One Year Ago...
On November 19th, 2018, we launched a social business to inspire our community.
Written by Justin Chan, Founder of The Community Company. Published on November 19, 2019.
“The Community Company’s vision is to foster a community where everyone has an opportunity to inspire and create. ”
First and foremost, I just want to say thanks from the bottom of my heart. It’s one thing to say you support our project, but it’s another thing to actually click a link and engage with our stuff. They say it takes 1,000 true fans to create a sustainable business, and I’m genuinely grateful that I have you as one of our fans.
We’ve shared $2,027 in profits with our 12 creators in one year. It’s not a life-changing amount of money, but I know one day it will be. I always say as a joke that we’re one Oprah retweet away from permanently changing the lives of our creators.
If anyone knows Oprah personally, please email me asap.
To celebrate our one year anniversary together, I’ve put together a highlight reel of behind-the-scenes moments from The Community Company. These little memories mean the world to me, and I’m happy that I get to share them with you.
The Community Company’s First Year:
November 12, 2018: One week before launch.
I had 730 things I needed to do before officially launching our business, so I started writing out my tasks on a whiteboard.
The task on November 4th was a funny one. I ordered 100 card boxes for our holiday cards and the day after they arrived, it occurred to me that shipping costs were a thing. I walked to the post office hoping for the best, and they informed me that it would cost $17.90 to ship $19.00’s worth of holiday cards. Yikes. Guess i need to find a box alternative.
December 8, 2018: This is actually happening…
We surpassed $1,000 in sales on December 8th and I took this photo to celebrate it. While I was assembling a few orders to ship out, I realized in that moment that this was my vision being validated in real-time and it made me extremely emotional.
I remember scrolling through our order list to see if there were names I didn’t recognize. To see 23 names that weren’t my family and friends… that was an incredible feeling. There were people I didn’t know supporting the project with their hard earned money.
April 2, 2019: You get a photo, you get a photo, everyone gets a photo!
I wanted our second Community Box to be our breakthrough campaign. I invested a good amount in marketing and I also ordered 300 bags as inventory to set the bar high.
I reached out to many of my friends and coworkers and asked if they wanted to be a model for our tote bags. Here is a staged photo of my friend Abbey shopping at the chocolate store downtown. I think I stuffed my sweater in that tote bag so it looks perfectly tote-like.
For those keeping score, we sold 276 tote bags.
June 27, 2019: Jillian running the show.
We dabbled in markets of all sizes this past summer - this photo was taken at the Stratford Night Market (during the day). What made this moment awesome was the fact that Jillian was running the show.
Validation from customers, mentors, and experts means a lot to me because it proves to me that I’m doing something right. However, validation from our creators mean the world to me. To hear Jillian speak so positively about The Community Company and share with customers at the market how much joy this experience brought her gave me the biggest smile ever.
July 18, 2019: Behind-the-Camera.
I just love how boom microphones look. It made it feel like we were filming a movie and I had the privilege of sitting in the directors chair watching it all unfold.
We had a lot of fun that day filming the launch video for our third Community Box. You’ll notice that a lot of our self-care box photos on social media have this wall as the background!
September 9, 2019: Doing this full-time.
I was working 40 hours a week doing consulting work for the non-profit sector, and another 40 hours doing The Community Company. Something had to give. I officially left my full-time job on August 31st, 2019 to pursue The Community Company with everything that I got.
I announced it to the world on September 9th and that day I received over 50 messages or comments of support. While it was felt like I was diving off the deep end, it was an incredible feeling to be supported immediately by our entire community.
It was so exciting to see this many people believe in me.
October 23, 2019: This is my Christmas.
I check in with our past creators every now and then to catch up, and to brainstorm new ideas together.
I chatted with a Creator (who we have since terminated our partnership with) and I asked them what Christmas is like for someone overcoming homelessness. I learned that the holidays are the worst time of year because of the commercialization of it, and that felt like a bit of a paradigm shift in my head.
I think as a community we get caught up in the glamour of the holidays without really thinking about the impact it has on those who are already marginalized. We then started brainstorming how we could articulate this to the community…
November 19, 2019: We are releasing our next Community Box tomorrow.
If you’ve already made it this far, I’ll let you in on a secret. Over the past month, we’ve been working around-the-clock to create three incredible holiday cards with a Creator that represents their Christmas.
He has experienced homelessness for many of his past Christmases and he is going to share with us over the next couple of weeks stories of what Christmas was like for him.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I did writing it.
I started The Community Company a year ago as a passion project and it’s now grown to become so much more. I am so grateful that because of fans like yourself, we’ve made it a year. I can’t wait to do this all again at our two year anniversary.