360 - Should You Sell Physical Products? 3 Questions to Ask First

Why Products Need Real Thought

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Well, hello friends, this is Kimberly, and I am so excited that you're here today because I'm talking about the three important things that you need to think through before starting a product-based business.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Okay. If you are dreaming of starting a business and you've been wanting to sell products, this is for you, or maybe you've had a service business like me or some type of coaching business and you are thinking, wait, I think I kind of want to sell products too, but what does this really mean? Today we're going to talk through three things. I think these are going to massively help you because I have just gone through this myself. In case you haven't heard, the big secret has been revealed that I'm adding to my business an online gift boutique. And it's still going to be under the she's just getting started name. And I'm so excited about it because it's just a way that I can cheer all of you on and also help business owners like you and other women who are making positive change. They are pursuing something greater. They're entering a new chapter, a new season. And that's what I decided I wanted to do was have a boutique to get that. Now I'm going to talk about the story here in a minute. I'm going to talk you through my mental process that I went through because I think it helps when you hear what someone else has done. And I can't tell you how excited I am. And the funny thing is, this has been on my mind since I started in 2019 because I know the boutique business. I know the online business world because I started my first one in 2003. So that's why this means so much to me, because I'm doing an extension of my business now to help even more people. I'm I'm giving you inspiration and guidance through this podcast, through coaching, and now through tangible goods. And I'm just soaked. And so that's why I want to talk about this topic. It's very fresh on my mind. I know it will help you whatever stage you're in, and you're thinking about whether I sell physical products or not. This episode is for you. So I'm so glad you're here. If you're new, welcome. You came on a great day. I'm so happy you're here. You can find out all the links and sh and um information down below. So you can see my online boutique. She's just getting started.com. At the time of recording this, there's a wait list up there for early birds. So make sure you get your name on that email list. Um, I also offer coaching and I have this podcast. So again, links are down below. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast. You don't want to miss out on any future episodes that are going to help you along your business journey, whether you're in the idea stage, starting or growing, whether you have a product business now, or you will have a service business, a coaching business, a mobile business, a retail business, whatever it is. You are supposed to be here. And this podcast is going

Boutique Announcement And Waitlist

SPEAKER_00 2:55

to help you. I have no doubt because it shares everything from my 26 years of experience of owning my own businesses since 2000. And I know that it's going to massively help your journey and inspire you and let you know that yes, you can do this. And there's someone here cheering you on and telling you you can. You can. And I'm so excited for you. Okay. And if you've been listening a while, thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. I got a couple messages last week and I was like, oh my goodness, y'all are the sweetest. Thank you so much for your kind words. Means the world to me. Really, really does. And it keeps me going on this podcast. I love it. I love it. So, okay, that's it. On to the episode. Well, hello, friends. So happy to be talking about this. I think this idea to sell physical products is something that you should take seriously. And I'm super excited that we are going to have a frank conversation about this today because I want you to think hard before you make a major decision in your business. Because you can get all excited about something. I don't know if you're like me, where you get ideas about things and you literally can feel a rush in your body. Like the hormones in your body are like rushing and making you feel so happy. I don't know, is that dopamine? Is it giving you a dopamine rush? Where it's like, you're like, I have all these ideas. I could do this and offer this. And I just want to make sure that you think it through, just like if I was coaching you one-on-one, like how we would kind of talk this through. So let's talk it through today. Again, like I said in the beginning, you may be here, not even a business owner owner yet, but thinking about offering products and wanting to start a business, or you may already be a business owner and you sell services or programs, or you've been doing something locally, and now you're like, you know, I've been thinking about adding products to my mix. I think this is going to help you. This is going to help you determine it. And I'm going to talk you through kind of how I came to this decision for my coaching business, what I thought through before I did it, because this was a big move

The Backstory From 2003 To Now

SPEAKER_00 5:07

for me. And I'll go ahead and just start out by kind of telling you this backstory in case you're new here. So in 2003, I started my first online business. It was called In This Very Room. And I had it all the way until 2019. It was called inthisveryroom.com. And during that time, I also opened a second boutique that was very similar but a different niche called KidsArefans2.com. It had all kinds of kids collegiate gear. And by the way, in this very room had all kinds of personalized gifts and home decor and everything for women and kids. So, anyways, I had those two running till 2019, but I felt the tug for something more. I really felt a tug in my soul. Like, I am meant to do something more. What am I doing? And I was really sad to let go of my online businesses, but I had to because I wanted to start this new journey. And it was a time in my life when my oldest had gone off to college and I was like just ready for something. Y'all know those moments in your life where you're like, it's a new chapter, it's a new season. I feel this new era, right? And so that's what happened to me. And so I started this podcast and I started my coaching business. Well, from the very beginning of my coaching business, I had some physical products. I had a mug, which some of my clients have. And those of you that were in Grow Getters or one of my programs, I would send out mugs. Sometimes people were buying them as well. I had them just as a side item, but I didn't have a full-on physical store. I had a cute I'm just getting started tablet, which both of those OG versions I may bring back here for the she's just she's just getting started shop. But anyways, I never created like its own online store because I was trying to develop my coaching and my podcasts and all of that. And so it's always been here. I just never created a store. Okay. I put them even up on my website. I had them on Instagram and I just never did it. But it just hit me recently. I was like, you know what? I have this desire to take information and tips and strategies and guidance and coaching that I have done over the years and put it into something very special for people like you. And my thought was some type of guided journal, a guided journal that could help you as you're building your business and really help you understand who you are. So you build a business that aligns with you, that allows you to use your God-given gifts for greater and helps you build a business around who you are instead of you trying to like fit into the box of what the world is like telling you you should do and what's trendy and all that, but really getting to the heart of who you are so you can build a successful

A Journal Idea Becomes A Shop

SPEAKER_00 7:55

business and who you're meant to help. So I have spent the past months, it's probably been gosh, three or four months, building out my journal. And I can't even believe, I cannot believe that it's gonna come to fruition. They're supposed to be here hopefully in November. But it hit me like, I'm gonna have the journal. What am I gonna do? Just sell it on my Kimberlybrock.com site. And I was kind of working through logistics of that and went, what am I doing? Like I should just have its own little boutique because I have some other ideas of ways to help you and inspire you and just cheer you on as you build your business. And it started hitting me too that these products can also, some of them will be able to apply to people embarking on new chapters, hitting milestones in their life. And we all want to cheer on other people that we know are just getting started with something exciting in their life, right? Maybe it's a milestone birthday, maybe it's a new job, maybe it's a retirement, whatever it is. So I've kind of have had this vision. And I decided, you know what? If I'm gonna be selling the journal, then I might as well have some other products too. So that is how I first was like, okay, I'm gonna start building this out. Well, then it all started evolving and I've got these other products, and I'm just so soaked about it. But that's what can happen is we can get this rush, right? We have this vision and then we get this rush of ideas, but then we have to keep them wrangled in. So that is the quick version. That is the actually the long story long. No, that is the quick version of how I decided to go ahead and embark on this new journey of having tangible goods along with this podcast and along with coaching to cheer everyone on and to help you, right? So the journal comes later, but the other items are gonna be coming now. And everything's gonna be launching September 14th for the early birds, September 16th for everyone else. So make sure you get on the wait list. You can go to she's just getting started.com and there's a little early bird wait list right there. So here's my point for you is that you've got to think through things. And we're gonna go through these three points that I think will help you decide whether products are right for you. Okay. So I've done this before and I get it, what it means to have a product business. And I forgot all the logistics that it takes to get a business up on Shopify, which I highly recommend. You

The Three Questions Framework

SPEAKER_00 10:15

just go to Shopify if you're selling products and everything that you have to do, but wow, is it impressive? Shopify is amazing. I'm totally impressed with how awesome it is. So, anyways, here's here's the three things that you need to think through before embarking on a journey of selling physical products and creating a Shopify store and doing all of that. Okay. And let me give you one side note real quick. You could not have an online store. You could just be selling locally. Maybe you do shows, markets, anything like that. You don't have to have an online store. No one tells you that you have to have it, but it is a great thing because a lot of people do want to order online and they're on their phones and they could do it real fast. And even if they meet you at a show, then they want to rebuy. It might be nice if they have the online store, right? So I highly recommend it, but you don't have to have it. I want you to know that your business can be your way that fits this season of life for you. And if that's too daunting right now to sign up with Shopify and start a whole store, then I get you. Do what you can for right now. Okay. Okay, so here's the three things I want you to think through.

Test One: Does This Sound Fun

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Number one, does selling physical products actually sound fun to you? Like, do you get excited at the thought of a tangible product? If you're anything like me, you do. I've always loved physical products. I love shopping, I love boutiques, I love personalized items, monogrammed items. I like things that make me happy. I like things on my desk that make me smile. I like things that inspire me. Are you like that? Do you like tangible goods? Maybe you're selling, though, like a food item or something totally different, right? And it's not like a boutique y item. Maybe it has something to do with what you are offering, what kind of service you have or whatever it may be, right? But does that sound fun to you? Like, would you buy it? Would you buy it? So that's kind of the lens that I'm looking at everything through when I'm picking out the products from my store and designing them because a lot of them will be printed as ordered or made as ordered. Some of them won't, but like when the journals get here, they'll be here. Um, I won't have to obviously make them. I'll have stock of them, right? And I have some um inspirational cards that are called 52 Truths for business owners that sit on your desk and display, and they've got all kinds of quotes and deeper thoughts that come from this podcast. So that's what's really cool. But those are the kind of things that you have to think about. Like, do the products that you want to sell excite you and are they meaningful? Like, does that actually sound fun to sell products? Because some people that are in the service side of business and they don't get super excited about tangible products. That just feels like a lot. Or like, I don't want to deal with products, I don't want to deal with with all the stuff that that means, right? I don't want to deal with returns. I don't want to deal with making stuff. I just want to offer services, right? So do so does selling products sound fun to you? Okay, that's number one. Okay, so and also let me say this you have to ask yourself, am I just chasing what is popular in the world to for the fact of just chasing it? Or am I doing it because it's actually gonna be good for my business? Like like I like this idea. So ask yourself that. Am I just chasing what everyone else is doing or does this actually sound fun to me? Okay, so that's number one.

Test Two: Fit For You And Them

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Number two, is it actually beneficial for you? Is it a good fit for you? Is it a good fit for your clients? Is it a good fit for you in your life? Like, think about it for a minute. If you right now don't have a business at all, but you've been thinking about selling products, is it something you would buy? And is it a good fit for the ideal kind of person that you want to serve? Right. So, like I thought about it here with my business owners like you that are listening or people dreaming of starting a business. And the things that I want to sell, the journal, the inspirational cards, those are all my signature items. I have a notepad that's a signature item. And I know that those are helpful for my people. My people like you who want a business that is meaningful, that want to make a difference, and these things that I'm providing will help them do that, will help you do that, right? And so I know that those are a good fit, but I am still running it through that test. Every product that I'm adding, I'm like, okay, do I actually like this? And will they use this? Is this a good fit? Would they really want this? I would want it. Would they want it? Yes. So you have to think about your customers, right? If your customers are on a weight loss journey and you're like, you know what? I've been a trainer for a long time. I want my own protein shake or my own food delivery service or something in a box, a subscription box. I mean, who knows what it is? Maybe you have some kind of workout shirt that you want to sell, right? To your clients. Would they want that? Is it a good fit? Would they get use out of it? Make sure it's something that your people, the people that you're meant to serve, that would be excited about this stuff, actually would want to buy it and use it. They would hand over money. You have to know that. I have been asking other business owners and I've done research, and I know that these journals and these cards are something that people will love, that my ideal people will love. Who are your ideal people? And does this fit with that? Is it a good fit? And is a good fit for you? Like, do you actually like making it? Like, if you're like, I don't want to be in the apparel business, but I know a shirt would be amazing. Like, you just have to say, do I really have this desire to sell shirts? Like, is this a good fit for me to be dealing with the apparel industry or whatever it is that you're thinking about selling? Right? Is this a good fit? I want to make sure that you can say, surely, yes, this is a great fit for my people. Right? Okay, and here's the big

Test Three: Logistics And Fulfillment

SPEAKER_00 16:49

one. Number three. So what was number one? Does selling products actually sound fun to me? Number two, is it a good fit for me and my customers? And number three, this is huge, so get ready. I'm having to get ready and prepare myself. Are you ready for the logistics? Are you ready for the logistics of running a website, updating products, dealing with, you know, maybe issues if the product is damaged or comes wrong, questions from customers, shipping products, whether you ship it or you have a third-party shipper, um, all the things. Are you ready for the logistics? It's a lot. I'm not going to lie, it is a lot, but there's ways to get around it. Like for me, I'm planning on using a third-party warehouse, which I used back in the day, a different one, not the same one. But I did during my business have a fulfillment house that was shipping out orders for me so that I wasn't having to touch as many orders. This business that I'm creating right now, I want to be as hands-off as I can, right? So the things that I will stock that I may ship uh will not be a ton. It will be at the warehouse. And then I'm having other items that are custom made, like if y'all order mugs or t-shirts and things like that, they are going to be shipped from my supplier. They're going to be printed as ordered and shipped. So I am not actually doing that so that I can focus on the marketing side of my business and helping clients and doing all the things, right? So I am designing how I want this business to be and how hands-off I want to be. When I started my online boutiques years ago, I shipped everything in the beginning from my house. I had my kids involved, printing labels, boxes, UPS store coming, I mean UPS man coming to my door every day, USPS, like the whole thing. I don't know how I did all that. Like I look back now with three young kids and was doing that before I got the warehouse. Like, what was I thinking? Like, what? But it was awesome, right? It was an income for my family. And we needed it so that I didn't have to physically go to a job and I could raise my kids from home. Right. So you have to be ready for that. You're gonna have to pay if you want to outsource it to a third-party shipping, or you're gonna have to spend the time yourself and maybe you get other people at home or nieces or nephews or neighbors, and you hire high school kids or somebody to help you with the shipping. There is some schlepping going on. There is logistics. There are boxes, there's packing, there's packing slips, there's insert cards. Y'all, I could go on and on. There's all these things that have to do with running your online boutique, right? Or your online store. If you're gonna be selling physical products. And then if you're not gonna have an online store and you're just gonna like have them at your house where people pick them up, you still have logistics from that. You have logistics. You now are a little bit, you're tied down because customers are gonna be waiting on your stuff. You can start an Etsy store, which I didn't mention in the beginning. You can start an Etsy store. And I think that is a simpler avenue in the beginning and something to consider. But I want it on my own domain. I already have a huge audience. I'm on, she's just getting started. I know how to do Shopify, although it's totally different and even way more amazing than it was years ago when I last used it in 2019. You can imagine their AI is like amazing with it. Um so you have to think about the logistics, the email lists, the marketing that you're doing. Are you gonna run ads? How are you advertising? And then all the shipping and all the stuff. It's a lot. And that's why I'm going to be not shipping hardly anything myself. In the beginning, I may be shipping some of the stuff, but the journals are probably gonna go to a warehouse and all that other stuff, as I said, is printed as ordered. But I'm ready. I'm like mentally ready because I know that I can manage this on my computer. I can still have the life that I want, as I've talked about before. My husband's gonna be retiring in a few years. He does travel. He wants me to travel with them more. I'm about to be an empty nester next year. And so I am going to be free to do, you know, more of what I want, but I also don't want to be spending my hours physically shipping when I can be doing this, you know, in another way by having a company hold my stuff that I'm gonna be paying for that. Right. But I'm also gonna be doing print as ordered. Like when things are ordered, then they ship and print from my manufacturer, and I'm not gonna be touching it. So I can focus on. On the important side of this, right? I still got the podcast, I'm still coaching people, it sounds like a lot, but I've got things under control and I'm trying to run my business as streamlined as pros possible. Right? So that's what I want you to think about. If you are considering adding products to your mix, ask yourself is this actually fun? Is this not just a dopamine rush right now where I'm super excited because I've got all these ideas flooding, or just a real thing that like think in two years you're still selling products? Does that excite you, or would you rather be doing, you know, offering services or being a content creator or something like that? Number two, is it a good fit for you and your clients? Like at this time in your life, can you do it? Is there a way around where you either have time to be involved or maybe you can't and you work on outsourcing like I am? And is it a good fit for your people? Like, is will this help them? Will they love it? Will they hand over their money for? You don't just want to ask people and they say, Oh yeah, and I'd buy it. That's not really the answer. It'd have to be like people who hand over money for it. They're like ready to pay you for it. And that's the answers you need, right? Before you launch any product. And the third one is are you ready for the logistics? The logistics are real. The struggle can be real. You have to be very smart about it. For me, I've been through this. So I already get it and I'm already setting it up so that I'm as hands-off as I can be for the shipping of the products, right? But I'm going to have to be updating a website, email list, running things on Instagram. Maybe I'll be running ads. Who knows? Who knows where it's going? My point was to get you all the journals

Wrap Up And How To Get Help

SPEAKER_00 23:45

and the cards and the extra fun things and support women who are doing amazing things and having the courage to pursue greater things. And I want a boutique that is going to support those people and that you can support those people in your life as well. That's the theme of this. So I think you have to have a theme as well. And we can talk about that another time. I'm probably going to do a series here on product businesses so you can think this through before you jump into anything. And then when you do jump in, really being intentional about how you're building it out. And I can talk to you about that too in coaching. If you need one-on-one coaching with someone who has built, you know, physical product businesses through Shopify and you want help with that, or maybe you have a podcast or you're working on your business, know that I'm always here for that because I don't want you to feel stranded. And sometimes I think it's hard to find people who will talk to you for an hour or whatever and just like knock out everything that you need to know, right? Sometimes you just need personal help and you need it fast. And I'm here to help you if you need that. So, anyways, that's it. Y'all are awesome. I'm so excited for you. Make sure you get on that wait list. And again, reach out if you need help. And if you're thinking about starting a product product business, I would love to guide you on that. So that's it. Y'all have a great day. Until next time, bye now.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Now, this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimberlybrock.com, and yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. And you know what? You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.