As you may or may not know, Neon Bandits is a “side-hustle” for Sammy and I. And while we have been around for over 4 years, the focus of our past two years has been around developing a strong wholesale program around custom socks.
Looking back at last winter, Sammy and I were worried about replicating what we had accomplished in 2018 in the year ahead. We were both transitioning to new full-time jobs, and had more than doubled our sock business from 2017 to 2018. The challenge was going to be real, and we knew we were going to have to put our heads down and be thoughtful to continue to win.
Now looking back at the past year, it’s clear that we applied everything that we have learned so far as small business owners to make 2019 the best year yet. These learnings are nothing too complicated, but they helped us tremendously and we wanted to share them with you in the event that you are trying to launch your own side hustle or are a small business owner yourself.
- Having a clear and concise niche. We recognized a void in the marketplace for premium knit-in custom socks. We have been able to go after that niche by targeting fellow small businesses and brands that we think could benefit from premium custom socks.
- Personalized service. We develop each and every sock that goes into production from the toe up. We don’t (and never will!) have a cookie cutter approach to the sock design; we listen to what our customers want and create them a unique sock. Listening to and understanding and accepting feedback has been a big reason as to why we have been able to win business.
- Building lasting relationships. When you are a small business, it can be a challenge to continually go after “the big guys.” Often times we can’t compete on budget and/or awareness, but something that we can compete head-to-head on is the quality of our product and service level. With timely, honest and clear communications, we have developed lastings relationships. These relationships have not only closed new deals, but helped us to secure re-orders from existing customers.
Our three “big” learnings from 2019 are nothing revolutionary and some would even consider them the basics. However, they’ve been our guiding principles that have led to another great year of growth for Neon Bandits.
You can check out some of our work from this year below and follow along our Instagram account to see even more of our custom socks.
Thank you for being with us through the learnings and the growth. We couldn’t do this without you.
Happy holidays and thank you for your continued support!
Mud City Crabhouse x Neon Bandits
Forsake x Neon Bandits
The Honeypaw x Neon Bandits
City Built Brewing x Neon Bandits