Building a Kindle Accessories Brand – Louise Rice of Strapsicle

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is a show where I interview successful e commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, and ask them questions about their business story. And also dive deep into some of those strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Lou Rice to the show. Lou is the founder of Strapsicle. Strapsicle creates e reader accessories, including a simple one handed Kindle holder that helps people read more comfortably anytime and anywhere. And today I’m going to ask Lou a few questions about her entrepreneur journey and some of the strategies and tactics that she has used to start and grow her business.

Now, before we dive into this interview, if you enjoy this content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button. And for more content like this, please visit our website, Treptalks. com. And with Uh, Lou, welcome again, uh, and thank you so much for joining me today, nice and early from Australia.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: That’s right. Thank you for having me. I’ve been up for three hours, so that’s fine.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, um, maybe we can start with a little bit about your story. Um, you know, how did you get started, uh, as an entrepreneur? What kind of motivated you to start this specific business?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Interestingly, I, uh, I’ve been, I’ve wanted to be an entrepreneur for probably 15 years.

I found some notes from a life coach that I saw in London when I was, you know, I went over there to work after I finished uni and I had grand, grand dreams of all sorts of businesses. And then, you know, fast forward, you go into your corporate career. You kind of get the life sucked out of you a little bit and you still had that dream burning.

And I have tried a couple of other businesses that weren’t successful because I guess I was trying to feel what’s what’s right for me. And so then a product based business, um, it’s just been the perfect fit for, for my passions and my skills. And why

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Strapsicle?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah. Interesting story behind Strapsicles.

So, uh, this is Strapsicle, the Kindle or e reader strap that helps you hold it. You can’t drop it. So, uh, I was on that leave. Uh, baby Archie was about three months old. I was in that 24 hour cycle of, you know, feed, sleep, repeat. And one night, um, it was 2 a. m. I loved reading my Kindle because you don’t, you know, as moms, we don’t want to be on our phones all the time when we’re breastfeeding.

And it was just that moment where I just kind of, you know, closed my eyes for a second. The Kindle dropped on Archie’s head. He screamed, I jolted away, guys screamed. My partner Ben came running in and, uh, you know, we settled Archie back to sleep. But then the next day, Ben, he’s a bit of a, he’s a bit of an inventor, a bit of a designer.

He had this silicon mat. at home and he kind of fashioned this really crude out of silicon and staples and he gave it to me to use on the Kindle. And after a few weeks of using it, I couldn’t go back to just, you know, having the naked Kindle, holding it like that. So uncomfortable. And so, you know, we were on that leave, we were in lockdown, there was nothing to do, there was no one to see.

We had a small baby who was sleeping pretty well. So we thought, why don’t we give this a go?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, uh, of course, you know, it’s at that time, like I would assume because Kindle is kind of an older product, like it’s still, it’s been in market for maybe more than five, 10 years. Um, was there no. product that was kind of solving this problem on Amazon.

I mean, usually if you go on Amazon, you know, I go on Amazon and put anything like this. Always some solution for your problem.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: That’s very true. And look, there are, there are other straps. There are, there are other holders, but they, uh, they’re quite, um, functional. They’re quite, uh, they’re not very attractive to look at.

I think, uh, we wanted to create a strap that was, um, felt, you know, felt comfortable, so this is silicon. It’s high quality silicon. We make them. And a range of fashion colors. And I guess the other thing that differentiates us is we have a brand behind our product. So we, we knew there were products out there.

So we knew there was obviously, um, a need for this product, but nothing that kind of looked exactly like this and acted exactly like this. So, um, yeah, we thought we’d give it a go. And of course, just because there are products already doesn’t mean yours can’t be different or better.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, definitely.

That’s, that’s very true. And, and of course, if you’re building a brand and you have, you know, you’re differentiating the product in some way, of course, you know, you can create a, um, uh, a [00:05:00] place for yourself as well. But I guess the obvious question that comes to my mind now is, of course, you know, this is for Kindle.

Um, I would assume that other. Uh, tablets, Android, um, you know, uh, Apple devices, tablets, um, would this work with those as well? Why focus completely on Kindle? Um, because I would assume like there’s a much bigger market with other tablets as well.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah, well, interestingly, uh, Statistia states there are close to one billion e readers in the world.

So as a starting market, why not? Because if we could get 1 percent of that market share, we’re happy with that. But I think for us, it was, you know, if we stick to the kind of the solution that solved the problem for us. And that’s, so then we, so then that’s the market we start with and because it’s our, it’s our learned experience.

And then we, we went in out and kind of surveyed 50 friends and family, and a lot of people have a kindle. A lot of people have a problem of literally dropping it on their face when they fall asleep. So I think we start with the, we start with the solution to our problem. And now we’re nearly two years in there’s still so much opportunity with the kindle market that we haven’t even tapped and sorry, the e reader market.

So these also fit COBO’s and we are looking at other devices, you know, Barnes Noble have their own nook, for example. So e readers are kind of, e readers are almost having their time in the sun again. they’re kind of coming back in fashion, I think they’re They did get a bit pushed to the side for a while with the iPad.

But that’s not to say that we can’t then create a product for the iPad and so on and so on. So it’s kind of start here with the big enough market, but there’s a much bigger market over here. But let’s nail this market first.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So you are located in Australia. I’m assuming your primary market was Australia.

And now are you distributing worldwide?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah. When we started and I knew nothing, I knew nothing. I was at the post office five times. The first day I was literally sending out straps out as a letter with no track. Okay. Just a couple of stamps. So, um, when we started, we opened up to international pretty early on and just had to learn all the rules around shipping.

But I think for me, the best thing I did was, uh, list us on Amazon in the U S within five months of the business being. Live, um, that absolutely, uh, accelerated our growth. It opened us up to this huge audience in the U S and we’ve continued to grow. We’re now 80 months and on Amazon. Uh, so I don’t, even though we’re based in Australia, I see us as an international business and I actually see us as predominantly a U S based business.

And I think for us, the US market has the biggest opportunity, just purely from the fact that Kindle is kind of originated there and it’s so popular there.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I mean, us is definitely the biggest e commerce market. Um, maybe you can go back to the early days. So your, uh, your husband, um, created the, the first prototype, so to speak.

I mean, I think this, do you consider this a simple product? I mean, it is, it is, uh, you know, in a way, silicon strap, uh, a strap of silicon. Um, What were kind of the first, uh, iterations, like, did you go through, did you find a designer, like, what, what were the next steps after that, creating that prototype?

How did you bring it to market and, and, you know, how did you get your first sale?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah, good question. So you say it’s simple, so sharp, but actually it’s getting the exact tension, the spec for the exact tension. So luckily, I mean, I am so lucky. Ben knows how to do drawings that have measurements, you know, and angles.

And he kind of knows how to do that. So he sketched, he kind of drew, drew up, I guess, your first kind of drawing. What do you call them? CAD drawings or what have you. And then we were lucky to have a supplier. A friend of ours was already creating silicon products. They connected us to

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: their

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: supplier in China.

And that really probably saved us months of back and forth with different suppliers trying to, because I imagine, I think that is probably one of the most daunting things you have to do early on. So we were able to find this factory, We went back and forth, I think twice or three times with molds, different sample molds to get the right fit.

Uh, and then I think after the third one that probably took us, I think two to three months. So maybe it was twice after we got the third one, we put in an order and we were able to put in a minimum order on the sample mold only. So we only, we could only, we were able to only order 500 units, which really helped us.

And then, um, we kind of sat with that product for like four months because we didn’t have the website sorted and we were just kind of baffling around and we had a newborn child. And then I just said, look, let’s launch it. And I had listened to a podcast with the amazing Anita Sarkar, and she talked about launching her sustainable packaging brand.

And the way she did that was giving away a thousand free samples. So I said, let’s give away the first 200 free and we’ll, we’ll do that so that we can a get customers really fast plus shipping, get customers really fast, get feedback really fast and get the word out. Yeah. And that’s what we did.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So the first 200, did you send that, uh, them out to like, uh, kind of the influencers or who, who did you send, send those out to?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: So my strategy, again, we have no marketing plan. Um, I, I posted in some entrepreneur Facebook groups. I was in, I posted in a local Facebook group. I was in with like120,000 people I posted on LinkedIn. So basically kind of reaching out and obviously friends and family, but going broader than friends and family.

So going for people who, you know, kind of knew of us. And we were so lucky. Like in one Facebook group, the post went viral. I had an, anyone who has a

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Kindle,

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: anyone who has a Kindle loves this product. So people were jumping on it. It was 10 for shipping.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um,

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: but the perceived value of a free set was great.

And I was able to pretty much sell, I think a hundred within the first couple of days. And then what I did was start reaching out to exactly what you’ve said, micro influences. So I went on to Instagram and TikTok, I searched

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Kindle,

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: and I just found this whole world of reading accounts, people who literally dedicate their whole social media presence to reading, and these girls had Kindles.

They only had maybe 3,000 followers. I gifted them the product, I gifted them an affiliate code, and then they created UGC for us, but equally, their audience, who already trusted them, then trusted to buy from us. So we were able to really get some traction really quickly. And it was all free marketing apart from the gifting

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: and people were buying.

Did you create like a Shopify website? Oh,

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Squarespace initially.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. And then at what point did you, uh, I’m assuming you transitioned to Shopify?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yes. Um, four months. And I kind of, I realized it was time to make the jump, just start to build that. I mean, even, you know, we were set up as a partnership from the beginning and even Knowing that you should actually be set up as a company, all these things, you kind of figure out along the way.

And now I’m looking back, I’m like, I wish we’d been a company from the beginning. I wish we’d had that company bank account. So yeah, a lot of learning, but yeah, we, I think in about November, that’s when we turned on Amazon, we switched to Shopify. It felt like we were, we were a proper business. Don’t forget, I was still working my corporate job.

Ben was still working his. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, I think COVID time was probably a good, uh, timing for this product as well because people were home, you know, they were probably spending more time reading on Kindle and so forth. Did you kind of, you know, the time that you launched and, you know, six months in or one year in, like, were you seeing kind of a hockey stick kind of a growth?

Like were you, did you instantly recognize that this is a winner product?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: No. I, I, I, not until we were on Amazon. I think because, you know, Amazon US opens you to millions and millions and millions of customers. And so before that you, you’ve got a new website, you’ve got a new store. You got, you’re trying to get traffic to that store.

People don’t know you. Google doesn’t know you. Um, our Facebook ads account got shut down within three months. We don’t know why we had to start again. So you’re, you’re, you’re kind of slogging it out over here. Yeah. And the sales were like, I think, dripping in. And once Facebook shut down, it was like 1, 500 a month.

And then as soon as Amazon launched, and I think the second month, because we look, I didn’t even think about this, but we launched right before Black Friday and right before Christmas.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: if anyone was going to launch on Amazon, I would say launch before a key sales period on Amazon, because you are guaranteed to get exposure you wouldn’t get outside of that.

Sales period. So I think for us, the second month on Amazon, we had a five figure month and that just blew my mind. And I realized the potential was there and, you know, let’s double down on Amazon.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Did you, before launching on Amazon, did you kind of sit down and map down all the strategy of, of selling on Amazon?

Because Amazon is like, You know, if, if something goes wrong, it can, it can really be, be horrible for a new product, right? If, if people, for some reason don’t like something and start giving negative reviews and things like that, what kind of preparation go through in terms of launching on Amazon? And I think what, what, what.

What has been your experience selling on Amazon because, of course, you know, they take up probably a big cut of your, uh, sales as well. Um, so, even though they are bringing you a lot of sales, but probably the margins there are lower, much lower.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah. So I think two questions there, right? So when we launched on Amazon, again, a bit of naivety, a bit of optimism.

We knew we had a good product. We knew we had great reviews, but like, we literally had, I think, one size when we launched. There are many size Kindles. So we only figured out a few months later, Oh, we probably need to make Better fitting straps for other sizes. So we were very lucky in that regard. We didn’t get a whole lot of negative reviews.

So I think we knew we had product market fit. We thought we’d open ourselves up to that audience. Um, I did hire people, um, experts to help me build my listings to consult on how to launch. I think that’s really important. Don’t try and do it yourself. But I think we just knew we had a good product and luckily the reviews coming in were great.

We got some, we got a big influencer who posted about us organically in the beginning. Um, so yeah, I think we didn’t really have a strategy. We just knew we wanted to open ourselves up to that audience. The way we look at Amazon now, I know that that is always a concern for a lot of people who aren’t on there.

You know, Amazon’s going to take a big chunk of, Your revenue, you know, they charge these fees for you to be on their platform. And we just kind of look at it as it’s, it’s like a hybrid of between DTC and wholesale, right? So you, you know, yes, you’re shipping one to one cost, but the Amazon’s customers. So in a way they’re like a semi wholesaler.

And, uh, And you know, we with wholesale, where you would pay 50%, you know, you would give that 50 percent discount to that retailer to sell on your behalf. Very similar model, yet we’re only paying, I think with the shipping and fulfillment fees included, and then the referral fee, which is The price you pay to be on their platform and access that, that millions of customers, I think it’s about 30 percent of our revenue per sale.

Now we have a very light, small product to ship. So we are lucky in that regard. I imagine people, if you had a big piece of furniture, it would be a very different story. But I think for me, the, the, the upside of being on Amazon, it’s the access to the huge audience they have that you would have to pay far greater acquisition costs.

To bring that number of eyeballs to your own site. And then it’s also the relatively low acquisition costs that you pay within that ecosystem to get those customers buying from your listing. For me, that’s kind of a no brainer. Yes. We have had issues with our listings. They can be tricky to deal with sometimes.

Um, you know, they, they took my listing where I’ve got all the sizes and colors neatly all packed together in one listing Blew it apart. So every color and size was an individual listing So no one could find different options But you know, it’s kind of part of part of the game of being on there and I just kind of say make hay While the sun shines while while we’ve got a good store.

Let’s keep doubling down on it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome Um, do you do anything? So once you get an amazon sale And you ship out the product. I mean is there in this You category in this product, is there, um, an opportunity to make a recurring sale? Like if once a customer purchases, like Of course, they’re going to use it for a few years.

Um, do you see a lot of recurring sales coming from existing customers?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah, we do. I think one of the big factors of our success has actually been creating a loyal community and raving fans. I don’t know if you’ve heard the saying, you know, find your thousand loyal fans. For us, we’ve kind of built. And that’s the power of building a brand, right?

We’ve built a community who I see every day on TikTok and Instagram. They’re jumping into people’s comments saying you need to get a strapsicle like they are advocating on our behalf. So we have strapsicle customers who have 10 sets of straps in different colors. We re we release limited edition colors and they’ll buy again, because it’s kind of.

People treat their Kindles like an extension of themselves and they decorate their Kindles, they decorate them with stickers, they decorate them with their straps. So it’s kind of a fashion accessory, less so a functional accessory. And that’s the power of our brand behind this. think that’s really, I think any product, when you build a brand around it and you create a loyal community, um, you can, you can drive repeat purchase.

I

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: mean, that brings me to my next question. You said, you know, this is more of a, um, I mean, of course it’s functional, but at the same time, it’s, you know, it is, uh, a life, you know, fashion, uh, statement, you know, personal lifestyle, uh, thing as well. Is it, um, in terms of your competition, have you seen, uh, You know, I think this product would be very easily to be copied from, you know, Chinese manufacturers.

Have you seen copycats? Do you, do you have any sorts of patents or, uh, how do you. I mean, is it really your brand that’s kind of, uh, that’s kind of, you know, differentiating your product from any other copycat?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: We haven’t seen direct competitors yet. We do have patents in the US, Australia, UK, Europe. We have trademarks in the same countries and we are working on our Chinese trademark.

Um, I think to, I mean, It’s only a matter of time, right? And that is why you have to build a powerful brand. So people know that they are getting, when they’ve got the S on the back, they’re buying the Strapsicle brand. We can continue to iterate. We can continue to create new products that will get people excited.

We can come out with, you know, we’re looking at patterns. Now we can look at licensing. We can look at ways to protect our brand in the face of competition. There will always be Competition. It’s just, it’s just, I think you just have to focus on your product, your community and driving your brand messaging behind that.

So, um, yeah, I mean, touch wood. We’re not there yet. I’ve seen it happen to friends who have businesses in a very bad way. Um, but I think protecting yourself. Protecting your IP upfront is one of the most important things you can do as a small business. You need to know that you need to be able to invest several thousand dollars before you launch to have that IP protected as much as possible.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. So as you said before, you know, your focus right now is really to kind of maximize the market with this, like your hero product, I guess. And, uh, of course you’re doing direct to consumer. Um, are you also now Um, how, you know, have you already been, uh, are you in big retail, uh, stores already? Are you working towards that, um, process?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah, we, um, we do have some retailers, we have retailers around the world, um, who we wholesale to. We haven’t, you know, implemented any big strategy around that yet. That’s kind of next on our list. Uh, we are talking to a couple of big. Retailers, um, one in the U S one in New Zealand. So that’s really exciting for us.

And I think anyone who, well, a lot of our smaller retailers, uh, bookstores, because they have, you know, their customers like to read on, they like to read books. They like to read Kindles, e readers, but I think for us where any retailer is selling a Kindle or an e reader, we need to be there. So that’s the focus for us in the next six to 12 months.

And then again, that’s another way to, you know, cement the brand, um, kind of create that, um, competitive differentiation against those, those Amazon brands.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. Um, in terms of marketing, you said, you know, you mentioned a little bit about your Facebook ads. Are you, um, what kind of marketing are you doing?

working really well for you right now.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah. I think what’s always worked for us. I was reflecting on this. We have never had a really solid paid ad strategy in place. Uh, we do, we have done paid ads for the duration, you know, since we’ve been live, but Facebook and Google, um, but that’s never been a core driver of sales for us.

Um, they are, they are more complimentary. And I think we’ve always had a focus on a strong organic, Content marketing strategy and driving, uh, sales through, uh, TikTok, driving sales through influencers and affiliates, and then looking at other channels where the reach is going to be far greater than your pay to play channels, you know, Pinterest.

YouTube, where you can try and get organic traction for your content and, you know, something like Pinterest. It’s an amazing platform because your content just sits there. It’s not dictated by an algorithm of recency, and there’s no need for community management. It’s it’s, it’s kind of a no brainer to be on there as a brand.

Uh, so yeah, I think when I look at where our sales come from every day, It’s a fantastic post purchase survey you can implement just to see exactly where people are buying from and, you know, organic. organic marketing is at least 30 to 40 percent of our revenue.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That’s, that’s, I think that definitely makes sense.

And, um, without going too much into the numbers, I know, um, I think with, with a product that is low, I think, um, um, low retail price, and I think even with marketing, I think the cost would be much higher. So, and, and in a category that’s probably very, um, very saturated already. So do you, I mean, are you like when you’re thinking about your growth strategy, are you really thinking more in terms of, you know, how I can get it distributed through wholesalers and bigger retail and not have to Target direct to consumer beyond what you’re already doing with marketplaces and organic.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: I think you have to have, I’m going to quote one of my business coaches, Lisa Jones. You have to have 12 eggs in 12 baskets. So we’re not going to sacrifice our e commerce operations for the sake of, you know, wholesale retail distribution marketplaces. But I think for us, it’s, I’m, I’m in the process of hiring a marketing manager.

It’s our first team hire. Um, so. Um, we have built this business very leanly with freelancers thus far. So they’re going to be responsible for that e commerce side of things, really optimizing that. Then I can focus on, I mean, we have a tried and tested formula with Amazon. We can replicate that now in many other marketplaces, you know, Walmart marketplace, Mercado Libre in South America.

Um, China has its own, there’s so much opportunity to kind of have that same model playing out at the same time, spinning up Transcribed Big retail partnerships and, and getting into those big box retailers where they already sell their Kindles and we are just going to increase their basket size for them.

I think those are kind of the three big buckets I really want to focus on. And then, you know, there’s a whole thing. So Sean, you wouldn’t even think of it probably, but we didn’t know, but when we launched this, we are helping a whole category of people who have mobility issues, arthritis, Parkinson’s cerebral palsy, even a woman messaged me and said, you have changed my life because I couldn’t even pick up a book.

And now I can read. I mean, that’s wild. We had no idea that. And that just made, makes our purpose even more strong to get this out there. But there’s a whole strategy there of working with those foundations that support people like that and, you know, being a product of choice. So, I mean, it’s just made me really excited.

Yeah. Thinking about it all. There’s so much opportunity. So, yeah, I don’t know. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, it’s, it’s interesting that, you know, one product, um, that, that works can really take you far, you know, before you even have to think about a different product. Like when you think about your business, uh, you know, next two to five years, like, are you really, are you, you know, are you even thinking about having another, adding another product or you’re really just a hundred percent on this and really want to maximize the opportunity?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: No. I think the focus is that, you know, Our, our purpose is. Is, uh, make, make, um, comfortable reading accessible to all. I think when you, when you think about that in a macro sense, you can broaden that to other devices. You can broaden that to the iPad mini. You could even broaden it to iPhones, but it just has to look a certain way.

But I think for us, it’s, it’s how do we do this product? How do we become the household name for e reader accessibility? Accessories. If that was the goal, you’d say you probably got a couple of years to really like drive that through, you know, eCommerce, big retail, and then, and then within that ecosystem, we have other accessories.

We are like sneak peek. We are about to launch this. It’s a, it’s, we’re calling it the clutch and it, you know, because people, even though they love our straps, they still want the screen protection. So this is a Throw your keys in there, your wallet and your Kindle. So it for us, it’s about how do we create a kind of ecosystem around our straps.

We have everything that someone needs to protect and accessorize their Kindle. And then we can, you know, start to build out. How does that apply to other reading experiences?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And this product is also silicone.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yes, it’s very beautiful. And you see, we’re going to do every, do you like, we’re going to do every color to match the straps.

So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: no, it’s beautiful.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Thank you. Yeah. Um, it’s just going to, I think, add to the value of the straps. So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: is, uh, is Silicon also considered a sustainable product? Because, you know, I don’t, I don’t think, you know, it has the same problems of like a plastic or any, uh, any of those things. Right.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah, it is considered a sustainable product.

We do work with our, um, supplies. We’re looking into, we’re looking into ways we can recycle it here in Australia. So obviously we do get returns. We have product that doesn’t sell. So how can we actually, there are some recycling options here and in the U S and I think for me, that’s, that’s going to be a big focus because we’re very conscious about not leaving that footprint on the world.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. Do you ever consider moving to the U. S. given that, you know, that’s, that’s kind of your biggest, uh, uh, market for your business?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Well, I just think businesses these days are so international. Like, you could run a business from anywhere. Like, it could be a different story in a few months and a good problem to have.

We are actually going over to New York for our first trade fair. In the U S in August. Um, so it’d be interesting to see how people receive the fact that we are based in Australia. But I think if you’ve got, you’ve got all the right infrastructure set up and even, you know, we could have a team member over there.

We don’t have to be there ourselves, um, big believer in the power of global business. I’m, I’m just seeing the benefits of it now. And I think COVID has shown us that you can do that remotely.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Now, in terms of your team, you mentioned that you’ve been the two, you know, two founders, co founders, and then now you’re only hiding your first marketing manager.

Um, any other people in, I mean, how do you manage your social media, everything yourself so far?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah, I’ve had a VA with me for a good, um, six, seven years. Nine months, maybe a year, nearly look to be honest, it has been all me running this then work has worked full time in his job. So I only quit my part time.

I went back to my part time job three days a week, um, two months after we launched. So I worked three days a week on, in my corporate advertising role, which was very full on, and then I had two days on strap sales. And I’ve done that. I did that for about 18 months and it nearly killed me when we got to black Friday and Christmas.

So I’ve had a VA supporting me and that’s really been it. And then kind of leaning on random freelancers for other things. But now I’m in the process, as I said, we’re going to hire a part time marketing manager. We, uh, I’ve just hired an [00:33:00] inventory manager. Um, and it’s tied in EA as well, and we’re getting a graphic designer.

So, you know, very much recognizing the need that we can’t keep cobbling stuff together ourselves.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. Um, your fulfillment and shipping, are you, is it completely outsourced? Is it through Amazon or are you using a third party logistics?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: But all of Amazon is through Amazon. So we ship directly from our factory in China to those locations in Australia, US, and I’m just about to open Singapore.

Uh, and then in terms of website shipments, like if you could see what’s around me right now. It’s. Packs of straps everywhere. Um, I am in the process. I have outsourced my international orders to a 3PL overseas, and I’m in the process of moving my Australian orders to a local 3PL. So as of in three weeks.

I will be, all orders will be outsourced. But then again, that does bring some [00:34:00] challenges. So yeah, it’s, it’s the dance you do, but I’m very much looking forward not to packing, to not pack orders again.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Oh, wow. That’s, that’s, that’s great for sure. I mean, it probably takes a lot of your time, right? Packing. I have a, I

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: have a wonderful, I have, I do actually have, sorry, a casual girl who comes in to help, but it’s not every day.

It’s always the day she can’t come when I’ve got, you know, 30 orders that have to go out. So,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: um, in every entrepreneur’s journey, there’s always mistakes made lessons learned failures. Um, what has been. a big mistake or failure, uh, setback that you encounter since you’ve been, uh, uh, since you’ve started this business, what was the big lesson that you learned?

What, um, is a lesson that other entrepreneurs can learn? Uh, can learn from your mistakes.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: I think touch wood, we’ve been really lucky not to have big mistakes, but, but recently there’s two that I’ve made that have, you know, [00:35:00] kind of cost us, I guess, money, but more so effort and time. And that’s, um, pressing go too quickly on, on a, on a new production mold when we haven’t properly tested sizing and, and commissioning 10, 000 straps.

in that new production mold without realizing actually it’s not right. So I’ve, I think Because I’ve spent the last 18 months, you know, trying to slap this together in between days when I’m working my corporate job, I’ve, I’ve moved very quickly and I need to learn to give the right things, the right consideration.

I think, um, as an entrepreneur, you have to wear all these different hats and it actually means you have to. Fluctuate between different ways and energy states. And so I think learning when learning, when you’ve got tasks where you go fast and you get it done and you’re kind of in your masculine energy versus you need [00:36:00] to.

Stop and reflect and think and kind of ponder over the solution. I think that’s a really, really important lesson to learn.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Um, when you look at your business from a big picture perspective, um, what is like, one or two pluses and one or two minuses that you see in your specific business model or in your specific category.

Like what do you think in your business, in your business model is like a really good thing, whereas something that’s that’s kind of a Uh, you, you think would, would have been different.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Hmm. Look, I think everyone wants what they can’t have. And I looking at where I am now, I’m so proud of what I have built, you know, kind of myself in, in less than two years, but I think, [00:37:00] and this is nothing on Ben cause he’s been amazing as support, you know, and he’s the product designer, but, uh, I think having a, a partner to do so.

A, the positive is you’re very lean profits all coming to you versus having a partner or a established team member earlier on to help kind of bed down the fundamentals and the processes. Um, and I think that’s probably is something I, I would look at doing again. Um, I don’t regret starting it on my own as in Ben and I, where Ben was kind of a silent partner while he works his job, but I think in, yeah, if I went again, it would be looking at having a team member who could help structure things better because when I stopped work.

I thought, Oh, you know, the money’s going to increase, of course it will, I’ve got five days to work on this, but actually we’ve spent a lot of time because there’s no processes. There’s no systems in place. [00:38:00] We’ve actually had to spend a lot of time building those. So yeah, I think that would be the, that would be the one negative of what we’ve built.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Very interesting. Um, now I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment. In this segment, I’m going to ask you a few quick questions, and you have to answer them maybe in a word or a sentence or so. The first one is, of course, you know, you’re working with book accessories. One book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: It would have to be Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vee. And then obviously his new book that’s out. I think that man teaches us so much on garnering attention and content and social media marketing.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. An innovative product or idea in the current e commerce, retail, or tech landscape that you feel excited about.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: I’m talking to the guys who own mateship and mateship is, uh, if you think of like a university dorm, someone orders a [00:39:00] product and everyone in that dorm gets notified that that product has been ordered, they sign up to get notified and then they can all jump onto the order to get free shipping. So you could go from a person orders one set of straps to suddenly.

50 people in that dorm have added a set of straps to that order. I think that’s amazing. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m talking to them about setting it up.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Wow. That’s, that’s a very interesting concept. I mean, isn’t there an issue with gravity? Like if I’m ordering something, I don’t want other people to know.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah. I guess you sign up. I, I guess it’s an app that they access the, they can order through and you’re kind of, I guess you’re giving your permission to share your order. Um, so it’s certain products are obviously connected onto that platform.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. A business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: It’s not a new one, but chat GPT. Um, but more so [00:40:00] I’m just learning how to create custom GPTs to train staff and create business efficiencies. I think that’s fascinating. Um, so yeah, I think looking into that, it’s not just about creative ideation. It’s so much more than that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Wow. Very interesting. Uh, another startup or business in e commerce, retail, or tech that you think is currently doing great things?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Everyone should check out CMY Cubes. My friend Gabby. Um, she is amazing. I met her last year and she’s doing incredible things with that brand. Uh, especially, I mean, go check her out on TikTok.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you? Besides Gary Vaynerchuk.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah. And I would say Gabby, if I hadn’t already, Gabby Saber or, um, Mel Hark from Wild Dough. Um, Mel is [00:41:00] an absolute guru of everything in regards to running a business. And she built Wild Dough while she was working at a corporate job for three years. Um, yeah, she’s fascinating and she, she does a lot of speaking.

So go check her out.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, final question, what is the best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: My advice I give everyone is just keep going, just keep going because that first year, maybe 18 months, you will not be able to see the wood for the trees. You will just be so confused and frustrated by everything.

And that doesn’t mean that you have a bad business. You just don’t know what you don’t know. So you just got to keep going. And once you get that traction and the sales start coming in, you’re on a, you’re on a roll. You’ll be good. But just keep going, don’t stop.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, don’t stop until you find that product market fit.

Um, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll ask you one, one last question. You know, you, it seems like, you know, these [00:42:00] days I interview so many people who kind of, you know, who are doing their nine to five, they’re doing their corporate job and then somehow they start their side hustle and, you know, they want, uh, and even you mentioned a few people who, uh, you know, who are kind of transitioning from corporate.

When you started this business, Um, what was kind of your motivation? Like, did you, is your primary driver really to find, uh, freedom in your life? And do you think, you know, two, three years down the road now at this point, are you like, do you, do you feel that you’ve kind of, you’re on, on the way to achieving that, you know, what, what you were looking for through entrepreneurship?

Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean, why do you, why do you think so many people are now kind of transitioning to entrepreneurship?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Yeah, that’s, it’s such a layered question. I, I literally thought of like three answers then. I think I love, I love money [00:43:00] fame. No, but I think

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: everyone

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: does right. Definitely. The freedom’s not here yet.

Um, I think I think my, I think it’s about knowing what your genius zone is and what, what makes you tick. And so when we started a business, or maybe my whole entrepreneur journey, I knew I wanted something of my own, or I wanted to do things differently. I didn’t enjoy my corporate, the industry I was in.

I’ve never done that. I loved advertising. I love the people. I love the, the work we produce, I love when we dig in together, but it just didn’t feed my soul the way I knew something could. So I think, and then I think the reason I’ve been so good at my corporate career is the way I perform. I can work really fast.

I project manage the team, I project manage the work, I get the work done. And that’s where I love to be. So translating that to e commerce. It was a no brainer. And I think then you just get, this is going to sound a bit [00:44:00] woo, but I am driven, I think actually by recognition and results. And so when you are seeing the sales every day and you’re getting people, you know, talking about your business, you’re doing things like this.

It’s just, it’s such an adrenaline rush. Um, and I think, I think it would, people say, you know, Um, not everyone is built to be an entrepreneur. I don’t think they are. I know friends who just could not be bothered with doing something like this, but I think it’s for me, it’s actually a bit of an addiction probably of the results that you see every day and then the recognition.

Yeah. Yeah. And then I think we actually, once you kind of get to a tipping point and you realize the opportunity and you’ve set the business up and you’re making the sales, I think then you can see, you can look ahead and you can see. the opportunity for freedom and the opportunity to have a comfortable lifestyle and then that drives you again.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, very, very interesting. I think, uh, [00:45:00] yeah, I think, you know, um, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of things. I think it’s freedom. It’s, you know, live comfortable life. You know, people want to do a lot of things, travel and so forth. Yeah. I think it’s, and, and I think COVID and pandemic has probably enabled, uh, people to see some of those opportunities that they can do also.

Um, well, uh, Lou, those were all the questions that I had. Thank you so much for the opportunity, for your time and sharing your story. Um, if anybody wants to check out your products, what’s the best way to do that?

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Well, you can obviously search Amazon Strapsicle, or you can jump on strapsicle.com to shop.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Lou. Really appreciate you joining me today bright and early from Australia and yeah, wish you all the very best. Thank you. Thank you so much again.

Louise Rice of Strapsicle: Thank you.