We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Claire Wolfson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Claire below.

Claire, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I launched my brand, bean goods, in 2011 with my now husband, Chris. bean goods is a cheeky and colorful clothing brand inspired by my beloved dachshund, Bean. Over the past 10 years, I went from working a 9-5 corporate design job to going full time with my brand in 2013. I credit my success with bean goods to tapping into a highly focused niche I personally was passionate about and creating designs that stand out amongst the sea of tacky dog-inspired products on the internet. In creating my brand, I brought together my background in fashion design with my love for my soulful, loyal companion, Bean.

Claire, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I launched my brand, bean goods, in 2011 with my now husband, Chris. bean goods is a cheeky and colorful clothing brand inspired by my beloved dachshund, Bean. Over the past 10 years, I went from working a 9-5 corporate design job to going full time with my brand in 2013. I credit my success with bean goods to tapping into a highly focused niche I personally was passionate about and creating designs that stand out amongst the sea of tacky dog-inspired products on the internet. In creating my brand, I brought together my background in fashion design with my love for my soulful, loyal companion, Bean. bean goods now currently has a social media following of over 100K devoted customers and fans and our business is consistently generating over 7 figures in annual sales. My proudest achievement? No doubt, it’s my sheer determination & perseverance. Building a brand from scratch with no fancy investments is a tough ride. From handling production and marketing to building our team and handling everything in between, it’s been a grind. But looking back and saying, “Yeah, I did that,” is pretty cool.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We offer unique dachshund-themed designs you won’t find anywhere else that lean on the edgy / provocative side that sets us apart from other dog-themed brands. We have a highly engaged community & an army of OG loyal bean goods supporters – when our community connect with each other in the wild they refer to it as “bean goods people” We’ve been around since 2011 – we are the OG wiener dog brand.

bean goods brand promise:
Our brand promise is to provide a fun & light-hearted experience for individuals who have a quirky love for wiener dogs. Our customers will always be able to find unique sausage dog themed gear that evokes joy and hilarity and will feel a sense of belonging when interacting with our business. Additionally, our customers will be aware that we are committed to using our voice, platform & dollars to contribute to the greater good & making a difference in this world we share together.

bean goods positioning statement: your search for rad and stylish dachshund themed goods ends here. our mission is to have you find your new favorite tee shirt, sweatshirt, or digz for your dox that shows off your devotion for doxies without looking like a total nerd. it’s actually really cool to be a crazy wiener dog person.
we started bean goods from a place of frustration of never being able to find the cool doxie themed goods we wanted in our closet. we set out to fix that problem by creating fun, clever and well-designed tee shirts and accessories with a little edge that we felt was missing in the current market.
our brand is devoted to creating the most bad-ass dachshund themed goods in the world for you and your weenies! this ain’t your grandma’s wiener dog shop!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Cash Flow was an issue for us up until 2020.

We had no choice but to get several working capital loans from Shopify, PayPal & one other one to keep the business afloat – desperate times call for desperate measures – I would recommend these over credit cards. Other ideas – SBA loans, family/friends loans – or crowdfunding!

I would focus on your highest ROI marketing activities – EMAIL / SMS & having a consistent product launch strategy.
Expensive PR, SEO & FB ad management can wait.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beangoods.com/
• Instagram: instagram.com/beangoods
• Facebook: facebook.com/beangoods
• Personal IG: @clairewolfson