Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / From 100k to $1M in yearly revenue, Busy Baby’s Founder Beth Fynbo shares exactly how she’s done it as a one-woman show

Transcript

From 100k to $1M in yearly revenue, Busy Baby’s Founder Beth Fynbo shares exactly how she’s done it as a one-woman show · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

0:00
This is Beth Finbo for Female Startup Club. Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. I'm your host, Doona Rasheen, and joining me in this episode is Beth Finbo, the founder of Busy Baby.
0:24
Busy Baby is the company behind a nifty thing called the Busy Baby Mat and was born out of seeing firsthand just how difficult it can be when your baby is old enough to start grabbing at things on a table. Beth was a new mum at 40 and looking for products to help her and her friends as new mums, but struggled to find exactly what she had in her mind. She got home and started creating a prototype for her product and then set about finding someone to help her bring this idea to life.
0:50
In this episode, we're talking about the specific steps she took to validate her idea, which was pure genius, by the way, how much of her savings she needed to get started, the problems she faced when she started the patent process, what it's like going through the Target Accelerator program, and the exact steps she took to grow from $100,000 in yearly revenue to $1 million in yearly revenue, all the while being a one-woman show. This is Beth for Female Startup Club.
1:18
Beth, thank you so much for joining me on the Female Startup Club podcast today. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you. Me too. I'm so excited. I can see in the background one of your busy baby mats and I'm eager to get into it, but I'd love to start first with an introduction of who you are and what your company is.
1:40
Beth Finbo, My company is Busy Baby. And as you alluded to, you can see in the background behind me is my son's walker with a Busy Baby mat on it. And the Busy Baby mat is the first ever placemat to stop babies from dropping and throwing their toys. So it's a placemat that suctions to a surface and it has a tether system that allows you to attach toys.
2:00
So babies can't constantly drop them and throw them over and over again. So it basically sounds like every mom's little dose of magic that they can carry around with them. Yeah, it's a problem. Literally every parent of every child that has ever existed has.
2:17
Totally. I actually sent it to my best friend before we hopped on this call. And I was like, just so you know, because she has a newborn. I was like, I'm pretty sure you're going to need this. And she was like, oh my God, that's such a great idea. So yes, I imagine everyone feels the same. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said, oh my God, that's genius. Like, where was that when my kids were living? I wouldn't have to work at all.
2:37
Love that. I want to go back to life before busy baby and what kind of led you into this mode of starting a business and that light bulb moment that went off for you?
2:50
Oh my gosh, which one of my lives would you like to delve into first? All of them. I mean, I grew up the daughter of an entrepreneur. So my dad is a welder. He's always had his own business. He works very hard. And I always wanted to be an entrepreneur like him, not welding, but to just be in control of my own fate, my own schedule. Wow.
3:10
And I never really knew what that was because, you know, I learned from him that entrepreneurship is hard and there's lots of ups and downs. And if you don't have the passion for what you're doing, you're not going to get through those downs. And so when I got done with high school, I didn't have anything I was really that passionate enough about to start a business. And so I joined the army and I was in the U.S. Army for 10 years and I traveled the world and it was an amazing experience.
3:37
So that was kind of like another life and, you know, it feels like a past life. And then when I got out of the army, I did all the things you're supposed to do. You're supposed to go to college and get a degree and get a corporate job and pay your bills and pay your mortgage. And I did all that for another 10 years. And then at age 40, I met the perfect person for me and we started our family. And so I had my first baby at age 40.
4:01
So the kind of light bulb moment came three months later when I went back to work from my maternity leave. And a couple of my girlfriends took me out for lunch and just got to check on my mental health, you know, being with your baby 24-7, being a new mom, and then just like slam back into work long days away from your baby.
4:19
only see him at night to nurse him. So they took me out to lunch and they brought their one-year-old daughters with them. And the entire meal was spent with like trying to keep things out of the baby's reach or give them something to play with that they then threw on the ground. And one of the moms was kind of a germaphobe. So she was wiping everything down every time. It was just a complete distraction. And I thought, oh my God, I need to go. Like I literally went on Amazon to look for something that I could buy for my son. So when he was big enough, he wouldn't be that kind of distraction out to eat.
4:48
And it wasn't there. I couldn't find anything. So the next day driving to work, I was again thinking of, oh, I really need to start my own business. Like this time away from my son, I'm not going to be there to see his first steps, all that kind of stuff.
5:03
I need an idea to start a business. And then, I mean, literally within that commute, an idea came to me and three years later, here we are. Oh my gosh. I'm curious to know when you were actually Googling, like looking on Amazon, searching for the, for the product, what were you looking for? Like, did you already have an idea in your mind of specifically what you needed? Yeah.
5:26
Yeah. So kind of the funny story I had in my head was, and I joked with my girlfriends, I was like, we should create a little dinosaur costume, like a T-Rex costume where you can chain their elbows to their back so that they can't reach stuff. And so I was looking for like, I don't remember what terms I actually Googled, but it was, I needed a placemat because my germaphobe friend was talking about all the germs on the tables and that, you know, they're using the same rags to wipe down everything in the restaurants. And
5:52
You don't know what's on that table, even though that looks like it's clean. It's probably not. So I needed a placemat and then I needed something to attach toys. So that's kind of what I was Googling. And I came across lots of placemats.
6:04
And I came across a couple of different like pacifier clip type tether systems that was just a clip. And then there was another cool product that had a littlest heather system, but no mat. So yeah, that's what I was finding. Nothing that would do the entire job. And so in that car drive the next day, you were really kind of like clear on the idea pretty early on on what it could be. It's kind of a funny story. And I think I can tell it here because of your audience.
6:32
is other females and other moms. I was actually pumping while I was driving. And so I had a hands-free pumping bra on, and then you, you kind of slip the, the flanges for the pump into this bra so that you can.
6:44
pump hands-free. And I thought, oh, what if there was a placemat where you could like slip something in like that? And like, it's got this like kind of suction shape and it would stick to the table. And then you could just put different attachments on it. So that night when I got home, I actually took like silicone caulk that you use to like seal around your sink or windows. And I squirted it into one of my breast pumps.
7:08
flanges and then also into like a little baking dish. So I made a silicone mat and a silicone thing and I cut the slot into the placemat to put the flange thing. It stunk so bad because I mean, this is like do-it-yourself house silicone. It's not safe for anything or anybody else.
7:27
But that was kind of my first prototype that first night. Oh, my gosh. That's so cool. I love that. And so, like, what happens next? You have this idea. You've kind of made a prototype where you're like, okay, well, this is obviously it. What's the next step? Do you go and validate the idea with your girlfriends? What happens next? What happens next?
7:48
Yeah, so at the time, I still didn't think of it as a business. I really was just trying to solve a problem for myself. And I mean, I kind of thought of it as a business, but I had no clue how you would go from taking this idea to something you sell to people who are going to pay money for it.
8:06
So I just really wanted to perfect my idea and see if it would work. And so I bought stuff off of Amazon, like silicone mats to hold your pet dishes from sliding around and different kinds of tether things like for fishing. Like men, when they go fishing, will use a tether to attach a tool to their belts so that it's always just kind of attached to them. And I would buy these pieces and cut and glue them together and then suction cups. And I made like a better prototype for myself. And then one of my best friends had a baby eight days after me, so I made one for her.
8:37
And at the same time, I actually registered an LLC because that's when I knew I want to make this a business. I don't know how, but I know that I have to have something to hold myself accountable and something that exists that I paid a little bit of money for. It wasn't expensive, but it was a couple hundred dollars and just to make it a thing. And so that's what I did. And then for a couple of months, I just kept trying to perfect my idea, figure out
9:06
What do I do next? Because what I had created was definitely not something you could sell to people. And my friend called me and said, oh, my God, I forgot this last night. And it was the worst. I had no idea how useful this thing was until I didn't have it. Like, you seriously need to make this for real. So then I kicked it into gear a little bit more of like, OK, now how really would I do this? And it was you have to hire a product developer. Yeah.
9:34
And you also have to know how to start a business, which I didn't know how to do. So I started taking entrepreneurship courses and being an Army veteran. There's a resource in America called Bunker Labs, and it is a nonprofit that helps military veterans, military spouses who want to start businesses. Teach you if they teach you how to start a business. So I took a 12 week course where they kind of walk me through the steps. And one of the first steps was to validate your idea.
9:58
So I took my little flimsy prototype to Target and I walked the aisles of the baby section and I found moms with babies.
10:07
and asked them, you know, like, I have this idea. This is what I'm kind of my prototype. Would you buy this? And overwhelmingly it was, yes. Oh my God. And it was, you know, it was really, I mean, it was not a high quality prototype. And I had people like stopping me with, when I used it saying, where do I get that? And it was, it was nowhere near the product I have today, but I knew it was going to be a winner. So then I decided to move forward and,
10:33
start investing money and making it a real thing. Wow, that's crazy. Overwhelmingly positive validation, people wanting to give you money before you've even made the idea. How much money did you need to invest to get started? And what was that early product development phase like and, you know, finding a manufacturer and being able to place that first order? Yeah, first, it was a lot more money than I thought it was going to be. And I thought I had really vetted out how much it was going to cost. And it was probably twice that
11:03
I first went to the Toy Fair in New York City, which is like the biggest industry event for kind of kids, baby products each year. And I walked the infant and baby aisle and I talked to other companies that were there, other brands, and got recommendations from them on, you know, things that they did to get to where they are. And I got a couple of recommendations from two companies to use professional product developers and they passed along my information. Those product developers called me after the event was over.
11:32
And they said they'd be happy to chat and see what I have. And when we chatted, they put together a really brilliant proposal that was three phases. All the costs were lined out. The timeline was lined out. The deliverables were very clear.
11:50
And, you know, you pay one phase at a time and you pay half upfront and then half when they complete the phase. And so at that time, I had just got my tax returns and the amount of money I needed to pay for that first upfront payment.
12:06
was within dollars of my tax return. And so I kind of thought it was just a sign from above that I should put this money towards that and give it a go. In the end, just doing the development was $28,000. For all three phases or for phase one? For all three phases. And I actually did multiple products. You know, I have a set. So I have on the market, I have the mat with these tethers. But then I also have developed a few other products that I just haven't manufactured yet.
12:34
But it was a big investment. Yeah. And it's really like, okay, I've got to commit to this and do this. It was so scary. But I thought, you know, with that first, there was no obligation to move forward through those phases. So if I got through that first phase and didn't have the money or didn't have the desire to go further,
12:54
I didn't have to go on. And I thought, well, for that amount of money, I think at the time it was maybe $2,500. I thought, I'm always going to wonder what if, if I don't do it. So if I go in, I do it, I spend that money and it doesn't work out. At least I know.
13:12
Totally. And if I do go in and spend it and it works out and I keep going, well, now here we are. So it worked out. Obviously worked out. I'm interested to know at what point did you need to start thinking about protecting your IP and thinking about the patent side of things? I know you have a patent. And I'm wondering, did that have to come in at that early phase? Like, were you also worried about sharing your idea with these people who were going to be developing a product? Yeah.
13:40
Yeah, I kind of went back and forth. I use a lot of resources. So I've done lots of pitching at just different events for business and entrepreneurs that are trying to start up. And I got a lot of different feedback from patent attorneys, retired patent attorneys, current patent attorneys. A lot of people told me this is not a patentable product. You need to just be first to market, flood the market. Don't waste your time, energy and money, which it's a lot of money to do patents.
14:10
Um, so that was kind of the advice I followed for a little while. And I was about $16,000 into product development when I talked to another patent attorney who said, well, you've at least did a patent search. Right. And I was like, what's that? No, I haven't done that. What, what is that? He's like, he's like, how much money have you spent so far? And I was like, Oh, like $16,000. And he said, okay, don't freak out. But
14:37
We need to do a patent search because even if it's not created, it's not on the market yet. If somebody has a patent for this item and then you create it and you sell it, any funds you earn from those sales goes to that person. They own the rights. And I was like, oh my gosh, my heart dropped. Like I swear it stopped beating because I was like, I didn't even check to make sure no one else had a patent on this idea. And so I quickly went, you can Google. There's Google has their own Google patent.
15:05
So you can Google, Google patents and type in kind of keywords. And there was patents out there that had like a similar concept. And I was like, oh my gosh, what have I done? It was like my first really big freak out moment. But as we moved forward, we found that those patents hadn't ever been completed. They were never written. So I freaked out a little less. So then we filed a provisional patent so that at least my idea was protected because now that I had talked about it and it had been seen publicly.
15:36
And then I ended up switching patent attorneys. My new patent attorney had some interesting strategy. And I will say that he is brilliant because within nine months, he had filed a patent and it was written, which is almost unheard of with no office actions. Now I have two written US patents, a third one pending and a written Chinese patent. So I'm,
15:58
that's kind of important because that's where a lot of the knockoffs are going to come from is in China. So if I have a patent in China, then at least I have some ground to stand on when they start creating knockoffs. Yeah, that's so interesting. I've never thought about that needing to get the patent there. I just kind of assumed, you know, you just get a patent, but that makes total sense. Yeah.
16:18
When you were having like the product and you were speaking to people who were like, you don't need a patent. And then some people were being like, you do need a patent. What actually is the bit of the product that you patented? So it's really the system. And it's the, the fact that there's suction cups that are embedded into a mat and then embedded into an attachment point. So that like, there's this whole like spot on each part of the mat that,
16:44
helps it to stay suctioned better and that you can attach toys to. So that utility of it, the functionality of being able to attach something to a mat and have it suctioned to a surface is kind of what's patented generally. Got it. Yeah. I didn't even know you could do that. That's so cool. How interesting. I want to talk about your launch strategy and like when you actually had the product and then you were like, okay, now I need to sell the product. How did you go about finding your early customers and spreading the good word?
17:15
Right. So before I even launched, I tried to do a Kickstarter. And fortunately for me, that failed. I was trying to launch with like all five products that I had developed. And I set a low goal. So that was I would hopefully achieve it. But it wasn't going to be enough of a goal to pay for all the manufacturing. But you see all these Kickstarter success stories. And I thought for sure this was going to be one of them. And it wasn't. How come? What happened? Unfortunately, I didn't. Well, I think baby products don't do well in Kickstarter. Yeah.
17:45
And I think it might have been me a little bit in my own dream world of thinking this thing's so genius. Of course, it's going to go viral instantly. Like people are going to be sharing it with every other mom that they know. That doesn't happen. That's pretty rare. So Kickstarter failed, which was fine. It was good. And then I was in a startup competition where I won some money, a significant amount of money. I won $25,000. So I used that money towards production and got some product here. I did finance.
18:14
5,000 units in my first run. And I set up a website. I tried to set up Amazon. It was so hard. I'm on Amazon now, but as a one person owned company to try and do all the things, Amazon's a beast. And I just couldn't, I could not get it
18:33
So it ended up taking me seven months, I think, to finally get everything done that I needed to get done to be on Amazon. But I had my website and then I would go from expo to expo, from street markets. I would set up a booth. I have, you know, a 10 by 10 tent that I can take in my car and take mats with me and my little posters.
18:53
As people walk by, they come in, I give the demo. I've given, I think, a demo probably a good 10,000 times. Oh, gosh. I've given a demo of, you know, I have a little white high chair that the mat barely fits on. And I do the whole spiel in like 45 seconds.
19:08
But they see, you know, they see what it is because a lot of people are like, well, what is that? I don't even know what that's for. And then when they see it, they're like, oh, that's good. That's good. They're like, yeah, I get it now. And I need that. Right. In every color. Right. Right. So that's what I did the first year. The first year I was doing that. I was also going through fertility treatments, trying to get pregnant with another baby and.
19:31
And I did get pregnant and then I was having a high risk pregnancy. So I was trying to balance everything as much as I could. Plus, I was still working a full time job.
19:40
So it was a lot going on. But I was really proud of the year. I think I almost hit $100,000 in the first year in sales, which I thought was really great considering all the other things, you know, that were going on. And I was doing it by myself. Totally. That's amazing. And wow, like all three of those elements sound so hectic alone. And then you just pop them all together and, you know, had all this crazy stuff going on. I think it's amazing.
20:07
I actually read a statistic recently that said, I think it was something like 2% of female entrepreneurs ever reach $1 million in sales. And I know we spoke about this a bit before we got on the call that you've done really well this year. You've had incredible year on year growth. You've gone from $100,000 to this year will be a million dollars in sales. And I want to kind of dig into like what you attribute that success to and what you really did to scale your brand the way that you have.
20:39
Yeah, I think the key for me was hiring a professional to do social media marketing. I had tried to do it. Facebook makes it really easy to create an ad. If you have a business, you can very easily create an ad account. You can click the buttons to select an audience, to select a location and set your budget and off you go. And I did that when I was doing the Kickstarter and I spent $1,000 on ads with zero conversions.
21:08
So I thought, oh, well, maybe Facebook ads just aren't right for my product. And so I didn't really consider doing them again. And then an ad expert reached out to me and he said, I think you've got a really incredible product. I think we could do some amazing things on Facebook ads.
21:26
And he told me what his cost was. And it was over $1,000 a month just to create ads. And I thought, oh God, there's no way. There's no way I'm going to be able to spend $1,000 to pay you to do it. And then ad spend on top of that. And then the budget. Yeah.
21:43
No. And I was very pregnant at the time. And I was like, well, let me just get through this pregnancy and check back with me next year. Maybe I'll be in a better position because right now I'm just too pregnant, too stressed. It's the holidays. I just checked back with me in like three months. And so he did. He checked back again. He said, I hope, you know, everything went well. Just checking back in. I said, yeah, I'm still not not there. And then the pandemic happened.
22:10
And my sales went down to almost nothing. And my entire marketing plan and marketing budget was to be going back to those expos. So I had already prepaid for, I don't know, 10 or 14 expos. I hadn't bought the travel yet, but they were all over the United States. So I would be flying in hotels. And obviously, with a pandemic, you're not traveling. And the expos, some of them were canceled. Some of them shifted to virtual. So I thought, well, I'll take my travel budget and give this guy a shot.
22:41
And I did. And immediately the first day I was up to 20 orders. The next couple of days, it went up to 30 orders a day to now it's over a hundred orders a day, just from Facebook and Instagram ads. That's amazing. And I really, I had a look at your ads actually, and I love how they feel really native. Like the content doesn't scream high polished campaign imagery, high polished campaign video.