396: How To Make Millions Dropshipping Private Label Products With Annette De Lancey

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You’re listening to the My Wife Could Her Job podcast, the place where I bring on successful bootstrap business owners and delve deeply into the strategies they use to grow their businesses. Now this is week three of student month, where I’m bringing in successful students from my course to talk about their businesses. And today I have Annette Delancey on the show. Now Annette runs cascovers.com with a Z, where she sells, you guessed it, for people in CAS. And what’s unique about Annette’s business is that she runs her own private label brand, but everything is drop shipped.

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And prior to meeting Annette, I did not believe that the combination of these two sourcing models was possible. Enjoy her story. But before we begin, I want to thank Postscript for sponsoring this episode. Postscript is my SMS or text messaging provider that I use for e-commerce and it’s crushing it for me. I never thought that people will want marketing text messages, but it works. In fact, my tiny SMS list is performing on par with my email list, which is easily 10x bigger. Anyway, Postscript specializes in text message marketing for e-commerce and you can segment your audience just like email.

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It’s an inexpensive solution converts like crazy and you can try it for free over at postscript.io slash Steve. That’s P O S T S T R I P T dot I O slash Steve. I also want to thank Klaviyo who is also a sponsor of the show and I’m always super excited to talk about Klaviyo because they’re the email marketing platform that I personally use for my e-commerce store and it depends on them for over 30 % of my revenue. Now you’re probably wondering why Klaviyo and not another email provider. Well Klaviyo is the only email platform out there that is specifically built for e-commerce stores and here’s why it’s so powerful.

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Klaviyo can track every single customer who’s shopped in your store and exactly what they bought. So let’s say I want to send out an email to everyone who purchased a red handkerchief in the last week. Easy. Let’s say I want to set up a special autoresponder sequence to my customers depending on what they bought, piece of cake, and there’s full revenue tracking on every email sent. Now Klaviyo is the most powerful email platform that I’ve ever used, and you can try them for free over at klaviyo.com slash my wife. That’s K-L-A-V-I-Y-O dot com slash my wife. And then finally, I wanted to mention my other podcast that I released with my partner Tony.

01:57
And unlike this podcast where I interview successful entrepreneurs in e-commerce, the profitable audience podcast covers all things related to content creation and building an audience. No topic is off the table and we tell like how it is in a raw and entertaining way. So be sure to check out the profitable audience podcast on your favorite podcast app. Now onto the show.

02:24
Welcome to the My Wife, Quit Her Job podcast. Today I’m really happy to have Annette Delancey on the show. Annette is a student in my Creator Profitable Online Store course and she’s made millions selling orthopedic soft goods such as cast covers, boot covers and more over at castcovers.com. And that’s spelled C-A-S-T-C-O-V-E-R-Z.com. Now Cast Covers is actually the worldwide leader in this space. She sells over 2000 skews that she manufactures herself.

02:51
And her business is almost 100 % virtual, which means that she doesn’t have a warehouse or local employees. And in fact, she has constructed her business to have the best of both worlds, private label products that are her brand without the need to carry inventory or have her own warehouse. And with that, welcome to the show, Annette. How are you doing today? Thank you, Steve, for having me. I’m doing well. I’m so happy to have you on. I think the audience is in for real treat because you are like a bundle of energy. So Annette.

03:20
please tell the audience about your business, what you sell and actually how you came up with the idea. Sure. So Cast Covers is, you did an outstanding job of introducing the company. We’re 13 years old international company. And I got the idea, well, it’s actually 14 years old now, but I got the idea from my then 10 year old daughter who broke the humerus, which is the big bone in your upper arm when she was 10. It was her sixth broken bone. Oh my goodness.

03:49
six, one, two, three, four, five, six. And she felt so betrayed by her body again. My cooking was no longer comfort. And, and when she had the cast put on, was an emergency room physician. And it was, and excuse my language, I guess, but it was the butt ugliest cast I had ever seen. And she just was so, so downtrodden. So I decided to just cover it. So I pulled out my old trusty sewing machine, covered it and made us in a really happy sling.

04:19
made her another set, another set. And that was when people started stopping us in the street that I realized, hmm, I’ve got an idea. And I had three other businesses before, but this was my first manufacturing business. And I became the accidental entrepreneur. And that pun is intended. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an attractive Cassie for usually these nasty white things, right? That are sweaty and yeah. And they and they’re they’re

04:46
A lot of people are germaphobes and they get dirty and they get smelly. And the other thing that happens with cast, which is a nasty byproduct is they scratch and snag everything near you, whether it’s your sheets, your sofa, your car upholstery. I’ve got a great story about that, by the way. Uh, and the cover actually prevents the scratching and snagging that occurs. So you save your sweaters. had somebody tell me how it saved her 800.

05:15
count sheets, which I didn’t even know was a thing at the time. So great stories, great stories. So what were your motivations for starting the business then? I were you working full time at the time? Well, had. Yeah. Great question, Steve. I had a, uh, it was a consulting business and I was running political campaigns and I knew I was done with the world of politics. Done. And I, and also I thought my children really needed to see me.

05:44
getting out and working and creating something. I was doing campaigns and or marketing research campaigns, there’s not a tangible thing. And so I said, this is going to be a great experience for them. And it did. Every night we’d sit around the dining room table and talk about customer service stories. We talked about supply issues that I had even back then. We talked about employee issues. It’s been a great training ground for them. They’re young adults now.

06:13
I mean, that one’s married and one’s and the other one has a baby my grandchild. I actually I didn’t realize so this was a family business from the start. It was and my husband helped me very early on and and I often like to say that my daughter inspired me. My son came up with the name and my husband provided the capital at the beginning. And so that’s so it was a family business without a doubt. Yes.

06:40
But you were mentioning that you would chat with your kids about these issues like inventory issues and that sort of thing. So did they get a lot out of it as well? Very much. I can’t believe the conversations we have today. My son is 25 and he’s in law school. one of his essays that got him into one of the top law schools in the country was about the fact that I was audited by the IRS.

07:05
and how he felt that this was a travesty to a small business and how onerous and burdensome it was. And it was just fascinating. This would not have resonated with him, of course, I not drawn the children into the business. And then my daughter has got a real marketing sense that she’s now utilizing in her job, which is a social media content manager for other companies.

07:33
definitely can talk about the customer experience and whether it’s online or unboxing a product. they definitely, whether my daughter never liked to talk about it because it was about her broken bones. I was actually kind of surprised it was something that I found out much later or realized later, she just didn’t want to talk about it because it reminded her of such a very painful time period. either of them help you with the business today? No.

08:03
Well, it’s funny because my daughter’s working for an agency and they now handle all my social media and she’s handling my social media, but I don’t manage her at all. It’s wonderful. a good thing. Oh yeah. Very good. So, Annette, it’s one thing for people to compliment the cast covers, but how did you know that people are actually willing to pay money for this? Like, how did you validate this niche before you began? Yes. So, the

08:31
The strangers coming up to me in the street was definitely a good, good sign. So what I did is I did a research, I did research that identified that there was nobody out there covering CAS and I knew I wasn’t the only one. We’ve got some doctors in the family. And so I asked to talk to some orthopedic surgeons, which none of my, my family, my family is our orthopedic surgeons talk to them. And they said, Oh my gosh, this is a real issue. I never even thought that we could solve this problem. So I knew then it was creating a product.

09:01
Basically creating an industry from scratch, which is, by the way, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that, but, it does, it can be done. And, and so what I did is I tested the market and I sent it to, had some friends that were doctors and said, would you mind? They were small town doctors, rural doctors. And so they did everything. Would you mind giving these as gifts? You know, just as, just to try the response was phenomenal. So what I did is to.

09:29
price it out is I reverse engineered. typically when you manufacture something to have good profit, you have to have four to five times cost of goods. So you can actually reverse engineer whatever you see on the web or at a store or anything like that and reverse engineer what it actually costs the company to make. so what I did is I figured out the labor to make it and the materials.

09:59
And the packaging, which of course my first iteration was so bad anyway, but that’s, that’s also part of the journey of being an entrepreneur and how you iterate your products and make them better. And it’s all based on what your customer says, but circling back. So what I did is I figured out what my cost of goods are and multiplied it by five. And that’s what I sold online. And then that gave me enough margin to sell business to business. But I will tell you, I thought my low hanging fruit. Now this was 14 years ago.

10:28
was the orthopedic surgeons. So I purchased a booth, contracted for a booth at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. This is a very expensive trade show, very expensive. Not just my booth was expensive, but I mean, when they had operating room makeups that were two to three stories high, I knew I was in big buck territory when it came to a trade show. And I got

10:56
quite a bit of interest from the orthopedic surgeons and got a couple of orders and big orders. And there’s an interesting story for that too. But I realized that the orthopedic surgeons just like to be orthopedic surgeons. They didn’t want to inventory the product, take the sales tax. They didn’t want to worry about any of that. They wanted to refer their patients to our product. And so that was a really big learning experience for me because I, that’s where my focus was going to be was B2B.

11:25
And so that’s one that I just, shifted gears and went direct to consumer. So, uh, do you have an affiliate relationship with these surgeons today? the affiliate relationship is one-on-one with me. am responsible for all the business to business. And I’m shifting that into an automated process, though. I loved the relationship building. Um, but we’ve been able to generate quite a bit of B2B business just with.

11:53
my relationship with these orthopedic practices. you know there’s demand and you had a couple orders. How did you actually make the products at first? Did you sew them yourself? no. No. So I love to sew Steve. I love to but I sewed for my daughter. I made bedspreads for my sister when she was in New York City, know, 3040 years ago. I mean, things like that as gifts, but I would never ever do that to a customer. I’m not that good.

12:21
And I certainly know sewing and I certainly know, and I can have the discussions about sewn manufacturing and cut and sew and apparel manufacturing. I can definitely have those conversations on both ends, but I wouldn’t subject my customers to my sewing. The other thing though is I made a decision. I knew I was going to have a group of sewists eventually. And they’re called sewists now have been for about 15 years. That I didn’t want if we got into a real tight bind,

12:50
to have them say, Annette, come on in, we need your help to sew. That was not gonna be my job. And so I made a decision from the very beginning not to do that. Now that being said, I would hear my team in the production facility and they’re talking about a machine that jammed or something like that. And I would listen to them and listen to them, because my office wasn’t far away from the production facility. And then I would just get up, said, do you want me to try? And so I sat down, boom, boom, boom, fix it and walked away. And they just looked at me like,

13:19
You know, and it was just, would fix the machines, but I would never ever sew. But to circle back to your original question, which is, know, how did I have them made? I hired local sewists to make them. And that worked for a while. was, it was a great way to bootstrap the company because I would buy the material. I would get in, oh, maybe five or six orders a day. And then I would pick the fabrics and then I would run them to the, to the sewist and she’d make them and I’d pick them up late in the day.

13:48
flip down the gate of my suburban and put them in the packaging materials and take them to the post office. Very, very- That sounds familiar actually. That’s kind of how we did it. Yeah. And you know what? I have fond memories of that. And the woman that sold for me originally, sold for me probably for about a year and a half, but I got to be too much and she was a daycare mom as well. And so then I made my first hire.

14:14
And she was phenomenal and brought in another one and another one. And then I had to move out of my, had, I was an outbuilding on our property. And then I moved into an actual facility in town. So there’s been a real growth process with the business. Let me ask you this. How did you come up with the patterns to make the cover? Are you experiencing that? did you? Yeah. Yes. So that has to do with grading and marking and, and, but a lot of it was trial and errors too. So, um,

14:44
there are, let me take orthopedic boots, for example. And I think Steve, you were in a boot. I was, don’t remind me. I’m having trauma just like your daughter. Exactly. Um, remind me to ask you to ask me about the email campaign that we did before we finished our conversation. Okay. Definitely. Um, so, orthopedic boots, they came out. um, I mean, they’ve been around for a while, but I started really selling them probably about 12 years ago.

15:13
a couple of years after I started the business and they were pretty easy to size. They were pretty easy to size. And I fashioned them after a skate, actually ice skates, where the ice skates cover the boot, but the bottom is left open with a hole for the blade to come through. Well, you can’t walk on fabric. So the hole then just went around the perimeter of the boot. So if I explain that well, but…

15:42
So what happened is all of a sudden, lot of these third world countries started making boots and they’re very, very different. Well, not just third world, many, many manufacturers started coming out with orthopedic boots and they were very different sizes. It used to be Don Joy, aircast was kind of like your bread and butter and they were in, know, a small medium and large was a small medium large. That’s not the case anymore. Just like when you purchase any clothes from, I don’t care if it’s untuck it to, you know, uh, Abercrombie Fitch and your different size in every store.

16:12
So what I did is I realized that the one common denominator was the perimeter of the boot. So I measured around the perimeter of many boots and got average sizes. And then I could come up with a new sizing. So that explains a little bit about how you figure out sizing and, uh, and your question, because casts are irregular, but the product that we use is stretchy fabric, also known as spandex or like, so it accommodates many sizes and many

16:42
different bumps and things like that. So that’s the other thing. So, but you had the skills to come up with the pattern. Yes, I did. And it was only because my years of sewing, but again, again, I am, I, I enjoy sewing, but I am not production capable. And one of the women that I hired to sew, uh, was she used to sew. She was just closing her business down Irish, uh, dance costumes.

17:11
These were exquisite. Oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe it. She brought one in to show me. She would sell them. She would get the custom order and sell them for $3,000. Wow. But so in my process of my employees and particularly my production employees, I wanted them to understand cost of goods that a product has to be made. And we were doing bulk as well as just in time manufacturing for each individual order. We had a lot of custom orders back then.

17:41
and we would get some back quite a bit. And I realized my return rate was too high. So what I would do are these weekly tutorials about cost of goods and would cost this much for fabric and this much to warehouse and this much to ship and this much for packaging and et cetera, et cetera, based on the customer’s order. She came to me a few months later and she said, you know, I just realized I thought I was making a lot of money. I realized I wasn’t, I’d get a $1,500 deposit, go out and buy all the material and all the embellishments on that Irish dance costume that there’s.

18:10
stunning, stunning pieces of art really. And then I would sew for 20, 30, 40, 50 hours, I realized now I was making under $2 an hour. And it was because of what she learned through my company. And so it’s really important to really value your time, your time is critical. know, you have 2000 skews, did you design all 2000 of those? So the skews are also not only just sizes, but they’re also fabric choices. Okay. And, and so that

18:38
The fabric choices, some I’ve had fabric made, which is called sublimated. And those are some of the things that I do for, for example, children’s hospitals want their logo on the fabric. And so we do that for them. And then we sell them and then we provide a finished product, of course, for them and, some orthopedic clinics, the really big orthopedic clinics, like having personal logoed products as well.

19:05
Where do you source your fabrics from? it in the U S or is it overseas? Yes, I try. Oh, try so hard. And I manufacture only in the U S and I purchase in the U S and, and I do know that it’s getting, it is getting harder, but it’s getting easier now again, because I’ve got such a history of what works and what doesn’t. For example, we’re on Amazon and, and FBA, which is fulfillment by Amazon. So I send in bulk. so about October, I send in a lot of red.

19:35
fabric designs, styles, because of Christmas is coming up. And then I also know Valentine’s is right after that. And so I send in a substantial amount of red or red with white dots and that type of thing to meet the seasonal demand of the fabric choice. And Amazon often says, no, no, no, you only sold, you know, like 4 % of that in the last six months. Yeah, okay. It’s seasonal.

20:02
There’s, there’s a problem with seasonal stuff. Yes. Definitely. Yep. Yes. And then of course, then my weatherproof products are really big in during this time of the year, which is the winter time. Uh, but my waterproof products are much more in demand in the summer though. That’s starting to spread out.

20:23
If you sell on Amazon or run any online business for that matter, the most important aspect of your long-term success will be your brand. And this is why I work with Steven Weigler and his team from Emerge Council to protect my brand over at Bumblebee Linens. Now what’s unique about Emerge Council is that Steve focuses his legal practice on e-commerce and provides strategic and legal representation to entrepreneurs to protect their IP. So for example, if you’ve ever been ripped off or knocked off on Amazon, then Steve can help you fight back and protect yourself.

20:51
Now, first and foremost, protecting our IP starts with a solid trademark and Emerge Council provides attorney-advised strategic trademark prosecution, both in the United States and abroad for a very low price. And furthermore, the students in my course have used Steve for copyrighting their designs, policing against counterfeits and knockoffs, agreements with co-founders and employees, website and social media policies, privacy policies, vendor agreements, brand registry, you name it. So if you need IP protection services, go to EmergeCouncil.com and get a free consult.

21:21
And if you tell Steve that I sent you, you’ll get a $100 discount. That’s E-M-E-R-G-E-C-O-U-N-S-E-L dot com. Now back to the show.

21:31
Actually, do you make most of your sales from Amazon or your store or would you like to break down a great question? Volume is Amazon, but my margin, my profit margins, my website without a doubt. So Amazon and I’ll share this with you and your and your listeners that my return rate is 13 to 14%, which is still low for apparel, quote unquote apparel. But on my main website, it’s less than 1%.

21:59
Interesting. So let me ask you this. Do you Amazon and what are your motivations for? I am, uh, and of course Amazon’s probably listening. You just never know, but I am reducing my dependence on Amazon by increasing my other channels. Actually, since we’re on that subject, what are your other channels? Like how do you get business? I’ve got eBay Etsy, but also it’s my B2B channels. So I am, I’m beefing up my B2B.

22:27
That’s where I see the monthly recurring revenue as well. The one thing that’s every business owner thinks that their business is unique and I’m no exception to that. The one thing that is really unique about this business is I liken it to bail bonds and funeral homes. hopefully funeral homes you only need once or bail bonds you only need once. Well, hopefully you break your bone. You only do it once, hopefully in your lifetime. You might know somebody down the road, a neighbor or a colleague.

22:56
And you say, by the way, hey, I had this great experience with cast covers, go check them out. But as a general rule, we’re not selling pate or cigars, as I call it, because it’s not a recurring, whereas B2B is a monthly reoccurring. They continually refresh their inventory. I mean, in a lot of ways, our business models are similar, right? Because we’re in the wedding industry, and I mean, 50 % of people get divorced. I don’t know what the percentage they get remarried, but it’s the same thing, right? Hopefully you only do it once in your life.

23:25
Yeah, that’s exactly. And my daughter completely skewed that because she ended up with 22 broken bones that I know of. Oh my goodness. I know she went to college and didn’t share them all with me. Is she a skateboarder or something? mean, what? No, she’s very active. We actually, uh, she broke two before she was two years old. And so we had her tested for brittle bone disease, but she does not have you either have it or you don’t.

23:47
And so we actually think she has a cross fiber that’s missing. They just don’t have a test for it because you just don’t break that many bones in just natural childhood. And luckily we were very good friends with the town pediatrician and the sheriff. they, I didn’t know, but there’s a whole process you look at when a child comes in repeatedly with broken bones. I found that out later and we’ve never been investigated because they could tell she was, she just kept breaking bones.

24:16
They could, they can tell by the bone, they can tell by the break. They can tell by a whole bunch of things, which is kind of sad actually, when you think about it. So do you run any paid advertising then? Yes. Yes. I’m on a Google shopping and I also do some text ads and I have done Facebook and they, and Facebook is, we are not a candidate, a good, um, a good company for Facebook because you can’t identify groups of people who broke bones plus.

24:45
Facebook, if you try to say anything about fractures or broken bones, they blacklist you. They think- Interesting. Okay. Yeah. And I’ve been blacklisted. I’ve had to say, no, I’m an orthopedic soft goods. I’ve had to go to, you know, and so it’s just not worth it. I’ve tried it three, four times. It’s just not worth it with Facebook, though it’s good for social, you know, hey, here’s here’s a, you know, a USA stripes and stars pattern for July 4th. You know, that’s good for that, but it is not good to advertise. And then I advertise on Amazon as well.

25:15
That’s similar to my business. It’s hard to track down when someone’s engaged or to get married because they don’t keep that information up to date. It is available, but it never really converted that well for me. That is interesting that we both have that. That is interesting. I can see where maybe they might look up Brides magazine or something and you might be able to catch them, but I can see where it could be, you know, loose and kind of smoky, just like mine.

25:43
Yeah, yeah. So but search ads work fantastically. Yes, they can work really well. Yeah. And image image. Yeah. You know, image and dynamic retargeting and that type of thing. We have a very short window of opportunity. You break your bone. Often I can’t get over how many times I get contacts, calls, emails from parents that are in the ER with their child or themselves or their mother doesn’t matter. And they and they’re in the ER. It’s like just just get

26:11
come back to us after the ER, get home, settle in, we’ll be here for you. But within, if we don’t get them within the first week, they’re gonna say, I’m gonna be out of this in four weeks, I don’t need it anyway. Is now a good time to ask about your email campaign? Yes, before I do that, the one thing, one of the products that I carry that I distribute, I do not manufacture is Cast Cooler, it’s invented by a dad. And it’s a product that inverts the air in your cast so it blows fresh air.

26:40
because that cotton lining right next to your skin absorbs everybody perspires. don’t care if you’re just sitting there watching TV 24 seven, it can’t evaporate with a cast. And so that’s where the smell on the itch comes from. So it’s a phenomenal product. I’ve carried it for years. Well, the, the owner, Rick, um, was always like, Oh, you cute little company cast covers you cute, you cute little Annette you, and, uh, well he broke his arm and he started scratching up his family dining table. And his wife said, you call Annette.

27:10
And you get a cast cover and he’s like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, then he scratched the upholstery of his classic car. Oh, and he called me immediately. And then I sent it to him. Of course, as gratis, I sent it to him and he sent me a picture. I still have that picture. And he called me a few days later and apologized. He thought my product was just this cute little thing. And I love that story. So that’s a, that’s a good story. So you just never know. You know, what if people say things to you?

27:40
if you’ve got a good idea, keep pursuing it. Because if I had talked to him originally, maybe I would have disbanded the idea. But to get to the email question, so I thought it’s a we have a t shirt called member of the broken bones club. Okay, shortly before Christmas, maybe around Thanksgiving time, I sent out an email, and it was just the people that had purchased the maybe the 60 days before, hey, here’s a great stocking stuffer. 20 bucks, you know, I just thought what, you know, let’s just try it.

28:10
Ask me how many sales we made. How many sales did you make? Zero. Okay. was thinking that email marketing wouldn’t be good for your company. That’s why I’m very curious. Yep. And it was zero and I tried it two other times. Zero, zero, zero. it, and I, so I picked up the phone and I called some of the customers and they were customers that we had some

28:31
voice to voice contact within the past, you know, they had an issue with the shipping or they asked a question about size. So they had some knowledge of our care and concern for our customers. And I asked them, said, you got this email and, I also made sure it was people who had opened the email and we had a huge open rate. In constant contact called me and said, what did you do? You’ve got the largest open rate we’ve ever had and zero sales. Um, but anyway, they, they, every single one of them said, I don’t want to be reminded of that time. So my daughter was right.

29:01
My daughter was right. You you just don’t want to be reminded of that time. Not one sale. So now if we really screw up something, which it does happen, we send them that t-shirt because we got a few of those in inventory still. Interesting. So, okay, so you’re, collecting emails, but do you use them for anything? Nope. I mean, sure. use them for abandoned cart notification. So we do it within, three, we do it the first one within 12 hours and then 24 hours and 36 hours. I think it is. And, and we do get.

29:30
We do get good conversion rate on that. But that’s it. Okay. can see like when I tore my Achilles, I would not want to be reminded of that. In fact, whenever I look at pictures of when I was in my peg leg, I don’t have fond memories of that. that’s something else that I learned. So I’m learning along with my customers, you know, my daughter, you know, it’s a, we have to be open as business owners. And I have

29:59
learned over and over again many, many, many things about it. And my customers have often come to me with some great product enhancements or new product ideas too, which I’ve put into the system, put into the product mix. Let’s talk about B2B. So how do you get your B2B customers? So originally, because I went to AOS, I don’t know, four or five times, which is again, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

30:27
Uh, by the time I went to the last show, it was a big booth and I invited the products that I also distributed, which was one of them was the cask cooler. Another one was a waterproof product. And so we had this huge booth and, I collected a lot of names that way and stayed in touch with them that way. Okay. Uh, now you can do some searches and orthopedic clinics, the triage clinics, as well as the surgery centers.

30:55
are becoming more and more visible. And so you can find them if you just do a geographic search. One of the things that I think is really important is to do things that are unique, different in marketing. So I send a die cut postcard and it’s of an arm cast on somebody’s arm and it’s die cut and it’s sent in a clear envelope. Phenomenal response on that. Phenomenal. Let me ask you this. You mentioned that these surgeons, don’t want to carry inventory.

31:24
Right. So how do you convince them to do that? So it’s so pediatric orthopedic surgeons are typically more open to that. So our sports orthopedic surgeons and so that’s where we get it. And then I can tell you the sort one of our best sources is our customers. They call us and say, I was just at Dr. Olson’s office, and they’re so excited they want here’s the office manager’s name. And so ideally buying case goods is a good idea. But if they don’t want to carry the case goods,

31:53
then they can refer their patients to our site and then they can get a percentage of this commissions. Okay, nice. So the affiliate program essentially, yeah. Yep, yes, exactly. Okay, one thing I forgot to ask you earlier when we were talking about manufacturing is how can you possibly do this without carrying inventory and without having any staff, like, you local staff? Yes, you know, I think…

32:21
You know, it’s a great question. When I think about what I’m doing, it’s like, wow, how am I doing that? Because I used to have the production facility, the warehouse, the shipping, the customer service personnel. And then there was a time in my life, and it was two years before the pandemic, that I changed my business model to make it all virtual. And two things happened. My…

32:48
husband asked for a divorce and I was this is not what I wanted. But I thought I would then travel around the country with a truck and a trailer. So how can I do that? And so I all I could do is think of that, that vision to get me to that place. And the other thing is I’m in California and employees and California and employers is not always a good thing. And I got burned a couple times. And so I was burned professionally as well as personally. So

33:17
What I did is I pivoted the business and then I moved to San Diego to be near my sister because I was up in the Bay area. I moved down to San Diego to be near my sister just to kind of regroup. And when I got down here, I realized I’m exhausted. I don’t want to go on any road trips. I don’t want to do anything. But what I had done, and then I realized it wasn’t a bad thing that I thought that it got me through a very difficult period. This, this dream, this vision, but what it does, it just changed the way I.

33:46
I, how I operate it, that’s all. And so I’m, so here I am almost four years later, um, still running the business. Now I have an employee and she’s based out of Utah and she runs my customer service operation. I have very good quality partners. consider them partners, partner contractors, and they’ve been with me for years. And so they just amped up their services to accommodate me.

34:15
And the only inventory you really carry is handled by Amazon FBA, right? Well, I do have inventory. have a sewing contractor that handles our individual site sales that come from our main website. OK. And so she does pick and pack and she and her team pick and pack and get those out. But there’s no question Amazon is the is the bulk of the inventory. We do a lot of customs also. And so that

34:44
is a unique so when those customs are done, then those are shipped out also by a sewing contractor. So those are not not inventory, of course. Right. So for those customs, does it make economic sense? I imagine you charge a lot more for those or? Oh, yes, a lot more. Got it. Okay. Yes. Yes. They’re very profitable. And they’re also I have to tell you, they’re they’re very satisfying, because these are people with really unique situations. And if you’re familiar with the halo around your head and your neck,

35:13
is as an example, they do that. Those are called external fixators. They do that now for leg and ankle and feet and finger and shoulders. And they’re just hard to look at. And you and you want to go outside? Well, you can’t because they have pins poking in your leg or something like that. And it still shows the scarring and the bruising. So they cover. So we cover those up as an example, but each X fix is different. And so we help them through things like that.

35:41
So I would imagine I was actually looking on your site earlier and you have all these press mentions. Were those just natural? Did you actively go out and seek them? No, I actively went out and sought them at the beginning of the business. And partly because of what I went through personally, I just stopped doing it for probably about five, six years ago. And I just started to reengage again to get press again. So what is your secret to getting press? One of them is Harrow.

36:10
help reporter out and you just always do just make sure you send something quickly on time, if not sooner, but you say some catchy subject heading. The other thing that I do and it was a lot easier, uh, 12, 10, eight years ago is when a celebrity would break a bone or something, I would reach out to, would find them, I would hunt them down. And I mean, I would do this and found them. Lori Grineer of shark tank is an example.

36:38
I don’t even remember how I found her, but she ended up being a customer of ours for, I don’t know, three different operations. Wow. Yeah. And she would always then tweet shout out, you know, it was great. was, was, she was one them. Kelly Rippa’s another one. You know, there’s, there’s a bunch of them.

36:57
I just wanted to let you know that tickets for the 2022 Seller Summit are now on sale over at Sellersummit.com. Now, what is the Seller Summit? It is the conference that I hold every year that specifically targets e-commerce entrepreneurs selling physical products online. And unlike other events that focus on inspirational stories and high-level BS, mine is a curriculum-based conference where you will leave with practical and actionable strategies specifically for an e-commerce business. And in fact, every speaker that I invite

37:25
is deep in the trenches of their own e-commerce business. Entrepreneurs who are importing large quantities of physical goods and not some high-level guys who are overseeing their companies at 50,000 feet. The other thing I can assure you is that the seller summit will be small and intimate. Every year we cut off ticket sales at around 200 people, so tickets will sell out fast and in fact we sell out every single year many months in advance. Now if you’re an e-commerce entrepreneur making over 250k or $1 million per year in revenue,

37:52
We are also offering an exclusive Mastermind experience with other top sellers. Now the Seller Summit is going to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from May 4th to May 6th. And as of right now, we’re almost already sold out of Mastermind tickets and we’ll be raising the price every month leading up to the event after Cyber Monday. For more information, go to sellerssummit.com. Once again, that’s sellerssummit.com or just Google it. Now back to the show.

38:18
All these questions are just kind of popping in my head. So DTC or is B2B, DTC is greater than B2B, right? But you’re hoping to increase the B2B side. Yes, exactly. And it used to be a 50 50 years ago, but because of things had changed and my focus wasn’t there, I backed off on the B2B. And so this is a really important part to understand when you, when you have a business and things happen in your world, you can, you know, expand and contract as the needs in your life require it. And it’s okay.

38:48
I can’t tell you how hard it was to fight my inner critic that, know, you’re not doing this. Yeah, I know I’m not. I can’t right now. So it’s really important to know it’s okay to expand and contract based on the needs of your world, your life, your family, what goes on. I’m sure everybody had to do some type of contraction and or expansion during the pandemic, that type of thing. Yes, that’s absolutely correct. Actually, that’s the nice thing about having a business is that you can make these adjustments.

39:18
Whereas if you had a full-time job, it might be a little bit more rigid. Yes, exactly. the, uh, I mean, even think about when you move, you, even if you move your, your, uh, facility and I know you moved your warehouse and you really have to just focus on that for like a week. You couldn’t, yes. Oh yes. Much longer. And you, you can’t really do a new initiative at that time or start a new campaign because you’re so focused on what was so it’s okay. want people to understand that it’s really okay.

39:46
Okay, let’s pretend that you’re just starting out again. I don’t know if you can even remember back this far, but did you have any problems like with the website? Are you technically inclined? Oh man. Well, it would be easier today because there are platforms in a box, as a, know, like whether it’s Shopify or big commerce or something like they do make it easier and the drag and drop editors do make it easier.

40:12
Yes, back then I used to do it all. used to do the WordPress blog. I used to do the order, but I did eventually quickly realize if I wanted to do it fast, I had to hire somebody. So I hire where somebody’s expertise is in. In other words, I don’t do my own legal stuff. I hire a lawyer. I don’t do my own taxes and bookkeeping. I hire a bookkeeper and a CPA. I mean, I’m very, very, very clear about that. And so I do have somebody else handling now.

40:41
and has been for years, my my back website needs including Amazon, I don’t want to do anything with the listing. But was it like that when you first started? No, I did it. I did it. And it was very clunky. I went back and looked at an old site. Oh, it was funny looking. We all do that. Yeah, was platform. Did you choose? I’m curious. That well, it was it was a hybrid hybrid software. I can’t even remember now. And then but I quickly realized and I was growing to

41:11
that it wasn’t going to be able to accommodate my growth and how I wanted to scale. So then I opted for big commerce and that was a multi-faceted decision. put it that way. Yeah. mean, changing platforms is always a huge decision. Yeah. Poking bamboo things in my eyes. Oh my gosh.

41:37
Oh, changing platforms is so painful. That’s why people always ask, they always ask me, Hey, if I choose this one to save money, is it easy to migrate later? And I’m always like, no, just start out with the one that. no. And, and, big commerce is great for the user experience and there, I think they’re better platform for a lot of different industries. think starting out maybe Shopify, but the add-ons sometimes create broken code. And before you know it, you’re spending a lot of money anyway.

42:07
So that’s my opinion. But the other thing I wanted to add is there were not people out there like you, Steve, that were teaching people how to create an online store and or how to create a profitable, you know, have an audience. And your programs, which I am a member of, are phenomenal. They’re great information. You’re not dramatic. You don’t change, you you keep staying on the same course.

42:35
which, I don’t mean courses in course, but I mean, you talk about the important elements and foundations that are important to an e-commerce store. And you keep saying the same thing over and over again to reinforce how important, with no drama and there’s no, it’s just fact driven with experience. And that is unusual. And it’s not a flash in the pan kind of thing.

43:01
So I always refer people to you. You don’t even know how many people I’ve referred to you. it’s just, Oh, Oh my gosh. You’re, know, and I’ve looked at a lot and I’ve looked at many and you’re, and you are without a doubt top notch in what you’re trying to accomplish, which is getting people profitable online as quickly as possible. thank you. I’m an engineer. think people like that. Like I don’t like fluff. just jumped straight to the details and the execution part of

43:30
So, And I like that. And I’m kind of, I’m, uh, uh, more marketing focused and more. So I really appreciate and value people that are more fact driven. And that’s probably one reason why I was so attracted to what you, what your programs offer and what they, results they get, the results are huge. then what were, I mean, looking back, I know you’ve been doing this for a long time now. What would you say? Cause there’s a lot of people listening here who actually want to start a business also. Yes.

44:00
What would you say was your your personal biggest challenge in getting started? Believing in myself. Just strike me as someone who lacks confidence. No, I don’t. I don’t. But you know, it’s it really is interesting. Back then, it was a I should I do it this way? Or should I do it this way? How about this? How about that? You know, and I just had to believe that I had this vision. The vision has come true. I have my

44:28
vision statement is to become the world’s largest online specialty retailer providing orthopedic aftermarket products. We became that. So now we’re in total web domination version 2.0, but it truly is, well, how am gonna get the money? Where am I gonna do this? How is this gonna work? I am a mom with two small kids. How is this gonna work? So I had to have the confidence to move forward, but.

44:55
Boy, I tell you those inner critics, those little gremlins in your head can really do a number. And you just have to just say, you’re not welcome here right now. I know what I’m doing. And you do, you just have to say, sorry, you’re not invited to this party. And because the world will give us so much competition, our customer shipping, you know, supply chain issues. had enough problems. don’t need to have our inner critics giving us more. And if you’re really stumped.

45:24
Do not be afraid to reach out and ask for help. And when you ask for help, make sure you feel that flow with that individual. If it feels stilted or clunky, that’s not the right one. Find somebody else. It doesn’t mean that it’s… I remember a woman, I would give talks at local colleges about entrepreneurship and a woman came up to me and she was so excited. And she was actually the mother of one of my children’s fellow students.

45:51
And so I recognized her and she said, oh my gosh, I’ve got this great idea. And it’s something in the frozen food, I don’t remember, and frozen food area. And she wouldn’t tell me what it was. And I said, that’s okay. And she said, I said, I’d be happy to sign a non, you know, a nondisclosure agreement. And she’s, so she talked to her uncle, her uncle said, don’t tell anybody. And I explained to her, you know, how hard it is to get an idea to fruition and then execute it. It would be so rare if somebody really took it and ran with it.

46:21
know, and you have to have some trust in that and some trust in people that you talk to. And she never ever did anything I ran into her. Oh, I don’t know. 10 years later, still hadn’t done anything. I still don’t know what the product was. And isn’t that sad? happens all the time all the time. And everybody has to understand that some people I was at the orthopedic convention and a wife

46:49
dragged her husband over and she said, see, see, I told you this would be a good idea. I’m looking at him and he said, she came to me with this idea years ago. And I said, and did you do anything about it? I looked at her and she said, no, I said, we all have ideas. The difference is executing them, period. I mean, I have hundreds of ideas and other people have had this idea that I have the cast cover idea, but it’s the executors. You have to execute and you can’t.

47:16
you don’t know what the customer and the market can bear until you get your product out there. And the first iteration I had of Cascovers products, oh, and the logo and the packaging, so ugly, who cares? In and out there. And I didn’t know how ugly it was. I was kind of proud of it actually. Now I look at it say, oh, yeah, funny. You I look back using the way back machine. I’m thinking the same thing. Yes, exactly. Way, way back. Go back 13 years.

47:45
But hopefully does that answer your question? does. Okay, so just for the people listening, how much money did you risk to start your business? Oh, Well, over it was over time, it was this and then this and then this. I would say probably about 100,000 over the first five, six years. Okay, but what about just to get the website up and get your first set up and go and probably 15,000 15,000. Okay. That’s interesting. That’s much higher than I would have expected. Actually. Well, I had to buy a lot of fabric.

48:12
Well, and then one of the last stories I’ll leave you with is so, you know, I bought, excuse me, I went to the American Academy of orthopedic surgeons and one office bought quite a bit of product. was a big deal. was champagne popping kind of, you know, it like 600 units, which is huge when you just get started. Yeah. So, and I had found a sewing contractor actually down in San Diego who made them for me because they’re bulk purchase. And I had got the, you know, I got the elastic and I.

48:40
you know, medical product and the fabric and all this kind of stuff and get everything together and shipped it off. But a week later, she called me and she being the office manager, head nurse, and she said, so is the elastic latex free? That was the longest pause in my world. I said, you know, I’ll get back to you. I went back to my elastic provider supplier and said, was this latex free? And he said, oh no, you didn’t ask for it.

49:09
And even though I told it was a medical product, I was not happy. so latex allergy is typically an exposure allergy. So in the medical dental fields, if you have latex gloves and latex products, you will probably get a latex allergy. It’s very rare to have a latex allergy that you’re born with. And so guess what? Even though their patients probably didn’t have a latex allergy.

49:37
Here they were touching elastic that was in my product that was, they had latex in it. I had to take them all back. So this is an expense. Yes. So this is where I’m saying some of this expense. So the next time I went down to the sewing contractor, she wasn’t available, but she said, just look around the shop. That’s okay. And so I was talking to her, looking at some, and she was sewing tattoo sleeves, which is a very similar to my product. Very similar.

50:05
And I looked at the ends and they didn’t have elastic. And I said, well, these don’t have elastic. And she said, no. And I said, well, what’s the stitch? She said, this is a cover stitch. And I said, well, why didn’t, why didn’t we do that with my product? She said, you didn’t ask. Oh my gosh. So I was maintaining my composure. And then the one question I will leave people, I don’t, if you manufacture a product, I don’t care if it’s software, if it’s linens, if it’s t-shirts.

50:33
If you have a vendor, ask them, what would you recommend that you’re, if I was your daughter or your mother, whatever, what would you recommend? How would you have them manufacture it? And I can’t tell you how that has saved so many people and the people that I help today with that are product entrepreneurs. And was just shocked. you didn’t ask me for it. Oh my gosh.

50:59
That happened with my Asian vendors. And I don’t use elastic anymore either. I use this very special stitch that keeps the stretch of the fabric. Nice. Nice. I mean, these are all things that you learn on the job, right? Absolutely. And again, it didn’t stop me, but they’re just great stories to share. And I love helping shorten the curve, the learning curve for other product entrepreneurs. Love it. Love it. Yeah. And that if anyone has any questions about your business or

51:27
heaven forbid if they’ve broken something. Where can they find you online if they have any questions? they can they can. There’s two ways you can always email me at Annette at Cast Covers. That’s with a z.com. So it’s Annette, A-N-N-E-T-T-E at Cast Covers with a z.com. Or you can call our 1-800 number, is 1-800-CAST-COVER, which is 1-800-227-8268. Nice.

51:57
Well, Annette, was a pleasure talking to you on this podcast. mean, we met up on a number of occasions. think the last time I met you was either Seller Summit or maybe it was in San Francisco at an ECF event. It was one of the two and I’m going to an ECF tomorrow morning, a regional one in LA. Oh, you are nice. That’s right. That’s right. You’re very message me about that. Yeah, I can’t make it down there, but I’ll for sure see you at ECF live, right?

52:23
Yeah. And, but more importantly, seller summit for conference. Oh my gosh. That’s another program that you have that is phenomenal. Seller summit is action packed full of take home. So many ideas. You don’t know which one to start. That would be one workshop you could have how to discern which projects to start first when you get home. Yeah. It’s a, it’s a, it’s as good if not even more so because of the opportunity for the community, just talking to other online sellers. It’s great.

52:52
Actually, I was going to mention since I’ll close with this, when you mentioned earlier, when people when you’re doubting yourself, it always helps to have someone who’s done it before, talk to you. yes. Because as soon you talk to someone who’s done it before, you know, it’s possible. And that actually gives you confidence also. Yep. And that’s when I help women product entrepreneurs with my side hustle, which is she makes products.com. Oh, I I help women product entrepreneurs. And it’s exactly the same thing.

53:21
Oh, is there an email for that as well? anyone’s interested? it’s Annette at SheMakesProducts.com and it’s SheMakesProducts.com and the phone number is my direct dial, which is fine. 760-757-2650. Amazing, Annette. Amazing. I don’t know how you do all this, but… It’s a love. I truly believe that business is a creative outlet, just like cooking or gardening or golfing.

53:51
And it is one of the last really true ways to show our creativity. I love business. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Well, that thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me, Steve. It’s been a pleasure. I look forward to seeing you at your event. Absolutely. It’s L or seven may looking forward to it.

54:16
Hope you enjoy that episode. Now I thought that selling handkerchiefs online was kind of random, but I think Annette outdid me with her cast covers and I love her business model, it’s amazing. More information about this episode, go to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 396. And once again, I want to thank Clavio, which is my email marketing platform of choice for e-commerce merchants. You can easily put together automated flows like an abandoned card sequence, a post purchase flow, a win back campaign. Basically all these sequences that will make you money on autopilot.

54:43
So head on over to mywifequitterjob.com slash KLAVIO. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash KLAVIO. I also want to thank Postscript, which is my SMS marketing platform of choice for e-commerce. With a few clicks of a button, you can easily segment and send targeted text messages to your client base. SMS is the next big own marketing platform, and you can sign up for free over at postscript.io slash Steve. That’s P-O-S-T-S-E-R-I-P-T dot I-O slash Steve. Now we talk about how I these tools on my blog,

55:12
And if you are interested in starting your own eCommerce store, head on over to mywifecoutorjob.com and sign up for my free six day mini course. Just type in your email and assume the course right away. Thanks for listening.