This is a sponsored post in partnership with eero. All words and opinions are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help us do what we do!
Our friends at eero are giving Turntable Kitchen readers free overnight shipping. If you’re eager to ease your WiFi pain, give them a try. Just enter the code TURNTABLE upon checkout. You can get it here.
When we started Turntable Kitchen, we were newlyweds, living in a small apartment, with no kids. Fast forward 8 years or so and we now run three different vinyl record clubs out of our house (not to mention, I still work full-time, remotely). If you’ve been following our adventures, you probably know that we also have three kids and live in a 1930s tudor in Seattle.
Needless to say, at any given point, there are a lot of moving pieces.
I still remember shipping our very first Pairings Box, and how stressful the littlest things were back then. I can recall the logistical nightmare of individually packing our Premium Ingredients, and running to Kinko’s to print shipping labels and Tasting Notes when our printer broke. Looking back, it actually makes me laugh a little. Over the years, we’ve managed to figure out how to streamline a lot of processes. Matt has become a master box stamper, and we’ve learned a lot about running a business — or three.
But don’t get me wrong, we still have a lot to learn. One thing that no one tends to talk about when it comes to being an entrepreneur is the number one thing we rely on: Wi-Fi. For years, I don’t think either of us even realized we had options when it came to the internet. When we worked from our tiny apartment, it wasn’t a huge deal. But in a three story house in which one of us primarily works from the attic and one of us works in the basement, slow internet service was becoming a serious problem. And when you run a two-person business, internet issues can mean lost sales and frustrated customers (no bueno). So when eero approached us to try out their sleek Truemesh WiFi system, which has received accolades from The New York Times (among others), we were thrilled. Because when you’re an entrepreneur, one of the biggest investments you can make in your business is infrastructure.
Sometimes I think of our internet as a hose with a pinch — lots of devices (including kids using iPads), and not enough room. Thankfully, it took Matt exactly 5 minutes to set up our eero router in our living room, and place our two eero Beacons (which double as night lights!) on the third and lower levels of our home. Ever since, our WiFi has become one less problem we have to deal with. It’s also helped us avoid streaming issues when we’re watching House of Cards, ha!
I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to eliminate distractions from our lives. What’s also nice about the eero is that, as our kids get older, we’ll be able to use its smart parental controls, setting time limits on shows like “My Little Pony.”
So you might be wondering, what are some other things we’ve learned about running a business from home? There are many (and we’re still learning every day), but here are a few that are top of mind right now:
- Don’t expect big wins right away. This one is still super challenging for me as I am a pretty impatient person, and get easily disappointed. But the truth is, most entrepreneurs fail many times before they succeed, and sometimes, what you expect to work just doesn’t. Other times, something you never thought would be a hit actually is. I still have to tell myself that despite being a business owner for 8+ years, our story is still unfolding.
- Try things. This is a lesson I learned from working in startups for many years. The worst thing you can do is stop trying things. Per point number one, not all of your ideas will work out, but you gotta keep pushing them out there. Also, stay true to your gut. If you think it’s crazy but good, put it out there.
- Always focus on customer experience. We’re still a very young business, but the thing we’ve made our number one priority from the start is to give our customers the very best experience. That means that we (mostly Matt) have spent countless hours trouble shooting account issues, re-shipping packages to people whose records got damaged, and answering emails as fast as two humans possibly can.
Order your eero system, get FREE overnight shipping!
Our friends at eero are giving Turntable Kitchen readers free overnight shipping. If you’re eager to ease your WiFi pain, give them a try. Just enter the code TURNTABLE upon checkout. You can get it here.
This is a sponsored post in partnership with eero. All words and opinions are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help us do what we do!
