Pushing Past Stagnation & Business Plateaus

WEBVTT - Pushing Past Stagnation & Business Plateaus Ruby. The views, information, or opinions expressed during this podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent those of into It QuickBooks or any of its cornerstone brands or employees. This podcast does not constitute financial, legal, or other professional advice or services. No assurance is given that the information is comprehensive, accurate, or free of airs, and the information presented is for general information purposes only.

In Twit QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating or revising any information presented. Listeners should verify statements before relying on them. Welcome back everyone. This is Mine the Business Small Business success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Intwood QuickBooks and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.

I'm Jinny's Torrez. And I'm Austin Hankwitz Autin. This has been such a fun season. It's been an incredible ride.

But unfortunately, like all the things, they must come to an end. Or maybe a Paul, don't tell me that this is the season finale. I know, I'll tell you what. I had so much fun with that nice Tampa weather.

It's cold here in Nashville, it really is. I had so much fun with you discovering new local spots to visit and support, and talking to these incredible small business owners. What was your favorite part about this season? To be honest, I think it was talking with the people like Jeries from episode one, for example, who saw a problem in an existing business and said, I know how to solve this problem.

I have the confidence in myself and so they went out on their own. Or another example with Kenzie West, the owner of True Form Fitness. She had this awesome opportunity to buy a business and she went for it. I just I get so inspired by that because as a small business owner and Janis, I'm not a veteran like you, so I still kind of have my insecurities about running a business.

But just knowing that people have these brick and mortar locations and people are able to hire all these employees, there's so many cool things. I just get so inspired. I'm so fired up about all the amazing people we've spoken with and being able to hear their stories of going from idea to business execution to real success and scalability. I cannot wait to go back and listen to every single episode of this season again and again.

Absolutely. First off, I was in Nashville for the first time thanks to this incredible season, and I got to really be inspired by just all these amazing business owners who when you look at it from the outside, it's almost like, are you really building a whole business around French fries? When we think about the bag Ladies Fry Joint, the fact that Brandon and James Lyttleton's Grandma's French fries were the inspiration and now they've got a thriving business they're talking about potentially like franchising.

It's so important for us to remind ourselves that it doesn't have to be this big, audacious idea like you can literally build an incredible business with something as simple as fries. I'll tell you what, there's nothing simple about those fries. Oh my goodness, so good. But getting back to business today, we're going to delve it a little bit deeper to talk specifically about how to push past stagnation.

This is such an important topic because we all want our businesses to be steady, right. Stability is the name of the game. But you don't want to be stuck in a rut. You're going to want to make sure that you can expand your business and grow where you can and also push past the plateaus that you may hit.

And there are all sorts of ways to do that, one of which is with into It quick Books. It's a full end to end platform that helps you shatter any stagnation and keep your business growing. From managing payroll and access to live experts to time tracking and data reports. It's a great way to not only help you look at the big picture, but also provide the systems to keep it all in check.

Avoiding stagnation is key. I cannot agree more In my experience, what I've been able to do is introduce these new digital properties right to introduce the Rich Habits podcast, the Rich Habits newsletters stemmed out of that as well that we introduced another private community. So it's like always being able to then figure out, what are we doing really well right now? How do we double down on what's working, And if we have an idea or get inspired for introducing something else, how do we take that idea and turn it into something that can be successful as well.

Absolutely, I love taking a look back every year at my business and seeing what income streams worked, which ones felt like things that I'm really excited to continue to grow and maybe which ones felt like more work than they were worth, you know. And so I think that's one of the ways that you can avoid stagnation in your business is not just continuing to do the same thing, but really using data to make some great decisions that will propel you forward for years to come. Now, let's introduce our guests.

Camille Alson is the owner of n B Goods, a gender neutral clothing company in Nashville, Tennessee. Camille started her career in the music industry as a manager, and after her apartment in New Jersey flooded during Hurricane Irene, Camille decided to move to Nashville. Without a safety net or a job. Lined up, Camille wanted to break into the music industry as a manager.

Her first artist was Brett Eldridge. She worked for his manager and took on managing his day to day and his tour schedule. After experiencing family tragedy and a global pandemic, she left the music industry and worked part time at a bakery in East Nashville. It was there when she was struck by inspiration for a business idea when she noticed one of the storefronts available to lease Camille, thanks so much for joining us on the show.

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to be here. We're so excited to be here too. Let's hop right into it. Tell us the origin story of the business.

What made you want to start doing this. I think I always had like a very particular sense of style, you know, growing up. I guess at the time they called it, you know, tomboy. Now they call it gender neutral.

I've always just liked what I like, and that was very particular about like blanks and fits and things like that. I never thought it would be a part of my life in this way, but when I left my normal job, I started kind of messing around with apparel and accessories and things like that. And if you want the truth, I really have no idea how we ended up where we are right now, but it's going pretty good, so I'll take it. That's pretty typically Aneurin.

Yeah, kind of just happens by acting yes, yes, yes, it happened, you know, relatively quickly. You know, we've only been in business for about four years and so things that just moved really fast. But that's where it all started. So we're sitting in this awesome storefront I'm seeing n B Goods written all over the place.

What is n B Goods the name orre did it come from? Walk me through the whole story. Yeah, it's funny. You know, this is probably like one of the most asked questions about the shop.

And sometimes I like to keep a little mystery around it, just because it's nothing significant. So the absolute genesis of the business was I bought home embroidery machine and just started customizing things like for friends and for our dogs and like those kind of things. And we live in the Neely's Bend area of Nashville, so it was n B Goods, and I think at some level we thought, like, oh, maybe this neighborhood will be up and coming and it'll like E is tier and we're just a long way away from that, and so it just kind of stuck and it sounds right, And sometimes people don't even think about it, and sometimes people have their own guesses of what they think it is.

Like sometimes people think it's not bad goods, very good guys. Yeah, yeah, which is the truth. You know, they are not bad goods. So it's taken on a little bit of a life of its own.

And I think the name goods right having the name does you guys are a great favorite here because you have so many different things. There's a dog bed over here, I'm saying, a bunch of hats, some cool jackets, some socks. Behind you walk me through sort of the categories of inventory that you all have here in the shop and online. Honestly, the business just started to become an extension of my personality.

I literally wear a hat every day, so we still hats. I wear a lot of vintage and upcycled things, so we're able to carry those things. I have five dogs, so we started carrying dog beds. I think, really I want people to connect with me as a real person, as a small business owner.

I'm not trying to be like an influencer or anything like that. I'm a real person and if you like my style, you like how I live my life. These are the things that are like naturally a part of that. All right, So what was that first moment for you when you realize, damn, I'm a good entrepreneur.

God, I don't know. I don't even know if I've had that moment. To be honest, I'm still you know, I still second guess myself every day. You know, this was never part of the plan.

This was never my goal. When I started to be able to hire someone to work at the store so I could focus on the other projects was kind of the first time. It was like, oh, and then I had to figure out payroll and realizing that I needed a different employer ID for that, and those kind of things start to feel like a real business. When you were thinking about how to start adding processes to your business to make that more efficient.

What role does into it quick Books play into being able to run your business now that you are thinking about things like payroll and whatnot. Yeah, into it quick Books was actually one of the first things that I was able to start letting go of some responsibility. That was one of the first places I went. I am okay at bookkeeping and accounting and those kind of things, but I really wanted to make sure that I had everything in line, and so that was one of the first things I did.

And then subsequently, as soon as I could afford it, hire professional services and they still utilize my into it QuickBooks. That's how we maintain and keep an eye on everything. Fantastic how as hiring employees and just more people to work on this business alongside of you helped you scale. Hiring people.

It is the key to scaling this business. As I talked about, a lot of it is about my identity and I think trying to figure out ways where I can keep my touch on the business but allowing other folks to come in and help. A big part of it is really finding people that have a similar mindset and mentality. The people that we have working right now, there's just kind of an unspoken thing that they understand what we're trying to do as a business and they want to bring the customer service and the quality.

I can teach anyone how to package up a shipment, but it's more about, oh, how did you fold it, and so when people open the box, it looks good, it feels good, They're excited to open it, you know, those little things. And allowing people to do that and bring their ideas to the table. I think that was one of the things I struggled with in the beginning so much. I just felt like when I would get in my own head, I didn't have a resource.

When people have a partner in their business, you kind of have someone to bounce ideas off of. And I was always jealous of my friends that had other partners in their businesses because I felt like it was just me and the minute I was able to bring other people in and get other ideas, it just really helped expand you know what we're doing. I want to linger on that for a little bit longer, this idea of expansion. Walk me through the differences of where your business is today versus where it was in the beginning.

Talk to me about the revenue expansion and different number of SKUs. Now you might have maybe numbers of employees, website traffic. Has your website changed it all? Yeah, we started out very bare bones.

I never saw this being like a big e comm business. I thought maybe it would be like more of a maker kind of Nashville thing. So we've had a huge shift over the last four years. When we started, we were on one platform that was better for in person sales, and then about two years in I realized that we really needed a stronger e commerce presence, and so we switched platforms, which allowed us to expand in that mindset, and then we just started really expanding what the business actually was.

It went from being just a store and an apparel brand to being someone that could fulfill and create things for other businesses. We started out doing like small commissions. We made a hoodie for Nate Bargatzi to were on SNL. We made some touring jackets for an artist that he was wearing it every night of his tour and like then giving it to someone in the crowd.

So we started with these small commissions and then. People said, well can you bring that to all of our merchandise or other small businesses in town who were like, man, I just I need to get some hats made and I cannot find someone to do it. And so that on its own has started to develop into one of our main revenue streams. Yeah, let's talk about stagnation, right, That's one of the risks that you run as a business owner.

It's like, how do you break out of that plateau. I'm curious if you ever had a situation where you were able to reach an expansion or a scaling goal and then maybe you got stuck, and how did you break through that. Yeah. I can't take much credit for this, but I feel like we were reaching that point at the end of twenty twenty three, and that's when our warehouse got hit by a tornado.

Oh, and honestly, I think the universe was just like that was the push. You know, this is the second time in my life a natural disasters impacted me in that way. I hope that it doesn't always take a natural disaster to do that. But there was a lot of things towards the twenty twenty three that we were doing that in my gut knew that like didn't really align with where we wanted to be, and just being reminded that at any moment, without a natural disaster, you can start fresh and change your mind.

And so I've actually carried that mindset with me into this year. You know, you can try things and if they're not working, you don't have to stick with them. Nobody's actually paying that much attention. It's all very internal.

When things like that happen, it was just a clean slate and it changed the way I thought about how we produce things, you know, how we ship things, and what my role and all of that is. And it really was a very hard reset. Yeah, you're just kind of forced to figure it out at that point. Right, Yeah, Yeah, do you mind talking more about that experience with the tornado?

I know before the show we were talking about how your warehouse was shut down for like four months or something. Yeah, So we were at an event there was a tornado warning, as often happens here in Nashville. I kind of just didn't think anything of it because we hear it all the time. And I had some buddies who their car was parked up there, and at the end of the night they went back to it and they called me and they said, hey, have you been to your warehouse.

I'm like no, and they're like, should probably come up here, And you know, I just thought, oh, it'll be maybe some wind damage or whatever. But it completely ripped the roof off of the back of our warehouse, which was where we had all of our inventory stored all of our equipment. So to walk in and see what we had been building over three years just completely destroyed. You know, I had my moment, you know, I walked back there, had a nice little cry, and then it was kind of like, all right, tomorrow, I gotta get a U haul and get what I can out of here.

So you really just go into survival mode at that point. But then once we had everything in storage, it started to be like, Okay, what are we going to do to rebuild, and I wanted to be very intentional about how we did that. I looked at it as an opportunity. Honestly, it was horrible, but at that point there's nothing you can do.

I just said, if I'm going to do this again, I'm going to do it exactly the way that I want to do it. And that's what we've been trying to accomplish. Coming up on Mind the Business small business success stories. I never thought I wanted to work for myself, but the freedom I feel with being able to take on jobs that I want and say no to things that I don't, I truly am the happiest.

I've ever been in my life. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Mind the Business. So in this industry, how do you define the difference between stability or stagnation, Because there's some business owners that like, you reach a point and you're like, I'm good here, I don't need to do anymore, versus feeling like you do want to accomplish more, but then it's harder and harder to do.

So, so what does that look like for you? I think keeping stability from feeling like stagnation is it's definitely a challenge. But for me, it's the creativity and the items that we're doing. If we can know that we can expect a certain amount of sales, a certain amount of traffic, a certain amount of projects to come in, that's stability, But the variation within that is what keeps it from feeling stagnant.

So we might have four big projects or clients at a time, but they're all different. You know, we're working with musicians, we're working with comedians, we're working with small business owners. We're still providing the same service, but the components within it are so different that that keeps it from feeling stagnant. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

You never want to get too good at your job as an entrepreneur when you're always taking on those new opportunities to see what else can I add that still feels aligned with the original mission. I think that will help feed that creative bug that keeps you going in the long term. Yeah. I hope that there's never a day where I'm like, oh, yeah, I got this, like, because I definitely every day is a new challenge.

I'm looking something up that I've never done before or how to do it, and I don't think that'll ever end. When you look back at the history of your business, can you identify any strategies that you've used to avoid becoming stagnant. I think my biggest strategy for avoiding is to never be satisfied, you know, and not in a way that's like nothing's ever good enough. But I think there's always something that I can do better, that we can do better as a business.

There's always a new market to reach, there's a new perspective to look at. My husband and I have this saying between us, we say never peak, you know, like let's enjoy it and let's have fun and we can celebrate a moment. But I think there's always progress to be made. Yeah, something that I like to do is reflect on my own you know, ups and downs, lefts and rights to small business owner.

So I'm curious, how have you sort of laid out the groundwork so far this year when it comes to maybe new SKUs, new financial goals, maybe any big challenges that you're working toward achieving, and just like all these big exciting things that come with being a small business owner. As we begin a new year and continue to thrive. Throughout it, Yeah, I think because we've been in such growth stages, this year has really been about finding stability, and the only way that we can do that is for me to be able to focus on business, not in the business, and I think I'm really living that this year, really just trying to make sure that we have a steady source of income so that I can have staff and people that are starting to run the day to day operations of the business a little bit more.

So that's been a huge priority. With the custom stuff, you have less planning because it's sort of more up to the client, but on the retail side, being able to really say, Okay, this year, we're going to do three new hats, We're planning on launching some things for the summer, and so those are the kind of things that I like to be able to really have the time to focus on. So for those people who are still working in the business and they want to get to a place where they can work on the business like you are, do you have any actionable insights or tips to give them.

I think you just really have to make it a priority to be able to remove yourself. It's so easy to just especially with like our entrepreneurial spirit to just say oh, I'll just do it, like I have to stop myself all the time. I would still be packing orders like if I had it by way, and I still sometimes I'll see an order from a friend and I'm like, oh, I want to pack their order, and that I will still do that sometimes, but to be able to stop and say, you know what, Actually, I'm just going to drop a quick note to the team and say, hey, can you include a note from me?

Or I wrote a note, I want to make sure I give it to you before you. Pack you or so letting go of those things that you're used to holding on to as the sole proprietor of a business. I think the letting go part is the hardest. How do you if they're the right people?

The truth is, you don't know if they're the right people. I think hiring in this environment and with a business it's this personal is just a lot of trial and error, and I think you have to be okay with number one. I'm very direct. That's one thing that you know, being from the Northeast and being here in Nashville that maybe people aren't so used to.

And I want people to have the opportunity to learn and change and grow. But if something's consistently not working, then we just have to be like, hey, you know what, maybe this isn't the right fit for me, right fit for you, and let's move on and no hard feelings. Obviously being compassionate and I want everyone who works at this business to feel like they're a part of the business, but at the same time being honest and realistic about what the needs are. That makes a lot of sense.

Knowing what you know now, with all this experience that you have as an entrepreneur, what advice would you give to others who are hitting that first plateau and that are feeling like they've hit that ceiling. I think when you've hit that first plateau, I think there's a couple of things that you have to do with in yourself, and you have to be really honest, it's am I hitting this plateau? And is it something we can get passed? Or am I really spinning my wheels doing something that doesn't make sense?

You know, there's a couple of times that we've sort of changed direction, and I think that was because I just really thought about is this why I started the business? Is this what I should be doing? And I think being able to be honest with yourself and do a little bit of self reflection is really important because I know other business owners that they feel stagnant and maybe it's just not the right fit for them as a bit, and it's hard to make that decision. But I think you have to be realistic about it.

Yeah, most definitely. I'm curious when it relates to some really big projects, what are some of your biggest like, wow, I did that moments? I think when we had a garment on SNL. We've now had that twice with the same person.

Nate Bargetzi. He's a local, well now he's a national international comedian, but he's from the Nashville area. He's super big on supporting local artists. His stylist is a friend of mine from when I worked in the music industry, and she said, Nate's got this idea, he wants to wear something to represent Nashville on SNL.

You know, you kind of think, Okay, we'll make this, and sometimes they wear it, sometimes they don't. And I didn't even stay up to watch it the first time because I didn't want to get my hopes up. And the next day everyone's like, oh my God, did you make that? You know?

And so that was the most like outward recognition I think that we've ever gotten. But inward, I think just being a part of like the Nashville community and going to places and seeing other small business owners and become familiar with each other and kind of having a rapport. It's like, Okay, yeah, I'm here, I'm here, talk to. Me more about the community aspect.

I'm just thinking about back to this tornado. I cannot imagine experiencing that. How did your community here in Nashville surround you and support you as you bounce back from such a natural disaster like that. That was one of the most incredible things I've experienced in my life.

We're really big on helping. We've done things where we donate proceeds from our shop to other people. Just in my personal life, I definitely believe in like paying it forward and helping other people out. It is incredibly hard to receive that kind of support when you're used to being the one giving it.

Immediately right after everything happened, a fellow small business owner he had been through a fire with his business, and he said, we're going to start a GoFundMe and we were like, no, let's wait and see what insurance says, and we don't need to do that. And he said there's going to be things that you're not expecting and that insurance is not going to cover. And he said we're going to do it. And I had to just say okay.

And then that weekend, whatever inventory we had left that was left in the actual like physical shop that wasn't affected, we had a huge sale. We just had a parking lot and I told everyone, I said, I wanted to be like a party, like I got a DJ. We set up outside and people waited in line for these custom bags that we were doing, and we sold out in two hours. Wow, And it was just really beautiful.

It's a second time Nashville has been through a tornado, and both times the community has really showed up for everybody. That's amazing. Yeah, that's fantastic. We're four years into this business.

Now. What keeps pushing you to come back every single day, every single week, every single month and grow and be goods? What is your why? My why is that I truly am the happiest I've ever been in my life.

I had a wonderful experience working with some really great people working in the music industry. I never thought I wanted to work for myself, but the freedom I feel with being able to take on jobs that I want and say no to things that I don't. I used to be very much a people pleaser, and I'll be honest, I love telling somebody no. Now I read a book called Essentialism that sort of really changed my perspective.

That's like, if it's not like a ninety percent yes, then it's a no. And so being able to make those quick decisions and trust my instincts and do things on my terms, it's been very fulfilling. That's amazing what inspires you as far as your designs, because I see there's a nice eclectic mix of what you have in the store. Yeah.

So when Inbigauds originally started, my goal for the business was for people who live in Nashville to love it. Nashville is a huge town for tourism, and I think there's a lot of tropes and things, you know, cowboy boots and honky tonks and listen, I love a good honky tonk, Like every once in a while you could catch me on Broadway. But I wanted it to be a brand for people that live here and also for people that visit, but to get a more realistic reflection of what day to day life in Nashville is.

I'm also from New Jersey originally, so that heavily inspires a lot of my designs. I'm proud to be from New Jersey. I love carrying that sort of I call it the East Coast attitude. Our tagline is East Coast Attitude, Music City Charm, you know.

So it's a meeting of those worlds. I feel like we've got a little edge that you don't necessarily see a lot in Nashville, and it's important for me to convey that that's awesome. What is your favorite product in the store? So, like I said, being from New Jersey, there's a couple of things that I've carried with me.

One of them is a love for Bruce Springsteen and we have a fanaticism. Yeah, and obviously can't just make a Bruce Springsteen product. But there was this story that happened a couple of years ago where he got in like a little bit of trouble for doing a shot of tequila with some fans, and I think to me that was like the personification of why people love him, and so we took that and put our own little twist on it, and it's by far become our most popular product. It's a foam trucker hat and it's just got very simple.

It just says, you know, it States versus Bruce Springsteen. So that was actually the name of the court case because it happened at basically the equivalent of like a national park, and so it was actually a federal court case. He ended up paying like a five hundred dollars fine and that was the end of it. Every person that walks in they ask about it.

It's got a really vintage design to it, and so I think it feels like something that's old. So they're like, oh, what was this? What did does this happen in the seventies, And it's like, no, it just happened a couple of years ago. So it's a conversation starter, so people really gravitate towards it.

It's wild where inspiration comes from an entrepreneurship, you just always kind of have to be paying attention because you never know where that next park is going to come from. Yeah, And honestly, where it came from was I was flying up to New York to go see him, and I had heard that he was like making a joke about the situation, and I was like, Oh, just make a. Hat for myself to wear. That's literally where it started.

It's probably one of the most basic designs we have in the shop, and that's how it always is. And now the story is enshrined on a hat. It's enshrine on a half yeah, and it's made its way to Bruce and do they really have one? Yeah?

He had a wow. And I've heard from different people about situations where he talks about it and stuff. So I feel like that's about as good as it gets for a Jersey kid. I think you've made it.

I've made it that you talk about like what's going to make me shut down the business? Like if Bruce Breesean walks through that door, we're done. I'm good. I'm good.

It's awesome. Camille. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Mine the Business Small Business success Stories. I learned a lot.

You are such an inspiration of a small business owner and I am so ready to go buy everything on your shelf. Right now, well, let's drop. I'll tell you what Denise Camille Alson is an absolute inspiration. I'm just so excited we got to sit down and learn so much about Kamille's business and her entire story of going from idea to now this thriving storefront.

What if some of your biggest takeaways from our conversation. I really loved how she tied the importance of following your creativity in those moments where you are feeling stagnant as a business owner. You never want to get too good at your job, right, and so she really just has an ear to what might be next, and it always comes back to the core mission of the business, which is just creating really cool merchandise that speaks to people and that has this unique touch. And so I think that's a great thing for all of us to think about, what's that next thing that's going to catapult you as a business owner to a level that you didn't even imagine you could reach.

I completely agree, and I think I've got two takeaways actually, the first one being Camille said she started this as sort of this like accessories type business, right because she was wearing hats all the time, and so that's something that she's really passionate about, really excited about, so why not turn a passion into a small business. And the second thing that's really important, I believe is after natural disaster and tragedy and things like that, do not underestimate how important it is to have that community alongside of you and to really continue to build community alongside other small business owners where you live.

If it's in your town, your neighborhood, maybe just inside your niche online, it doesn't matter. But having those supporters that you can always lean on and really have that support blanket is I think just really really important for small business owners. Absolutely, we have learned so much in this episode and in this season. I can't believe that it's over.

But until next time. You can find me on social media at Jocto Lenetto podcast. And you can find me at Austin Hankwitts. You can follow into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks, and to get the tools you need to start, run and grow your business, head toquickbooks dot com.

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