A season of change
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Happy Friday letter getters,
We talk a lot on the blog and in LaunchLetter about the importance of simplifying, creating and leveraging opportunities within your business, but we rarely offer resources of where you can find people to help, until now! We partnered with Steadfast Media Company, a group of founders and entrepreneurs who can help any sized business with custom software solutions. Focus on growth and let your personal team of entrepreneurs be the powerful engine that does the legwork. You can click on the banner above or click here to learn more.
Brittney Whidden,
CEO of Lawhorn's Signature Seasonings
You know the old saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." What if life gives you spices? Brittany Widden didn't set out to create the Lawhorn Signature Seasonings brand, her father did. She inherited the business along with her siblings. She took on the challenge, looked at the business, added a little of this and a pinch of that, and in a very short period of time, made her own contributions to help it grow.
From Brittney:
My two siblings and I inherited Lawhorn’s Corner and Lawhorn’s Signature Seasonings on October 1, 2018. It was the day after our father’s unexpected death. My siblings were not in a position to step out of their careers in pharmacy and construction so I stepped in to figure things out. He had been running the company for 10 years with limited help and was the only person on the payroll. He didn’t write anything down on how, why, or when he did things.
As a marketing strategist, I began solving this big, scary problem from the top, down and from the bottom, up. I wrote down what I did and what I figured out every day in a short diary entry. At the end of the week, I could easily “trim the fat” of broken or outdated processes and unnecessary expenses. The biggest game changers were:
1. Changing shipping platforms.
2. Learning what processes I needed to hire people for like legal, accounting.
3. Activating Amazon to be an alternative sales platform to our website.
These changes, along with paying myself as a contractor instead of being on the payroll allowed me to match the net profit of Q1, Q2, and Q3 of FY2018 in Q4 FY2018. In Q1 of 2019, I matched Q4 sales and FY2018 profit of the previous quarters.
Meet your five minute mentor, Brittney Whidden.
I wish there was an easier way to ship small-to-mid sized orders without the use of LTL freight.
I had to learn to take up space- physical and mental- in the minds and offices of the vendors I work with.
I limit my email checking and list making to the first thirty minutes of my work day.
You can’t humanize a brand. A brand is intangible. A brand isn’t human or cognizant of the world it lives in. Very rarely does anyone create a relationship with a brand. They create a relationship with the situation that requires consistency of the product or service and readiness for communication from the people behind the scenes. A lot of brands, I believe, panic to bring a personality to a brand that is relatable to their audience, no matter where they are because they think they can recreate a moment that represents it. This often leads to the misuse of social media because companies will share every piece of news on every platform, no matter how relevant the platform is to their audience. No audience is everywhere at once and a brand shouldn’t be either.
Always show up for what you believe in.
Brittney Whidden is the CEO of Lawhorn's Signature Seasonings. She currently lives in Nashville, TN.
Recent Achievements:
I took over the Lawhorn's brand in October 2018 and doubled the profit of FY2018 in Q1 of 2019.
We partnered with Otterbase to bring you high demand/quality jobs in Nashville. This job is for $80,000-$95,000.
Think you are great for this role? Send Hunter from Otterbase an email at hmitchem@otterbase.com.
iOS Developer for a Nashville startup
Responsibilities and Duties
Design and build applications for the iOS platform
Ensure the performance, quality, and responsiveness of applications
Collaborate with a team to define, design, and ship new features
Identify and correct bottlenecks and fix bugs
Help maintain code quality
Successfully perform any coding tests or challenges as required
Suggest new features and expansions of existing apps to improve performance and usability
Deliver on time as discussed and clearly communicate any changes in deadlines as soon as possible.
For more information, see the full post here: https://southernalpha.com/may-ios-developer-for-nashville-startup/
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Steadfast Media: Empowering Innovators to Achieve their Goals
Steadfast Media’s team has spent the past ten years as growth partners to both tech-enabled businesses and startups. We love helping all kinds of digital pioneers accelerate the pace at which they are reaching customers and audiences. Our unique experience has led us to offer supporting services for all types of businesses looking to grow their technology offerings, as well as leverage our unique experience as startup founders to accelerate your business in general.
LaunchLetter is a weekday newsletter from Southern/alpha, a website that features collections of stories and resources for underestimated startup communities.
LaunchLetter is for founders getting started on an idea or business. Our goal is to share the perspective, habits and positive messages of more experienced founders and CEOs. We hope you find it relatable and delightful as you get focused for the day on your own goals. Enjoy the ride.
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