Launch Your Box Podcast with Sarah Williams | Start, Launch, and Grow Your Subscription Box

257: She Doubled Her Subscribers, Added Extra Revenue, and Finally Paid Herself

One of my favorite parts of coaching subscription box owners is getting to see what happens after they put a plan into action. Earlier this year, I sat down with Launch Your Box member Beth from Small Home Comforts Book Box for a special “Ask Sarah” episode of this podcast. At the time, she was navigating one of the biggest challenges quarterly subscription box owners face - growing her business while managing cash flow. Eight months later, Beth is back to share what's happened since our first conversation. And there's a lot to celebrate. The Two Goals Beth Set at the Beginning of the Year When Beth first joined me on the podcast, she had 48 subscribers and two clear goals: Reach 100 subscribers by the end of the third quarter. Start paying herself from the business instead of putting every dollar back into inventory. Like many subscription box owners, Beth knew growth was a good problem to have, but it also created cash flow challenges. Every new subscriber meant ordering more inventory, leaving little room to take a paycheck. So we talked through a few strategies that could help. Adding New Revenue Between Quarterly Boxes One of the ideas Beth decided to implement was creating additional offers between her quarterly subscription boxes. Rather than changing her subscription model, she added seasonal, limited-time offers throughout the year. She also continues to offer a year-round "Settle In With a Story" purchase in her shop. These smaller launches give her customers something exciting between subscription shipments while creating additional revenue throughout the year without competing with her core subscription. The results? Her Valentine's collection sold out in just a few days, and her Summer Reading collection nearly doubled in size, with only two boxes left by the end of the launch. The Waitlist Strategy That Changed Everything Instead of trying to sell subscriptions all year long, she consistently directed interested customers to her waitlist and built excitement leading up to each launch. When launch time arrived, she followed the Launch Your Box launch plan, including opening the waitlist the night before launch. Her initial inventory sold out in just 18 hours. She reordered. That inventory sold out too. Then, after a YouTube creator featured her box, she reordered again and sold through another round of inventory. Reaching Her Goals Ahead of Schedule Beth's original goal was to reach 100 subscribers by the end of the third quarter. Instead, she hit that milestone during the first week of April. Six months ahead of schedule. Today, her subscription sits at around 117 subscribers and she's intentionally slowing her growth rather than continuing to add subscribers as quickly as possible. Even better? She reached her second goal, too. By the two-year anniversary of her business, Beth was able to start paying herself while continuing to grow in a sustainable way. Now that she's reached both of her goals, Beth isn't focused on growing as quickly as possible. Instead, she's intentionally maintaining around 100–120 subscribers, filling any openings from her waitlist, and continuing to supplement her subscription revenue with seasonal offers throughout the year. It's a great reminder that you don't have to grow at someone else's pace. You get to decide what growth looks like for your business. For Beth, success isn't about growing as fast as possible. It's about building a business that supports the life she wants to live. Join me for this episode as Beth shares exactly what happened after our first interview - from reaching 100 subscribers six months ahead of schedule to creating better cash flow, paying herself, and growing her business on her own terms. Where to find Beth: Small Home Comforts on Facebook Small Home Comforts on Instagram Small Home Comforts Website Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join the waitlist today!

10 Truth Bombs to Understand About Your Subscription Box Business

Have you been struggling with your business this year? Maybe you’re not reaching your revenue goals or you haven’t launched that new idea, product, or subscription box yet. Many times, our businesses need one little tweak - a change in process, strategy, or just mindset - to change everything. In this episode, I’m sharing 10 truth bombs that will have you looking at your business differently. Take the time to sit with and think about each of these to see how they might apply to you and your business. 20% of your customer base generates 80% of your revenue! Protect your peace and energy at all costs. Fad marketing strategies are like fad diets. They will not last. Companies that have heavily relied on paid traffic only will shift to more organic traffic. Systems and processes will serve you. Revenue does not mean profit. Cheap is not creating value. It’s more profitable to retain your subscribers than to constantly acquire new ones. What gets you started may not get you to scale. If you don’t challenge yourself, you won’t change yourself. We focused all of the training this year inside Launch Your Box on these 10 things. I’m here to help you understand these 10 things and make progress with each of them. Remember, you are on a subscription box journey. This journey never ends. It’s always a work in progress. Just keep making progress! Join me in all the places: ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Launch Your Box with Sarah Website⁠ Are you ready for ⁠Launch Your Box⁠? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. ⁠Join ⁠today!

256: 4 Big Changes I Made to My Subscription Box Business in 2026

This year, I made four of the hardest decisions I've ever made in my subscription box business. Not because I didn't know what to do. I actually knew for quite a while. They were hard because each one required letting go of something I'd worked incredibly hard to build. I rebranded my subscription box. I migrated to an entirely new platform. I closed my warehouse. I handed fulfillment over to a third-party logistics company. Looking back now, I can tell you with complete confidence every one of those decisions made my business stronger. If you're building a subscription box business, here's what each change taught me and why sometimes profitability requires making the hard call. 1. I Let Go of the Thing That Made My Box Famous For years, my subscription was known as the Monogram Box. Personalization was what made it special. It was also what was keeping the business from growing. Every personalized item had to be completed by my team before it could ship. That meant every box depended on us physically touching every order. As much as subscribers loved it, personalization created a ceiling on how efficiently we could operate. Eventually I realized the very thing that had helped build the business had become the thing limiting its future. Changing the brand to StyleBox wasn't about cutting corners. It was about removing a bottleneck so the business could become more profitable and scalable. Ask yourself: Is there something in your subscription box you're holding onto because your subscribers truly value it, or because you're afraid to change it? Those aren't always the same thing. 2. I Finally Moved to the Platform I Recommend to Everyone Else Inside Launch Your Box, I recommend Shopify and PayWhirl because I've seen how much simpler they make running a subscription business. Yet my own business was still operating on a different system. At some point I had to ask myself why. Migrating active subscribers is intimidating. You're moving customer accounts, payment information, billing cycles. There's a lot that can go wrong. But staying where I was meant choosing ongoing complexity. Today, my business is running on a platform built to scale instead of one held together by plugins and workarounds. Sometimes the temporary discomfort of change is worth the long-term simplicity it creates. 3. I Closed My Warehouse For years, the warehouse represented success. It was tangible proof that I'd built a real business. But it also came with rent, utilities, payroll, equipment, inventory carrying costs, and all the overhead that comes with maintaining a physical space. When it came time to liquidate inventory and close the warehouse, I realized I wasn't just letting go of a building. I was letting go of an identity. The truth is, the warehouse had served its purpose. Holding onto it wasn't helping my business anymore. It was simply expensive. One of the hardest lessons in business is understanding sunk cost. The money has already been spent. The only question left is whether keeping something continues to serve your business today. 4. I Handed Fulfillment to a 3PL Removing personalization, migrating platforms, and closing the warehouse made it possible to move fulfillment to a third-party logistics company. Was I nervous? Absolutely. When you've packed thousands of boxes yourself, handing that responsibility to someone else feels incredibly personal. But I discovered control isn't the same thing as quality. The right fulfillment partner doesn't lower your standards. They help you maintain them while giving you back your time, your energy, and your capacity to grow. Today my business is leaner, more profitable, and far more sustainable because I stopped believing I had to do everything myself. At first glance, these seem like four completely different decisions. But they all came down to one question: Was I making decisions that protected my business or decisions that protected my comfort? Growth often requires letting go of something that worked in order to make room for something that works even better. What's the Hard Decision You're Avoiding? Maybe it's changing platforms. Maybe it's raising prices. Maybe it's removing an expensive product from your box. Maybe it's outsourcing something you've always done yourself. Sometimes the next level of profitability isn't about doing more. It's about finally making the decision you already know needs to be made. Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join the waitlist today!

Selling Out in 24 Hours Using the Waitlist Plan with Luxury Loops

“When you listen to your mentor, things will work.” - Cathy Schwartz Collecting people, finding your hottest leads, building a foundation for your subscription box launch… It’s all part of the Waitlist Plan I teach inside Launch Your Box. And by following that Waitlist Plan, Cathy Schwartz of Decorator Crafts sold out the launch of her Luxury Loops subscription box in only 24 hours. Cathy’s subscription box journey started when she learned to make wreaths and work with ribbon as a way to deal with a stressful corporate job. She fell in love with ribbon, particularly high-end, designer ribbon. She soon realized she wasn’t alone in her love for luxury ribbon - there were a LOT of people who wanted to learn how to decorate with high-end ribbon. Soon, Cathy decided to take the passion and knowledge and launch a monthly subscription box. She also started a private Facebook Group where subscribers go to learn how to decorate with their ribbons and build community. Cathy is a member of Launch Your Box and Scale Your Box. She is a dream student who soaks up the training and implements it in her business. This includes the Waitlist Plan. The Waitlist Plan is all about consistently driving traffic to your subscription box waitlist. It’s a list of people who have said “Yes, I’m interested in what you’re selling.” They are your warmest leads. A waitlist is not only for your first launch. You need to consistently build your waitlist between launches as well. Just like Cathy does. Due to the quantities Cathy’s exclusive ribbons are available in, she adds new subscribers in groups of 48. When she recently launched to new subscribers, she of course started with her waitlist. Just like I teach inside Launch Your Box. But, unlike most subscription box owners, Cathy never had to move on to the next phase of her launch. She sold out her launch to her waitlist in only 24 hours! Cathy had a waitlist of 300 people when it was time to launch. 300 very warm leads. She grew that waitlist - and continues to grow it consistently. Recently, Cathy posted a video of a Christmas Urn project. The response was beyond anything she could have imagined. She gained 6,000 Facebook followers in 72 hours and the video has more than 150,000 views on TikTok. Cathy realized she needed to capture all these people’s emails to bring them into her world. She quickly put together an opt-in for the project and has been busy driving people to her waitlist. Cathy serves her audience. She teaches them, she engages with them, and she builds excitement and FOMO with the help of her subscribers. She’s doing all the right things, especially when it comes to following the Waitlist Plan. I’m so proud of all Cathy has accomplished in her business. She now has over 500 subscribers and I know that number will continue to grow. Join me for this episode and be inspired as Cathy tells us what can happen when you get consistent, follow the plan, and curate an exclusive experience for your subscribers. Find and follow Cathy: ⁠Decorator Crafts on Instagram⁠ ⁠Decorator Crafts on Facebook⁠ ⁠Luxury Loops Subscription Box ⁠ ⁠Decorator Crafts Website⁠ Join me in all the places: ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Launch Your Box with Sarah Website⁠ Are you ready for ⁠Launch Your Box⁠? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. ⁠Join ⁠today!

255: 6 Emails to Send Before Your Subscription Box Launch

You’ve built your audience. You’re showing up consistently, posting on social media, going live, running giveaways, and doing all the things to get more eyes on your business. Your waitlist is growing. It feels like it’s time to launch, right? Not so fast. Rushing straight from building a waitlist to launching your subscription box is one of the biggest mistakes I see new subscription box owners make. The Missing Step in Your Subscription Box Marketing Plan Inside Launch Your Box, I teach a 5-step subscription box marketing plan: Audience building Waitlist growth Pre-launch Launch Retention Most subscription box owners understand the importance of building an audience and growing a waitlist. And they’re definitely focused on launching. But that third step? Pre-launch? It gets skipped far too often. Your pre-launch period is when you turn the people who joined your waitlist into an engaged, excited audience ready to buy when you open the doors. Before someone subscribes, they need to believe two things: You are the right person to help them. People buy from people they know and trust. They need to know your story, understand why you created your subscription box, and feel connected to the person behind the business. Your subscription box solves a problem they actually have. People don’t buy products. They buy solutions. A hobby box might solve the problem of not knowing what supplies to buy or where to find inspiration. A self-care box gives someone permission to slow down. A pet subscription box makes it easy to spoil a much-loved pet. Get clear on the problem your box solves before you start writing your pre-launch emails. Then, over the two to three weeks leading up to your launch, send these six emails. What Happens After? Get these six emails written and scheduled, and you’ll walk into launch day with a warm, ready-to-buy audience instead of a cold list. But your email marketing doesn’t stop when you launch. It simply shifts. Once you have subscribers, your goal changes from convincing people to buy to keeping the people you already have excited, engaged, and looking forward to their next box. That’s why I created a free swipe file with 5 emails you can send to your subscribers every single month. You’ll get email templates for: Monthly unboxings Subscriber shares Five ways to use your box Box sneak peeks Behind-the-scenes content Click HERE and enter your email address to have the swipe files sent straight to your inbox. Join me for this episode as I walk you through the six emails to send before your subscription box launch, what each email needs to accomplish, and how they work together to build trust, create excitement, and get your audience ready to buy. Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join the waitlist today!