We recently connected with Anya Jensen and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Anya thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

A few years before I started my business I became really interested in the concept of natural footwear being not only comfortable, but also really good for your well being. But as I was researching and looking for shoes I wanted to wear, it became apparent there wasn’t a lot of information out there. So at first I wanted to share resources and advice purely for practical reasons, long before I had any clue how to turn it into a business. I identified a need in a niche industry, and set out to fill that space. That’s how my blog and social media channels began.

By about a year in it was apparent that there was a thirst for the information I was sharing, so then I began thinking about how it could provide an income for me. This was tricky, because many of the traditional next steps did not align with how I wanted to run a business. I was really committed to keeping my content at the highest quality possible, and to keep a firm grasp on my value proposition – I only wanted to do things that actually filled a need, that no one else was doing. So I stayed the course of no ads on my website, no sponsored content, and no subscriptions or paywalls. Instead I tried to leverage my brand relationships to get affiliate partnerships set up.

This allowed me to earn an income from the referrals I was already making on my channels, while being totally committed to the best reader experience possible. I think partly because of good timing, and partly because this level of dedication to quality is so unusual on websites – my blog traffic started skyrocketing in 2020.

By the end of the year I was able to quit my other part time job and had built up a bit of cash reserve. My husband and I decided that we wanted to take that money and invest it into an expansion of the business – again based entirely on a need we had identified with a solid value proposition. We set up an e-commerce shop that imported a curated selection of what I considered to be the best of barefoot shoes, but that were difficult to access here in the United States. This felt like the right move to future proof our business. I love blogging, but the online space changes so rapidly and it didn’t feel like a safe long term business strategy to rely on it entirely.

It turned out we had read the market correctly and our e-shop took off quickly, helped by the built-in audience I had been growing through my blog and social media the years prior. We got into a pattern of slowly increasing our inventory by investing our earnings back into more product – this allowed us to grow steadily without taking out a big loan. But even though business started off well in terms of sales, it was a bit like drinking from a fire hose. There were just an astounding amount of behind-the-scenes practices we had to learn and keep track of, on top of the daily grind of filling orders, processing returns, and replying to customer service inquiries. We learned that the hardest part of being a small business owner is that you need to be an expert in so many wildly different areas. Great ideas and passion are not enough to sustain you through all the twists, turns, ups, and downs.

Having a partner, my husband Justin, who thinks differently from me has been critical in helping me see my blind spots. It’s so easy to stay in your own echo chamber! The first couple of years were a blur of being constantly stretched, but we managed to get to the point we could hire additional employees who act as sounding boards and help take care of the daily demands. We are 6.5 years into the blogging/social media journey and 4.5 years into the e-commerce journey and we are still taking it one step at a time, constantly learning how to improve.

In what feels like an unstable economy, I firmly believe that it’s the innovators who will succeed, those who are paying attention and not so stuck in their ways that they can’t adapt. I don’t know what the future will bring, but I hope to continue to grow. It’s been incredibly gratifying to carve out a space for myself, on my own terms. I may have a few more gray hairs and wrinkles, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I became interested in anatomically friendly shoes with minimal support – aka barefoot shoes – after I had a chronic and debilitating foot issue. I struggled to walk for about a year and a half, starting right at the end of my second pregnancy, and nobody could give me any clear answers about why or what to do. Taking matters into my own hands, I started researching the topic and found “foot-shaped” shoes – shoes that are not pointy at the end but actually have space for all 5 toes to lay flat. This combined with the idea of strengthening and rehabbing your feet (as opposed to constantly supporting them) was completely life changing for me.

But as I was searching for shoes for myself I realized there just wasn’t much out there to guide me. In particular, I saw immediately that the barefoot shoe industry (at the time) was completely geared toward male athletes. It felt like such a glaring hole in the market to ignore women’s unique foot anatomy, needs, and preferences. And for that matter, men who aren’t athletes, kids, and also seniors and less mobile people. Shouldn’t everyone be able to find shoes that actually fit, and that help them live a better life?

So I started an informational blog and social media channels with shoe reviews, guides, and resources to help people find the best shoe for them. And then I started an e-commerce shop with my husband Justin, to make anatomically-friendly shoes easier to access.

I can recount the steps of my entrepreneurship, but the advocacy that happened parallel to the business efforts sprouted from me naturally. I am very proud of the successful website and e-commerce site I have created, that reaches millions of people and employs more than a dozen. But what I am most proud of is the behind the scenes efforts, which few people will ever know the extent of. It has been a constant goal of mine to change the status quo of the shoe industry by pushing brands and industry experts to be more inclusive and to create products that better serve the real needs of real people. And alongside that, to increase access to better shoes and better shoe information so less people end up in pain. On several occasions I had to go out and create the thing myself! E.g. my own shoe line and the Barefoot Shoe Expo.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I was really fortunate to have some capital saved up from blogging (affiliate income), which we used on start-up costs for our e-commerce shop. But once we got going it became clear that we would need more liquidity to purchase inventory. Working capital loans were a total lifesaver. At the beginning we only qualified for very small loan amounts through Paypal, which were paid back incrementally every time someone checked out on our website using Paypal. Once we paid back a loan fully, we were then able to apply for another working capital loan – usually for a higher amount. After a while the loans were big enough to support us through sizable purchase orders, and it has been incredibly helpful along the way.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is a wild beast. I credit it for a lot of business growth I enjoyed the first few years, but it also can be incredibly draining. I was able to grow my audience initially by being really authentic and forward with my audience, and making sure that I was sharing organic, useful, and insightful content. People are good at sniffing out the bullcrap. But after a few years the amount of time I was sinking into content creation was just not giving me the results needed to justify it. So I pivoted away from trying to win the algorithm lottery with what I hoped would be viral posts, and instead focused on speaking to my current audience. This ended up being much more lucrative from a business standpoint than constant growth, because it fostered good relationships with the people who were actually interested in what I had to say. A big account does nothing for you if those people aren’t visiting your website, buying your products, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://anyasreviews.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anyasreviews/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anyasreviews/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@anyasreviews
• Other: Anya’s Shop E-commerce site: https://anyas-shop.com/
  Barefoot Shoe Expo event landing page: https://barefootshoeexpo.com/