Samantha Gowing on Food Health Wealth and Thriving in the Wellness Industry – The Wooassist Interview Series

February 15, 2019 By John Leave a Comment

Samantha Gowing has close to 20 years of experience in improving the health and well-being of Australians. Her background as a restaurateur and dietitian ensures she creates tasty and nutritious meals that everyone can enjoy. This, coupled with her business expertise, allowed Food Health Wealth to thrive in a trillion dollar indsutry.

We have been working with Sam since 2015 helping her maintain her website, among other things. We look up to her as an expert in her own field, so we saw it fit to include her in this interview series. Read on below for the interview.

How did the Food Health Wealth website start?

I co-created the first incarnation of the website in 2002 with a coder I met through a friend. I had wanted to build a site since the 90s, but web design was so expensive then. For about $500 I was able to work with a great developer who coded the back end originally in Mambo freeware. It was rather clunky in hindsight, yet it got my business up and running in the new digital era.

Samantha Gowing Wooassist Interview — Samantha Gowing started Food Health Wealth way back in 2002.
Image Credit: Nelly le Comte

What are some of the major challenges for Food Health Wealth?

Raising awareness so people understand the power of food as medicine and the benefits of cooking from scratch are some of the constant challenges. The solution is to create a multi-faceted platform of services and skill sets that can constantly evolve and change to suit market trends, dietary changes and constantly researching the science-based evidence as it comes to hand, so you are always the leader in the field and top of the game.

What has been the biggest challenge in your career?

Transitioning from a successful career as a hotelier and restaurateur to retraining as a clinical nutritionist in 1999 and trusting that the wellness industry would be the $4.2 trillion global Industry it is today. Being ahead of the trend has allowed me to develop the unique spa and wellness programs that service the niche in the global marketplace for a spa cuisine and wellness specialist in the booming arena of luxury lifestyle retreats, health spas and elegant beach resorts.

Benefits to industry include intensive one-on-one training in the healing cuisines, exclusive cooking demonstrations, conference presentations ready-to-go spa food menus, management systems and kitchen templates.

What are your tips on how to make a business start-up a successful one?

Ask yourself if you are meeting your clients’ needs before you meet your own needs? Do you consider what the client can afford to pay more than what you need to earn? Letting go of the hourly rate structure brings about an opportunity to focus on the project as a whole and not incremental parts, which in my experience leads to less productivity as a consultant as constant clock-watching and cramming tasks into set hours can result in taking more time to do the actual work. If you’ve ever been self-employed in the healing arts or other creative health pursuits then you’ll probably agree that one of the biggest hurdles is knowing not what to charge, but how – and when.

How has eCommerce changed over the past 10 years?

It’s never been easier to set up an online store as it is today. While eBay and PayPal have made online transactions secure in the last ten years, it was unchartered territory. Contact forms were the target of cyber pests and unsecured payment gateways were fraught with danger.

What do you think is the future of eCommerce?

With internet access 24/7, it is easy to shop online almost anywhere. Be mindful of this when developing products and services. Consider lightweight products for better shipping rates and understand what your market really wants when it comes to purchasing a product online. VDO platforms and seamless downloadable modular courses are the way to go if you’re a service only provider such as a wellness consultant. If you’re a chef and nutritionist like me, then think about developing a signature range to sell within your own country with the view of global export in the longer term. Ecommerce is a rapidly growing vehicle that is constantly changing and evolving so stay ahead of the game and as Apple Pay and afterpay platforms ensure your customers can shop 24/7 it is an exciting time for ecommerce and online stores. .

How did you get started with WooCommerce?

I was looking for an ecommerce platform that would seamlessly integrate with my site and be just complex enough to navigate when I wanted to make changes and add new products.

What advice can you offer for aspiring ecommerce entrepreneurs?

1. Know how to network your market. Get yourself a mentor or a go-to

I cannot stress this enough. You must surround yourself with like-minded peers. The biggest challenge many start-ups face is gaining clarity over their product and their offer. You simply cannot be all things to all people, and you must create a niche that is an inch wide and a mile deep. See my mentoring page here.

2. Future hunt trends before they arrive

Adopt an entrepreneur’s mentality. For example, current research from Global Wellness Institute forecasts that workplace wellness approaches will change radically. Embrace trend forecasting websites and blogs to help you identify emerging trends before they become part of the culture and business potential.

3. Beware of imitations

The highest form of flattery they say, however it can be very costly and very painful. This is the problem with being a pioneer. Don’t let it get you down. Rise up and rule your roost.

4. Protect and defend your IP

Trademark what you can. Image and recipe ‘borrowing’ is rife and always has been. Always credit your source! In academia, you’d be booted out of an institute for not referencing diligently – and plagiarism. Always declare your influence. Start with something like, ‘the work of (fill in this gap) has always inspired me’.

5. Develop Product

In order to get traction, you need to become very good at selling yourself and your products with grace, peace and ease. If you truly believe in yourself, your product and your offer, then you should not have to think twice about it as it will help your community. Get your product in to as many hands as possible and ask friends to take a pic of them reading, eating or wearing it.

29 Business Principles From A Self-Made Billionaire Business, Entrepreneurship, and Success Principles From Richard Branson’s “Like A Virgin”

June 12, 2017 By John Leave a Comment

Richard Branson's Like A Virgin If you’re an entrepreneur it’s important to leverage the experience of other successful entrepreneurs so you can save time, avoid costly mistakes, and achieve your goals faster.

I’ll share with you some principles from one Entrepreneur—Richard Branson who founded the Virgin Group but first let’s get to know a little more about who he is.

Who is Richard Branson?

Richard Branson is an entrepreneur and a philanthropist who founded the Virgin Group, which has 400 companies under it. When he was still starting he stood against the giants in the industry such as the British Airlines and was able to rise up despite having less advertising budget.

How much is the net worth of Richard Branson?

As of 2017, his net worth is 5.1 billion US dollars.

What are Richard Branson’s Philanthropy projects?

First he works with The Elders which is a group of leaders who join together to resolve conflict all over the world. One of the founders is Nelson Mandela, the president of South Africa and a Nobel Peace Laureate.

Another is the Carbon War Room, an organization founded by Virgin Unite for combating global warming by reducing carbon emissions.

Richard Branson’s Reality TV about entrepreneurs

Richard Branson has a reality TV show about developing entrepreneurs called The Rebel Billionaire – Branson’s – Quest For The Best. See below video:

Who does Richard Branson consider as his role model?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu – who fought against racial discrimination and is also one of the founding members of The Elders.

What is Richard Branson’s vision?

To ensure world conflicts are resolved more effectively or even become a thing of the past.

29 Powerful Business Principles From Richard Branson

Now that we know who Richard Branson is and where he’s coming from, here are some of his principles and advice to grow your business. These principles were based on an interview of him written at the start of his book “Like A Virgin” which despite the title is actually a business and management book.

What’s the best advice he can give? Look only for the best qualities in people.
What’s the best advice he can give? Only a fool never changes his mind.
The key to success in three words: People. People. People.
Luck doesn’t just happen, you have to work at it.
Love what you do, love people, love making a difference.
Avoid negativity, avoid looking for the worst in others, avoid having ‘glass-empty’ mentality.
Avoid gossiping.
Overcome challenges, and if you fail, pick yourself up quickly.
Five secrets to starting a business: if you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. Why? Because starting a business consumes a lot of time so you need to be willing to spend huge amounts of hard work and time.
Five secrets to starting a business: be innovative, create something radically different. Do things that have never been done before and continue innovating. If you enter a crowded industry, be ready to offer customer service that blows the competition away.
Five secrets to starting a business: Build your business so that people are proud to be associated with the company. It generates a special level of advocacy and dedication from your people. In most businesses, people are your biggest assets.
Five secrets to starting a business: lead by listening and be extremely good at lavishing praise. Never openly criticize people. Never lose your temper. Always be quick to applaud a job well done. People flourish on praise. Usually people don’t need to be told that they’ve done wrong because most of the time they know it.
Be visible: even if you work from home be constantly out and about and meet people. Keep a notebook as you go out and jot down questions, concerns and good ideas. Meet as many of the people that your company is serving because you will get good suggestions or ideas. Write those ideas down. Talk to your staff and customers at every opportunity, listen to the good and the bad feedback and act on it. Appoint leaders in your team who have the same philosophy–keep it proactive, responsive, and friendly.
Learn from failure, then pick yourself up again. Some of the best lessons are learned from failure, but pick yourself up and start all over again.
The real engine of any business – people. Good people are not only crucial to your business, they ARE the business.
Find the right people
Manage the right people
Inspire the right people
Hold on to the right people
Keeping and maintaining the right people are one of the most important challenges that a business leader faces
What sets a business apart from others are the attitude of the people
Your people should be smiling, cheerful, pleased to help, so customers want to do business with you again.
People are your key asset.
A good leader must know the team, its strengths and weaknesses. Socializing and listening to the team is key.
Remind the managers and leaders in your team about having a true sense of pride in the business because that’s what makes all the difference.
Be willing to give people a second chance. Remember the times when you too made mistakes and were given a second chance. Branson once tried to sneak duty-free records out of the UK and escaped a criminal record only by paying a fine. He was given a second chance to start over.
Call people out in private when they do something wrong, but give them a second chance. Branson said this to one of his staff who messed up by trying to steal and then sell his record labels: “Everyone messes up, I expect you to learn from this mistake and go back to doing what you do best.”
Your people need to be looked after, and celebrated.
How to handle people who don’t perform up to standards:

Don’t be aggressive
There’s plenty of ways to get your point across and make your business successful without being aggressive
Always remember that you love what you do and your role is to persuade others to love your business too, so that people will want to work with you.
Engage with everyone in a positive, inclusive manner rather than in an aggressive, combative, or negative way
If the companies or individuals you deal with do not respond to a positive approach, ask yourself if they are the right companies or people to work with.
For every supplier or people who are aggressive towards you, there are another five who will want to work with you.
Look for companies or individuals who want an inclusive, positive partnership.
Strong personality is important when starting a business, but ‘strong’ does not have to mean ‘aggressive’.
Have confidence in your ability to follow you vision
Listen to others
Master the art of delegation
Delegate to a member of your team when you encounter frustrations when dealing with others.
Delegating difficult problems to your team brings a fresh pair of eyes and ears, and a different approach and perspective
Surround yourself with a great management team who complement you and ensure that the team have all-round skills to make the business succeed.
When negotiating, remain calm and collected.
When negotiating, if you are getting angry take a deep breath, pause, and realize that you are taking things personally. Take a step back. Rely on the team around you to help you out.
Learn to negotiate without aggression. Understand what you want to achieve and what leverage you possess to help you reach your goals. You need less aggression and more determination.
Confide in your team the difficulties you encounter, it will help you put everything in a clearer perspective.
Attract and keep good partners and staff by making them feel that they have done well with you.
Be willing to listen to other people’s suggestions, and recognize when those suggestions are better than yours. Don’t be afraid to admit you’re wrong. Take action when the suggestions are better.
Build a healthy rapport with your team and the companies you work with. Don’t take everything personally.

Take Action

That’s a lot of things you can act on here immediately that can have a positive on your business and that’s only from the first 21 pages of Richard Branson’s book! Personally I learned some new things I can implement immediately in several of my businesses. Which of these principles can you immediately implement in your business and why did you choose these principles over the others?

12 Business Principles From Lean Startup by Eric Ries

June 8, 2017 By John Leave a Comment

I read this book just before I started Wooassist, and recently decided to go through it again. It was just as thought provoking second time around.

Here is a summary of the principles I have taken away from the book Lean Startup by Eric Ries.

Who is Eric Ries?

Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and co-founder of IMVU, a social network, which grew to $50 million in annual revenues in 2011 employing over a hundred people in Mountainview California. IMVU’s virtual goods catalogue now has more than 6 million items in it, with 7,000 added every day and most of the items are created by its customers.

What are the principles from the Lean Startup Method?

Stand up from failure. The author experienced difficult failures too. The first company where he worked as a software engineer failed. However that did not stop him because he partnered with one of the founders to form IMVU later.
Recognize the reality that most start ups fail. Eric Ries has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and has seen many promising startups lead to failure. “The grim reality is that most startups fail. Most
new products are not successful. Most new ventures do not live up to their potential.”
Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Instead, be determined to make mistakes! Eric Ries and his cofounders are determined to make new mistakes. They make a point to do everything wrong: instead of spending years perfecting their technology they instead build a minimum viable product, an early product that is terrible, full of bugs and crash-your-computer stability problems. Then they ship it to customers way before it is ready. And they charge money for it. After securing initial customers, they change the product constantly and ship new versions of our product frequently.
Take action: produce your minimum viable product. Even when your product is not yet perfect, start marketing it, start sending it out to customers. Get feedback to it. Charge money for it. Then improve it quickly.
Eric Ries and his team listen to the customers but do not always follow what their customer says they want, instead they make experiments on their customers! Eric Ries said: “We really did have customers in those early days—true visionary early adopters—and we often talked to them and asked for their feedback. But we emphatically did not do what they said. We viewed their input as only one source of information about our product and overall vision. In fact, we were much more likely to run experiments on our customers than we were to cater to their whims.”
The Lean Startup Method – is built on many existing management and product development ideas, including lean manufacturing, design thinking, customer development, and agile development. It is a method for creating continuous innovation in any organization.
The Lean Startup Method puts a focus on what customers want (without asking them), and a scientific approach to making decisions.
Experimentation is important: Eric Ries considers himself fortunate to have cofounders who were willing to experiment. One thing in common between the cofounders was that they were fed up with the failure of traditional thinking.
Customer Development = Business + Marketing Functions Are As Important As Engineering And Product Development. Steve Blank who is an investor and adviser for IMVU. In 2004, Steve began to preach a new idea: the business and marketing functions of a startup should be considered as important as engineering and product development. Business and marketing deserves a rigorous methodology to guide them. He called that methodology Customer Development, and Eric Ries was greatly influenced by this.
Eric Ries studied Toyota’s Lean Manufacturing System and used some of the ideas:
Lean manufacturing originated in Japan with the Toyota Production System. This heavily influenced the Lean Startup Method.
The Five Concepts:
Entrepreneurs are everywhere – the strategies can work for small and large companies.
Entrepreneurship is management – you need a management that can handle extreme uncertainties.
Validated learning – part of the job of entrepreneurs is learning how to build a sustainable business. You need to run frequent scientific experiments that will test each element of the entrepreneur’s vision.
Build-measure-learn – turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and decide whether to change direction or stay in the same direction. Your business needs a feedback loop.
Innovation accounting – focus on the boring stuff, how to measure progress, how to set up milestones, how to prioritize work.
Vision, Steer, Accelerate
a. It’s also important to build a minimum viable product rather than aiming for perfection right at the start.
b. It’s important to have leap-of-faith ideas—we don’t know if they will work or not, that’s why we will test these ideas rigorously. Don’t discount any idea because it doesn’t “seem” plausible, try these ideas out and then measure the results.

“Vision” – The entrepreneur has a vision, a leap of faith idea, but it’s important to gauge if they are making progress, and this is where we need validated learning. To achieve this validated learning, use scientific experimentation. The lessons you learn will help you build a sustainable business.

“Steer” – the process is first Build, second is Measure and third is to Learn. Build-measure-learn is a feedback loop and again is part of the validated learning. The entrepreneur begins with leap-of faith assumptions then build the minimum viable product, then the progress is measured through rigorous testing, and we measure whether or not the assumptions of the entrepreneur are valid or not. There is a need to establish a new accounting system for evaluating whether entrepreneurs are making progress, and a method for deciding whether to pivot (changing course) or persevere in the same direction.

Accelerate” – explores techniques for entrepreneurs to speed through the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop as quickly as possible even as they scale. This focuses on lean manufacturing concepts such as producing small batches of your products rather than big batches, getting feedback to your product fast, and organizational design to improve product growth. Toyota uses principles such as drawing on the knowledge and creativity of individual workers, shrinking of batch sizes, just-in-time production and inventory control, and an acceleration of cycle time

Take Action

These twelve principles can help you grow your business faster than before.

Here are some actions you can immediately take:

Produce your minimum product. Don’t wait for your product to be perfect—get it out and into the hands of your customers.
Improve your product quickly. Once you have customers testing your products, you can immediately improve them.
Listen to your customers (but not what they say). Observe your customers and observe their actions, but it’s not necessary to follow what they say.
Be willing to experiment.
Build the product, measure the progress, learn from the progress. This is the process of getting validated learning.
Spend time for the boring stuff—measuring progress, establishing milestones, tracking.
Do the same thing not only for your product development, but also for your marketing and business functions. Build, measure, and learn.
Based on your learning, decide whether to change course (pivot) or to accelerate on the same path.