Natalie Mounter is a stay-at-home mother and entrepreneur. Her firm, Completely Dazzled, sells craft provides for weddings and artistic tasks. She says the enterprise has prospered because of different stay-at-home mothers — her staff and associates.
She informed me, “Being a stay-at-home mother and hiring different stay-at-home mothers has been key to our success.”
Mounter and I not too long ago spoke. She shared Completely Dazzled’s origins, its internet affiliate marketing success, and the worth of good, hardworking mothers.
The whole audio of our dialog is embedded beneath. The transcript is edited for size and readability.
Eric Bandholz: Give us the rundown of what you do.
Natalie Mounter: I’m the proprietor of Completely Dazzled. We promote sparkly craft provides, primarily for weddings and artistic tasks. We launched in 2012 with an Etsy retailer. We at the moment are 100% Shopify. It’s a life-style enterprise for me. I began it once I was pregnant with my first child.
We skilled enormous progress throughout the pandemic as a result of everybody began shopping for on-line and was searching for issues to do at house. The crafting market took off.
We ordered rather more stock and ended up being overstocked. We needed to do a whole lot of discounting this yr to get again to a wholesome stock place. We’re in a greater place now.
I began the enterprise as a result of I used to be searching for one thing to do at house and work the hours I wished. I learn “The 4-hour Work Week” and thought it sounded excellent for motherhood.
Because the enterprise grew, I used to be lucky to seek out key individuals who had been unbiased and hardworking, who I might offload stuff onto and maintain my hours to a minimal. Being a stay-at-home mother and hiring different stay-at-home mothers has been key to our success. I get high quality staff for an inexpensive worth. Mothers are the very best crew members as a result of they’re good, hardworking, and really environment friendly.
Bandholz: How do you discover stay-at-home mothers?
Mounter: HireMyMom.com is a good useful resource for stateside assist. I additionally use native networking.
My cousin was my first crew member. That was 10 years in the past. She had not too long ago had a child and was searching for a stay-at-home job. I used to be delivery all of my merchandise from Canada, the place I dwell, however most of my prospects had been within the U.S. My cousin is in California. So I despatched her all my stock to meet for me.
She additionally handles customer support and social media dialog. My different key crew member, one other stay-at-home mother, is sort of a one-woman advertising company. She does all of our Fb adverts, e-mail advertising, and SMS. I do the planning and the imaginative and prescient. We meet month-to-month. It’s very hands-off for me. They each do a tremendous job.
We have now a few time-sensitive duties, equivalent to sending texts to our SMS record when our affiliate model ambassadors go dwell on Fb. We depend on an assistant within the Philippines for that.
Bandholz: Are associates your main advertising tactic?
Mounter: Associates are our prime site visitors supply. I like working with them as a result of they’re much less anxious and dangerous than Fb adverts, the place we spend cash and hope and pray the adverts will work.
We recruit associates by sending them a free product after which incentivize them with a fee. We’re not out any money till they make a sale. I might a lot somewhat pay feminine content material creators than Mark Zuckerberg!
After I first started searching for associates, I typed “DIY broach bouquet” into Google and contacted the creators making these forms of movies. Yow will discover individuals’s contact strategies on their YouTube channels. I emailed them and requested if they might promote us and earn commissions on gross sales. We’ve had a whole lot of success with that technique.
Initially the outreach felt daunting. It took a whole lot of time. However as soon as we had a community of associates, the phrase in the neighborhood received out. Different creators noticed the movies selling Completely Dazzled and wished to do the identical. We nonetheless do some outreach, however not practically as a lot as within the previous days.
We use affiliate administration software program to trace efficiency. We will see how a lot site visitors every drives and whether or not they’re making gross sales. In the event that they’re doing properly, we’ll ship them a bunch of free stuff. We maintain tabs on our associates and spoil the excessive performers, however we maintain the others engaged as a result of they’re nonetheless speaking about us. These extra touchpoints ultimately drive gross sales.
We provide a 20% fee and a 30-day cookie window. Each are fairly beneficiant. I consider in generosity as a result of typically associates should not rewarded for his or her referrals. Somebody would possibly see their content material after which go straight to our web site.
Success in internet affiliate marketing requires constructing long-term partnerships versus being metrics-driven. Many sellers fail with associates for that purpose.
Plus, viewers dimension will not be the one gross sales predictor. Considered one of our top-performing associates generated $30,000 in at some point. She has 1.7 million followers on Fb. One other excessive performer has about 200,000 followers on Fb, however her viewers is extremely aligned with our product.
Bandholz: How do you keep engaged within the enterprise after 12 years?
Mounter: What helps me keep motivated is remembering the why and specializing in gratitude. I’ve been capable of increase my children, by no means miss their occasions, and keep away from stress after they’re sick. I take day off once I need.
Bandholz: The place can listeners assist you or purchase your merchandise?
Mounter: Our website is TotallyDazzled.com. We’re on Fb, YouTube, and Instagram.
