How This Entrepreneur Shifted Her Client To An Essential Business

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FORBES AUGUST 9, 2020 | READ THE ORIGINAL POST
BY STEPHANIE BURNS, CONTRIBUTOR, FORBESWOMEN

Jody Greene of Verde Marketing Communications started her boutique firm to help other entrepreneurs. When she launched her organization last summer, she quickly brought on an LA-based event linens manufacturer who was interested in creating a direct-to-consumer presence. They had a bulky and outdated Shopify site that was responsible for less than 1% of their annual sales. The majority of their business came from larger retailers like Amazon, Wayfair and Home Depot. The project was off to a good start and in December of 2019, the new site design and brand refresh was launched. It was also about this time that LA Linen’s owner started researching and ordering face masks online. He was interested in having masks available for his own use and to supply to his staff of about 30 as the Pandemic started to spread.

“The process lead to a great deal of frustration as the masks would either take 3-8 weeks to arrive and were of poor quality or some did not arrive at all. Out of frustration and necessity, LA Linen began developing their first iteration of a reusable face mask. And soon as they discovered that they not only had the exact tools and resources available to begin producing reusable face masks to sell to the public, the country started going on lock down, says Greene. “This meant that the Los Angeles factory could not only not produce the core product offering of table linens, but they could not produce face masks at any scale. This is when they decided to pivot the business completely to focus solely on face masks. It not only allowed the company to be considered an ‘essential business,’ but it helped the members of the organization feel like they were a part of the solution.”

This was a complete 180 from promoting tablecloths and napkins, but Greene was up for the challenge and began testing ads, creating landing pages, and exploring digital platforms to spread the word about the face masks that the company was now producing. She and her team created a social media presence from scratch, created highly-converting landing pages and battled with ad platform policies for the right to publish ads for face masks. “This uncharted territory during a global pandemic was unlike anything anyone has seen before, and being very nimble and innovative is what helped drive the success that I had been able to achieve for the company,” added Greene.

“Being nimble, seeing opportunity to shift and pivoting quickly is how LA Linen was able to not only stay in business, but thrive. The ability to serve our fellow Americans is something everyone on the team is proud of,” says Greene.

Over the past few months, LA Linen has continued to make changes to the masks, added new prints and patterns and also, most importantly, had the masks tested by an ANAB Accredited Lab to make sure the products are not only protecting others from the wearer but also protecting the wearer. They recently launched their 3-Layer mask that expands on that protection rating of 79% BFE that their 2nd generation mask received. There are now more mask-makers on the market than can be counted but because of this company’s long-standing dedication to manufacturing incredible products in the US and to having excellent customer service, LA Linen may just be able to whether this pandemic storm.