Welcome to the first season of our new podcast. Help- I started a business, now what? At the beginning, there are so many decisions to make and so many things to do. It can feel like everyone else has their business figured out. It can also be really easy to compare your brand new starter business to others that are well established. In this podcast, we will talk about all those hairy first big steps that come with starting a business. including getting my first large custom order.
Our first episode features Lindy of apothecary 19. She will share her how it happened story on getting a large custom order! Find her here on Instagram.
Check out the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, or read the transcript below. We’ve even included timestamps in case you want to zero in on one part of the show.
Episode 1 Transcription
00:00.35
Amber
Welcome to the help I started a business now what show where we talked to artisans and people that help people at the 0 to 3 year Mark of your business. So I’m Amber Christian your host and I am very pleased to welcome Lindy from apothecary nineteen and lindy why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell our audience your background.
00:23.71
Lindy
Yes, ah, all right? So I am Lindy Spurgeon I own I’m the owner and founder of apothecary nineteen and we well the royal we it’s me by myself. I specialize in small batch self-care. The way that that translates for me is I try to bring things to market that make people feel good. So there’s a lot of personal products in the way of like lotion. Soaps. Bath salts and oils and then also home and personal fragrance and I’m located in the Twin Cities and I work out of a studio in my basement. I founded my business on small business Saturday of 2021.
01:07.62
Amber
And how long have you had your business?
01:17.10
Lindy
So I think that means I’m going into my third year I think I don’t math great. So.
01:27.46
Amber
Ah, that’s okay, we don’t all have to math grade today. Okay so what we wanted to talk about today the royal we and there’s 2 of us 1 of the things that I find really interesting about something that you’re doing. Custom orders. This episode is a little bit about how it happened and then later we’ll laugh about how we actually met which is ah is a fun story as well. So in this how it happened episode I want you to demystify how difficult it is to get your first custom order.
01:50.73
Lindy
Perfect. Yeah.
02:04.12
Amber
How did it actually happen and some of the kinds of things you did and how long it took to get those custom orders? I think people can put a lot of pressure in themselves and think I’m going to build out this whole infrastructure around a custom order and they can make it really hard for themselves where I love the story of how you got probably what I think might be your largest custom order to date.
02:26.30
Lindy
Well I think a good place to start with with me is I have and this isn’t my term I’m stealing this from someone else. But I have the how hard could it be gene where I just sort of. I’ll figure it out like that’s how I’ve always kind of operated So How hard can it be I’ll figure it out. I’m one to sort of take things on and then figure it out figure it out later and so I think when I’m working in. Fulfilling custom orders I think one I Genuinely enjoy it. I have my you know flagship lines and the things that I make over and over again and custom orders for me are something I Really enjoy because they break up the monotony of doing.
And making the same thing over and over and over again. So I have on my website a contact form where folks can reach out to me if they want custom orders and I try to explain on there what they could maybe want a custom fragrance for so. I think when you’re when you’re trying to get custom orders if you can like take a second and kind of brainstorm who those people would be um, you know for for me like I’ve done a lot of ah custom candles for weddings and so like brides.
Mother-in-laws- I got a lot of moms reaching out for their daughters getting married and stuff like that. The other one and the the story that I’m going to tell today is for corporate gifts. So um I knew when I started my business that corporate gifts would be a way to. Kind of get my product in the hands of people and part of that comes from my previous work background. My background is in marketing and client loyalty I worked for an agency for a very long time. That was all around using corporate gifts to nurture leads.
Basically just kind of turned what we used to do there into a product that I could sell. Corporate gifts has been the most difficult I think thing for me to break into just because there are so many well-known companies out there that specialize in it’s. At the end of the year you need to give your clients a present or you need to give your employees a present here’s what we offer and they have huge marketing budgets and you know it’s hard to get your name out there. Then It happened organically.
I have a very loyal customer from the Northeast Minneapolis farmers market that anytime she needs a gift for someone she reaches out. At one point back in summer she stopped by my stall at the farmer’s market and asked if it was something that I’d ever considered doing. I gave her kind of my generic answer of like oh I’ll do anything like I can figure anything out like what do you have in mind?
So we had this like loose conversation about it and I came home from the farmer’s market like super jazz told my husband about it like I think this is going to be the year that it happens. And I thought it was going to be something that maybe like they had an initiative in mind and that’s what she was thinking about and then crickets……
Didn’t hear anything until I got a fairly frantic email from her the last week of October that was like hey this snuck up on me. Can you do 500 corporate gifts by Thanksgiving? I was like. Well, of course! I’m in in my head saying okay so if I do this math like this is an amount of revenue that I just have to figure it out! This is make or break for the holiday retail season. She said 300 to 500 were needed! Was it 300 or is it 500 because there’s like like that’s a big range. She was like I don’t I don’t actually know just do you think it would be possible?
06:48.14
Amber
That’s a little different cost profile.
07:00.40
Lindy
I was like initially without checking anything. Yes I can make it happen but we’re going to have to like nail this down in days like you I need to know by the first week of November what’s going on and this was also at the time that I was doing my advent calendars. So I already had like a thousand things sitting on my bench and then I was adding to it so I got a little panicked and then it was it was just kind of um a logistical nightmare at the beginning because I realized like I didn’t have enough boxes.
07:37.99
Lindy
And I have custom packaging so I had to call my box vendor and be like hey I need these and I need them in like a week and I also can’t afford to pay you a rush fee. You know because custom packaging is a whole another ball of wax in conversation. Luckily the box vendor I use started out as a small business and they’re affordable for people in my situation and I have a really great rep and you know they did me some favors but um, it all just kind of started there.
08:15.43
Amber
It started in building an intentional relationship with this person right? You were talking with them over a period of time and it’s not like you just one day the custom order appeared out of nowhere.
08:20.24
Lindy
Yes, yeah.
08:35.40
Amber
It’s someone you saw it’s someone you built up a relationship with and then the the conversation goes from there right? I think that was where you initially peakqued my interest So as an introvert I met lindy at the Jacklope art fair in Minneapolis. I was lurking.
08:40.50
Lindy
Yes.
08:54.73
Amber
Didn’t tell anybody I was from the magazine and I was shopping I was having fun. I was looking at products and I wandered into Lindy’s tent and she started doing her spiel and not everybody does. But even when you walk in the tent at the craft fair. And I might have been giving into it vibes I’m not sure I was with a few friends.
09:15.28
Lindy
I Actually think it you when you and I may be misremembering this but I feel like when you first walked up I was talking to someone else about books because I’m always talking about books. This is how I get people it’s sweet. They either smell stuff.
But and then I get them or I badger them about the books they should read and I think that that’s kind of you I think you maybe were like we were talking about like some book that we had all read and that kind of eased it a little bit. Yeah.
09:47.56
Amber
And then I started looking around and I was like they all have numbers on them and so then I was curious because all her candles had numbers. Not not necessarily names of scense and then what was in it. So then I started sniffing my way around the tent in a non- creepy way because it was like. Candles I was smelling and I started smelling everything and then I don’t know how it happened but we got talking about the recycling candle. How did that happen I don’t remember you must have brought it up?
10:18.67
Lindy
I think um, yeah, Well I Always tell people when they make a purchase I have a little ah square like card that I hand out that has a qr code on it that will take you to my website that is like candle care. Um, how to get the most out of your candle and then what do you do when the candle is done because I dislike waste. Um, and so the wax that I use is water but water soluble and so um, that usually sparks the conversation of like when you’re done with it.
You can like put a plant in it. I mentioned that I was working on a refill so that folks can I have but you know I have a website and so I sell my stuff all over. Ah well I’ve shipped some stuff internationally but mostly in the United States and Canada and so I have folks that have. Tons of jars at home that are like can I you know it’d be cool if we could just get the wax and so I’ve been on a journey since probably July of figuring out how to get these refills on the shelves.
11:25.64
Amber
Yes, and so that triggered my interest. So then I started asking her a ton of questions about candle refills and 3 d printing and I’m sure she thought I was a complete weirdo.
11:39.27
Lindy
I Didn’t think you were weird I thought you were cool I was like you know nerds unite!
11:48.47
Amber
And so that for me was incredibly intriguing and I was like I we have to keep talking and we’re gonna do some future things. A spoiler alert for everybody sees this in the magazine. We’re gonna kind of talk about what that process was like as well. Even though that’s not necessarily our focus today. We met nerding out over candles and and recycling yes big recycler here. Yeah, so it’s just exciting developments. But I think a big part of it too was the approach you used I think at the craft fair. It was very low key.
12:18.00
Lindy
Yes.
12:23.59
Amber
I felt welcomed without feeling like any I wasn’t bombarded and just kind of naturally felt your way through a conversation and I think it was good that you started with books.
12:38.10
Lindy
Yeah now.
12:39.99
Amber
Guess what is about here by my thing it was like oh hey, we’re talking about this and even though none of us will remember the book that it was that we read and I think I left with a couple book recommendations too if I remember right?
12:47.44
Lindy
Um, yeah, probably I’m a pusher when it comes to books. So.
12:57.44
Amber
Ah, but it was a great technique and so for people that are thinking about gee. How do I get custom orders be a human build a relationship with people. You showed up in the same space and put it out there.
13:02.29
Lindy
Yeah, and put it out there. You got to you know you know as Makers and artists. We know everything that we do. Our customers don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what we do. And so I think the you know the biggest thing is just putting it out there that you that you offer that.
13:27.15
Amber
Yes, and and that allows and information about how people follow up on it too I think the other thing that’s important is the the fact that you had a card with some information that you could follow up and people you could be like hey here go to my website or someone might see your product and go- This would be perfect for my friend. I have a friend that’s getting married that would love to do a custom order.
You created a really nice means and an easy way to be able to just hand that out, educate a person. They move on and you never know how many times you have to do that. But you’re right? Who would realize that you do custom work even though most people do. But I don’t think the average consumer necessarily would think about it, realize it, or engage in that and so that’s the first part of this process is just educating your consumer.
14:08.73
Lindy
Um, yeah.
14:20.45
Amber
Because you don’t know who’s showing up and buying your candles regularly and then decides they need a huge corporate order. So many months later.
14:23.66
Lindy
Right? Yeah I mean and I thought like with the one that happened to me I was like oh it might be 10 or 20. You know I had no idea and like I think another thing. When you’re doing custom work like you’ve got to make sure that it benefits you in the way you know like if you just want to make the thing to make the thing then that’s a benefit.
But for this particular order for me like the person that did the purchasing works at a company. Where all of the clients that got these client gifts were interior designers. So I discount it like I took that into consideration and was able to like take a step back. Look at the big picture and be like I’m willing to make a little bit less money now knowing that these are going to a bunch of people that are dealing with like high net worth individuals that might want to have like really nice home fragrance in the fancy houses that they’re building and like have enough money for an interior designer. So I think that’s another good thing to keep in mind as you’re doing you know pricing is a whole other conversation in its own right?
I think that when you’re having these conversations at markets when you’re out in your community and you’re meeting with people like that’s a way I mean and we had a conversation before we started recording about how lucrative that craft fair that I did was not. But you know if you’re at a fair and maybe you didn’t have a lot of revenue but you make one connection that turns into a loyal customer. Or something like that like then the revenue that you get from it is more than just the day. Just tuck in your hat for when it gets hard and you need to remember the silver linings of everything.
16:32.22
Amber
Yes, that yes that you may be brand building and so I said sometimes you might have to reassess of you do an event that maybe it doesn’t have the foot traffic. But if you’re focused on some of the connections like the way that you had been.
Focused on connecting with the people that are there because you don’t know where that will lead. It puts a different frame on it and it softens it a little if something gets rained out. Or if it’s not as great as you want or something else happens. It sort of softens it oh I’m not gonna go back to that one because there was a weather other issue and then you’re like but wait a second. I met someone that became a customer that is now ordering periodically from me and tells their friends and other things or someone that amplifies on social media or other kinds of things and so if you sort of tweak your mindset a little bit I think that helps too. We all need as much help as we can get.
17:25.32
Lindy
Um, yeah, right? Yes, yes.
17:27.58
Amber
How we approach these things especially in the early years- not everything you do will immediately translate to sales and that’s actually normal.
17:36.71
Lindy
Yes, yeah, and it’s like a little bonus later on down the road when it does translate into a sale. So it’s like finding money in your coat pocket in the closet. That’s how I like to think about it or a Venmo balance you forgot about.
17:44.45
Amber
Absolutely absolutely Absolutely I Love it.
17:55.86
Lindy
To use the you know technology of our time to date myself with the money in the coat pocket. But yeah, yeah, awesome. So I’m at Apothecary 19.
18:01.38
Amber
Okay, so this has been great tell people how they can find Apothecary nineteen on the socials and everywhere.
18:12.96
Lindy
Ah, like the um apothecary one nine on Instagram. Fair warning it is ah like half business half my personality. So it’s a little ah it can get a little unhinged at times. But it’s fun. My website is apothecary nineteen dot com.
18:29.24
Amber
Wonderful, well wonderful. Well thank you so much for joining us today and thank you everyone who has tuned in to our first episode.
Thank you so much for joining us for our first episode- getting my first custom order. Episodes for the season will release weekly on YouTube and Spotify for our 5 episode season.
