💰 What to pay an influencer, hitting $1M as an ecomm solopreneur, new grants

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👇 Today we're covering

• 📓 Resource roundup

• 🗞️ Skim the headlines

• 🤝 Quick case study: Fwd this to your customer service team

• 💻 URL event: Group business coaching with Eucalypso founder Elle Liu

• You’ve prob heard us talk about Bulletin Wholesale, the online wholesale marketplace where retailers discover, shop, and meet the best brands. They’ve teamed up with NY NOW and you’re invited to exhibit with them August 13–16 in NYC. 🔗 Tell me more

• Ever wondered what other brands are paying influencers and creators? The median deal in 2023 is $500 for Instagram and $400 for TikTok, according to a new paid report from FYPM. 🔗 Tell me more

• Learn from investor Arlan Hamilton in a free online session hosted by Amazon Small Business Academy on July 20. 🔗 Tell me more

• The co-founders of baby brand Lalo created a Shopify app connecting your inventory with your 3PL. It’s called Full Fill and is based on tech they built for their own biz. 🔗 Tell me more

• Did you know Google has an ‘Ads Transparency Center’ that lets you see all the ads a particular brand or advertiser has run, plus the regions they were shown and dates the ad was run? 🔗 Tell me more

• Uber Eats and Visa Grants are giving $10,000 to 40 food and restaurant entrepreneurs to invest in sustainable packaging. If you’re in NYC or LA, definitely check this one out. 🔗 Tell me more

• OK, the feedback on our 40 Partnership Marketing Ideas download has been WILD. Make sure you get your free copy. 🔗 Tell me more

• Looking to fundraise for your biz soon? This Twitter thread will help figure out how much to raise. 🔗 Tell me more

• 🔒 A recording of our Group Business Coaching Call with Coco & Eve Founder, Emily Hamilton, is available now to Business Bestie members. Emily spent $220,000 to launch her beauty brand. Six years later she’s well on her way to $100M. 🔗 Tell me more

• 🔒 Shape your influencer strategy with a ‘Curation Checklist’ from this week’s Female Founder World podcast guest Julianne Fraser, who’s built hugely profitable influencer programs for Sakara, Little Spoon, Ghia, Seed, Swoon, Flamingo and more consumer brands. 🔗 Tell me more

MONEY: Aurora James is the business baddie behind the 15 Percent Pledge, a nonprofit getting retailers to pledge 15% of shelf-space to Black-owned businesses. This week she launched Friends and Family Collective, a fund investing in Black-owned businesses.

Beekeepers Naturals, a natural wellness brand by Carly Kremer, just raised $14M. RN they’re stocked in over 18,000 stores across North America and this investment will fuel more retail growth.

SHEIN: Fast fashion retailer SHEIN held an influencer trip this month that broke the internet—and not in the good way. They’ve been under fire for a while for allegedly ripping off independent artist’s work and violating labor laws, so in an effort to damage control, SHEIN invited influencers to check out their “innovation center” in China. Most of the coverage by influencers on the trip has been ✨glowing✨ and ignores the company's long history of labor abuse allegations. And the internet is not happy. Some commenters point out that if SHEIN wanted to show transparency, they would’ve invited investigative journalists instead of influencers they can “pay off” with a free trip, while others are questioning whether the toured factory was staged.

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR: Women were taking home tons of Ws at the annual EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Winners include Sarah Paiji Yoo, the founder of Blueland, and Joanna Griffiths, who sold her business Knix for $320M last year.

BEAUTY: Priscilla Tsai, founder of clean skincare brand Cocokind, just announced (in the cutest Instagram post) that Cocokind will be hitting the shelves on every single Ulta store. If you’re counting, that’s over 1,300 stores.

Glow Recipe announced their 2023 Community Mentorship Initiative cohort. The program’s been around for a couple of years and this year Squigs Beauty, Mochiglow, The Frontal Queen will join and get direct mentorship from the founders of Glow Recipe, a biz that hit $100 million in revenue in 2021.

COLLABS: Viral K-Pop group Blackpink launched the coolest collab with sanitizer brand Touchland.

MEDIA: “Call Her Daddy” podcast creator and host Alex Cooper is starting a Gen Z media company. Called Trending, the company will produce scripted and unscripted content, podcasts, and other digital media all for Gen Z.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS: Nadya Okamoto, influencer and founder of period care biz August, announced August's new campaign to fight for women’s rights in a post Roe V Wade world, #syncperiodsnotdata. You can now order a super incognito pregnancy test hidden in your box of August tampons.

MONEY: Vitamin A swim has been acquired by family-owned swimwear giant Swim USA. Founder Amahlia Stevens has been self funding and bootstrapping the brand since 2000.

FASHION: Fashion founders, there’s a big opportunity in UPF (ultraviolet protection factor) sun protective clothing. It’s already huge in Asia and the industry is slated to be worth $1.27 billion by 2030, but most UPF clothes still target older folks, kids, or outdoorsy types. Fashion brand Claudent has been popping off in this space and is worth checking out.

CELEBS: Rihanna’s stepping down as CEO of Savage X Fenty, her lingerie and apparel brand. She announced the move earlier this month. Riri co-owns the brand with investors like LMVH (their roster includes luxury all-stars like Tiffany & Co, Christian Dior, and Loewe), and will continue on as executive chairman. Hillary Super, the former CEO of Anthropologie Group, will be taking over the role as CEO.

Did you catch this viral post from a customer of dog food brand Chewy? It’s such a good example of how going above and beyond for your customers can pay off. (Fwd this to your customer service reps!!)

Here’s what happened: The customer’s dog died 💔 and they were left with an unopened bag of Chewy’s dog food. After reaching out to return the bag, Chewy’s response was best-in-class.

1. Chewy refunded the dog food.

2. Instead of asking for the bag of food to be sent back to Chewy’s, they asked if the customer would want to donate it to a shelter. Classy move.

3. Here’s where it gets really good. Chewy sent flowers to the customer along with a signed card from the customer service rep that she was talking to.

The original tweet has over 700,000 likes and 41,000 retweets, but what happened next is what’s been picked up by news outlets: Other Twitter users started replying and commenting about their own similar experiences with Chewy’s customer service, showing this wasn’t a one-off.

In a world where customers have unlimited options, surprising your people with woah-levels of customer service and building CX teams with high EQ can drive loyalty and customer retention, and maybe even go viral.

URL Event: Group Business Coaching with Eucalypso founder Elle Liu

🕒 Tuesday, 18 July, 5-5:30pm ET

Elle Liu built a seven-figure ecomm side hustle with no full time employees within two years.

She was working in corporate fin-tech alongside a ton of founders when she thought she might want to start her own business. Five years since launching (and 3.5 of those years with her biz as a side hustle), Elle’s home brand, Eucalypso, is on track to do 8-figures in revenue.

Elle’s on the Female Founder World podcast next week. Plus, she’s hosting a virtual 🔒 Group Business Coaching call just for Female Founder World Business Bestie members.

New on the podcast

• Jane Lu launched a 9-figure fashion biz with a free Facebook contest

• Influencer marketing strategies driving huge growth for Little Spoon, Ghia, Sakara, and more