1 00:00:00,690 --> 00:00:11,750 Filip Valica: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Product Startup Podcast, a podcast that helps bring your product idea to life by chatting with successful inventors, product designers, and other industry professionals. This podcast is run by Mako Design 2 00:00:11,750 --> 00:00:24,930 Filip Valica: + Invent, and hosted by Filip Valica. Our goal here is to get to the bottom of what makes a product successful, from initial idea to putting your product on the shelf. We're taking you step by step to build a functional product and scale your product business. Now onto the show. 3 00:00:26,980 --> 00:00:28,860 Filip Valica: The Product Startup, Episode 42. 4 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:39,440 Filip Valica: Stacy Marking talks about all natural and science. insecticides, grant-sponsored research, and taking a DIY approach to testing, designing, making, and bottling. 5 00:00:41,300 --> 00:00:50,800 Filip Valica: Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Product Startup podcast where we talk about turning ideas into successful products step by step. I'm Filip Valica, and thanks for listening today. 6 00:00:51,510 --> 00:01:03,330 Filip Valica: In the last episode, we spoke to Jay DeMert about designing one-of-a-kind stereos made from reclaimed wood from the forests of British Columbia. Make sure to check out episode 41 if you want to hear more about selecting the right 7 00:01:03,330 --> 00:01:17,750 Filip Valica: electronic hardware and perfecting the manufacturing process. Before we get started today, I wanted to read a listener question. Fred wrote in, I'm a fellow product designer and electrical engineer, but somehow in the last 10 years of my work, 8 00:01:18,590 --> 00:01:32,030 Filip Valica: I've been designing engineering for structural components in aerospace. I'm looking to start my own product development company and just launched a Kickstarter for one of my products. And he includes a link there for a reverse whiteboard idea. 9 00:01:32,030 --> 00:01:44,590 Filip Valica: It's basically a whiteboard that flips around. And it shows art on one side and a whiteboard on the other. I'm currently needing some help on determining the best way to price this product. Do you have any techniques or resources that can help? 10 00:01:44,850 --> 00:01:57,510 Filip Valica: Parts are mostly machine components from 6061 aluminum alloy and some assembly of whiteboard is required. Fred, that's a really good question. I haven't written any pricing articles yet, but I would try this approach. 11 00:01:58,150 --> 00:02:12,390 Filip Valica: Number one, determine your bottom up pricing. And that includes all the costs that go into determining the final unit price of your product. For example, manufacturing costs, including quality assurance that you will get done on sites, but among the entire order. 12 00:02:12,710 --> 00:02:24,790 Filip Valica: Packaging, shipping, and customs to get to your warehouse or your home. The cost of returns, and that can range, and typically it's anywhere between 2% and 7%, depending on the product. Advertising per unit. 13 00:02:25,110 --> 00:02:39,630 Filip Valica: So if you're going to be paying for display ads or pay-per-click ads, things like that from Google, or Amazon and any types of fulfillment fees like Amazon FBA, credit card fees that might be usually 3%. Cost of sales per unit. 14 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:55,100 Filip Valica: Then determine your top-down pricing. So what's the range of pricing for the whiteboards of that size and quality and that might have similar features? What premium are customers willing to pay for the features that you give? So your final price will be somewhere 15 00:02:55,100 --> 00:03:06,380 Filip Valica: between those two numbers. Keep in mind that you need to account for some profit, some operational costs like e-commerce hosting and ESOS tools like email, warehouse storage fees, bills, utilities, 16 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:19,460 Filip Valica: that type of thing that are normally monthly costs that need to be absorbed by your business. In general, I have found that my landed cost, in other words, the cost to have the product in my hands is about one-third to one-quarter of the final sales price. 17 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:33,680 Filip Valica: If you sell through a wholesaler or a distributor, then you should expect them to take at least 10 to 50% and then the ratio will be a little bit worse than that. It might even go up to a fifth or a sixth if you have more players involved. 18 00:03:33,860 --> 00:03:38,260 Stacy Marking: So I hope this helps. Let's get started with the show. Hi, Stacey. 19 00:03:38,420 --> 00:03:47,540 Filip Valica: Thanks again for joining us on the show today. Hi. I'm really glad to be here because it seems such an interesting idea for a set of podcasts. 20 00:03:47,740 --> 00:04:00,680 Filip Valica: One of the reasons that I wanted you to come on the show is because a lot of the stuff that you do is trending. It's in the news now. People are focused on products that are maybe organic. or they're more connected to the earth. 21 00:04:00,860 --> 00:04:04,260 Filip Valica: They're all natural and moving away from some of the synthetic products 22 00:04:04,260 --> 00:04:16,520 Stacy Marking: and insecticides and pesticides and things like that that people might be used to. So maybe you can mention a little bit why you started lemon grass trading company in the first place. Yeah, I started it really, it's nothing to do with my whole background. 23 00:04:17,100 --> 00:04:28,560 Stacy Marking: I started it because I was in India and had access, which is quite unusual, to rural India, to the real village India in the southern parts where farmers 24 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:41,760 Stacy Marking: are very poor, are suffering very badly from having to, from debt because of the fertilizers and the pesticides that they're using. My husband was actually building a thousand different 25 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:54,880 Stacy Marking: buildings for an agricultural firm there to make small amounts of seed and fertilizers, available to really rural farmers. And while he was there, I started to look into the 26 00:04:54,880 --> 00:05:02,640 Stacy Marking: traditional ways that they had used for insecticides, pesticides and fertilisers. And one of the things 27 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:16,780 Stacy Marking: that I came across there was lemon grass, which grows wild and prolifically. And it's been used partly to keep insects off animals, partly to help the storage of foodstuffs once harvested, 28 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:25,480 Stacy Marking: and as an insecticide in the house, as well as smelling divine. And so I just fell in love with lemon grass, really, 29 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,580 Stacy Marking: there and then in these rural villages. 30 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:43,840 Stacy Marking: At first, I knew it as a, as most people probably do as a culinary ingredient, and I'm very keen on cooking. And I thought if I import it, that I would actually try and make it as a kind of lemongrass oil or something like that for cooking. 31 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:54,260 Stacy Marking: I'm still working on that, but I haven't managed to stabilize it. It's quite tricky. And, of course, the regulations for any food, things are huge. Right, absolutely. And in the meantime, I started working 32 00:05:54,260 --> 00:06:07,960 Stacy Marking: one, as an insecticide, initially one of the main problems here, especially in urban England, is moths. There's much more cashmere. People are warmer in the winter now with their cashmires. Kashmir is much cheaper. 33 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:22,720 Stacy Marking: And people have a real problem with clothes moths. And of course, when you try and spray against moths, it's usually in your bedroom or somewhere where you really want to breathe clean air. And so I started making these natural insecticides 34 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:34,020 Filip Valica: initially for use in the house, although now it's extended to horticulture and could actually extend to agriculture, although I'm hardly a threat to bear or any of those people yet. 35 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:47,800 Filip Valica: It's interesting to see people go into an industry where there's already some serious competition. I mean, when you were starting this, you undoubtedly looked around in the market and went to the, you know, to the pharmacy to the drugstore or, you know, to the home goods stores 36 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:55,140 Filip Valica: and saw that there were other products on the market that were doing something similar. and they might have not been all natural and they might have not been lemongrass, 37 00:06:55,320 --> 00:07:09,320 Stacy Marking: but they were still in the market taking up space and occupying the buyer's minds. How did you feel about attacking that large of a market? In a way, I came up to it's a slightly different way. I mean, of course I knew there were all these rivals. I had moths. 38 00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:15,700 Stacy Marking: We live in a house that was built in 180. That's before America was before they arrived in America. 39 00:07:17,300 --> 00:07:29,860 Stacy Marking: And old houses store things like moths in the floorboards and behind, cracks in the stonework and all that kind of thing. So I needed antimoth stuff, but I couldn't bear the kind of acrid, toxic smell of it all. 40 00:07:30,300 --> 00:07:44,860 Stacy Marking: And so I started on the lemon grass, and then I found other ingredients. And recently I've been working with one, which I won't mention just because it's, in a way, it's my kind of secret ingredient, but I've been working on different plant extracts 41 00:07:44,860 --> 00:07:55,810 Stacy Marking: that are aimed at the larvae and not at the adult insect. because of course with clothes moths and with so many of the other things it's the larvae that do the damage sure 42 00:07:55,810 --> 00:08:07,890 Filip Valica: no that's really interesting and nobody was really doing that there were one or two other natural ones but for one thing they don't smell nearly so nice and for another i didn't find them so effective so when 43 00:08:07,890 --> 00:08:18,430 Stacy Marking: you started doing this i imagine that you started experimenting with techniques to extract some of the oils and creating sprays or testing the efficiency of things how did you go about creating some of your 44 00:08:18,430 --> 00:08:33,330 Stacy Marking: early prototypes. I didn't work with the lemon grass itself because that would mean importing huge amounts because it has to grow in a tropical country and certainly wouldn't survive in England. No, I import the essential oil. So it's already made into essential oil, which is done 45 00:08:33,330 --> 00:08:34,830 Stacy Marking: extensively in southern India. 46 00:08:36,110 --> 00:08:49,570 Stacy Marking: And in fact, in Cochin, which is in a state called Kerala, which is known as God's own country, I mean, a rival God's own country to your own, which is very beautiful. and they do a lot in essential oils like that. So they're very professional. 47 00:08:50,690 --> 00:09:05,450 Filip Valica: And so having imported the essential oil, really just started research. I'm a great believer. I think for everybody, the most important thing to know in the world is that if you can read, you can do anything. No, I totally agree with that. 48 00:09:05,530 --> 00:09:15,410 Filip Valica: I tell people all the time, the day that I stop learning is the day that I die. You know, I really enjoy exploring the world and talking to people like yourself just energizes me. 49 00:09:15,410 --> 00:09:29,690 Stacy Marking: So that's one of the reasons that you're on the podcast, because it's exciting to talk to people that do this. So as you were importing some of this stuff, you mentioned that normally there's some constraints with importing food products. Were there any such constraints with essential oils yet? 50 00:09:30,250 --> 00:09:43,090 Stacy Marking: No, actually, the actual ingredients are permitted and allowed. It's when you start to have a product that all the regulations kick in. It's interesting. I mean, you can't use the wild insecticide, for instance. 51 00:09:43,090 --> 00:09:51,010 Stacy Marking: Under European rigs, which of course we're about to maybe leave, you have to have things tested, which can cost up to a million euros. 52 00:09:51,650 --> 00:10:04,850 Filip Valica: And it actually puts innovation and experiment out of the reach of smaller people. But you do learn, I'm sorry to say this, but you learn what I call weasel words. You just learn which words are okay. That's interesting that you bring that up. 53 00:10:04,870 --> 00:10:16,210 Filip Valica: I was just going to say that in the U.S. we have something similar where the FDA, the Federal Drug Administration, gets involved with a lot of testing. It can cost easily $25,000 to get lab testing done of your products. 54 00:10:16,490 --> 00:10:25,350 Filip Valica: The way that people get around that is, like you mentioned, labeling certain things as supplements instead of drugs. They're not under the same type of scrutiny, at least when it comes to health products, 55 00:10:25,570 --> 00:10:40,050 Stacy Marking: as well as they look at some of the raw materials and submit the MSDS as the material safety data sheets to whoever is going to be selling the product to make them feel that, hey, even though this is a new product that's on the market, 56 00:10:40,050 --> 00:10:52,570 Stacy Marking: all of the core active ingredients are made with ingredients that have already been tested before and they've been proven safe. That's true here, but actually what I found here was last year I had a Eurogrant under a European 57 00:10:52,570 --> 00:11:03,290 Stacy Marking: program for innovation in agriculture, which was tremendously helpful because it gave me quite a lot of gravitas and I worked to the University of Bristol, which has a fantastic parasitology department 58 00:11:03,810 --> 00:11:12,850 Stacy Marking: and they tested different things, different mixtures on different larvae, adult institutions. insects and eggs and that kind of thing for me properly, you know. 59 00:11:13,850 --> 00:11:23,190 Stacy Marking: And that was great. And I had the grant specifically for innovation. But once you've innovated, once you've tested these innovations, 60 00:11:24,290 --> 00:11:36,750 Stacy Marking: they still won't allow you to use ingredients that they have never given the OK for before. Now, in a way that's fair, except that, as I said, it's unbelievably expensive to get each 61 00:11:36,750 --> 00:11:48,710 Stacy Marking: individual ingredient tested so that in a funny way you're left stymied. I've got all these sort of credentials paid for by Europe, you know, in terms of research 62 00:11:48,710 --> 00:12:02,310 Stacy Marking: and everything, but it's very, very difficult to implement without actually using these other words. And I mean, it's quite interesting. Words like insecticide, if you use that, you get a million regulations down on your head. 63 00:12:02,510 --> 00:12:08,350 Stacy Marking: If you call it a repellent, the same thing. But if you call it a deterrent, that's okay. Right. 64 00:12:09,270 --> 00:12:23,930 Stacy Marking: That's fascinating. We've started rather early into this particular bit of the topic. I hope that's not too early before there's enough background. But anybody else who's in, I don't know, in cosmetics, in food or anything else, just do it. 65 00:12:25,030 --> 00:12:34,650 Filip Valica: You know, at first I was really intimidated by all this stuff. And then somebody said to me, oh, just do it. And so you do it. And then you find which words are acceptable. 66 00:12:35,090 --> 00:12:47,050 Filip Valica: and which words consumers will also understand, and you're kind of on your way. I don't mean it's cheating and dangerous. I mean that it's the only way to innovate. 67 00:12:47,490 --> 00:13:00,950 Stacy Marking: You're just following the trends in the market. There's other products that are doing the same thing. You're just kind of following in their footsteps. So you mentioned that you were learning about a lot of this stuff and just kind of doing it. You went out there and just started. 68 00:13:01,250 --> 00:13:12,850 Stacy Marking: What were some of the steps that you took to make sure that people would even buy what you were selling. Were you doing this in parallel with talking to potential customers? Do you know I'm not quite, I don't think I was 69 00:13:12,850 --> 00:13:26,750 Filip Valica: really. I know that that's what you're supposed to do and do market research. But I just knew how urgent it was. I knew how everybody has a moth problem in England. You know, in the winter. I mean, one of the troubles about the moth problem is, as most insect ones, it's 70 00:13:26,750 --> 00:13:38,470 Stacy Marking: quite seasonal. You know, so that this time of year it's rather low because people aren't seeing the moth so much but they will, by April, they'll be coming out again. We've got a huge mosquito problem here 71 00:13:38,470 --> 00:13:48,250 Filip Valica: and that only surfaces in the spring, summer, fall. So that might be something to consider with your line as if you expand to other markets. Even though it could be seasonal, 72 00:13:48,650 --> 00:14:02,010 Stacy Marking: it really just depends on the geography. Yes, which hemisphere you're in. So you could resist it. Yes, no, that's true. That's true. And I do get, finally on, I have quite a lot of clients from Australia. I'm not sure why, because it's quite expensive to send to Australia. 73 00:14:02,650 --> 00:14:13,910 Stacy Marking: So as you've started to perfect your product, have you run into any hiccups or things that you thought, man, I wish I would have known this six months ago? Well, yes, 74 00:14:14,750 --> 00:14:20,010 Stacy Marking: because at the moment I still mix it all and bottle it all myself, although I have machinery to do that. 75 00:14:20,830 --> 00:14:22,870 Filip Valica: It's still all down on site. 76 00:14:24,030 --> 00:14:37,210 Filip Valica: And if it gets any bigger, I'm going to have to find external manufacturers and that kind of thing. But what I did do is I invented some, I think, really good products, but which are incredibly labor intensive. 77 00:14:37,550 --> 00:14:45,150 Filip Valica: And I've had to drop them simply because it just took too many stages, too much ingenuity to get it all ready to go. 78 00:14:45,670 --> 00:14:58,010 Filip Valica: That's something that we don't talk about at all on the show is products that never make it to market because you sit down and you realize that it might not be economical to do so. And that's really kind of sad because you put so much effort into it. 79 00:14:58,010 --> 00:15:06,330 Stacy Marking: And at least product creators like myself, there's a bit of emotion attached to it, or at least for me, maybe it's too much so sometimes, to where you're really connected with what you're 80 00:15:06,330 --> 00:15:20,530 Stacy Marking: making and you really want it to succeed. And then you come to the end of the line and you realize, you know what, this isn't going to work. But as you said, at the end of the day, if you don't take that as data and if you don't take it with a positive light to say, hey, you know what? That was a trial and it 81 00:15:20,530 --> 00:15:28,890 Stacy Marking: gave me some good feedback. But now I know what to look out for in the future. If you don't do any of those things, you'll never make progress. Do you agree with that? Yes, absolutely. 82 00:15:30,290 --> 00:15:43,710 Stacy Marking: Yes, because I mean, I'll just give an example, and if anybody else could make it, they're happy to. But you know little beer mats that you get in pubs, or I imagine you do in America as well. You get cheap kind of cardboard-y things, 83 00:15:44,650 --> 00:15:57,710 Stacy Marking: but it's very absorbent. And I thought, if you had those infused with lemon grass, they would be really useful because, you know, when you squirt a antimoss spray or something around, it's quite volatile. 84 00:15:58,010 --> 00:16:00,690 Stacy Marking: it disappears quite quickly. But if you had these little mats, 85 00:16:01,630 --> 00:16:07,850 Stacy Marking: you could, you know, it would last longer in the closet or on a shelf, in a bedroom or something. 86 00:16:08,750 --> 00:16:22,950 Stacy Marking: And it took a tremendous amount of research because lemon grass is a very powerful stuff. And if you were using it neat, A, you had to find printing inks that would survive having lemongrass on the mat and then print 87 00:16:22,950 --> 00:16:36,970 Stacy Marking: the mat. Then I realized that the stuff, you had to have something underneath to start it kind of marking the wood or the paintwork or whatever you were putting in. And I found some very good polystyrene rings that I put underneath, 88 00:16:37,230 --> 00:16:39,610 Stacy Marking: but they all melted after about three months. 89 00:16:40,690 --> 00:16:43,430 Stacy Marking: They kind of collapsed under the power of the lemongrass. 90 00:16:43,830 --> 00:16:46,010 Filip Valica: And I had to keep them separate from each other. 91 00:16:46,130 --> 00:17:00,170 Stacy Marking: And so you had to find a different kind of protective disc to go between each thing. And then they were in a really cute tin, which I loved, and I sold them at three at a time. And I still have lots of them. because they really work. But, 92 00:17:00,930 --> 00:17:15,370 Stacy Marking: you know, by the time I'd done all that sticking together and finding the materials and sourcing the different things and putting them in the tins and, you know, getting the labels printed with proper ink, you know, it would have been too expensive to sell them. So what do you do with the product now? 93 00:17:15,430 --> 00:17:27,220 Stacy Marking: You said you've got it sitting on a shelf. Well, oddly enough, I've recently started giving the way to beekeepers because a friend of mine who was a very, very keen beekeeper, 94 00:17:28,120 --> 00:17:41,360 Stacy Marking: found that she thought that she just tried it rather bravely, I think, really, with her bees. Because, of course, there is a lot of problem, as you know, with bees at the moment. But she found in her hives, 95 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:49,980 Stacy Marking: she was very anxious they weren't going to get a particular mite that's very dangerous to bees. And she put the leavengrass in, and the mite has never come. 96 00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:54,300 Filip Valica: So at the moment, I'm just sort of giving them away to beekeepers, to put in their hives, 97 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:56,980 Stacy Marking: see whether it does stop 98 00:17:56,980 --> 00:18:10,580 Filip Valica: that kind of those particular might. It should do because most insects absolutely hate the smell of lemongrass. No, that's interesting. You have to make sure that it doesn't affect the bees. Exactly. That's the other thing. But my friend doesn't think it does. 99 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:24,820 Filip Valica: She's quite happy with the state of her bees being mightless but apparently, because I think it can disorient them. It's not so much that it does them harm as it disorients them and therefore they go foraging in the wrongly directions or can't come 100 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:30,180 Filip Valica: back or that sort of thing. Well, it's good that you're testing this now, and you might have a second product on your hands. 101 00:18:31,340 --> 00:18:39,900 Filip Valica: Yes. I know. It's a beekeeper's friend. I've got a product that I sell on Amazon, and it's just too costly to rework the return. 102 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:54,900 Stacy Marking: So I'll get maybe 5% returns because it's a product that has a certain type of fit. It has a specific size and color. And so some people will return the product, and I have to rework the packaging and everything to get it to sellable condition. And by the time I do that, the cost is just too high to. 103 00:18:54,920 --> 00:19:06,480 Filip Valica: resell again and make a profit. So what I've done with that excess product is use it like you said as almost a calling card where I will drop it to local businesses after I rework it and say here 104 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:11,320 Filip Valica: you go. This product is essentially free for you, do whatever you want for it. You can give it away to 105 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:26,240 Stacy Marking: customers or you can sell it or you use it as marketing for yourself and it's really helped me kind of start that conversation with new vendors. Yes. No, that's true and it's almost quite chance that I've done that with bees, but now you say that, I think I could do that with those 106 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:36,480 Stacy Marking: discs in, you know, quite often just to send people as a sample and say, you know, the press, for instance, you know, you could just send it out with a little press release. Absolutely. Thanks. Yes, that's very good. 107 00:19:37,380 --> 00:19:41,380 Filip Valica: Yeah, I wonder if you could make it, make it into a postcard of some kind. 108 00:19:41,700 --> 00:19:45,820 Stacy Marking: I don't know if it would survive the mail, but I've definitely seen some inventive things sent 109 00:19:45,820 --> 00:19:54,880 Filip Valica: in mail as samples that then you could pin on a board or have sitting around on a coffee table or something. Yes, yes. No, that'd be good. 110 00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:07,660 Stacy Marking: The other thing, I have tried, I mean, sometimes I go to fares, and mostly I sell online, but I do go to pairs. I love going to pairs, actually, because you meet the customers and you find out what they really think and want. 111 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:18,800 Stacy Marking: And sometimes I put them in the loo or something like that, you know, in the public loots. So people say, oh, yeah, I saw that in the loo. 112 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:34,320 Stacy Marking: It smelled nice because it does. it's your way of counteracting all the graffiti yes yes do good in the world so as you've moved through this process have you felt that you had like some sort of a 113 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:45,300 Filip Valica: unique skill set or superpower that made you able to make some progress on this compared to some other people no no super power I don't have but because and I have to 114 00:20:45,300 --> 00:20:51,760 Stacy Marking: say I mean I I'm quite old and I started all this you know after I'd retired from my 115 00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:53,780 Filip Valica: main work and everything, 116 00:20:54,940 --> 00:21:09,160 Stacy Marking: and you're slower when you're older, no question. But if it's any comfort to anybody who's listening to this, you know, just do it, as I said before. I'm rather annoyed that Nike thought of that, that, you know, 117 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,440 Stacy Marking: because it's always been my method, my belief in life, 118 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:27,740 Filip Valica: and I would have patented if they hadn't. If you go to lemongrasstrading.com and go to your About page, people can see you working in your, I imagine that's your house? 119 00:21:28,420 --> 00:21:31,300 Filip Valica: Yes, well, it's one wing of the house, actually. 120 00:21:31,860 --> 00:21:40,340 Stacy Marking: This is the oldest part of the house, which was built by monks in 1480. It's amazing shot. That's a great shot. 121 00:21:41,300 --> 00:21:56,220 Stacy Marking: Good. That's partly why I sent that one. Partly because you can't see me so well. Partly because it is such an amazing room to work in. And it's quite interesting because I feel the presence of these monks. You know, I think they're quite beneficial and they look down. 122 00:21:56,380 --> 00:22:11,090 Stacy Marking: I'm sure they brood their own need and beer and stuff here. They like the fact that this is still all natural. No, that's great. That must be really inspiring environment to work. As you've gone through this process and you've created your product 123 00:22:11,090 --> 00:22:23,950 Stacy Marking: and you started selling it to people step by step, Imagine you had to come up with some of your own marketing and sales tactics. Can you share a little bit about your strategy to get your product out there in the world? Yes. 124 00:22:25,810 --> 00:22:38,230 Stacy Marking: I mean, I just think you just have to keep on at it. The two things that have had the biggest effect on my sales ever was one, we have a Sunday paper called The Observer in England. 125 00:22:38,770 --> 00:22:41,450 Stacy Marking: And they have a page about eco products. 126 00:22:41,810 --> 00:22:55,360 Filip Valica: And somehow or other, they got onto me. and I was what they called the green crush of the week and they just featured it they featured what I was doing and the effect was quite extraordinary 127 00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:58,940 Filip Valica: I mean just hundreds of orders from the next day onwards 128 00:22:58,940 --> 00:23:13,680 Stacy Marking: but of course that quickly dries up again and that's a thing to warn other people of but even if you get a wonderful bit of publicity and you get this tremendous surge it does die out again and I wasn't expecting that 129 00:23:13,700 --> 00:23:22,060 Stacy Marking: I just thought, oh, that's it. It's done. And then about a year later, the fashion editor of the Times, the London Times, 130 00:23:23,260 --> 00:23:24,520 Filip Valica: wrote a whole column about it, 131 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:35,240 Stacy Marking: saying that lemongrass trading was her method of moth destruction, you know. And there again, I got hung out. I still get customers from that. 132 00:23:35,780 --> 00:23:43,680 Stacy Marking: Well, and I imagine part of the reason that you got picked up was because that you're locally produced. So I would say the takeaway there is for anybody that's creating their own. 133 00:23:43,700 --> 00:23:54,100 Stacy Marking: own product to reach out to local PR and local organizations that need content and pitch them with your idea. Did you have to pitch the editor of either? 134 00:23:55,260 --> 00:24:01,980 Stacy Marking: Yes, I do. Well, yes, the second one, the Times, I did pitch, actually. And then she said, well, 135 00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:06,860 Stacy Marking: I'll have to test it, you know, because I don't know. So I sent her one of everything. 136 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:17,300 Filip Valica: And then I didn't hear her for, oh, I should think it was four or five months until she wrote the column. So she really had tested it out and found that it worked. And so that made her column 137 00:24:17,300 --> 00:24:27,590 Filip Valica: even more valuable because she said, look, yeah, this works. No, that's great. No, really great advice. I mean, it doesn't cost very much to send the products out. In England, there's a thing 138 00:24:27,590 --> 00:24:41,870 Filip Valica: called journal request, or one word, whereby every day somebody sends you what journalists are requesting. Now, it's not very often that they're requesting something that my product fits into, but 139 00:24:41,870 --> 00:24:51,970 Filip Valica: And I read it every day just to make sure that, you know, and if there is something about, I don't know, you know, car pollution or something, I'll say, wow, yeah, listen, this 140 00:24:51,970 --> 00:24:58,850 Filip Valica: isn't quite what you're after, but I've got this natural car spray, which smells divine and doesn't poison you. 141 00:25:00,140 --> 00:25:14,700 Filip Valica: You know, and then from there, there'll be mentions and that kind of thing, too. But it's hard work. You have to do it kind of every day, and I sometimes get fed up with it. I'm sure you do, too. I was just going to mention that we've got something similar. It's called Harrow, help a reporter out. 142 00:25:15,300 --> 00:25:21,700 Filip Valica: Oh, yes. I think there's something similar in Australia that really covers the whole world, and it's called SourceBottle. 143 00:25:22,220 --> 00:25:36,440 Stacy Marking: I try to use all three, and actually you and I'm at through Twitter, because we did a journalist request, I think. Oh, do you know, I'd forgotten that. Yes, that is exactly as how, yes. So there's certainly a lot of ways to make contact with people. 144 00:25:36,580 --> 00:25:49,240 Stacy Marking: I find Haro to be very noisy. There's just so many submissions going. out, it's hard to keep up with it all. And like you said, for someone that's pitching a product, I'll pitch the product startup to get on other shows as well. And it's just a lot of work. It takes 145 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:59,120 Stacy Marking: me 30 minutes, maybe, or 20 minutes to create a nice personal pitch because I want it to be specific to how I'm pitching. And if you have to pitch 10 and out of those, you might get two 146 00:25:59,120 --> 00:26:12,300 Stacy Marking: or three responses. And then maybe one of those actually materializes. The return is a little bit difficult. Yes, you see why people employ PRs. No, absolutely. Yeah, well, one day, 147 00:26:13,260 --> 00:26:14,160 Stacy Marking: when I get big enough. 148 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:21,900 Stacy Marking: Before we wrap up, I wanted to ask you how you make your sales, are all your sales 149 00:26:21,900 --> 00:26:35,440 Filip Valica: local or do you sell online as well? No, I mean, they're online and I get quite a lot, I get quite a lot from abroad, but when I have to tell them the postal charges, you know, that very often stops it 150 00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:43,240 Filip Valica: because it's difficult to send the stuff to America actually because your customs people hold it up for days 151 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:57,280 Stacy Marking: and I get angry emails being saying it's never come it's never come and then I say look hold on hold on I'm afraid it's out of my hands you know it's with your customers people and then I get lovely emails back from people in California say it's come at last thank you 152 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:04,120 Filip Valica: but online I do find that you know I mean you have no idea how many people are going to reply but mainly I have 153 00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:07,700 Stacy Marking: In England, my main places are London, 154 00:27:08,780 --> 00:27:16,820 Stacy Marking: Edinburgh, because there are a lot of old buildings, Oxford, because there are a lot of old buildings, or these are people who read the Times and the Observer. I'm not quite sure which. 155 00:27:17,260 --> 00:27:28,710 Stacy Marking: But you can definitely place who's got a moth problem. And sometimes I then try and go to the local press in that town and say, you know, lemongrass trading says the most customers 156 00:27:28,710 --> 00:27:39,090 Stacy Marking: they've ever had are coming from, you know, from Oxford. you know and so you brought up a couple things here you mentioned the the issues with exporting 157 00:27:39,090 --> 00:27:49,730 Stacy Marking: I imagine if you were able to set up a wholesale partner or a distributor of some kind in the US I'd love to do it yeah then you could just sip an entire palette of this stuff and then 158 00:27:49,730 --> 00:28:00,210 Stacy Marking: have them resell it so if there's anybody listening that wants to reach out to you and who particularly I mean because I think in the States morning that that whole natural 159 00:28:00,210 --> 00:28:11,710 Stacy Marking: market has grown so fast in the States, hasn't it? People really don't want to be breathing these toxic fumes. Yeah, no, agree with that, certainly. And it's good for you to catch 160 00:28:11,710 --> 00:28:25,270 Filip Valica: on that trend, because it's going to certainly help out with some of your marketing that you've got going on. The moth is the main seller, but I think that's because it's England and people have to wear cash beer all the time to keep warm. But there's also the car sprays are going 161 00:28:25,270 --> 00:28:29,270 Filip Valica: very well because there's so much talk about air pollution at the moment and so much 162 00:28:30,390 --> 00:28:35,030 Filip Valica: toxic fumes going on in cars that at least if you've got the lemon cross you're not adding 163 00:28:35,030 --> 00:28:49,850 Stacy Marking: to it while you sit in the and it's quite and in it's quite stimulating actually it in aromatherapy which I don't do they use lemongrass for uplifting the spirits and I think it does that too 164 00:28:49,850 --> 00:29:04,170 Stacy Marking: so there's room fresheners but amongst the insects I just wanted to mention one thing I have invented something which nobody else has done so far which is a wasp spray out of all edible ingredients 165 00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:13,940 Filip Valica: because if you have a barbecue or picnic or whatever and you're being played either by midges, there's a midges spray as well or wasps 166 00:29:13,940 --> 00:29:17,760 Stacy Marking: you don't want those toxic fumes to be going all over your food 167 00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:28,760 Filip Valica: and you drink and so I've invented this edible wasps spray and I feel that that should have a future Well, no, that's great. And I can imagine the application for that, too, certainly. 168 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:37,120 Filip Valica: I've, you know, especially with the sprays that have like a 25-foot reach, it gets on things that you didn't originally intend for to spray. 169 00:29:38,220 --> 00:29:41,660 Filip Valica: Exactly. Actually, I think the lemongrass improves salads. 170 00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:51,120 Filip Valica: There you go, new salad dressing. Stacey, where can people go to find lemongrass trading company and buy some of your products? www. 171 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:59,080 Filip Valica: Lemongrass Trading, or one word, dot com. Are you in any stores in the UK? No, at the moment I'm not, actually. 172 00:30:00,020 --> 00:30:12,560 Filip Valica: Somebody has taken over myself in England, does it on eBay now, which has been quite a relief to me because then I can go on developing my products while the eBay people actually handle the parcels and packages. 173 00:30:14,220 --> 00:30:19,420 Filip Valica: But at the moment, not in a store. I haven't really tried to get into stores, actually. 174 00:30:20,620 --> 00:30:34,280 Filip Valica: But I think that's probably the next move. Well, what I'd like to do is maybe have you on within a year and just to do a quick update and hopefully by then you can talk about some interesting things that you've done. Yes. Oh, that'd be lovely. Thank you so much. 175 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:48,710 Filip Valica: And it's been such a pleasure talking. Stacey, thanks again for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. And goodbye to you all. I hope that you got some great takeaways from Stacey. Here are my top three. Number one, understand regulations in your industry. 176 00:30:49,290 --> 00:31:01,890 Filip Valica: labeling her products as a repellent instead of an insecticide helped Stacey avoid prohibitively expensive regulatory testing. There's a double-edged sword here as you want customers to feel that the product is safe and effective, 177 00:31:02,330 --> 00:31:17,110 Filip Valica: so I would opt for third-party testing to prove that your products will do what they claim they do safely. You can get this done for usually much less than a typical certification and still post the lab results on your site or include them in your inserts. 178 00:31:17,110 --> 00:31:21,450 Filip Valica: Number two, design with product cost in mind. 179 00:31:22,410 --> 00:31:35,430 Filip Valica: Stacey said that in hindsight, some of her products like the coasters didn't work out because of the complexity and cost to manufacture. Many companies I've worked for have a target manufacturing cost that they set before design even starts. 180 00:31:35,870 --> 00:31:47,830 Filip Valica: Make sure to include all the costs from quality assurance to labeling, assembly, packaging, and shipping. Three, repurpose failed products. Stacey was able to find a new home for the coasters with beekeepers. 181 00:31:48,170 --> 00:31:52,570 Filip Valica: Just because you may not be able to sell a product that doesn't make the whole process moot, 182 00:31:53,470 --> 00:32:07,270 Filip Valica: what can you do to strip it down to make it attractive to some other audience or market? Can you use pieces of it in your marketing? If you'd like to get these takeaways in your inbox every week, just go to the product startup.com, scroll to the footer of any page, 183 00:32:07,490 --> 00:32:16,830 Filip Valica: and sign up to the weekly wrap-up. And now here's a 30-second ad spot from a longtime product startup listener, who's also launching a product with his girlfriend. 184 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:19,860 Filip Valica: Hi, product startup listeners. 185 00:32:20,260 --> 00:32:24,800 Stacy Marking: Looking for the next fun baking idea or craft? Want to support a federal product startup listener? 186 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:29,640 Filip Valica: Head over to charliecat.rocks and check out the unique silicon baking mold I'm developing. 187 00:32:29,860 --> 00:32:42,580 Stacy Marking: The mold is perfect for creating cat-shaped treats for any animal lover in your life. I'm currently in the validation phase, so head over to charliecat.orgs and check it out. If you think it's a good idea, let me know by hitting the free pre-order button. 188 00:32:42,580 --> 00:32:55,920 Stacy Marking: That's Charliecat.rocks, C-H-A-R-E-C-A-T-A-T-A-T dot R-O-C-C-K-S. Head over and pre-order today. Thanks. Thanks, Johnny, for submitting that clip, and good luck to you, and I hope that you get some good 189 00:32:55,920 --> 00:33:08,290 Stacy Marking: feedback from the product startup audience. So if you want to pitch your product on the show, just like Johnny, leave me feedbacker questions at 681-3-2-1-1-1-5. 190 00:33:08,650 --> 00:33:22,290 Filip Valica: Join me next week as I speak with Chris Mitchell from MFG.com. about soliciting quotes for manufacturers and the results of their survey entitled How Will President Trump's proposed trade policies affect U.S. manufacturing? 191 00:33:22,950 --> 00:33:37,550 Filip Valica: Now, in case you think I've jumped the shark and I'm going into click-baked land here for the next episode, I'm not. The survey that MFG.com conducted is actually nonpartisan. It's just about people's perception what they think the future will bring 192 00:33:37,550 --> 00:33:48,030 Filip Valica: regarding U.S. manufacturing. And as we all know, regulatory issues, trade policies have a monster effect on our businesses, and it's one of the things 193 00:33:48,030 --> 00:33:57,650 Filip Valica: that we can't control. So it's an interesting talk. Don't miss it. Tune in next week to hear that episode. Thanks again for joining me today, and I will see you next week. 194 00:34:04,550 --> 00:34:17,210 Filip Valica: Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Product Startup Podcast, the show that teaches you what it really takes to bring your product to market and turn it into a big success. This podcast series is brought to you by Mako Design + Invent. 195 00:34:17,770 --> 00:34:30,010 Filip Valica: first firm in North America to provide global caliber, end-to-end physical consumer product development to startups, inventors, and small product businesses. If you're looking for product development help on your invention, head over to macawdesign.com. 196 00:34:30,290 --> 00:34:39,930 Filip Valica: That's m-a-k-o-design.com for a free consultation from one of Maca-Design for design studios from coast to coast. Thanks for listening and see you next time.