From launch, I tapped into communities. Facebook groups of female entrepreneurs were some of our first customers. I just kept gifting product to micro influencers, and we grew through word of mouth and leveraged trust – so valuable for a first time brand.
Lou Rice
Picture this: it’s the dead of night, and you’re in that blurry state of sleep-deprived exhaustion, cradling your newborn.
In a bid for a moment’s peace, you reach for your trusty Kindle. But, uh-oh, disaster strikes! The e-reader slips from your grasp, landing with a worrisome thud on your precious little one’s head. Don’t worry, though – everyone’s okay!
Lou Rice, a Sydney-based mom and entrepreneur, found herself in desperate need of a solution to prevent such accidents during those endless nights. That mishap sparked the genius behind Strapsicle, a nifty Kindle holder that hit the shelves in June 2022. Now, Strapsicle is a hit, making life easier for parents everywhere. Lou’s excited to expand their product range and help even more people.
The Birth of Strapsicle
Lou was nursing her son Archie when exhaustion got the better of her, and her Kindle slipped, bonking her baby on the noggin. Needless to say, it was a distressing wake-up call for everyone involved. “The next day Ben fashioned a makeshift Kindle holder, made of silicone. He literally cut it out of a silicone mat I had for baking and held it together with staples. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but it did the job! With that attached, there was no way I could drop it.
“Even if I fell asleep, the Kindle stayed in my hand. It wasn’t perfect, but it certainly did the job; and so the very first Strapsicle prototype was born. We were both on mat leave, and in lock down – there was nothing to do (except care for our newborn, of course!) So we thought, why not give it a go, start the business and see what happens?”
After doing some online research and speaking with some friends, they realized that other people would buy this too, so they decided to test it out. “The first 18 months was just about growing at all costs while I continued to work my day job. Amazon was a game changer for us. Accessing the US market with a product that is ‘made for Amazon’ has dominated our revenue.”
Community engagement and market expansion
Maintaining constant contact with the customer and making them feel valued / heard / seen is very important
From the outset, Lou engaged with various communities to promote her product.” Facebook groups of female entrepreneurs were some of our first customers. The #booktok community on TikTok has been a game changer. The number of Kindle lovers in there – I just kept gifting product to micro influencers, and we grew through word of mouth and leveraged trust – so valuable for a first time brand. Additionally, maintaining constant contact with the customer and making them feel valued / heard / seen.”
“We are lucky being relatively first to market, we’re building the category as we build our product. We innovate through comfort and style. And we’re constantly adding new accessories to our arsenal – we have some really exciting new products launching soon!”
“I just couldn’t keep up between our website store and Amazon. We were getting hundreds of orders every day across Black Friday, Christmas and Boxing Day and it was not sustainable to work two jobs and raise a toddler,” Ms Rice said. I reached breaking point, and decided I needed to take the leap. I set a goal of being able to match my income at my previous job for six months in a row with Strapsicle, which I did. There’s never a ‘right’ time, you just have to jump and trust the universe is going to open up for you.”
Navigating Early Challenges
The journey hasn’t been without its hurdles. Juggling a side hustle, family life, and a full-time job with limited family support meant early mornings, late nights, and a reliance on childcare. There were also challenges with marketing agencies, highlighting the importance of finding the right fit. Lou shared that her experiences have taught her invaluable lessons about the challenges.
“Running a side hustle business, trying to grow, working a day job, and then raising a family! Without any extended family nearby. It’s meant a WHOLE lot of early mornings, late nights working. A lot of babysitters and nannies. We’ve also had varying degrees of success with agencies. It’s so hard to get the formula right. And the time it can take to onboard, train, and then having to go through that process again – it’s really time-consuming. I’m much more focused now on finding the right fit – not the person right in front of me.”
Lessons Learned
The best thing you can do is just keep taking little steps forward and don’t put pressure on yourself.
Lou Rice empathized with the challenges faced in the initial months of starting a business, particularly in the pursuit of perfecting the product and preparing for launch.
“It’s REALLY hard in the first few months, when you’re just trying to get that product right, and you’re starting to think about launching. It can feel so overwhelming and you can’t really see a way forward – because you’ve never done it! But the best thing you can do is just keep taking little steps forward and don’t put pressure on yourself. We had our first production run arrive in February, and we didn’t even launch until June – because it took us that long to sort out everything we needed first – website, legals, shipping and postage. Just keep going, and know that it will feel messy, uncomfortable – but the magic really does lie on the other side.”
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