#7 - Paul Jackman Explains his 7-Figure E-Comm Business
Big is it now? What's your customer base?
Paul:I started working on the business literally day COVID started.
Dean:Some people might say you're a lunatic. Why aren't you taking on investing?
Paul:This year will be a 7 figure annual dip.
Dean:Stumbled upon great gap in the supply chain.
Paul:What drives successes? Are you willing to pivot and actually listen to customers? And some people are very stubborn and dumb. If you do those things and the product is good, you will be successful. If you want a successful ecom business, do these things for your first steps.
Paul:Hello,
Dean:friend. Welcome back. Thank you again for joining. Today's guest is Paul Jackman. Now you have a lot to learn from Paul Jackman.
Dean:He is a entrepreneur based out of Dublin. He has been building his company, Handsome Send, for the past 4 years now and has grown it almost to a 7 figure business with the way their trajectory is going this year. He, in this episode, has so much wisdom to share and I absolutely love talking to him in such detail about how he builds his business. And honestly, if you are thinking about starting your own business or even if you are well along your way or maybe you're thinking about getting into ecommerce, stick around because you have a lot to learn from this. And by the end, you'll understand how you can launch an e commerce brand as one idea and then change its trajectory entirely.
Dean:How you can leverage your story to generate interest in your business. How you can get comfortable talking to a camera and how you can manage scrutiny from people in and outside of your circle, and a hell of a lot more as well. And by the way, if you are new, the reason that I have made this show is truly to help people who are feeling the same way that I felt 2 years ago when I was working in sales. Didn't know when I was going to stop doing it or if I ever called. Since then, I've created my own business and the level of time and freedom that I am now afforded has increased exponentially.
Dean:And I want to share that with you. I want to share that with anyone who is feeling that way. The idea is that through listening to these conversations, you can view your situation as it is, which is quitable, and find something that is right for you. And this concept of quitable expands more than just to professional and career life. Anything in your life such as behaviors, attitudes, relationships, anything that isn't serving you is quitable.
Dean:So without further ado, let's give a warm welcome to Paul Jackman. Paul, welcome, my man.
Paul:How about you, butter? Long time no speak.
Dean:Yes. Indeed. I absolutely love your business. Seriously, I think it's one of the coolest ideas for a business. It's very clever, and I love your marketing.
Dean:I really like your marketing, and I'm gonna probe into all things marketing in this. But Before we get into all that, I'd like to start on the current, like, scope and scale of your business. Like, how big is it now? What's your customer base? Where are they?
Dean:What sort of numbers are you doing? What locations, Men versus women, revenue. Like, give us an idea of all these kind of overhead so we can, like, get a sense for the business.
Paul:Yeah. So, this is the I guess, it's this March so this March 2025, I'll be I'll be working on the business for 5 years. So I started working on the business March 2020. Literally, the day COVID started, it's like, you know, I was put on a 4 day week. We were given 2 weeks off.
Paul:And, you know, I was like, I'll never have this much time again, and it was my creativity just sparked. Actually, the our friend, Domo, the for years, sent me a video of just, like, 15 year old making money, on YouTube. His name was, like, Beweza, whatever his name was. And then, like, this guy, you know, 15, making money, selling online, and, like, I just started following his videos. And I was really bad.
Paul:I was really, really bad at social media and stuff, but I just kept on learning much more videos. But, yeah, Hanssen was born at about 2 AM, March 2020. Bought a domain, Hanssen.com. Like, hey. So I I started there.
Paul:Launched in October 2020, so we started selling. So before you're selling this October. And it was it was, I guess, it was side hustle for the 1st few years. It wasn't that much revenue. I think year 1, I think it was, like, year well, year 1, 1st calendar year, it was, like, less than $24.
Paul:Year 2, $30. Then year 3 then, we hit, you know, half a1000000, which is great. And we sold them every month. We could have done a lot more. But, when you're when you have a product based business and you're funding yourself and you have long lead times, product cost, clean up your cash flow and a lot of holding stock.
Paul:So it it kinda stops your ability to scale faster. Now you can take investment, and we have an offer investment. But, like, to be honest with you, I don't wanna take an investor. Now we kinda I have taken loans, like, from, like, just like, and stuff. So I'd rather pay I'd rather pay interest than have an investor, and I'd rather keep it.
Paul:I I don't care too much about going and being a, you know, a unicorn. I just love what I do. And now we have 20,000 customers around Ireland. Yeah. We'll be a 7 figure business annually now.
Paul:So it's taken a long time to get there, and we've just launched in the UK, US going very, very well already. So we're only only, like like just to give you a breakdown, we only launched in the UK. It's already over 20% of our sales because we just didn't sell there. Now we have a good supply chain logistics to to send over there with a good service. So we are the highest rated fragrance brand in the world on Trustpilot.
Paul:So all we our customer service is amazing. That's where the business is now. Yeah. There's over 20,000 customers, 3 markets. I love what I do.
Paul:We have some staff now. We have some contract staff through the DPD that do all the logistics now to help us out. And, yeah, now I'm in the middle of trying to put myself out of the business that if I I am doing it for a week, the business will still function. So I'm slowly doing that by bringing people in, things. And and that's a challenge because you basically have a baby that's not even 5 yet, and you've been doing all of these these jobs that you're afraid to pass on.
Paul:Like, a big step for me was passing on the film ends, and we because we just couldn't, like, we just couldn't do it ourselves anymore with the with the volume we had. Like, I was like like, you know, q 4, I could be I could be working till 4, 5 in the morning. And now if it gets busy, we have a team of, like, 5 or 6 people that can pump out the orders. So that was a big step for me. It was, like, you know, you're packing all these orders for years yourself, maybe, like, with with 1 or 2 of your, you know, your friends that are helping you out, and then passing that on was a big step.
Paul:So I and that one but once I actually passed on something, I'm like, how do I do all this? You know what I mean? So that's that's kind of where the business is now, but it's taking a long time to get there. It literally is like growing a child, so it's 1 to 5 years. That's when it starts to walk by itself as you guide us and not actually have to bring it everywhere.
Paul:So it's been so fun. It's been really hard. It's not motivation that brings you discipline Days you don't wanna do stuff and you keep doing it is what drives success. Anyone that says to me people come to me all the time. I wanna start a business.
Paul:I'm highly motivated. I'm really motivated right now. That wouldn't really give me confidence. I'm like, no. Can you do this stuff on your off days?
Paul:You're like like, going to the gym when you don't wanna go to the gym. That's literally how the business is. Everyone has that motivational spike at the start of doing a business. And if that's all that's driving you, it's not gonna be it's gonna be short lived. But, yeah, that's where the business is now.
Paul:3 markets, 20,000 customers. Last year, we sold out every single month. And this year, we're a lot more prepared. I, put a lot of my own personal finances in as director's loan to make sure we have enough stock, which look, you're gonna bet on anyone than yourself, baby. That's what that's pretty much a big picture where the business is now.
Paul:So yeah.
Dean:That's amazing, man. And and putting money in yourself to to to to keep it going in favor for not taking in investment. And then some people might say you're a lunatic. Why aren't you taking on investment? Why aren't you going crazy big?
Dean:But you're right. It's it's what you want it to be. You might want your business to look different. You might want it to function different, and that's down to you personally. So it's it's cool that you've identified that.
Dean:And with regards to the numbers, you said 7 figures. Can we go in a little bit more on that? And what what what does that look like month to month in terms of turnover just to get a flavor for what that looks like for you now?
Paul:Yeah. Well, this this year, we will be a 7 figure annual biz a 7 figure business in the short weeks. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sure.
Paul:But, again, by the way, I don't like talking about the numbers too much just because, in essence, it might sound like we're we're pulling out a lot of money out of business, but not really because we invest a lot more in stock. So just to give you an example, like, even doing you know, if if you grow if you grow your sales from $10 a month to $50 a month, which is a big milestone, it sounds like a lot of money, but if if you wanna maintain $50 a month then onwards, after that growth, you have to invest a lot in stock because our lead times perfume production is, you know, anywhere for 12 weeks totally. You have to buy a perfume. You have to buy a perfume upfront because you're buying from fragrance houses in France. You then get it manufactured in a lab, and that all this thing costs money upfront.
Paul:So don't like going too much into the numbers because people might think from it, we're we're making a lot of money at the moment. Not really. I don't pay myself a lot of money. I invest all back in business. And, like, if you wanna go from 20 grand a half 1000000 to over a1000000, trust me, and you're fooling yourself, trust me, you're not gonna be pulling out a lot of money in the business.
Paul:Yeah. Yeah. And I
Dean:think a a a million a million in profit, a million in turnover is certainly a whole lot of difference to a a million in profit. Right?
Paul:Yeah. Yeah. Well, a a lot of people when you say these numbers, you know, I I often read newspaper articles on certain pubs and, like, the Luxembourg Bar, this much turnover, but the overheads and your net margin
Dean:Exactly.
Paul:That's not and that's not shown within a with a private company. So I I never like to go too much into into the numbers, but, yeah, look, It's in our 4th year, we will be, again, our annual scientific business. Within within that breakdown, let's say, most of those fragrances, large percentage of that is done during q 4 during like like a lot of Yeah. Beauty brands.
Dean:I I know that all too well, my friend. Yeah. But that's so cool to hear that it's going so well and you know, a million in turnover is so impressive. Obviously it costs you to get that million, no one's gonna assume that that's a million in profit but it's still amazing figures and what what do you think has been some of the or even one of the contributing factors to the adoption of the product itself? And why do people like this so much?
Paul:Make sure, like, it's a very simple solution. We'll see. It's not offered it's not offered because the conventional fragrance route to market is like they they still operate in a very backwards model from, like, the sixties, seventies, eighties, where you would be a you're you're a fragrance company. You'd sell to a distributor, and then they'll distribute it out through all the retailers. Like, you know, you you know, you have Boots, Brown Thomas.
Paul:You have all the pharmacies. So, like, the route to market there, everyone has to take a, you know, a piece of the profit share. And there was an ecom in the seventies, eighties, nineties, early 2 early 2000. You know, it's only really since COVID, people buy perfume online. So, you know, if you're a perfume company, you can't, you know, under course your bread and butter, your your your airports.
Paul:Your you can't then go, hey. Let's say you're Tom Ford or you're you can't then just start just create an amazing b to c b to c channel with discounts and and travel size and undercoat all your your bread and butter customers. So there was a huge gap at the market for what we saw coming that people like variety. The you know, peep buying in bulk. Like, no.
Paul:Let's say you like mayonnaise. It's pretty more convenient to just buy a small tube than buy a big tube. You know? And, like, I know it sounds like it's a funny little exaggerated example, but, you know, people that wanna buy large glass bottles that a year a year's supply of fragrance, and there's no variety in it. So it's very it's a very simple solution that no one was doing, firstly, like, literally.
Paul:And then, it's also very hard to do from fulfillment point of view. Like, we offer you can get a bespoke box a bespoke book, a custom box of the the sense you pick, which sounds simple, but from a fulfillment point of view, very difficult to do in an affordable manner because you're when you bring in more variety and choice, it becomes harder from a logistics point of view. And not many pea like, if you're a perfume company, you'd rather sell a 100 mil bottle of of 1 brand. It's easier, way more profitable, and you have to do it because your route to market is from the the freight the fragrance company to distributor to the retailer, to the customer. Where it's me, it's just me to the customer.
Paul:Mhmm. I can send it to an affordable I could sell it as an affordable. Good. So that's the first thing. Secondly, our marketing is a lot more personal.
Paul:Like like, you know, I'm very hands on with the marketing, communication channel, being my customers. So people prefer that personal touch and that you know, real communication, there's people behind the brand. People buy from people where still did the mistake a lot of perfume brands do is they just they pay a celebrity. It doesn't relate to the audience, which happens very often. And, like, if you're an average guy, you're not gonna relate to, you know, a really, like, a post line campaign.
Dean:6, 7.
Paul:Like, the like, and this whole thing of it's, like, confusing marketing. Like, let's say you watch an ad show, and, like, just, like, then he's having a coffee on the high street and, you know, and then at the end of that, it's like, beating Mana today, baby. Whatever. It's just like, what was that? You know?
Paul:We like, we're very we're just called yeah. We're just we're just ourselves. We're not forcing anything. We're like, hey, baby. You want some fragrance?
Paul:Just talk to me. I like this one. I like this one. This one. This one's for this one's for your daytime.
Paul:If we simplify the communication, we don't do celebrity endorsements, above the line, campaign because that's that's outdated. And, like, you know, that approach we've been taking seems to resonate with our customer more so than that type of advertising. Now there is still people that just wanna buy the big brands, which is fine, but we we we find, like, Gen z, millennials, a lot of them want, different things with with the brands. They want a connection with the brand. They'd rather buy off small business, but also people rather than now like, if if those big fragrance brands continue doing what they're doing over the next 5, 10 years and don't adapt some kind of a B2C strategy, which I think they kinda are now, they will be left behind, and they will have to pivot a bit more.
Paul:So a mixture of to summarize your question, a mixture of, I guess, the simple solution that wasn't really offered. And then, I guess, the marketing and the type of approach we take with our customers is probably what gives us success. And, also, really, the third thing is just content creation and telling the story of why we're doing what we're doing. Those three things probably, well, is the key just, what success I've seen if you if you do call it successful. Absolutely.
Paul:That's
Dean:yeah. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you kinda stumbled upon a great gap in the supply chain for for those bigger companies. I don't know if you knew that before or or maybe it's something that you've learned since, but that's the fact that you can just reach a lot more people in a way that's more relatable, I think is a is a u really huge selling point that I I actually hadn't quite considered, especially logistically. So that's really cool.
Dean:And on the subject of your bigger competitors, right, they're not necessarily like, I mean, you and Tom Ford, very different businesses. Totally I mean, you're selling the same product, but it's a different business. The way you go about it is so different. Like, who do you actually see as your competitors, and how are you positioning yourself differently to your competitors? And is there anyone who's kinda doing it in the same way you are?
Paul:There's there's different there's there's there's a yeah. There's a different kind of, we don't we don't sell on price. There is kinda dupe brands that kinda and they they do good they do great money. They basically go they go after the people that love the mainstream brands at a fraction of price, and then they they name their scent 115 inspired. But that's great.
Paul:Look, that's great as well. It's a value offering. It's different type of customer than than what we have. We do we get a little bit of crossover, of course, but I wouldn't find their direct competitors. There there's there's there's different categories you have.
Paul:They're literally dupe brands that we are dupe brand which is inspired by. And then you have we're kinda in the middle. We're affordable. We have great packaging, so we got a little bit more of noise in the packaging. Our perfumes are great.
Paul:We find we're kind of recruiting more people into perfume that didn't really use it as much. So let's say a lot of our customers would have been gifted perfume, at Christmas time, and the usage rate was really, really low. So they gave me they'd be gifted a bottle of x brands, never used it. And then they discover our perfume and realize they use it. It's convenient.
Paul:They can travel with it. We have we've at Christmas time, 60% of our orders are from are from females, both for themselves and her and for their partners. So it's kinda hard to pinpoint. If if I was giving you a breakdown, I'd say maybe, like, 20, 30% of people that buy off us do like the big brands, but it's come to us if they can find something that's similar in style. Then 70% are just people that kinda I I feel that, we've recruited them into using fragrance more often than they ever had before, and they would have the feedback we get is I I would own a lot of perfume bottles, but never used them.
Paul:And that's the biggest thing we hear. But now I use your stuff every day, and I'm actually going through a lot more. So it's hard to pinpoint exactly the market we're eating into, but the usage rate of Handsome Senses would be a lot lot higher than just when you buy a 100 mil bottle. It's just from the the nature of it. You can carry it around with you.
Paul:So, like, our like our replenishment rate, like, customers buy off us very frequently, every month or second month or third month, like, you know, so
Dean:Awesome. Yeah. I I I actually saw on Instagram. It wasn't always that, like, same little vial that you can, get and stick handheld sort of vial that goes in your pocket. I saw, like, the first image was a traditional glass ball, rectangular ball.
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Paul:But here here's the thing. And this is every Saturday, you're gonna have to what what drives successes? Are you willing to pivot and actually listen to customers? And some people are very stubborn and down. So what actually happens, we I want to do a 30 mil bottle because, yeah, it's kinda portable.
Paul:So we start lunch with a 30 mil bottle subscription only. And then we realized very soon subscription in the Irish market is not great because, most consumers use Revolut. I was even a lecture picket there. I was walking behind, a lady, and she was telling her friend, yeah. I I never keep money on my Revolut in case I get scammed.
Paul:So I only I only keep a fiver on it, and I top it up as I as I buy online or I on on my night out. So what we found in subscription in in the Irish market, and I'm gonna assume it's similar in other markets, but especially in the Irish market, we found 70% of our customers use Revolut. A lot of them don't keep money in their card if you're under you know, between 2030. And so the churn rate we got was huge. We got I remember we got a lot of at one stage, we had, like, 500 subscribers.
Paul:And then, it'll come through the renewal. We had, like, some lost leader campaigns. Oh, I'll give you a discount on your first box and yield, then it'll renew 2 or 3 months later. And we found out, like, just a drop off rate there. It was transaction declined.
Paul:Now people are using once off disposable cards. So that didn't work, and so we had to had to look at it. So I had 50 subscribers that stayed consistent, and they used their AOB card, not their. So what I do, I just I just call them. Just call them.
Paul:What's up? What's up, baby? How's it send tell me what you like, what you don't like. And, but there's some of them that are still handsome, customers today. Most of them are, to be honest with you.
Paul:And, like, I throw in free stuff. So I buy stuff off my suppliers, and I throw it. One time, what I knew I knew what the pivot was, I threw in the 30 mil bottle. I actually have one here still in front of me. I still use them for rest.
Paul:I still use them for spraying samples. But one, yeah, one customer, I sent them an automizer, the one we use today. And they say I was put in free. And he he gave me a message on Instagram. Hey.
Paul:On my personal page, hey, Paul. Do you know that my next subscription? I go, yeah. Would you mind just sending me one of those automizers, which is 8 mil? By the way, it's 8 mil, and don't you don't have to send me the the bigger ball.
Paul:Just send me the 8 mil. I'd prefer that. I go, so you want me to send you the 8 mil? You know, it's less instead of the other one. He goes, yeah.
Paul:I prefer it and carry around me and plus, yeah, it just suits me more and and because you know, it'd be cool. If you had if you had a few of them, they'll send in a pop. I go, really? So I go, alright. So I just let you pivot it.
Paul:I I just pivot it then. I'm like, okay. Cool. Just and I tried it out with a few more customers. They go, this is cool.
Paul:It's handy. I actually can buy different ones. Yeah. Not the same sense, and then I was like, okay. Boom.
Paul:Let's change it, baby. So I changed within from launching in October, I changed in January. And then, I still I still have, at my first order, I still have a few 100 of these bottles that I can sell. But that's when I realized you you have to pivot. And most entrepreneurs no.
Paul:No. Most a lot of entrepreneurs don't listen to the customer and base what they want off assumption and not fact on what the customer wants. So that happens very, very often. Like, I went through some entrepreneurial courses like New Frontier. It's great, by the way.
Paul:And what what I find the most is that people have an idea and they fall in love with the idea. It's called I call it the entrepreneurial bug. And they love their idea so much. They build up all the stuff in their head. I'm gonna be this brand, this brand.
Paul:This is gonna and they they base everything off assumption, not really facts. And then they love their ideas so much. They don't listen to feedback, and they don't wanna pivot because they've already fallen in love with this idea. It's like falling in love with someone. You don't wanna break up with them.
Paul:And they don't they don't pivot. They don't realize they need to pivot. Some of them might take funding, and then they have pressure on them. And then they they don't wanna realize that, you know, their business idea is not feasible. And so I was always in in the, mindset of I might have to pivot no matter what I do.
Paul:And that's kind of what happened to my hands. So I was pivoted. So as soon as I saw that working, it it by the by the way, when we pivoted, it didn't, like, automatically jump. Like, we we still we did, like, an extra $6 the next year, but I I I it was it was more after marketing, I think, was let down because of the feedback we're getting Even though the limited orders we had was very good, so I just knew it was the marketing, I had to work on. And then that year, I really worked in the marketing to set ourselves up for success in year 3.
Dean:Fantastic. And shout out to that guy who gave you that feedback. He certainly owe him a pint.
Paul:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Because there's Adam from Huawei.
Paul:He's looked like yeah. He's still a customer today. He's still he he actually Shout out. I I got stuff to send to China firm one time or one of yeah. He's still a customer today.
Paul:So Shout out, Adam. I also throw him in a few, few freebies for sure.
Dean:Over. When you, just one of the things you said earlier about you you don't accept investment and and you style this business in the way that you want it to be, you wanna be the governor. You wanna be the boss. You wanna kind of still run it. You it's your baby.
Dean:Right? And it's starting to walk. Yeah. What what did you originally start out looking for? Because people who are, like, quitting their 9 to 5, let's say or let's say use me as an example.
Dean:When I started running my business, I just wanted a a a little cash flowing asset that I could be flexible, travel a little bit, you know, and then not have to work all day for that money. So that's what I kinda wanted. I wanted probably like the digital nomad type thing, you you might say, and that's kinda shifted over time, but that's kinda what I started out as. What what did you want this business to be for you when you actually started?
Paul:Well, to be honest with you, it definitely wasn't financials. I I wanted somewhere I could express my creativity. Like, I worked for a a great company, by the way, for for 6 years, big multinational brewery, and it's amazing. But when you're in a multinational, it doesn't give you the you don't have the room to express your creativity in every idea you have because there's a lot of channels to go through to to get that idea. And then I just had so many I I'm you know, I I I just love being creative.
Paul:I'm just a creative guy in my mind. Whether I'm good enough, that's up to debate, but I just every every hour, I have a new creative thought to do something. So I wanted, number 1, to have an outlet to express my creativity and and see if I have an idea and see if it works because I just love coming up with an idea and other people, you know, you know, liking it, but it's more like I I just love being creative. And just on the final side, it was not for money for sure because just to give you some, it was 4 years to the day after starting Handsome Scent. It was my first paycheck from Handsome Scent, by the way.
Paul:So I find personally, if you're in it for the money and not the lifestyle and when I say lifestyle, you have to love what you do. Because if you don't love what you do and you're not doing it for the intrinsic awards and you need it for the extrinsic awards or financial, it's probably gonna be short lived. And I've seen that because you're gonna you're just gonna one one time get tough and you have to do a lot of content and you don't love what you do, probably gonna burn out. And so, really, firstly, it was to express my creativity and not not necessarily care about being the boss, but if I wanna do something and try something, I can just do it. And that's why I didn't I never wanna take on an investor because you take on an investor, you then have a boss because you get they give you I don't know.
Paul:Let's say they give you a quarter of a 1000000, half a 1000000. They're an angel, and they're gonna want a 2, 3 x return. They just want the return. So they then you have stress and pressure, and you can't fully I find my best work is gonna have no pressure and stress on me. They always have a bit of stress and press, but that's you know?
Paul:If I have an investor, you know, he's gonna be like, where's where's my return? What are you doing this for? And then, you know, you can't make by all fine, you can make the best decision if you have to report to someone that isn't in the business with you. So to answer your question, and I would like to express my creativity and just being able to implement ideas I have. That's really what I love doing.
Paul:I love art. Like, for example, we're getting huge feedback on people love our stuff. They're trying to buy our stuff for weddings. We're gonna bring out a big wedding pack, that people can, you know, they can get a 100 different scents for their their guests with their name on them. And we're gonna do that.
Paul:I can just do that because I can make the decision on that. I don't need to go through a 1000000 channels like I did in my my previous job. And, look, you you don't need to have those channels because if you're a big brand, you have to have parameters on your brand. Well, I that just didn't suit me. So I love just being able to make a decision.
Paul:I know it's gonna work. If not, if it doesn't work, I'll test it and come up with a better idea. And I just love doing that and being able to implement that. That's that's that's why I do what I do.
Dean:So what is an average day like? You know, you're 4 years in now. You obviously have you the business is underway. It's you've got your 1st paycheck and you've got a good customer base. You're in 3 countries now.
Dean:Like, what what does an average day look like for you? How much
Paul:do you work on this? Yeah. Change all the time because at the moment, like, I've I've taken someone on to help me with operations, taking someone over marketing. At the moment, like, I'm kinda training them in, teaching them to think because and and everything I've learned, teaching them to think the way I think. Like, today, we just went to the depot to do some content, check the stock levels.
Paul:I'm training, some for marketing at the moment. So just kinda shadowing me at the moment. But day to day, it it can change a lot in a startup. Like, you know, a lot of it is content planning, marketing planning. And then the forecast at the moment, we're forecasting a lot for q 4 because Christmas time, you do a lot of your a lot of percentage of your sales then.
Paul:So at the moment, we're just a lot of planning at the moment where we we now make the sense ourselves. So we get so we we go direct to perfume houses. We get a manufacturing lab. So that's a lot of a lot of compliance for, cosmetic regulations. So it's it's getting, all the paperwork done.
Paul:So it's so many different things.
Dean:Do you work hours?
Paul:Oh, way more. I do work with hours, but then, like, on weekends, I'll probably work like I'll probably do, like, 5 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday. I don't know. That doesn't it doesn't, like, matter to me. I'm working.
Paul:But, again, I've noticed oh, yeah. Yeah. You do love it, but then it can be like, oh, there's just some parts of it now that aren't enjoyable you have to do. But, again, I'm loving now that I'm I'm I'm I have a feeling a bit of a team that are taking those things off me, and they're enjoying them because it's new to them. And with the customer service side of it, we're we're training in training a team for that in DPD and also in directly with us as well.
Paul:So there's various things that's kinda tedious and, know, stuff that doesn't really create value, and those are things, not that I don't create value, but the whole point could be working on on growing the business more so, than than doing those kinda tedious tasks. So yeah.
Dean:So that's obviously, like, now. Yeah? Now 4 years in, and that might not be the reason I asked that was just to get a sense for somebody who's listening to maybe understand what life could be like for them down the line if they do build an ecommerce brand. Right? But a lot of people might not be at that stage.
Dean:They might not even be at month 6. They might not even be at month 1. So could you maybe bring us back to, like, day 1 for you in the hope that we can sort of help someone here and say, like, what did you actually do in the first few days? Like, how did you find this gap? How did you actually get this started?
Dean:And what are the actual things you were doing day to day and week to week in the early days to get this thing going?
Paul:Yeah. Definitely. If I was to give advice and tell them tell people what I was doing week 1, 2, 3, 4, I'd I I wouldn't give I wouldn't advise doing what I did in week 1, 2, 3, 4. I'd I'd more give advice on what I think you should do in, like Yeah. Go ahead.
Paul:So rather than tell you what I did, I would say what you should do if I was starting a new brand again. A lot of people that I meet, they wait to the perfect time to launch. What if you're trying to do an ecom brand, b to c, and you don't have a large budget to get UGC creators and you're starting from a low base, I recommend putting the camera in front of you on day 1 and just doing a 22nd video. My name is Paul, and I'm gonna create a this brand because I love doing this. Would love your follow-up journey.
Paul:And I'm gonna post another video tomorrow and every single day until we launch. Set up Shopify and start collecting email data as much as you can. And I give this advice to everyone. And I've I don't know. I have 50 people I've give this advice to.
Paul:Only one has actually taken up. I tell them very simple. You want success? K. Do these things for your first steps.
Paul:And I meet them. I I always meet them then 3, 4, or 5 weeks later. I already called me here, and I'm like, oh, hey. Did you get that thing going? I asked you to do.
Paul:And I'm like, oh, no. No. I actually had this and that. I had to talk to my potential CFO. I'm like, mate, you have even you you don't need to worry about that now.
Paul:You need to get through these basic steps and walk before you even look at that. I'm looking at this as a voice. I'm like, no. You know? People don't listen.
Paul:So and the few people that do listen well well, like, one the one guy that actually listened to me, is a I I I mean, he is a 6 figure, ecom, founder. His name's Gavin from Poseidon Hair. He's only 20, and he does listen to every he in fairness, he listened to everything I say. And, like, I looked at his business. I'm like, Gavin, why are you paying yourself this much?
Paul:And you you need to put us back at the stock, and you you need to put your your sales are gonna are gonna are gonna go really good. Like, you're running out of stock here. Why are you doing this? And he go, oh, and I'll give him a few tips. He just everything I said, and his business grew a lot.
Paul:And he's only 20, so they can take and he's my age in, you know, 10 years' time. He he's gonna be a lot further on than I was because he listens, and not many people listen. So first, it's very, very simple. If you want to do ecom brands, do a video every single day. Tell them what your thoughts are, how you're getting to the next step, why you're doing what you're doing.
Paul:People don't buy what. They bought a why. And then when you do launch, you have an email database. And by the way, ecom, and if you want a successful ecom business, 30 to 40% of your sales, 40% of the hiring should be from email at least. And if you've already gathered 500 emails, a 100 emails, you'll be a lot further along when you launch your product.
Paul:When you launch your product, it's a if it is a product, pack every single order that comes through your Shopify, every single one. There's 10 orders that day. There's 2 orders that day. Pack 2 of them and go, hey. Tommy, I see orders here.
Paul:Thank you so much. And post every single video until you get to 50 orders a day or 20 orders a day. And if you do those things and the product is good, you will be successful. Just, oh, I'm gonna have this party, and I went off the rag. But if you're stuck to the plan, you're stuck to the diet, you would be close to that 6 pack than you were yesterday.
Paul:It's the same thing in business. So I actually think business is harder than getting into shape because it was a study on America. They were a lot of study. But the fact is that more is more millionaires in America than there's no there's more there's more millionaires in America than people with 6 packs.
Dean:Says a lot about the the, a, the country of America and and the state of it, and, b, the the importance of consistency over long periods. You know, it's very easy to show up on any given day, but can you repeat that day for 6 months, 10 years?
Paul:Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. That's what it is.
Paul:And most people I get a lot of people that come to me, and they see the business. They get so excited. They meet me, and they're like, oh my god. And I wanna do this and I'm like, I have all these ideas. Hey.
Paul:Just let's just do a simple baby set. You just can see it's like walk every but you tell someone that wants to lose lose weight and get a 6 pack to walk, walk every single day, get your steps in. They're probably gonna I do, like, 3 weeks of, like, sprints and try to lose all the way real fast, and then they'll burn out. And then they didn't do those basic. Just walk a little bit more every day.
Dean:Little bit. Little bit.
Paul:That's the biggest thing that people don't do. Right? It's so simple. It's simple. Anyone can do what I do, but they just have to actually be disciplined and do it consistently.
Paul:So I meet a lot of people meet me. And then 6 months later, I got got this job, and I decided actually to buy I went on holiday and I pawned off the business. And No. I might do I might go back to it. And then that's happened very often.
Paul:So
Dean:It's down to what you want. And you you said earlier about the way you structure your business to what you want. You knew what you wanted it to be. And I say to people who are, like, asking me about what I do, I say, like, look, what what do you actually want? Is it, like, do you wanna be a digital nomad and, like, fuck around Bali and chill out there?
Dean:Do just make a little lifestyle business that earns you a few ks a month. Like, you don't need to build a massive ASOS brand or massive ecommerce brand. Build a business that caters to what you wanna do. If you just wanna go and chill on a beach, drink cocktails, build a business that can allow you to do that.
Paul:Whereas if
Dean:you wanna for your in your case, you've built this thing that you actually love working on. You love working on this thing. And that's very different type of business to build because you're building it for so for different reason. I was gonna just gonna go back to your marketing strategy because I'm so interested in this and I love the videos you do, the founder led content. It's really, really cool.
Dean:But how did that change over time? Like, how was your social media at the start, and then how has it evolved to what it is now? We interrupt this broadcast to ask for a quick favor. If you are in any way remotely finding any value from this podcast, please consider leaving me a follow on whatever place that you are getting your podcast. And if you really love it, please give us a 5 star review as it really helps in this early stage of growth.
Dean:Thanks.
Paul:Yeah. I just felt peep people think I love doing the videos. And, look, I do enjoy making good content and having having the crack, but I didn't I was, like, I was actually very hesitant to get in the camera. I didn't wanna get in the camera, and get in the camera consistently is draining, but I I will do it. But reason why I pivoted was we weren't having success year 1, 2, and I go, we have to do something different.
Paul:And I I did see I was actually I hate being I love you know, normally love love being the innovator, and I I was a bit of a laggard. And I saw during, you know, COVID, there was businesses having success putting themselves on camera. And I go, okay. That's that's working for them. I'm not doing it.
Paul:I just gotta be the best I can be. Not saying being trying to be being everyone else, but I gotta just do that. And then when I did that, I remember doing my first video of I got I got a friend in Cork to video me telling the why of Handsome Sense. Why I decided to do this business model was because, you know, I worked in hospitality, and I saw a gap of people going in. Smoke breaks.
Paul:They wanted to top up you know, stay fresh. They wanted different types of scents. They didn't wanna travel with large glass bottles. I put that on TikTok, and then I remember, like, well, I put on TikTok, put my phone airplane mode, went to the gym, and I came out of the gym, took my phone off airplane mode, and we got €500 on sales. Like, okay.
Paul:That's working. Let's do a lot more of this. Now fair enough with our everyone's nervous doing content, talking, but, look, if it's working, okay, now I gotta be be the best I can be at this. So then I started doing ads, making this this this kind of ads, and that was converting a lot better than, like, I have paid influencers. Or I I I think there's, by the way, a difference in a content creator and influence influencer.
Paul:I paid both. I paid content creators to make content for me. And when you look at when you pull it as an ad and you compare, the founder led content gets the the best results because it resonates with the customer. It's not someone else talking about your brand. It's you, the business owner.
Paul:And so you're basically you you've done sales in tech. Imagine being able to scale your ability to sell. And that's what ads the TikTok ads and Instagram ads. You're scaling your your ability to sell to an audience, a large audience, not just one person. You hop on a call and you try onboard them to software, which a lot of people have got.
Paul:I know you talk about your your journey in sales when, you know, you left it because you didn't love it anymore. But imagine having that type of platform that you you're a great salesperson. You you can scale that now. We found that content. So we pivoted towards found that content because it worked, and we still do a lot of it.
Paul:But I'm still I'm still trying to bring in people in the business to get on camera and not just be me because there's only so much of me people can see. Like, I just this this this this fellow again, Jesus. He's he won't get off my TikTok. I do get that. The reason I was doing me so much is because it was working with the audience.
Paul:It wasn't because I I wanted to hug the camera. It was literally because we weren't successful. And by the way, content does not work overnight. It it comes with a level of camera confidence and not a level of acting, but being able to actually portray your true self on camera is actually it takes a bit a bit of time. Like, you you do it very well.
Paul:How you come across in your videos, exactly how we talk in person, which is it's actually a very small few percent of people can do. When you when I see GDC content, it's very scripted. It's like, hello. Yes. So you can go into this business or you can buy go check out this ebook, and they'll give you advanced marketing strategies.
Paul:And you should definitely get this ebook, and it's it's really transactional robotic script.
Dean:Of course.
Paul:And to get that level of comfort takes a long time. Even though I I did a session today with one of my American girls, she's actually amazing base, great creative eye. Well, like, her first video, she was like, oh, so today, I wanna pack the toilet and no. Just be yourself. Be yourself.
Paul:So I I put the camera down. Now look. Let's just have a conversation. So what are you doing right now? Talk to me as you we're in the office where there's no camera here.
Paul:And that takes a bit of training. So if if if any founder wants to do something, what they should do is get a friend, put the camera in front of them, have a conversation, forget have a beer, forget the cameras there. I guarantee it. That content that you get out of those clips is gonna be better and just putting the camera with a script there and just have the person give you some stuff you should talk about. That's how you make content.
Paul:It's not giving someone a script to read off. That doesn't really work. The consumer consumers have got so smart looking at ads these days. They know what that is straight away. So you have to actually bypass that and feel like you're in the pub having a chat with someone that owns a business rather than, hey, hey, I'm Paul.
Paul:I've had some sense and you should buy this because it has just benefits, features, benefits. No. That's that's consumer is gonna read through that and scroll. I'm gonna be you know, if you make that ad I see and only if you have a large budget, you can get away with getting an agency to get some content creators that don't care about your business and go, yes. So I've been sent this out by a 100% cent, and I've sent this.
Paul:Doesn't but that doesn't convert very well for me. Maybe a large budget with a lot of creative iteration. I'm assuming that probably will work because they see it so much. But for a small a smaller business, like, we are still a small business. We're we're dropping the ocean, which is fine, but I don't care about being a huge, massive business.
Paul:I just love doing what I do and having the freedom to do it. For a founder led, you have to if you have a small budget, you have to get on the camera yourself. You have to gain your camera confidence, and you just gotta be consistent.
Dean:I absolutely love what you said about just having that same voice that you speak to your friend. Like, would you like, imagine speaking to your friend like, hey. I'm Paul, and, you know, it's going to be yeah.
Paul:It was a day. Well, Trust me, it's it's I learned in America. I studied in America, and, you know, you're already good at present presenting. You have the the the charisma. In America, they're all trained in college to stand up and present pretty much every class.
Paul:I learned my stage presence in America and Purdue. So every class, you get extra credit for asking questions, and you'd have to go up and, like, talk in front of the class. And in Ireland, we're very poor at it because it's not you'll do, like, 1 or 2 presentations a semester. But in America, they are better at presenting because the training they get and and are a little bit behind. So when you put a camera in front of someone, you put someone up talking in front of an audience.
Paul:And if you can't keep that same tone, how you talk in front of your friends and you become a script reading off a teleprompter script and become robotic, your audience won't be engaged because they'll see through that and go, oh, hello. My name is Dean O'Reilly, and I'm here to talk to you about my podcast business. My lovely horse is no. It has to be I I I let you go for for the people. Like, what's up?
Paul:What's up, baby? I'm Paul. I'm handsome. Thank you so much for coming in here. And I'll just talk about myself.
Paul:And, yeah, sometimes I'll talk a little bit too fast because I get excited. That's who I am. And people kinda can can can feed that and read that.
Dean:A friend of mine, is after getting some serious traction on Instagram and and posts some of the most fantastic videos. His name is Tommy. And he and I were in the pub chatting before, and I was talking to him about him me making my content. And I was like, I just feel a little bit weird with it. You know?
Dean:I just I just I don't quite connect with it. And he said, it's because it's not you. He said, you need to make the content and use and this is the quote he said to me. He's like, like, it's the voice you use to your mate when you chat in the pub.
Paul:Yeah. That that's it.
Dean:It should be no different. You should be able to speak to them as you're chatting in a pub. And then as the camera appears, you do not go up or down. You stay as you are.
Paul:That's it. And how hard it is? You know how many people can do that? It's literally like being it's not you're not acting, but it's like it's like being an actor. Like, you have lines.
Paul:Actually, acting acting is harder because you have exact lines to say, and you have to reproduce that. I, like, I couldn't I would never be a good actor because I could I'm I'm dyslexic, and I could not learn a lot of lines. They they would have to it would have to be, like, some kind of improv where you kinda tell me, hey. Go have a fight with that person and and and fight about you, them stealing your misses or something. You know?
Paul:It would have to be cues. I could not go off a script personally. So it it sounds easy, but, like, most people won't wanna put themselves out there because there is hate. And I know I get a bit of hate sometimes now less less so because I call out the haters and all. If someone gives me hate and they actually use their real name, I'll I'll literally what I'll do is I will literally reply to your comments, and I'll make an ad, and I'll put a lot of money behind it.
Paul:And, like, people people you know, if you wanna if you wanna come at me, I'll come out I'll come out you, baby. You know? I'll make money out to you. No. That's that's what I kinda built out.
Paul:I'm saying, we start replying to all these comments. Oh, you're you're not near this or that. Look. Kukulah. Like, there is a cohort of people that will always hate hate any type of success because it reminds them of their of their own failure.
Paul:There's also amazing people that will support you. Like, my handsome community, I I'm not messing. I love, the community that I built. And I I never felt like it was a community until this year just because you should see some of the messages I get, man. Like, I don't know.
Paul:It's like I had a a girl that, she wants me to share a story share a story, but not give her a name. She's like, she was had domestic abuse problems, but she said, look. She buys the product, and she just loves treating herself now. And, look. I'm happy for you to share this this message around my names, but I just want people to, like, you know, put I love your brand.
Paul:I love your connection on people. The message I I get the I get mothers I get mothers emailing me about their sons being bullied in college, and I'll I'll actually I'll I'll always give my number and go, look. If if they wanna call me, no problem, and I'll reach out to them. And, well, I'd it's you'd be man, about 3 times a week, I get pretty powerful emails from it can be anything from they just tell me what's going on. The yeah.
Paul:Their son's being bullied. Their daughter's being bullied. Their their their their dad just passed away. And then, you know, my dad passed away a few years ago, and I I I would actually have a personal connection. And it's it's not it's not me being fake.
Paul:I actually love talking to my customer when I can. It is getting harder now that I'm doing so much, but if those emails come through, I'd make sure the guys tell me, look. I'll I'll always make time because at the end of the day, we're all people. So it's it's a I love the the the community, and that's taken a while. And now I feel it actually is a community.
Paul:We're, yeah, I have impostor syndrome. Like, the 1st few years, I didn't feel like we're a real company. I just felt like I was just selling a little bit of scent online. For the first time, I actually feel like a real company with a proper community, proper customer base that actually care. And, like, when stuff goes out of stock now, I don't see it.
Paul:I get messages now, when is it back in stock? I love that. And that's taken that takes time to actually build. And I I I wanted that to year 1. And if it's if you want everything to happen on year 1 and you do it without investment, it's not gonna happen.
Paul:One of
Dean:the things you said there that really stood out to me is that you have only stopped feeling imposter syndrome now in year 4. And I Yeah. I I think you've highlighted something really important there, which is it just kinda feels a bit weird at the start. You're posting videos online. You're starting a business.
Dean:Whatever you're doing, you're just not gonna fully believe it for a while. And even somebody would look at you and say, wow. Look. He's got a million turnover. He's this.
Dean:He's that. He must be laughing. It's not really. You you it takes a while. It takes a while to feel good about it.
Dean:And Yeah. How how do you how would you say to someone now to feel comfortable with that perceived judgment of recording that video you tell them to record or to start that business? Like, how would they feel how can they manage that?
Paul:It's it's actually hard to give advice for because that's that's a good question. How do you manage it? You you have to actually the way I look like, you have to actually do it as in if you're on a pier. Don't you ever go on a pier at a 40 foot and you just bounce jump off. No.
Paul:I got you. You can pause for a minute. It's literally, like, not even thinking about it. Just do it. Just do it.
Paul:And do it, but also be, you know, be be, very self aware when you're doing it because it is your own content. I would say dive in, but also be very self aware and think very critically about the content you're making. Is it resonating with an audience? It is if if if it's not if if it's your own videos and you're getting 5 likes, you're not getting 6 likes next week in your next few videos, what's going on? What am I doing wrong?
Paul:So it's it's literally dive in and not not care what people think because you will get people. Now content's become more acceptable than when I started. Like, now everyone does content. Like, so and then now it's actually a bit easier than when I started. So I think, just dive in, and and don't care what anyone thinks.
Paul:If you really wanna do this, if you really wanna be a a founder of a of a business online, ecommerce, which a lot of people deal with very hard, by the way, you gotta do it. If you're not willing to do it, that might not be for you.
Dean:It seems like people are more accepting of content these days. And what I found at least is when I have started to put more of a shift on authentic content, meaning I'm not acting, I'm not putting any bravado on, I'm just kinda be be being like the guy chatting to his mate in the pub, people do respect it a little bit more and maybe those little comments dwindle away or don't happen at all. But that is certainly a big part of I know that's such a big blocker, especially for Irish people. Right? We tend to fear what the neighbors might say when something when we go ahead
Paul:and do something. Now I literally I'm not I'm not not being like, oh, fuck. Oh, god. Crump. Fuck.
Dean:We can edit this out. Don't worry. Fucking hell. Jesus.
Paul:Oh, fuck. Hell, sorry. Oh. I know the biggest crowd. I just need it.
Paul:I need to live. No. Hold on. That had happened.
Dean:Is it a hammy?
Paul:That's the biggest script ever. Well, this is I was so rammed up about this podcast, baby.
Dean:It's just such a good episode. Yeah. We're cramping up here. Fuck.
Paul:Oh, what was that? I literally just cramp. Sorry. What were you saying there? What what was
Dean:I don't even know. I thought you were down
Paul:there. Sorry. Yeah. What I was saying is I've got to the stage where I've I've got like, over the years, I've probably got, oh, I'm not messing between hands and a boof. I have probably got close to a 1,000 negative comments.
Paul:And when you go through that much negativity, you don't care what people because you actually when you understand why someone's hating, it's because, they have huge problems themselves. And and generally, you know, you can if if if you ever got bullied as as a kid, which a lot of people have, you the your mother always say, oh, he probably has problems at home. That's actually prop it 9% true. So when you understand Yeah. When someone actually says negative comment and they come at you.
Paul:Now, actually, I accept that they have issues because no one happy is going to is going to put is going to come in. So then you actually become more peaceful because I do I I get less paid now than I ever did, but I'm starting off a lot more. But and I I still will get a little bit you know, I don't I don't see many anymore. Funny enough, in the last 6 months, not as much.
Dean:But What about what about, like because, people who are listening now will probably be more afraid of the not even the hateful comments, but maybe the backhanded comments from people who are close to them, their friends or their family or the uncle who kinda would just make a remark at dinner about, you know, that type of comment. This doesn't necessarily have to be a total stranger.
Paul:Like, what about I'm saying so. Let let let let let let me tell you something. It drives me more. Like, I'll give you the I'll give you examples of some backhanded ones, that really drive me. Like, I'm so stubborn.
Paul:I'm the most stubborn man ever. I will not give up and pivot. And and even if it kills me to make something work, I'll always make something work. But I, you know, I yeah. I remember leaving, I was leaving a company.
Paul:I was leaving I was leaving how I I don't wanna give too much away, but let's just say I I was leaving, I was moving on to something, and 2 people that I would have known I wouldn't have been very close to, but they were in they would have been in a professional circle. One of them says, I'm probably a high higher level manager in a organization that your your man, Paul, was on his website, handsome sense. Like, did he that's just doesn't make sense. You know? That's not gonna work.
Paul:It's just not gonna work. And
Dean:Did you have
Paul:a a friend yeah. Well, a friend of mine who's close to me told me, I I I do trust him. And this and this person who said that's an inside inside box thinker. They can't imagine what can be. They look at what is and look at data now, and they don't look at it.
Paul:And then he'll never be this person will never be an entrepreneur. Then another person, one of my close friends, at Christmas time goes, look. You you've left your job. You think you made the right decision? And then, look.
Paul:I showed them the sales on Christmas, and they go it was like, I was it was a risk, but this is this is what I it was, you know, it was pretty significant revenue. Now it it it was like we we did really, really good revenue. More than my wildest dreams, and he he was talking to this professional person, and that wasn't my professional circle. And, so they asked, well, how's Paul doing? Think he made the right decision leaving his job?
Paul:And he goes, yeah. Like, absolutely. And he go, he's doing really well. And then this person goes, are you sure? Are you sure he's doing well?
Paul:And I go, look. You know, he's doing really well. And I think he was he was he had a few drinks, so he told her the revenue. Even though, look, it was confidential, but look. There's no problem.
Paul:Told her the revenue. And she goes, you're stupid if you think that. Like, he's not doing that. And, like, me Yes. Me here than that drives me on so much more.
Dean:Oh, yeah.
Paul:And I love I love these I love these little just sometimes you get complacent, and it's like poking the bear. Did you just remember how far you've come from year 1? Because that in year 1, if they said that, I would actually have been hurt. But now I'm so confident what we've done, what we've achieved. I'm so proud what we achieved.
Paul:Those comes, I love them because they'll poke me a little more. Okay, baby? Let's get up an hour a day, and let's keep on going, baby. Because this per these people, they'll never leave their realm. Like, you you talk a lot about taking the leap to leave and get to where you wanna be, whatever that is.
Paul:And these people see that they they won't be able to take leave. They they will take leave, so they like to actually point fingers and go, I'm not really doing that well. So I definitely have not that I need to prove end to end, but I just love continuously growing myself, and it just gives you those reminders. People will doubt you, but I love, proving that I was wrong, baby, because it's it's just like it's funny. Sometimes they come up to you then, that had hate in the past, and you've heard of hate in the past.
Paul:Oh, well done. I see you. I like in the last 6 months, we've got a lot of traction. So people are like, wow. You're doing well well at the moment.
Paul:Then you're in the back of your head. Yeah. You were kinda in the back of your mind, you know, you all make it uncomfortable for them, but, you know, like, you were kinda hating on the idea of the stars.
Dean:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where were
Paul:you going? And you'll only see the results of that years later when you keep consistent. So if you do let that knock you in the early stages, use it as fuel. Now I'm very stubborn, so I'll use it as fuel. But, I love proving the haters wrong.
Paul:And they're they're they're the silent haters. And trust you, like, you know, they're not people you'd like to give a lot of time. They just, for me, it's just a little noise to go, keep going, Polly. Keep going because we're not even we're not even scratching the surface yet. You know?
Dean:I'm even fired up just listening to that, man. Honestly, that is, I hope anyone who's listening is just can hear that. Imagine someone close to them saying something negative or even just, like, indirectly related to them not doing so well or showing their disapproval of what you're doing and just be like, do you know what? There's a bit of fuel. Let me use that.
Dean:And Alex Hormozi, if you if you ever watch him, I heard him talk about before. He said, like, for people like that, the only revenge you can get is just complete success. Like, absolutely smash it.
Paul:Honestly, that's the only way. And to be honest, though, it it it is the 1% of people that can do it. Like, in in business, I'm sure it's actually harder to get a business to generate, you know, get to over a 1,000,000 in revenue than becoming a professional football. And when I say professional football, I don't just mean Premier League. I mean, like, getting even to league 1, league 2.
Paul:I think it's harder to actually get a business yourself, found it, because, like, say, consistently, I can get to a 1,000,000 in revenue. That is actually harder than becoming professional football. I truly mean not not primarily just any you know, getting getting paid, being professional football. It is one of the hardest things to do. The stats there, 10% of start ups will make it, and I think it's only less than 6 percent will ever 7% will ever get to 1,000,000 revenue.
Paul:And that was UK figures. Don't quote me in that, but that's the the the but and and and and it was Ireland, I think 10% of startups will actually come and stay a business. You know? So I took the stuff there, and that's not even generating s amount of revenue. That's just being in business, you know, day more than 3 years.
Paul:That's a very, very difficult thing to do. You know? So I remember my my hardest time when I was starting off, like, I started March. I was meant to actually launch in the summertime in 2020, but my my father passed away. So I remember, the day my father died, I drove back from I was in, Scarf and Clare.
Paul:I was working as a Heineken rep. I drove back to my family house when my my father passed away. I remember going to the house, and it was during COVID. So I was in the backyard, and and we were staying social distanced, which is a hard thing. And I remember getting, a phone call.
Paul:It was devastating. I get a phone call from my suppliers that I had to answer. So I've literally, like, hey. My father just died really hard. My family are all set.
Paul:And I now have a a phone call from my supplier. But if I don't answer this, there's no one else that's gonna answer this. So I thought, like, literally, for 10 minutes, they're okay. Calm down. How are you doing?
Paul:Put on the, you know, the business mode and then shut that down and then come back to, my family. We were just grieving literally, like, hours of my father's past. If you're, like that was probably an extreme example, but that did happen. And that was pretty tough. But, you know, when I when I got through that, I was like, hey.
Paul:I can stay consistent no matter what happens. Even you know, because that was, like, one of the hardest things I had to do. The last thing you wanna do is think about business when that kind of thing happens. So you staying consistent when things are going on is is is a big thing. You know?
Dean:Yeah. For sure. I can relate so much to that. Phone call happens. It's not ideal, but, like, you know, if you don't take it, all the previous work is done in what could have been fixed in 5 minutes or 3 minutes or whatever.
Paul:So I know. And my and my dad would have wanted that. So, you know, it's not me paying disrespect. I'm taking a business call. It's more
Dean:Exactly. Exactly.
Paul:This is the path I chose of, like, of one person in the business at a time and to, you know, if I bought when when that happened, I was when I when I when I I did take a little step back for a few weeks, but I was still taken away. And then I went out at the end of summer or at that Christmas time or for the lunch then. So, unfortunately, if you are starting your own business, you can't put excuses over results. You can't have excuses and results. You can't have both.
Paul:You have to have the results. If you if you if you if you find yourself giving excuses for everything you're not doing, that's you have to be very self reflective and go, okay. Maybe the root here is me, not, you know, everyone else.
Dean:Yeah. I love your approach to social media. I love your business. I really do. It's so clever.
Dean:It's so cool. It suits you. It suits your personality. The way you market it, it's just genius. And I think anyone who is even starting out, has started out, wants to start out in ecommerce can learn a lot from from some of the stuff you've said today, and I think it's just been very, very insightful.
Dean:If someone was to become part of your prestigious community and wanted to get involved and buy some Handsome Scent, where where should I tell them to go?
Paul:Handsome scent.com, baby. Handsome scent.com.
Dean:Sick, man. Well, this has been a great chat, and I really appreciate you joining, man. Thanks so much.
Paul:Thank you, Dean. Thank you so much for the time. It's always a pleasure, brother.
Dean:Much love, man. Shout out. We interrupt this broadcast to provide you
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