I did something a little bit naughty today.

Greetings from the West Coast!

So, as some of you may know, I have recently launched a new website https://horsesforsale.co.nz - a membership site where users can login and create their own buy and sell adverts.

But what you won't know, is back in 2011 I invented and launched a product called the Equipad™ Saddle Cloth System at the annual Equidays (big horse event in the Waikato). Looking back, I guess I was always a bit of an aspiring entrepreneur and boy was I determined that the Equipad™ was going to be the next big thing in the equestrian world.

Convinced that the Equipad™ was wonderful, unique and would be highly coveted by all who laid eyes on it, I kept the whole thing under wraps until the big Equidays event. This meant that I literally designed & manufactured the product and created all the branding myself.

Given that I'd never touched a sewing machine in my life, let alone an over-locker, this was no small feat. Between holding down a full time job, trying to be a mum/wife and also keep my own horses fit, I spent every remaining hour making the saddle cloths, over a period of 4 long months.

Recently I stumbled across a couple of articles written about my 'wonderful invention':

• http://www.equinetrader.co.nz/...
  
• https://www.odt.co.nz/business...
  

A couple of interesting things happened during that time.

1. My product caught the attention of a US supplier who was marketing a similar product. He basically tried bully tactics with me and I got numerous ranting emails from him telling me how he was going to put me out of business. It was quite unnerving as although our products used similar components, they were actually different enough that we would never be competing in the same space. Plus he was on the other side of the world! (Fast forward to 2017 and it's interesting to observe just how differently business is done these days... people seem to understand the importance of collaboration and working together a bit more don't they!).
   
2. Although I sold about $7,000 of product at Equidays (which I'm still very proud of), the reality was my product was too expensive to manufacture in NZ. At the time I didn't have the confidence (or the capital) to back myself and get the product made in China in a larger run.

I ended up winding down Equipad™ and putting the whole thing down to a massive learning experience.

Funny how those failures, if you call it them that (I like to call them character building) contribute to the people we are today, right?

Although I was disappointed that I couldn't give up my day job, I learned a lot about myself during that time.

The biggest thing I learned was that if I put my mind to something I can achieve it; so obviously I'm quite determined. And if things don't pan out as expected... get up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward.

Anyway, back to the naughty thing I did today... Don't growl it's REALLY REALLY bad!

After doing a clean up of old files on my computer, I found all the email addresses I'd collected at Equidays during my big product launch back in 2011.

So... I emailed All 254 of them.

I realize that it's a huge NO-NO to email old lists - in fact the rule of thumb is don't email any subscriber who hasn't heard from you in twelve months.

But temptation got the better of me, after all these people are my perfect audience, so I took the risk, fully prepared to suck up the consequences should it turn out to be a huge mistake.

So what happened?

I'm pretty happy with this result. In fact I'm ecstatic. But possibly not for the reason you think I am.

You see, it was a calculated risk. Which fortunately didn't backfire!

And the number I'm most proud of, is the big fat ZERO on the right.

Not one person who received my email unsubscribed or marked it as SPAM.

So what did I learn today?

1. Know your audience and tailor your message accordingly. If I had sent an offer about a completely unrelated niche, the results could have been disastrous.
   
2. Keep emails short and to the point. People are busy, put the detail on your website. This email was two paragraphs.
3. Stick to your word. In this case, I informed the recipients that this would be the only email they'd receive unless they signed up again on my new website.

Anyway, my apologies - this post ended up being much longer than anticipated, so if you're still with me, thanks so much reading!

Onwards and upwards, Cheers, Karen