Proven budget-friendly ways to do market research for small businesses

Proven budget-friendly ways to do market research for small businesses

by | Sep 2, 2021

Business Insights

Proven budget-friendly ways to do market research for small businesses

September 02, 2021

Proven ways to do market search on a budget

In the business world, information is gold. Having the right information at hand and knowing how to interpret it can help you avoid some common myths of entrepreneurship. Every decision you make, as an entrepreneur, should be backed up by relevant data. 

This being said, well-executed market research for small businesses can tell you a lot about competitors, customer behavior and needs, market trends, customer satisfaction, reviews on products and services, and so much more. 

All businesses must learn from data, and quickly adapt to current trends, so they continue to thrive. But how do you perform market research? 

As it turns out, there are many methods of market research for small business to help you with that quest. Some of them are used for decades, others have come together with the digital revolution, yet are no less effective.

2 types of methods of market research for small business

Below, we will elaborate on the different types of market research for small businesses you can turn to, depending on your goals and budget.

Primary market research

Primary market research is research conducted by the marketing department in your company. However, if you don’t have a full-time marketing team, the research can also be outsourced to a third party/ agency or you can use automated marketing research with Helpfull. This type of research is also called ‘field research’ because you’re gathering data yourself.

Secondary Market Research

Secondary market research is when you are using already existing data published by other companies, government agencies, NGOs, etc. This is why it’s also called ‘desk research’ – you don’t actually do the research. While it can be useful, it’s not very helpful to small businesses that need real-time information matching the current market trends.

11 ways to do market research for small businesses on a budget

To give you concrete examples and help you start your research on the right path, we’ve asked small business owners to share how they perform market research for small businesses. Read them carefully and choose which one sounds more suitable for your business.

Rely on secondary research

If you’re a small business, you’re not going to need to hire a top-tier marketing firm to go out and do fieldwork for you. There’s lots of research and data that is already available on public forums that you can make use of. 

What we do is we try to find a proxy, i.e. a company that is in the same industry like ours that has already conducted all the primary research. We take the data and research and adjust the assumptions according to our needs. Although this isn’t a foolproof method of collecting data, it’s still better than having nothing and shooting in the dark.

What we also like to do is ask questions on Reddit. People are pretty blunt on that social networking website and we try to ask people about their worst experiences with roofing contractors or home improvement companies and learn from other’s mistakes.

Austin Fain, CEO at Perfect Steel Solutions 

1 on 1 validation call

The technique we use and recommend for clients is a 1 on 1 validation call with targeted prospects. We build a validation script, reach out via LinkedIn and speak with 10-20 people in the target market to collect feedback.

Ken Cook, Partner at The Prepared Group 

Solicitation of customer reviews

One of the best ways that we routinely gather consumer insights and key pieces of data for our clients is through the solicitation of customer reviews. We use a platform called ReputationLync to automatically send out review request emails to our clients’ new and returning customers. These emails help us generate new 4- or 5-star reviews for our clients and gather helpful insights on how to improve the customer experience.

This allows us to get a better impression of the typical customer experience and provides some helpful market research insights concerning the client’s small business. It’s a one-two punch to generate new high-quality reviews and improve the customer experience. What could be better than that?

Niles Koenigsberg, Digital Marketing Specialist at Real FiG Advertising

Design thinking

A technique I like using for conducting effective market research is design thinking. Understanding and analyzing user problems and then generating ideas that provide solutions, benefitting entrepreneurs as well as consumers.

Using hashtags relating to the topic at hand is an excellent way to find different social media posts for this research. Afterward, you can analyze the posts and discover how people communicate, what they think, what expectations they have, and what their greatest wishes are. Even though this technique is simple, great discoveries can be derived since it is a direct and user-oriented research approach.

David Adler, Founder & CEO of The Travel Secret 

Leverage online communities

In my opinion, leveraging online communities is one of the best ways to conduct market research as a small business owner. Every small business category, from candle-making to construction, has an online community. There are thousands of Reddit threads, Facebook groups, even TikTok accounts that cover nearly every small business niche there is.

Immersing yourself in these communities allows you to discover your competitors’ best practices in real-time, which is vital in our rapidly developing global marketplace. It’s also important to remember that fellow community members aren’t just competitors. They are also collaborators to encourage you and your industry to grow collectively.

Katie Lee, Communications Manager at Hatch 

Use Reddit

Reddit is very essential in containing wide information about certain topics. While it is true that it contains a lot of cat videos, and subtle content, Reddit is a mine for deep conversations and long threads which can be pivotal to your business as well.

Here, you can find pain points, and use these as data for improving your research. Reddit can be overwhelming for some at first, but once you are able to get past that navigating phase, it’s a very powerful tool for any small business to make use of.

Willie Greer, Founder of The Product Analyst 

Use Google Trends

One of the best and most affordable ways to conduct market research for small businesses is to leverage free resources such as Google Trends. I recommend companies utilize this tool, in particular, because it allows you to segment based on time and geographic areas and finds out what people are searching for in those places.

For instance, you can use Google Trends to find and compare search interest for a specific topic in Alaska over the last twelve months. While this is not as exhaustive as paying to conduct in-depth qualitative research, the quantitative information offered by Google Trends makes for a great starting point for companies that wish to judge shifts in market sentiment for free. When you’re convinced there’s a great opportunity for you in Alaska, take the next step and apply for IRS EIN Tax ID in Alaska so you can conduct business in the state. This ID makes it easy for the IRS to identify your business. You will also need it to report employment taxes should you hire people to work in the business

George Santos, Director of Talent Delivery & Head of Marketing at 180 Engineering

Throw an eye on the competition

One technique we have found very effective for market research for small businesses is by following as many other competitors on Instagram so that we can see what they are posting about and what seems to be trending. And when we discover a new competitor, we visit their website to see how they are positioning themselves and what product they are offering. This once again proves the importance and benefit of having competition. 

We also discover new brands when we are searching for influencers. Many people are already sponsored by other brands, so we make sure we know what these brands are offering to these people we may also be interested in sponsoring.

Wylie Allen, CEO of Pinnacle Supplementation 

Social listening

Social media is not only a communication platform but is also a gold mine of knowledge when it comes to the customer experience. That’s why social listening is a key metric to keep an eye on.

By having the right tools to listen to conversations that are happening on social networks about your brand, you’re not only gaining key insights into your market but are also given the opportunity to jump into those conversations and build more authentic relationships with customers or demonstrate how you are looking to keep already existing ones.

Reaching out to customers and acknowledging their feedback is a great way to really show that you value their role in making you a better company.

Matthew Paxton, Founder of Hypernia 

Browse through Facebook groups

Facebook has emerged as one of the most important corporate community-building platforms. If you type your business into a Facebook search, you’ll be able to locate a number of relevant groups.

Some Facebook groups will be hosted by other company owners, while others will be maintained by people who are just interested in the same themes. Browsing through the comments and queries posed in Facebook groups is a great source of market research for small businesses.

Lucas Travis, Founder of Inboard Skate 

Experiments and field trials

This might sound like a really scientific method, and it actually is, but it can also be used in more simplified ways. For example, if you want to find out which one of two landing pages has better conversion rates, you can do an A/B test. Basically, set up two different or two very similar landing pages, then record and measure the results.

Conclusion

Deciding if you should go with primary or secondary market research depends largely on your budget and time. Moreover, if you opt to conduct your own research, the methods you choose should also reflect your goals. That being said, you can always put these methods of market research for small businesses to work in an innovative, modern way.

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7 foolproof CRM tips to increase customer retention

7 foolproof CRM tips to increase customer retention

by | Aug 4, 2021

Business Tips

7 foolproof CRM tips to increase customer retention

August 04, 2021

7 tips to make customer relationship management better

It is always important that customers will feel happy with what the company can offer. The more that they feel this way, the more loyal they will be. They would love to purchase from your company more, even if your competitors may offer almost the same things that you are offering.

Even if you already invested your time to learn more about customer relationship management, in a world of life-long learning, a few foolproof CRM tips are more than welcome. It is crucial to hire professionals who can work on your Salesforce CRM properly.  There is always an option to hire expert-level CRM developers by yourself or save your time and turn to reliable outstaffing vendors like Mobilunity. 

What exactly is the CRM system?

CRM stands for different strategies that can be used to improve the relationship between the customers and the company. There are different tools and techniques that you can do so that your customers will like you better. The more you can build a lasting relationship with your customers, the more they will stay loyal to you.

The CRM system is a type of software that will keep track of all the steps you take with customers. This means that you can keep track of all your interactions with them. The smoother and more efficient the whole process is, the more profitable your business will be.

Why is CRM important for businesses?

It was mentioned earlier that CRM could be very helpful in helping businesses improve their relationship with their customers. Customer retention is also going to be a definite plus. The more customers who will stay loyal to the company, the higher the chances of getting the revenue they want.

CRM normally uses a simple interface that can make it easier for anyone in the business to monitor. They can keep track of what’s happening. If there are some things they need to improve on, they can easily work on them. It will help if companies hire a CRM consulting agency, especially if they do not know how to make the system work. The more people become familiar with the system, the better they can make it work.

7 CRM tips on how to improve the system

There are a lot of organizations that spend a lot of money on CRM systems. The right CRM for your business can make a lot of difference. Yet, you still need to know how you can constantly improve it, and there’s where our CRM tips come in handy.

Track customer behavior through the sales cycle

One of the things that will be reported is how much customers spend at different times. You can gain more details about the customers through social media. Learn more about the things that they share with the people that they know. The more you are familiar with what they are searching for, the more you can give them what they want. They will be able to purchase from you at the right time.

Remember that CRM is not a standalone system

This is one of the mistakes that people make. They normally assume that the CRM is enough for all of their needs. This is not true. CRM tips can be helpful, but there are so many other things that can be used to improve it.

CRM can be used with other applications, with other types of software that can be vital for other departments. Some applications can help monitor the sales of the company and so much more. Integrate your CRM with the other applications, and you can ensure smoother operations.

Always get in sync

This is one of the most important things. Make sure that everything is in sync. Let everyone know when client-related meetings are going to take place. Make sure that the system allows people to know what the common goals are. One of the things that CRM consulting services should offer is to allow clients to easily create meetings with you. If your CRM fails to do this, then it will be hard to use.

Make sure that it is always updated

The data that you have in the CRM should always be up to date. It will help if your employees are all trained to make use of the system. Another useful CRM tip is to get a software consultant that can keep track of the CRM. The consultant can guide the employees to put accurate data on the system every single time.

Remember that CRM systems will only be good if the data you would store there are also good. Some of the things that can be done are the following:

  • Remove duplicate data
  • Always provide updated infographic details
  • Keep email addresses clean and valid

Integrate CRM with the different social media platforms of the company

There is no reason why you should not integrate your different social media pages with your CRM. You will be able to know more details about your market this way. You will know if some people are trying to sign up again to your newsletter because they have forgotten already. This will help reduce duplicate emails. Plus, it will also make people interested again in your business and what you can offer.

Create a CRM for mobile use

While some people still use their laptops and PCs to search for data, most people will check through their mobile phones. Therefore creating something that will be mobile-friendly is imperative. If you don’t own the skills to do that, outsource a mobile app development company and you will notice that your customers would love to interact with your business more.

Remember that you can always improve your system

It does not mean that it will always work well because your system is working properly now. If you see that there are some things that you need to improve, work on those improvements immediately. Come up with features that your customers or business partners may want to see within the system.

Conclusion

The design of the CRM system that you have right now can always be improved. If you still do not have a CRM, now is the time for you to change that. Different consultants can be hired from various countries.

Remember to follow the CRM tips that are mentioned above. Hire someone who can help you in the creation, integration, and improvement of the system. You will become pleasantly surprised with the difference that it will make. If you get feedback, act on the feedback immediately. Customers like it when you are proactive.

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How can B2B marketing automation help your small business succeed

How can B2B marketing automation help your small business succeed

by | Jul 14, 2021

Business Insights

How can B2B marketing automation help your small business succeed

July 14, 2021

One of the most important characteristics of a successful entrepreneur is a never-ending improvement. Ambitious business owners are always looking for a way to get the most out of their business. Investing time and money in B2B marketing automation is one of those investments that can change the business for good. 

10 benefits from investing in B2B marketing automation

So if you are afraid to make the decision to invest in B2B marketing automation, we’ve asked experienced entrepreneurs how marketing automation changed their business, so you can be aware of the benefits.

Personalized email marketing

Personalization and customization are more crucial than ever before since they help you stand out from your competitors. Personalized email marketing can deplete your resources. This is when your email marketing campaigns’ automation comes into play. We built up an auto-reply based on the information we gathered at VPNOverview to guarantee that potential clients received a prompt and personalized answer, which resulted in a significant boost in sales.

You may more efficiently identify your audience using artificial intelligence to understand better when, how, and why they use your website. This will have an effect on future decisions. You can keep sending personalized emails and responses even as your list expands if you set up the correct automated routines. This B2B marketing automation saves you money, time, and relieves your marketing team of some stress.

Veronica Miller, Cybersecurity Expert atVPNoverview

Generate measurable ROIs for your marketing strategy

One of the biggest benefits of B2B marketing automation for small businesses is that it generates measurable ROIs for the marketing strategy. Business leaders and other key decision-makers want proof that your marketing plan is profitable for the organization. This requires the availability of measurable and objective data to back up the budget.

The prospect of spending endless hours each month gathering data is a nightmare for many marketers. Fortunately, many B2B organizations are using marketing automation to simplify this process and, as a result, increase revenue. B2B marketing automation systems gather data and assess ROI to make data analysis easier and more efficient, helping your company to maximize its marketing efforts and increase sales.

Benjamin Aronson, Founder at FinancePond

Automate your lead generation processes

The biggest benefit B2B marketing automation brings is that it automates the lead generation process. Marketing automation software consists of assigning prospects and contacts based on how ready they are to sell. It also provides improved visibility, higher-quality leads, and automated follow-ups. These are just a few ways that marketing automation can help you improve your lead generation approach.

Once your company begins to generate a steady stream of qualified leads, marketing automation software can update their sales-readiness scores on a regular basis and continue to nurture the leads by sending out content tailored to their stage in the buyer’s journey, resulting in higher conversion rates.

Tommy Gallagher, Founder of Top Mobile Banks

Increasing the marketing team’s productivity

Professional services B2B marketing automation systems always seem to have a significant impact on marketing team productivity due to their design and functionality. That’s exactly what they were created for: to take the monotony out of marketing efforts. Of course, they must be set up at first, which is a time-consuming process, but after that, the time savings add up every day.  

Eric Rohrback, CMO at Hill and Ponton

Align sales and marketing through automation

The terms ‘sales automation’ and ‘marketing automation’ are not identical. However, for the two processes to work together, they must be on the same page. In the past, aligning sales and marketing automation has been difficult. However, effectively adopting both for your company is essential.

Fortunately, utilizing marketing automation using CRMs to accomplish this in 2021 has never been easier. The key to achieving alignment and ensuring that leads don’t fall through the cracks is proper segmentation. Keep in mind that aligning these two different processes can be challenging without segmentation.  

Saskia Ketz, CEO of Mojomox

Reduce customer churn

Marketing automation systems do more than just nurturing new leads. Reducing client churn is one of the most significant impacts of B2B marketing automation. Reducing attrition or boosting retention by 5% is proven to increase earnings by 25-90%.

You can easily add value and build relationships with your database by segmenting it and sending out free, relevant information, helpful advice, and best practice suggestions – whether or not it equals an additional sale for you. You exhibit your caring and establish a stronger relationship by continuing to contribute.

Create a procedure for each consumer segment and use a marketing automation system to deliver it consistently and automatically. Your creativity and the correct technology will surely build a strong buyer-supplier relationship.

Stewart McGrenary, Director at Freedom Mobiles

Enhanced customer experience

The customer experience is about much more than personalization. It’s all about knowing what your customers care about. What channels they want to use to interact. And what they anticipate at each stage of the client experience.

B2B marketing automation is not only beneficial to customer experience but is also required. Your core CX command center is marketing automation. It’s where you’ll send out targeted email marketing campaigns and customized follow-up messages.

It’s where you can keep track of your online interactions and use A/B testing to see which actions and content your customers respond to the most. You may also use it to start, track, and improve webinars and event marketing registration. The complexity of the customer experience may be simplified and brought down to earth with marketing automation.

Jeroen van Gils, Managing Director at Lifi.co

Maximize efficiency with internal workflows

The ability to employ internal processes is an advantage of automation that is sometimes neglected in B2B marketing. Internal workflows are designed to make existing procedures more efficient. For example, instead of having a salesman check the email every couple of days after someone fills out a form on your website, you can set up a workflow.

When the form is finished, the process notifies the salesperson instantly, allowing for rapid answers. With CRM solutions, you can take it a step further and have activities shift people into different phases – from cold lead to warm lead.

Alex Claro, VPN Analyst at Credit Donkey

Easily onboard new clients

B2B marketing automation is a large part of our overall marketing strategy, mainly due to the way in which it pursues leads and generates conversions for our business without requiring constant attention. Although it initially required heavy time investment, our current B2B marketing automation strategy allows us to quickly and easily onboard new clients by sending them up-to-date market data, new and exciting office spaces, and other information regarding their desired office location.

Our ‘Get Prices and Info’ form allows users to input their desired location and contact details, prompting our automated system to send them all salient information regarding the area and our offerings.

Since implementing this automated system, we have seen a dramatic increase in engagements and conversions across many of our global locations. Automating these emails has allowed our marketing team to focus on additional research and market offerings, bolstering our overall service and ensuring that clients are receiving up-to-date information.

Harrison Sharrett, Digital Marketing and Content Manager at Offices.co

Helps you handle more workloads

Automating your B2B processes can help you handle more workloads, 24/7, and provide timely engagement on your website than if you did it all by yourself, one by one. Automating chatbots has worked well for us in the past. Now it’s quite common to see chatbots that pop up automatically asking your site visitors where they need help.

The next step was to use AI to analyze the sentiment in chatbot messages. We wanted to detect emotional words in messages, so we could redirect the queries to human agents to save the situation and boost customer retention. We are currently seeing a marked improvement in our attrition rate, meaning the adaptable customer assistance is working.

Jon Torres, Founder of John Torres

Segmenting users based on actions that they take

Marketing automation gives you the ability to instantly reach out to new leads through some form of automation, such as email marketing.  The faster that you can reach out to new leads, the more likely they are to trust and interact with your business.

Another important aspect of B2B marketing automation is segmenting users based on actions that they take.  When new leads receive a tag based on an action that they take on your sales funnel you gain valuable information that lets you build unique buyer’s journeys that nurture your lead into a lifelong customer. The more information you have about your customers the more efficient and optimized your marketing becomes.

Matthew Smith, Co-founder of Urban Vine Consulting

Customer Service

Even though it might seem to fly in the face of “not driven by human creativity”, but don’t worry – it doesn’t. The parts of customer service you’ll want to automate are those that are rote/repetitive – questions like “What are your hours of operation?” or “What is the cost of this product?”.

Chatbots are an excellent way of automating customer service. They can be programmed to answer FAQs, and they’re tireless. Someone’s up at 3 AM looking through your website? The chatbot can answer their question. Whenever a question is too detailed for the chatbot to answer, you can have an option for the customer to talk to a real person.

Kiara Fulham, Content Manager at BookedIN

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How to find clients online: Five proven ways for long-term results

How to find clients online: Five proven ways for long-term results

by | Jul 8, 2021

Business Tips

How to find clients online: Five proven ways for long-term results

July 08, 2021

Finding clients online

When you first think about how to find clients online, considering the limitless opportunities online it looks easier than it is. But, as soon as you need to find clients yourself, reality hits and you are panicking because you don’t know where to start.

Nowadays there are indeed a lot of online platforms promoting their features and land of opportunities. But, before you spend your time trying to find your luck in every single one of them, let us save you some precious time by listing the ones that are proven to bring the desired results.

How to find clients online and significantly grow your business

Focusing on one of these strategies and platforms will save you valuable time you can use to improve your services or products. From now on, how to find clients online won’t be an obstacle in your business. Your only worry is providing the best possible service or product. 

Referral program

The list of tips to find those high-quality leads is endless. But, using the same, already tried tactics isn’t going to cut it anymore. Therefore, building a referral program should be your focus. Use your existing customers to generate your new leads, and then make sure you reward them for that.

Referrals are gold. You’re getting high-quality leads from people who already use your product because word of mouth marketing has always been more convinceable than any other strategy. It’s also great to have a solution that is a win-win for both sides. You will have a new client and your old client will be even more loyal to your business after being rewarded for their loyalty.

Videos

Using video marketing to explain things that people are searching for is a great way how to find clients online. Demos and explanatory videos are a must-have when you’re working with potential customers you may never meet in person. That way you build the relationship-driven trust that is key to B2B sales.

Also, you can use YouTube to publish educational videos incorporating keywords that reinforce your SEO ranking. Then you can repurpose the videos on your blog and LinkedIn, which is considered the best platform for B2B lead generation .

LinkedIn

A tactic that will work great if you are wondering how to find clients online is to utilize your direct connections on LinkedIn. For now, try to avoid blindly contacting new contacts in hopes of starting a conversation and have a focus on a campaign to your current personal connections.

This will help you reconnect to strengthen relationships, gather a lot of product feedback, and build an extended network of introductions to other companies that can use your product. Make sure that this is automated with a personalized message and does not include sales language. This foolproof method will bring you results, because people love being asked for their opinion, and when you do that the right way, they feel honored and motivated to spread a good word about you.

Another tried and tested strategy on how to find clients online is LinkedIn groups. If you rely on social media for promoting your business, LinkedIn groups will help you target specific businesses in different industries. The only thing you have to do is search for new groups and communities that could benefit from your company’s services.

SEO

Speaking of how to find clients online, there is one thing that promises long-term results and that is SEO. Find the right keywords that your customers use to get informed about products or services in your niche and write a blog post around those keywords so they can find you in Google search results.

However, SEO requires dedication and learning, but, there are also plenty of resources and SEO tools online so you can spice up your game easily. If you don’t have time to learn, don’t worry, we have a solution for you as well. You can always hire an SEO agency, so you can help your business thrive. 

Whatever path you choose, remember that being invisible is a terrible strategy, so making sure your site is keyword optimized and produces meaningful content is the price of a great foundation for effective SEO. 

Enterprise League

Do you ever wonder how wonderful it would be to find clients online, from the comfort of your home or office, without losing days or weeks searching for the right ones? It probably sounded unreal years ago, but now there is an easy and fast way to connect with companies from all around the world, only with a few clicks.

Enterprise League is the world’s B2B marketplace, and as many describe it, it’s a land of opportunities. The answer to how to find clients online using Enterprise League is simply to create a free profile and post a deal or bid to already posted deals from other companies. The best part is that the whole process is simplified and easy to use with provided tips and tricks on how to write the perfect bid and get the most out of the platform. 

Conclusion

Don’t jump on the first strategy that pops up on the internet how to find clients online. Focusing your efforts on the wrong place can cost you valuable time and even discourage you from making your business dreams a reality. Do your research, ask for opinions and find the most suitable strategy for your business. 

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Angela Arena – When necessity brings an invention

Angela Arena – When necessity brings an invention

by | Jul 7, 2021

Featured Members

Angela Arena – When necessity brings an invention

July 07, 2021

Kind lab by Angela Arena

We often witness women being fighters for a brighter tomorrow. Some of those fights, luckily, end up with women earning a bright spot in the business world. Angela Arena, founder of Kind Lab is one of those women who are aiming for a brighter future for all women out there. 

Starting from helping women feel better in their own skin, to building a brighter future and embracing women to become entrepreneurs, Angela Arena, driven by the good old “necessity is the mother of invention” is an inspiring business role model that shows how powerful and successful a woman can be.

Feeling under-appreciated as an employee, a nonexistent work-life balance, financial struggles, getting out of bad relationships – these are the most common triggers that push women to become entrepreneurs. Tell us about your trigger?

Sexism in the workplace wasn’t a new concept for me. But watching a friend — a kind woman who put her heart and soul into her work — get treated so poorly was my watershed moment. I thought about the characteristics of women who tended to be targeted and saw my daughter.

She’s a kind, free spirit growing up in a world likely to take that away from her. I started Kind Lab to build a company that would do right for girls and women, with the aspiration of making a better world for us all.

How did you come up with your business idea?

The old adage is true: necessity is the mother of invention. Stressed out beyond belief, I had gone through all the socially acceptable routes to find a solution to my insomnia. When nothing worked, a friend finally convinced me to try some other alternative.

I wondered why more people weren’t talking about it, and then I remembered what we were told about the people who were “those people.” Well, “those people” were right. It’s an incredible plant that could offer so many people natural relief if it were more accessible. Now, happy to say that I am an advocate for making plant-based wellness solutions alongside the conventional methods.

Have you had support from someone, even if just encouragement? Who was that and how did it help you?

Family, then friends, then customers. I started making hemp-infused products for myself in my kitchen to solve problems that I experienced, only to discover that many of my family had the same issues. And so did my friends. And so did their family and friends.

Now, I’m fortunate to have so much support from people who tell me how my products have helped them or someone they love. When I’m tired or overwhelmed, I find motivation through those messages and recall the stories, which helps me stay focused.

Female entrepreneurs are often underestimated and overlooked. Have you ever felt at a disadvantage?

I was told to make my brand more relatable to men so they’d be more likely to invest. And men control most of the money. There are two tactics when you play this game: follow the rules and hope to enact change from within, or start acting by the rules you want. I choose the latter, which sometimes feels harder but is more accurate to me and my mission.

Some say it’s hard work, others say it’s talent and resourcefulness that play a crucial role for success in entrepreneurship? Which traits have been instrumental for your success so far? And why?

” Jack of all trades” sometimes has a negative connotation, “but master of none.” Having a broad range of skills — from operations to graphic design — has helped me save a lot of money and time. The flip side is knowing where your knowledge ends so you don’t become dangerous with the information you have. That’s something I’m always worried about: not knowing what I don’t know.

You’ve got a high stake investment opportunity. Pitch your business in 150 words.

Women, we see you. We know your health and wellness goals change over time, and sometimes your left to figure it out on your own. Kind Lab exists to bring you potent and powerful plant-based solutions to help you embrace your body, evolve with nature, and excel at life.

Our customer — 40+ women — represents the wealthiest generation that isn’t being marketed to, and our messaging speaks directly to them.

Developed over two years with and from direct customer feedback, our products are intentionally designed to provide these women the energy, rest, recovery, nourishment, and comfort she needs to feel her best.

While the common ingredient across is CBD-rich hemp, we’ve added other powerful plant-based ingredients — such as arnica, magnesium, and evening primrose oil — that work with and for a woman’s body to create unique, multi-functional solutions.

No fluff, no bullshit. Just real talk, pure ingredients, and natural solutions.

At Kind Lab, we get you because we are you.

What excites you the most about being an entrepreneur?

The ability to create something that can help both my customers as well as current and future employees. I can create a company culture that is what I wanted to have in my previous jobs and set the bar higher for how a company can treat its female employees right and lower for tolerance they may carry forward in future jobs where they face sexism.

Share with us some of the worst business advice you’ve ever received?

The worst business advice I ever received is “wait”. Don’t wait — start today. You can start small, and you don’t have to have everything perfectly figured out first. The sooner you start getting feedback on your idea, the faster it will evolve and the better it will be.

What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs?

There’s a saying in tech: if you’re proud of your product, you waited too long to launch. I’m coming up on my 3rd brand redesign, and with each evolution of my brand and product line, they get that much stronger and more compelling. Don’t wait until the time is perfect — the perfect time is now.

What are your goals for the upcoming year?

This is a big year for Kind Lab. I closed our brick-and-mortar in September 2020 after seeing most of my sales move online. With the cycles that opened up and an incredible CPG incubator called BeyondSKU that I participated in, I fine-tuned my strategy. This year, I am starting to build the foundation of a national brand.

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