Anita Crook: Starting a Business in Your 50's :Eventual Millionaire

Entrepreneur, and Designer and Creator of Pouchee – Anita Crook

Does age matter when starting a business? No! Anita had never even been an entrepreneur before. She details how she started her company called Pouchee. She hated selling and was really nervous just to talk about it, yet she ended up selling out over and over again!

Check out Pouchee.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript:

Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Tardy and today we have Anita Crook on the show. She has an interesting story. She has a company called Pouchee and what they do is they do purse organization. It's really cool, really ingenious idea and I'm excited to get into her story today so thank you so much for coming on, Anita.

ANITA CROOK: I'm looking forward to it. Thank you for having me.

JAIME TARDY: Of course, we have to get into this story. Number one, the name, Pouchee, is a cool name. How did you even start doing this at all?

ANITA CROOK: It was one of those things that I never planned on doing. I never expected to be doing. I was a stay-at-home mom, supported my husband, worked for him off and on a little bit over the years, but he was the entrepreneur of the family. He's got a million ideas and I've never had any. We weren't thinking in that direction. But on day, I always liked to have organizer bags. One thing that really freaks me out is having to hunt for stuff. When I want my stuff, I want my stuff.

I would spend days at the stores looking through bags, making sure they had all the right pockets and everything and then I would get it and fill it up and then of course I would never change bags because that was way too much trouble. I was going along fine and then my oldest son gave me a handbag for Christmas and it was lovely. He lives in California and it was a really cool bag. I looked inside and there was no pockets and I'm thinking oh thank you, David.

JAIME TARDY: This is a great Christmas gift.

ANITA CROOK: I'm thinking I'm never going to use this. I put it away and I kept thinking about it. You know, I really like the bag and I said, "If I had a way that I could use this and arrange everything so I could find it, I would do it." I looked around, I looked on the internet, I looked in stores, looked everywhere and could not find anything that suited me. As any other good mother would do, I designed one.

JAIME TARDY: We are problem solvers.

ANITA CROOK: Exactly. I didn't know what I was going to do because I don't sew. I had a design. I was taking a meal to a sick friend and I was telling her about my idea and I said, "But I've got to find somebody who sews." She said, "Oh my daughter sews." So I took it to her daughter who made my first prototype and as I'm going out the door and she says, "Oh by the way, I have a friend that you might want to talk to. She has purses made somewhere overseas." I called her friend, got the name of her broker. The next thing I knew, I had 2,000 Pouchees coming in.

JAIME TARDY: Okay, wait. That's kind of crazy. You talked to one lady and she gives you everything you need. So everybody needs to have a friend like that. Did you know that, like you knew that you were going to make this into a thing? It wasn't just going to be oh I made it for me and that's great. You knew it was going to be something that was going to be bigger.

ANITA CROOK: I ordered 2,000 of them so I figured if it was just for me, I was going to have 2,000 Pouchees, which I kind of thought maybe I would have 2,000 Pouchees in my garage for the rest of my life. I didn't know if anybody else would like them or not, but I took a chance and it turned out that people really did like it. I started showing them, when I got my first samples in. I went from store to store and I thought a really cool place to sell these would be in boutiques and gift boutiques so I went to some local places that I thought were really cute places and showed them my little Pouchee and they loved it and they bought them. Within the first month, I was sold out.

JAIME TARDY: All 2,000?

ANITA CROOK: Everywhere I went. I started going to different places in the state, you know, I didn't venture too far off, but I was going around to different places and I was carrying Pouchees in the back of my car and sometimes my husband, the entrepreneur, he loved it so he was going with me and we would call on stores and they said, "Wow, I like this idea." We sold out; we had 100 percent success.

JAIME TARDY: In the first month. Okay.

ANITA CROOK: It was phenomenal because anybody knows me knows I am not a salesperson. I was scared to death to go into my first store and actually try to sell them something, especially something that I had produced. I don't take rejection well so I was really afraid I was going to run out of the store crying, if they had not liked it.

JAIME TARDY: Tell me about that. Tell me about that very first time, when you were scared as anything to walk in, like tell me that whole story.

ANITA CROOK: I was petrified. My knees were shaking. I really almost had a panic attack. I really did. I just had to take a deep breath and pray and just seek divine help to get through that first door. It was kind of a funny situation because I walked in, you know, and I am showing my little Pouchee and it was the mother and daughter situation, the daughter owned the store, I think her mother helped her out. The daughter looked at them and she said, "You know, I just bought these other things" and it was a totally different kind of concept. She had just bought some and she said, "I just bought these, when I sell out of these, I'll look at yours." I'm going okay, can I show it to you anyway and she said, "Sure."

Her mother was standing there and then the daughter went to help a customer and the mother came back. She said, "I really like yours. Can I buy one?" I said, "Sure, I'll even give you the wholesale price because I think you'll buy more." As it turned out, before I left the store, the daughter was onboard and she bought a whole order. She called me a couple of days later.

JAIME TARDY: Sorry, we're having internet or video issues or something like that.

ANITA CROOK: It's probably the ice.

JAIME TARDY: How many was a full order? Your very first order that she ordered, how many was a full order?

ANITA CROOK: I ordered, oh you mean from the store? Our minimum order started out and is still to this day only 13 pieces.

JAIME TARDY: Still to this day is 13 pieces?

ANITA CROOK: To this day. Everybody says, "What, 13; that's an unlucky number." I say, "It's been very lucky for me."

JAIME TARDY: So she bought 13 and you've walked out of there probably like ridiculously excited. What was that feeling after you walked out and sold your first 13?

ANITA CROOK: Relief! I was really relieved because I didn't know what to expect. I had been so scared. But it was so meant to be because her store was downtown and you never find a parking space downtown. We have a very cool downtown in Greenville, South Carolina and there's never a place where you want it. When I was riding by, I really didn't know if I was going to go in there that day but I was driving by and there was a parking spot open right in front of the store. I said, "Okay it's meant to be."

JAIME TARDY: So you didn't even have an appointment at first? You just walked right in.

ANITA CROOK: No, I never made appointments in the beginning. I just took a chance. I didn't even know; I knew so little that I didn't know I was supposed to make appointments. I didn't know anything. I just went in and showed them my Pouchees and the cool thing was like two days later she had run out.

JAIME TARDY: Really?

ANITA CROOK: Yes. She called back and this happened over and over again. As a matter of fact, some of the stores that I went to, in the beginning, when I was still carrying Pouchees around in the back of my car, they would call me back before I, one of them called me back before I even left the parking lot. It was like somebody had overheard me doing a demo in the store and they would buy them out or the employees in the store would buy them out. One time I was on my way to lunch, I think we were in Charleston and she called. She was like can you come back and sell me some more. I'm going can I eat first?

JAIME TARDY: Can I eat first? Too many sales, oh no! Tell me about this because I think it's really interested that you just ordered these 2,000 assuming that you'd be able to sell them. Did you have a gut feeling? Did you just sort of know because you needed it that there are people out there that needed this too?

ANITA CROOK: I wish I could say yes, but no. I didn't have a clue. I really didn't. I was sitting there figuring out okay gosh, what will it take for me to make my money back on these, because I didn't know. But I took them to a group of friends first, when I first got my first samples in to see what they thought. They were fighting over them.

JAIME TARDY: Really. So you did do some market testing.

ANITA CROOK: Yes, I think oh just love me, you know. I'm still not sure. Still sales is not my thing. I still get nervous if I have to call a customer or go to a store but I do have enough confidence in the product, at this point, that if they decide it's not right for them and I have had some people that actually haven't bought them, and when I get that, my thinking now is well that's too bad because you would sell a lot of them.

JAIME TARDY: So you have confidence in your product because you've heard it over and over and over again so it doesn't affect you as a person, when you get a rejection anymore.

ANITA CROOK: No, not anymore.

JAIME TARDY: What was your first rejection like though? Did it at first?

ANITA CROOK: My first rejection was a surprise, but this was after like two or three months of everybody wanting them. So I just expected to go in and they would buy them, at this point, and get them. When she said, "Well I've got a partner." She seemed to like them but she had a partner and she wanted to check it with her. The partner actually never saw them and said she wasn't interested. If I was a really good salesperson, I would have gone back in the store and said let me show your partner. I went onto the next store and they bought them.

JAIME TARDY: Let's talk about the name, right, because a lot of people, especially newer entrepreneurs get hung up on the name and I think your name is really ingenious ? the Pouchee ? it's very catchy. How did you come up with that name?

ANITA CROOK: I remember it. Of course, I probably still have the napkin. My husband and I were having dinner and like I said, he's a serial entrepreneur, so he is always starting companies and naming them. I run a lot of things by him and we were going over our idea and I said, "You know, I've got to come up with a name." He was coming up with names and I was coming up with names and the name Pouchee just came to me. I thought that's perfect. As soon as I thought of it, I knew it was perfect because they're pouches and then we came up with the logo of the little kangaroo. She's holding a purse and she's got nice little eyelashes. It just all flowed because I just knew that was a perfect name, as soon as I thought of it.

JAIME TARDY: Do you remember any of the ones that you had written down that you didn't pick; any of them at all?

ANITA CROOK: I don't. They were probably very weird. But no, as soon as we thought of Pouchee and, like I said, my husband, we brainstorm so you throw out all kinds of names and ideas of things. We were sitting there with the napkin having dinner and we came up with the name and the logo.

JAIME TARDY: You guys sketched out a logo?

ANITA CROOK: I have an art background. That came in handy finally.

JAIME TARDY: After all these years, I got to use it.

ANITA CROOK: Yes, my mother's education money did not go completely to waste. Once I knew what I wanted, I designed a little logo. We're still using it today. It has worked well for us.

JAIME TARDY: What's great is that you sort of came to success quite quickly but it sounds like the reason why is because you found something that you really needed and believe me I know this too because I got a purse, I looked forever for a purse that I liked and had pockets. It's such a pain in the butt to deal with so you were solving a need exactly. I need to get one of yours because I bought a purse that didn't have pockets just because I liked it. Anyway, rant over.

You're going out, you're selling these things. It's starting to become a thing but yet you've never been a business owner before. Now you're lucky that you're married to one thank goodness, but tell me about the growth and how you actually turned this into something besides you just going to the small boutiques.

ANITA CROOK: Well, as I was going to those small boutiques, I kept hearing the same thing over and over again ? are you going to be at market? Are you going to be at market? I've lived in this area long enough to know what that meant and that meant the Atlanta shows. They have huge wholesale shows where you go, you either get a rep group or you have a booth and buyers from all over the world come there to see what they want for the next season for their stores.

Immediately I knew I had to be at market so we signed up for the next one and we started showing our product. Of course it was really funny trying to fill a 10x10 booth. I had one product in one material in three colors. And they're not really big products so it was a challenge to come up with a way to fill a 10x10 booth.

JAIME TARDY: What did you do? I need to know now.

ANITA CROOK: I took some black and pink, because I decided those were going to be my Pouchee colors and I took some black and pink polka dot material, covered some cardboard with it, put some testimonials on it from customers who had been really satisfied and hung those on the wall interspersed with the saying Pouchees all over the place and that was pretty much it. Put them on a table so people could see them when they walked by and of course, my husband has been in sales all his life so he is fearless. He would stand out in the aisle and just about trip people, as they would go by, because nobody had heard of a Pouchee and nobody was particularly interested unless we made them stop and take a look. But we tripled our business, at that first show. We picked up our first rep group.

JAIME TARDY: Tell us what a rep group is so everybody knows too.

ANITA CROOK: It's a manufacturer's representative and what they do is if they decide they like your product and they want to sell it, they have certain territories. This particular one was in southeast and covered all the states in the southeast and they have people who go around to their customers and they show them your products. So they get to a lot more places than I can get to. There was a rep group that had heard from some of their customers that the Pouchees sold really well so they came and asked if I would let them rep for me.

JAIME TARDY: Yes!

ANITA CROOK: I said, "Well let me think. Yes!" I talked to them for a little while before I decided this was a good thing. I remember the first, it was at the next show where they were actually rep'ing me and I went to their sales meeting and by this time, I had totally sold out of Pouchees. I had ordered 5,000 more for my second order thinking that was a lot. I went to their sales meeting and they asked me a lot of questions and they said, "Well how many do you have in stock?" I said, "Well, you know, I've actually totally run out but I've got 5,000 on order and they should be here soon." Well you could just see all their jaws drop and I'm looking at these faces staring back at me and one person said, "That won't last the first day." They were right. I was out of Pouchees again.

JAIME TARDY: How do you order? Do they give you purchase orders? That's the thing. Coming up with money for inventory is always fun and you know that you've got these things and you could sell a lot but where did you get the cash to be able to fund that?

ANITA CROOK: I have always run my business without debt. It's just the way I, you know, my son tells me I'm allergic to debt. I really prefer to do it that way as long as possible. I did take out a line of credit one time just because I had a really, really huge order coming in but I paid it off within one or two months. My banker laughs at me and says, "I can't make any money off of you." But mostly I took $15,000 that I had saved and I guess I must have just saved it out of grocery money or something. It was my money that I had saved. I invested that money, in my business to start with, and since I sold out right away?

JAIME TARDY: You had the revenue.

ANITA CROOK: And bought my 5,000. I was working from where I am sitting right now. I am in my home office and I was working at that time here, shipping out of my garage. I was doing the bookkeeping and the selling and the shipping and everything myself so I had low overhead. I could put everything back into the Pouchees and I grew that way until I could not handle the volume myself and I hired an assistant. The two of us sat at my one desk and one had the laptop, one had the desktop and we sat there and worked together until I actually could not fit one car in our three-car garage. It was time to move.

JAIME TARDY: How long into it was that? When did you actually have to move out?

ANITA CROOK: I got my first Pouchees in 2005 and it was probably a couple years.

JAIME TARDY: Good to know. It seems like explosion, things went amazingly. You're thinking like six months from then you had a bazillion employees or something like that, but it was hardcore a lot of work by you and her?

ANITA CROOK: Yes. I look at this; a lot of the work is done at the factory so those aren't my employees. The reps that are selling Pouchees all over the country, they aren't my employees. I can keep my staff to a minimum by contracting out other companies and doing the work that way.

JAIME TARDY: How many employees do you have now?

ANITA CROOK: I have four.

JAIME TARDY: Okay, great. It's pretty small. That's good to know that you've been able to do so much, because you have the other resources.

ANITA CROOK: We all wear a lot of hats. Everybody kind of multitasks, but we like it that way. I've got a big warehouse. We do our shipping there.

JAIME TARDY: Even with four employees, those guys do the shipping and everything?

ANITA CROOK: I have a shipper who is very efficient at doing it. She's very accurate and fast. She can get the shipping done in the afternoons. She actually processes some of the orders in the morning. She wears a lot of hats.

JAIME TARDY: Wow. Tell me, because it seems like things are going very easy for you. It's like oh and then people just bought it. Oh yeah, that seems way too easy. Tell me about one or two incidences that were really tough on you so that way we know that you're real and not everything goes perfectly for you.

ANITA CROOK: Yes, we didn't get that far into the story. It has not always gone smoothly. The hardest thing I think, for me, is to get a handle on inventory. I just told you how I ran out the first couple of times. After running out, my customers aren't real happy when I run out of something because they sell so well for them they like to be able to get them so they can sell them. We have over ordered. We had so much inventory at one point that we had to take over another part of the building. I share a building with my husband and one of his businesses. I said, "I got to have more space." We had two warehouses actually full of Pouchees, at the time, which was a bit of a cash crunch so that was a big thing for me because I just told you know how I'm allergic to debt.

JAIME TARDY: Was that the same time you took the loan? Did you take a loan for that?

ANITA CROOK: Yes, to pay for all that stuff that we got in. I'm fanatical about paying my bills so I had to come up with a way to pay for these things. That was very stressful for me. Learning how to work with employees, that has been a big learning curve.

JAIME TARDY: Give me some advice or some stories that you've had on working with employees. That's the thing we don't talk about very much. It's easy to sort of say yes I have employees and that's great and she's wonderful, but tell me, and your employees probably are wonderful but tell me some of the things that you've gone through and what you've learned about working with employees.

ANITA CROOK: Wow. I've learned to take a deep breath before I react. I have not always done that. I'm learning that if I have a valuable employee, it's worth taking the time to go over the issues and to try to work through them. I have had to let people go and that's probably the biggest stress factor for me. I hate, hate, hate having to do that. Sometimes you have to do that and then even finding the right person for the job. That's a challenge for me that I would rather not have to do. But it's part of it, it's part of having a business. There are going to be things that are your strengths and things that are not your strengths in any person running a business.

I found you asked about the money and how did I fund it and everything. That is something I'm particularly good with. I have good instincts when it comes to marketing and when it comes to building my product base and my customer base. I have pretty good instincts there. Some things I am not good at and I'm kind of a homebody, just sitting at home by myself, like I'm doing today, you know, is very, very comfortable for me. Getting out there, going to those first stores, even going, like I said, going to stores now is still difficult for me. Doing those shows is not my favorite thing to do. The girls just left this morning for New York and I gave them the opportunity.

JAIME TARDY: The opportunity to go so I didn't have to.

ANITA CROOK: They love it. They love going to New York and they love doing the shows. I think that's great and I do need to do some and to be there some but I'm happy to let them do that to because I know they will do a good job and it's just not my favorite thing. I love seeing my customers. That part I do love because, even though I may not know their name, we feel like we know each other and a lot of times they will come up and they'll hug me because they're so happy to see me. My husband just goes crazy. He says, "They treat you like a rock star."

JAIME TARDY: You're like thank you. Finally, after years of being a stay-at-home mom, I'm so thankful to be a rock star.

ANITA CROOK: I always thought I was a rock star. But it's fun; that part, I do like. I do like getting to see everybody but standing on my feet for 8 hours, you know, I didn't start my business until I was 58 years old. I'm now 66.

JAIME TARDY: Really?

ANITA CROOK: Yes.

JAIME TARDY: Wow.

ANITA CROOK: You didn't know that part?

JAIME TARDY: No. You look good for 66; gosh!

ANITA CROOK: Thanks.

JAIME TARDY: You never started a business before and you just started it at 58. Thank goodness you had your husband who had sort of been through it so you sort of were in the entrepreneurial world, but like that's a crazy thing and I get a lot of the times people going I feel like I am too old to start something new. Tell people that need to hear something, tell them that it's not too old.

ANITA CROOK: Well, you know, if you've got an idea, if you want to do something, I see videos of old women skydiving. I would never do that but if you have something in your heart that you want to do, why not take a chance? I may be old but I hire young people. Young people can do the things; I may not have as much energy as I did when I was 30, but I think I have a lot more wisdom than I had when I was 30. Like you said, I've seen mistakes that my husband has made. I've been able to learn the business world through watching his successes and his failures. I had a little bit of knowledge there and I think I do have more patience and more wisdom than I would have had when I was younger. There are advantages to starting a business when you're older. I'd say go for it. If you get tired, sit down.

JAIME TARDY: I love that. If you're tired sit down, come on.

ANITA CROOK: Yesterday we did inventory, we got a shipment in. I had to go, one of our printers broke. I had to go run out and get a new printer and they're calling for an ice storm so I also had to go to the grocery store and get all my bread and milk, but there was a lot of things going on yesterday and I got home that evening and I was tired. I thought I'm getting to sit now and rest.

JAIME TARDY: How many hours a week do you work right now?

ANITA CROOK: It depends on if we count the hours that I'm at home, because I am set up to where I can access my computer at the office, at the house, as well, so I can be working at night or in my pajamas in the morning. I work a pretty much full day every day.

JAIME TARDY: Do you have any plans on not doing this? Because, like you said, you are 66, do you feel like this is something that you are going to be wrapping up soon or selling or anything like that?

ANITA CROOK: You know, the future is a big unknown when you're this age. As long as I've got energy and as long as it's fun and it's something that the Lord wants me to do, I'm game for it. If it turns out I don't have that energy anymore and I can't get up and do, if I've got people in there that can handle everything, and I can just be a part-time overseer, that's okay too. I have brought my son, not really as an employee, but he's helping me a little bit with my financials and getting everything, because I didn't know what I was doing, so he's getting everything straight for me just in his spare time, because he does have a full-time job. But he's overseeing with me a little bit now so that's good.

JAIME TARDY: Do you ever think of succession planning of going here so do you want my business or anything like that? Do you want it to still be in the family?

ANITA CROOK: I don't know. I don't know if that would be, yeah, I mean obviously at 67 who knows. I could go on until I'm 90. I've got an 89-year-old mother who still plays duplicate bridge. So if my mind is half as sharp as hers, you know, who knows. I really don't have an answer for that because I take it a day at a time, a year at a time and just see where it goes. The economy has been a little bit of a challenge in recent years. We're working. We built our product base. We just used to have a little purse organizer. We've added a lot of products to that so we're building the organization.

We've developed international markets. We're actually growing in a lot of different ways and a lot of different directions. I don't know what the future brings. It seems to just keep going and as long as I'm able to do it, I plan on doing it. I don't have an okay I'm stopping today. At this stage, I'm in good health and have my mental faculties, then I'm game for whatever comes.

JAIME TARDY: Perfect. Tell me, you just talked about having a bunch of different other avenues that you're going down. How do you make those decisions that that's the right way or that you add something new to the line? How do you figure out what works and what doesn't work?

ANITA CROOK: Well, unlike my husband who is a natural born entrepreneur, I look at myself more as a problem solver. If there's a problem, I want to fix it and if you've got a marriage problem I want to fix that too. I mean I just, I don't like to see problems not fixed and so I've had different issues. Case in point I got an iPad for Christmas. It was actually my first new one. I had gotten a hand me down. I had given one to my husband and he kept saying, "I love you. I love you. This is the best thing you ever gave me." I'm thinking what is the big deal? But when I got mine it's like I love you. I love you. This is great.

I'm so glued to my iPad that I use it for everything now. I have to have it with me all the time so I thought well I need a fashionable way to carry my iPad. I now got the Tabee. The Tabee is a bag that you put your, well let me show you me.

JAIME TARDY: Oh you have it, good.

ANITA CROOK: Can you see it?

JAIME TARDY: Yes.

ANITA CROOK: This is a bag, it's like a purse or a tote but it has got a little, I'll turn it this way, a little pocket here. It's a padded pocket and of course I'm using my iPad now for this interview but I've also got a Kindle so I stick that in there. It's protected and it also has got other pockets here. You could put your phone and your charger. So you're all set. But it also fits my Pouchee so I put my Pouchee in there and it's perfect. My problem is solved. I've got a way to carry my iPad in my bag. I don't have to have two bags. I don't have to have a bag within a bag. I just have a way to do that. It was a problem; I solved it.

JAIME TARDY: You scratched your own itch. That's what it seems like. You're like oh I need this, let's make that too.

ANITA CROOK: Yes, and I figure if I need it, there are other women, there's millions and millions of iPads that have been sold and other brands and I'm not trying to give a plug for iPad here, but there's all kind of tablets and eBooks and everything. I figure there's probably a lot of women that would want a nice protected way to carry.

JAIME TARDY: What made you not just do another insert thing that sort of protected your iPad that put it in a purse. What made you make a whole bag?

ANITA CROOK: Because I wanted a bag that I could still use my Pouchee in. I didn't want two bags to have to fool with and my Pouchee is perfect for me. As a matter of fact, that was another problem solved because a lot of people, including myself, sometimes you don't want to carry your big bag and a lot of people were saying, "I just like to take my Pouchee out of my bag and carry it into the store by itself." It wasn't designed for that and it was a little bit awkward so I thought hmm problem. We got to solve this. I came out with the Pouchee Plus. The Pouchee Plus solved not only that problem, it has got a strap. Can you see it?

JAIME TARDY: Yes.

ANITA CROOK: It has got a strap so I can throw it over my shoulder. It has got a zipper. This is the new one. These haven't even come in yet. It has got a zipper so you can close it up and protect your things. It has pockets all around like the regular Pouchee.

JAIME TARDY: So it's not a purse though, it's a pouch.

ANITA CROOK: It's a Pouchee and it functions as a purse organizer but if I am touring or if I am shopping and I don't want to carry my big bag, I take this out of my bag, throw it over my shoulder and it becomes a little purse.

JAIME TARDY: Interesting.

ANITA CROOK: So that was another problem solved.

JAIME TARDY: That's what you do ? problem solved.

ANITA CROOK: We have another thing that we're working on because my son, same one that gave me the purse, married a Hungarian girl and their wedding was in Hungary. We went to the wedding and when we got there, all my jewelry was so tangled up that I couldn't even wear it. I was so aggravated. I said, "I've got to solve this problem." So we've come up with a way to and it's another patented product, that you can travel with your jewelry and it will not get tangled up.

JAIME TARDY: You do have an entrepreneurial brain. You're like problem done. I'm just going to solve everything that I can have as a problem. That's great. Now you have the experience so creating this product is going to be so much easier because you've done it many, many times before.

ANITA CROOK: I already have a market base. I already have people that love my products and they are looking for things that sell, because we sell mostly to the stores. We do sell on our website as well because there are still are pockets in the world that don't have stores that sell Pouchees.

JAIME TARDY: Surprisingly, right? Soon we will be everywhere but not yet.

ANITA CROOK: That's the goal.

JAIME TARDY: I'm in the middle of nowhere in Maine though so it might take you a little while to get up here.

ANITA CROOK: We do have stores in Maine.

JAIME TARDY: Good to know. I'll have to talk to you after the show.

ANITA CROOK: We have a store finder. You can just put it in.

JAIME TARDY: That's great, because it is something where I feel like you'd want to see the product before you actually go and pick one out.

ANITA CROOK: It used to be that way. I think it was more so when I started that people had to touch but I think more and more people, even my89-year-old mother shops online totally or on television. She can't get out. She doesn't drive anymore and she has to have someone take her so that's more convenient for her. There are a lot of people that are getting used to doing that. They are getting used to not having to touch online. We're finding that even more and more stores are, we have access for them to buy through our website and you can buy retail on our website as well and a lot of people do. Obviously not everybody has to touch them although we're good with them having or wanting to touch them. That's why we get them in as many retail outlets as we can.

JAIME TARDY: Beautiful. Well perfect. I know we need to wrap up so we're going to ask the question that I always ask every single time: what's one action that listeners right now can take this week to move them forward towards their goal of a million?

ANITA CROOK: I won't say be fearless because fear sometimes is just a motivator, but take that fear and put it aside and follow your dream anyway. You're not too old, you're not too young, you're not too shy or too poor or too anything. There are obstacles. We're always going to have obstacles but just put aside your fears and just go for it.

JAIME TARDY: Beautiful. Thank you so much for coming on, Anita. Tell us where we can find more information about you online if anyone wants to order a Pouchee now that we've seen them all. Hopefully we won't need to touch it, but go ahead and tell us where we can find more online.

ANITA CROOK: Well if you want to touch it I am sure there's someplace not too far away. Our website is www. Pouchee.com. Very easy.

JAIME TARDY: Great and I will definitely link everything up so that way everyone can check it out. It's a great website. It has got a lot of really good pictures and stuff too so you guys can see what it really looks like. I hope you have an amazing day and thanks so much for coming on, Anita.

ANITA CROOK: Well thank you for having me. It has been a lot of fun.

JAIME TARDY: Great, thanks.

ANITA CROOK: Bye-bye.

Just to note, you can download the top ten tips from these millionaire interviews on the blog.

Thanks for listening. You can find out more great information like this on EventualMillionaire.com.

Tags: Anita Crook, Beta Testing, business startup, Idea Validation, millionaire interview, Physical Products, Startup

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Debt Freedom, Entrepreneurship, Fear, Finances, Marketing, Millionaire Interviews, Personal Finance/Wealth, Sales

3 responses

Cheval John March 4, 2013
This is a really interesting interview. This proves that it’s never too late to pursue your dreams.

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MaryElla March 5, 2013
Hi Jaime,

Thank you for this inspirational interview. It?s really amazing how easily the things can happen if you believe in yourself.
I?m starting weddings and family celebrations planning business and I have chosen the name ?Just make a wish?.

The name came to my mind one morning just before I wake up :). Very accidentally but as soon as I ?heard? this name in in my dream I knew that?s my company name.

Thank you very much again for this awesome interview.

I wish you great success and look forward for watching your next interview.

Best,
MaryElla

Reply
shelia March 8, 2013
Great interview Jaime! I could relate to her story as I’ve walked in her shoes as well. I love how she just got out there and did it – she admitted she didn’t know the rules, so she didn’t make appointments etc. Sometimes it’s easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.

Love it! Thanks again,
Shelia

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Anita Crook: Starting a Business in Your 50’s

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