23:58

Who's Who of Natural Beauty, which

24:00

is like a top 25 list

24:03

of the most influential people in the, in the

24:05

natural beauty world, which again, you

24:07

know, it's. The winner. Every

24:09

year I've been in it actually the woman who runs

24:12

Weleda, the leader in the UK has won. And Weleda

24:14

obviously such a massive brand. So,

24:16

you know, it's so great to be placed in that.

24:19

And, um, I'll find out next

24:21

month, although if you are listeners it'll be this month.

24:24

Um, I'll find out sort of towards the end of November

24:26

how I did, because I'm a finalist

24:29

for the Health and Beauty Great

24:31

British entrepreneur of the year.

24:35

Oh wow.

24:35

So yeah, busy, busy awards,

24:38

really busy. It's been amazing.

24:40

And it's a lot of work as well, because

24:42

obviously entering these awards

24:44

takes a lot, takes a lot of work. Is that something

24:46

you ma I'm just curious, is that something you're doing yourself

24:49

because that is a lot of work.

24:50

Yeah. Um, it's interesting actually.

24:53

So I refuse to pay

24:55

for awards. I, I think any award

24:57

that's worth

24:59

it is not paid for. I

25:01

think there are exceptions. I think some of

25:03

like the beauty shortlist awards, if

25:06

I created my own products, I'd probably pay for

25:08

those to go in because they're a prestigious award.

25:11

Um, but like the best online

25:13

retailer, they actually contacted me and asked me

25:15

to enter. They'd

25:18

obviously already, yeah, they'd obviously already decided.

25:21

And it was very easy. I just had to put in contact

25:23

details. And that was kind

25:25

of it.

25:26

Oh, okay. So it wasn't like

25:28

pages and pages of forms. Oh,

25:32

that's good. But I guess you still, I mean,

25:34

are you still having to keep on top of what awards

25:36

are coming on and what you want to be in

25:39

the mix for?

25:40

Um, to

25:43

be honest, I don't really pay a lot of

25:45

attention to it. I'm too, you

25:47

know, for all your listeners who run a business.

25:50

Especially at Christmas time, it's just way

25:52

too busy to keep an eye on what's going on

25:55

in terms of what awards are coming up. So

25:57

I mean, if something crosses my path and I think,

25:59

oh, I'd quite like that, then I might enter,

26:02

but I don't, I

26:04

don't go out of my way really.

26:06

That's really reassuring because of all the success,

26:08

success you've had, you could be mistake,

26:11

you know, as I was thinking, gosh, you must be putting

26:13

a lot of time into this. So it's really reassuring to

26:15

know that you're not putting tons of time

26:17

and effort in, but you're still doing, I mean

26:19

that, that says a lot about your business,

26:21

yourself and your business, to be honest. But that's. Thank

26:23

you. That's really good to know.

26:26

Um, and I guess all of those

26:28

award wins, have they helped with the other things

26:30

like PR opportunities?

26:33

Um, I could probably use the PR

26:35

more, to be honest. I'm not, my,

26:38

my background is beauty and it,

26:40

so, so far from marketing

26:42

and PR and everything else, so

26:44

I'm sure I could do more with it. Um, I have

26:46

got a little bit of local press from it, but

26:48

that's kind of been about it, to be honest.

26:53

That makes sense. Um, and I think

26:55

as well, because we all have our, we

26:57

all come, depending what background you come from, I

26:59

think we all have the things that we are naturally good

27:01

at. That, and

27:03

those tend to be the things that we spend the majority

27:06

of our time on. So how are

27:08

you getting the word about your business out there? Is

27:10

it mostly social media or what or what are

27:12

you doing to, to spread the word and find customers?

27:15

Um, it's a bit of a mix

27:18

to be honest. Social media, definitely. I

27:20

mean, in this day and age who couldn't be. Um,

27:24

we also do things like Google ads.

27:27

The shopping ad campaigns, I

27:29

mean, as a product based business, you couldn't

27:31

not be on there. I

27:33

mean, that's, that's, that, that's probably

27:35

generates, you know, apart

27:37

from returning customers, I would say that probably

27:39

generates 80% of our new customers.

27:42

That's really interesting. As I've obviously spoke

27:44

to probably, I want to say, hundreds

27:46

now of product businesses and you are the first person

27:48

to specifically talk about Google shopping

27:51

really. Which isn't to say, isn't

27:54

to say nobody else is doing it because I'm sure

27:56

other businesses are, I just think it's something that

27:58

perhaps people aren't talking about

28:00

or it just doesn't occur to them, or maybe I

28:02

just haven't asked a question. Um, but

28:04

that's really, that's really interesting. And are

28:06

you finding that that's effective for you? Oh, you

28:08

are obviously are. How is that something

28:11

that took time to, to get working

28:13

for you? Because when I was selling products,

28:15

I dabbled with Google

28:18

Shopping and I,

28:20

I actually found it quite hard to get conversions.

28:23

Um, is it something you've had to work on or

28:25

being fairly straightforward from the start?

28:28

I would definitely say it's a dark art.

28:31

Um, as a business owner,

28:33

I am already short of time, so

28:36

it's one of the things I think, you know,

28:38

why attempt, especially when you're playing

28:40

with money, you know, why attempt

28:42

to do something that you're not really sure about.

28:44

So I do actually outsource

28:46

that to a, a Google ad specialist

28:49

and they run my accounts. I

28:52

have been between agencies before

28:54

and you see, you know, the return on ad spend

28:56

drop. So I would say, you

28:58

know, if anyone wants to give it a go, it's definitely

29:00

worth it. But I would definitely say

29:02

find someone who's, who's, you know,

29:04

local to yourself, who's got a good

29:06

reputation and who can do it for you.

29:10

That's really useful. Thank you. Because that was

29:12

definitely my experience was I just couldn't get

29:14

my, my head around it really. And.

29:16

No, and I've tried and I can't either.

29:19

Yeah, no. And I'm, you know, fairly adept at other

29:21

sorts of advertising, but that

29:23

I just, I couldn't work. So that, yeah,

29:25

that's, that's quite reassuring for me personally,

29:27

but also really good advice for people. And

29:29

I think it sounds, for anyone

29:31

who's interested in it but has been thinking

29:34

'Oh, I'm not sure because I don't really know how it works'.

29:36

I think finding an expert is definitely the way to

29:39

go.

29:40

A hundred percent. Yeah, it's very complicated.

29:43

And if you, if you had all the time in the

29:45

world, you could probably sit and learn it. But as business

29:47

owners, who, who has time for that?

29:50

None of us. And that

29:53

actually brings me on as well as you mentioned

29:55

that now you have a small team. So can we

29:57

just talk a tiny bit, um, before we finish

29:59

up, about how you've grown your, your team

30:01

and the things that you, um, things

30:03

that others do for you versus what you're doing yourself?

30:06

Because I think a lot of the owners

30:08

that I speak to are still running the businesses

30:10

by themselves or with a partner. Yeah. So it's

30:13

quite interesting to know what, what growing

30:15

and expanding the team can look like.

30:17

Yeah. Um, I

30:19

mean obviously it's also limited by budget as

30:21

well. Yeah. Of course as you grow

30:24

you can outsource more, which is a, is a point

30:26

I'm looking forward to. Um,

30:28

but I mean, for me personally, I

30:31

know the limitations of what I can

30:33

and can't do. So while I've got an IT background,

30:37

expertise is not website building. So

30:40

I have a team of developers that I work with.

30:42

Um, I work with a marketing chap who does

30:44

my Google ads. He also does social media ad

30:47

campaigns for me. Um, and

30:50

I have an accountant as well, because,

30:53

you know, year end accounts. Who wants to be doing

30:55

that? Um,

30:58

no. No. And I, I also

31:00

work with a social media expert aswell who's,

31:03

who's helping me build my

31:05

social media following and the interaction

31:08

rate and things like that. So that's really helpful. And

31:10

then I have a couple of people in house who help

31:12

with things like packing orders, like the day to day,

31:15

unpacking stock orders, ordering

31:18

stock, that sort of thing. So, yeah.

31:20

Yeah because as we mentioned earlier, stock must be a

31:22

massive thing. And I guess, yeah.

31:25

Where actually, um, do you actually

31:27

have a facility for, so all the stock now?

31:30

Yeah, so we are based in a warehouse

31:32

in Little, Little Hampton, in West Sussex.

31:36

Um, and we actually share the warehouse with two other businesses,

31:39

which is lovely because then you've got a bit of a community

31:42

as well. Although they do, they're

31:44

both vegan bakers, which is very

31:46

tempting a lot of the time.

31:47

Yeah, I can imagine. Oh,

31:50

that's amazing. And I'm assuming that your team has, has

31:53

grown over time and as you've sort

31:55

of, sort of had the budget

31:57

and also the, I guess the need to

32:00

to outsource part of it. Yeah, definitely.

32:04

Well, thank you so much for all that you shared today,

32:07

Vic. Um, and I'm going to have links

32:09

to everything over in the show notes. People can go and

32:11

take a look at your site and have a look at the product

32:13

range that you have. Um, I have one final

32:15

question which I ask everybody who comes on,

32:17

which is, what would your number one piece of advice

32:20

be for other business owners particularly?

32:22

I think those looking to create a maybe,

32:24

perhaps not a similar business in the sense of it being a vegan

32:26

business or an ethical business, um,

32:29

but a business in which you're selling other people's

32:31

products, perhaps. Um,

32:35

one piece of advice, I

32:39

think if I could go back and do it all again,

32:42

I'd probably work

32:44

out a way to work with experts

32:47

from the beginning. And

32:49

I know that makes it difficult because it's not

32:51

always the budget to do that. But

32:53

the challenge is, you know, you could spend

32:56

five years doing your add

32:58

campaigns or your own accountants

33:00

and it just, it just will take

33:03

you so much longer. And

33:05

it's more, not only, it's the time thing, it's

33:07

also the efficiency thing.

33:10

That makes sense.

33:11

So I, I would say, you know, do

33:13

your best to invest as much as you can on getting

33:16

the right people on board.

33:18

I think that makes total sense because often you can end

33:20

up redoing things as well. Yeah.

33:23

I had the experience with my website that I made myself

33:25

and I used Website Builder and it looked okay,

33:28

but when you think of the time, you know it's still not free

33:30

and it takes time. And then,

33:32

yeah, years later ended up having to get someone to

33:34

build a completely new one because it just, you

33:37

know, for many reasons wasn't working. Um,

33:39

and it is a bit of a false economy, isn't it? Whereas re

33:42

really, if you can get something right from

33:44

the start, it does set

33:46

you up better. But also, yeah, just reduces

33:49

all that. I think it's mostly the time element,

33:51

isn't it? Just the the time that you waste by

33:53

yeah attempting to do everything. And I do know that

33:55

budgets don't always make it possible, but I think,

33:58

I think that's good advice that if you are able to

34:00

invest, and I think it is.

34:02

Thinking of where, where any

34:05

budget you do have is best spent as

34:07

well.

34:09

Definitely, yeah.

34:12

It's really tricky. I think, um, when

34:14

we first launched the website, I think since

34:16

then we've had four different

34:18

versions and it just, like you say, it just takes

34:20

time and effort.

34:22

Yeah. Well, thank you

34:24

so much for that and for everything else that you shared.

34:27

I found loved talking to you, hearing more about

34:29

your business, it's been really good. Thank you.

34:31

Thank you so much for having me.

34:36

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this

34:38

episode. Do remember that you can get

34:40

the full back catalogues and lots of free resources

34:42

on my website, vickiweinberg.com.

34:45

Please do remember to rate and review this

34:47

episode if you've enjoyed it, and also

34:50

share it with a friend who you think might find

34:52

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34:54

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