Episode Transcript:
Miesha Williams 0:06
Welcome to the networthy podcast I'm Miesha Williams sharing with you money tips, tricks and advice for the rest of us how to get it, how to save it, how to make it work for you.
Miesha Williams 0:21
So Facebook is really insufferable right now. But the good thing about it is all of the you know like, sense of building community that has came out of everything going on so there has been such a big interest and support in helping black businesses get started and helping to market them and getting their name out and I've been able to find so many groups and lists that you know, kind of highlight these black owned and black woman owned businesses.
Miesha Williams 0:52
I mean from makeup to jewelry and services and just everything like anything that you can think of, I have been able to find a black owned business for like, even down to those little inflatable movie theater backyard shit that they're doing now, you know, since everyone's stuck in their house, so like, it's been truly amazing.
Miesha Williams 1:16
But at the same time Facebook is a strange place.So I love this sense of community. I love the groups I love being able to connect with people who are able to point me in the direction of things that I need. But all of these posts. Oh my god, you guys complain about everything and I'm a big complainer but y'all complain about everything. And the one that likes has really been bothering me is the you know, all these posts that's been floating around about black businesses and customer service classes. And every time I see someone buy a product or service from a black owned business and it doesn't go exactly the way that they want it to instantly turns into a, "well see this is why I tried to shop with black businesses, this is why I can't shop with black businesses" or those posts like, "oh I understand wanting to support black businesses but I'm not paying $50 for a T shirt with a logo on it", but then we go straight to somewhere else and do the same thing like and I think it's because we have this sense that when things are black, they're just not as good or when things are starting up. They're not as good. And we kind of put a little bit more pressure on the small black owned businesses to get things perfect the first go around. In reality nobody gets things perfect. Especially not the first way around.
Miesha Williams 2:42
I mean the first time around. So as you have these people who are now starting to the their new endeavors and getting started with you know what they want to do and turning their hobby into a business situation. They are going to make mistakes, things might not seem as professional as they would somewhere else because they are just now getting built up. And I'm not saying that the people who are owning these businesses and are providing these services should not make a conscious effort to have some type of professionalism in the way that they conduct their business. But damn, y'all can give people a little bit of slack sometimes. I mean, you have we I mean, we talked about the whole 400 year head started thing, whatever. So are we comparing this business that my sis is running out of her kitchen? to McDonald's? Okay, McDonald's does not a good example because they hella ghetto in there too. Why are we comparing this business that might good systems running out of great kitchen to chick fil a? Hmm? Why? You know, she don't have a team of people around her to show her how to make things run perfectly.
Miesha Williams 4:03
That's what I'm trying to say. The positive thing about Facebook these last few months is a sense of community that has been built around the Black Lives Matter protest. And people are now more willing to highlight small black owned businesses and people are actually, I feel like people are jumping into starting their own black owned businesses at a higher rate. Now, I don't have any numbers to back that up. But just from what I had been seeing, I'm watching so many people who have these amazing skills and creativity and they are now taking those and honing them and putting it into this venture, which may be able to bring them a little bit of cash flow. But just a sense of community that has built has been built on Facebook, you know, these past couple of months and I'm just talking about big groups. I'm not sure how it is in your city, but here in Baltimore we have a, like a black, black owned networking. I'm probably not saying the name correctly, but it is a Facebook group in which people are really just posting black owned businesses and opportunities and services and ways to help. And people are helping each other. I'm watching people who are, you know, providing the same service, booking each other instead of competing with each other. And people really like, you know, lending a hand out to each other. And I love seeing that. And I know Chicago has something very similar because I've seen it. So I'm assuming these might be popping up in other major cities. I don't know about the smaller ones. But I mean, here, this is how we've been doing it. But even without that there's also now all these lists going even on Twitter, where people are starting these threads with these businesses that you know, for our products and services, from candles to makeup, to jewelry, just everything that you can think of and if it's something that you like, you can probably find a black owned business that can provide you with it. You know? and that has been pretty great. At the same time, the social media platforms, we also had to deal with all the other extra shit, like every now and then I had somebody stumble into my black owned business. I really don't like that I really don't. I'm about to get off track first again, but it because it happened to me yesterday. But if I am posting services that I'm providing to specifically help black owned businesses, and you are not a part of this community and you do not know what is going on within this community. Why are you stumbling into my black owned business? Huh? Well, you could have sat there and ate your food you could have minded your business. And yet here you are critiquing and demeaning and just uh, in my face like. Like stay out of my DM's. Anyways, let's get back on track. So every now and then I have a couple of white people who I have to explain, you know, what is what is going on? You know, on the black side of these social media platforms, okay, so usually, for my white friends who are listening to this, if you come across something and you're not understanding the language it's not something that you, are used to seeing and culturally, something is just not there. Maybe it's not for you. Okay. I don't know, this is just a thought I'm not I'm not saying it's not but just a thought.
Miesha Williams 7:28
But let's get back on track. The good thing about social media is the sense of community that has been built around supporting black owned businesses but at the same time, the good things on these social media platforms is always you know, kinda, what's the word for it diluted by all the negativity that comes along with being on social media. And the one thing pertaining specifically to black businesses, businesses that I have been seeing is people being hella critical of these small businesses, you know, that getting started out and may not have everything down perfectly yet, you know. And sometimes it's like, there might be a better way to save things.
Miesha Williams 8:11
For example, for example, the whole well, and I know you've seen this, so don't pretend that you haven't. The whole black businesses need better customer service. And every time that I see people who have decided to order a product or service from a black owned business business, and it doesn't go exactly the way that they expected it when they ordered it, and things probably didn't go as smoothly as they had in their mind. The first thing that they do is they come on social media, and they start bashing black owned businesses and that goes from, you know, like, Oh, I was just trying to buy this product and things did not work out for me to see this is why I don't shop black oh, I've been trying to support black owned businesses, the y'all keep eh eh eh. Y'all ned some new customer service. Y'all need to be professional. Y'all need to Take some business classes.
Miesha Williams 9:01
Okay, first of all, shut the fuck up.
Miesha Williams 9:03
Second of all, are you providing these customer service classes that you are telling them they need? are you providing the tuition for these business classes that you're telling them that they need? Because let's be honest, okay. If my good sis is running a business out of her kitchen, things are not going to go perfectly, things are not going to go smoothly, she might not have the time, the ability, the resources to go to those customer service classes that y'all are talking about. On the other hand, before we even really get into it, half the time y'all be recommending stuff and you don't know what y'all are recommending. Like y'all say they need to take customer service classes. Ma'am, where where? Where, did you find one? Are you gonna link them to one, have you taken one because I don't believe you have.
Miesha Williams 9:45
But, let's break it down. Because it's starting to upset me and my homegirls.
Miesha Williams 9:53
So I mean, in that instance, you have to think to yourself like okay, this is probably like, especially with I see a lot with you Make the news and stuff this is probably like a one man show, you know, it's going to be a mistake. Sometimes, you know, things might be a little later than you'd expect, it might take a little longer to make. Like there's so many things stacked up against these people who are now like, starting out with these new adventures, like sometimes we have to provide a little bit of grace. Okay, especially when you have a small business, right, who is used to providing products and services for a small amount of clientele. So let's say that I have a acrylic jewelry business. And I usually sell about five earrings a month, right? So that's what I'm used to selling five earrings a month, and every month I've been selling these five pairs of earrings to people and I'm trying to market myself and I'm trying to steadily grow my business. Now you have this trend that's happening and I hate to use the word trend because I hope it continues but I'll use trend. We have this trend. That's how happening of people now be more interested in black owned businesses in all, like I said, all these lists and groups and communities as highlighting these businesses, but let's say somebody sees my acrylic earrings that I've only been selling five pairs a month of, and they post it on Twitter, right. And let's say this person has a high level of visibility in their audience and their reach is a lot larger than what I'm used to. So now I go from having sold five pairs of earrings a month to waking up the next morning, and you know, looking at my Shopify account, and I now have 1000 orders to fulfill, right? Do you see where I'm going with this? I now have to figure out how I am getting the supplies, how I'm finding the time, you know how I'm moving forward to fulfill these 1000 orders, right? And a lot of times when this happens, people are not prepared for the influx of orders that's about to come in. Right. So We have to provide them with a little bit of grace it's gonna take a little bit longer. It's gonna take a little longer to get to you. You also understand that they aren't even like, it's not just with high orders and not having time, but you have a whole ass pandemic going on at the same time. So even your large companies have been dealing with issues with getting things shipped, you know, fastly, you know, whatever, fastly, oh, I'm just gonna stick with that. So now you're expecting me, you know somebody who makes these acrylic earrings in my living room to now be able to fulfill 1000 orders and have it shipped out tomorrow. Right?
Miesha Williams 12:40
And that also goes to the fact that Amazon you know, places like Amazon has put this unrealistic image in people head about how long it should take to get packages, right? Because you have amazon prime and you order on Amazon and you get it the next day. Everybody can't do that. You know, like all of us is not running a company that got connections with a million different shipping services like we don't, we don't have slaves, okay? So it's a little bit harder, right? And I'm not selling physical product right now so when I'm saying us and we I just mean like, I'm feeling I'm feeling you know, the stress that they are being put under because I see it with my own eyes. So now you haven't gotten your product, you know, the next day or within a week or it might even have been two weeks. So you go on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, you're now bashing this business for something that they're probably stressed the fuck out over already. Okay. I've also seen like post so I'm not, so I'm not even gonna say like, it's just like, the consumers issue like it's your problem and you just need to just shut up, be quiet and let. NO. You there might be a way that you can contact them, probably try to contacting them first before dragging them on Twitter probably like send the little dm or something like let them know like, hey, email, you know, let them know you know, how you're feeling before you just post it for the world to see for everybody to drag these people.
Miesha Williams 14:05
But I'm also saying that I've seen posts from business owners and service providers that have been unprofessional. Now I can't look at it and be like, Oh, yes that's a little ghetto. Like sometimes we know, we see it. But at the same time, all of you probably have a story about going into a corner store or a gas station, not even a gas station. Probably a gas station. I don't know, I don't go into gas stations. But all of you probably have a story about going into a corner store that's owned by demographic that's not us. Going into a clothing store or a mall and being followed around. Yeah, racial racially profiled while you're shopping. You know, usually everybody has a story or can think of somebody who has a story like that. So if you are willing to go into these stores where you're racially profiled, and you know that it's happening to you, and you still go back. Then why when you've received bad customer service from a black business, suddenly you're acting like you were doing charity work, right? Because you I mean, we've all seen the videos, you go into the store, you get racially profiled, and you feel obligated to spend more money now you feel obligated to make your purchase in there to show them hey, I am black and I have money. See, look, I wasn't stealing from you, right? You want to prove you know that you got the money to make your purchase. But when you deal with a black owner who might be having a bad day, who might have woke up on the wrong side of it a bit, who might be frustrated who might really have never looked into how they could provide good customer service and you don't like that they get snappy with you. Then suddenly you're not shopping black no more. Seems a little off to me, but if that's how y'all like to get down.
Miesha Williams 16:01
Also, for those of us who are able to provide resources that can help these people improve the quality of their business, do so. Right. I dare you, I fucking dare you to do so. Um, so like, for example, if you see my Instagram I posted a couple days ago, that I'll be providing web consultations for a very low price to businesses who are looking to have their website looked at cause... Yeah. I'm gonna try to say this in a nice way. What's the scholarly way of saying,
Miesha Williams 16:38
I love that you guys are building these websites on Shopify store envy and GoDaddy and Squarespace and Wix and I love that you are taking it upon yourself to be creative. Also, I you guys are my favorite because I appreciate y'all for actually taking the initiative to build your own websites, rather than continuing to, you know, take orders through your Instagram DMs. I talk about that a lot. I think I wake up talking about that. And I've said it before here before. Yeah, you should have a website. If you are selling a product or a service, you should have some type of website or booking platform something. So for those of you who have taken it upon yourself to do that, I appreciate you. And I also understand that not everybody is a web developer, not everybody is a designer, not everyone has studied design. And so things probably won't look as sleek as websites built by developers. You know what, I aint mad at it because I understand not everybody wants to bring in a web developer for 6k, 5k, 3k, 2k, 1, 600. Who really knows what a website costs anymore because we have so many developers doing it at these wild ass prices it's all over the place.
Miesha Williams 17:56
But you know, everybody cannot afford to hire a developer and that's the point here. And you know, and I mean, I'll be quick to tell you like these platforms like Wix and Squarespace and Shopify, whatever, they were literally built for you to be able to go in and do it yourself. Right? So if you can, if you have the time, and you know, and the you're motivated to do it yourself, you know, and you don't have the money and the resources to hire a developer, then go ahead, give it a good give it give it a crack, give it a crack, you know, just see what happens. But at the same time, there's a lot of, I noticed these businesses who are doing this, there's a lot that is just missing. And it's not just about not looking professional, because whatever make it look the way you want to look, make it look unique to you, like use the colors, you want the font you want. Make sure it's it's accessible. So yeah, use the colors that you want, but we should still be able to read it. But maybe, you know, this is something that you can start. You are running your business out your, home, out your car, out your whatever. So that right there is unique in itself. So your website should reflect that. But at the same conference, wow, I feel like I'm just talking to circles right now. There's a lot that be missing. Um, so it's important to make those changes.
Miesha Williams 19:23
So if I can look, you know, usually I'll place my orders with y'all, you know I place my orders with y'all, but if I could look at it, and I tell like, Okay, well, I can't, it's font here that I can't read. It's not really accessible to people who use screen readers. Your content is all over the place it's hard for people to find the content on your website. The site structure is just not there. You know, these are like, things that should be changed and it's just not it's not just about making it look good, but making sure it performs well. Alright. So you will find that when you have a well build a website, that you are getting more sales that people are staying on your website. Longer that people are asking you less questions, right? Because the whole point of having your website up to, you know, highlight the products that you're selling is that you're getting less questions in your DMS about it. So somebody wakes up at three o'clock in the morning and they're on it and you know, they're scrolling Facebook and they see your ad and they decide that they want to purchase a product from you. They should be able to purchase that product at 3am without having to put without having to DM you a question and have to wait for you to answer it. Because now you know you're asleep and a whole eight hours may go by before you even see that dm for you to answer and by then they've probably changed their mind about even purchasing you know because a lot of us are we kind of buy things when we see them like right there and right there. I know I am so I might buy a couple of things that I don't need. But I see it I like it, I buy it. So if you telling me I have to wait seven hours and that gives me seven hours to think about it. I may or may not purchase that, you know, seven hours later. So you are literally losing sales if you're not, if you do not have an effective website, an efficient website, so it's important to get that started. So, yeah, back to what I was saying. So, I mean, I could have easily gone on Facebook and made a post like, Oh, your website's ugly, they know work duh duh duh eh eh eh. No, like, I'm not doing that what I am going to do is offer myself, my time my services up to you guys to you know, I'll let you know.
Miesha Williams 21:37
Let you know how we could fix it in order to get you poppin. Okay. Also don't feel like your website is like less than using one of these platforms. And do not let these developers out here make you feel like utilizing these platforms that was literally built by developers for you to utilize for this exact purpose. That's your website is not good enough because people you know, whatever I've been in this field for a little bit, people really will try to make you feel like you just aren't good enough because your website is on Wix or Squarespace and that's not true. It's really just not true. And you'll see that bigger companies also use it
Miesha Williams 22:18
Yeah, a lot of you know a lot... I was trying to think of like an exact company but I can't even think of nothing, like nothing comes to mind that I would really want to like hilight right now like go shop with them. Yeah, casee buying black right now we buying small and we buying local. So I'm not gonna give none of these big company shout outs. But a lot of your favorite brands use one of these systems. One of them that sounds like a nova but whatever. A lot of them use Shopify to sell products. Most of them use Shopify to sell sell products. I should actually put the data on you know what that averages out to. But there's a very few, I won't say very few. Yeah, there's very few of your favorite brands, there are, yeah, that have a website that's like built on their own platform. Most of them are, you know, utilizing something like Shopify, because it's faster, it's easier for their developers, they're able to analyze data quickly. So if you have this company that's pulling in multi, you know, millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars a year using this platform, why would you let somebody make you feel like you're not good enough for using it right, you're getting the same type of reports and data and access to the same systems that the large companies are getting. So use it to your best ability, you know, just make sure that you know, the website that you're building is a little bit efficient, right? We don't, we don't want to put nothing up half assed and if you're worried that we should have up as half as you can always go to mieshawilliams.com and I help you with that righ. Now this service that I am talking about right now. You will have to implement the actual changes yourself. But it's not too hard. Right? I'll talk you through it. Right, we can do it together.
Miesha Williams 24:10
My point is here is, you know, provide a little bit of grace to these companies to these businesses. Stop being so critical, like give people time and just let people grow. Also. That's what that just made me think of, um, for those of you who are starting out, and you might feel like, your content is just not there. Your website is just not there yet. This is what I always do. This is what I do when I'm feeling a little bit like shit is just not popping for me right now. Go back to one of your favorite brands or people or whatever. Like if you make YouTube videos, for example, right? And you have about 50 subscribers and you just feel like people aren't really engaging with your content. And you looking at the way your instagram uh, Instagram feed is set up and you're not really feeling it, because all of the people that you're comparing yourself to have been doing it a little bit longer and they're a little bit more, you know, things are figured out for them now, right because they had trial and error and they had their time to put out content that nobody was looking at.
Miesha Williams 25:16
Go back. Go to their Instagram feed. Now me I'm a little bit of a little bit of a stalker ish. So I don't mind scrolling back to the beginning, I'll scroll back years like this, whatever. But go to their feed and scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll all the way back and look at some of their first posts, right? You see how ugly it was, that shig uglier to yours, right? They won't really popping back then go look at go look at that. I know, specifically one of the women that I look up to and she's actually been nice enough to reach out to me and provide advice and you know, kind of mentored me over the last three years. But I was just looking at how easy it is for her to engage with her audience. I'm like, damn, like she really got it down and then she told me she was like, No, she's like about three years ago, she would have live sessions like video sessions, and only three people would show up. Right? So how do you go from having three people show up to now thousands listening to you? consistency, right continuing to post and continuing to sell and not giving up on your business not giving up on your vision, just because people aren't seeing you right now. Right? So create the content that you want to create, like you're putting it out to an audience of 50,000 or 100,000, and 300,000, whatever your goal is, right? So even if you only got two people, who rock with you right now, create content for them, like you just making the best content and guess what them two people gonna tell two more people, who will tell two more people, who tell two more people. And I'm starting to wonder if I made an episode on this already, or if this was a conversation I was having with one of my friends because I feel like I say this often.
Miesha Williams 26:56
Right, so I just thought. Continuing to be consistent Continuing to, and I'm saying this and I don't even listen to my own advice like, I will but. Alright, I'm telling on myselff let's move on to the next thing.
Miesha Williams 27:13
Did you like my ad?
Miesha Williams 27:16
So I've been home, you know like all of you because everything going on. Well I hope you're home and not spreading your Rona to everyone and they mom cause I know. For those of you in Baltimore, some of y'all have been at euphoria every weekend, eh not a good look. But yeah, I've been home, you know, just working on school stuff and work stuff and whatever. So I've been pretty busy. So I was sitting in my living room the other day, and I looked down at my coffee table and I noticed that there was a magazine there. I won't say which magazine it was, but it was Janet Jackson on the cover. And it reminded me of something that I used to do when I was selling You know, actual physical products.
Miesha Williams 28:01
And I'm like damn I ain't never tell nobody this, why they ain't doing it.
Miesha Williams 28:07
So for those of y'all who are now starting out with like creating a little business and getting your social media presence up and selling products and you're starting there, a lot of them is, a lot of the mistakes. One mistake that I noticed you guys doing a lot is like begging people to shop with you. And I mean, not really begging because I'm sure when you're posting it, posting it, you're not meaning it in a begging manner. But asking people to shop with you like um, I'm trying to think of an example that won't step on somebody's toes. I'll use I'll use my own. If you selling sunglasses, like I sold sunglasses last summer. Um, no, that's a bad example. I'mma use hair supplements.
Miesha Williams 28:50
If you're selling hair supplements, like some type of biotin, Oh, hair oil, if you're selling hair oil. Y'all work with me, I'm not cutting this out. If you're selling a hair growth oil right, so you have been mixing your own oils for a couple of years. You on your natural hair journey or your relaxed hair journey just a healthy hair journey whatever type of hair you have. You've been using this oil that you mix yourself it might have some Jamaican black castor oil has some ayurvedic oil or whatever you're into. I'm into both Okay, I'm into both um, but you been using this on your hair and everyone around you is like girl your hair getting long as shit. You know like you got that length. You got that drip, uh. You know, whatever hyping you up like we black women do to each other. And you're like, Damn, maybe I should sell this and people are telling you Oh, you should sell this. I would buy this. So you decide, All right, I'm gonna sell my hair oil. I feel like I use this as an example a lot, dont I. Right? Whatever.
Miesha Williams 29:48
And you go to post it on Instagram or Facebook. And usually what you guys do is you're like, y'all need this hair or buy this hair oil, somebody come shop with me, DM me, come shop with me. It's just like, you don't gotta do that. That's not that's not a good way to market right? You shouldn't be asking people to buy it from you. You should be showing them why they need it. Right and I know that we're just talking about a magazine but we're gonna we're gonna connect the two. I know I be rambling a lot but we go and connect the dots around here. Yeah, so you're on Facebook and you telling people come shop with me. Buy with me, somebody buy it. I got five left, somebody come get these 5 I got on me. Y'all do this with lashes all the time.
Miesha Williams 30:27
I got lashes on hand, West Baltimore lashes on hand. Yeah, whatever. You shouldn't be asking them to come get it you should be showing them why they need it right? So is this something that you've been using? You've been using your own hair oil or whatever you got pictures from a couple years ago when your hair was a little bit thin, I know I do. Post your pictures, your before and you after you know you been putting it on your little sister's hair. Her hair starting to grow post her pictures you know put it on you get a little bit of shine. You posting a picture of her long healthy hair, you don't have to ask somebody to buy it. You just show them like, Damn, look at her hair. You know it's long as shit now, compared to last year where it wasn't, she's been using this right? I like this just got me, now that I'm thinking about it. Because this girl on Instagram her hair is so, like it's just so luscious. And she posted it. She was like, oh look at my hair and she's like, yeah, this is duh duh duh shampoo. And I was like, I need to try this shampoo. So I went and bought it. See she got me. She got me. Y'all need to be getting niggas too. Okay?
Miesha Williams 31:29
So you post, post the picture and post the videos post um, you know if it's a lip gloss and you know you wearing your own lip gloss you do your makeup, do your makeup. Post your face, show people that you know your faces beat to the gods and just let them see. Right. So I mean, of course you're still saying what the product is and where to buy it but you no longer asking people to buy you're no you're no longer begging people to buy it. You're showing them hey, this is what I have. You need this right? This is what I have, don't you like the way that I look? Right? Isn't this something that you want to buy? Isn't this you know what you'd like to look like this wouldn't you like your hair to look like this, come shop. So you know just get rid of the whole asking people to shop with you right?
Miesha Williams 32:16
So let's take this back to the magazine. So I'm looking at this magazine that has Janet Jackson on the front and I'm looking I'll start flipping through it I'm looking at the cover and I can't actually remember I don't have in front of me what the little sayings was, but it might be like eight ways to find a man right. So they not saying open this magazine you know y'all need y'all need this magazine but you, somebody might, somebody might look at it and be like shit, I need a man. And they decide to buy it. And once you start looking through the ads, you know like it might be like another little section on the front you know what I'm talking about. The front of magazine always have all of the little headlines and titles, whatever it might be another section that says you know, soft you know, soft, soft supple skin how Janet Jackson gets, soft, supple skin. I don't know if her skin is soft or supple, but like I'm making this up as I go. So now you're looking at that and you're like shit, her skin does look good, whatever. So now you picking up the magazine to read which know what she's doing.
Miesha Williams 33:13
And influencers are able to profit off of this, right? Because when they're on YouTube and they showing you know they're showing you a product or lipstick or makeup or whatever and you go to look at how you can get your eyebrows looking flawless. You know, they're not begging you to buy these brow products from these other companies. They're showing you what it looks like when they have it on they're showing you. Um, you know, they might say like, Oh, this is you know, yeah, I used to have this problem but now I use this type of oil and it helped my skin or you know, influencers profit off of this daily and you guys look to your influencers for tips and tricks and to find out what products would work best for you, you know. So like, you could take that same strategy and implement it into your business or whatever. So if you selling sunglasses you're now posting pictures of you in the sunglasses or somebody wearing you sunglasses, whatever, you don't have to beg people to buy it, somebody is going to look at it and think it's cute. You just have to make sure as you're posting your ad that you're including, how to purchase it. So I'm gonna get a little bit off track again for a second because that just reminded me of something. Okay. Also, when y'all are posting these ads on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter, and shit include a link, include the information to that product, right? Because y'all will be like, for example, let's say you selling cupcakes. It'd be like, yeah, cupcakes. $8 and a picture of the cupcakes. Well, my nigga, how do I find it? How do I get it, who I'm ordering with? Where do I, cupcakes $8? What city is this? Like? What, so now you got 50 people retweeted everybody asking where it's at right. Include a link to your website, include the information on how I'm purchasing the product, whatever.
Miesha Williams 34:52
All right, back to the magazine. So as you continue as you continue to flip through the magazine or whatever Start looking at other brands. And it doesn't even have to be a brand that is in the market that you're in. So you might sell lotion and you see an ad for perfume, and it's just not the same. But look at the way these established brands have created, whoo, I'm starting to get out of breath, have created their ads, look at the type of you know, look at their ad placement and look at the type of things that they say they say in their ads. look at the type of vibe that they go for. Do any of them ask you to shop? No, nobody does. Most of it will be them telling you the benefits of the product or where you know how it will help you what it would do for you, you know, which leads you to believe that you now need this right? And then you'll be able to see how to run more like sleek ads, more effective ads because you have to remember these larger companies. They have a team right it's just you so you know you might not be thinking these things because you're one person. But these larger companies have a team of hundreds or a team of thousands or whatever, whose job is specifically specifically to do this one thing, right?
Miesha Williams 36:13
So they might have a marketing team of a large number of people, whatever, who all are working on this one ad to put this together. They running the data, you know, they analyzing they report, they see what works, they keeping up with market trends. They see what works. So you don't, you don't might not have the people, you might not have the resources, but you could look at what's being done. And you can see how you could you know, implement those strategies yourself. Right. And that just brings me on something I was reading. And I know y'all don't care about what I read, because most of the time I'm reading research studies for fun. So whatever. Um,
Miesha Williams 36:54
I was reading an article about Ford for a project I'm doing for class and I came across A joint venture that they announced last year. But basically, all these companies are in a rush to break into the Indian market, right? Because you have a whole lot of rural communities out, rural communities out in these areas. And this might be towns or whatever, I wouldn't have the correct terminology for that. But they might be towns or communities, cities, whatever, of people who might not have had these products yet, right. So Ford they're looking to break into the Indian market. But the issue with this is now and now becomes high risk, it becomes costly, right. So if Ford goes out and they bought a plant in India, and they start creating cars in India, to introduce to the market there and the population decides that this is not something that they're interested in or Ford just does not execute it the correct way. They stand to lose a lot of money. a hell of a lot of money right? That scares people losing money scares people. So instead of just buying that plant and just going hung ho on it, whatever it is not even just about just losing the money but the fact that the cost to build and find the resources and do the actual analysis of the data for that community, whatever, it costs a lot, whatever. So instead of instead of just doing a spot themselves Ford decides to hit up their homie in India and they like aye
Miesha Williams 38:31
I'm not gonna say the name because I don't know how to pronounce it. I think is it Mahindra? Mahindra, they hit up this company Mahindra and Mahindra, that's in India, and they say we'll buy half your stake in your company. In order for you to produce or develop or manufacturer manufacturer is the word I'm looking for here in order for you to manufacture cars, in Fords name for this company. So Mahindra is it's own brand. Ford is it's own brand, Ford buys half the stock in Mahindra to get them to begin collaborating right so this isn't outsourcing and we're not just like no it's not outsourcing it's not the same as that and I know we all learned that in school This is more of a collab, collaborative effort between Ford and Mahindra to get these cars manufactured. And so I did read that they did it kind of like run into a wall because the whole Coronavirus situation this summer, so like it was something that was supposed to be fully functional by mid 2020. We're mid 2020 they're not fully functional, but that also set them in a better position to be able to create like mask and other shit that they had to for the pandemic. So whatever it is, it's a good investment right? Because now instead of spending like this much money and not having not knowing what your return on investment is you cut costs by having this company who's already in the community who already knows you know, the data who are has already enough, establish themselves as a brand that people don't like to work with. with you.
Miesha Williams 40:01
Hmm, another company that did this was Google. So, I try to remember cause Google is the one I just looked into. Google announced this year that they were also buying the stake into an Indian company to break into that same market. So they're not selling cars, they're trying to sell phones. So, Google, they buy some stake into this company. They invest, I think it was like 4.5 billion that they put. And they decided, they're now gonna use this Indian company to develop a more affordable version of Android. Now, Google already has Android, they already have Android phones and they could have easily just shipped Android smartphones out to India or whatever and opened a plant there. but you don't know how the community is gonna be receptive to that product. And you also have to make a product cause in each seperate the product, the wants and needs and demand is gonna be different so like in India they not trying to buy a expensive ass smart phone they need a more affordable smart phone. So now Google has bought stake in this company and they have this collaborative effort where Google and this company is building a cheap version of Android to roll these phones out for people who, a lot of people, I won't say everyone but a lot of people in these areas have not had Iphonees before. And again, this is another comapny where they are receptive, where the community is very receptive of the company that is already there that Google is having a collaborative effort with. They know them, they have bought other types of phones from them, so they would be more willing to buy this new Google smartphone that they never seen before. I say all this to say, when you look at the way these big companies move you can think of a way to implement those same strategies into your own business. You may not be trying to break into the Indian market cause shit, you still trying to break into your own market. You still in Baltimore trying to figure it out. You might be over east trying to break in over west. Don't really break in y'all, don't really break in but you know what i mean. So let's say you, you know, your niche your product, whatever is making press on nails. So you built a very good fan base, or a customer base in Baltimore alrady and people looove them. But you like, damn I'm just local. I want people in Philly to have these, I want people in Atlanta to have these, like, you know. So you could run ads on Facebook, on Instagram, whatever in order for your product to be placed in front of your audience. If those people don't know you, are they gonna buy the press ons from you or somebody that they already got down here, they already got a girl down here who do that. They don't know you, they don't know what your product like. So, in order to get your product in that market. Cause you know, for Google and Ford their emerging market is India. For you, your emerging market is Philly, right? You would then find a nail tech or somebody in Philly that's doing this work already and collaborate with them. You might, you know, we see people on instagram all the time we are able to make connections with people on Twitter and we've built friendships right. So you see a Philly nail tech and she's doing her thing, she's dong it very fucking well and people love her. Her reach out there is pretty big, whatever. It's a collaborative effort you know, you're not using her, cause you know you're both now have something to gain from this. You allow her to create a design for your press on nails. So she might have a design vision and you have the way to execute. So now you're able to ship her these press on nails. Imma use me and my best friend cause I love my best friend. So it might be a miesha and bria. A miesha x bria effort, right so we collaborating together. So now I'm pulling my audience and her audience together in this collaborative effort and now people are looking at the press ons that are being made buy this company but designed by this nail tech that's in another city and they're like oh shit girl I fuck with that. Now they're more willing to buy, right? and this is just, it's not that you have to continue making every single one of your lines being under this persons name. People do this with shoes all the time right, like don't rappers, I don't know fuck it. I don't buy sneakers. I feel like rappers be collaborating with like Adidas, right? Sombody did. I think Beyonce did, right? Alright whatever. Beyonce is not a rapper, I now that okay? Fuck it, we gonna keep moving. I'm just saying celebrities do it all the time with their companies. You can do it on a smaller scale with your company. You may not be Adidas you may not be nike, you might not have no lebron to look to to get your product out. Find these people doing their thing in their city and they're doing their own thing cause you both have something to gain from that. You introducing your audience to her, she's introducing her audience to you, y'all both win. Y'all win together. Y'all not competing, y'all have something to show for it, so. That's my spill for today, thank you for sitting through this as I ramble. There might be a outro, there might not. I have to go look through my files and see what i have. See y'all, next week, maybe.
