Welcome to the SuccessLab Podcast episode #19. In this episode, I’m in The Lab with Jenny Poon! She is the founder of eeko studio and Co+Hoots, a co-working space in downtown Phoenix, and co-founder of Co+Hoots Foundation. In this episode we discuss how Jenny hatched and grew two businesses by tapping the power of community, prioritizing and hiring the right people.
- Can you tell us a little about your journey? How did eeko studio and Co+Hoots come to be?
- Eeko studio is a graphic design studio. I started that in 2009. It hatched from bad experiences working for different organizations. I worked for a range of different companies and some of them had really bad leadership, and some of them developed some bad culture and company morale.
- How have you built up the Co+Hoots community over the years? Did you have a definitive plan or have things developed as you’ve gone along?
- I go into all these business meetings, and these pitch sessions with these people who have been around in business for a long time. They talk about business plans and goal setting, and I feel a little embarrassed because we didn’t plan that well with this. So there’s definitely been a lot of things that I’ve learned over the years. I did not have a plan to begin with. I hatched this little idea and launched it in a month. I had very reasonable goals and I’m pretty conservative with my goals to make sure that I’m still motivated to move forward.
- At what point did you decide to bring on help?
- I thought that this could grow without any kind of staffing so I didn’t plan to hire staff and I was just aiming for sustainable plus extra so it could have a little nest egg fund. Co+Hoots is a side project of mine so it wasn’t anything that I had planned to make money off of, so I didn’t build that into it. Then I realized that “Ok, now we’re at 30 people, we should probably have someone here making sure the lights continue to stay on and that people are locking the doors.”
- In terms of building the community around it, everything from having the owl mascot to different events like Food Truck Wednesdays and the Mid-Week Mind Tweak, how have those things come about? Have you planned how to build the community in that regard?
- No, this community is truly built by our community. The only thing I really did was force some interactions, force some questions – some leading questions. I often sit down with our members and have those conversations of “What do you think we should be doing?” “Do you have any good ideas?”
- Was there ever a point, maybe early on, when you tried to do everything yourself?
- I still get there. Early on, definitely. I think that when you are starting a business, you just have to know that you are going to be doing everything yourself in the beginning until you can ramp up in terms of salary and in terms of revenue to be able to support another staff member.
- Is there anything you know now that you wish you knew when you first started out?
- I wish I knew how important it was to hire the right person and I still have to remind myself about that every day. There is a level of training that goes with every role, but the most important thing that I’ve learned is making sure that you hire the right person.
- Do you have any efficiency tips or tools you can share?
- Yes! (Here comes my royalty check!) I use Asana a lot. I’m really into these small start-ups that have great technology because they are constantly focused on customer service and improving their business and they’re really listening to customers. So I really like Asana, they obviously have a bigger team but they are constantly improving their App. I love Freshbooks, which is my billing system. I also set up routines. Every night before I go to bed I look at my calendar so I can mentally prepare myself, and check my email and make sure anything that needed to be responded to did get a response. Other apps I love:
This week’s Biz Hack: For those of you trying to get more visibility through media or press coverage, you likely already have a wish list of publications, websites, or TV or radio shows you would like to go after. But what is the best way to build a media list to ensure you get coverage, and get the coverage that will actually move the needle. This week’s Biz Hack is all about how to build a strategic media list.
Action Item: This week’s action item is to systematize and document one process you routinely do in your business.
Quote of the week: Another Seth Godin great! “Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.”~Seth Godin
Next week we’re in the lab with Tim Paige, the conversion educator at LeadPages. It’s an awesome interview…he provides great marketing tips! Be sure to tune in. Until next time, have prosperous week!
