How Jennifer Lea Grew Entry Envy from an Idea to a Multi-Million Dollar Business

[00:00:03] Hector: Hello and welcome to another episode of the how to scale a business podcast. My name is Hector Santia Esteban and I'm your host for your try that again, page and I'm your host for today and our special guest is Jennifer Lee. She is the founder and CEO of Entry Envy. it's a subscription.

[00:00:19] Hector: Service in its most simple sense, but they actually help people to do things that I am terrible at, which is make their house look more welcoming and enjoyable. And so we're going to get into all of that today, but Jennifer, thanks for hanging out and spending some time with us.

[00:00:32] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:35] Hector: So I didn't tell too much about the business and what you guys do because I wanted you to share it because I think you Have a great story We were joking about it before that I don't know how far back you could go before it was like I could have never imagined something like this But now you're in a business.

[00:00:51] Hector: You've got dozens of employees you guys are doing boatloads of revenue. it's a real thing. And, just years ago, you were often, I think, different kind of job and doing something totally different. So catch us up on where you think journey started and also like what you guys do and tell us about the products and

[00:01:07] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Yeah. No, thank you. Absolutely. Happy to. yeah, you're right. this is not something that I thought I would ever sign up for. and here we are. the simplest way to say how I got here was I'm my own first customer. So I got divorced in January of 2020. And I moved out of a home that I had been in for 16 years with my two daughters and dog and COVID, of course, happened a couple of months later. And if you've ever gone through the process of trying to buy a home during a divorce, and then you couple it with the crazy real estate market of COVID, Well, let's just put it this way. Beggars couldn't be choosers. So I ended up getting a house in the area of town. I'm in Omaha, Nebraska that I wanted to be in, but, it was a fixer upper to say the least.

[00:01:53] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: And my dad was a carpenter for 40 years. I wasn't afraid of the hard work that it would take to bring it to my living standards. And so I just started tackling it room by room and all day long. I. Moran, a law firm virtually, I was the executive director for a law firm for 18 years and at night I remodeled and that was probably therapy that I didn't even know I needed, but it really was therapeutic time every night to just do kind of mindless work.

[00:02:21] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: That was satisfying. There's something to me. That's just amazing. When you can. See immediate results because so much of business is not that way. Things take a really long time and I've always enjoyed the creative piece. And it was in April of 2021, I had about 1, 800 hours of sweat equity into my house, the inside looked beautiful, but I came home every day to an outside.

[00:02:43] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: That was a bit of a bittersweet reminder of what I had left. I'm a big believer in first impressions that way your own space, you go into a party, you go into an office, you go into a meeting. How do you feel on a conscious and a subconscious level? And it's important. It's really important.

[00:02:59] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: It sets the mood. And so I thought I need to feel better about the home that I'm coming to every day. And so I'm out of time, energy and money. So how do I add some curb appeal without spending a lot of those things? So I decided to paint the garage door, paint the front door, update the light fixture, update the front porch a bit, and move the house numbers that were on the garage.

[00:03:21] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: It was kind of had an eve, they were hard to see, they were old, they were falling off, and started researching a modern house number sign. And I couldn't really find anything I liked if you've ever looked for these house numbers are generally pretty boring. And the one that I found was on Etsy that had a vertical shape to it and it had modern house numbers and it had a small planter box on the front. And I was like, well, that's super cute. Except for, as I already said, I'm in Nebraska. We could only grow something in it here four or five months out of the year. I'd have to water it twice a day to keep anything alive because there wouldn't be much soil. Then I'd be rotting the wood. I'd have water all over the front porch.

[00:04:01] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: I don't have time for that, but I really liked the sign. So I thought, well, I'm going to make it anyway and I'll find something fake to put in it. And that was where the concept started coming from because I made the sign. I went to the craft store. , spent. A half hour to 45 minutes looking for the right decor to put in it.

[00:04:21] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: I'm in the faux floral section. I had to buy a whole bag of Spanish moss. I only needed a little bit. I had to buy three foam blocks because they didn't sell just one and it wasn't the right shape anyway. So now I'm at home cutting styrofoam in the garage, trying to find a wire to poke in this robin's egg that I bought.

[00:04:36] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: I wanted to stick in there so it didn't blow away. Trying to find my wire cutters. I got Spanish moss all over the place. And I'm like I thought watering flowers twice a day was going to be a lot of work, this is a hot mess here. I get it done though, and it was adorable, cute, cute sign, hung up by my front door, and I'm like, this is so perfect. And then I realized that Easter, which is what I decorated for, was going to be over in about two weeks, and I was going to have to do this again every month. And I was like, ha ha, I'm out. I'm like, somebody's got to ship this. There's a subscription box for everything, right? So I'm back to Google, started searching for home decor subscription boxes, faux floral subscription boxes, artificial flowers, holiday and seasonal decor for your front porch, like everything. And no one was doing this, nothing like it. And so I then started looking at other Etsy manufacturers who were making these signs and I'm like, are they selling anything to go in and they were not. And so it was one of those moments that I just saw this business. I knew it was a reoccurring revenue model. it was never about being a sign company. It was about being a subscription company. It was a service to women and exterior decor, unlike your interior decor is really disposable. The weather beats it up. I don't care where you live, the wind, the rain, the snow, the sun, the spiders, like it just happens.

[00:05:54] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: So it is the perfect subscription box because we're going to deliver a brand new decoration to your door every single month. It takes two minutes to switch out to celebrate the next holiday and season. And you didn't have. To do anything. It was just, it came, swap it and you're done. And you look like Susie Homemaker down the street.

[00:06:13] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: You look like you spent a lot of time on your front porch, but you didn't, you really just subscribed to entry and be, and I truly, I love it. my front porch would have looked good if I didn't have this company and my goal is to help other women love theirs as much as I do.

[00:06:26] Hector: Yeah. I just want to honor you for that. That's so cool that

[00:06:29] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Thank you,

[00:06:30] Hector: take it and ran amidst, some personal strife, I would imagine, But yeah, I know that, with two kids, you're probably the one that's like, we're gonna pick it up and we're gonna keep going.

[00:06:39] Hector: And, just wanted to acknowledge you

[00:06:41] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Thank you. Yeah. You know, I had a coach. I'm a big believer that you got to go all in and always been that way. I'm a Capricorn. so there's nothing in my life. I do. That's half assed. It's either, go big or go home. so hardest part of this was Initially, I wasn't even done with the remodel when I had this business idea.

[00:07:00] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: And it's not just house numbers. I knew that not everybody would need that. So we do monograms and last names and custom greetings. And then we have a smaller version for, apartments and assisted living facilities because they should be able to get something for their door too. I mean, I had the entire thing in my head and mapped it out over about two days, did some samples I thought, I don't have time for this. I don't have time for this. I was not in a position at that point, by any means to quit a six figure corporate income job as a single mom with two kids and pretty much recently divorced, and I did it anyway. I didn't do it right away. I had enough traction. I had proof of concept.

[00:07:40] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: I had a coach who said, don't quit your job when you have replaced your income, quit your job when you know how to replace your income or otherwise you never will get there. that really resonated with me. There's a phrase in a book. I can't remember who wrote it. It's a 99 percent of bitch, a hundred percent of breeze. And it's kind of like that whole, you can fight uphill really hard for a long time, but eventually you just have to jump. You have to go all in to get to where you want to be. And so it's scary. it's not an easy journey, but I wouldn't be here had I not taken that leap. And I also think I've had a lot of people say, how have you done this in such a short amount of time? Relatively speaking. And I would also say that, well, when you are a single mom with two kids and just quit a very good paying job, and there is no plan B. There is no spouse. Plan B would be to go back to corporate, and I'd be really hard pressed to do that after this journey. But, there's a fight of just a drive and intensity that is hard to replicate, I would say.

[00:08:43] Hector: Yeah, I'm curious if there were, because we could go so many different ways. I mean, product market fit, subscription models it was just a real masterclass on product and business development. I'm curious if you look back on. The business in stages, you mentioned like there was some traction or there was some early proof of concept before you make that leap.

[00:09:04] Hector: when you look back on like, Oh, here was version one. And then here's when version two happened. Or, this is when we started to do this sorts of things. did it happen in phases? Or was it like, bam, here it is. And it's all here.

[00:09:16] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: No, I've given the analogy, and I've heard this before from other women. truly having a startup company Is like having a baby and there's a gestation period. ours was about five months from the time that I came up with this idea and conceptualized it, if you will, until the time that I launched the company.

[00:09:35] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: and during that period, I would say that was, entry in the 0. 0, ? it's not, it's not a real thing yet. It's at that precede stage, which I did definitely did not know what those terms meant at the time. I went and did a craft show as an exhibitor, with just an exhibition, literally, I didn't have a company.

[00:09:55] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: I didn't have a website. I just was doing market research and I took five product samples and I collected 250 email addresses in six hours then I knew at that point that, okay, this is a legit thing. This is really working, had enough legs at least to say, I could invest or invest 10, 000 into the business and, try and get it off of the ground and bet on myself.

[00:10:19] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: And so that was in technology. a little bit of staff to help support that a coach, because I know how to run a company, but I didn't know how to start one and I needed to pay somebody to kind of help me navigate some shortcuts. I was a marketing major in 1999 when I graduated from college, but that degree, let's be honest, is antiquated at this point.

[00:10:40] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: I mean, fundamentally it still exists. If you've got to do market research, you've got to have proof of concept, you've got to have traction, you know, but in terms of e comm online marketing. Holy moly, what am I stepping into? Right? So I would say that 0. 0 was trying to figure out what the heck you're doing.

[00:10:59] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: And then once the baby is born, the company is launched, that newborn phase is tough. And it lasts a while. I'm glad we're past that, but there were a lot of sleepless nights. There's a lot of time that it takes. I mean, I have absolutely easily worked 120 hours a week since I came up with the idea of this company. that doesn't ever go away. I think that is that intensity. I love it. And these little companies take a lot of time and energy as they grow up a little bit. They take a little less and a little bit of a different, and you can bring on more team members. But I think as the founder, I won't let that go.

[00:11:34] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: it is my baby. we're moving half of the company into a different space. That's about 25 minutes away from where we are right now. Very intentionally and by design, but it feels like I'm dropping half of my child off at daycare right now, Oh God.

[00:11:48] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Right. So I would say entry envy 1. 0 was. from October 1st, 2021, when they launched to June or July of 2022. during that time period, we learned a lot about who our customers were. We learned, we grew from, we had about 125 subscribers. Probably maybe 150 across the country by that June, July mark. so we had enough that we sort of knew what does the avatar look like? Are the women buying this the same woman that I thought would buy it? What did they love about it? and we learned how people were purchasing or maybe not purchasing it. Like what were the barriers to entry? revamped the website fairly significantly, in July of 2022. We saw a significant inversion rate improvement then at that point, so we've been running on what I would call 2. 0 from that July 2022 period to now, maybe July of 2023.

[00:12:52] Hector: What were some of the changes that you made or what were some of the insights that you gained from that

[00:12:57] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: yeah, biggest thing that, you know, you have to figure out with your customers is not, not why they're buying it, why they're not. And when we, had the first website, so going back to where a very unusual subscription box, because you have to, Buy that one time custom product and that's the beauty of this, It is yours. It's your house. It's your last name. It's your house numbers So we have so many options and people were overwhelmed by that people in general are very ineffective decision makers and so We first went to entry and be, you know, 1. 0. It was like, we can do anything. Start here. And we had it on the screen saying, would you want a black or brown or a white sign?

[00:13:38] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Do you want a vertical or horizontal? Do you want to have a modern house numbers or a last name? literally they could build their sign online. No one was buying it. They didn't even know where to start. When Entry NV 2. 0 came out to be, I basically gave them 12 choices sorted by start here. Do you want a house number?

[00:13:59] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Or do you want a monogram or a last name? Okay, now do you want vertical or you want horizontal? showed everybody these options and then they could go in and pick some limited amount of customization. So Cool. our conversion rate improved almost 45 percent by eliminating the build your own sign component. So was pretty significant.

[00:14:23] Hector: Yeah, I would say.

[00:14:24] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: So Entry NV 3. 0 is officially, going to be launched in December. And it is implementing AR, augmented reality. So you'll be able to take your phone, hold it up and look at your house and be able to point and say, what does it look like if I have a horizontal sign or a vertical sign and house numbers, will it work? I don't know. I mean, there's no way that's the thing about startups is everything is a test. It is every single thing you do. You have to be willing to just say might work, might not. So I mean, I wouldn't do anything different than I've done in my company the last two years. there's never mistakes.

[00:15:03] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: There's never failure. It's just feedback. And it's just a constant pattern of learning to figure out. And one of the mentors that I met through an accelerator program, we were involved with this summer he is a very sick kid at very first exit. A successful exit from his first startup and he started a second one. And the question that somebody asked was, would you have done anything different or did you do anything different starting the second company? And he said, I've tried to fail faster. if you do a sprint and you think you need, and I would say this was true for us. I thought I needed a longer amount of time to be able to test stuff. I can test stuff in three or four days now and say, Nope. Uh, maybe, I'm much more confident I think, in that early input and being able to trust my gut and say, spend more time here, or more money, or don't, so much of the testing is figuring out what doesn't work. It's like this process of elimination and don't go down those rabbit trails for too long.

[00:16:02] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Like just, okay. Nope. That, I mean, I'll give you a good example. Real estate agents. I thought this would just be. Gold. Like what a perfect closing gift, They're always buying closing gifts for people. This is a beautiful way to identify somebody's house. perfect. No. No, I spent so much time working on this and we could spend an entire other episode that'll tell you why it doesn't work, but I spent too much.

[00:16:26] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: there's anything I would have done different, I would have said, no, after a month of not getting, of not seeing the traction that I thought I should have in there, I would have been like, peace out. Not going there anymore. You know, not that real estate agents can't buy our signs, but I'm not spending time, energy and money yet on marketing it.

[00:16:40] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: So anyway, that's just one little tiny snippet.

[00:16:44] Hector: Yeah, I think seeing those stages, they all have their own, lessons and I'm sure that they. Require different things out of you as well as a leader, as an executive, I'm curious. when you think about what business you're in, I hear a lot of times people, they say, we're not in the securities business.

[00:17:01] Hector: We're in the people business or not in the insurance business. because Although there is a gadget, a gizmo, a widget, in this instance, I don't, I'm not, I don't want to minimize it at all. have a product, but when you tell people, yeah, we're in the, home decor business, is that the business?

[00:17:15] Hector: is that how you actually think of it? Or is there something else that you think is, underneath that?

[00:17:21] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: know what you're asking. And it's funny because, I probably don't give the answer that I should, somebody says, what do we do? I'm like, well, I have an exterior home decor subscription company. but what do we really do is help Women Love their home. Love coming home to their home. have so many testimonials it is such a little thing, but their kids, anybody who comes to their front door, looks at this decoration and goes, Oh, isn't that cute? And it's that it's that simple little thing. I had one customer who said, I bought this to support you. I did not think that I needed it. And this is a subscription I will never cancel, which is a really interesting perspective. and I will tell you time, energy and money.

[00:17:59] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: I don't right now. There is about 75. To 80 percent of our customers are women who already love home decor. They're already buying wreaths and rugs and stuff. They're already planting flowers. They care about their curb appeal and they're the low hanging fruit because they're like, Oh God, of course I need this.

[00:18:16] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: the 25 to 30 percent I mean, it's probably about 25 percent they're doctors, lawyers, CPAs, engineers, they're professional women, they're busy, they don't have time, they don't want to spend time on their front porch, but they know they're supposed to care. They're not creative they value this as a service, not as a product that this is done. I did what I needed to do. I checked the box. My front porch looks good. thank you very much Entry Envy. but it's harder to get that group of people to, buy into it. They just do it out of an obligation, but then they actually do enjoy it, but it's still like it's a service.

[00:18:54] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: It's not a product. And yeah, you're right. I mean, we are completely a want, not a need company. You don't need decorations on your front porch, right? This is something that you want to, but we typically target women that are 35 to 65. They have disposable income. They're established homeowners. they value that the outside of their home needs, they're typically living in a higher end neighborhood and that it needs to present.

[00:19:16] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: Well,

[00:19:16] Hector: Yeah. what I think is really great about just that whole thing is that You've found a real need. said it's, a want and in their heads, it's not a want, it's a need, because otherwise they don't have that curb appeal. it is a need and you've, found a way, in there, It's just fantastic. I'm challenged because we're right up at our time and we could probably do a whole master class and whole master series on these things of all the great things that you've done here. Is there anything else that you think like, Oh man, I I would hate for you to believe and be like, dang, I really wouldn't wish I had mentioned that because you have A fantastic business model, one that I think a lot of people, as we move forward, are going to continue to adopt.

[00:19:51] Hector: So for someone who might be looking into a business model like this, for someone who may have some sort of subscription esque model, even a service based offering, is there anything that might help those people to either Keep their customers around to grow. I'd, I'd imagine that it's its own journey.

[00:20:09] Hector: Just, not just acquiring the customer, but then also keeping them around fulfilling and building on that.

[00:20:15] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: yeah, I would say there's two parts. I believe in industry agnostic groups as much as I believe in industry associations and being involved with the subscription trade association has been instrumental in our success because that is the best place to learn. Everything that you need to know about how to start a subscription, how to reduce your churn rate, how to increase your numbers.

[00:20:40] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: , there's so many coaches within that space. so that is advice. Number one is spend time in an industry organization that's specific and trade association, has probably a higher level focus on physical subscription boxes. Then just sass, right? So I mean, I think that if they both have fundamentally same concepts.

[00:21:04] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: But I do think if you're a B to B model versus a D to C model, sub to has been a great space for D to C and a product base. So that's I can speak to that well, because that's what we do. But I think that in general, did not appreciate. So again, I had 25 years of corporate experience before I went down this path of an entrepreneur. And there's a lot of different ways that people come to their journeys. What I did not appreciate being a W 2 employee, if you will, versus an entrepreneur is that 95 percent of the success is related to your mindset. it's unbelievable, how correlated they are. And I wouldn't have believed that had somebody told that to me.

[00:21:45] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: So if you have somebody is listening to this saying, yeah, that that's. BS. I would say, okay, I'm going to challenge you to practice that just give it 30 days because it really is amazing. But it's also like bathing. It is work every single day to stay in a really positive place.

[00:22:02] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: And, everybody. Does it differ? And the gym is a huge part of my routine, taking care of myself, journaling every day, surrounding myself by positive people being a, huge believer that your circle of five, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, being highly involved in. , organizations that support the business, support me as an entrepreneur, and that I'm always being challenged and growing and learning in, , those have been huge pieces of the success that, , I think it's easy when you as I know, like it's, these companies take a ton of work and it's really easy to just. Sit behind your computer for 20 hours a day and never leave and feel like you're doing the work that you should be doing, but I've been there and it's not the most productive way to do it. So, focus on always that constant learning, self awareness, self improvement, growth development. Professional networking industry organizations, but also industry agnostic. And I think that those are keys to the success.

[00:23:06] Hector: Yeah. Jennifer, this has been such a fun conversation. Selfishly. I know our listeners are gonna get a ton if they want to find out about entry envy or get more connected with you. where's the best place to go?

[00:23:18] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: so entry envy. com is our website anywhere that they are social, it's entry underscore envy. We're everywhere. and then I'm on LinkedIn as well with Entry Envy, and then Jennifer Lee. So, happy to connect with anybody through those channels. we have small team that we keep pretty close to all of those places.

[00:23:38] Jennifer Solo Ready for CE: So you're not too far from me if you reach out.

[00:23:41] Hector: I love it. Thank you everyone for sticking with us today. We appreciate you being a part of the tribe. Bye. If you got any value out of today, which I know you did, we would love and appreciate a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. And if you know someone who is in the midst of scaling their business or just might need a little spruce up for their front door, send them this episode.

[00:24:02] Hector: and as always, we appreciate you being a part of the tribe. We'll see on the next one. Later, y'all.