Julie Clark, Founder of Province Apothecary – Founded in 2010
All natural, vegan and cruelty-free skin care line that showcases ingredients from Canada.
Started a website and then started going to flee markets and farmers markets and seeing customers. Handing out lots of discount cards. To help drive people to site. Interacting with people was a great way to introduce people to product.
KEY TAKEAWAY – Interacting with customers face to face when starting out is a great way to get people to meet your brand and to drive sales.
The company has received lots of press coverage – Gwyneth Paltrow, Vogue, W, etc. Invest in press. Get a PR agent when you can. It helped bring more attention to the brand. Even a part time PR agent would be very helpful when launching a brand. Snowball effect because once one person starts talking about you, others will. Helped expand the brand quickly.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Invest in PR as early as you can once you can afford it
Scaling the business – currently in process of scaling up business. Every year, the company has been gently scaling. This year, the company has been focused on scaling up in a big way. Plans interrupted by Covid.
Expanding the team – started hiring friends right away because of demand. As the business grew, brought in other people into business. Be open to who comes forward and offers help and expresses interest in working with you. Matching skill sets to company’s needs.
Social Media Content – images and design on social media is at the heart of the business. Behind the scenes, have social media and marketing coordinator. Social is top of mind for the coordinator. Education and sharing knowledge. Not necessarily showcasing product every time – but provide education.
KEY TAKEAWAY – Don’t always need to showcase your product on social media. Use it to educate your community.
Marketing – difficult to time out the product launch with marketing. More concerned about getting product to customer quickly.
One of the priorities for the company is to give back. Love to combine charity donations with sales.
Being a mom and being a founder – had a plan to go back to work after 3 months. Not easy. Big struggle. Biggest challenge is no sleep. Being upfront about it with the team has been help. Seek support from your team and delegate as much as you can.
Covid-19 impact on business – Covid-19 interrupted the business completely. Had to lay off virtually all staff.
Unofficial Show Notes 