When her son Archie was a newborn, Lou Rice passed the late nights of nursing as many mothers do – with a good book. The new mum would lie in bed beside her partner, Ben, with her Kindle held aloft above her infant. But one night, in a haze of sleeplessness, the Kindle slipped from between Lou’s fingers and landed with a smack on poor Archie’s head.
“It was upsetting for all concerned, although he was fine,” Lou recounts. “The next day, Ben fashioned a makeshift Kindle holder, made of silicone.”
That homemade Kindle holder was the first prototype of the Strapsicle, Lou and Ben’s now best-selling e-reader accessory. Though the product was at first just for personal use, the couple began to consider if a wider audience could benefit from their invention.
“After we did a little online research and Lou spoke with some friends, we realised that other people would buy this too, so we decided to go to test it out,” Ben says.
What lay ahead for Lou and Ben was a serious growth journey, with Strapsicle reaching over $1 million in revenue in under two years.
Initial steps
Strapsicle was entirely self-funded from the beginning, Lou says. Both Ben and Lou invested their own savings into the business to cover essential start-up costs. Their very first investments were creating moulds for their products, building a website, and organising marketing efforts.
The couple were strategic about how they spent their limited resources, Lou says, so that every dollar bought more customers. That is, almost every dollar. The entrepreneurs also invested in protecting their brand. Many people baulk at the upfront costs of patents and trademarks, but Lou is vehement that protecting the brand is the most important investment a business can make starting out.
“The early stages of Strapsicle were a financial juggling act,” Lou says. “One of the most significant challenges we faced was getting enough sales in the door to fund ongoing marketing efforts.”
When it came to pricing, Lou and Ben started out with a competitive figure, wanting to attract customers and drive sales. They based their initial pricing strategy on a combination of factors, including the cost of production, market research, and what they believed the market could bear. In sum, the products needed to be accessible to Strapsicle’s target audience while still allowing the business to maintain healthy profit margins.
Lou reveals that she didn’t quit her day job until this February, providing her with a critical financial safety blanket. This decision meant that Strapsicle could reinvest most of its initial profits back into the business, take more risks, and focus on its long-term interest – patenting.
Growing
As the business grew and began making sales, Lou and Ben’s financial priorities shifted. Approaching their first Q4, the couple faced increased demand for their products in the holiday season. This meant they had to invest in production, and fast. Lou says they had to spend nearly $60,000 on production costs to meet the demand. It was a nerve-wracking financial commitment, with the fledgling business unsure if the holiday season’s sales would justify their investment.
“Fortunately, our efforts paid off,” Lou reveals, “largely thanks to the profits we had generated from our Amazon sales. This gave us the confidence to push forward, and our well-executed Black Friday strategy helped us recoup the costs quickly.”
Over time, as the brand grew and the products became more established, and as they increased the product value through better packaging, Strapsicle was able to increase its prices slightly without hurting sales, Lou says.
As the business grew, Strapsicle shifted its attention to international markets. Launching internationally turned out to be a critical move. In particular, Lou calls the launch on Amazon in the US one of the biggest causes of Strapsicle’s rapid growth. Within just seven months of the launch, the company skyrocketed to six-figure monthly revenue. Lou says the growth was fuelled by key shopping events like Prime Day, Black Friday, and the holiday season.
As Strapsicle is an accessory to the Amazon-owned Kindle, launching on the platform provided Lou and Ben with a ready-made consumer base. It also allowed them to scale the business quickly and reach overseas markets without greatly increasing overheads or managing fulfilment themselves.
Amid the raging success on Amazon, Strapsicle invested heavily in driving external traffic to its listings on the platform. Lou says the strategy not only boosted sales, but enhanced organic rankings, increasing visibility on the platform and attracting even more customers.
Marketing as an investment
Lou and Ben were calculated with their marketing budget from the beginning. They encountered setbacks early and quickly learnt from them, Lou explains.
“We initially overspent on Facebook Ads, thinking that paid advertising would be our primary driver of sales,” she says. “But when our page was suddenly shut down, we realised the dangers of relying too heavily on one marketing channel. This experience taught us the importance of diversifying our marketing efforts and not putting all our eggs in one basket.”
Strapsicle focused heavily on organic marketing strategies, such as influencer product gifting and affiliate partnerships, to much success. At little to no cost, these strategies generated a substantial amount of sales, built brand awareness, and created more genuine connections with the target audience.
“The authenticity of these marketing methods resonated with our target audience, and the return on investment was much higher [than on] traditional paid advertising,” Lou says.
As of this year, the entrepreneur says that she has started investing more in content creation. This has already shown a significant return, she says.
Current state
Last year, Lou set herself a goal. Once Strapsicle could match her day job’s salary for six consecutive months, she would resign to focus on her business full time.
“This goal was important to me because it provided a clear benchmark for success and ensured that the business was financially stable before I took the leap,” Lou says.
By last December, after a particularly successful Black Friday, Lou had arrived at her benchmark. The sales Strapsicle generated during this period not only matched but exceeded her day job’s salary, giving her the confidence to make the transition. In February, Lou officially went full time with Strapsicle, and hasn’t looked back.
“The decision to leave my day job was a milestone, but it was also a natural progression as the business continued to grow and thrive,” she says.
Lou says two factors were the key to Strapsicle’s growth: building the Amazon US marketplace business and a passionate community of raving fans. Lou says the business’s fans played a role in spreading the word about Strapsicle, driving organic growth, and fuelling momentum as the company continued to scale.
Next steps
Strapsicle’s ultimate goal is to become an eight-figure business within the next five years, Lou says. Lou and Ben have a few strategies up their sleeves to get to that point.
Firstly, they want to replicate their success with US Amazon across other global marketplaces. Lou sees untapped potential in markets like Europe and Asia, and says Strapsicle is already in the process of establishing a presence in these regions.
Secondly, they’re looking to target big retail in key markets around the world.
“We want Strapsicle to be synonymous with e-reader accessories, and we think that partnering with major retailers will help us achieve this,” Lou explains.
Finally, the entrepreneur says Strapsicle will continue to optimise its website and increase traffic through various digital marketing strategies. Lou notes that the website is a crucial part of the business, and she and Ben are constantly working to improve the user experience, increase conversion rates, and drive more sales.
Last year, when ISB previously interviewed Lou, she revealed another driver behind her passion for Strapsicle: The product was making a big difference in the lives of people with disabilities.
“Recently, someone with cerebral palsy sent us a message of thanks, and that was so touching,” Lou revealed to ISB’s Karl Aguilar. “Honestly, it makes our purpose behind this business much more powerful. We had no idea about this before we started. To know that we can actually make people’s lives better because they can read again…It really drives us to keep going.”
This article first appeared in issue 46 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
