Boss Foundations

Building an Engaging Facebook Group

How can you create an engaged Facebook Group? The Sabbatical Beauty Facebook Group has over 3,000 members and is one of the biggest converters to sales for my business. How can you do this for yourself as well? Make sure you don't make these top five Facebook Group mistakes! Not spending enough time interacting with people in the group. Your customers want to feel that you treat them as friends and that you're not just there to get their money. Respond to comments, continue conversations, and interact with them. Treating all customers the same way. Nobody likes all customers equally. Some customers are a dream to be with. Pay the most attention to the customers that model the behavior that you really want to see, so your group can see that being helpful is a good thing. That positive attention to the behaviors you like creates the rules of your community and allows you to attract the customers who spark joy, Not including images or videos of yourself in your Facebook Group. Not many people like doing this, but remember: people are really interested in you, especially if you're a small business. You are your unique selling proposition, and people want to buy from people, not big, faceless, nameless companies. And the more they get a sense of who you are, the more they'll know, like, and trust you, and the more they're willing to buy from you. Not wanting to know what your customers really think Give them a space to say things that are met with you listening to them. When you provide an avenue for them to express what they're not happy with, and you're able to respond quickly even if to explain why you are or aren't doing something, you're building customer trust. Not making members feel like a community. Consider your customers in how you design your products, in terms of the next steps that you take as a business. This makes them feel like they're involved in the process and brings them together as a community. And in some cases, it can create relationships that sustain beyond the internet. Final thoughts Treat your customers like they're your best friends. When they feel like you're the only audience you're interested in growing, and that they're important to you as individuals and not just your bottom line, that's how you'll grow an engaged community. Resources Sabbatical Beauty Facebook Group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/sabbaticalbeauty/]

Why You Don't Need Sephora

It's the dream of every beauty brand owner to be in Sephora. But I'm not interested in getting Sabbatical Beauty into Sephora. Let me tell you why: as a small business, it's terribly risky. You could "make it" and it could work out great — but it could also work out terribly. The cost Getting your brand into Sephora requires a tremendous amount of sunk costs. You need to pay to play. A modest footprint in Sephora is going to cost you $100,000 a year more or less, with that money going to store fixtures, design fees, products for associates, product testers, money for gifts to suck up to the associates so they'll want to sell your product. And that's just on the low end of the spectrum. So your $100,000 per year isn't even going to be all that effective. I would rather spend that money to pay myself or my people more, to go on a company retreat, or so many other things. I can spend it on my community, or on advertising. In short, I can use that money to create a better experience for everyone involved with Sabbatical Beauty. The relationship The second reason why I think this is a risky thing to do is because you aren't building a direct relationship with your customer. Your customer is building their relationship with Sephora. Also consider that when you sell to Sephora, they're going to want you to sell at the wholesale level, eating up 50% —or even up to 70%! — of your profits. And if they don't sell all your products, they're going to want you to buy them back or else put your brand on a fire sale. You have very little control over this relationship as well. A revolution We have a real chance to change the beauty industry if we don't want it to be dominated by big box techniques in the future. How? Through a spirit of cooperation, sharing, and openness. We're going to do that with the Homebrew Beauty Revolution. If you haven't heard about the Homebrew Beauty Revolution, I'm going to start teaching you how to make Sabbatical Beauty products: where to buy the products, the science behind the formulations, everything. I want to empower you. Join the Homebrew Beauty Revolution. [https://sabbaticalbeauty.com/blogs/blog/homebrew-cosmetic-chemistry]

My Skincare Marketing Strategy

Big business marketing dogma: you can't mix business and politics — and still make money. Oh yeah? Last week, I talked about my Homebrew Beauty experiment [https://sbbossfoundations.com/ep-11-diy-skin-care/] and how I decided that there's more money to be made in sharing rather than keeping things secret. Here's how I'm going to test this premise: By monitoring how many organic leads I attract by using my ideal customer profile to design my marketing. Let's break the concepts down. Organic leads are people who find my content, like it, interact with it, and get on my email list My Ideal Customer Profile or the Ideal Customer Avatar is the ideal customer I have in mind Content Marketing means generating social media posts, blog posts, videos, and other content to help solve your Ideal Customer Profile's problem and attract them to you. My Avatar: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez From her New Green Deal to her amazing bullshit detector, her ability to stand up and confront injustice, and shutting up Republicans who are complaining about her paying her staff a living wage — these are all the things I want in my ideal customer. Someone who prioritizes human beings over profit. So this is the experiment If I radically prioritize human beings over seeking profits, will we make money? Let's find out together. To follow along: * Subscribe to this podcast * Join the Sabbatical Beauty email list [https://sabbaticalbeauty.com/blogs/blog/homebrew-cosmetic-chemistry] * Join our Sabbatical Beauty Facebook Group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/sabbaticalbeauty] I can't wait, can you?

Dealing with Accusations

A beauty brand that's not only going to give you the recipes for its best products — but show you how you can make them yourself, down to where to buy all the ingredients? That's what I'm doing at Sabbatical Beauty, and that's how I'm starting the Sabbatical Beauty Craft Skincare Revolution. The controversy In 2016, I got a lot of crap from the US Korean beauty bloggers who accused Sabbatical Beauty of stealing a recipe. It's obviously completely false, as the ingredient lists for the two products are completely different, but that fake news has been dogging me ever since. It won't stop following Sabbatical Beauty around, and it's gotten on my nerves. So I'm doing something about it. Complete transparency I'm going to show all these people how wrong they are because I'm developing my new Sabbatical Beauty product in public. You are going to have the recipe for my brand new product and know exactly how to make it. Why?  I want to empower you. I want you to know what works on your skin, why ingredients are chosen, and whether a product is worth its price. Revolutionizing the beauty industry together I don't want the beauty industry to be another industry where everything is a secret and we're suspicious of one another. I want to empower you to start your own skincare company if you want to, and I'll support you! To get started, sign up for my free webinar training series called "Luxury Skincare: Is It Worth The Cost?" You'll learn how to read an ingredients list like a professor so you no longer feel lost in Sephora, trying to figure out if the rep is trying to hard sell you. You'll know for yourself if the product is worth it or not, and whether they're taking you for a ride! If you want to make your own products for your hypersensitive and reactive skin that nothing has worked on before, then you're in the right place at the right time. After the webinar series, I'm releasing the product with product kits to make the products, and videos so you can follow along. It's going to be amazing, and you and I are going to be the ones to change the beauty industry together.

How to Ask for a Raise

Have you been working for the longest time without a raise, but scared shitless to ask your boss for one? In this episode, I'm going to show you the strategy that works with bosses, and how to gather what you need for the discussion. To give a raise, or not to give a raise... that is the question The most common reasons I hear people give for needing a raise are: * I deserve it because I've taken on more responsibility * I deserve it because I've been putting in longer hours * I deserve it because my family needs it These might sound familiar to you, but these reasons won't work for your employer. Instead, you need to show how your contributions have: * Added to the company's bottom line * Made your boss's life easier * Contributed to your boss's performance review and made them look better and possibly gotten them a raise because of your work Your boss wants to see you as contributing to the company and thinking of the company's needs, not yours. How to demonstrate your value You need to have your contributions documented and quantified before coming into that conversation so that you're armed with numbers that reflect your worth. If you're a social media manager, measure the statistics of what you've been working on. How many likes has your page gotten in the last quarter? Which of your posts had the most engagement? Did any of the new sign-ups from your posts turn into new customers? If you're a manager working in processes, what changes have you made to save the company money in the long run? Perhaps you reorganized the inventory and now it's so neat, the company can see the materials they actually have on hand instead of buying duplicates. If they're making the same amount of sales but spending less to do it, then that's a powerful contribution. In summary Think hard about how you can demonstrate these numbers — and your worth — to your boss. You want to make your argument extremely logical that you've brought immense value to the company. If they don't retain you, it's quite literally their loss. Asking for a raise is easy because you're making it obvious that you deserve one! Bonus tips! All these statistics that you're collecting? Put them in your résumé. These same metrics will prove to other companies that you can increase their market value. If you're doing your job well (meaning, you deserve a raise), then you'll also be able to get a job elsewhere if you do this in the smart way. Leave a comment What did you learn from today's podcast? Leave a comment on the Sabbatical Beauty Facebook group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/sabbaticalbeauty/] about anything you found useful. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!