We were lucky to catch up with Lindsay Pinchuk recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lindsay, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
I’ve actually had two “scale up” opportunities, the first teaching me so many lessons which have made the second time that much easier. These are the same lessons I am going to teach you right here to instill in your own business.
In 2010, with a $500 investment, a baby in my belly and while still working in corporate America, I founded my first company, Bump Club and Beyond, a community for parents and parents-to-be. I grew this company to reach 3MM people per month and bootstrapped it to generate 7-figures of annual topline revenue for six consecutive years. We worked with brands such as Target, Nordstrom, The Honest Company, Huggies, Unilever and hundreds of others. In 2019, I led our acquisition to a large agency holding company.
Two and a half years later, I exited the business to start a second business. While community is once again at the center of the business I am building, my goal for round two is to support female founders and entrepreneurs by consulting and coaching them on how to build and scale a 7-figure business.
The biggest lesson you will learn from me on scaling your business is that you can do it without a huge marketing budget. You have to work smart, have systems in place and know when and where to pivot if your process isn’t working.
Building a business doesn’t happen overnight. The first time it took about four years before we were generating serious income, and nine years before our acquisition. This time, the growth process is far faster as I am able to use my blueprint from round one to build, grow and monetize. And now I utilize this process with clients every single day.
There isn’t one strategy or one tactic that skyrockets you to success. Just as with your monetary investments, you need to diversify your time and energy when it comes to generating awareness and scaling your company. You’ll see what I mean as you continue reading.
Here are my ten steps for scaling your business.
1. Start by building a community that surrounds your brand. An audience and followers show up and consume. A community shows up and engages. When you show up, serve, educate, talk and engage with your community it puts you and your brand on a different level from your competitors. When you build your trust and authority with them, they will forever think of you when it comes to your area of expertise.
2. Deliver quality, authentic content to your community consistently. Content isn’t just your social media. That’s a piece of it. But you’re going to want to serve your community through your social media, email, your website and the publicity you put out into the world. When you show up and share, you start to earn trust among your community and within your niche.
3. Find brand ambassadors. Whether you create an actual program or you simply reward your best customers and biggest advocates for telling others about you, this was the #1 way I initially scaled Bump Club and Beyond. First in Chicago, I had customers who wanted to help at events. This allowed for multiple events in a week, sometimes in one night. From there, we expanded to brand ambassadors in other cities. At acquisition we had twelve cities with ambassadors and regular ongoing events; we had twelve more where we hosted events once a year and had ambassadors talking about us on a regular basis.
4. Generate meaningful partnerships. When you’re able to partner with another entity who shares your target customer, you’re ultimately sharing each other’s communities. I built Bump Club and Beyond by partnering with retailers, prenatal workouts, parenting experts and baby brands. I’m building Lindsay Pinchuk Marketing + Consulting/Dear FoundHer… by partnering with other female founders and entrepreneurs to share their stories and lessons on my podcast, through my email and across my social media platforms.
5. Attend events and host events to build meaningful, in-person connections. Talking to a potential customer face-to-face is the best way to continue an ongoing relationship. Find events where your target customer will be and show up as an attendee and network OR buy a table or sponsorship if you’re able. You can also create events with your partners to drive 5-10x the awareness by working together to achieve one common goal.
6. Create a grassroots marketing strategy to meet your target consumer where they are and invite them into your community. Work with your community to support a meaningful charity; drop off cards with a generous offer at partnering businesses; create merch with your logo that your community will USE, thus driving awareness. All of these are no or low-cost opportunities to drive awareness
7. Get people talking aka, generate publicity. Most of you think that PR is TV, radio, or print publications. But truly, public relations or publicity is when ANYONE talks about you and your business for free. The easiest place to start? With your community. Ask them to share, get them talking. Once they do, and there is buzz surrounding you and your brand, then see if you can secure some third-party press: digital media, alumni publications, your hometown blotter, a local radio show, podcasts—these are all great places to start and then build upon.
8. Think about paid advertising. Whether on social media or GoogleAdwords, this is a piece that should come later, when you have the budget to make it happen. While yes, you can drive sales from a paid funnel, creating and serving your community will drive more continual business and leads in the long run. The reason? If you pay for ads and someone comes to check you out, but you have zero digital history showcasing your expertise—how are they supposed to trust you to transact?
9. Hire the right people for the right jobs. You can’t do it all. But you don’t have to hire full-time, six-figure executives either. We live in a world where there are fractional, contract or freelance employees for every position you can think of. Determine the areas where you need the most help—because it doesn’t come as easily to you. Start there and find someone to help you. Once your time is freed up in those areas, you will be able to go out and generate more revenue for your next hire.
10. Take your time. This is a process.
In the last year I’ve interviewed 150+ female founders of some of the most successful brands in the world, for the Dear FoundHer… podcast. Not ONE experienced overnight success. Sure, some happened faster than others, but it’s imperative that you take your time. When you build a community who trusts and relies on you, they will ALWAYS be there for you. Which is why your community is your businesses’ #1 asset.
There is no easy answer for how to scale. There is no shortcut either. You have to work through the process in order to guarantee short term growth for long term success. As someone who’s done this twice for myself, and umpteen times for clients, you have to be in it for the long-haul. It gets easier with time and experience, but when all of these pieces work together, they generate more awareness, more engagement and eventually, more bottom line growth.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an award-winning entrepreneur, consultant, community builder, connector, storyteller, expert marketer, social media maven, spokesperson, on-air expert, small business champion, and Mom. I’ve been growing brands for 20+ years and use my experiences to help you ignite your brand, with easy to execute, cost effective strategies. I want your brand to explode.
In 2010, with just a $500 investment, I left corporate America and founded my first company, Bump Club and Beyond. I turned a profit in year one and created unique partnerships with Target, Nordstrom, The Honest Company, Seventh Generation, Huggies, ULTA and many more. I grew the company to 7-figures year-over-year in revenue, and built its community to reach over 3MM users monthly. Less than a decade later I led my company’s acquisition by a large agency holding company.
Since 2010, I’ve lent my expertise to 300+ television segments, given interviews on 75+ podcasts and have been featured in or contributed to stories in Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Parents.com, Babycenter.com, “The Doctors,” “Access Live,” The Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business, Chicago Magazine and many more as both as a parenting/lifestyle expert, AND as an entrepreneur/small business expert.
Following a successful exit of my company, I now work with businesses large and small as a consultant, speaker and educator, working to ignite brand awareness using my signature SWEEP Method—an easy to execute, cost effective, community-centric marketing strategy. This is the same process I used to grow my own two businesses and that of my many clients.
In January 2022, I launched Dear FoundHer…my Top 2% podcast, a twice weekly letter helping female entrepreneurs build, scale and sell their businesses. Past guests include: Bobbi Brown, Dr. Becky Kennedy from Good Inside; Peloton’s OG Instructor, Jenn Sherman; creator and star of Netflix’s “Workin’ Moms,” Catherine Reitman; Founder + CEO of EVEREVE, Megan Tamte; and 100+ 9-figure founders, New York Times best-selling authors, TV personalities and more. What started as a podcast is now a movement, with a robust community and events coming in 2023.
Every decision I make in life is with my two amazing daughters in mind. I live on Chicago’s North Shore with my husband, two daughters and mini Bernadoodle, Ollie.
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
I sold my company, Bump Club and Beyond, a community reaching parents/parents-to-be both online and in person through dozens of events across the country. This company generated 7-figures yearly for the last six years I owned it and reached about 3MM users monthly across all of our platforms.
The sale of the business was an asset sale, meaning I sold the brand and all of its assets. However, sale was also derived from a model of projected growth as I essentially sold the brand name, the social media handles, our database and our relationships. It was agreed I would work for the company for two years post-sale.
Lessons for other entrepreneurs:
1. Get a good attorney who can guide you through the entire legal process.
2. Know that if a large entity is going to buy you, you might have to “give in” a little on certain aspects of the sale. Know what your limits are and stick to them. A big entity is going to think that they can push you around. And maybe they can, but you want to know your terms and have them written out for you and your attorney before you start bending on them.
3. Another founder, Jill Smokler from ScaryMommy.com shared this with me, and I couldn’t agree with it more. If a company is pursuing you, YOU are in the driver seat. Don’t roll over for them. Don’t feel rushed. Take the time that you need.
4. Get EVERYTHING in writing. EVERY THING. If you have to meet certain goals and there is a plan to get there, but you need resources, make sure you have it written in the contract. If you agreed upon a certain salary raise or bonus, make sure it is in the contract. Whatever the terms are that you want and you agreed to, make sure that it is legally bound in the contract.
5. Be prepared for anything. From my own experience and from talking to so many other founders who have sold or who have accepted investments, the outcome isn’t always what you think it is when you are in the moment of sale. So, know that.
6. It isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Those are just the stories you tend to hear most. I have ZERO regrets about selling my company, but it wasn’t the easiest process.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
From day one at Bump Club and Beyond through the last twelve plus years to day 395 at Lindsay Pinchuk Marketing + Consulting, I have showed up as myself every single day. At BCB I showed up and shared my life as an expectant mom, then a mom, then a second time mom. I never sugar coated, I just showed up as me. And today, I show up and share as a female founder, entrepreneur x2 and business owner—-and I have no issues sharing the good, and also the not-so-good.
This has built my connection with my community and in turn the hundreds of brands I’ve worked with over the years. Additionally, I’ve never accepted money from a brand I don’t believe in or wouldn’t use myself. I have made this clear from the start and this too has established me a person who people want to do business with.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.lindsaypinchuk.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/lindsaypinchuk
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lpinchuk
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaypinchuk/
- Other: http://www.instagram.com/dearfoundher https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dear-foundher/id1591976277
Image Credits
Edyta Grazman Photography TK Photography Andrew Weeks Photography