Tools To Make Running Your Business Easier

0:00What I really appreciate, and I don't know if this is necessarily connected directly to my audience, is they call me out. I think that's really a really important thing. And being able to handle that call out is really important, especially as a business. Hey, it's Shuang Esther Shan and welcome to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. An important part of the entrepreneur mindset is having conviction. To be so committed to your idea that negative comments only motivate you. Raven Gibson's journey is the perfect example. She took her passion for graphic design and love for her natural hair to create Legendary Roots, a fashion and accessory brand dedicated to empowering and uplifting Black women.

0:44And it could be now found at Target. Her pivot into entrepreneurship happened while she was studying biochemistry, forcing some people to question her decision. So Raven is here to give you advice on tapping into your own intuition and to share which apps and services helped to grow her brand. Raven, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. So happy to have you here, Raven. I know that your journey of self-confidence and advocating for yourself went hand in hand with your journey into entrepreneurship. Talk to us why it's so important to stand up for yourself and how the first t-shirt came to be.

1:23I love to tell the story because I really feel like it was the first time that I learned to advocate for myself. Since I believe like my junior year in high school, I had been wanting to cut my hair. I feel like I asked my mom every week, can I cut my hair? Can I cut my hair? And she's like, do you know how to take care of it? And I'm like, no, but I learned. And so one year I was a senior in high school and I was at the beauty salon with my mom and I'm just sitting there doing whatever. And her beautician comes up to me. She says, hey, your mom told me you want to cut your hair. And I'm like, yes, let's do it.

1:53She's like, okay, let's do it. I didn't tell my sisters. I'm really close to them. I didn't tell my friends. I told no one. I made the decision for me because this is something that I wanted to do. So being able to do that, really, I believe, was the start and the spark of this business. It was connected to my hair. As a Black woman, your hair is really important. It's a part of your identity. And that really empowered me to continue to make decisions for myself. At the same time, I was in a moment of transition, graduating from high school and going to college. I was at a predominantly white institution, Arizona State University.

2:26and I was also part of the Honors College. While the first week of school, you attend your classes, you're kind of walking around campus and I realized like, oh, it's few of us, you know? And I wanted to create some designs for me personally. I knew I was gonna be on campus. I'm a more casual kind of girl. So I wanted to create some t-shirts, some hoodies, some long sleeves that I could wear, you know, when I just wanted to throw something on and go to class. Two of the first designs were, no, you cannot touch my hair and I am Black History. I believe in 2018, there was some movement in the Black community, especially in America.

3:02I Am Black History, I really love that design because it's simple. I believe that it resonated with the Black culture as a whole. And I think that was one of the designs that really helped to elevate us from family and support to international and community support around the world. And then the no, you cannot touch my hair. It's so sassy. Like it speaks for you. it allowed me to have a voice without again having to have a conversation even like wearing the shirt around campus I remember I went to a local grocery store and I forgot what how my hair was thought I might have had braids and I was in the deli section and this woman came up to me she said do people really have to touch your hair and I'm like yes they do they do and I really loved and appreciated how the designs that I created they started conversation it wasn't necessarily overt or it wasn't anything that was necessarily challenging, but it granted me an opportunity to speak up for myself again without even having to say anything.

3:58Yeah. And I think what's also important is while you were in school, this is your way of expressing yourself through the choice you designed, but it's also in line with the conviction you had to have. You were in the sciences, you didn't study design, and you had to have this conviction to say, this is something I wanted to do. So tell us more about that part of the journey as well. Along with this being a passion project, once it really kind of got a foundation and, you know, I realized that this was a business, I kind of, you know, started putting in the work, creating the designs, talking to my community.

4:31I remember, and my sisters, I'm really close to my family, and my sisters are like, I remember when you used to have 10 followers on Instagram. And I'm like, and I always, my response is, yeah, look at me now. And yeah, the numbers are cool, you know, the metrics are cool as a business owner, but I really appreciate the community I've built. Even like some of the social media posts that I've shared with the quotes like, dear Black woman, like believe in yourself, take up space. A lot of those things oftentimes, and I've never necessarily shared this, but oftentimes when I share those messages, that's a message that either I need in that moment or that I had reminded myself in the past and I want to share it to other people.

5:07And I really appreciate the community that I've been able to build through that empowerment. I'm really passionate about speaking life into people. oftentimes, even in my life, I encounter obstacles. Those mantras that I repeat really help me to keep going, to push forward. In 2018, I was in a moment of transition. I was about to graduate college. I was trying to figure out what I was doing next. Was I going to do something with my biochemistry degree or was I going to operate my business full time? It was around the end of the school year, so I was about to graduate and I went to a local university in Flagstaff, Arizona for an organization I was a part of, or I'm still a part of.

5:44I remember after the presentation that we did for the organization, this girl came up to me. People who don't know me might not know, they might know I'm a behind the scenes kind of girly. I love to be in my own space. I love to create. I love to just exist in where I exist. And when I'm ready to share my art to the world, I do it. But she came up to me and she was like, are you the creative legendary roots? I was like, yes. You know, I'm looking around like, yes. She's like, I actually purchased some items for my little sister. She was getting bullied in school. your items really helped her to empower herself.

6:13And honestly, yes, I love the opportunities that come through building this brand, but I love the stories more. I love to connect with the community more and know that the work I'm doing and the art I'm doing is really helping people. So stories like that really helped me when I do face obstacles while I'm building my business to continue going. I think that full circle moment, knowing that you had impact in someone else's life is those magical moments that you look forward to in entrepreneurship. At your starting point, when you did have this biochemistry route, you were pursuing this degree, you really had this conviction to say, I believe in my idea, I believe in my business, and I'm going to do it.

6:53What are some exercises or tips you have for fellow founders that could help them to tap into that intuition and be self-assured in that they're making the right decision? I think first, making sure that you're speaking life into yourself. That's a really big part of it. There's a song that's called Encourage Yourself. I grew up listening to that kind of music, but I really didn't listen to it. I really didn't understand what it was saying. When you tell yourself, I'm going to be okay, it's going to work out. Even though in that moment, those words might not change anything, it shifts your mindset.

7:25There have been times, especially during the pandemic, when things were shutting down, there was a moment where there were 30-day delays. And I was like, okay, what I can do is I can just get all the orders out and take a break, take a pause. And I considered that. That was an option. You know, as a business owner, being able to pivot is really, really, really important. Being able to take what you're given and to flip it and to work it is really important as a business owner. And I found that even in my experience. But I took a step back. I was like, yes, this obstacle right now is very tough.

7:57Yes, I could quit. I could pause. I could take a break. But taking a step back really allowed me to see the landscape, see what my options were and move on from there. Also, I'm a curious person. I'm self-taught. I taught myself how to design. I taught myself how to set up Shopify. Like even now, like one of the features that I really like is the ability to do meta tags. And I was updating my theme and I didn't know how to do it. It's a new feature. So I was like, let me go to my trusty YouTube. So I always tell people like when I talk about my business, I attend a YouTube university and Shopify has so many videos on YouTube that I use.

8:34I take notes. I review my notes. Even in school, I've always been kind of a nerd. I love school. I love to learn. I've always been curious. So I love to teach other people. And that's another thing to community as a business owner, especially a woman business owner, a black woman business owner. community is key. The support of the community, but even connecting with other business owners. I love being able to take the knowledge that I'm learning at YouTube University and sharing it with other people because if by doing that, it helps to reestablish the knowledge inside of me. And then it's almost like a sounding board.

9:07My aunt, she has a business on Shopify as well. And she'll come and ask me a question. I'm like, I don't know, but let me figure it out. And then I'll get back to you. And then we'll kind of connect and kind of, it's almost like a synergy. I'm able to pour into her and she's able to pour into me, even though I might have that knowledge on that specific subject. I love the fact that you're teaching yourself, looking for resources, sharing that knowledge, too, within the community. It's really cool to hear. The other part of the journey is you create these teachers. Obviously, there's love that you found on campus and also friends and family that really loved your designs.

9:43how did you broaden the market of your business and actually test out hey there's more people that love what I'm doing and in a sense like find your product market fit in the early days 2018 again it was a year of transition and kind of touching back to that intuition listening to your gut I was at a staycation and I was just I love to read when I'm not working or when I'm not like doing some kind of artsy thing. I'm a reader. My Kindle is always loaded, but I was reading Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes. And I love that book. I try to read it every year if I can, if I remember. After reading that book, I kind of took a step back and I told myself, anything that comes my way, I want to say yes to.

10:27I just felt something in my gut. Anything that comes your way, just say yes to. One of the opportunities I had actually, like the first quarter of 2019, I got invited to California to be a part of a pitch competition. This is my first time ever pitching. Again, I'm learning as I'm going. So I'm going to YouTube, learning how to do a pitch deck. So I put that together. The second opportunity, I get another opportunity to pitch my business again on like a stage in front of thousands of Black women. I was so nervous, but I showed up. I said yes to it. And then this third opportunity was a accelerated program through BBVA Momentum, the bank.

11:03And they actually flew, I believe it was around 20 social impact businesses out to the University of Texas to learn the foundation of business. So we learned about market segmentation. We learned about really speaking to your target audience. I remember something that I had a question about was, I believe that my, especially in the early days, a lot of my designs kind of spoke to the Black culture as a whole. And I still do believe that a lot of the designs, a lot of the art that I create kind of does speak to the Black culture as a whole. But through that program, I was able to understand the importance of target segmentation.

11:40I was able to understand the importance of speaking to your audience. Yes, you may get some of those kind of stragglers that are outside of that segmentation, but when you really speak to your audience, they're going to want to buy into whatever you're offering. A lot of times when I talk to people, I like to highlight the importance of marketing, the importance of not only marketing on the social platforms or email or SMS, but also you wanna make sure that your site looks good. You wanna make sure that your audience, your target person, your customer persona, when they go to your site, they're like, I need everything.

12:13And that's a lot of times when I talk to customers or they're asking me about certain products, they're like, I normally just fill out my cart and then I take away, you don't have to decide what I really want because your products really speak to me. And I, through that program, through saying yes, through listening to my intuition, I was able to get that opportunity and flip it and kind of help to craft my business from there. Yeah, it's not just about social media. You kind of have to like understand the market segments, understand the different personas that you're trying to reach. I love the fact that we talked about teaching yourself, you're taking all these different accelerator programs, saying yes to opportunities.

12:51I think this ties really nicely to the concept of running a business while you're a student because you already have limited funds. And I feel like when you're a student, you're trying to run a business that's like trying to be scrappy times 10. So tell us about some of those initial days of making sure that your cash flow was working for you. I understand that you also use the dropshipping model for a bit to really help with the runway as well. Yeah. So to be completely honest and transparent, it was a mess in the beginning. It was there was there was no structure to it. Again, this started as a passion project.

13:29I was just doing it for me and then I was doing it for my family and friends. And then through the support on social media, it kind of went international, basically. So I had to take a step back. And again, I think that's a really important part. And I think that's part of pivoting is taking that step back, taking that pause. And so once I realized that I can make something out of this, I was like, let me take a step back. So I, again, went to YouTube University, also Google, but I'm a visual learner. I love a good video. I do oftentimes listen to it on 2X. Sometimes I have to slow it down a little bit.

14:011.5X is good. Yeah. Yes. Right. Right. So I went to my resources and I looked into backend. Backend is really important. And that's why I always tell people I love Shopify. They'll tell me what they're using. I'm like, get on Shopify. Let me sing the link, get on Shopify. Because there's so much in the backend that helps you prepare for cashflow, making sure that your calls are accounted for, making sure that everything is connected, even with the dropshipping model, making sure that everything is connected through your vendors and integrations. I learned all that by being curious, by wanting to make sure that my business had the foundation to thrive and to stay alive.

14:41So the backend, making sure that when I'm uploading products, all the information is filled out. And it helps with SEO. Like you're actually helping yourself by making sure that you're hitting those steps, making sure, and something that I didn't even know about and I've learned as I built my business is having SLPs, having operating procedures for everything. So I have an SLP for when I get an idea for a product, then when I'm designing that product, when I'm testing that product, when I'm sampling that product, And then when I'm adding that product to the site, making sure that I have my product photography, my product descriptions, all the pricing information, because, yes, that takes time, but it helps me.

15:19It helps making sure that the product is available, making sure that it's visible, making sure that when my customers come to the site, especially like if it's an apparel item, not only do they know, you know, the fabrication of the product, but they also have the size charts. If I have some photos of people in it, they understand, you know, what the model height is. Again, it's kind of touching back to what I said about, yes, marketing, but also making sure that your backend is right. So all they do is they're adding it to the cart and they're checking out. I love how detail-oriented you are and how resourceful.

15:49What were some tools or apps that really helped you to get your backend to the pristine stage that you really wanted to be? I believe when we talked before, I did share some, but one of the apps that I use a lot now is, I believe it's called Bulk Import. and what I really love about that app is it's kind of like the Shopify product where you're able to export and import CSVs but like even more complex. You can pull, you can really filter it by tags. You can filter it by the collection. You can filter it by the visibility and I'm a spreadsheet girly. I don't use Excel. I use numbers but I love to be able to export and import the CSVs.

16:30That really helps me because instead of going in using the platform, I'm able to kind of edit it in my spreadsheet software and then import it. So that's a software I like as well. Yeah, customer service is key. That's another aspect of business that I have to really establish and put down roots for it because, and that's what I kind of talked about that too, when it came to the collaborations and opportunities that I've had in that moment of pivot in 2020 with the pandemic, that obstacle also offered me an opportunity to get my back in together. I realized that there were areas and gaps that I needed to fix.

17:05And one gap that I needed to fix was my customer service. Prior to that, we just had an email set up and we would get customer service inquiries through there and handle those inquiries as they came in. One thing that I really appreciated about the integrations that are offered through Shopify is something called Zendesk, which is a customer service management software. they have a couple of different elements to their software but the element that we use was for customer service emails so again I'm a curious person yes I can set up the basic I can just make sure that when we get emails they come in we're able to answer them and get that facilitated but in my head I'm like I know that there's an easier way to do this so one thing that I really appreciated through Zendesk was that Shopify had an app so with that app it was able to pull an email and pull up the customer's information, the orders that they created, the shipping information.

17:59So when I was working with some of my contractors, when they were communicating with our customers, I was able to show them, hey, you can just have all this information there versus having like five tabs open to try to locate all the information. So I really appreciated that about Zendesk. And I really appreciated how it streamlined the process. So customers, we were able to serve customers in an efficient manner. Another SLP, like I mentioned, that I created were macros. So oftentimes, you know, you get the general inquiries. Where's my order? My order wasn't delivered. Can you help me with this?

18:32This product is sold out. So as those inquiries came in, I would create macros. And because of the software through Zendesk and Shopify, I was able to insert placeholders. So the software was able to actually, because it was connected to Shopify, pull in that tracking number, pull in that order number. So it made it easier for the people who were in my customer service to get emails in and out. Because again, my motto is the better the structure, the easier it is to solve the problem. And then with Printful, I've also worked with a couple of other dropshipping and print-on-demand companies. And I really appreciate the ability to connect everything together.

19:13I have an idea. I'm able to go in, see if they have a product that serves me or serves that idea that I have, get that sample created. And once it's approved through me, because I'm the approver, obviously, I'm able to go in and it's all connected to Shopify. I love it. Yeah. And I think those are three such great examples of how apps can integrate with your business. One for understanding data. So it's easier for you to plop into of different softwares that you're using, one for customer service and one for that print-on-demand and dropshipping model. In your opinion, for dropshipping and print-on-demand, this model, who is it more beneficial to nowadays and who should be experimenting with this model still?

19:57I think it's a great option for those who are just starting out because your profit margin might be lower, but your operating costs could be zero to none, depending on what you have set up, if you have some other additional apps. So I think those who are just starting out or even those who may want to test a product, but don't necessarily want to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars into buying in bulk. Because yes, when you order, you know, when you manufacture in large quantities, yes, your COGS or your cost of goods is lower, but you are investing a large amount of money into that initial.

20:32And it could just be a test. Yeah, for sure. You don't have to worry about inventory. You do not have to worry about shipping and fulfillment. Such a great way to experiment. Well, I'm very excited to dig into your latest partnership with Target. For now, I did want to take a moment to thank our listeners for tuning into the show. Wherever you're listening, please subscribe or follow Shopify Masters so you don't miss an episode and leave us a review with some feedback for today's episode. We love reading them. Thank you so much. Before we dig into the Target partnership, I did also wanted to ask you because you're also the visionary, the artist, the designer behind the whole brand.

21:20What is your process for having an idea to fully executing on a design? And how do you also incorporate the community and get them involved in the process as well? When I first started, I didn't have a process. I was inspired. I created, I shared, and it was available. But now I do put a little more intention behind it. I will say I've gotten better as a creative, as an artist, I'm very sensitive about my work, but I've gotten better about not keeping things in the vault. And that's through like encouragement from my sisters and my family. They're like, I'll get a sample of something. And they're like, put that out.

22:00And I'm like, I don't, well, I want to put a plan behind it. I want to put it out like, or share it, get feedback. And so I would say my process now is an idea sparks. And instead of rushing into it, I take note of it. I use Notion. That's probably like my favorite software. And so I have like a database where I keep all of my ideas. I keep track of like where the bodies I envision this design on, how I envision maybe marketing it, just taking notes of it. Because oftentimes I found myself rushing in and then I get overwhelmed. So what really helped me again, that taking a step back, oftentimes take a step back, take a seat and breathe a couple of times.

22:40So I'm inspired. I get an idea. So I go and I take that idea and I put it in notion. I kind of sit with it in it. I realize or I understand that it will resonate with my audience. I'll take it and I'll design it. Depending on if a product is going to be on apparel or accessories or home decor, I have templates set up. I'm a really big systems person. My folders are organized. So sometimes when I am creating and I may be having trouble understanding or fully fleshing out a design, I'll get outside of that template and just make like a square and then design it in there and then I'll transfer to that template because sometimes too many boxes as a creative can be stifling so sometimes I do have to kind of take a step out of the template but I always come back to the template because when I'm working with vendors or making sure that the product is how I envisioned it those templates help to kind of make sure that there's a standard across the board from there I always get samples I've shared a couple of videos on Instagram and TikTok of my samples and how I work with them.

23:37So I get a sample just to make sure that it looks how I envisioned it. Also that the colors are printing how I want them to look because again that helps to eliminate any future problems because if before I had had some situations where I would create a design just put it on the site have customers order it and it doesn't look like what it looks like on the computer because colors are like that. That's something that I had to learn too while in this process of building the business. So after I get the sample, after it's approved and there's no revisions, I will photograph that product, get all that product information, like the pricing, the product description, the tags, everything that I know is going to be on Shopify.

24:19I put that in a spreadsheet, import it, and it's ready to go. Sometimes in between the sampling and the approval, I will share to our story because I feel like that's a fun place to share where it's not necessarily concrete. And then I'll use like the systems that are inside of Instagram for engagement too, because it does help. So I'll put like a sticker for the like poll or I'll put like a question mark if people have questions. So that's how I really am able to engage the community to make sure that this product that I am offering, that I'm putting all this time and effort behind is something that's going to resonate.

24:53Yeah, and who doesn't love selecting a design or selecting a color and then that being the winning design and then they get to order it. So love that full circle moment as well. So of course you stuck your intuition. You said yes to opportunities and it led to the opportunity to be in Target. Tell us how that happened. For sure. Back to that intuition, back to saying yes. It was 2022 when they first reached out and I was again in that moment of transition. I wonder if it's every four years. I don't know. But it was 2022. 22, I was actually in the process of moving to Dallas. I had been in Arizona my entire life.