Anne Moyer
President, Novel Erotics, Inc.
http://www.novelerotics.com
Founded: 2015
What happens when a Pennsylvania-grown attorney marries the girl-next-door chemical engineer?
They start a business in the Big Easy, of course!
David and Anne Moyer began their adults-only enterprise, Novel Erotics, Inc., just a little over a year ago and sales seems to be steadily ‘on the rise’ (pun intended). Their new adult novelty company offers sophisticated and sexy gift sets shipped discreetly in attractive book-style boxes, eliminating the days of brown paper wrapping. Each themed kit contains an inspirational story and five to six toys to help turn fantasies into reality. It’s a concept that’s playful and provocative; specifically targeted at couples that want to ‘spice up’ their love lives in a healthy, fun-loving way.
In other words, it’s Anne’s dream to help make your most intimate dreams come true.
Manufacturing your own product is tough. And it’s never easy to “put yourself out there.” Add a family and a full-time job, and you have more than a full plate. Anne, completely unfazed by those challenges, aims high: every free moment is dedicated to helping others explore and enhance their most intimate experiences using romance and imagination.
We love the way you think, Anne.
One of the things Anne’s leveraging to spread the word is video (see below). The company is launching it’s first IndiGogo crowdfunding campaign next week, and you can check out the PG-rated video — for the NE Hotel Affair ‘Novel’ — below. the first week of October. NOLA folks, some of you may recognize two great New Orleans personalities in the starring roles!
PDs Inc: What’s your personal background and experience?
Anne: Chemical Engineering; Worked as an engineer, technical manager, quality professional, procurement team manager – 26 years experience in the manufacturing industry.
PDs Inc: What’s your company’s vision?
Anne: Helping others explore and enjoy sex in a fun and approachable way.
PDs Inc: Why did you start your business and what was the hardest part?
Anne: The idea was my husband, David’s. We both watched with awe as the Fifty Shades of Grey Book series skyrocketed among women who would never frequent the local adult toy store. We were familiar with the adult toy market and he was convinced we should go into manufacturing our own adult themed toy collections. Building the product collection and sourcing it was the easy part, ironically. What I have found to be most challenging is the sales and marketing aspect, partly because of my lack of experience in that forum, and also because there are many restrictions for items with adult content in many mainstream advertising venues.
PDs Inc: What business/marketing tactics have worked the best for you?
Anne:
- Utilizing digital influencers – specifically mommy bloggers – to review and share their honest opinions about our products.
- Female-themed tradeshows/conferences give us a chance to talk about the products, some of which are very unfamiliar to our potential customers. They love the concept and will often buy, once they’ve made a connection with us!
PDs Inc: What marketing trends do you think are most important right now?
Anne: The power of digital influencers on social media platforms – Twitter, but especially Pinterest is amazing. Crowdfunding is also an amazing tool for getting product feedback up front before you’ve invested too much capital in making sure you have a marketable product – we’ll be trying this soon with one of our Novels on Indigogo!
PDs Inc: What advice would you give others starting out?
Anne: Reach out to your local small business administration and business accelerators for information and advice. Online, there are a lot of resources and forums on Linked In, Reddit and others that direct you to information as well. Attend conferences and trade shows to network – I’ve gained so many valuable connections and knowledge about how to market my business.
PDs Inc: How do you maintain work/life balance?
Anne: Right now, I don’t do a great job of that. I still have a full time engineering job, so this business consumes nights and weekends. I’ve started to lay out a task list, and when I’m finished, I try to put everything down, vs. grinding myself into exhaustion. I’m also famous for multitasking… I’m the chick with the laptop at the baseball game. Next year, I hope to give you a much better answer!
PDs Inc: What is your biggest lesson learned?
Anne: I would have spent a lot more time on marketing with prototypes before sourcing product. We were fortunate to have savings we could tap into, and jobs to pay the bills, so it didn’t kill us to wait for sales, but it would have eliminated a LOT of stress!
PDs Inc: From a legal perspective, what’s the most important piece of advice you can give new business owners/start-ups?
Anne: Retain a lawyer and an accountant! Don’t try to do it all yourself – the expertise is worth it in the long run!
PDs Inc: If your company were a movie title, what would it be?
Anne: The Perfect Storm!