Start Scale Succeed – Details, episodes & analysis

On this episode of Start Scale Succeed, Nicole chats with Louisa Booth, the inspiring founder behind Pop Mask and Blushing LA. Louisa shares her entrepreneurial journey from investment banking to bootstrapping and building a global beauty and wellness brand, now found in over 35,000 retail doors worldwide—including CVS, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Superdrug, and Boots. Nicole and Louisa chat about: The story behind Louisa’s first product, Pop Band (the hair ties that don’t damage hair), and her accidental pivot into the US market. How Louisa grew Pop Mask into a brand that brings joy and innovation to everyday essentials—from sleep masks to femcare solutions. The logistics of scaling internationally: cracking the US market, dealing with retail red tape, vendor setups, and surviving cash flow challenges. The reality of copycat competitors and how Louisa kept innovating and moving forward. Product development inspiration—how her own family’s needs and feedback from a multigenerational team drive new ideas. Navigating tariffs, Trump policies, and the need for dogged focus on margins  The shift to showing up as the face of the brand and connecting with customers on a relatable, human level. The rollercoaster of founder life: bootstrapping, remortgaging, 18-hour days, pinch-me moments, and finally seeing her products in major UK retailers. Louisa’s best advice for founders at every stage: trust your instincts, scrutinize every penny spent, focus on margins, and remember—there are no shortcuts in scaling a product business. https://www.instagram.com/lovethepopmask/ https://popmasklondon.com/ https://blushingla.com/en-gb Host Nicole Higgins  The Buyer and retail coach  Nicole Higgins Links  https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/free-discovery-call/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/blog/ Sponsor  Neon Digital Clicks  Are you ready to scale your ecommerce store?This episode is brought to you by Neon Digital Clicks, the agency dedicated to helping kids’ and family brands achieve explosive growth with high-performing digital marketing campaigns. Neon’s new Runway to Results programme is a revolutionary paid-advertising service that will help you understand your brand’s true potential and reach the heights of success you dream of. Over the course of 60 days, Neon’s expert team will test and optimise your Meta and Google ad accounts to establish your business KPIs and optimum Cost Per Acquisition.  At the end of the Runway period, they’ll analyse your data to establish what profitable scaling looks like and arm you with knowledge, confidence and a clear plan for the next phase of your growth. If you’re ready to elevate your e-commerce game, Neon is the navigator you need on your flight deck. https://runwaytoresults.com/ https://neondigitalclicks.co.uk/

In this value-packed episode, Nicole Higgins sits down with Dean Johnson—AI consultant, and experienced product business founder—to dive into the game-changing ways artificial intelligence is transforming product businesses.  Whether you're a founder at the start of your journey or running an established e-commerce brand, you’ll learn actionable strategies for using AI to streamline operations, save time, and scale efficiently without losing that crucial human connection. Highlights include  Smart ways to use AI for inventory forecasting, automating reporting, customer service, and content creation The strengths of custom ChatGPTs for more intuitive, tailored results Workflow automation using tools like Make.com   Integrating AI with Shopify  Leveraging AI while maintaining authenticity and personal connection with your customers Practical steps to map your business workflows and identify automation opportunities Using AI for deep trend research and actionable business insights Key Takeaways: Start by mapping your business workflows to identify where AI and automation will help the most. Focus on repetitive, data-heavy tasks—freeing yourself and your team to focus on creativity and customer relationships. ChatGPT’s custom GPT feature is a powerful way to make business analysis fast and personalized. Trend research and strategic planning can be augmented with AI,  Links  https://www.gorgias.com/ https://www.make.com/en https://n8n.io/ai/ Guest Dean Johnston https://aiefficiencyhubb.com/ https://www.instagram.com/deanjohnstonai https://www.tiktok.com/@deanjohnstonai https://form.typeform.com/to/izHind8W Host Nicole Higgins  The Buyer and retail coach  Nicole Higgins Links  https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/free-discovery-call/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/blog/ Sponsor  Neon Digital Clicks  Are you ready to scale your ecommerce store?This episode is brought to you by Neon Digital Clicks, the agency dedicated to helping kids’ and family brands achieve explosive growth with high-performing digital marketing campaigns. Neon’s new Runway to Results programme is a revolutionary paid-advertising service that will help you understand your brand’s true potential and reach the heights of success you dream of. Over the course of 60 days, Neon’s expert team will test and optimise your Meta and Google ad accounts to establish your business KPIs and optimum Cost Per Acquisition.  At the end of the Runway period, they’ll analyse your data to establish what profitable scaling looks like and arm you with knowledge, confidence and a clear plan for the next phase of your growth. If you’re ready to elevate your e-commerce game, Neon is the navigator you need on your flight deck. https://runwaytoresults.com/ https://neondigitalclicks.co.uk/

Join us as Imogen shares her journey from interior designer to creative business owner, revealing why she chose to make wholesale and trade shows a new focus, the realities of prepping for her debut trade show at Top Drawer, a UK trade show and the practical lessons she learned along the way.  Whether you’re considering your first trade show or just love hearing honest accounts of building a business, this episode is packed with actionable tips, candid moments, and encouragement for anyone ready to take the next step in scaling their product business  Imogen shares  Why she chose Top Drawer as her first trade show  How she prepared and what she would have done differently The show itself, including Logistics & Costs.  What worked for her during the show and how she attracted visitors to her stand  After the show and how to maximise the experience  The Unexpected Challenges.  Guest Imogen Partridge - Imogen Partridge is a bespoke illustrator who took the leap into expanding her creative business after leaving her job last year. When illness forced her to pause, Imogen came to realize just how much her work depended on her personal involvement. Wanting to make her business more scalable and sustainable, she explored new avenues such as wholesale, a step she hesitated over for months. Inspired by seeing others succeed at trade shows, Imogen finally pushed herself to try by booking a stand at Top Drawer, believing that setting a deadline would give her the motivation to make it happen. Her journey is one of creativity, courage, and learning to balance personal artistry with new opportunities for growth. https://www.topdrawer.co.uk/  https://imogenpartridge.com/ https://www.instagram.com/imogen.partridge/ https://imogenpartridge.com/learnings-from-my-first-trade-show/ Host Nicole Higgins  The Buyer and retail coach  Nicole Higgins Links  https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk/   https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/   https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/free-discovery-call/ https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/blog/ Sponsor  Neon Digital Clicks  Are you ready to scale your ecommerce store?This episode is brought to you by Neon Digital Clicks, the agency dedicated to helping kids’ and family brands achieve explosive growth with high-performing digital marketing campaigns.   Neon’s new Runway to Results programme is a revolutionary paid-advertising service that will help you understand your brand’s true potential and reach the heights of success you dream of.   Over the course of 60 days, Neon’s expert team will test and optimise your Meta and Google ad accounts to establish your business KPIs and optimum Cost Per Acquisition.    At the end of the Runway period, they’ll analyse your data to establish what profitable scaling looks like and arm you with knowledge, confidence and a clear plan for the next phase of your growth.   If you’re ready to elevate your e-commerce game, Neon is the navigator you need on your flight deck. https://runwaytoresults.com/ https://neondigitalclicks.co.uk/  

Today Nicole is chatting to Lucy Hitchcock founder of not just one business, but two, service business Sassy Digital and pandemic born business Partner in Wine. In 2021 Lucy posted a viral video on TikTok, racking up half a million views in 12 hours and saw an item in her store selling every two minutes. Sales increased by 1,700 percent in a single day, which turned into sustained five-digit revenue every month. She's on Start Scale Succeed to tell the story of how that happened and the journey that took her there. KEY TAKEAWAYS Lucy, who was 23 years old at the time, resigned from her job and started working with small businesses to improve their digital marketing, branding, and website design as well as e-commerce strategies. As a result, she has helped countless small businesses in boosting their online sales. In the midst of the worldwide pandemic, Lucy came up with the idea of producing an insulated wine bottle and tumbler. This idea was sparked by her disappointment with a lukewarm glass of wine while enjoying time with her closest friend in the park. The aim was to help herself and other wine enthusiasts enjoy a socially distanced drink in the park more comfortably. During March 2021, Lucy shared her journey on TikTok, resulting in a viral video that hit 500,000 views within 12 hours and triggered a sale every two minutes. This led to a 1,700% surge in sales in a single day, which was sustained in the following months, generating five-figure revenue each month. Partner in Wine had generated £30,000 in 2020. By the end of 2021, this number had skyrocketed to over 8 times the initial figure. One of Lucy’s key pieces of advice is that using someone else's expertees allows the job to be done in a fraction of the time it would have taken you to do. This also means that in a product business, the product can get to market quicker and start generating revenue for you quicker. BEST MOMENTS ‘I get my positivity from both of my parents, they say not to worry about things that haven't happened yet’ ‘What do you do when you’re super busy? You start another business of course’ ‘I would account the success of the business to being in the right place and the right time’ ‘If you don’t love your idea then don’t do it as a business’ EPISODE RESOURCE Viral Video Partner in Wine Sassy Digital ABOUT THE GUEST Lucy Hitchcock is an entrepreneur, marketeer and Founder of Sassy Digital and Partner in Wine. After leaving her job at 23 years old to work with small businesses on their digital marketing, branding and website and e-commerce design, she’s since helped hundreds of small businesses make more sales online. During the global pandemic, after a disappointingly warm glass of wine in the park with her best friend, Lucy decided to create an insulated wine bottle and tumbler to help her and so many other wine lovers enjoy a socially distanced drink in the park. Since starting the business, and using her marketing expertise to grow a large social media following and most importantly sales, in just 16 months Partner in Wine has quickly become Sassy Digital’s best case study. In March 2021, Lucy shared her story on TikTok, leading to a viral video which racked up half a million views in 12 hours and saw an item selling every two minutes. Sales increased by 1,700 percent in a single day, which turned into sustained five-digit revenue every month. In 2020, after five months of launching, Partner in Wine had turned over £30,000. By the end of 2021, this figure was over 8 times that. Lucy and her businesses have been profiled by the BBC News, Mail Online, Business Insider, The Sun, Daily Express, and was featured in TikTok’s Year on TikTok 2021 list. She has since worked with a number of brands on partnerships including Waitrose, SAGE for business, Royal Mail for Business, Aldi, and Adobe. ABOUT THE HOSTBuying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. She now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses.Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist CONTACT METHODBook a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycallGET IN TOUCH HERE https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/instagram/Newsletter: https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Do you want to launch a beauty brand in the UK? Or perhaps you already have one and are looking to grow that business? This week's episode of Start Scale Succeed is a recording of a live webinar Nicole hosted with four beauty experts where they spoke about brand identity, PR, pitching to retailers, customer reviews and testimonials and how they can help you with your business, and so much more.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Brand identity goes beyond just your logo, just because you have a product and a logo it doesn't make a brand. Brand ID is about crafting a DNA that goes beyond the here and now and leaves a lasting impression on your customer even after purchase. You can build a relationship between your brand and your customer by using social listening, being authentic with your content, promoting your founder story to let people connect with your story. Passion, purpose, and honesty are all things that can drive a community. The relationships between brands and consumers have changed in many ways. People are now more likely to share their love and promote a brand they align with, with no incentive from the brands’ side. Consumers are now also much more intelligent when it comes to buying from brands, they pick up on the ethics and social presence in a way which was never considered before. The Three C’s for social growth are valuable content, connection, and consistency. You need to be aware of how your brand and message are getting out there and if they are actually being understood when they’re seen. When using product testers for the first time, send them to a wide range of people so you can find out who really loves the product and connects with it. This can be very useful for beauty brands because people's needs are often different, and you can build a niche around the feedback. Margin percentages can vary from between 40/45 percent for indie boutiques to 60 percent in the larger retailers. Look at what they’re offering you for that percentage and get another set of eyes and ears to help you decide if that works for you. BEST MOMENTS ‘Disproportionate passion builds a brand, the killer of a brand is indifference’ ‘Indie brands drive communities, bigger brands drive fan bases’ ‘Think of your PR as your brand storyteller’ ‘Consumers are driven by information, education, and emotion’ EPISODE RESOURCES Wendy Slattery www.poweredxbeautybuddy.com www.instagram.com/thebeautybuddyapp Jacqui Ripley www.instagram.com/jacquiripley Faye Speedie https://beautybulb.co.uk/ www.instagram.com/beautybulb Linda Land www.musecomms.co.uk www.instagram.com@muse_communications ABOUT THE HOSTBuying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. She now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses.Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist CONTACT METHODBook a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycallGET IN TOUCH HERE https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/instagram/Newsletter: https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Today Nicole is joined by Laura Nolan Horgan, founder of LNH EDIT. This is a bit of a 360 podcast as Nicole chatted with Laura just as she launched her brand in Episode 9, now they catch up 2 years on. They’ll be discussing how the business has grown in that time, Laura’s biggest successes so far, as well as keeping a positive mentality as a business owner.  KEY TAKEAWAYS LNH EDIT is a creative collection of fashion and homeware. Laura believes that every home and every person should surround themselves with little things that make them happy, so that’s why she started LNH EDIT two years ago.  Not everyone’s business plan works out exactly as they had hoped for. Laura has had to bring in additional support to fill in the gaps in her skill set earlier than she had planned for. Right now she has brought in someone else to run her Instagram page to get the most out of it. She also brought in help packing orders as it was taking up too much of her time.  Laura initially wanted to be an online focused business with occasional pop up stores. In the time since she was last on the podcast she has opened a HQ for LNH EDIT which is the business hub as well as a showroom. This space can be used for easy cost effective pop ups which she also invites other people to be involved with.  Laura thinks that setting up the HQ cottage is her biggest achievement so far and can see how much it’s helped her business keep up with orders and having everything under one roof.  LNH EDIT launch their seasonal products well in advance, the Christmas items go live before Halloween. This means that the items have longer to sell and Laura is left with less stock left over.  Remember that you own your email lists, if the social media you use went out of business tomorrow, you’d lose your connection to your customers. But if you properly grow your email lists you have direct communication to them without a third party being involved.  BEST MOMENTS ‘We were up until 1am in our kitchen fulfilling orders so we had to bring in help’  ‘It’s nice being a smaller business because you can pivot when you need to’ ‘People want new all the time, I’m always looking to what’s next’ ‘Our email marketing is bigger than Instagram now’ EPISODE RESOURCES www.lnhedit.com www.instagram.com/lauranolanhorgan www.instagram.com/lnh_edit ABOUT THE HOSTBuying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. She now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses.Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist CONTACT METHODBook a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycallGET IN TOUCH HERE https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/instagram/Newsletter: https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Return guest Roo Davies, The Mojo Coach, joins Nicole today on Start Scale Succeed to discuss imposter syndrome. They’ll be talking about what imposter syndrome is, how it can show up, how it can sabotage you and your business, and most importantly what you can do about it. Find out what the 5 types of imposter syndrome are, how to spot them, and how to move away from them towards having a killer mindset.  KEY TAKEAWAYS There are 5 types of imposter syndrome, first is The Perfectionist - “Perfectionism” is often listed as a key indicator of imposter syndrome, so it’s common that people who experience one also experience the other. Perfectionists typically set very high expectations for themselves and that even if they meet 99% of those goals, a small loss will feel like a large failure. When mistakes happen, perfectionists question their core competence, which can easily translate to feelings of imposter syndrome. The Natural Genius - The “natural genius” has been top of the class for as long as they can remember, and in their school days, success came relatively easily. As they grow and mature, however, they are bound to encounter scenarios where achievement doesn’t present itself as second nature, and hard work or struggle is required for their desired results. As they aren’t used to this, natural geniuses tend to suffer from imposter syndrome, feeling that the struggle to meet their goals is a sign that they lack ability and aren’t “good enough.” The Expert - If you’re an “expert” type, you probably prefer to spend time researching and gathering as much information as possible before you start a new project. You like to come into something new from a position of knowledge and expertise, and you probably regularly spend time looking for ways to improve your skill set or undergo extra training. However, this drive to become an “expert” can trigger imposter syndrome, holding you back from applying for jobs if you don’t meet all the criteria in the description, or preventing you from speaking up in a seminar because you’re afraid that your answer won’t be perfectly informed. The Superhero - “Superheroes” push themselves to work harder than everyone around them to prove that they’re not imposters. Their expectations for themselves are higher than their expectations of others, and they feel a sometimes overwhelming need to succeed in every element of their life – at work and at home. Their feelings of imposter syndrome will be triggered when one of these areas is not as strong as another. Working harder than others to prove your worthiness, or to cover up feelings of being an imposter, can quickly lead to burnout, and be detrimental to your mental health. The Soloist - These kinds of “imposters” struggle to reach out when they need assistance, as they feel getting help with a task invalidates their contribution or shows that their own skillset is in some way lacking. Knowing when to ask for help is a vital skill, not only in work but in life too. Asking for help is never a weakness – in fact, knowing ourselves well enough to understand when help is required can be one of our greatest strengths. It’s far more efficient, after all, to ask for help with a task than it is to spend twice as long struggling through by ourselves. The most useful thing of quieting your imposter syndrome voice is to be aware of it. People focus on the outcome, the fear itself, but you need to be thinking about what is causing those thoughts. What is causing that negative mental chatter? Start small with baby steps, it doesn’t need to be within your business, you can learn to tackle these things in everyday life first.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Perfectionism and procrastination are best friends’  ‘Imposter syndrome affects over 70% of us in our lifetime’  ‘You can do anything, but you can’t do everything’ ‘How are you sabotaging yourself? What opportunities are you missing out on?’ EPISODE RESOURCES www.instagram.com/roodavies_themojocoach  www.themojocoach.com Imposter Syndrome Is Real – Here’s How to Kick it the Curb - The Mojo Coach ABOUT THE GUEST  Roo Davies is the go-to coach in the UK if you want to find your Passion, Positivity & Purpose. If you’re looking to rediscover your mojo, build your confidence and make things happen, she's your gal!  Roo is a pretty unique coach as she wears a few hats… Life Coach, Business Coach, Leadership Coach, Strengths Coach and a Mentor. Whatever hat she’s wearing she helps her clients thrive in their personal, professional and business life. Roo is a qualified behavioural change coach, holds a PG Cert in Coaching and is accredited with the Institute of Leadership & Management and the Association for Coaching. ABOUT THE HOSTBuying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. She now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses.Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist CONTACT METHODBook a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycallGET IN TOUCH HERE https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/instagram/Newsletter: https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Today on Start Scale Succeed, Nicole is talking to Martin Durrant, mental resilience and wellbeing advocate and the founder of Out of The Grey. They’ll be chatting and giving you advice on building resilience, managing stress, and coping strategies. You’ll also get to hear Martin’s incredible story of fighting off illness all while keeping a positive mindset. KEY TAKEAWAYS In 2014 after 8 years of things going wrong with his body, Martin was finally diagnosed with MS. He felt this was a relief because he finally knew what was wrong with him and through finding the charity Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis, he was able to change his life for the better, not just with his health but also his diet and mental wellbeing. In 2021 Martin was told he had a brain tumour and because of its location, although it was operable, after surgery he’d be paralysed on his left-hand side. Martin had to learn to eat, walk, and talk again. Martin is actually grateful that he had MS, because if it wasn’t for this and his yearly brain scans, he would never have known about the tumour and lived to tell his story. When he was on the ward recovering from his surgery, Martin was the cheerleader, cheering up and keeping his fellow patients spirits high. From this experience he decided that’s what he wanted to do for a living. Mental resilience is the ability to bounce back and not dwell on a situation. If something bad happens, it’s okay to feel sad, resilience is the ability to get back out of that state after an appropriate amount of time. You can have depression and have good mental resilience, that resilience allows you to identify your feelings and actually gives you the ability to seek help easier and faster. Create an environment where you are looking after yourself first and foremost. Diet, exercise, having a positive mental attitude, these things do actually improve your mental health. Even if it’s just a 15 minute walk or fitting some meditation into your day. If you give acts of kindness, it releases serotonin into your brain and makes you feel good. It doesn’t have to be a huge action, even small ones can have a big impact. BEST MOMENTS ‘You should be your biggest fan, not your biggest critic’ ‘7 - 11 breathing is my number one trick’ ‘I’ve never been a victim, I’ve never let my mindset be that’ ‘Be kind to yourself, trust yourself, you’ve got the abilities’ ‘I was more worried about not being able to drive than having a brain tumour’ EPISODE RESOURCES Overcoming MS Martin on LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOSTBuying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. She now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses.Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist CONTACT METHODBook a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycallGET IN TOUCH HERE https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/instagram/Newsletter: https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Today's episode of Start Scale Succeed  is a recording of an instagram with Louisa Tidy, the founder of Floragy, a natural skincare brand founded in 2019. Louisa started the company looking to rebalance her life after an exhausting retail career travelling and working too many hours. After a few years of testing and developing formulas, she launched Floragy with the ethos that ‘less is more’ keeping their ingredients to a minimum and using only key botanicals. KEY TAKEAWAYS Louisa suffered from dry skin but as she got older she found she needed extra protection during the colder months. After some extensive research and experimenting, Louisa created recipes for skincare products which her skin reacted well to and she preferred over her usual products.  As a smaller brand you don’t have the buying power to source the products and work with suppliers that fit into your standards and ethics at a price you can afford.  Etsy charges a percentage of your total sales but one of the advantages to using it is that there are no contracts between you and the website so you’re free to sell elsewhere too.  The biggest challenge Louisa has faced is not knowing where to spend money. Does she spend more on the website or on photography, what is going to give her the best return for her investment.  Make sure you have confidence in what you’re doing, your product, and your service. Don’t be tempted to get lost in what your competitors are doing, if you’re getting good feedback then keep focused on your brand ideals.  BEST MOMENTS‘There’s always more we can do to work with local suppliers’ ‘Putting your brand out there is like putting yourself out there personally’ ‘I’m not as much of a risk taker as I’d like to think’  EPISODE RESOURCESFloragy Skincare ABOUT THE GUEST "I was exhausted after a full on career travelling and working too many hours and wanted to take some time to rebalance my life. I’d always suffered from dry skin but as I’ve got older I’ve found I need extra protection during the colder months. After some extensive research and experimenting I created a few recipes for skincare products which my skin reacted well to, and I preferred over my usual products. I noticed how expensive natural skincare could be to buy and wanted to create a range of products which were accessible to everyone while maintaining a natural ingredient list which was easy to understand." ABOUT THE HOSTBuying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. She now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses.Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist CONTACT METHODBook a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycallGET IN TOUCH HERE https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/instagram/Newsletter: https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Today’s episode is centred around giving you advice on growing your business with ChatGPT. To do that Nicole is joined on Start Scale Succeed by founder of Mother Cuppa Tea, Candice Mason. If you’re new to AI, then this is the perfect place to start as we’ll be discussing what ChatGPT is, what it can do for your business, how to use it, and what its limitations are.  KEY TAKEAWAYS When Candice launched Mother Cuppa Tea she was aware that she had to build an audience through a pre-launch strategy. This led her to doing the social media marketing including the planning, captioning, editing. She had help from two other people writing blogs and writing content for the website. That is a lot of hours of work for three people to do, which could have been reduced with AI. ChatGPT is a website powered by artificial intelligence that can write content for you on almost any subject for any format you need. It is popular above other similar services because you can add a tone or style to the pieces it creates.  Candice personally likes to use Jasper, rather than ChatGPT because it suits her needs and personal style. There are so many companies doing AI generated content now, even Canva.  You can use services like ChatGPT to generate keywords for you and do research into your potential audience in the pre-launch phase of your business. You can literally go on there and type ‘what do people who like herbal tea also like’ and it will give you information you can use.  You can spend anywhere from £25 to £300 for someone to write a blog for you, but by using AI and then editing in her own personality, Candice publishes two blog posts a week taking a fraction of the time at no cost.  Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results. BEST MOMENTS ‘I knew nothing about keywords before I started this business’ ‘Even though it is creating a lot of the content, I’m going back and adding in my own personality’ ‘I’m using this to give Google as much information as possible to boost my rankings’ ‘Don’t be scared of AI, it’s not going away it’s just getting better’ EPISODE RESOURCES Mother Cuppa Tea https://www.instagram.com/mother_cuppatea/ AI links  https://www.jasper.ai/ https://chatgpt.com/#/ https://www.canva.com/magic-write/ https://answerthepublic.com/ https://search.google.com/search-console/about ABOUT THE GUEST  “I am Candice, founder of Mother Cuppa - and yes, it’s an intentional play on words! I am mother to a stroppy but adorable teen and wife to James, a husband who has yet to fully learn how to turn the washing machine on and whose idea of cooking dinner is re-heating something I made the night before!  Like many of you I seem to be in a state of semi-midlife crisis, when children are growing, hormones are changing and yet the pace of life appears to get busier.  I wanted to use my knowledge from training as a tea sommelier and my interest in plant power to help other women, just like me and to establish something for myself, that inspires me, fits with my values and that I 100% believe in!” ABOUT THE HOSTBuying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. She now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses.Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist CONTACT METHODBook a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycallGET IN TOUCH HERE https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/instagram/Newsletter: https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/