Hey! It’s Doone, your hype girl in business. This one goes out to all of you that I know could do with a $2000 shopping spree (on us) in your lives. Yep, I'm not kidding. Here's your chance to treat yourself with a total splurge on your fave brand. Entering is easy:

Now, let’s get straight into it 👇

Scrappiness 101: What's Going to be Your Domino?

If there was an overriding theme on the podcast this week, it definitely centered around the power of scrappiness when it comes to building your biz. We hear it all the time. Be as lean as you can! Build scrappy! Get savvy with your resources!

What's less common, is that we hear clear actionable insights into exactly how to achieve that scrappiness. Well, this week was different. Ever since my chat with the wonderful Meagan, I've been dying to hop on here and share her learnings with you all. The STRAAND co-founder pointed out that as in any early-stage business, your goal is to appear so much bigger than you actually are. You're playing in an arena of established brands and you're trying to be one of them (or better than them 😏). How to do that effectively with the little resources you have? BE CREATIVE.

Repeat after me: the more creative that you are, the more clever you can be, the more likely it is to resonate, and the more success you can have.

The way to get the ball rolling with that creativity is all about the domino effect (which is just what it sounds like). You want to get to the bottom of the question: "what's the one domino I can push to influence all the others?" To get there it's a two-step process:

1/ Domino your workflow: figure out all the things are you doing that are giving a return. The things that are turning the dial. Break down each of your areas of focus and calculate where lies your higher return value in hours. Then triple down on the things that are reaching those goals, and (painstakingly) leave the others to the side for now. As a solo founder, you can't do it all.

2/ Domino your influence: figure out who you need to get on board early on, that will make any conversation you have next a lot easier. Dig into who your VIP customers are: who loves your brand? Who is excited and could be a partner in a bigger capacity? Who can help you carry that initial weight of established credibility?

& watch it all fall into place from there on ✨

Listen to Meagan on the podcast →

Collab your way to multi-million dollars 🤝

I feel like collaborations are the theme of 2023 (even Instagram has hopped on the train). This week the founder of Prene, Tammy Green, broke down the do's and don'ts when it comes to creating a successful business collaboration. After mega-successful partnerships with the Australian Open, Brown Brothers & Rebecca Judd (just to name a few) she is the authority in the space. Take note: there are some real goodies here. 

Collaboration DO'S 🙆‍♀️

• Take your time to evaluate who you decide to bring on: they’re an ambassador; they’re a reflection of you (& if that’s not aligned that’s only going to be detrimental)

• Communicate clearly and openly: make sure any other products their working on align with the brand by truly getting to know each other first

• Cold e-mail your dream partnerships: you miss 100% of the shots you don't take

• Have a firm contract in place: you need to cover your back in all circumstances

Collaboration DON'TS 🙅‍♀️

• Jump the gun: always start very very slow, you never know what’s around the corner and what could happen

• Dive in too heavy-handed on stock: you'll get left with lots of stock you have to do something with

• Only focus on the big names: consider micro-names and personalities with a strongly engaged community

Listen to Tammy on the podcast →

• Is VC a man's game? Apparently women founders should avoid women VCs...

• Female founders take bigger slice of European VC

• Beach House Group launches beauty & lifestyle Venture Fund

• D'Amelio family firm invests in 4 female-founded brands

• The end of the celeb beauty brands

• Ulta Beauty full-year 2022 rev tops $10B

• Versed appoints Kerry Sullivan as its CEO

• Have you seen the Gender Pay Gat bot? Also, here's everything you need to know about the Gender Wealth Gap and how we can close it

• The latest in the TikTok saga: US official demand ByteDance to sell TikTok

Everyone lift off inside MAJIC 🚀

A huge congratulations to not one but two Majic members who launched their beautiful brands out into the world this week (I'm so proud!!🌟):

• KJINSEN (by Liza Belmonte): a British ready-to-wear label offering a modern, tailored aesthetic and strong silhouettes to the womenswear shopper that is 5ft4 and under

• Heideq (by Heidi Happonen): equestrian wear essentials for conscious riders & fast horses (slow fashion-designed & made in Finland)

This week's GRANTS 💸

US-based founders, you’re in luck this week as we have a bunch of grants and accelerators live right now ready for you to apply to via our Live Grant Doc which you can access in full at the bottom of this email by referring your pals:

• 🇺🇸 March 31st: Fresh Start Business Grant ($2,500)

• 🇺🇸 April 7th: Backing Small Business Grant ($5K-$25K)

• 🇺🇸 April 16th: 2023 Clean Tech Open Accelerator (up to $150K)

• 🇺🇸 April 21st: Small Business Growth Fund ($5K-$25K)

This week's lineup...

This week's recommendations...

REMOTE 🌎

• Homemade ethical p*rn-site Lustery is on the hunt for a Head of Content to join the team. Find out more & apply directly here.

• Curie, the personal care brand with a mission, is hiring an Operations Manager to work directly with the CEO on the supply chain. More info right here.

NYC 🇺🇸

• Billie, the modern-day razor brand, is looking for an innovative Design Director to join their brand team. Is this something for you?

LDN 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• Luxury goods brand Rise & Fall is on the lookout for someone to join the marketing team as an in-house Graphic Designer. More info here.

• The Nue Co. is after a CMO/Marketing Director who would like to build the supplement business alongside the founders (such a cool opportunity). More right here.

AUS 🌞

• Brand and creative agency Willow & Blake is hiring for a casual part-time Content Creator for a multitude of social accounts. More info here.

If you need some inspo... check out Alyce's awesome journey of building a $23M business (and then doing it all over again)💡@femalestartupclub