Building a Business with a Cause: Bethany Tran on Navigating Hashtags and Finding Followers

The first time Bethany went to Guatemala, she had no idea how much it would affect her life, forever. While there, she fell in love with the people living in the La Limonada slum community who had amazing skills, talents and abilities, but were limited by the opportunities available to them.

Bethany decided to change her course after several more visits and she started The Root Collective, selling gorgeous women's shoes crafted by a former gang member in the community.

We chatted with Bethany about the challenges of pricing a product (and paying her makers fairly) and how she uses hashtags to increase her Instagram following.

Name: Bethany Tran

Business: The Root Collective

Started: November 2013

How did you create your awesome job?

My background is in marketing and content development, and I was working in that space when a friend invited me to Guatemala, where she was living at the time. 

Visiting the slum communities helped me understand that poverty is extremely culturally complicated. If you live in the slum, you have to lie about your address to get a job because nobody will hire you. My first trip was seven years ago, and it took 3 1/2 years from that initial visit to get the guts up to do something.

The final straw was watching the movie Half The Sky and realizing I had zero excuses. In October of 2012, I called the director of the nonprofit Lemonade International, an organization working with the La Limonada slum in Guatemala, and said, "We’ve got to talk." 

After that, I needed to find makers and, thankfully, there are many talented people in this special community. Lemonade International connected me to Otto, a former gang member who now hand makes our shoes. I also linked up with the weaving cooperative to have our textiles made by Anna, who lives in a rural village near Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.

Once we found our craftspeople, I then set up an LLC, planned the marketing strategy, researched our target demographic, commissioned the website, found photographers, etc. 

I didn’t quit my day job until two years after The Root Collective started. The business is still evolving and there is a lot to learn, but I’m capable of more than I’d have ever thought.

At what point did you know your business was going to work?

I don’t think there’s ever a moment when you think: we’ve made it, we’re safe. 

The industry and economy are constantly changing. We had a period of steady growth last fall, and I thought we might have a shot, but there’s always fear and wondering if the business will be here tomorrow. 

I think fear is healthy because once you get comfortable, you stop working as hard.

What’s been the biggest surprise so far after starting your own business?

I have no background in retail, economics, international business or product development, so it was surprising that I figured it all out. And if couldn’t, I found somebody who did. 

I think it’s easy to limit ourselves. It was empowering to see a side of myself that I didn’t know existed, and I guess it’s a matter of getting the guts up to believe it’s possible!

How do you price your products?

Honestly, pricing is a constant struggle. Right now we take our basic cost, (materials, labor, shipping) and then have a multiplier. I am always looking for new ways to lower costs and increase margins. We’re not taking into account costs like packaging, electricity, internet or credit card processing fees because we’ve got to stay competitive in our market.

We initially wanted to only sell direct-to-consumer without wholesale to keep our prices low. We realized after eight months that we needed a wholesale model to grow, and it dramatically increased our prices. Boutiques expect a hefty discount, and we added their discount to our retail price to maintain our margin.

We offer free shipping for exchanges, and we lose a lot of profit because of it. The US Postal Service recently raised the price to ship packages by 10%, and I’ve had to raise prices again and offer free shipping.

I hear all the time that our $89 ballet flat should only cost $50. Yes, that would be the case if they were factory made in Asia where people work 17 hours a day, 7 days a week and earn very little money. We pay our makers fairly.

What is your most effective means of getting new customers?

Word of mouth. The shoes are cute, but it’s the story behind them that makes the biggest impact. We’re selling the story of Otto who was a former gang member until he robbed a bus wielding a gun, and a little girl emptied her pockets and begged him not to hurt her mommy and daddy. He walked off the bus and never looked back. 

On social media, we use the hashtag #OttoMadeMyShoes. When people see somebody wearing The Root Collective’s shoes, they ask, did Otto make your shoes? That’s our biggest growth opportunity.

Social media is how we tell our story and increase brand recognition. We’re primarily on Instagram and Facebook because that’s where we find our demographic. We buy minimal daily ads on Facebook for $1 per day. Once you’re considered a paying advertiser, your content shows up more often. I’ve tried to boost our Facebook posts, but it didn’t do much for us.

Instagram is the most effective channel for us, and we have more than 13k followers right now. To connect with our target audience, we looked at who used our hashtags, what additional tags they used and included those additional tags in our posts. 

We also followed the rabbit trail of #EthicalFashion that is specific to our demographic and followed businesses similar to ours but that sell different products, like fair trade jewelry. It took us forever to get our first 1,000 followers. 2,000 was a little easier, 5,000 took longer. Reaching 10,000 moved faster. The more followers we had, the quicker it was to add more. 

We’ve also learned that photos should have a lighter background, so we make all of the images we share light, bright and airy.

What would you like to learn today from a community of other small business owners and self-employed professionals?

What are your best tips for pitching to the media or potential buyers? 

What works? What doesn't?

Let's help Bethany out!

What are your tips for pitching to the media and potential buyers? Do you have experience with getting great PR for your business or have you worked with buyers?

Share your own ideas with us below! :-)