Starting a Monthly Subscription Box, Weeks 6&7
Hey friends!
I missed you last week! Since I find that I am being somewhat repetitive each week, focusing on some of the same things, I decided to post every two weeks to give a better snapshot!
Something EXCITING happened this week! I received my LOGO AND BRANDING! I am in love. Below is a sneak peek of my brand colors, they are absolutely perfect!
Also, I am LOVING my weekly and monthly goal tracking! I feel so organized and accomplished when I can check the “DONE” box and the item moves to the bottom of the screen. This is helping me to stay focused and more productive during the day because I focus on completing these goals first. You can check out how I organize my weekly and monthly goals here. I am using Airtable to keep my goals, and entire life organized!
The three things I have been focusing on the last two weeks are:
- Social Media and Pre-Launch Runway
- Product Sourcing
- Box Design
Starting a Monthly Subscription Box – Social Media and Pre-Launch Runway
My BIGGEST focus for my pre-launch runway and social media has been gaining followers and email subscribers that are my customer avatar. Before I decided to start a monthly subscription box I had not put much emphasis at all on social media. Actually, social media terrified me. Slowly parts of it are becoming more comfortable. I have gained over 1,000 followers in the last month on Instagram and just over 20 followers on Facebook. I need to bump up my Facebook game! But hey! Baby steps, right?
About half of my posts have been about play-based learning, which goes along with my subscription box topic. Yes, I just dropped a huge hint! My social media posts, Pinterest pins, and email freebies are all related to play-based learning. By narrowing my focus on all platforms to my up and coming box idea, I am working to find my ideal customer avatar and gain followers who are interested in what I have to offer.
Starting a Monthly Subscription Box – Product Sourcing
This week I had a pretty big breakthrough with product sourcing! I contacted Oriental Trading and they referred me to one of their divisions, Fun Express because they offer bulk wholesale ordering. I poked around on the site a bit and I think that it will be a very handy tool for bulk ordering. So far I have been approved for an account and am all set to order! For the last couple of days, I have been searching through the seasonal products that I could include in monthly subscription boxes. From there, I am recording information about the product. See the photo below!
I have also found some items on Etsy that I think would be great for certain box themes. My next step is to compile a list of Etsy stores that I am interested in working with and contacting them to see if they are willing and able to work with me.
Starting a Monthly Subscription Box – Box Design
Packlane, a custom shipping box company, has an option to design custom packaging on their website. I spent some time playing around with this box design tool. Let’s just say that my expertise is not in design. After trial and error, I decided to ask my logo designer to design the box for me! Once the box design is complete, I can start targeted posting on social media and creating a blog post. This will ramp my my pre-launch runway efforts!
Things to focus on for the next two weeks:
- Continue to grow social media accounts and find my ideal customer avatar. Keep at the pre-launch runway! Create social media accounts for my subscription box and start posting!
- Gather a variety of items for a mock-box, find a good box that I can use in photos!
- Begin adding logo and branding to everything
- Contact ETSY shops for product sourcing
- Solidify my company vision and pitch for finding vendors and customers.
Phew, there is a lot coming up ahead! At this point, I feel like I am starting to actually get somewhere, not just tread water! The excitement keeps building and I CANNOT what to see what the next couple of months has in store for me!
More Subscription Box Posts
You can check out my other Subscription Box blog posts here!
Until next time, keep amazing at all you do!