#WIB – Q&A With Dominique Binns Co-Founder & CEO At Fizzin
1. Can you please tell us more about your business?
A. Fizzin is everything that Small businesses, startups, mom-and-pop stores, owners, and founders (and even individuals) need. We know that many people have a burning passion to start a business. They have awesome ideas and want to share value with people who need it. But we also know that very few people have tens of thousands of bucks stored away to spend on everything you need for a business, like a logo, website, social media marketing, etc.
We dreamed up Fizzin so that all the amazing people out there with world-shaking ideas can get out there and shake the world up! We’ve deliberately made all of our services, from graphic design to logo design to flyer and sticker design to email marketing, article writing, social media marketing, photography, and videography, SUPER affordable.
What’s more, is that we have a unique culture. We’re young, fresh, vibrant, and full of energy. Our agents are students, part-time workers, and even 40 +s who love life and love what they do!
We aim to get rid of all the fluffy, glossy, useless stuff that branding agencies have become associated with. We pull up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. Gary and I like to say that we’re NOT an agency…we’re implementers. We’re practical. And what’s more, affordable.
2. When, how and why did you start your business?
A.Fizzin was founded in 2020 when Gary Bannatyne, my co-founder, and I met purely by some weird cosmic coincidence. We frequently laugh over how a 21-year-old, self-taught graphic designer/marketer and a much more seasoned serial entrepreneur found each other by chance. Gary and I dreamed up Fizzin in a couple of hours over some tea one rainy day. Since then, it’s been nothing but hard work and growth, growth, growth.
After having spent 2020 pouring over graphic design and marketing courses and teaching myself everything I could, I wanted to put my skills and passion to good use. I have been starting businesses since 16 and knew what a struggle it was to get a logo or website completed for a reasonable price. I hated that part of entrepreneuring growing up…the part where you had to have a couple of thousands lying around in order to get your idea out there. This is why I wanted to offer a seriously affordable service to entrepreneurs out there like me…the entrepreneurs who want to make the world better but who don’t necessarily have the cash to get their idea off the ground.
I always say there’s a social justice aspect to Fizzin. I’ve always been tremendously involved in humanitarian causes and in the world of the United Nations and feel that, in an albeit small way, I’m helping to bridge the gap between would-be-business-owners and full-on job creators.
3. What is your role in the business?
A. I am the co-founder and CEO at Fizzin. Being a CEO at a startup pretty much means that I do everything you can possibly imagine – from managing the financials (with the help of our brilliant accountants over at Streetlight) to marketing (with the help of some of our awesome agents at Fizzin) to projects to team development and people management.
I am lucky enough to have an absolutely brilliant set of people around me, who are always eager to step in and help me to build Fizzin however they can.
4. Where did you study and what did you study?
A. I started studying a BBA in Disaster Management (I have a passion for working in high-pressured situations and for helping people) but have since put my studies on hold due to Fizzin’s rapid growth. I plan to finish my studies as soon as Fizzin doesn’t need me as much (A startup is pretty similar to a whiny, needy toddler).
5. How did you finance your business?
A. Between my co-founder and I, we got Fizzin up and running for under R800. Building a fully online, digital business has its perks 😉 We only needed to invest in a domain and in hosting and in business registration fees upfront.
6. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.
A. No such thing 😀 My schedule changes from week-to-week and day-to-day, but a typical day will likely include overviewing financial admin, meeting with clients and strategic partners and potential partners (all virtually, of course), eating lunch off of my lap in front of my laptop, adapting our marketing strategy and implementation (read designing and setting up social media posts and ads and readying Fizzin’s press releases and appearances, etc.), meeting with and workshopping ideas and processes with my amazing right-hand, Kalan, fielding ten-million emails and WhatsApps and Phone calls (and Instagram DM’s – when did those become a professional form of communication?) and then settling down to make sure my plants and pets are happy chappies whilst unwinding with a good book or course.
7. How do you balance your home life and your work life?
A. I don’t believe in work-life balance, because that phrase indicates that work is a whole separate thing to the ENTIRE rest of your life. Life is made up of a lot of things and work shouldn’t be viewed as 50% of the equation. I believe in seasons, where some seasons are going to be 5 AM to 10 PM type weeks or months and some seasons are going to be sipping a red cappuccino in Cape Town on the beachfront. I’m definitely a batch-type worker – and rester – it’s just the way I’ve wired my brain 🙂
But in terms of setting boundaries for the day-to-day, I usually allow my Monday to Thursdays to be inundated with work and progress and growth and usually set aside my Fridays to Sundays to be swallowed up by resting and recreation (Batching the work and rest, again )
8. What drives you and inspires you?
A. Working with amazing people who are turning ideas into real, concrete businesses inspires me every day. Creating a service that bridges the gap that would-be entrepreneurs face between that idea phase and the running-a-business phase drives me to get up and get cracking every day.
Being able to build and test processes and systems and constantly stretch and grow myself and my skill set is also the best part about running my own business, which drives me.
9. Where and when do you have your best ideas?
A. I often dream about my new ideas…so I would have to say I’m most creative whilst sleeping 😀 When I’m conscious, taking a walk or designing often sparks ideas.
10. Where and how do you market/advertise your business for sales leads?
A. Our primary client acquisition strategy at Fizzin is focused on strategic partnerships. This means that we focus on tapping into bulk networks and niche groups and communities that are most in need of our services. In addition to this, we also run with marketing strategies like social media marketing and Google Ads. We also have an awesome blog that helps to build a community and we run free, weekly workshops on digital skills that help to convert clients.
11. What is next for your business?
A. So much! We’re going live with a MASSIVE partnership super soon that will accelerate our growth tremendously. It’s going to be an amazing season of growth and increase for the next few months.
We will also continue to expand into new international markets throughout the course of 2022.
Ultimately, what’s next is rapid expansion at the speed of light!
12. What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs hoping to start their own business?
A. My biggest piece of advice for female entrepreneurs always centres on the emotional aspect of running a business. To start and run a business, you just need to have the grit to get through the hard times.
“A bad day for the ego is a good day for the soul,” as Robin Sharma says.
You will face self-doubt and you will face people who want to spell out all the reasons why it can’t work, why you won’t succeed. To get even more real with you, you will have to continually face dips and highs. Working through self-doubt and through the hard times isn’t a once-off thing. It’s cyclical.
The great thing is that you can build yourself up, your business knowledge, your skills, etc. every single second of the day so that each time that next monster approaches…you’re slightly stronger, slightly faster, and slightly more difficult to take down.
And one day, if you keep working on making yourself your biggest supporter, you’ll be bigger than the monsters.
You’ll triumph over them just by being.
For more visit https://www.thefizzin.com/