In today’s episode of the Team Business podcast, co-hosts Mike Fusco and Ray Ramirez interview Christopher Lynch, Co-Founder of Everyday California. Chris talks about how they built their business from a small kayaking tour company to the ocean adventure and lifestyle brand it is today. He also shares how their business has adapted to the pandemic and working remotely.
Episode Highlights:
- Mike introduces Chris Lynch. (5:22)
- Chris mentions that his first job was at a pizza parlor. (6:59)
- Chris shares how him and his business partner obtained the permit to start their kayak tour company. (7:50)
- Chris mentions that his mother was one of the first-ever Navy female salvage divers. (9:42)
- Chris shares that they officially took ownership of the OEX Dive and the permit, on November 1, 2010. (10:44)
- Chris explains that during their first year, they built a little store in La Jolla, near the beach. (11:06)
- Chris shares that they came up with the name Everyday California in 2012. (11:49)
- Chris explains that the bear in their logo was originally from OEX Dive and the bear was in a kayak. Since surfing is popular in California, they moved him out of a kayak and holed into holding a surfboard. (12:16)
- Chris mentions that they launched their ecommerce store in 2014 and everything has grown from there. (12:41)
- Chris shares that they were planning to launch a sunscreen this spring, but the pandemic happened. Therefore, they decided to launch it in March 2021. They have created a fully custom formula, using blue algae and kelp. (13:38)
- Chris mentions that his team works with three to four separate agencies that are running their Facebook ads, SEO, and Google AdWords. (16:16)
- Chris explains that the business has grown steadily and organically. (17:29)
- Chris shares that they had a record-breaking month in August and September, and they are on pace to break records in October, as well. (21:34)
- Chris mentions that from a communication standpoint, Slack has been very useful for them to keep the team together. (24:05)
Key Quotes:
- “I do not hover, I’m not micromanaging anybody. Because there is so much going on, that I think it’s important to give everybody their space and trust that they’re going to take care of their end of the business.” – Christopher Lynch
- “We’ve always grown pretty slowly and very organically. We do spend a lot of money on advertising, Facebook, Instagram, Google, and all those good things. But we do it in a way that is not a loss leader, we’re always looking for the profitability side.” – Christopher Lynch
- “Every guy I talked to has learned so much, changed so much, and adapted. And you’re gonna have to adapt to survive. You know, it has always been that way no matter what it is, there’s always something new, there’s always a new technology, there’s always a new marketing platform, and there’s always something that’s going to happen.” – Christopher Lynch
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