On today’s episode of the 2X eCommerce Podcast Show I’m going to be talking to the founder of a one-person e-commerce business that has surpassed the $1 million revenue milestone with neither any full-time employees nor inventory, she’s a drop shipper. Do stay tuned!
[Intro clip] Welcome to the 2X eCommerce podcast show where we interview founders of fast growing seven and eight figure eCommerce businesses and eCommerce experts. They’ll tell their stories, share how they 2X’d their businesses and inspire you to take action in your own online retail business today. And now, here he is, the man in the mix, Kunle Campbell.

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Kunle: On today’s show I have with me Katie DeCicco. She’s the Founder and CEO of Celebration Saunas. I brought Katie to share her remarkable e-commerce journey. She started in a little less than a year and half ago. She is a rare to find solo e-commerce entrepreneur. Yes, she’s a sole employee of her e-commerce business that’s surpassed $1million in sales. She instead hires contractors, maintains zero inventory as a dropshipper, and runs a location independent e-commerce business. Without further ado, I’d like to welcome Katie to the show. Welcome to the show, Katie.

Katie: Hi Kunle.

Kunle: How you doing?

Katie: I’m well, how are you?

Kunle: I’m very, very well. It’s a pleasure to have you on, Katie. Could you take a minute or two to tell our listeners a bit about yourself please?

Katie: Well, in addition to being a small business owner, I am also a mom of twins and a Girl Scout leader. So I’m starting to get very involved in the community with the business and with Girl Scouts of course. But I started my business a year and a half ago after I had started another company who’s a competitor now, in 2010. And in 2012 I decided I really wanted to do it my way, you know sometimes the best way to get it done is to do it yourself. So in 2012 I took some time off and in 2013 I started writing the content for my website. And I went live with the website in February 2014.

Kunle: That’s interesting, it’s really, really interesting. From your LinkedIn profile I see you’ve had a background in this in the sauna industry.

Katie: Yes.

Kunle: You’ve had two, maybe three, roles in the sauna industry. Could you describe your transition from that background, from you working for saunas companies to actually running one.

Katie: Well, I was very lucky actually. I found the infrared sauna product by accident. I worked for an independent business here in Denver and he wasn’t always on the ethical side and so I decided to leave because you know there’s only so much anyone can put up with, I suppose. But in that company I was Operations Manager and the owner was never there so I stuck my hands in everything, from the accounting to the marketing to the sales to the customer service. I did it all, I got into freight carriers and logistics pretty heavily. I found like $120,000 in overcharges from the freight carriers themselves. So just kind of being assertive and not being afraid to just find everything out that I could and then manage it efficiently, because I’m kind of impulsive in that respect. And then you know once I’d seen enough that I couldn’t stay, I left. And I went back into nursing for a little bit because it was around the 2009 economic crash. So I went back to nursing, it’s a job that I did when I was in college, which is really a basis for how I run my company. My particular product just has so many health benefits that being in the care industry, it was amazing for me to see the results on people who would normally give up. And then to have the medical studies behind that. So I think that’s part of my success, that I’m not just out there selling a product, I’m out there really trying to help people and as a result I try to make my products affordable and available. I go the extra mile for my customers and try to help them get it covered by insurance if they have medical conditions.

Kunle: Quite interesting, because due to an inefficiency you were pretty much schooled operations manager on how to run your business. And you didn’t really make that turn, the turning point from being operational manager, you went into nursing, and eventually made this transition. Could you explain your transition from when was the day, when was the game changing moment when you decided to switch from nursing to actually running or going back to the sauna industry?

Katie: Well, you know as a mom of twins sometimes you know you struggle a bit and so you do whatever you can to support your family. And so actually the sales guy that I had worked with at the company where I was operations manager was like, ‘I found this sauna dropshipper. We have to do this.’ And so I flew to California and met with the owner there. And there we started Rocky Mountain Saunas. At that point I didn’t know anything about AdWords, I didn’t know anything about website development. I was pretty savvy with software, both my parents are computer programmers. So again, he wrote the sales pitch and I learned all the technical stuff and ran pretty much…I was able to do everything. I negotiated the terms for the freight carriers, I determined the packaging and the shipping for a warehouse there. But once I left that company, there were certain things that I was unwilling to do. I didn’t want to run a warehouse, it’s not easy you know.

Kunle: Especially the size of saunas.

Katie: Yeah, I didn’t want to deal with freight carriers and having to double check all of their billing and I didn’t…there’s just a lot of things I didn’t, I didn’t want to create bill of ladings every morning. I knew enough about the product, the health benefits, how to really help people with this, and so I decided that that’s what I need to focus on. And so I work with a drop shipper out of California. They carry 3000 saunas in inventory at any one time, I think my best inventory at Rocky Mountains Saunas was 400 saunas at any one time. And that was just capped at limitation that this company has already worked out, so. They import more than 10,000 saunas a year and I’m happy to say that we produce a 10th of that now. [laughs]

Kunle: Wow. So who are your competitors, who do you compete against in the market? Online, that is.

Katie: Well, the main conspirators I would say would be Sunlight and Clearlight and Costco.

Kunle: Costco? Okay.

Katie: Yeah and Costco sells my products, which is why they are a competitor. But they only sell certain products, they don’t sell all of the products.

Kunle: And are the products white labeled for your brand or is it a known manufacturer? Or do you stock known manufacturers of saunas?

Katie: I am the wholesaler for Golden Designs. And I carry every sauna that they produce. Together we have an agreement that we offer a full lifetime warranty to our customers, where we pay for parts and shipping.

Kunle: Wow. You started your company with just $400 in cash and $7,500 in credit card debt. How daunting was this at the time?

Katie: It was terrifying. Gosh, I haven’t set thought about that in a while but the first $400 I used to build the website and it was so ugly, it was horrible. And through a friend who is very much into this industry, he said go to Elance and see if you can’t find somebody. And one of the things that I loved about Elance was that they test everybody, so I only worked with people who tested in the top 1%. Found a company out of Ireland called Redfly Marketing. He said, ‘Okay I’m going to take on your AdWords account, and I’ll do it for what you can afford,’ which is $500, on credit card of course. [laughs] And he was like, ‘I can set up your ad campaign but I can’t do anything about the ugly website you have.’ [laughs] And so I said, ‘Okay, we’ll fix it, what does it take to fix it?’ And so I tracked him down after the job was done, like I kept calling him and calling him and saying, ‘Okay, now what to do?’ He goes, ‘Okay, I guess I need to be your contractor, right?’ And so together what we’ve done is we’ve created a commission-based marketing plan so he does as well as the company does. And so we have worked together and bailed each other out at different times. My first advertising campaign was for, oh gosh I want to say was like $50 a day, it was not very much, maybe $500 a week. The day we went live with that, I actually got a sales call and then the sale two days later. Because he told me there was no way you’re going to get a customer with that website. So I called him back and I said I got a customer, and I was like, ‘Will you work with me?’ And he was like, ‘Okay.’ So that got us started. We worked out the commission plan and I committed to a certain amount every week and I think it started around $200 a week and we go up to like $400 a week and hopefully we’ll get up higher than that as our margin increases over time and we hit the first page.

Kunle: So how much are you spending on AdWords at the moment?

Katie: In the summer months when it’s very slow, we spend about $7,500 a month. And in the winter months we spend anywhere from 15… our goal is to spend $20,000 a month this year.

Kunle: That makes sense, especially during winter. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. And from a revenue standpoint, where are you? I alluded to the fact that you’re a $1 million plus company at the start of the show. So where are you now with regards to revenue and what does 2015 and 2016 look like?

Katie: Our hope is to double what we did last year. At Rocky Mountain saunas I got to $2 million sales in the first two years. So I’m on track to do that again. The difference between then and now is that I’m on the fourth page, I’m working towards the first page. And actually am on page 2 to page 4. From what I understand we’re kind of in the Google sandbox right now.

Kunle: Organically you mean?

Katie: Yes. Which changes everything. It lends credibility to your company, they’re not just seeing you in the advertisements but they’re seeing that Google really approves of you as well.

Kunle: And what terms are you looking to capitalize on Google, organic Google?

Katie: Infrared sauna.

Kunle: Infrared, okay. Why the approach of zero employees?

Katie: The nice thing about having no employees is that I don’t have to have an office. I work from home, so I get to be here for my kids before school, after school, and for extracurricular activities. And at Rocky Mountain Saunas I ran it with one other person and I didn’t need that other person. I’m just a very efficient person. And I find that really what brought me to this decision was like, okay I need help, but do I really need to pay a full-time employee? And what do I get for a full-time employee, you know, for what I can afford? I get somebody who have to train in customer service or… and I’m not can get all of my needs fulfilled. I’m not going to get graphic design, I’m not going to get website hosting or design or marketing. So you know, I can’t have an accounting firm, I can’t have a legal department, I can’t… I personally realize and recognize that I cannot know everything and that there people out there who are better than me in all aspects and so I sought them out. And have listened to my experts and paid them for the services. I’m not afraid to pay, if I’m getting the quality.

Kunle: Absolutely, absolutely. So what does your team of contractors actually look like, these professionals that you surround yourself with?

Katie: What’s nice about contractors is they’re all business owners, and so they are going to provide you with their best work. So I have a graphics designer, I have a call service or a dedicated office where they have the ability and I’m in the process of training them to do customer service calls, look up tracking information, make calls on my behalf, or follow up calls, take sales questions. All of this has been kind of written down and provided to them and then we’re in the process of training them. And it’s a really good team out of Texas. And it’s just really nice to be able to have real people on the phone who represent your company and are all trained in sales and customer service in a way that I wouldn’t be able to do as the owner or as the expert.

Kunle: Absolutely. How big is this team that supports your business?

Katie: It is a team of six and I pay 80 cents a minute, so my highest bill from them has been a $900.

Kunle: Okay, that’s fair enough.

Katie: My lowest bill was $85. It just depends on how often I probably get to the phone.

Kunle: Okay, okay. And what are your core principles? Or what core principles to fall back on when you recruit contractors? Have you had lessons, have you sort of made mistakes in your hiring process? And what kind of mistakes did you make and how did they formulate your principles to hiring better, from a contracting strength standpoint?

Katie: I think Redfly, my marketing company out of Ireland, once I saw what the best cost and what it took to acquire them, that’s all that I sought out. I’d never seen anything like him before. So, not to say that I haven’t made mistakes. I went with a local company here in Denver for my accounting and that was awful. Terrible experience. You know, I think it’s important that you check out people’s licenses and references. And so now I try to really network with other small business owners and people within my team, ‘Do you know somebody who’s great for you?’ Because all of us are looking to work with great people. We sought each other out through the law of attraction, found one another.

Kunle: Referrals are really important, that’s quite interesting. Okay, so how do you manage your team since you have quite a diverse, well your contractors have quite diverse skill set? Do you have a work space or project space where you manage communications with them or do you just use basic email with them?

Katie: I use… that’s available with Redfly we have like a teamwork thing that I’m supposed to go on, and I do go on and I do what I’m supposed to do there. But mostly I do email. So I need a new graphics for fall or for the coming holiday with these price reductions, I send it over to Joyce and she goes, ‘Okay I’ll have something,’ and she sends it back and either say, ‘Uh, that’s too much light, I can’t read the letters,’ or ‘I don’t like this color,’ or ‘I love it,’ and in most cases I love it. But any subtle changes, she’s like no problem, she changes it, sends it back, we throw it up on the website, we’re good to go. We have a little system, she knows the measurements for all of the different image ads that we produce.

Kunle: Gotcha, gotcha. So how do you spend most of your time, since you have the best qualified experts around you working on various aspects of the business remotely, who own their businesses, where do you spend most of your time?

Katie: Really, I’m spending a lot of my time writing articles. I’m building a personal blog. All of this stuff is just to enhance my presence on Google and organic search engines. So I’m really focusing a lot of time writing content and then I answer the phone. I believe that my customers have the right to speak with the expert. I am the expert, that’s my duty to them is to be personally accountable to them. But at the same time I am training a group of people to be able to take on my role. My feeling is that the business is my legacy and if it’s going to continue it has to be able to continue without me. And so, you know it has to be self-sustaining.

Kunle: Yeah, with teams, yes indeed, with the best people managing every part of the business, really. Okay. What about automation? How important a role has… I would presume you fall back on automation and…

Katie: Heck yeah.

Kunle: How do you use automation to manage the business? Or scale yourself?

Katie: My feeling is that that just comes down to efficiency and the fact that both my parents were programmers when growing up. So I have real understanding for the philosophy around how technology is supposed to work. And my feeling is that anything that is on paper should be automated. Anything you have to write more than once should be automated. Everything should be able to be downloaded into CSV files, and I only work with companies that can do that. Everything has to be in real-time, whether that’s looking at my accountant’s desktop to put up all your own files, great. All of my emails to my customers for the most part are automated, particularly after the sale. So of course the receipt email goes out, then after that we use Mailchimp to give them shipping details and tips on what to expect when they get their sauna, and an assembly manual for reference, and electrical requirements so that they’re completely prepared and there are no surprises when they get their sauna. The next thing that we send out is like tips for sauna use. And I think the last thing we send out, I think there might be another email but I can’t remember what it is, it’s been a while since I’ve written them. [laughs] But then we also ask for a recommendation or a review email. And if I’ve spoken to them on the phone, which I really try to speak to every single customer, welcome them to the family at Celebration Saunas. Yeah, so all of that goes out automated and then once a month I send a spreadsheet to a friend of mine who is a musician and he sends out all my thank you cards and in the fall he sends out his CD with it.

Kunle: Wow. Okay.

Katie: So yeah, the idea is to free up my time to just do writing, to just only focus on one thing. Because you know when I was at Rocky Mountain saunas, one of the things that I had learned was when I was focusing on trying to learn HTML or where things should go on the website and how to guide people through the checkout process and then how do I create landing pages for my AdWords campaigns and how do I make my AdWords campaigns more effective, and then I’d immediately have to answer the phone and get on a sales call, and it was like, ‘Ah..Bh..Eh..,’ You know, you can’t speak. [laughs]

Kunle: I call it the octopus effect, just doing everything.

Katie: Yeah, you have no idea where to start, where to go, there’s so much information floating around in your brain. And so really my focus is always on the content of what the health benefits are. That’s really where I’m focused. Is just talking about it through writing, talking to you today, and then speaking directly to customers and really looking for solutions. Not just selling a product, but solutions. People are coming to me because they need this. And so we’re looking at ways to make it the most effective for them.

Kunle: Okay. Speaking of solutions and how people come to you, could you describe a typical customer journey from phone call or website order, through to actually getting the order, and what kind of relationships you keep with your customers after purchase?

Katie: So, I guess the first thing is a call, often times. I guess if I start with a person who says, ‘I’m supposed to get one of these infrared saunas, my doctors said or my holistic person said, natural path said, to go ahead and get one of these saunas but I don’t know anything about it.’ So one of the things that I talk about is, what is the difference between a steam sauna or hot rock sauna that most people are accustomed to? Because often times people are like, ‘Oh, it’s so hot. I can only stay in there for 10 minutes.’ So I talk to them about the difference between convection heat and radiant heat which is what we use in a far infrared sauna. I also talk about the differences and health benefits. The most important one, the biggest one, is that in a traditional sauna only 3% of your sweat is toxins being released from the body. You can only stay there for a few minutes before your throat and your eyes can start to burn. Whereas in an infrared sauna, it’s kind of like going into a hot car when you’ve been in a very air-conditioned building, and that sensation of ‘Ah, that feels so much better.’ [laughs] What we’re doing in an infrared sauna is we’re manufacturing body heat. The human body in emits far infrared light at exactly 9.4 microns. And our infrared saunas are emitting far infrared light between 7 and 14 microns and 87% of the time it’s at 9.4 microns exactly. That matches the resonant frequency of the human body and your body has no resistance to it, it takes it on readily and once it’s taken on enough, it passes on through harmlessly. Your body gets up to a low grade fever which kills parasites and viruses and cancer cells with heat shock protein of 70 or less. It also gives you a passive cardiovascular workout, it burns up to 700 calories in a 30 minute session. I mean there’s amazing, amazing health benefits. And in contrast to the 3% of toxins being released from your body in a convection sauna, in a far infrared sauna 20% of all of your sweat released is toxins being released from the body. Which has a huge impact on the body itself because you know, we’re holding onto toxins because our vital organs are like, ‘Get that away from me.’ [laughs]

Kunle: Absolutely, absolutely, makes a lot of sense. So you can actually leverage your workouts with a sauna. So there are three types of saunas, you said. Because I was only aware of the steam and the stone. The infrared is what you really specialize in, or to you specialize in all three types?

Katie: No, I only specialize in far infrared. And really, for prodigal’s perspective, I’m really there for the health benefits. And hot rock and steams don’t offer that. The other problem with steam is that when you release water molecules into the air, you’re also releasing any toxins that are in the water, inhaling that, so you’re not getting the same detoxification benefits.

Kunle: Gotcha. And your typical customers are they individuals or businesses or a mix of both?

Katie: They’re are a mix of both. I have both businesses and individuals. I would say you know most of my customer base are relatively educated and have at least an average household income of about 100,000 a year.

Kunle: Okay, okay. Business is obviously seasonal over winter months.

Katie: Yes.

Kunle: Do you recall, actually you just mentioned how you got your first customer, it was for AdWords and then you rang up David from Redfly to say you got your first sale. Do you recall when you hit the hundred customer mark and was there any celebration around it?

Katie: No. We were too busy. [laughs] We probably reached the hundred customer mark through the summer of our first year. I think when we celebrate is when the credit card bills start to go down. [laughs] And I’m able to keep up with all of the payments and go, ‘Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, we’re making something now.’ That’s usually a lot of fun and then we go, ‘Oh well, shall we increase the AdWords and see if we can’t recruit some more sales.’ [laughs] Since we’re very focused on growth.

Kunle: So other than AdWords, are there any other active marketing channels that are adding directly to the bottom line?

Katie: No.

Kunle: Right, okay.

Katie: Referrals. I get a lot of referrals. I also have another website related to Celebration Saunas called Site Sensible. And it’s basically a dealership program for customers who have a retail space. Our philosophy is that in most cases these business owners are going to be the first person to introduce this technology to their community and we really feel that they should benefit from that introduction. And I say we I mean me, but. [laughs]

Kunle: You always have to we, it’s company you’re building, so yeah, definitely. Okay.

Katie: Yeah. [inaudible 00:30:20]

Kunle: I mean its referral marketing, it’s really good and it’s really referral marketing on its head, you’ve spun it on its head a bit because I guess, I reckon you put the physical saunas in their store, in their retail space so people can experience, touch, feel, ask questions about it and then they’ll probably hand them over a flyer or tell them to search for you on Google. Is that the case or?

Katie: No. I mean they have the opportunity to promote these products on their website. We have more than 30 products, they can promote any one of them or none of them. We do offer brochures and flyers for their location. And we support them. And a lot of business owners are like, ‘Well, how do I charge people for this?’ And in most cases around the country, it’s about a dollar a minute, unless you’re in a highly populated area wanting them.

Kunle: Okay.

Katie: You know, we kind of support them in costing this stuff, and mastermind with them, in the same way that I mastermind with my professionals. I have no problem passing on that knowledge that I learn online or that I get from my professionals, and guiding these clients to be successful in their endeavor. Which only benefits me.

Kunle: The company. [laughs] The business.

Katie: Yeah, I mean it benefits me too, I learn about them, they learn about me, they learn more about saunas, we get more customers, you know. I learn about new products because I’m working with a lot of naturopaths and physicians so I get ideas on new products that we can sell.

Kunle: The first-hand feedback is this really important for the business. Because I was going to go into word-of-mouth, how word-of-mouth, whether it’s significantly played or improved the growth of the business. Have you seen any direct impact on word-of-mouth from happy customers?

Katie: Yes. I have them buying them for their friends or another businesses, or putting one in their house and also at their facilities where they live. Yeah, I mean I guess 10% of all new business is probably referral business. And I get a lot of remarks about the reviews on our website. And they are very natural, they’re very organic. And that we’re asking for our customers for these reviews. And I spend as much time with my customers as I spend with you. I make sure that they understand the information, how it’s going to affect them, why this is healthy for them, and whether or not my sauna’s the right choice for them. You know, there’s measurement restrictions, I’m not interested in trying to sell somebody a six-person sauna that neither can afford or have the room for. It doesn’t help anybody at all. [laughs] So we really look at, ‘Okay, how much space do you have to dedicate to your sauna? And have you thought of this? And if this is a new build, where are you going to put the plug? And you know maybe it’d be more convenient to put it up near the roof where the power cord starts. You know just little things, things that other people wouldn’t necessarily know if they’re just a salesperson.

Kunle: Gotcha, an attention to detail really, and empathy. Okay.

Katie: Yes.

Kunle: Okay. What about average order value? What is the typical average order value?

Katie: I would say about $2000 is the average.

Kunle: 2000, okay. That makes a lot of sense. Right. Is there any other thing that you want to talk about with regards to customer service and customer acquisition? Do you have any tips, any overarching tips to people listening that are potentially looking to improve customer acquisition? What’s been the highest impact of, I’ll rephrase the question, highest impact of activity or highest impact action you’ve taken has resulted to tremendous results or return on investment?

Katie: I would say you know, aside from AdWords I would say the most important thing that I do is answer the phone. And I take the time and I listen to my customers, determine where they are in their education, in their research, and just kind of take them through the entire process. And long after the sale too, my goal is to lead them with a lasting impression. That they knew every step of the way. I mean it’s not like Amazon where you order something on Amazon and they… well actually, I did model after them to some degree, because they do give you follow-up emails but it’s not the same as, ‘When your freight carrier comes it will be equipped with a liftgate. And this is how you check your product for damage,’ and you know just, I provide every possible scenario to protect my customer and their investment.

Kunle: I mean, that level of care is required with what their buying, because it’s very health-related from an intent standpoint. And the average order value is $2000 you know, so that care needs to be in place. My question has to do with, now that you said that you’re going to, you’re working on a transition to handing this over, the customer service and the knowledge of the business to this team, how are you going to effective ensure the same care and quality will be passed on to the team that are going to take over?

Katie: Well one of the things that I have is I get an hourly report every hour as to what calls come in. I also get a voice recording of every single phone call, and I listen to those and I email back to the representative that answered the phone. And I’ll say things like, ‘You’re not smiling today. I can’t hear your smile.’ You know. Or, ‘This customer asked a question and you weren’t able to answer it, and so this is the answer to that question.’ But I also follow up with customers and say, ‘I missed your call earlier, I know you spoke with one of our representatives and I was just calling back to make sure all of your questions were answered.’

Kunle: That makes a lot of sense, that feedback and follow through. Okay, okay. Right. Let’s go into the evergreen section. This is the final section of the show. And I have some standards questions I ask at this point. What’s your number one hiring tip for people listening to the show? So you hire contractors. How do you hire top-performing contractors to move the business forward? What’s your one tip?

Katie: I guess go with your gut. You know deep down if somebody’s not the right fit. The second thing is verify their qualifications. You know, you look at their length and profile. If you’re doing an online business like mine, it’s important that they have their own footprint and their own following. You know, the tests that Elance which I think has recently changed its name, the fact that they test the applicants on there, go for the best, pay the best, it’s totally worth it to pay the best. With $7,500 in credits, to take five $500 and just give that away – that’s advertising budget, like, ‘Oh my God,’ you know and to be able to get a sale within a couple days of that and start that cash flow where you’re like, ‘Okay I can buy the sauna and in two days I’ll have the money to pay it back.’ [laughs] ‘Oh, and it’s going to pay for advertising next week,’ you know like.

Kunle: Absolutely, absolutely. And I guess at the margins are good enough to push the business forward.

Katie: Yes.

Kunle: Cool. What about your three indispensable tools for managing Celebration Saunas?

Katie: Be efficient. Look for ways that you can do things better. Address common questions for your customers and write them down and put them on your website. Make sure that your website guides the customers through the sales process also. And it gives them one-click access to everything they could have asked on the product page, so that they’re still visualizing my sauna in their home while they’re looking at the health benefits.

Kunle: Okay. So what are the three tools, your three favorite tools used for managing your business, Celebration Saunas?

Katie: My three favorite chores is definitely speaking with customers, emailing customers, congratulating customers on the new sauna, because it is a big purchase and writing. I like the writing to promote my business. I like the writing, yeah that’s fun.

Kunle: Okay. Now, what about your best mistake to date. And by that I mean a setback that’s given you the biggest feedback for growth?

Katie: Around this time last year I ran out of credit. [laughs] And that was pretty terrifying but I was doing so well and it wasn’t really my fault. I ran credit because merchant processors in this country, if you get anything over $5,000, they will put a hold on your account and so I had bank putting a hold on $20,000 for five days. And I’m well, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?’ And it wasn’t that I didn’t have it, I mean obviously, I guess I didn’t have it. [laughs] But there was cash flow there, there was money there that was just being held up by the bank. And so one of the things that I did was I contacted every business owner that I knew and go, ‘What should I do? How do I get a loan? What am I going to do? And they said well why don’t you just call your supplier and ask for terms, because nobody wants to give a new business loan. They’re like, ‘You haven’t been in business for more than six months, like, no.’ So they said well why don’t you ask your supplier for terms and I was so afraid to do that because I’m so self-sufficient and I really take care of myself because it makes it easier for them to work with me. And so I did. I went to my supplier and I said is there any way I can get terms. You know my bank is killing me. And he was like, ‘No problem.’ And they gave me basically $50,000 credit that I had 15-day terms on. And then, hah! What a relief. Now I’m succeeding. [laughs]

Kunle: Fantastic. You never know til you ask, you never know til you ask.

Katie: You know one of the things that you kind of have to get over being a person who is so efficient and wants to be self-sufficient, take care of themselves, is that it is okay to ask for help and to tell your suppliers what you need in order to be successful selling their product.

Kunle: Absolutely, absolutely agree with you. Okay. That’s a good one. What one piece of advice can you give solopreneurs planning to build a $1 million plus e-commerce business?

Katie: Know your product. Inside of out, forwards and backwards, be able to say your pitch from the middle and go through the end and start at the beginning again. And then write it down. And document your journey. It’s not enough to just make your business huge. You have to be the face of your company. And you have to get out there, you have to mastermind with other business owners. You have to answer the question that you haven’t thought of before in order to help other people, for example in how we met with the Help A Reporter Out. So that’s the main thing is, not only are you branding your business, you’re branding yourself and so it’s important not only for you to have business accounts through social media, you also have to have personal accounts. So one of my tasks this year that I get to learn how to do is create a personal blog. And I’m actually in the competition for that at MyBlogU. And they gave you kind of all the support to teach you how to do that. If I become as good a writer as you are [laughs]

Kunle: Thanks for the compliment.

Katie: Then I would be able to, you know I’ll get picked up by larger companies like the Huffington Post. And all of that information links back to Celebration Saunas. So yeah, that’s the best way to get the word out there, is help each other you know. Don’t be afraid that somebody’s going to steal your idea, you’ll spend more time being afraid and trying to fix that than just getting out there and being innovative and being you. There’s only one you. I like talking to people and collaborating with people who are like-minded and who are not like-minded. It helps formulate new ideas, it helps problem solve, accomplishing new objectives. And solving other people’s problems sometimes in their business or coming up with solutions for them in their business helps them in ways that you don’t realize and then you figure something out about yourself and you’re able to apply that in your own business.

Kunle: So you’re quite active in local networking?

Katie: Online networking and yes, local networking. But I would say in terms of probably the most influential thing that started me on the path of entrepreneurship was I took a jobs creation course from a Professor Proden at Stony Brook University and he was an amazing, amazing teacher and I did not do well in his class at all. But what I took away from it is that the two industries that are never affected by economics is healthcare and food. [laughs] People always get sick. And so I was like that’s it, I’m going into healthcare. And that really set me on my journey. That and other jobs. I was a rock the boat, ‘Let’s find a better way of doing this.’ I’ve automated myself out of a multitude of jobs. Always looking for a better way of doing things has really brought me to the stage where I can run a business all by myself, that I don’t need other people. And the people that I need I can afford to hire the best for just the small amount of time that I need them. And I don’t have an employee that I have to pay workers compensation insurance, or unemployment insurance, or social security taxes. Or I don’t have to have an office space, I don’t have to pay for utilities at an office space. And I get Fortune 500 which is what I ask for when I go for contractors if they’re going to bid on my company, I ask for Fortune 500 experience.

Kunle: Okay. Okay. Sounds really, really, really good. So you only surround yourself with Fortune 500 experts, consultants who’ve actually worked in Fortune 500 companies?

Katie: Yeah, who have that experience.

Kunle: Good. Pretty good. Okay. It’s been a pleasure to have you on. Finally how can our listeners or the audience who want to reach out to you get in touch with you?

Katie: Katie (at) celebrationsaunas (dot) com. I’m also on LinkedIn. Celebration Saunas is on Facebook and twitter. You can Google Celebration Saunas. I’m primarily the person who answers the phone. I really try hard to do that and if somebody else answers the phone, simply asked for Katie and they’ll put you through.

Kunle: It’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the show, Katie. Because really, solopreneurship has really been adopted and accepted in the consulting world and maybe online training, but hardly do you find one million plus businesses that are e-commerce, online retail, being solopreneurs. So well done on your journey so far and I wish you the best of luck.

Katie: Well thank you very much. It has been my pleasure to meet you and I look forward to visiting your website and taking a look more at your content.

Kunle: Fantastic. Thank you Katie.

[End clip] Thanks for listening to this episode of 2X eCommerce. To help you get more actionable insights and eCommerce growth hacks that will help you 2X your online retail business, hop over to 2xeCommerce.com

It’s a blog dedicated to eCommerce and multichannel marketing run by the show’s host, Kunle Campbell. 2XeCommerce.com is packed full of articles and guides to help increase traffic to your store, increase repeat purchases and average order value.

Thanks for listening. Visit 2XeCommerce.com

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