Natalie Mounter is a stay-at-home mother and entrepreneur. Her firm, Completely Dazzled, sells craft provides for weddings and inventive initiatives. She says the enterprise has prospered because of different stay-at-home mothers — her workers and associates.
She instructed me, “Being a stay-at-home mother and hiring different stay-at-home mothers has been key to our success.”
Mounter and I lately 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 under. 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 inventive initiatives. We launched in 2012 with an Etsy retailer. We at the moment are 100% Shopify. It’s a way of life enterprise for me. I began it once I was pregnant with my first child.
We skilled big progress through the pandemic as a result of everybody began shopping for on-line and was searching for issues to do at residence. The crafting market took off.
We ordered way more stock and ended up being overstocked. We needed to do a number of discounting this 12 months 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 residence and work the hours I needed. 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 preserve 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 workers for an reasonably priced value. Mothers are one of the best workforce 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 workforce member. That was 10 years in the past. She had lately 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 satisfy for me.
She additionally handles customer support and social media dialog. My different key workforce member, one other stay-at-home mother, is sort of a one-woman advertising and marketing company. She does all of our Fb advertisements, electronic mail advertising and marketing, 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’ve got a few time-sensitive duties, similar 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 and marketing tactic?
Mounter: Associates are our prime visitors supply. I really like working with them as a result of they’re much less disturbing and dangerous than Fb advertisements, the place we spend cash and hope and pray the advertisements 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’d a lot somewhat pay feminine content material creators than Mark Zuckerberg!
Once I first started searching for associates, I typed “DIY broach bouquet” into Google and contacted the creators making these kinds of movies. Yow will discover folks’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 number of success with that technique.
Initially the outreach felt daunting. It took a number of time. However as soon as we had a community of associates, the phrase locally bought out. Different creators noticed the movies selling Completely Dazzled and needed to do the identical. We nonetheless do some outreach, however not practically as a lot as within the outdated days.
We use affiliate administration software program to trace efficiency. We will see how a lot 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 preserve tabs on our associates and spoil the excessive performers, however we preserve 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 imagine in generosity as a result of typically associates aren’t 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 motive.
Plus, viewers dimension just isn’t the one gross sales predictor. Considered one of our top-performing associates generated $30,000 in someday. She has 1.7 million followers on Fb. One other excessive performer has about 200,000 followers on Fb, however her viewers is very 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 in a position to increase my children, by no means miss their occasions, and keep away from stress after they’re sick. I take break day once I need.
Bandholz: The place can listeners assist you or purchase your merchandise?
Mounter: Our web site is TotallyDazzled.com. We’re on Fb, YouTube, and Instagram.
