))
How Nathan James transformed his father’s hobby into a successful business
Manage episode 341259151 series 2948163
Sisällön tarjoaa Jake Dunlap. Jake Dunlap tai sen podcast-alustan kumppani lataa ja toimittaa kaiken podcast-sisällön, mukaan lukien jaksot, grafiikat ja podcast-kuvaukset. Jos uskot jonkun käyttävän tekijänoikeudella suojattua teostasi ilman lupaasi, voit seurata tässä https://fi.player.fm/legal kuvattua prosessia.
Nathan James, today’s guest on the Jake Dunlap Show started his journey in the business world at a very young age (at 8 he was selling vegetables from his backyard to his neighbors) and has held various jobs in sales and digital marketing before becoming the CEO of Boardroom Socks.
What started out as a hobby his father had, soon turned out to be a real success, the quality of their products and the increasing demand for traditionally made products giving them a real chance to stand the test of time.
James comes from a long line of textile titans who’ve supported the industry in North Carolina, the Charlotte-based company his parents launched in 2010, selling more than 50 styles and colors of cotton and wool men’s dress socks.
We talk about his early onset passion for business, his years at University and lessons he learned along the way about running a niche company.
Time stamps:
00:48- Introducing Nathan James- from selling his mother's backyard vegetables to starting his eCommerce page while he was still in university and now CEO of his family business, Boardroom Socks;
02:12- An entrepreneur in the making- guided and supported by his parents who were also his example, both of them being business entrepreneurs;
05:56- His years at Elon University- the people he met directed his future steps in the real world of business;
08:46- Studying in Cuba- learning to be grateful for the opportunities and the lifestyle America has to offer;
10:36- Bass fishing- qualifying for regionals;
12:52- A family legacy, entrepreneurship and digital marketing- the sum of ingredients that culminated with a dream come true- Boardroom Socks;
14:20- Why socks, though? The journey…
17:47- Lessons learned- understanding the product and the customer- the key to finding their niche;
22:55- Ignore the noise, keep the business focused and stay excited and motivated;
33:59- New and exciting in manufacturing- renewed interest towards domestic manufacturing.
Quotes
“I was very fortunate in how my parents raised my brother and I, and that they were both entrepreneurs and they were very willing to let us kind of run with ideas.”
“The way he (his professor) always explained it is, there are two kinds of professors: there’s AQ, academically qualified, and then there's PQ, professionally qualified (...) A lot of the knowledge and the information that he shared just all around sales and marketing it was just so applicable and hands-on in the real world that I think it really opened up my eyes.”
“It doesn't really matter what job you’re doing, at some point you’re always selling, you’re selling something. You’re selling yourself, everything kinda comes back to sales.”
“My dad had worn for years and years just a classic black Merino wool over the cap dress sock and he always got them locally made and just being plugged in the textile community (...) it started as really a hobby more than anything else, so he started making the socks for his personal use and then some of his friends started to ask about them and then it kind of snowballed and grew organically. I thought he was nuts when he first came up with this(...) I didn’t understand it”.
”When I left my day job to start working at Boardroom socks full time and to really run the company, I remember one of the first things I did was to move everything, move the business out of their house and into a warehouse, and I had to count all the socks that were in their house (...) and it was over fifteen thousand pairs of socks that they had in their house (...) Their socks were just everywhere.”
“You have to figure out what you’re good at and what your business is good at and then really double down, triple down on that and just relentlessly focus on that, and do the best you can to ignore the noise and just put your blinders on and focus on what you’re good at. And then, once you’ve mastered that, put a system or a process in place to manage it.”
______________________________
Get in contact with Nathan:
______________________________
Mentions:
FLW Tournament at Lake Guntersville- bass fishing tournament
__________________________
Follow Jake:
______________________________
195 jaksoa
Jaa
