Erin Thomas Wong
You're listening to the life friendly business podcast. I'm your host Erin Thomas Wong, business coach & mentor, author and founder of the cocoon VIP membership empowering women around the world to build businesses on their terms. If you want to grow and scale a business that works in harmony with your family and your life, this podcast is for you.
From police constable to multiple business owner this week I speak to Keri Squibb founder of The Dog and I, and most recently, The Soap Coach. Keri started her first business at 44. In her search to follow her passion and create a more flexible lifestyle with just £500, she launched her product based business, the dog and I, which has now gone on to her allow her to launch a second business, the soap coach teaching all things soap making for dogs and humans alike. I love the way that right from the beginning, Keri has had a long term vision for her businesses. And she shares that with us today. Hi, Keri, thank you so much for joining me on the life friendly business podcast.
Keri Squibb
Hi, Erin, thank you so much for having me here.
Erin Thomas Wong
You're welcome. And I really, I really want to share your story because you know, you were a police constable. You had a really great career, you had a family. And then it was actually when you were at 44 that you decided that you wanted a change and you wanted to start your own business. So I'd love to first of all, look into that and like what made you make that decision?
Keri Squibb
Okay, so police is, as you say, fantastic career, so many different opportunities, so many different things I could do. But from a work life point of view me and my husband were working opposite shifts a lot of the time. He was sometimes at one stage, he was going in at six in the morning finishing at two, I was then doing a three to 11 shift. And we were quite literally passing ships in the night. And I really wanted to a try and reduce that and have more time at home. But as I was the main not the main wage earner, but I always earned a slightly higher salary. So I needed to be able to bring income in still. So there was an element of having more time at home, and more time with the children. But also I had, and I don't talk about this very often but I did have a longer term plan because I always knew I wanted to leave the police at 25 years and take early retirement so that I could then do other things, which maybe were more my passion. Does that make sense?
Erin Thomas Wong
Yeah, no. And I think having that longer term plan is, is quite interesting, actually, isn't it? Because I think that many of us we think about what we're going to do for our career, and then we think about having a family perhaps, and then what next? But you had that that long term vision quite early on, I gather.
Keri Squibb
I did, I did. So at the time, I was doing quite a difficult job working with quite difficult people. And I knew I couldn't do that indefinitely. So I always said at the beginning, why would you stay because I used to have input from a counsellor because of the job I was doing at the time. I always used to say to her that when I go I want to surround myself with nice people and do nice things. And that was always my long term vision, although I ended up doing something completely different to what I started out when I first retrained when I was 44. But yeah, I was quite motivated and quite determined in that respect.
Erin Thomas Wong
Wonderful give us an overview. So it's kind of like the tale of three businesses that you started when you were 44. So just talk us through a little bit about how those businesses have evolved.
Keri Squibb
Okay, so age 44. I retrained as a dog groomer two nights a week at my local college. That was a two year course but I started my business within the first year but obviously on a slightly more basic level. Once I was fully qualified, I then converted a room in my house to a grooming salon reduced my hours down at work and started building up my doggy clients. That went really well although it was really really hard work but it was enjoyable.
Then, as part of the dog grooming I realised that so many products with for dog property or dog products in particular because you don't have to list the ingredients on the labels. You don't always know what's in your shampoos. And a lot of dog groomers suffer from skin conditions where they've always got the hands in soapy water etc. And I started looking at that and then realised well from there to cut a long story short got into the whole world of soap and natural grooming products, luxury plant based grooming products. Started off small with my dog and I business with my main USP being soap for dogs made from just three ingredients. So coconut oil is my core ingredient. And that did really well, again, I had a long term plan in mind and knew what I wanted to do with that. So I started off how I meant to go on. And then the teaching was a complete tangent away from that. I totally did not plan to start teaching soapmaking. But people started asking about how to make soap. I couldn't keep up with the demand for my dog. So So I started teaching classes. And then Soap Coach became a thing because it got a little bit confusing, because my clients didn't know that I could teach how to make humans soap and also just about the recipe, not in the process. So I formed a completely different business. And yeah, here we are. So I stopped the dog grooming because I just did not have time to do it. Plus, I had a bit of a recurring shoulder injury. And the dog and I and the coach are still going strong, really, although the coach is fairly new still. Yeah, it's been a it's been a roller coaster.
Erin Thomas Wong
Well, it's been wonderful to watch your journey, because you've been part of the cocoon for a few years now. And I know that you know one thing when you were making that transition from the dog and I to moving into teaching, that was a massive stretch out of your comfort zone wasn't it?
Keri Squibb
That's an understatement. Because I've always been on the other side. So again, and you will know I was never comfortable in front of a camera, I didn't like doing lives on Facebook or any of the other social media. And so I started the soap coach and getting up and teaching in front of a group of people is one thing, but then obviously COVID hit, and I had to take it online and do zooms, et cetera, et cetera, because I just would not have survived otherwise. So it has been a massive challenge. But I have to say, I love it now, I really enjoy it. So it's all good. Well, and
Erin Thomas Wong
I see you on Instagram all the time with your reels as well. Like, what? What changed within you that allowed you to get more visible,
Keri Squibb
if I'm honest, partly because I gave up the day job. So I retired, I took early retirement very early retirement back in July. Which meant I didn't feel so worried about putting myself out there. But also there was an element of, I've just got to do it. Because if I don't do it, this is not going anywhere. So I did start off with practising to myself on my mobile phone, like you do, and then playing it back and then thought actually, it doesn't sound that bad. And you just develop your own style, I think, don't you? So what you see is what you Get, I will never be somebody that dances around on reels doing silly dances. But it just I think it's really lovely for people to get a good insight into you and your personality and what makes you tick, because it's very hard to put that into words alone.
Erin Thomas Wong
Totally. And I think that you know what you touched on there about having that moment, when you realise that you just have to get yourself out there. You know, I've definitely had that moment too. And I think we need to get to that point where we where we realise that if we're not going to talk about what we're doing, if we're not going to shout about it, no one's gonna do it for us.
Keri Squibb
Exactly. And that's it. And if you're really serious about what you're doing, then you just have to do it. And it is a comfort zone thing, isn't it? It lasts a few seconds or a few minutes. And once you've done it, you've done it and it gets easier from there. But it's it's a biggie to begin with. And I totally understand that.
Erin Thomas Wong
Yeah, absolutely. And that's why we do the Facebook Live challenges in the cocoon as well a couple of times a year. And it's amazing to see just by going live five days in a row, the confidence that people have, even by day three, to be honest, it's just a case of, you know, getting into the habit of doing it. And you know, and caring less about the way you look and what you're going to say you just get more and more relaxed with it.
Keri Squibb
You do? Absolutely. And that is exactly how I started in the cocoon doing the live challenges. And that was terrifying initially. And I do look back on it now and think well, actually, that was a doddle. It's such a good environment to start off in.
Erin Thomas Wong
So obviously, one of the drivers for you of starting your own business was so that you could spend more time at home. So how is that working out? Like do you feel like you've got a life friendly business?
Keri Squibb
It's a it's a work in progress. I definitely do more now. And I certainly notice my flexibility is far greater. So I can work my my unless I'm doing hands on courses is all things that are booked in. So for the soap coach, a lot of my work is online. So for example, I take my son to boxing, I sit outside for an hour and a half, and I do my admin in the car for an hour and a half, which is fantastic. Because I don't get any distractions. I can sit there, get it all done. And from the product based side of the business, the dog and I, that is great, because it's based at home, everything's at home, I can fit it in around everything else. And also, now my children are older, they can help out. So I actually pay them both to help out with packaging. My husband does postage runs for me. So there's a lot to be said for having that flexibility without a doubt.
Erin Thomas Wong
Yeah, and I love that delegating as well. And getting everyone involved is that's wonderful. So for those out there who are listening who are either just starting out with a product based business or thinking about going into creating a product based business, what advice would you give them?
Keri Squibb
Okay, there's a couple of things that I feel are really important. So firstly, have your niche isn't, I always say to my ladies that I talk about soap making, if you're looking to sell soap as an example, it's no good having just natural soap, everybody in the country is selling natural soap, what you need is something specific. So with my dog products, it's coconut oil, soap lathers up really well. But it's a niche, no one else does just coconut oil soap. But they do do dog soap. So having that niche, and also the dog products is sort of an extension of that niche. But the other thing, which was really important that was the advice that I was given in the early days was just think where you want to be in five years time. And to start off with that in mind. So to put that into perspective, I started off with a Shopify Ecommerce website, because I wanted to have that platform that would still serve me in five years time. And I started off with nice branding, nice labels, everything done, not professionally, because my logo was done by Fiverr. But some of the other work that no actual labels have had done professionally. So it all looks the part from day one, and you're setting the standard for the rest of your business life as it were. And that paid off so well, because I got wholesale orders through within months because the product was the kind of thing they wanted to see on the shelves in the shop. So yeah, that's probably my two main takeaways.
Erin Thomas Wong
I think that's really important as well is starting with that professional look. And what did that mean for you in terms of investment did you have to pay a lot of money to get this product off the ground?
Keri Squibb
You might be surprised I started the dog and I would 500 pound. And that was it. My overheads were really low. I started off with just a couple of products and built it up from there. So no, you don't have to have a lot of money. I'm really, really lucky. I've got a local printer who does small print runs for me. So that was great. And so it was almost like print on demand. And initially, obviously, my costs were higher because I had I was ordering smaller amounts. I didn't pay myself for about nine or 10 months with a dog and I because I was reinvesting. But I'm really lucky because I was working alongside and I was still doing my dog grooming. So I do think you have to plan for accepting that you won't make money from day one, because there is no way you can grow a product based business without reinvesting because you need to keep buying your raw materials, etc, etc. But it doesn't have to be a huge investment.
Erin Thomas Wong
I think that's really encouraging and, and really good advice as well. Because I think that there is lots out there that that make people feel like when they start a business they should be, you know, the money should be rolling in right from the start. And we need to be realistic about that. And you know, one thing that we were talking about previously before the call is about the fact that now with the soap coach, you have a venue. So you you know you've leased the property to be able to run this business. So that must feel like quite a debt is it to be paying rent every month.
Keri Squibb
It is a challenge. And I've always it's quite a good motivator because I know I've always got to pay it so it keeps you on your toes. But I have to say I started off initially with a dog and I funding everything. So the dog and I funded starting the soap coach, which I'm really proud of because starting from a 500 pound business to then building up to a limited company which is what so coaches now has been incredible. So yeah, the soap coach still does not pay me anything nearly two years down the line. But I've been it's not that it doesn't bring an income in but it is funding the development of the business, if that makes sense. So I am reinvesting quite a lot. I'm investing in In my, my workshop, I've got work being done up there today, I've invested in help behind the scenes. But I've got a long term plan. So long term that will obviously become hopefully a good business. But it's it's a longer term plan without a doubt. So yes, it is a bit of a bit of a worry sometimes, but I'm confident that I can do it.
Erin Thomas Wong
I think there's a lot to be said, as well for having that long term vision when it comes to investing in your business. Because, you know, yes, there's, there's lots of stuff that you can learn and do for free. But if you really want to gain momentum, you know, you need support, you need people on board who've maybe been there and done it before you need someone helping you with social media, for example, so that you can concentrate on what you do best. And, you know, I think it can be that really scary point of, well, I'm not really earning anything, how can I possibly commit to getting that support? So you managed to get a grant did you during COVID.
Keri Squibb
I was really well, I was very lucky, because I moved into my workshop in January 2020. And it was on a three year lease, a three year rental lease. And as we all know, COVID hit in March 2020. So my workshops are hands on at the time. And I had bookings booked in which I had to cancel gift vouchers that I couldn't fulfil. And I would have folded, there's just no way but the government were brilliant. They did help out with grants COVID grants for which I am so grateful because I would not survive without them. But so that's that was that was a waste of my mind. And it also enabled me to invest in coaching and equipment. So I bought equipment to go online, for example, lighting webcams microphones, so that I could pivot the business because I knew I wouldn't be able to do hands on. So yeah, it's you've got to look at what you've got, and go with it go with it.
Erin Thomas Wong
Well, it's, you know, you have achieved so much and during a very difficult climate as well. But it's just been fantastic to see the way that these different businesses have kind of rolled into each other and like you say helped each other. So are you do you feel aware of your success? Success? Like how do you measure your success?
Keri Squibb
So I am aware, I do feel very fortunate that all three businesses that I have created have been successful in one way or another. However, some of them is still a work in progress. But it is all about for me now the sense of achievement. And as we discussed earlier, having that element of flexibility. So I can rule out a week or two weeks or a weekend in my diary. I don't have to ask anyone to do that. We've just had a week in Cornwall and the biggest thing for me it's going to sound crazy people have been self employed forever. But when you've worked for someone else for years and years and years, you have to book annual leave every year, as you probably know, and you don't always get what you want. And being able to just pick a week to go away to Cornwall in August and not have to ask anyone was amazing. And it's just little things like that.
Erin Thomas Wong
Yeah, and, and also for you, you know, one thing we haven't really touched on here is the positive impact that you're making environmentally as well with what you're doing. And I just wanted to touch on that because I know that you know, the the fact that you're having a sustainable business and that you're helping people to use less plastic that's very important to you isn't it
Keri Squibb
is and it is a big driver for me. So soap almost soaps go out with no packaging, other than a piece of twine and a little cardboard label. And even my labels on my other products are all paper labels. And for me being able to teach people to make soap or just encourage them to use soap is every bar soap is a plastic bottle. And when you put that into perspective is huge. It's really huge. So I I'm quite honest about the fact I am on a mission to create an a nation of soapmakers and hopefully hopefully I'll achieve that and that will be my legacy less plastic bottles being used in the bathroom.
Erin Thomas Wong
I love that. So what is next for you? You know you talked a lot about reinvesting in the business and developing the soap coach. So what can we expect to see from you?
Keri Squibb
I have got big plans yeah, so I would love to see soapmaking brought to a new level. And we all watch Bake Off or many of us watch Bake Off we love Bake Off. And if I could get something like the great big soap off on TV, I would be absolutely over the moon, because there's no reason why we can't all make soap at home, like we make a cake. And I just think the impact in the longer term in terms of chemicals or plastic bottles, as we said, is just huge. Plus, it's creative, it's mindful, it's fun. There's nothing not to like, really.
Erin Thomas Wong
I love the fact that you relate it to baking as well. Because when you look at your Instagram, you know it is it is a bit like that kind of the food stuff, you know, the pictures of the soap looks so delicious. Sadly, you can't eat them
Keri Squibb
Wouldn't taste very nice and lovely.
Erin Thomas Wong
So with everything that you've got going on, how do you look after yourself? Do you work on your mindset? Do you implement self care into your week? What do you do?
Keri Squibb
I have done a lot of mindset work, probably not as much as I should do, I don't do it daily, but I try. But I do spend a lot of time making sure that if for me, I need time on my own very much so so I will spend an hour or two at the end of the day, especially if it's been a busy day upstairs in the bedroom on my own, just reading, chilling or doing whatever I fancy. Because for me, that makes me a much nicer person to be around, and much more productive in every other way. And I'd love to say I do more for myself out out of that I'd love to go for more spa days, etc, etc. But at the moment that hasn't happened, but it well is on my vision board.
Erin Thomas Wong
Wonderful. And where can people find you?
Keri Squibb
Okay, so the dog and I is @thedogandI on Facebook or @thedog_I all lowercase on Instagram. And the soap coach is much easier. It's @thesoapcoach all lowercase on Instagram and on Facebook. I'd love to see you over there.
Erin Thomas Wong
Fantastic. And one final question. So if you could go back and speak to Keri, when she was a police constable and wondering what she was going to be doing for the next chapter. After she'd had kids and worked her way up the ladder in the in the police? What advice would you give yourself?
Keri Squibb
Oh, just go for it. I have to be on a very honest, I was at one stage thinking I'm too old to be starting new businesses, etc, etc. But in seven years, I've created three businesses with no experience, it's been a steep learning curve. But if you want to do it, you can do it. So go for it if I can, anybody can.
Erin Thomas Wong
Thank you so much. That's so inspirational. And I think it will really help a lot of people out there who are starting a business kind of later in life as well. I know that a lot of the women that you know, that I work with and that listen to this. They've had previous careers. That's the thing. We've had these previous careers. And then we've realised that actually, I don't want to be working for someone else. I want to be doing something for myself, and I want to have the flexibility. And I think it's fantastic to have people role models that we can say, Look, they've they've managed to do it and you can too.
Keri Squibb
Yeah, absolutely. It's anything is doable. It's just putting the work in and knowing you can do it having faith and confidence in yourself.
Erin Thomas Wong
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much, Keri. Good luck.
Keri Squibb
Thank you very much.
Erin Thomas Wong
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai
