[078] How to add physical products to your income in your wellness business with Nicole Higgins

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Most of my work is designed around helping people build service-based businesses – where what you offer is your expertise, your knowledge and your time with someone to help them with their health. 

But invariably even when we run service-based businesses, there are products we recommend to our customers to further enhance the work we do together. Whether it’s supplements, clothing, a specific yoga mat, a journal or a candle – these are all products we could be making money from ourselves, but usually don’t have a clue where to start. 

This is where Nicole, the Buyer & Retail Coach comes in. Helping people that have a seed of an idea to add a product into their offering, right through to established product-based businesses launch new offerings, Nicole has bags of experience. 

In this episode we talk about:

• How adding products to your wellness business helps you create awareness, adds an income stream and establishes you as an expert 
• The different ways to add products to your offering depending on your goals and investment:
  • Holding your own stock and distributing yourself 
  • White label or collaborations with manufacturers (so they look like they’re your brand) 
  • Drop ship – earn commission but outsource the shipping 
  • Bespoke products – designing something completely your own 
• What stops you adding products to your business – primarily not knowing where to start and feeling it’s overwhelming (and how to overcome that feeling)! Nicole breaks down the steps into:
  • Checking your product idea matches with your business – that it solves a problem and serves your ideal customer 
  • Identifying what products you want – you can start with just one thing, and grow from there
  • Researching the market – checking prices of competitors with similar products and confirm the price you want to charge is in alignment with your position in the market
  • Market research your audience – not just “would you like this?” but also to check past behaviour buying the kind of products you have in mind (Nicole recommended offering a voucher to reward filling in your survey)
  • Find suppliers – trying LinkedIn, Google, trade fairs and social media. Knowing what questions to ask is key, Nicole has provided this list if you want to download it to know what to ask e.g. What’s your minimum order value / number of units? 

Nicole’s own successes and failures both in her corporate retail jobs and as a business owner (including a massive pile of €10 shoes no-one was buying!) and how important having a plan and moving with her ideal customer was vital. Knowing what you want to be, do and have in the future is more than enough of a plan to get started.

Nicole mentioned Vicki Weinberg for advice on selling with Amazon https://vickiweinberg.com/ 

Find out more about Nicole:

Nicole has worked as a buyer and head of buying for over 18 years for retailers such as Primark, M&S and Debenhams and now uses her expertise and knowledge to help entrepreneurs start and scale their product businesses.

She established her own business The Buyer And Retail Coach™ to help give businesses the confidence and knowledge to bring products to market and help them increase their bottom line sales and profits. Her expertise covers many areas from product development to sourcing and strategy across multi-product categories and is also the host of The Start Scale Succeed podcast. 

Website: thebuyerandretailcoach.com

Podcast: Start Scale Succeed

Instagram: @thebuyerandretailcoach

LinkedIn: Nicole Higgins

If you’re looking to work with suppliers and manufacturers grab Nicole’s free guide ‘What Questions to Ask Suppliers‘.