The blessing of 2020 so far
June 22, 2020 Duplessy Foundation Update
The blessing of 2020 is gaining an understanding of what really matters.
April 17 at 6:25AM baby DJ came into the world. My wife and I were overjoyed with our first child — born in the time of COVID-19.
For the entrepreneurs that I coach at Duplessy Foundation, focusing on improving their sales process has become important, while everyone stayed home.
In the proceeding lines of this update, I will be sharing with you our progress, problems, and plans.
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Below is a quick list of the women, immigrant, and minority entrepreneurs we coach on an ongoing basis:
Karla, Your Home Detox, eco-friendly cleaning service
Luis, Porfolio, social media scheduling app
Lori, Thinkubator Media, communications agency raising the public profile for female scientists
Mishell, Stina & Mae, organic baby accessories for stylish moms
Zainab, Zainab Sumu, textile art highlighting Africa’s rich culture heritage
Anne, Wonder Women Now, intl art exhibition about domestic violence
Kandace, Anita Kurl, curly hair salon
In 2020, we have coached 100+ individuals at least once. These people represent our current cohort.
Progress
A couple weeks ago, Mishell sent me a screenshot of her baby accessory company, Stina & Mae, making $1,000 over a week — online.
She had to stand at a mall kiosk and attend popup markets during the holiday season to earn the same amount — in person.
There were some key changes Mishell needed to make to facilitate her best week online.
- The first change was raising her prices. The highest priced item on her baby accessory site was actually $35 when we started coaching. We combined some items and turned them into gift boxes at $98 and $198.
- The second change was going fully organic with her materials. The reason Mishell started Stina & Mae was because her son was allergic to certain fabrics. The challenge was non-organic items were selling. She decided to give away all the non-organic items to families in need.
- The last change was installing website tools to help Mishell understand her customers’ experience on the website. She was able to see nobody was clicking on some products she wanted to showcase. After removing the items, 8% of her visitors were turning into paying customers.
Mishell is now on pace to her best month online and best overall for her business. By the time, you read this she has already generated $2,000 in two weeks and selling out of her stock.
I will be sharing more stories of our entrepreneurs over the coming months.
Problems
With the arrival of my first baby, I’ve been batting 1.000.
Fundraising = 0 hours
Marketing = 0 hours
Sleep = 0 hours (it seemed that way the first 4 weeks)
While our coaching community has not seen an interruption in coaching, I have stagnated. We need more board members, staff, and dollars to expand our work.
Plans
Our stagnation is the reason we are onboarding two new contract staff.
Sharlyn, our Operations Manager will be helping coordinate all of our workflows and projects for the year.
Paulina, our Marketing Manager, will focus on our marketing including the upcoming WIM Summit, an online conference providing sales coaching to entrepreneurs around the world.
Financially, these two hires are going to be tough initially but very much worth it.
How You Can Help
Events
Join a coaching session Tuesday, June 23 at 3pm
**This coaching session with Zainab, where you can provide feedback on her presentation for her upcoming Website Reveal Party.
Attend online Website Reveal Party, Thursday June 25 at 7pm — Reply with your RSVP, I will send a link
**This event will reveal a new website for Zainab Sumu, a textile art store. We actually started with the inspiration of the J. Peterman catalogue from Seinfeld. Zainab and her business party Christina will be breaking the whole process of concept to design to implementation.
Getting Involved
Volunteer for Board Recruitment [email info@duplessy.org with your interest]
Twice a month, I will be sharing updates. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to comment.
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Duplessy Foundation teaches women and minority entrepreneurs around the world how to implement a sales process. Our goal is to use our teaching to help diverse entrepreneurs and artists become their best self. We are a 501c3 tax exempt non profit.
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