Find a mentor who can speed up the learning process for you. They’ve already gone down the path you aspire to go through, they know what it takes and can guide you there faster.
Albert Vaisman is the Co-Founder of Soxy.com – a direct to consumer brand which designs bold socks to help empower individuality and self-expression. As a university dropout, Albert’s been able to sell over 1 million pairs of socks to men & women in 40+ countries without raising venture capital.
Where did the idea for Soxy.com come from?
Prior to launching Soxy, I operated an online retail store that curated cool clothes for men with the mission to help men look and dress well without spending a lot of money. One of the products we carried were bold socks, and we noticed a large amount of orders containing them.
We wanted to understand why men were so interested in buying these colorful socks so we began calling customers. We learned that most men are limited to their fashion at work, as many are forced to wear typical suits.
The only option men had to express themselves at work through fashion was by wearing funky socks. At that point, we decided to pivot the business and focus on providing the world’s boldest socks not found anywhere else.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
A typical day revolves around making sure the daily and weekly business tasks are on track, as well as helping bring monthly / quarterly goals to life by planning out what needs to be done.
I use Trello to organize daily, weekly, and monthly tasks as that ensures there is always something productive to do.
How do you bring ideas to life?
As a die hard marketer, I tend to think of things from a marketing perspective and how it would serve consumers. I always begin with understanding hypothetically how a new product or idea could be sold to the right audience.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The health & wellness industry and consumers being driven by choosing healthier / eco-friendly choices.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Completing the hardest tasks within the first 2-3 hours of the day, as that’s when your willpower is strongest.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Find a mentor who can speed up the learning process for you. They’ve already gone down the path you aspire to go through, they know what it takes and can guide you there faster.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Gone are the days where you can build a big business solely reliant on Facebook. Prices continuously rise making it difficult to be profitable on just that single channel alone.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Whenever I go out, say to a restaurant or make any purchase, I always evaluate my buying experience and try to break down what’s good, what’s bad, and what can improve. I continuously think about the consumer experience.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Expand our marketing efforts beyond Facebook. The internet is massive, and Facebook is only a small part of where people hang out. There are so many marketing platforms and channels businesses can take advantage from, it’s important to be omni-channel present.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I’ve failed at over a dozen different business ideas before I’ve seen any kind of success. I always believed my businesses failed because the product wasn’t good enough.
As I later learned through experience, it’s not about the product, but your ability to sell the product. If you don’t know how to sell your product, nobody will ever buy it, even if it provides the world’s absolute best solution.
Entrepreneurs need to learn sales and marketing, without those skills it’s almost impossible to see your business succeed.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Take the idea of ‘focus groups’ and make it easier to do so online. When you launch a new product, it’s difficult to know what people honestly think unless they buy it.
A platform that allows you to get honest feedback from different demographic groups could be a cool way to learn what people think about your product before you invest heavily into marketing.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I bought into a 30 day challenge that’s all about if you ‘lost everything and had to build a business from scratch, how would you do it?’. Fun challenges like this get your creative juices flowing and force you to think about the fundamentals.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Trello is a great tool that keeps all your lists, projects, and ideas all in one platform. It’s an easy to use app that keeps life organized.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
“The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber which talks about the idea of building systems in your business.
What is your favorite quote?
“Do things today that others won’t, so tomorrow you can do things other’s can’t”.
Key Learnings:
- Sales & Marketing are the most important skills entrepreneurs need to know
- Find a mentor to help speed up your learning curve
- Learn marketing to understand consumer dynamics
Connect:
Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.