Episodes
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We haven’t done a long form podcast episode in a while, as we have been focussing on growing the Candid Founders YouTube channel with up to 15 min videos helping you and your business grow.
But we need an update episode! How are things going with the business? What has worked for us this year, what hasn’t?We dive into the depths of our business strategy for 2023 and how we are evolving the business in 2024. We cover:1. Managing stock and inventory levels2. Our growth with paid ads (better revenue than last year AND we didn’t have radio ads this time3. Our rhythm with the team 4. Some new additions to our advisory boardAs Christmas is nearly here we are so close to moving into quiet season for Bare Kind. The last shipping dates mark our down time as the team takes a well earned break and Andy & I turn our heads to goal setting for 2024.
Big things planned, and we will continue bringing you along the journey with this channel.
Enjoy the episode!Merry Christmas 🎄
Lucy & Andy
Remember for all your sock needs this Christmas head to Bare Kind.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Hi everyone,
We haven’t released a full podcast episode in a while, but I want to tell you why.
This has actually been a strategic decision, we realised that podcasts are a very competitive industry and it’s hard to get seen on those platforms.
But the good news is we decided to pivot.
We had started releasing the podcast on YouTube, because that’s SEO optimised. And then something happened…
….we got traction, we started growing our subscribers, we even got some sponsors! So YouTube is where we are continuing to invest our time. The good news is you get the same Candid content from us, the same business advice and arguably even more juicy details because we can show you all the visuals!If you have been enjoying our podcast so far, please support us by subscribing on Youtube - every new follower we get helps us gain sponsors so we can keep doing this content for you!
And now for this episode. Of course it’s on YouTube but this one makes a juicy condensed podcast episode too.
How to form an advisory board. We’ve done it for us - no investment, no equity given away, no payments. It’s all voluntary and incredibly helpful.
You can make it happen for your business, it was the single best thing we did for our strategy this year.
Enjoy!
Lucy & Andy
How to get more from your business:
Here at Candid Founders we are all about transparency and growth. Which is why we are sharing everything we know about growing our own business, so you can learn from us.
So there are a few things we offer that can help you with your business.
* Our Youtube channel shares weekly videos giving you advice, tips and behind the scenes knowledge that you can learn from.
* We offer consulting services via flexible packages, so you can bring our knowledge directly into your own business. We can support you through regular calls and your very own WhatsApp chat so you can ask those burning questions as soon as they pop into your head!
* We’ve created a digital course that will take you from 0-1,000 wholesale orders in 18 months. We’ve done it ourselves, so now we show you how.
For questions and advice contact us on [email protected]
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Missing episodes?
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Happy Candid Founders Friday!We give you a candid view of a growing business. This week are saying something that a LOT of agencies out there will not like (sorry), but we do not think you need an agency to make paid ads work.
We have used multiple agencies and freelancers up until now, and the best results we get ourselves (and guess what, it saves us money).
In this episode Lucy asks all the important questions a business owner might have about paid ads:
* Facebook or Google? Which is better?
* Should I just turn my ads off when they aren’t working?
* What's happened to attribution?
* How much should my ad budget be?
* What types of ads should we run?
* What other platforms should we be using?
Andy has been successfully running our paid ads himself and so has all the answers for how any small business owner could run their own paid ads.
Enjoy!
Lucy & Andy
Important things:
Check out the e-commerce business we are talking about at www.barekind.com
Join our BRAND NEW digital course where we will teach you everything you need to know about starting and growing your wholesale channel at www.wholesaleautopilot.com
Subscribe to our Youtube channel to get the most candid e-commerce advice out there! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNdtbnciJLQmWn317WzHxxA
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Hello this is another episode from your Candid Founders.
This week we are talking about Christmas… in August?!Sorry but yes the C word has arrived, and summer is a key time to be talking about it. In fact we prepare for Christmas as early as January!
In this episode we will be covering:
* Getting your website ready for Christmas
* SEO!
* Our plan on product this year and the importance of a merchandiser
* What are we going to do if there are strikes?!
* Jingle Tills baby.
So dive in and get a really candid view of how we are growing our e-commerce business.
Lucy & Andy
Important things:
Check out the e-commerce business we are talking about at www.barekind.com
Join our BRAND NEW digital course where we will teach you everything you need to know about starting and growing your wholesale channel at www.wholesaleautopilot.com
Subscribe to our Youtube channel to get the most candid e-commerce advice out there! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNdtbnciJLQmWn317WzHxxA
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Good morning!TGIF am I right?!So in this Candid Founders episode we have our very first GUEST appearance (aside from having Fuji the rabbit run around in the background).
Jason Greenwood is an e-commerce consultant and he has kindly been giving us some SICK tips and advice on how to improve what we are doing on Bare Kind.
We came away from this with our minds blown 🤯 There is so much we could be doing, and a few risks we need to address.
So we have taken the advice from this episode, prioritised, and now we are executing.
No time like the present my friends.
Hope you find the podcast useful.
And remember we have now launched our brand new Wholesale AutoPilot course, so check it out - Early Bird pricing ending soon!
Lucy & Andy
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Hi everyone, We’ve got some great topics on the podcast this week from how we are hiring (successfully I might add, new person starts next week!). We are also covering our strategy for short term revenue over the next few months, our safari trip for work and more.
Also don’t forget we have not got our brand new course Wholesale AutoPilot LIVE with early bird pricing - that’s a whopping £500 if you sign up right now!
This course will teach you everything we know about building a wholesale business to £200,000 in less than 18 months, we’ve been there done that! And once you are on the course you have access for LIFE, meaning you get access to all future modules too as we learn and grow.
Enjoy the podcast, have a lovely weekend!
Lucy & Andy
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Hi everyone,
Super important and topical episode today. How to cope with a slow sales period.
This is exactly what we are experiencing at the moment, as expected. Summer tends to be on the slower side for socks, and as we have mentioned previously…
60% of our revenue comes in November and December.
Crazy right?! That means managing cash flow throughout the rest of the year can be a challenge.
But all is not lost, there are a few things we are doing to fight back.
You'll have to listen to find out!
Have a great weekend,
Lucy & Andy
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Good morning everyone!
Andy recently attended an event with IMRG again, the retail association. We met with directors from retail companies around the UK and picked their brains on where they are going to invest their time and money in 2023.
Some are looking to grow, some are looking to survive.
We discuss where we want to invest our time and money in this episode. In the episode we talk about diversifying the product range to generate more revenue throughout the year, funnily enough since recording we have made the decision to launch our very own digital course called Wholesale AutoPilot.
We have grown our wholesale business from £o to over £200k in 18 months, and so we are going to teach others to do the same.
If you know anyone in product businesses, send them our way and we will reveal all our secrets!
We are filming the course now and it will be released near the end of June.
Have a great weekend!
Lucy & Andy
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Hey everyone,
Another short episode this week. We are talking about our move from the Faire email system to our own CRM system.
We have started using Hubspot, and so far so good!
Why did we move? A few reasons, tune in to find out!
Have a good weekend!
Lucy & Andy
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Hey everyone,
So I do believe we are on episode number 8 on Candid Founders, can you believe it!
This one probably one our best episodes yet, it feels like we are getting into the swing of things, we are more relaxed behind the mics, we have a higher quality set up.
It’s all part of the journey really, as we said at the start we are building this podcast to at least 100 episodes and assessing where next to put our energy.
So if you are finding the content useful please let us know!
In this episode we talk about forming good habits as business owners and general all round humans. It’s a great topic to go into and SUPER important for anyone who works, studies or does anything where they are looking to achieve a goal.
Hope you enjoy!
Lucy & Andy
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Hey everyone,
This is a really good episode for business owners who sell products. If you know someone who does this, please forward this on!We have made over £200,000 on our wholesale channel so far, and we’ve had a real journey with our point of sale stands.
We started with none, moved to a cheap middle-ground and are now upgrading to be in line with what we call our ‘John Lewis’ range. If our socks were in John Lewis, what would the proposition look like? Manifesting this!
I also wanted to share another episode that’s great for anyone looking at improving your wholesale sales. We list on quite a few marketplaces but direct sales have always been a pain to manage all the admin. We’ve spent two years trying to find the right software to work with and finally found the solution! We have been using an app called Mikata and the video tells you how it’s fixed all our wholesale woes!
You can sign up for Mikata yourself here. Please note we earn affiliate commission on qualifying purchases. As we take no payment for all this jouncy content, the affiliate links are super helpful for us!
As always, any content you’d like to see from us - please shout! We’d love to share our journey as we continue to build in public.
Lucy & Andy
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
This was a great episode (if I don’t say so myself).
When I started Bare Kind I opened a Starling bank account from the very beginning, so I have every single transaction that has gone in and out of the business saved.
That’s a good job too, because I have no recollection of what I spent money on in those early days. I was able to trawl back through bank statements and discover how much of my own savings I actually put into the business.
The good news is, it wasn’t much. We really bootstrapped to the point where I quit my job.
We did take some investment further along the track, and we cover this in the episode. But that money was long ago soaked up into stock and so we are back to investing profits into the business and growing it sustainably.
Great episode for anyone in business or anyone looking to start but worrying about finances, you can start a business fairly cheaply!
If you enjoy this episode, please forward it on to others!
Enjoy :)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
WELCOME to Candid Founders, where we give you a candid view of a growing e-commerce business. That e-commerce business is Bare Kind, a business that sells bamboo socks where 10% of the profits are donated to help save the animal on the sock. We run Bare Kind every day and are here to share with you the ups, downs and what it is REALLY like to run an e-commerce business.
In this episode we cover off:- Meeting some of the largest retailers in the UK- Getting into the nitty gritty with Royal Mail, don’t mention the strikes!! (of course we mentioned the strikes)- Why it’s important for small business owners to networkEnjoy!
Useful Links:
🧦 Check out the Bare Kind website🛒 Interested in stocking our socks? Get free credit with Faire -💰 Want to sell your products via wholesale? Sign up to Faire (referral link)Affiliate Links:💡 See all our product and app recommendations here🎙️ List of the equipment used in this podcast
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
This was a really interesting one for us to record. We’ve had 3 very different interactions with other sock companies.
Two of them were positive experiences, but one of them has not been positive at all and I think you can see some of the frustration we feel in this episode.
Is that enough of a TEASER for you?
Hope you enjoy it! Lucy & Andy (Currently working from our best friend’s bakery - Average Doughs, best bread and cake in the world!)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
WELCOME to Candid Founders, where we give you a candid view of a growing e-commerce business. That e-commerce business is Bare Kind, a business that sells bamboo socks where 10% of the profits are donated to help save the animal on the sock. We run Bare Kind every day and are here to share with you the ups, downs and what it is REALLY like to run an e-commerce business.
In this episode we break down the business over the past 5 years, from side-hustle to a 6 figure business. This was such a juicy episode that we broke it down into two parts, so check out Part 1 or dive in right now for chats on: - Managing energy & stress levels as an entrepreneur - How the team has grown in past 2 years - Our key learnings each year (power of paid ads, power of wholesale.. what's next?) - Tips on how to grow your business PR - Our journey with cash flow and taking £50k invesment - What we outsourced and when -....plus other nuggets!
Useful Links:
🧦 Check out the Bare Kind website 🛒 Interested in stocking our socks? Get free credit with Faire - 💰 Want to sell your products via wholesale? Sign up to Faire (referral link) Affiliate Links: 💡 See all our product and app recommendations here 🎙️ List of the equipment used in this podcast
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
It’s crazy to think this is the first time we have done this, actually sit down and take stock of the last 5 years of growing the business.Such an important process, because you truly recognise how far you have come. And it’s very poignant as just this week I was awarded ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ for the South East. As you will hear in this episode, 5 years of work has gone into that award, but it took a few minutes to accept it.
When we recorded this episode it went on for a lot longer than we had planned, there was just so much to digest, so we have broken this episode down into two parts and you can expect part 2 to release next week!
Candid Founders will be released every Friday, we hope you can learn something or feel inspired!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
Bare Kind is a bamboo sock company where 10% of the profits are donated to save the animal on the sock. Lucy started the business as a side hustle in 2018 and has since grown the business to 6 figure revenue in single months during 2022. But big revenue growth doesn't always mean big profit! Join us as we discuss why it is so important to keep a focus on profit when you are growing your business.
In this episode we take a look at our profit analysis from 2022 and how this has caused us to pivot to wholesale in 2023.
You can shop Bare Kind socks at www.barekind.com and make sure you subscribe to Bare Kind on Youtube for more!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com -
This podcast is launching in March 2023. Subscribe to get a front row seat at www.candidfounders.com. If you or anyone you know would like to be interviewed about the business they are growing currently, drop us an email at [email protected]
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit candidfounders.substack.com
