The marketplace business continues to produce remarkable success stories – such as those of Carolin Langer and LaCaTho. With an average shopping cart value of only $4, her business is profitable, scalable, and growing. In this episode, she talks about how she started out on eBay and now supplies over 40,000 customers a year with bee-friendly seeds. For her, automation is a must, not an option. Many tools make her work easier, but they are all reviewed every six months. There are clear responsibilities in her small team, with everyone having a specific area of responsibility – for eBay, Amazon, and Shopify. And because Carolin loves to shoot short videos of seeds, flowers, trees, and bees everywhere she goes, she is able to market her products without expensive ads – which are simply not feasible with such low-priced products. Instead, they generate a decent amount of sales in their own shop via TikTok. She also reveals how she manages her time – she works full-time as a mechanical engineer.

Note from  the sponsor exporto:

Internationalization and its challenges are a big concern to brands and sellerrs. Shipping, returns processing, tax regulations and one-stop shop procedures – all of this can cause quite a headache. Service providers such as exporto can help. exporto has spezialised cross-border e-commerce logistics in Europe. With automated technology and a strong partner network, exporto ensures that online retailers can ship internationally as smoothly as they do in their home market. And the best part? Exporto has an attractive discount for you: If you register with exporto by August 31 and sign a contract, you won't pay any basic fees for the first two months. Register right now here: https://mag.exporto.de/marketplace-universe-offer

Note from  the sponsor base:

Base is a SAAS e-commerce solution provider originally founded 2006 in Poland. The platform offers features such as automations for order management, inventory management and fulfilment, a marketplace management tool for lots and lots of B2B and B2C channels, and integration options to include other backend tools in real-time. Base is present in 11 countries, the solution is already used by companies such as OBI, Kärcher, MediaMarkt, Samsung, Decathlon, Intersport, Develey. If you would like to learn more about Base, join us at our Connect Event with Base on September 17 in Cologne. Register right now: https://webforms.pipedrive.com/f/1wBV5bM8AALuEq8GfFLwj7tLJ80w9AZL4cf4DN1nvG4uMLrSOfA5NxaV1X0qvNAC7

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Marketplace Dynamics

02:46 Carolin Langer's Journey: From Side Hustle to CEO

06:38 The special market situation of LaCaTho

12:27 Marketplace Strategies: Automation and Customer Experience

17:32 Volume in the main and off-season

21:06 Bestsellers and the tricks of algorithms

24:31 The power of Videos and of TikTok

31:46 Scaling and Future Plans for LaCaTho

Hi everyone, welcome back.

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Let's talk marketplaces here.

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I'm Ingrid.

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With me as always is Valerie.

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And today we are quite delighted to introduce you to a very special e-commerce founder and

marketplace expert and to learn a lot more about seeds and flowers, I guess.

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Yeah, absolutely Ingrid.

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Well, actually after our last um Marketplace Universe Connect dinner with eBay, um we got

to know our guest of today and we were really blown away about what she does and um what

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she builds and um actually somehow as a side business, which is like really impressive.

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So I was like, what as a side business?

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Are you really serious?

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So welcome.

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I'm really happy to have you here, Caroline Langer, founder and CEO of Lakato, a German

startup which sells flower seeds on marketplaces.

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So how are you doing, Caro?

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I hope the connection to India works well.

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You

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Yes, hello everyone.

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Yeah, the connection here in India is quite good.

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So I'm happy to hear um today and to tell you a little bit about my marketplace story and

how flowers and seeds can be amazing online business.

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Great you're with us Caro.

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uh Why don't you first tell us a bit about yourself, about Lakato and so what is your

company, what are you doing since when, when did you found it and what are you doing in

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India at the moment anyway?

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Yeah, so I founded my company in 2020.

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So right after my studies.

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So I studied mechanics and started a normal day to day job em as an engineer.

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And as a side hustle during my studies, yeah, sell stuff on eBay.

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em So I started with selling stuff from the garage or from em stuff you don't need anymore

in the household.

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So I sold.

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or I cleaned out of my parents' home, then I started with all the other neighbors, so I

told them, I sell your stuff on eBay, I get 50 % and you get 50%.

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And with the money I collected there during my studies, yeah, spent the money to go

skiing.

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So I really enjoy skiing, so during studies, em yeah, so I earned the money the whole year

to go on skiing vacations.

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And...

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em

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Yeah, then my parents, have a really unique tree in their garden, which is really not

common in Germany.

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yeah, this tree, the seeds, they were always in the garden in autumn.

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So I collected these seeds and put them on eBay.

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And because this tree was so unique, I was the only seller who was offering these seeds to

the eBay community.

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And then I sold out um quite fast because...

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there was a big interest and an article in a newspaper for beekeepers.

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So dates became popular and uh I got a really high interest into that seed.

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then at the end of my studies, so I did a dual study system in Germany, so your work and

studying at the same time.

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So at end of it, you have to take all your holidays after you've given your bachelor

thesis um to correcting.

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And I walked three weeks through all the botanical gardens and they're collecting.

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all the seeds and put them on eBay.

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And it was in autumn and I said, okay, now you have to raise one more time a little bit of

money to afford skiing in winter.

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But it was so interesting and I had so much interest of the people into these seeds and I

found there my passion.

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So my passion is to sell.

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And the niche I'm into is now so bee friendly seeds.

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So my father is a beekeeper and we had a lot of bee friendly

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flowers in the garden.

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So when I started I also collected some flower seeds and I put them uh on eBay.

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So eBay is where uh I have been started and where uh my passion is.

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And since today I have still my main job because I like it.

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I have now a master in mechanics um and I still like it.

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It's something totally different.

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And I have two passions and um currently I'm following both.

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And that's why I'm in India at the moment.

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I help here the local team to increase their capabilities on the production side.

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I'm here for FIF for four weeks and helping them to grow.

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And the seed business is running as normal.

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So all the employees are handling all the daily tasks.

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yeah, if they have questions, they call in the evenings or something.

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I'm not that deep involved into the daily business, so that's why I can go for four weeks

to India.

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So I look more about how can we grow in the companies, what are maybe new tools we can

use, how can we optimize ourselves and stay a little bit away from the daily business.

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So em that's one of my first secrets, I would say.

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Stay away of the daily business and have space and capabilities and em yeah, new ideas

which you can develop for the company.

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Mm-hmm stay away from the daily business Valerie.

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Did you hear that?

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That's a topic for us as well

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was like, okay, now I need to go somewhere else.

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Yeah, because it's not working the way that we wanted to to stay away from the daily

business so far at least and I just made a mental note I can't have my my son hear this

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podcast today because I just made an arrangement with him that he's going to clear out my

seller and sell stuff on eBay he's 12 and I just pay him 30 % so I will not let him listen

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to this because this is going to ruin my deal with him.

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Yeah.

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but still really impressive, Caro, that you're just doing that as a side business.

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It's like, yeah, some people just got more energy or more motivation when it comes to

skiing, obviously.

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Yeah, so I still use a lot of time for skiing or lot of money I make with this so you can

do amazing trips to New Zealand for skiing.

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there's, you can do everything.

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So now it's a totally cool freedom I have with this two jobs.

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Yeah.

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Wow.

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So, what would you say, Carol?

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Um, what would you do best in the marketplace business?

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Because, I mean, this is a podcast about marketplace business, right?

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And I feel that you have like so many interesting topics to tell about, but let's focus

maybe for now on marketplace business.

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Yes, so yeah, so I think um so we are in a unique or not a unique but we are in a specific

marketplace situation.

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So we are on the low price end because a lot of sellers they um search for products which

are 20 euros or above.

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So to make the calculation easier and have some margin but often seeds you can get for

four euros including shipping.

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So we are really on the low end of the price and everything.

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has to run automatically.

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um from the start, we were pushed to do everything from the order to the bill, into the

accounting, everything full automotive with any touch.

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And this is something I think we make really good.

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So our automation, also how often we review our programs we are using.

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So every half a year, I review all the programs.

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to see, if there is something better to list the product, something better to add to the

photos, to always be updated because especially now with em AI, there are a lot of new

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features which helps you to save time, for example.

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And I think also, which is really important, um if you sell products in a low price range,

you have to have to spend the same effort if the product would cost 200 euros because the

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customer from the outside perspective is

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is expecting the same, so they want to have a good title, good photos and good um

descriptions, really good manuals for all the stuff.

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um And even if it costs just four euros, the customer would like to have the same journey

as a 200 euro product.

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I think that's one of the keys why we are so successful and why we did grow so much,

because we really spend a lot of effort into how we present ourselves to the customers.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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I have like so many questions while we come to this later.

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So I'm, um, maybe Carol, I don't know if you really asked this, like tell us a fun fact

about yourself because I have the feeling you already told us so much, but maybe tell us a

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fun fact, which is like connected to our, um, to the eBay dinner, to this story.

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Ah, a fun fact.

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So, I mean just a basic fact.

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So, I think a fun fact is that I grow up without any television or medias.

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So, I have maybe seen less than 10 movies in my life and I always told during my studies

to my colleagues, you all could have a side-tusle if you don't have a watch Netflix.

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Everybody can start a side-tusle if they don't just spend the time with you.

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use on Netflix for your side hustle.

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And I think one of the fun facts or the keys of this much powerment is that I don't use so

much social media and advertisement in movies like Netflix or Amazon Prime.

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I think that's a key for when you ask how much, how is my time management working?

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It's working without social media and movies.

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Yeah.

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Great.

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Yeah, that's yeah.

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You and everyone else on that eBay dinner as well, Valerie, because the topic on just

cancel your Netflix and everything is going to work out fine.

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Came up several times and everyone in the round was like, okay, but I only don't, don't

only have Netflix.

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I also have Amazon prime and Disney plus.

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So yeah.

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Anyway, yeah, I think you can already hear why we invited Caro and why we're looking

forward to this discussion.

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And as I said, I think we have lots to debate just if you focus on the automation part of

what you just told us about.

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Yeah.

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And we will do so and come back to that after a very quick outbreak in which we will like

to tell you about our partner X-Poto.

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Internationalization and its challenges are a big concern to many of you.

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Shipping returns, processing, tax regulations and one-stop shop procedures, all of this

can cause quite a headache, even when selling to Austria and don't even get me started on

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the UK.

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You can find the link in the show notes.

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Okay, let's go back to Caro.

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um And you just told us about your founding story, but which I really like going through

the garden and going through the parks and just collecting seeds.

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But how do you come from that stage selling your little seed packages to you have a fully

automated business in which you can just leave the company for four weeks and go off to

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India and are not really needed.

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So how did you go about

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being so automated.

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How did that work?

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Yeah.

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So I like working tools together.

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So I spend a lot of time for research and from the beginning when we were small companies,

I choose programs which are way too big for us.

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But this brings you into the situation that after one or two years when the program which

you use for the size of your companies, you have to change it after a certain way.

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So that's why we use really programs which are

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the most common one.

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So normally I go for the most m common one.

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So for example, for our own shop, we use Shopify.

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and Shopify is maybe not the easiest to start when you found a company, but you have the

benefits after two or three years because then you don't have to change your setup, for

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example.

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So that's em one really basic thing.

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And we were a long time happy with Bilby.

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So Bilby was for all our...

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management of the warehouse um and that.

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So we choose at the beginning really big programs which need a lot of effort to get into

because they are a little bit more complex but then after one or two years you have to

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return back.

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And yeah I started with collecting the seeds but so my both grandparents on both sides are

farmers so I have a farming background which helps me a lot to find

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also the farmers in Germany.

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It's also a network community.

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They know each other and they know that I buy seeds for a much better price than big

companies would buy their seeds for.

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And that's how I started and how I still do it since today.

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So I have a network of local farmers.

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The most are in South Germany.

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So we get every autumn the shipments from them.

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And then in a really early stage we invested into an automatic packaging machine.

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So we get from the farmer, for example, 10 kilograms in a big bag.

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And then we put one kilogram in the machine and make our automating packages.

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And I'm really into innovation.

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So I just closed an innovation with the Fraunhofer Institute, which is, I think, common

here.

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And they did for us, for example, an innovation of labeling.

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So we want to reduce also our impact to the environment.

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So our goal is to reduce the waste and all the trash which you get within a delivery.

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Often it's packed with a lot of stuff around and a lot of colors and paintings and all

that is around the packages, but you throw it at the end after five minutes into the

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trash.

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So with the Fraunhofer we invented, for example, an automatic em

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labeling which is plastic free.

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So which is directly on our package and when you work with them together as really a small

business so they have much more employees and much bigger companies they work together but

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even they are interested when you go to them as a small company and say hey I have a cool

idea I have really something that hurts me they also like this kind because they're not

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much small companies going there and say hey can you help me in my e-commerce business

because they are normally

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doing something in the industry or something.

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So that was a really unique story, em how you can also get help, external help for

automatization, which is also em cross sponsored by the government.

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So.

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m

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And, um, Carol, how do you get your business profitable?

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I mean, you said like, you have like four euros or I don't know how much is your average

basket.

193

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I mean, if I think about, um, just like postal fees, um, how do you do this?

194

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I mean, um, and then you have like all the other fees, et cetera.

195

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And how much like big is your volume?

196

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Because then it's in the end, drive what drives you is the volume, right?

197

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Yes, so what I strive at the end is the volume.

198

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So everything has to be done over the volume.

199

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And there we had, I think, maybe a good position.

200

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So when we started in 2020, there were not much seed companies.

201

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So seeds, flower seeds especially, is something really traditional.

202

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So there were not much competitors on Amazon or on eBay.

203

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So we've got really good spots, which we still hold until today.

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And we could...

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really raised from the beginning.

206

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was not a raise, it was a jump to a certain level and that's the turnover what we are

still have there.

207

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And yeah, it's increasing since that, but yeah, you have to have a certain level and some

feeds, we sell less on them, so we also have our best sellers which are on the Amazon rank

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in the top five, but we also have then some which get just...

209

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sold once a week, but in the average you have to have a certain level of selling.

210

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Are you comfortable with giving us a bit of an idea of how many, what is a big volume in

your field?

211

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oh I don't know how many packages of seeds would you typically ship in a month?

212

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so we are very seasonal.

213

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So in our season, which is March and April, we ship up to 1,500 packages per day, all

in-house.

214

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So we all do our in-house um shipping.

215

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And it could happen that, for example, for the best sellers, which are on place in the

first five places on Amazon, we ship 200 times a day the same package.

216

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So there's just a different

217

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address on the outside.

218

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um

219

00:18:06,191 --> 00:18:10,212

And yeah, that's in the, and in the side season.

220

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we're just now here in August or also over Christmas, we have maybe up to 50 or a hundred

orders a day, depending on some, yeah, when there are newspapers or we have sometimes we

221

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are also television.

222

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So sometimes I'm in television, they get some news.

223

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So then it's increasing, but so in the average in the winter spring, we have between 50

and 100 packages.

224

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Yeah.

225

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and the total volume per year we have now last year around 40,000 customers.

226

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um So that was the volume.

227

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people do you have?

228

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At the moment we are nine people.

229

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So not all full time, but some full time, some part time.

230

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have also some which are still studying for, for example, graphics.

231

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So we do all the Amazon layouting, we do our in-house.

232

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And for the I have they are just then working on the 4, 565 euro.

233

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So it depends.

234

00:19:11,916 --> 00:19:14,728

But in total we are nine, everything from

235

00:19:14,728 --> 00:19:20,833

um Accounting to Amazon, eBay, so every marketplace has also their own person.

236

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So I like to have specific persons for each marketplace.

237

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So I have two persons who does just to Amazon, one person just for eBay and one for

Shopify and they own a really detailed trained in their marketplace.

238

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um And I do the training by myself or by watching videos or reading books.

239

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uh

240

00:19:42,248 --> 00:19:45,337

because it's hard to get employees with your drink for Amazon or something.

241

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So there's also lot of development needed.

242

00:19:48,746 --> 00:19:49,757

Mm-hmm.

243

00:19:50,399 --> 00:19:54,474

So in total, you would say you have like three main sales channels.

244

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It's your own online shop with Shopify, right?

245

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It's Amazon and eBay and you grew up with eBay.

246

00:20:00,489 --> 00:20:02,369

Yes, I grew up with eBay.

247

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They have a really good relationship, I would say.

248

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And eBay is the heart passion, I would say.

249

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We make a little bit more turnover on Amazon because just the people are more used to

Amazon.

250

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And when eBay, we could really fear when eBay canceled the bank transfer that our customer

base gets really reduced on eBay during the, because we had

251

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So seeds, it's also interested for a lot of people which are old, so 70 or older.

252

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So just today we received a handwritten letter with a bank note inside.

253

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I wanted to order these because they are not able to order online, but they see us.

254

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Somehow they search for our address.

255

00:20:46,748 --> 00:20:55,423

And for these people, which they have been former on eBay, but since they canceled the

bank transfer and they don't using PayPal or Klana or all that stuff, we receive letters

256

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from them.

257

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Yeah.

258

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That's, yeah.

259

00:20:59,845 --> 00:21:00,651

Yeah.

260

00:21:00,651 --> 00:21:01,814

Okay.

261

00:21:01,814 --> 00:21:05,983

And what is your best product, your best setup product?

262

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So the best seller product is a flour mixture.

263

00:21:10,116 --> 00:21:13,809

So on Amazon, it's really depending on the rating.

264

00:21:13,809 --> 00:21:19,494

So when we have some which we maybe are in the top 10, top five, then this will be the

best seller.

265

00:21:19,494 --> 00:21:23,588

But it could be for eBay, it could be something totally um different.

266

00:21:23,588 --> 00:21:30,926

em So for eBay, it's more not that we have like a best seller, we have more average over

the product.

267

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Mm-hmm.

268

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But which we also now found out why.

269

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So I, because we have now, so we are into seasonal products and we thought we have to list

them once.

270

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So we list, you list your product once and then you don't touch it.

271

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But during the off season, the product falls in the rating because other gardening

products go more in the, in the, in the, in the first draw because, and for Amazon, they

272

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have a better algorithm for seasonal products because then you stay in that.

273

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And for eBay, you,

274

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for the products which we launch each year new, they are the best sellers because they are

new to the system and they have not run through an off season.

275

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So for eBay, we will change a little bit, I think our strategy and resell some of the

items which are five years old or something because they have gone through a lot of off

276

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season and this unstable validity in sales is not the best for the eBay algorithm, I would

say.

277

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Mm-hmm.

278

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at least what we noticed.

279

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So best sellers can vary on the things.

280

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And I think for the Shopify shop, which he is the most depending on advertisement.

281

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So we had, for example, with TikTok, a video which go viral, which we had a lot of views.

282

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So you could see raising then this product because a lot of people have seen it on TikTok

and then they switch to the Shopify shop and just uh get it.

283

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Mm-hmm.

284

00:22:56,144 --> 00:22:59,686

Okay, I would say let's do another short break and...

285

00:22:59,686 --> 00:23:03,973

this TikTok and social media topic, I think.

286

00:23:03,973 --> 00:23:04,875

Yeah.

287

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295

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Yeah.

296

00:24:10,552 --> 00:24:20,026

So Carol, let's go into this a bit because, that's something that we also talked about at

the eBay connect, dinner that you said you sort of started TikTok as a side thing, by the

297

00:24:20,026 --> 00:24:24,168

way, to just plant your TikTok videos from now until next March.

298

00:24:24,168 --> 00:24:30,450

So how important is social media in, uh, in for your business at the moment?

299

00:24:31,272 --> 00:24:44,292

So, due to our low value of the product for the customer, we cannot use the classic

funnels for Google Ads or something because we can't pay even five cents per click.

300

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It's too much for us on the margin side because it's a really high amount.

301

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you reduce the tax, if you reduce the shipment, we have two euro 90s left and so it hurts

when you have to pay all these advertisements.

302

00:24:58,952 --> 00:25:01,350

So we just do...

303

00:25:01,350 --> 00:25:03,531

all the advertisements, you do not have to pay.

304

00:25:03,531 --> 00:25:09,793

So TikTok was one of the ideas I came up em with because we already produce a lot of

videos.

305

00:25:09,793 --> 00:25:14,634

So I'm really, I think it falls easy for me to do videos.

306

00:25:14,634 --> 00:25:22,666

I just stand in the middle of the field and you can hold a camera and I just start

speaking without taking any notes before I just speak.

307

00:25:22,666 --> 00:25:24,267

I tell them something about flowers.

308

00:25:24,267 --> 00:25:26,948

It's just my nature to tell my passion.

309

00:25:26,968 --> 00:25:28,178

And em

310

00:25:28,178 --> 00:25:33,730

That's how we posted them and we used to post them on Instagram and Facebook.

311

00:25:33,730 --> 00:25:38,012

Facebook also important because the customer age is higher, so they are still on Facebook.

312

00:25:38,012 --> 00:25:40,604

And then we started, okay, let's just post them on TikTok.

313

00:25:40,604 --> 00:25:45,496

We have them anyways and we posted them and we got really, really good feedback and views.

314

00:25:45,496 --> 00:25:53,059

So our views on TikTok are much higher than um on the, yeah, I would say Instagram.

315

00:25:53,059 --> 00:25:55,121

So the algorithm is different.

316

00:25:55,121 --> 00:26:00,703

And we also experience what we never thought that there was the high generation of that

age.

317

00:26:00,703 --> 00:26:04,084

So even people which are 50 or 60 are on TikTok.

318

00:26:04,084 --> 00:26:05,375

And I did not know that before.

319

00:26:05,375 --> 00:26:12,317

I thought it's for the generation which is even younger than me, but no, they are still

there and we have really good interaction.

320

00:26:12,317 --> 00:26:13,828

So I think TikTok is really good.

321

00:26:13,828 --> 00:26:16,629

And what we also use is YouTube Shorts.

322

00:26:16,629 --> 00:26:19,700

YouTube Shorts is also really good because people use it to search.

323

00:26:19,700 --> 00:26:24,614

So when you got one again, how do I sell flowers or something you judge on?

324

00:26:24,614 --> 00:26:28,908

YouTube for some, yeah, manuals, video manuals.

325

00:26:28,908 --> 00:26:35,002

And that's also why we have YouTube there to show how to do um the stuff, yeah.

326

00:26:35,893 --> 00:26:36,744

Yeah.

327

00:26:37,488 --> 00:26:43,843

And so you did also start recently than the TikTok shop or how did you do this?

328

00:26:43,974 --> 00:26:47,206

Yes, so TikTok shop is connected to our Shopify shop.

329

00:26:47,206 --> 00:26:50,719

So I'm really happy with Shopify at all.

330

00:26:50,719 --> 00:26:56,513

So I recommended everybody who is asking me because Shopify is always there when something

new started.

331

00:26:56,513 --> 00:27:01,586

So when an opportunity shows up like in TikTok shop, Shopify will be there the same now

for AI.

332

00:27:01,586 --> 00:27:08,361

I just read today in the morning that they will be the first who were working together

with JetGBT for JetGBT.

333

00:27:08,361 --> 00:27:13,414

um So they are really there in the first spot and we are connected for

334

00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:25,403

The shop is connected over Shopify, so it is easy, m very easy for somebody to onboard

because you have already all the products in there and TikTok shop, but we don't.

335

00:27:25,403 --> 00:27:29,104

So what we notice is that the people do not buy over the TikTok shop.

336

00:27:29,104 --> 00:27:31,325

They see it and then they change to the home page.

337

00:27:31,325 --> 00:27:38,247

So m for some videos which go viral, we can say, OK, I would say 80 % buy in the shop

directly.

338

00:27:38,247 --> 00:27:43,258

They search just then in the web, buy in the shop directly and just 20 % buy over the

TikTok shop.

339

00:27:43,258 --> 00:27:44,291

actually.

340

00:27:44,898 --> 00:27:45,689

Yeah.

341

00:27:46,497 --> 00:27:47,411

you track this?

342

00:27:47,411 --> 00:27:50,270

is this more like a feeling?

343

00:27:50,270 --> 00:27:50,581

Yeah.

344

00:27:50,581 --> 00:27:58,541

And we cannot track it, but we can see, okay, if we have a video, for example, we had a

poppy video of a special flower we grow by my parents.

345

00:27:58,541 --> 00:27:59,821

We were there on the fields.

346

00:27:59,821 --> 00:28:01,661

I posted it and it got viral.

347

00:28:01,661 --> 00:28:03,841

And then you can see, okay, now it increases.

348

00:28:03,841 --> 00:28:07,881

So normally you sell a package a day and now it's 20 or 30 a day.

349

00:28:07,881 --> 00:28:10,321

see, okay, they come because of the video.

350

00:28:10,321 --> 00:28:13,981

And so many others come over TikTok and come through the normal shop, I think.

351

00:28:13,981 --> 00:28:14,497

Yeah.

352

00:28:14,497 --> 00:28:15,266

Mm-hmm.

353

00:28:15,266 --> 00:28:16,200

Mm-hmm.

354

00:28:16,311 --> 00:28:23,879

So um you said it's doing videos is sort of in your nature and is something that em you

like to do.

355

00:28:23,879 --> 00:28:29,165

So would you consider em giving that to one of your employees as well?

356

00:28:29,165 --> 00:28:34,260

Or is that something that you at the moment so marketing keep it to the founder side?

357

00:28:34,536 --> 00:28:37,738

ah No, have they do the they do the market.

358

00:28:37,738 --> 00:28:39,969

They do the planning side of the marketing.

359

00:28:39,969 --> 00:28:41,050

Sometimes I get notes.

360

00:28:41,050 --> 00:28:44,442

OK, Caroline, we need this kind of video or we need this.

361

00:28:44,442 --> 00:28:46,243

And so we do a lot of.

362

00:28:46,243 --> 00:28:46,583

Yeah.

363

00:28:46,583 --> 00:28:49,345

So when so when I was now, I'm now four weeks in India.

364

00:28:49,345 --> 00:28:54,127

So I had to pre produce some of the videos or at least I'm now pre produced since March.

365

00:28:54,127 --> 00:28:55,578

I have a tight schedule.

366

00:28:55,578 --> 00:29:02,182

So we go into a sunflower seed and then they we do like short clips of 30 seconds for

social media and.

367

00:29:02,182 --> 00:29:06,775

It looks like when we arrive there, I go in the sunflower seed and we do all the clips

which I have in mind.

368

00:29:06,775 --> 00:29:10,157

And at the end then, or at the middle, I would say they come up with the list.

369

00:29:10,157 --> 00:29:12,838

Okay, now all of your ideas are freestyle is done.

370

00:29:12,838 --> 00:29:15,720

And now we would like to have these kind of 10 videos.

371

00:29:16,060 --> 00:29:17,601

So that's how we work together.

372

00:29:17,601 --> 00:29:27,127

And then at the end, now we pre-produced four um videos per week as our schedule, our

time, what we do.

373

00:29:27,127 --> 00:29:30,148

So two during the week and two on the weekend.

374

00:29:30,380 --> 00:29:40,789

And then they look in a way so because then we have filmed for example 15 sunflower videos

that they come in a good in a good so that they are not autumn.

375

00:29:40,789 --> 00:29:49,657

um Yeah and we look what we get so I think seeds is also really cool because you have a

lot of varieties of videos you can actually do.

376

00:29:49,657 --> 00:29:57,459

So not everybody if you sell a chair you cannot do 15 videos of the same chair and then go

a week later again and say do you see this.

377

00:29:57,459 --> 00:30:05,873

this bee there and this is a special German nature bee and you can tell something about

the bees and something about the flowers and something about the sunflower oil.

378

00:30:05,873 --> 00:30:07,424

You can tell so much about seeds.

379

00:30:07,424 --> 00:30:13,096

So that's really a big benefit for us and why we can produce so much videos.

380

00:30:13,166 --> 00:30:15,927

videos in that seasonal field?

381

00:30:15,927 --> 00:30:24,072

I mean you can talk about sunflowers at the moment but you can't talk about, I don't know,

any kind of spring flower for example.

382

00:30:24,232 --> 00:30:26,612

Yeah, so we filmed the whole season.

383

00:30:26,612 --> 00:30:27,872

we have different schedules.

384

00:30:27,872 --> 00:30:32,052

So my family is driving around with the car and everybody says, oh, I have seen this field

there.

385

00:30:32,052 --> 00:30:33,232

I have seen this field there.

386

00:30:33,232 --> 00:30:37,592

And then every Saturday I have a working colleague or a good friend of mine.

387

00:30:37,592 --> 00:30:38,892

We also work together.

388

00:30:38,892 --> 00:30:41,012

She likes to do the filming and all that.

389

00:30:41,012 --> 00:30:49,412

So every Saturday we go out to the different fields and say, OK, this we film and this we

film and then we do the uploading and then they...

390

00:30:49,412 --> 00:30:50,512

Yeah, that's the secret.

391

00:30:50,512 --> 00:30:53,512

It's a really good thing to go off of the desk.

392

00:30:53,512 --> 00:30:55,052

Doing videos is really good.

393

00:30:55,052 --> 00:30:57,152

sometimes also when I'm...

394

00:30:57,152 --> 00:30:59,052

So I have one rule.

395

00:30:59,052 --> 00:31:03,232

So every evening, normally at 9.30, I shut down the PC.

396

00:31:03,232 --> 00:31:05,612

So this is the latest point, 9.30.

397

00:31:05,612 --> 00:31:07,212

And then I go for a walk.

398

00:31:07,212 --> 00:31:12,172

And when I see then some new flowers in the area, in the neighborhood, I just do a small

video and then you can post it.

399

00:31:12,172 --> 00:31:15,312

So it's really easy to do for me at least.

400

00:31:15,312 --> 00:31:17,712

Yeah, but I'm this nature kind of nature trip.

401

00:31:17,712 --> 00:31:21,658

For me, it's easy to do videos, to post online and to show them and...

402

00:31:21,658 --> 00:31:27,843

Also recently now with the eBay event, which they've launched eBay on tour, I did a video

of the eBay on tour.

403

00:31:27,843 --> 00:31:38,180

So I try also more now for this year to get the people more at what I'm doing the whole

day as a founder of a site hustle and how is that all gonna work?

404

00:31:38,180 --> 00:31:43,904

So to show a little bit more about what you can do if you do not watch Netflix.

405

00:31:46,066 --> 00:31:48,288

That's sort of a recurring topic here.

406

00:31:48,288 --> 00:31:59,638

I have to look a bit at the time, um but I think we all got a good idea of your grit and

drive and passion for your business.

407

00:31:59,638 --> 00:32:03,341

What are your plans for the next 12 months for Lakatoa?

408

00:32:03,341 --> 00:32:10,066

Do you even have a strict strategic outline or are you just taking the challenges as they

come?

409

00:32:10,216 --> 00:32:12,136

No, so I'm an engineer.

410

00:32:12,136 --> 00:32:14,816

for sure I have a strategic plan.

411

00:32:15,036 --> 00:32:18,016

so I use my favorite tool is the balance scorecard.

412

00:32:18,016 --> 00:32:23,216

I think it's a known method for management to figure out what you would like to do.

413

00:32:23,216 --> 00:32:27,416

So I have a balance scorecard where I shown, okay, these are the KPIs we want to reach.

414

00:32:27,416 --> 00:32:31,556

These are the other stuff we would like to do.

415

00:32:32,596 --> 00:32:38,076

yeah, for the next year, we increase a little bit our variety of seeds.

416

00:32:38,076 --> 00:32:39,528

I would like to go.

417

00:32:39,528 --> 00:32:52,528

a little bit more into the seeds and flowers which you can use for your health, for

example, which you can make tea out of it or which you can just eat, example, eatable

418

00:32:52,528 --> 00:32:58,008

flowers, for example, a little bit into these to get it a little bit more usable for us.

419

00:32:58,008 --> 00:33:08,328

At the moment, it's very, most of the flowers are looking, just nice looking flowers, and

now I wanna give us a benefit as humans to use it in your smoothie, to use it for eating.

420

00:33:08,496 --> 00:33:12,937

And also we increase a little bit the variety on tree seeds.

421

00:33:12,937 --> 00:33:22,621

So mainly we are only in flower seeds, but there are also a lot of cool, unique trees here

in Germany, which are really bee-friendly.

422

00:33:22,621 --> 00:33:25,461

So we have some, also some plants which we sell.

423

00:33:25,461 --> 00:33:32,524

um We visit three markets a year, so we sell their own uh stuff.

424

00:33:33,894 --> 00:33:40,072

I would like to also get a little bit more into the tree topic because it's not that known

that also trees are very good for bees.

425

00:33:40,753 --> 00:33:42,587

And Carol, one final question.

426

00:33:42,587 --> 00:33:44,361

In which market do you sell?

427

00:33:44,361 --> 00:33:49,771

Do you just focus on Germany or German speaking countries or how do you do that?

428

00:33:50,204 --> 00:33:54,828

So at the moment it's just Germany because otherwise we could not keep up with the

growing.

429

00:33:54,828 --> 00:34:00,412

But for next year, so we are now settled, I now feel comfortable to take a next step.

430

00:34:00,412 --> 00:34:04,735

And we would like to try to sell to Austria and France.

431

00:34:04,735 --> 00:34:06,396

So these are the next two.

432

00:34:06,396 --> 00:34:14,543

They have also with these, I cannot sell them too much north or south because of the

environment.

433

00:34:14,543 --> 00:34:16,040

So it has to be the same.

434

00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:18,622

um or at least a little bit um the same.

435

00:34:18,622 --> 00:34:22,926

um so we want to do some of these also.

436

00:34:23,768 --> 00:34:24,558

Yeah.

437

00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:30,692

Interesting plans and I'm sure it would be great to have em a...

438

00:34:30,692 --> 00:34:37,546

to just check up on you what you're doing next year because you're moving so fast and

things are happening so quickly at Lakato.

439

00:34:37,546 --> 00:34:39,608

Thank you for today, that was Carole Lange.

440

00:34:39,608 --> 00:34:42,342

Thanks for your insights and joining us today.

441

00:34:42,342 --> 00:34:43,472

Caro.

442

00:34:43,532 --> 00:34:53,828

And yeah, if you found our today's episode interesting to make us happy, um you could sign

up for our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.

443

00:34:53,828 --> 00:35:03,982

And of course, tune in again in two weeks time, where we'll be talking about how community

benefits your marketplace business in a very real, intendable way.

444

00:35:03,982 --> 00:35:05,407

And yeah, thanks for listening to the day.

445

00:35:05,407 --> 00:35:06,370

Bye bye.

446

00:35:06,370 --> 00:35:07,420

bye bye.

447

00:35:07,420 --> 00:35:08,420

Thanks.