We recently connected with Steve Taylor and have shared our conversation below.
Steve, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.
To grow Let’s Party! we leaned on established friendships and relationships built through years of working within the surf industry.
Nothing gets bought or sold unless there is trust. Building that trust is normally growing a relationship of sorts. The customer needs to trust you will deliver what you say you will, in a timely manner and that product will show up ready to use, or ready to re-sell in the case of selling to retailer. And equally as important, sell to people you trust because at the end of the day, you need to get paid.
I was lucky enough to work in the surf industry for about 8 years before starting my own business. I made friends, I showed I cared about the end users, and I picked up the phone when it rang.
I believe if you grow up with a servant attitude of being ready to serve another person, you’ll have doors open for you in the long run. By no means do you need to serve without reward, but putting your customer first and being there for them will create opportunities.
Let’s Party! was able to open 20-30 accounts with surf shops across the country immediately upon opening business due to how we had treated people for nearly a decade. Relationships and trust go a long way. Stay true to everyone and stay kind. The rest takes care of itself.
Steve, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Steve Taylor, and I am the founder of Let’s Party!, a surf accessory brand based out of Southern California with a focus on skimboarding and surfing.
We are a fun, goofy, easy-living lifestyle brand that is focused on traction pads to keep you stuck to your board.
I grew up loving the ocean, and learning to surf at T-street first and throughout Southern California. I’m rooted in kindness, patience and love which I bring to all areas of my life.
I am most proud of the relationships in my life and the way I treat people day to day. I am a problem solver every single day.
What I want most of all for people to know about me and my brand is that we support amazing human beings around the world to do what they love to do, and that is what drives us. Selling product so we can support our athletes and “party animals” as we refer to them to go out and shred and spread the love we have for surfing, skimboarding, wakesurfing, whatever it is.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Let’s Party! had its biggest social media growth through instagram as we went full creative mode and we would make posts/stories involving animals and complete fictional stories conjured up by myself describing animals in photos we shared. Imagine wild affairs being told of mysterious unassuming cats. Wild weekends in Vegas drawn out over 3-4 paragraphs from a simple photo of a tired looking dog.
People flocked over to read these tall tales, and it was as much fun to write as it was to read reactions.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Communication is key to managing a team and keeping people stoked. Always keep an open door policy, and be sure to follow up if you miss a call or text. Everyone makes mistakes and misses a call but to be called back is what matters.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.letsparty.co
- Instagram: @letsparty.letsparty
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LetsPartyTraction/
Image Credits
Andre Magarao, Riley Brown, Tina Cohen