We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amber Thibaut a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Amber thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?

If you had asked me this question before and/or during the pandemic, I would have answered wholeheartedly that growing revenue was more important. It was also where I spent most of my time. However since then, I have completely switched my perspective and now think that managing costs are more important. I think that a big part of this switch is becoming more experienced and mature as a business owner, particularly after going through the pandemic. Like so many other small business owners in the e-commerce space, the pandemic was actually a time of incredible growth for our online business. As many of us were, our customers were stuck at home with some extra money from the government burning a hole in their pockets. What did they do? They shopped online of course! As a result of so many more people shopping online, our business boomed and our revenues grew. It seemed too easy, and in fact, it was. While our revenues were growing, so too were our costs, though not at as rapid a pace. They were a shadow quietly growing behind the light of increasing sales. However as the pandemic subsided and people got back out into the world, our sales slowed. Our rising costs on the other hand, did not. If we do not strictly monitor our costs, we absolutely lose our margins. If we lose our margins, our business is not sustainable. So learning how to adapt to the quickly changing world while maintaining our margins has become the dominant focus of our company. As a result, our business has a stronger foundation from which we can build upon our revenues.

Amber, 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 Amber Thibaut and I am a Native Hawaiian mom of two who was born and raised on the island of Maui. I founded Coco Moon Hawai’i about 8 years ago, shortly after becoming a mom. The idea was sparked late one night while I nursed my son. Instead of reaching for one of the many baby blankets I had lying around the house, I reached for one of my pareos, or sarongs. As I did so, I found myself wondering why. Why the pareo and not the baby blanket? I realized that it was because I felt a connection to the pareo. Whereas the baby blankets we had felt generic and story-less, the pareo was a piece of the islands, our culture, our lifestyle, and our home. And I wanted my children to have a piece of that.

Now, Coco Moon shares the spirit of the islands with families all over the world through our buttery soft clothing, blankets, and accessories all made from a blend of bamboo. Our signature bamboo fabrics are known to be gentle on sensitive, eczema prone skin and are beloved by everyone in the family.

We are also known for our beautiful, one-of-a-kind prints, featuring hand drawn or painted designs by local artists.

But what I’m most proud to be known for is our give back program. Since launching our program in 2017, we have donated over $50,000 to local Hawai’i non-profits, most notably the NICU, Pediatric Heart Center, and Cancer Center for Women and Children and the Kapi’olani Hospital, Hawai’i’s only dedicated hospital for women and children.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Our team is fully remote, with some team members even living in different states. So building camaraderie and morale when seeing each other IRL isn’t possible is even more important. We have regular monthly meetings as a team and each team member takes turns leading the meetings. Though they are not required, I encourage each person leading the meeting to start with some kind of ice breaker or conversation starter. Though they may seem corny, it has actually allowed us to get to know each other much better and connect on interests unrelated to work.

In addition to the full team meetings, I meet with each of my direct reports weekly as do any mangers on the team with a direct report. This keeps communication streamlined. Any quick questions and items can be addressed over email or slack, but the bigger issues requiring more discussion are held for the 1:1s (unless it is a very urgent issue of course). This also allows the team members more independence during the week as the 1:1s give clear direction for priorities and decision making. I then don’t have the urge to check in on them much throughout the week as I trust that they are executing on the things that we have discussed. I find that this balance of communication and independence fosters a sense of team responsibility to get things done efficiently and effectively.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As with many business, we had to pivot at the start of the pandemic to focus on our online sales. Prior to the pandemic, our revenue was primarily from the wholesale or B2B side of our business. More specifically, about 70% of our sales were from B2B and only 30% were from our online store. However when the pandemic hit, our B2B sales ground to a halt because our B2b customers were brick and mortar stores, all of which had to close due to the pandemic. So we had to totally switch our focus to growing our e-commerce store, learning and investing in paid digital media and myself becoming the face of our brand on our social media channels, which I did not like doing. But we threw ourselves completely into learning more about the digital media space, knowing that it was the only option for our business to continue. Thankfully, the pivot paid off, with our online sales growing rapidly during the pandemic.

Contact Info:

• Website: cocomoonhawaii.com
• Instagram: @coco_moon_hawaii
• Facebook: Facebook.com/cocomoonhawaii
• Other: TikTok: @cocomoonhawaii