Sourcing and selling sustainable products – with Vic Wood – Greener Beauty

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:08

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Ideas to Life podcast, practical advice and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products. Here's your host, Vicki Weinberg.

undefined: 00:00:22

Today I'm talking with Vic Wood from Greener Beauty. So Greener Beauty is an online store where you can find all the ethical, vegan and cruelty-free and natural beauty products that you love all in one place. So we spoke a lot about Vic's inspiration for setting up her business, how she, she went about it, um, sort of the vigorous testing she goes through for every product that lands on her site. We spoke about her Advent calendar, which is available to buy as you listen to this right now. We also spoke about an experience Vic had with another company earlier this year, a bigger well known company, and, um, shares a bit of a cautionary tale that I think we can hopefully all learn from. So I would now love to introduce you to Vic and for you to hear her story. So, hi Vic. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me.

Vic Wood: 00:01:11

Oh, you're so welcome.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:12

I'm so excited to talk to you today. So let's start with you. Please give an introduction to yourself, your business, and what you sell.

Vic Wood: 00:01:19

Uh, so hi everyone. My name's Vic and my business, or my baby, as I like to call it, is called Greener Beauty. And basically I'm like, someone called me the ethical version of Boots once, which is quite accurate. I sell lots of different brands of products that are all vegan and ethical, um, natural and a lot of plastic free aswell.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:44

Amazing. Thank you. And what was your inspiration for doing that?

Vic Wood: 00:01:49

Yeah. Um, when I first set up the business, um, so we'd been running for about five, we'll be five years early next year. Um, I'd been vegan for about five years at that point. And, um, I was really finding it so frustrating because I knew all the good products and I knew all the good brands. Um, and being very passionate about natural beauty, which is not so easy to find on the high street. Um, I was having to shop in like multiple different websites. You know, I'd have to get my deodorant from one place, my toothpaste from somewhere else. And I just thought like, I can't be the only person having this problem. So it just sort of one day I was like, that's it, I'm going do it myself. And you know, and luckily lots of other people have, have found me and used me as well. But initially it was for selfish reasons really. I just set out for me because I wanted to, to have everything in one.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:02:43

No, that make, that makes total sense. And I think as you've probably found out, because you're experiencing that issue, there probably are so many other people out there with exactly the same thing because yeah. Yeah. I find that myself, you just can't get all the products you want in in one place because there is, there isn't like a, well, until you came along there wasn't like a boots for beauty products that were sustainable and ethical.

Vic Wood: 00:03:06

Yeah. And it was, it was frustrating. Like the amount of time I stood in various shops, like checking labels and researching the brands, do they test on animals? Who are they owned by? You know, what is their ethical stance? And it just like shopping became such a mission.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:25

I, I expect though that research is paid off now though, hasn't it? Because I was about to ask.

Vic Wood: 00:03:30

Oh, absolutely.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:30

Yeah. How you research products for your site and I guess having sort of gone through all that, which must have been quite painful, I guess that did give you a bit of a head start when choosing which brands you were going to include.

Vic Wood: 00:03:42

Oh, a hundred percent. I think when we launched, we launched with about 35, 40 brands, which is quite unusual for, you know, a startup business to have that volume of products. I mean, you know, we've probably three folded that now, but, um, yeah, a hundred percent, like when, as soon as the idea came to me, I knew exactly what brands I wanted to start with. So, yeah, it really did help.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:06

That's great. So it sounds like you, so you knew which brand you wanted, so how did you go about sourcing, of do the sourcing side of it?

Vic Wood: 00:04:13

Yeah. Um, I think, honestly, I, I'm a very spiritual person, so for someone who's not, this might sound a bit hippie, but I do feel that if you're on the right path, that things will align and things will just happen as they're meant to happen. And I was just very lucky. Um, one of the brands I wanted to stock, um, I contacted their distributor in the UK and do you know what? He's been amazing. Like I still talk to him on a weekly basis now, and he put me in touch with other distributors and he's sort of, he almost handheld me to start the business up. Um, so whereby I was like, I knew, knew what brands I wanted, I didn't know how to go about getting them. He was a big support to me, to be honest.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:59

Well, that's amazing. Um, yeah. And uh, and I'm just curious, and you don't need to sort of go into detail, but are you expected as a small business to, to buy quite large quantities or are distributors sort of okay at you just testing the waters as it were?

Vic Wood: 00:05:15

Yeah, I think it depends. So some of the products we, we sell, we buy directly from the brands, and brands tend to have a larger minimum order quantity. Um, when you are shopping from a distributor, you tend to be able to buy in lower volumes. Um, and to be honest, that's what we tend to do because they're natural products. We prefer to order more frequently from suppliers and make sure that everything is fresh as possible and not keep a huge volume of stock. So, yeah, I mean it, it very much depends.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:05:46

Yeah, that does. That makes total sense though actually. And I didn't think about the fact that obviously because they're natural products, they're not packed full of preservatives, so you don't want to have them sitting around for months or years.

Vic Wood: 00:05:56

No, absolutely. So, you know, it's, it works really well to order in low volumes. I mean, the brands that sell well, obviously you want to keep a larger volume because you don't want to be ordering every other day. Yeah, I mean it definitely works for us.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:10

And how did, I'm just, I'm sorry. I'm going, I'm asking so many questions that I didn't prepare you for, because I'm really interested. But given that now you stock, you know, more, presumably more brands than you started five years ago, I mean, you must have hundreds of SKUs now. How are you keeping.

Vic Wood: 00:06:23

Thousands!

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:23

On top of stock management because this must be a full-time job.

Vic Wood: 00:06:29

Yeah, it pretty much is. To be honest, we probably have, so we have around 5,000 product lines now.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:36

Wow.

Vic Wood: 00:06:36

So it is, it is a huge volume of stock. Um, and it is a weekly job. Um, and we are a very small team here. We're not like a team of hundreds or thousands, you know, So it, it does take up an amount of time to ensure that we have stock, but that's just part and parcel. As we get bigger and as, as we make more and more sales, I think that will get even easier. But for now, I mean, it's manageable.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:03

That's good. And obviously you've grown tremendously in five years in terms of even, even if we just, even in just terms of the amount of brands and, and SKUs that you are stocking. So how are you going about finding new products to add? Are you get, are you finding that businesses are coming directly to you now or are you still going out and looking or is it a bit of both?

Vic Wood: 00:07:23

It is, it's definitely a bit of both. We get contacted and awful lot by brands who want to, to work with us. Which is amazing, you know. When you set up, you never think that's going to happen, but we probably get about 10, 15 brands contact us a week, which is just incredible. Um, and then we also, you know, social media's great to see what other brands are out there, you know, the influences and people we follow, what products they're using. They, we quite often find out new brands through those people. Um, so it's a real mix. Um, I mean, I think we are quite unique. I have super sensitive skin, I had really bad eczema as a child, and that's why I'm really passionate about natural beauty. Um, but what sets us apart from a lot of other brands is we test all the products we sell first. So if a brand contacts us, it does not necessarily mean that we will definitely be retailing their products. We get the products in, we test them, which is so hard. Isn't it awful, Just having to use all these new products.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:21

What a terrible job.

Vic Wood: 00:08:22

Oh, so hard. Um, and then obviously if the products are good enough, then we would, we would retail them. And that. We don't retail or we test, I would say we probably only retail about 40% of what we test just because, you know, we might not think that the price point is right or it doesn't smell that great, or it doesn't do what it says it's going to do, or you know, there could be loads of different reasons. But yeah, we probably only take on about 40% of what we test.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:47

Oh, that's amazing. And I think that's also really good, um, for everyone to know that, you know, you're not just stocking every product and every brand out there that you are going through this process. And actually, in terms of the criteria, what other things are you looking for? So if a brand wanted to be stocked with you, um, what are some of the other things? Because obviously you don't, no animal testing and.

Vic Wood: 00:09:07

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:07

Um, is it a hundred percent vegan products? What are some of the other things.

Vic Wood: 00:09:11

So, yeah, everything's a hundred percent vegan. Everything is cruelty free. Um, we don't have any brands that, um, have animal testing parent companies, so they won't be owned by the likes of L'Oreal or Estee Lauder, or, you know, Johnson Johnson, Procter and Gamble. I mean, the list goes on, right. I'm, I'm not going to tell you all of them, but yeah. Uh, so we don't have any brands that are owned by animal testing parent companies. Um, and we also don't sell any brands that sell in China. Now, China's a bit of a wobbly one because there was the law change out there. So for anyone who didn't know, for a long time, China have only allowed products to be sold in China that were tested on animals. Um, and recently that was changed, but it's not for all beauty products. There are definite loopholes. But we, we made a stance and we've decided we just won't sell any brands that sell in China. And until the law changes a hundred percent, that won't change.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:10:09

Well that's fantastic and it's great that, yeah, I think people, you're really giving me this sense that people can buy a view for so much confidence that you've done all the due diligence for them. Because I guess coming back to what you were saying earlier, um, you can spend a long time reading labels and Googling and trying to work out, okay, is this product actually ethical? And it's really nice to know that you've done all the work.

Vic Wood: 00:10:29

Yeah. Yeah, and it is a lot of work. I mean, when we sign up with new brands, we make them sign a contract to ensure that any, if anything changes in their circumstances, but as soon as it does, they let us know. So if they're going to sell out to L'Oreal, that's obviously their choice, but they have to tell us, and at that point, we'd decide not to sell them. Even if it's my favorite mascara, it would be hard, but, that would be it.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:10:54

Yeah, no, that would, but that would be, yeah, hard and really sad as well, so I hope that, isn't it something that happens? I really hope that isn't something that happens too often.

Vic Wood: 00:11:02

It hasn't happened at all in the five years with me going, so it's not something that I foresee because a lot of the brands I work with are really ethical brands, so you know, they're unlikely to sell out to the big, the big animal testing giant.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:15

Yeah, I would've thought so because I guess they're coming from a very similar place, aren't they?

Vic Wood: 00:11:18

Yeah. Although, I mean, what I always find interesting is Anita Roddick with the body shop, because she obviously sold out to L'Oreal and her plans were to change L'Oreal from the inside, which unfortunately due to her health, that never happened. But, you know, ethical people obviously have a different stance and everyone has a different way of doing things, so never say never. I hope it never happens, but you never know.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:43

Yeah. So let's, um, talk a little, if you don't mind, talk a little bit more about your advent calendar. So, I know we're going completely off topic, but I know this has been a massive thing, but there's been a lot of hard work. So can you start by telling everybody what your adcent calendar is and then we'll talk a bit more about how you developed it?

Vic Wood: 00:12:00

Yeah. Um. My advent calendar, I have to say like, if Greener Beauty was my baby, like this, this would be the main, the main part of it. Like it takes so much time. Um, I think this year I started working on it in April and I've decided next year I'm going to start it even earlier because it still wasn't early enough, which is ridiculous, isn't it? The sun shining outside and everyone's talking about where they're going on a summer holiday and I'm sitting looking at Christmas designs. But we, um, so basically what I do is I pull in lots of different brands. They're all brands that I love, they're all products I love, um, the stipulation, obviously vegan, cruelty free, um, and ethical. But with the advent coming, everything is plastic free as well. Um, just because typically advent calendars generate so much waste, you know, and they're normally in a really glossy box, and even though the box is cardboard, it often can't be recycled. Um, so everything is plastic free. The packaging is fully recyclable, and yeah, so we just, it's just all the products I love.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:03

And are they in mini version or are they, are they full sized?

Vic Wood: 00:13:07

No. We do full size, so everything is full size in it. So you get 24 full size products.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:13

That's amazing. So obviously with most event calendars, particularly beauty ones, you get miniatures, you might get a few full size products, but the majority of them are quite small.

Vic Wood: 00:13:21

No, no. All of ours are full size. Well, actually there's one that's the mini and that's a perfume, and you get 10 mls instead of 30. Just because perfume is such a personal thing. I don't want to put in 30 mls and then for it just to be a waste, you know, if the fragrance isn't right or something.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:38

Yeah. That does that make sense.

Vic Wood: 00:13:39

But yes, everything else is full size and the value of the contents is over 350 pounds.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:45

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

Vic Wood: 00:13:48

Um, it's a hundred and seventy seven, ninety five. So you're sort of paying half what the retail would be for the individual products.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:56

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

Vic Wood: 00:13:58

Yeah. I mean, the majority of the ones that sell are sold to men and it's for their wives. Like we get gift notes added and all sorts.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:07

That's really lovely. Yeah, that's lovely. And so we are recording this, well, as you will know, but nobody else will know it in October, but when everyone listens to this, it'll be November. So, um, are we still going to be able to get hold of these in November or are they going to sell out, do you think?

Vic Wood: 00:14:21

Um, I mean, it's difficult to know. Um, obviously this year with the climate that we're in, who knows? We, um, the last we've only done the advent calendar for three years. This is our third year. Um, and we have sold out every single. Um, but who knows? We've, we've still got a volume of stock now left. They're selling well and they're selling frequently, but as it stands today in October, we still have stock. And I'd imagine we still have a few left in November too.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:49

Okay. So if you're listening to this and you're interested, get over there quickly, I think is the message I'm taking from this

Vic Wood: 00:14:56

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:57

So something else, obviously coming up in November is Black Friday. Now I know that you don't partake in that and that you do greener Friday instead. So can you tell us a bit about that, please?

Vic Wood: 00:15:08

Yeah, of course. So, um, as an ethical business, it, Black Friday just doesn't feel ethical to me at all. Um, it's just about mass consumerism and discounting stuff that's not selling and people just stock piling, sorry for my language crap, which just ends up in landfill, which as, you know, planet faced and focused business. I just can't subscribe to that. So what we try and do is, um, I think we've done it for four years now, is we plant, well every order, we, we, we have, we plant one tree anyway all year round, but during Black Friday weekend, we plant 10 trees per order in the hope that it would negate some of the carbon footprint of the other businesses out there as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:52

Oh, that's amazing. And I didn't realize you planted a tree per order anyway. You kept that quiet, but that's.

Vic Wood: 00:15:58

Yes, sorry. Yeah, we've planted over, um, 13 and a half thousand trees so far.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:04

Wow. That's a huge impact.

Vic Wood: 00:16:06

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:07

That's amazing.

Vic Wood: 00:16:07

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

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:09

That's really great. Yeah. Thank you. Um, something else I'd like to talk about if that's okay, because I did see this on, I think I might have seen this on social media, but you do say, if you don't want to talk about it, is, I know that there was a big retailer earlier this year that you had, um, you know, that you really went into business with. Um, yeah. Is that something you don't mind sharing and obviously only go into as much detail as you feel comfortable? Because I just think it might be quite eye opening for other businesses that are listening.

Vic Wood: 00:16:39

Yeah, I'm, you know what, like, I, I'm totally fine with sharing it because I, I don't see why you would hide it. That's their policy and that's, they approached me. Um, but I, I was approached by Feel Unique, who are one of the biggest, you know, UK beauty retailers in, you know, as it stands. And they wanted me to set up a shop in their shop. And I'd have my own page and the products would look the same to the customer. Um, and what they would do is they would take commission off everything I sell, and then they would send me the orders and I would send them out like they'd been ordered from my website. Um, now I asked a few questions because it all looked very normal. In the emails that, that were going back and forth at the beginning, and I don't know, this is where my spiritual side comes in because it was almost like someone whispered it in my ear. Um, and I said to them is, is there a contract in place that if, if I bring a brand on board and they sell really well, is there anything to protect my business? Um, and basically it turns out that if I, if I came on board with all the brands I was selling and some of the brands sold well, they would just buy them in themselves. And then I contractually can't sell them because they are then sold by them. So they were basically using me and my stock to test out what brands were selling. Which just, it's, it's just so unethical. I mean, that is how you, in my opinion, that's how you screw small businesses over, you know. It's just.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:18:22

Absolutely, because I mean, let's face it, their, they're competition, well, not competition, they are kind of competition anyway. As in, if you've on their website, presumably you'd still have your own website going as well. Yeah. So you would be, Yeah, that, that's really. I'm trying to think of the right word. They mean unethical or part of unethical, but yeah, it seems to me that they knew that you would be at a disadvantage and they didn't really care.

Vic Wood: 00:18:48

No, no. And I mean, worst case scenario, I come on and I start signing up with their website and I list my 5,000 products. And let's say I've got a hundred brands that I retail, and they all sell well, they'll just get all those a hundred brands. You know, and their marketing power, their business power, their budgets, everything is so much higher. I think they'd put me out of business very quickly.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:19:13

I think so too. I was just about to say that they could effectively just take everything you were doing. And do it for themselves and overnight your business is gone because suddenly, because there will be people who I don't actually do, you know, I don't shop on Feel Unique, so I don't know if they do sell any ethical products at the moment. Um, but let's assume that they do. Let's hope they do. So there might be people who are already buying bits and pieces from there anyway, and then suddenly they can get everything they're buying from you over there. I'm not saying that you won't have loyal customers who'll stick with you because I'm sure you will. Yeah. There are also other types of consumers who are going to be like, well, I'm on Feel Unique anyway, so yeah, I'll just fill my basket here because it's more convenient. So yeah, that's, yeah, that's really not on, is it? Um, no, and I thank you for being honest and sharing that because I do think it's eyeopening because we all like to think, well I certainly do as one of life's optimists. I like to think that there aren't people out there trying to take advantage of us. But of course there are no. And also I think it was great that you asked that question as well because it's all too easy to get caught up in the excitement of something 'Oh i'm being approached by this brand and they want to do this of me'. And obviously it would be huge for you, but as you said, it would've been only lasted five minutes.

Vic Wood: 00:20:31

Yeah, I mean, it, it potentially would've, it potentially would've made my business. I mean, their, their turnover is millions and millions each year, you know, which is nowhere near where I am currently. And I did, I got very excited when I saw that email come in. But, yeah, I'm glad I asked the question too.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:49

Yeah, so I think that's such a good point to sort of make sure that you really go into the fine print and perhaps even, you know, if you're not confident doing that yourself, find someone else. Because I'm sure we, I'm sure there are people out there that can do this sort of thing for you of, if you're not confident enough to know, okay, what should I be asking and what should I be asking to see? I'm sure you can get someone on board to, to help with this as well because, um, and were they out of interest, willing to negotiate when you sort of said 'Okay, that's not on' what was their response?

Vic Wood: 00:21:18

No. So I actually approached them and I thought, you know what, if, if we can do two years where I have the exclusivity on the brands that I'm selling, that I'm bringing on board, that you can't stock them. And they refused flat out right. They just said, we won't, we wouldn't, we wouldn't sign a contract like that. Hmm. And that was the end of the conversation because I'm, I'm not, I'm not going to join.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:43

No, of course not. That I'm just, I, I am still quite shocked that because it, because based on that it does seem that, yeah, there was no intention of this being a negotiation.

Vic Wood: 00:21:55

Right.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:55

Which is, which is a shame because actually I think I generally and I'm not just saying this because I'm talking to you, but I genuinely think you would've bought something to them as well. And obviously they could see the potential because they asked you. So yeah, it is, it is a shame it had to end that way.

Vic Wood: 00:22:10

Yeah, I mean I'm, I'm glad it did though. I mean, if I'd signed up, I think it was earlier this year this happened, if I'd signed up, my turnover and the volume of sales coming in and out would be much higher now. But God knows what would've happened in a year's time, you know?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:27

Yeah, I think, I think you're right. It would've been perhaps great in the short term, but yeah long term, as you said, it could have destroyed your business.

Vic Wood: 00:22:35

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

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:39

That's, yeah, that's really, really scary. So let's talk about some happy things. Yeah. Because I have seen that recently you have had loads of award wins. I'm not exaggerating when I say loads, am I?

Vic Wood: 00:22:52

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

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:55

Tell us, tell us about some of the awards you've won and how they came about.

Vic Wood: 00:22:59

Um, so it's, it's kind of been mind blowing to be honest this year. Um, you can, obviously, we are on video. You can see all the awards behind me on the wall. I must have about 15 frames up there with different awards now. Um, this year probably the biggest win for us was best online retailer with the natural beauty retail awards, which is huge because, um, businesses that have won that in the past have been really big retailers. So for a small, independent, like myself to win, yeah, I mean I still remember the evening that I heard and I just screamed so loudly. My poor neighbors were probably like, because I was at home, what is going on? Um, so yeah, that was a really big one that was, um, put together by the people who run the natural organic products events in London. So it's, it's a very prestigious award, um, in the natural beauty realm. And then I also, for the third year running recently found out I'm on the Who's Who of Natural Beauty, which is like a top 25 list of the most influential people in the, in the natural beauty world, which again, you know, it's. The winner. Every year I've been in it actually the woman who runs Weleda, the leader in the UK has won. And Weleda obviously such a massive brand. So, you know, it's so great to be placed in that. And, um, I'll find out next month, although if you are listeners it'll be this month. Um, I'll find out sort of towards the end of November how I did, because I'm a finalist for the Health and Beauty Great British entrepreneur of the year.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:35

Oh wow.

Vic Wood: 00:24:36

So yeah, busy, busy awards, really busy. It's been amazing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:40

And it's a lot of work as well, because obviously entering these awards takes a lot, takes a lot of work. Is that something you ma I'm just curious, is that something you're doing yourself because that is a lot of work.

Vic Wood: 00:24:51

Yeah. Um, it's interesting actually. So I refuse to pay for awards. I, I think any award that's worth it is not paid for. I think there are exceptions. I think some of like the beauty shortlist awards, if I created my own products, I'd probably pay for those to go in because they're a prestigious award. Um, but like the best online retailer, they actually contacted me and asked me to enter. They'd obviously already, yeah, they'd obviously already decided. And it was very easy. I just had to put in contact details. And that was kind of it.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:25:26

Oh, okay. So it wasn't like pages and pages of forms. Oh, that's good. But I guess you still, I mean, are you still having to keep on top of what awards are coming on and what you want to be in the mix for?

Vic Wood: 00:25:41

Um, to be honest, I don't really pay a lot of attention to it. I'm too, you know, for all your listeners who run a business. Especially at Christmas time, it's just way too busy to keep an eye on what's going on in terms of what awards are coming up. So I mean, if something crosses my path and I think, oh, I'd quite like that, then I might enter, but I don't, I don't go out of my way really.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:06

That's really reassuring because of all the success, success you've had, you could be mistake, you know, as I was thinking, gosh, you must be putting a lot of time into this. So it's really reassuring to know that you're not putting tons of time and effort in, but you're still doing, I mean that, that says a lot about your business, yourself and your business, to be honest. But that's. Thank you. That's really good to know. Um, and I guess all of those award wins, have they helped with the other things like PR opportunities?

Vic Wood: 00:26:33

Um, I could probably use the PR more, to be honest. I'm not, my, my background is beauty and it, so, so far from marketing and PR and everything else, so I'm sure I could do more with it. Um, I have got a little bit of local press from it, but that's kind of been about it, to be honest.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:53

That makes sense. Um, and I think as well, because we all have our, we all come, depending what background you come from, I think we all have the things that we are naturally good at. That, and those tend to be the things that we spend the majority of our time on. So how are you getting the word about your business out there? Is it mostly social media or what or what are you doing to, to spread the word and find customers?

Vic Wood: 00:27:16

Um, it's a bit of a mix to be honest. Social media, definitely. I mean, in this day and age who couldn't be. Um, we also do things like Google ads. The shopping ad campaigns, I mean, as a product based business, you couldn't not be on there. I mean, that's, that's, that, that's probably generates, you know, apart from returning customers, I would say that probably generates 80% of our new customers.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:43

That's really interesting. As I've obviously spoke to probably, I want to say, hundreds now of product businesses and you are the first person to specifically talk about Google shopping really. Which isn't to say, isn't to say nobody else is doing it because I'm sure other businesses are, I just think it's something that perhaps people aren't talking about or it just doesn't occur to them, or maybe I just haven't asked a question. Um, but that's really, that's really interesting. And are you finding that that's effective for you? Oh, you are obviously are. How is that something that took time to, to get working for you? Because when I was selling products, I dabbled with Google Shopping and I, I actually found it quite hard to get conversions. Um, is it something you've had to work on or being fairly straightforward from the start?

Vic Wood: 00:28:28

I would definitely say it's a dark art. Um, as a business owner, I am already short of time, so it's one of the things I think, you know, why attempt, especially when you're playing with money, you know, why attempt to do something that you're not really sure about. So I do actually outsource that to a, a Google ad specialist and they run my accounts. I have been between agencies before and you see, you know, the return on ad spend drop. So I would say, you know, if anyone wants to give it a go, it's definitely worth it. But I would definitely say find someone who's, who's, you know, local to yourself, who's got a good reputation and who can do it for you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:10

That's really useful. Thank you. Because that was definitely my experience was I just couldn't get my, my head around it really. And.

Vic Wood: 00:29:17

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

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:19

Yeah, no. And I'm, you know, fairly adept at other sorts of advertising, but that I just, I couldn't work. So that, yeah, that's, that's quite reassuring for me personally, but also really good advice for people. And I think it sounds, for anyone who's interested in it but has been thinking 'Oh, I'm not sure because I don't really know how it works'. I think finding an expert is definitely the way to go.

Vic Wood: 00:29:40

A hundred percent. Yeah, it's very complicated. And if you, if you had all the time in the world, you could probably sit and learn it. But as business owners, who, who has time for that?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:51

None of us. And that actually brings me on as well as you mentioned that now you have a small team. So can we just talk a tiny bit, um, before we finish up, about how you've grown your, your team and the things that you, um, things that others do for you versus what you're doing yourself? Because I think a lot of the owners that I speak to are still running the businesses by themselves or with a partner. Yeah. So it's quite interesting to know what, what growing and expanding the team can look like.

Vic Wood: 00:30:18

Yeah. Um, I mean obviously it's also limited by budget as well. Yeah. Of course as you grow you can outsource more, which is a, is a point I'm looking forward to. Um, but I mean, for me personally, I know the limitations of what I can and can't do. So while I've got an IT background, expertise is not website building. So I have a team of developers that I work with. Um, I work with a marketing chap who does my Google ads. He also does social media ad campaigns for me. Um, and I have an accountant as well, because, you know, year end accounts. Who wants to be doing that? Um, no. No. And I, I also work with a social media expert aswell who's, who's helping me build my social media following and the interaction rate and things like that. So that's really helpful. And then I have a couple of people in house who help with things like packing orders, like the day to day, unpacking stock orders, ordering stock, that sort of thing. So, yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:31:21

Yeah because as we mentioned earlier, stock must be a massive thing. And I guess, yeah. Where actually, um, do you actually have a facility for, so all the stock now?

Vic Wood: 00:31:31

Yeah, so we are based in a warehouse in Little, Little Hampton, in West Sussex. Um, and we actually share the warehouse with two other businesses, which is lovely because then you've got a bit of a community as well. Although they do, they're both vegan bakers, which is very tempting a lot of the time.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:31:48

Yeah, I can imagine. Oh, that's amazing. And I'm assuming that your team has, has grown over time and as you've sort of, sort of had the budget and also the, I guess the need to to outsource part of it. Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much for all that you shared today, Vic. Um, and I'm going to have links to everything over in the show notes. People can go and take a look at your site and have a look at the product range that you have. Um, I have one final question which I ask everybody who comes on, which is, what would your number one piece of advice be for other business owners particularly?

Vic Wood: 00:32:22

I think those looking to create a maybe, perhaps not a similar business in the sense of it being a vegan business or an ethical business, um, but a business in which you're selling other people's products, perhaps. Um, one piece of advice, I think if I could go back and do it all again, I'd probably work out a way to work with experts from the beginning. And I know that makes it difficult because it's not always the budget to do that. But the challenge is, you know, you could spend five years doing your add campaigns or your own accountants and it just, it just will take you so much longer. And it's more, not only, it's the time thing, it's also the efficiency thing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:11

That makes sense.

Vic Wood: 00:33:11

So I, I would say, you know, do your best to invest as much as you can on getting the right people on board.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:19

I think that makes total sense because often you can end up redoing things as well. Yeah. I had the experience with my website that I made myself and I used Website Builder and it looked okay, but when you think of the time, you know it's still not free and it takes time. And then, yeah, years later ended up having to get someone to build a completely new one because it just, you know, for many reasons wasn't working. Um, and it is a bit of a false economy, isn't it? Whereas re really, if you can get something right from the start, it does set you up better. But also, yeah, just reduces all that. I think it's mostly the time element, isn't it? Just the the time that you waste by yeah attempting to do everything. And I do know that budgets don't always make it possible, but I think, I think that's good advice that if you are able to invest, and I think it is. Thinking of where, where any budget you do have is best spent as well.

Vic Wood: 00:34:09

Definitely, yeah. It's really tricky. I think, um, when we first launched the website, I think since then we've had four different versions and it just, like you say, it just takes time and effort.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:23

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for that and for everything else that you shared. I found loved talking to you, hearing more about your business, it's been really good. Thank you.

Vic Wood: 00:34:31

Thank you so much for having me.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:36

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the full back catalogues and lots of free resources on my website, vickiweinberg.com. Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.