Intro: Welcome to Uniquely Small Biz, a podcast where small business owners share their real stories of success, failure and everything in between.
Carolyn: Welcome back to Uniquely Small Biz by Selective Insurance, a podcast for small business owners to share stories about the small businesses that they own. I'm Carolyn McCardell, and this week I'm joined by Hannah and Ariel - sisters and founders of Happy Box, a unique platform that allows people to create specially curated gift boxes for any occasion. Today, we're going to discuss how a sweet gesture from one sister to the next turned side hustle, has now turned into a fast growing business that allows both consumers and businesses to connect with others through gift giving. All right, we're talking Happy Box today. Welcome ladies!
Ariel: Hi. Thank you.
Carolyn: Ariel Redmond. Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, and then Hannah Redmond, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer - who's who?
Ariel: So I'm Ariel.
Carolyn: Okay. Then you must be Hannah.
Hannah: Yes, and we’re sisters which is why the last name is the same.
Carolyn: I know, that’s so cute that your sisters, before we even go into that, because, you know, I have questions about that, but tell us, first of all, what Happy Box is all about - just a brief overview.
Ariel: Yeah. So Happy Box is basically like your personal gifting assistant. It is a platform where you can buy very customized, curated care packages. You can actually build your own care package in a few clicks. We have a team that literally packs the box with all your selections. Handwrites your note in a card and sends it out to your recipient with little to no effort on your end. So you can sit on your couch, be a gifting hero. We also have some other unique kind of best-selling care packages that are very thematic to the season, and we're launching some new offerings as well, just in kind of the unique gifting world coming soon.
Carolyn: How did this idea come to be, as a very unique product? So how did that even come to be?
Ariel: Yeah. So it's painful to talk about.
Carolyn: Alright Ariel.
Hannah: Yeah. So the founding inspiration was when we were in college. We're about three years apart. We were states apart. I was in Maryland. Ariel was in Manhattan and Ariel got dumped like right around Valentine's Day.
Ariel: Yeah, I know. You're like, how is that even possible?
Carolyn: I don’t even know how that would happen? You're delightful.
Hannah: But it happened right around Valentine's Day. Horrible timing. I couldn't hug my sister. Couldn't be there for her. We're very close. And I wanted to send her something to cheer her up. I wanted something that was not the typical, you know, pineapple in a package or nuts and fruits. I wanted to send her - and not flowers. I needed something more appropriate for a college aged breakup. So I wanted chocolate. I wanted a voodoo doll. I wanted fun things that would make her just smile and forget about what was going on, especially being around Valentine's Day. And I was looking around on the internet. I couldn't really find anything that was appropriate or decently priced. So I made my own care package. I went around to, it took me seven stores, 20 minutes at the post office, horrible experience. And I kind of came back. And was like, that was awful. There has to be a better way. You can customize so many things online. You can find roommates online. There's all these things you can do online, but you can't customize a care package. When she received it, she was just so happy and, you know, called me crying. And I was like, there's something here. So the idea always kind of stuck with us. So that's the inspiring, you know, background or the inspiration behind it. But then moving forward, we actually worked in marketing and advertising for many years.
Ariel: Separately, separately.
Hannah: We're both like a lot of my job was looking at consumer trends and, you know, we kind of realized this thing, this gap in gifting never was filled and we know that people want, you know, customization and convenience. So we were like, what if we tried to build it? Like, what if we tried to build this, build your own care package company. So that's really how it all started.
Carolyn: Isn't it crazy how it was so in front of you and you were kind of dancing around it, right? Like Ariel with the breakup and then you, and then Hannah, you with a gift package. And then you've got these marketing backgrounds. And then here you are running a business that kind of, you were circling at the entire time.
Ariel: Yeah, well, you know, Hannah is the serial entrepreneur of our family, and I was really sick of seeing her ideas that she had brought to me when I was 13, 14, 15, come to life by someone else's hand. So when she finally really thought of the idea for Happy Box and we're both adults and had, you know, a little bit of extra cash. We were like, let's do it. Let's try it.
Hannah: Why not test it out.
Carolyn: What did your parents say when you were like, Hey, we're going to start our own business and we're going to do it together. Were they supportive? Were they questioning it? How’d that go?
Ariel: So, I don't think anyone was as happy as our mother who is like, so from a very early age, she always, you know, we were never allowed to go anywhere without each other, just to make sure that we would, you know, our bond of sisterhood would just stick around forever. I think secretly, she always knew - I give my mom a lot of credit because she knew a lot about us before we knew ourselves.
Carolyn: They always do Ariel. They always do from a very early age.
Ariel: She said, “You guys are gonna work together someday. I know it. You guys are gonna work together. I just, I see it”. And, you know, when we told her we were going to do this, she was like, “Yep”. Basically it was like, I know it's kind of crazy too, because at the time we were both having, when the idea actually started, when we started building it, we were both at advertising agencies and different roles, different agencies, but my role was strategy. Her role was creative. And oftentimes, we were like, it's so funny because if we were at the same agency, we would be working together, so it was kind of this perfect mix. And we talked about that a lot, how our skills just naturally balance each other and our backgrounds. So we're all obviously very lucky that we have those backgrounds as well.
Carolyn: How close are you guys in age? I know you're just tight sisters, but what's your age gap?
Ariel: Three years, but since you can see us on camera, you have to guess which one's older.
Carolyn: I'm not doing that. I honestly can't tell. Who is older, who’s younger?
Hannah: I'm older.
Carolyn: You're older. Okay. Hannah's older.
Ariel: She's shocked to hear that.
Carolyn: I just, because I was so 50 50 on it, of course I was thinking it, but I honestly couldn't guess so. Interesting. Interesting. Were you guys, when you were kids were you those kids, and you kind of hinted towards this, but were you the kids that were always inventing things or very creative. Like, “Hey, what can we do with this?” You're always partnering up on things. Did it start like really, really early for you?
Hannah: I'm trying to think. Always creative. We were always doing artsy things. Our mom is in the arts. So that helped out Ariel. Obviously you went to art school, like true art school.
Ariel: She did the business school. I did the art school. Yeah.
Hannah: But I always had ideas. My friends used to make fun of me because I liked watching commercials more than I liked watching actual like content on TV. Um, I always had ideas.
Ariel: You know, it’s so funny even early on, before we had full-on careers, you know, Hannah would, as she's older, as we’ve discussed.
Carolyn: Cause you had to point that out as the younger sister.
Ariel: As the younger sister I had to point that out.
Carolyn: Yep. You're definitely the younger one.
Ariel: She would bring me in on some creative projects that maybe her business school was doing or maybe her agent, like something, you know, she would always kind of pull me in. Just really funny, because then Hannah and I would monopolize the conversation, even if there were 10 other people at a brainstorming session. It was always me and my sister kind of like leading it. How do we do this? Like just kind of owning it. And so I think we knew, I think maybe, within college. We knew that something was there, but nothing really kind of came to fruition until Happy Box.
Carolyn: What is it like working with your sister and I'll ask you both. I mean, obviously you guys get along, obviously you guys have a successful company with Happy Box, but what's that like every day working with your sister, do you have to work extra hard to have your business relationship and then have your personal relationship separate? Or do you find that those lines get blurred sometimes?
Hannah: Oh, there always blur. I'll turn it over to Ariel, because she always has good answers for this one.
Ariel: They change depending on the week.
Carolyn: Are you getting along today for this podcast?
Hannah: It is a great day to ask that question. As a small business owner, the lines always blurred. The good news is we like what we do, so it's kind of fun, but I could say that our husbands probably would disagree because a lot of times we'll go out to dinner. And we're not talking about work. And all of a sudden it turns into Ariel and I talking about a problem or business issue or whatever. So it definitely blurs, but I think because we're both so engaged, and we love it, that it works out.
Ariel: But I think that is true for any small business where you just, whether it's your sister or your friend, whoever it is. You know, the relationship changes to be a business relationship, not in a bad way. Just it's what monopolizes your time, because it has to, if you're side hustling it, like we did for so long. So I think it's like knowing the guard rails, like knowing, especially when we were high side hustling it, that was really, it was very hard working full-time jobs doing this. Yeah. We get really tired and cranky and like get at each other. And I think we both recognize pretty early, like, okay, it sounds like around like eight o'clock. We gotta like call it and that's it. And then after eight, we can work separately, really work, but we'll revisit the thing we need to talk about together tomorrow.
Carolyn: Yeah that’s so crazy that you were working full-time inside hustling this. I mean, what, how do you even find the time to have the discussion of we should do this full-time, like make this our priority? Is that just randomly, you guys are getting Starbucks one day and you're like, you know what, girl, we should do this. Or what happened there? How did that go, that transition?
Ariel: That was a huge moment, I think, and we talk about this a lot because it was a moment that we were not aligned. We were at our warehouse. I think it was last June, and we knew, we always said we were going to make this our full-time thing. It was always our intention. We want it, you know, we're working hard enough and I'm talking like we worked two full-time jobs, so we did not “side” anything. We literally worked from nine to five and then five to like probably three, four in the morning, most nights.
Carolyn: Wow.
Ariel: Yeah. But consistently for a few years. So it took a long time. I, again, side hustling is not the right word for us to speak. I mean, we were sleep deprived. Extremely cranky all the time.
Carolyn: You were basically doing two full-time jobs, really.
Ariel: Definitely. Yeah. And when the pandemic hit, um, luckily we became very relevant to a lot of consumers. So we had a spike, which enabled us to really have the conversation of, okay, when are we going to do this? And so I'll never forget we were, you know, we had worked every weekend for the past three years. Like every single weekend, every hour that we, you know, spent not working on our full-time jobs, we were working on Happy Box and we loved it. We loved every minute of it. So this is not like, we didn't hate it at all. It was just, it was a decision. I looked at Hannah, I'll never forget this moment where I just kind of looked up and I was like, this isn't going away. Like we are going to spend every weekend here unless we make a change. And it's just, if we decide today, it doesn't have to be that we quit tomorrow, but we have to like, let's make the decision that we're doing it and let's set a date and let's work towards that date. And at first she was very angry with me. She was not happy. Yeah. It was a struggle, I think at first. And then the more we kind of thought about if we have these goals and we have, you know, the intention of bringing on full-time staff and we're not full-time, what does that look like? And so we really, we said then what we would do, and then we made a plan. And luckily, you know, it took us maybe four months to get there, but we officially quit. So it was a little bit longer than we would've liked, but we officially quit in October. And now we've been, we've been full timing it from October 2020 until right now.
Carolyn: Do you regret that decision at all?
Hannah: I think it was hard. It's hard for us because we both actually really enjoyed our careers. Like we both, I loved being where I was and I loved the job and I loved the work. And same with Ariel. Like we both really liked our careers and we, you saw that trajectory, we were both doing very well. We saw the growth and where we could go, and the money that could come with that. And it's, you know, and we have a lot of, you know, mentorship in our business. We're talking to our mentor and he said repeatedly, “Listen, there's going to be a moment where, what you can do by yourself on your own, and your own business is going to surpass anything that you could do in the corporate world. And so what does the opportunity cost of you spending all this time, making money for someone else essentially instead of yourself?” So that really kicked off a lot of the conversations and again, the pandemic, like many e-commerce companies, we took off. So it was kind of the perfect storm and the perfect time. But I do wish we did it a little earlier now.
Ariel: Yeah. I mean, we saw an immediate return from us being full, just our brains being on it full time. I mean, the thing is, when you are working for yourself you don’t stop at five. Like no one, I don't know a single business owner that does.
Carolyn: Not a successful one, you know, and ended up working.
Ariel: Right? Yeah. I mean, it was October, it was beginning of our holiday season. We worked harder than we ever have in both capacities, both full-time and you know, side hustling it, but it was, I mean, it was great.
Carolyn: Did you feel like you made that transition to full-time more because you were seeing success financially or because, gosh, I love the idea of this product so much that I want to take this full-time? What weighed a little bit heavier for you?
Ariel: Oh, we're obsessed with Happy Box. Yeah. We love what we're doing. And honestly, especially during the pandemic, I think it just opened our eyes to all the good that we can do, especially just enabling people to write to each other and be there for each other. The notes that we see every day are so inspiring and beautiful, and it really makes us feel good about what we're doing, which is incredible. I mean, I love that we've started a company that not only enables people to connect with each other, but we've since used it as a platform to also give back. It's really important for us as female business owners and just, you know, good people to want to try and give back and use our platform as best we can to do that. So we've incorporated a lot, you know, whether it's in our corporate business or a B2C kind of normal happyboxstore.com business. We have a lot of back elements that we're really, really proud of.
Hannah: Yeah I think what excited us was building the company we wish we could work for, like, how do you build your dream company? I mean, you can control everything. There's always a giveback angle. You know, there are certain policies in place that you agree with that, you know, maybe you couldn't have in your corporate job or it would never happen in a big company that you worked for. So I think that was very exciting to us. Yeah,
Carolyn: Yeah you guys do a lot of, I mean, I don't want to just gloss over the fact that you do give back a lot homeless shelters and organizations. You do a lot of give back to not-for-profit. I mean, what was your inspiration for that to do that? Because there are companies that do that here and there, but you guys seem to do it a lot. So what inspired you to do it?
Ariel: I think we feel that as a company who has seen even a glimmer of success it is our responsibility to give back wherever we can. I think that's just something we've always believed in. If we have the ability to do so, we will always 10 times out of 10, we will do it. So I think for us, it's just something that we believe at this, you know, in this time that it's important as a company to do that, to have a big impact, because you can have a bigger impact as a company than you can as an individual person. And that's not something we take lightly at all.
Hannah: I think what we kind of recognized from the beginning was, if you build it into the business model, the reason big companies can't do it quickly - I mean, listen, I don't think they all have excuses, but the reason it is perceived to be difficult is because it's not built into their business model, it's not natural to them. We built the business model around it so we can still be profitable and give back and we've built it that way. And we take that very seriously. It is part of the business model. Like we wouldn't necessarily call ourselves a social entrepreneurship because we do make money, and we're not a nonprofit, but we do give back at all times because we've built it into the platform.
Carolyn: It’s so smart. And so the right thing to do, I mean, so if you have the opportunity to do that and you have the brains to put that together, oh my gosh. Why wouldn't you? You almost have to just being a good human being, right.
Hannah: I think it's a responsibility that we have. If we have a business, we have employees, we have customers, it's important for us to take a stance in any way we can and, you know, give back however we can.
Ariel: Yeah and once we realized we have this reach, like, okay, we're not like a megaphone big brand, but we do have reach, we have influence if we can even affect a few people. Great. Let's use it. Why not use it for good?
Carolyn: Yeah. I mean, if you can change one life, right. And I know you've done more than that, but that's kind of your thought behind it. It's like if we can make a difference in one person's life and we're still profitable, how great is that? What's your demo? I’m just curious, what is your target demographic?
Ariel: So on our consumer business, which is what you see mostly on the site, we're a Gen Z to millennial main demographic, mostly female, they identify as female, but we're definitely growing that. So, I mean, we definitely see beyond that, but that would be our core demo. We've been called like the millennial gift basket, because it's not like the traditional again, like nuts and pears, Harry and David gift basket. It's a little bit more fun and quirky and, you know, has a “Free Britney” sticker in it, you know.
Carolyn: I know, I was going to bring that up. I saw that for $3 you could get a “Free Britney” sticker. I'm like they literally have everything: champagne, gummy bears. Like you have, you know, your corporate boxes, your consumer boxes. And then you've got this shopping a la cart stuff where you can get the champagne gummy bears. I love those by the way. They're so good. Like, I love that on there. I was looking through the boxes, I think hands down for me. I saw the Rise and Grind box. That was one of my favorite, of course, that has cookies and coffee. But then I saw the Hot Girl Summer box, and I was like, that is a box right there, such fun stuff.
Hannah: We love to have fun with our boxes as best we can. And we always crowdsource within our team. Our team has great ideas. During the election last year, one of our team members is like, “You have to jump on this” and we're like, “Let's do it”. So we're always open. I think that's also unique about having, you know, your own company. We can pivot, we can make a change really quickly and we can all rally behind something like that, which is really fun.
Carolyn: I know. Do you guys have meetings where you sit around and you think about ideas, you know, topical ideas, like, Hey, let's freshen it up. What are some different boxes that we can do? Do you literally turn to your team and do that? Because I know there are a lot of business owners that will just, they're almost afraid to bring the team in to help them out. Right. It's like a fear that maybe the team might be smarter or better. So are you, I totally picture you guys being so cool that you sit around a table with everybody and say, you guys, let's just brainstorm.
Hannah: Yes we do. We do it in person. We also have a Slack channel that's actually dedicated to just ideas. Because we recognize ideas can come from anywhere. I mean, we've seen that in all of, you know, in all of our jobs and careers and we have to, you know, respect that. We also really listen to our customers. We do a lot of customer surveys. We ask them what they want to see, what products they want to add to their box when they build their own box. So we're doing a lot of just, I'd crowdsourcing.
Carolyn: You guys have a pretty big team too. I was impressed to see that you obviously know everybody on your team, but then I was like, they even know their UPS man, Andrew. That’s really neat. What do you think your favorite thing is about running your own business?
Ariel: For me, I think it's, I've always loved my career. I'm a creative director. I've been one for a while. I love shooting. I love everything about developing a brand, like the look and feel, having effect over every single part of the brand, making it beautiful and something that I really love is probably the best part about working at Happy Box because other times I've, you know, you have to adhere to a client and then, you know, something that I would want to do creatively, they wouldn't want to do, or we didn't have the budget to do or whatever, but now I can decide this is more important than that, you know, and so on. And the look and feel is literally everything that I've wanted it to be. And that is a huge shout out to our design team, who's incredible. Really talented. I went to Parsons School of Design. So the best talent out there, I think is Parsons School of Design. But our design team is from, you know, they’re students or if they were students from Parsons. And yeah, I think just being able to really affect everything about the brand and make it exactly what we would want it to.
Carolyn: Hannah. What would you say your favorite thing is about running your own business?
Hannah: Yeah, I think my favorite part, it's going to be like kind of a weird one, because it's also a lot of challenge, but I love learning things every single day. Neither of us worked in e-comm in the way we are currently working in e-comm. We had to learn so much about fulfillment. We had to learn how to run a warehouse. I mean, just the consistent constant need to learn and grow and expand and be creative and solve problems. To me, that's like, you know, many jobs and it's true for many jobs that they say, every day is different. But yeah. Really every day is different and it's a different entire business unit’s problem that you're facing. So being able to touch all of it, I think working in marketing before I loved it, but that was what I touched. I didn't touch all of the operations and all the other pieces of a business. Whereas now I get to touch it all which I love.
Carolyn: Yeah. It's so funny. You know, we've done a few of these episodes and it's always, obviously CEOs and business owners and they always say the same thing. And that is like, when I started doing this, I had this vision, you know, that I wanted to bring to life, but then once you get into it and it's happening, you're thinking, oh my gosh, now I have to be an expert on shipping. Now I have to be an expert in accounting. There's all these other facets that you kind of knew were there, but when you're actually the owner, it is on you to figure out how to either hire someone or to do it yourself. That's a big deal.
Hannah: It is nearly impossible. And I honestly, I have so much respect for small business owners now, more so than I've ever had in my life, because it's true, like stupid things like collecting sales tax, it differs per state. And we have to know the threshold. Like it's insane.
Carolyn: How do you market? You use your social media, radio market, what do you do?
Hannah: Yeah so we do a lot of organic content. Luckily there's a lot of word of mouth that drives the business. We do social media marketing, Google marketing, kind of all the traditional digital platforms I'll call it. And yeah, we're going to be testing some new things in the next year, but right now, I mean, luckily we have had a lot of word of mouth growth, which has been awesome.
Ariel: Our backgrounds have just like really led us to be great about, you know, marketing in general, so that's been really helpful. I've done a lot of production. She's done a lot of strategy. So together we have kind of a good little system.
Hannah: We have a good grasp of it. I think, like you were saying, you have to kind of, to be an expert in everything, but you also have to partner with the right people who know more than you about those things.
Ariel: We're happy to do that.
Carolyn: You have to be smart to hand off some things. You can't do it all yourself. Talk to me about managing risk. You guys are obviously doing extremely well. Your company is growing. How do you manage risk?
Ariel: Yeah. Great question. I think it's incredibly hard to answer for a small business, but we'll do our best. I also think incredibly hard for a COVID year or a COVID business. Right?
Carolyn: There’s a lot of factors.
Ariel: Lots of factors, but I think for us, it's a lot of planning we do as well. As much planning as we possibly can, enough scenario planning to make us feel like we kind of generally know all the potential things that could happen. And honestly, a big thing that we talked about a lot is mentorship. We have a couple of really amazing mentors who have created and sold companies over and over again, who advise us and who really help think about the things that we may not be thinking of that can come down the pike.
Carolyn: It's crazy because you guys balance each other so well. And then you throw the fact in there that your sisters, and that could go, that could go one way or another. Right. But you've managed to navigate it and you've done such a good job. I'm so proud of you guys. What is next for you? Talk to me about what's in the future and on the horizon for Happy Box.
Hannah: Yeah, so I mean, lots of things. We're working on a lot of just different gift innovations, different products that we kind of dreamed up that we wish were in the space of gifting, all kind of centered on that customization and convenience. So really listening to our customers and hearing what they want, which is really being able to customize more, being able to make things super easy for themselves. And yeah, so some different product offerings.
Ariel: And we just launched The Shop. We're calling it The Shop where customers can now, traditionally they could buy or build their own care package or shop for a curated care package, which we've pre-curated for them. Now they're able to purchase one-off items, which is really exciting. And there's a lot more to come.
Carolyn: That's kind of cute though. That's how you started, right? Packing a box for your sister. Like Hannah, you packed a box for Ariel one item at a time. So how cute that this is sort of full circle that that's your next step. I will tell you that our producer, Casey, who's listening behind the scenes here, sent me a note and said, “Millennial male here. And I bought a Happy Box for my mom”. How cute is that? He bought her a birthday box that had the lavender candle in it. So you've got a fan and now two fans here on the show.
Ariel: Well, thank you.
Carolyn: All right. Well, you can see them online happyboxstore.com. It's Ariel and Hannah. Co-founders of Happy Box. Thank you so much for being on our podcast.
Ariel: Thank you for having us.
Hannah: Yeah thank you. It was fun.
Carolyn: Joining us now is Giunero Floro, Chief Marketing Officer at Selective Insurance. And he's here to talk to us about how important branding and customer experience are to a small business like Happy Box. There are so many things that Happy Box has done well. I want to hear Giunero’s take as a marketing expert, so Giunero, welcome to Uniquely Small Biz. Thank you so much for joining me.
Giunero: Hey, Carolyn, it's great to be here. You know, I love talking about small business and also sharing some helpful guidance and insights, especially as new businesses, either look to launch or to grow themselves. You know, I've been fortunately in front of a number of many small business owners, and sometimes the most fundamental insights that I can share can really help them focus on how to grow and get to their next level. For me, a lot of it really is about authentic branding and also focusing on marketing. The goal here is to really make the small business potentially feel a little bit bigger than they are, especially as small businesses are really just starting out. You know, establishing that credibility at the beginning is really, really helpful.
Carolyn: That’s really, really interesting. What is it about authentic branding that can help a small business?
Giunero: Customers just feel more comfortable in buying from a brand or a company that has some digital or even social proof, right. You know, they love looking for reviews. They love reading positive reviews. You know, they love, maybe getting advice or guidance from their colleagues or their coworkers. So, you know, having that presence is really fundamental, including having a robust digital presence.
Carolyn: What advice would you give to a new small business owner who is just starting to build their digital presence?
Giunero: Now, this may be a bit daunting to many small businesses. There are just so many platforms out there. Then you got to think about the website. My advice and guidance is to really pick one or two social platforms that you want to go deep on, and make sure that you've got the right content that is relevant to whatever it is that you're offering, whether it's a product or a service, make sure it's authentic and it has some unique insights that people will want to engage with. And then, you know, leverage that to really build a following a presence in a couple of platforms. And once you get to that right level of engagement, then you move on to the other platform. You know, there are pros and cons to each of the platforms out there today. And depending on your business, you may opt for one over the other, right? So if you are a service oriented, small business, then maybe LinkedIn and Facebook could be those two platforms where you try and establish your presence. If instead you're more product or lifestyle then Instagram and even Tik Tok today could be great places to start.
Carolyn: Giunero, Ariel and Hannah describe how vital teamwork is at Happy Box. And I know at Selective your role as CMO lets you collaborate with many different parts of the company. So what advice do you have for small businesses on the importance of teamwork?
Giunero: You know, I think teamwork is everything. You know, I love the fact that Hannah and Ariel even know the name of their UPS driver, Andrew, because they realize just how critical, you know, even that service is in ensuring that their business is running smoothly. At Selective, collaboration and teamwork is also everything for us. Fortunately, we've been designated a Great Place to Work two years running, and this designation is actually voted on by our employees. So they are the ones that are telling us, Hey, you know, we love coming to work and we love the work that we do. And we also enjoy the work that we do with the folks that we do it with and creating that sort of sense of team spirit and collaboration is fundamental, whether you are an individual small business owner have three or four employees or 30 or 40. Making people feel welcomed, comfortable, and engaged at work is everything. Not only that, just inspiring authenticity in the individuals themselves so that they can come to work as their authentic selves, and feel that level of fulfillment at work really helps them just be more productive. It's also a great way to develop relationships. And so for me, starting out as wanting to be a great place to work, even for small business is, is really a top ingredient for success.
Carolyn: Really, really good advice. And another thing I actually wanted to ask you is about how Ariel and Hannah are so focused on giving back. They support a lot of homeless organizations. They've built a foundation of giving back right into their business plan. So how does Selective approach giving back as a corporation and is it realistic for other small businesses to be so generous as they’re starting out?
Giunero: That's a really, really great question. And I know as a small business starting out, funds may be fairly limited, but you know, the little that you give back to the community, I think their return is just significantly magnified. And I love that Happy Box really thought about this, you know, at the get-go. And so whether it's, you know, the nonprofits that they're supporting, like Girls Inc. for instance, or, you know, helping their local shelters - truly inspiring. And I think customers today are looking to engage with companies that are doing just that. And so not only are you doing good for the communities, but at the end of the day, you're also helping your bottom line. I would encourage every small business regardless of your size, even if you just start small, find an authentic way that you can help your neighbors, that you can help the communities where you work, and I promise you, you will benefit.
Carolyn: That's really interesting to hear how involved a company the size of Selective is in community support. And speaking of community Happy Box talked about how they're really focused on customization and convenience, you know, really listening to their customers and hearing what they want. Being able to customize more and make things really easy. It sounds a lot like Selective, actually. Why are you so focused on customer experience and what do you think small business owners can do in this area?
Giunero: Yeah. I feel like customer experience really is the secret sauce to the success of many companies, small or large. You know, for us at Selective, this is something that we think about every single day. And so the more a company can connect with their customers in a way that gives those customers the individuality and the ability to customize their experience and even their offerings, the more likely you're going to create a loyal customer who will be your advocate and who will generate that word of mouth that is just so important, particularly for small businesses. You know, I love the fact that Hannah and Ariel even mentioned word of mouth as probably one of their most powerful marketing tools that they've been able to benefit from recently. And it's certainly because they're delighting their customers probably through their customer experience in addition to these wonderful gift boxes that they are now allowing customers to customize and deliver to you know, their friends, their loved ones, colleagues, whomever it may be.
Carolyn: Giunero, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today on Uniquely Small Biz. Your advice for small business owners has really been fantastic.
Giunero: Well, and this has been a real treat for me. I love just being able to take a few minutes outside of my normal day and give back, and really help small businesses think about again, a couple of these sort of fundamental ideas that if applied properly can really transform the trajectory that their companies on. So thank you again. I wish all of the listeners the best of luck and I'm rooting for you.
Carolyn: Thank you everyone for listening to Uniquely Small Biz by Selective Insurance. Selective Insurance believes successful small businesses keep our communities strong. To find out how you can Be Uniquely Insured with Selective, talk to your independent agent or visit selective.com.