Today on the podcast I'm speaking to Lucy Self, the founder of Save My Knickers, a bloodstain remover, which is here to empower you to feel amazing in your favourite knickers every day of the month, reduce waste and break period taboos. 

Lucy shares her story from formulating the product herself, to the unique challenges of marketing and selling a period related product. How do you show the product in use? Listen in to learn about some of the taboos that Lucy has come up against, and be inspired by how she has managed to move the conversation forwards, and create a product that reduces waste and has multiple applications including for those post surgery.

Listen in to hear Lucy share:

• An introduction to herself and her business (01:47)
• How her product works (02:14)
• What inspired her to create her product (03:43)
• How she formulated the product - without a background in chemistry! (04:58)
• Realising her product had a wider appeal beyond just her personal use (06:52)
• The evolution of conversation around periods and previously taboo subjects (13:36)
• Challenging the status quo with her product and website images (17:07)
• The challenges of promoting her products on social media (19:13)
• Unforeseen challenges (21:27)
• How her product is manufactured and using a fulfilment centre (26:07)
• Her number one piece of advice for product creators (30:22)

USEFUL RESOURCES:

Save My Knickers Website

Save My Knickers Facebook

Save My Knickers Instagram

Save My Knickers Youtube

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Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast.

This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling

products, or if you'd like to create your own products to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, product creation coach and Amazon expert.

Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational

stories from small businesses.

Let's get started.

Today on the podcast I'm speaking to Lucy Self.

Lucy is the founder of Save My Knickers, a bloodstain remover, which is here

to empower you to feel amazing in your favourite knickers every day of the month,

reduce waste and break period taboos.

I had a really great conversation with Lucy.

Her product as, um, you may have established is really unique, um,

is certainly the only bloodstain removal that I've come across.

And so we speak a lot about the challenges of selling such a unique product.

Also, some of the taboos that Lucy has come up against when trying

to sell a period related product.

Um, we speak about what inspired her to start her business and how she formulated

the product herself and then began her business while working full-time.

Um, I found this really interesting as Lucy spoke about some of the steps

she took right at the beginning of her business that typically maybe

some people think of a bit further down the line to ensure that she

could start her business as a business while still working at that time too.

Um, she'll share how she made this transition into working her

business full-time a few years later.

Um, and yet overall, we just had such a fascinating conversation and I think

you'll find it really interesting.

So I would love now to introduce you to Lucy.

So, hi Lucy.

Thank you so much for being here.

Hiya, how are you?

Really good, thank you.

Very excited to talk to you.

So can we please start with you, give an introduction to yourself,

your business, and what you sell.

Yes, so my name is Lucy, um, and I am the founder of Save My Knickers.

And Save My Knickers is a stain removing powder that gets blood out of

underwear, clothing, bedding, pyjamas.

Um, so trying to make periods a little bit better and trying to reduce the number

of, uh, knickers and things that we throw in the bin as a result of blood stains.

That's amazing, Lucy, and I think I mentioned, I actually

came across you and I was looking for basically what your product does.

So can you just explain a little bit more for people what your

product is and how it works?

I just, I've never, I don't know if yours is the only product like it

on the market, but you're certainly the only one that I've come across.

Yeah, so we are the only, um, stain removing powder

specifically for blood stains.

Um, so the way that it works is, so say you get a stain in your knickers, for

example, is before you put them in the wash, you put the powder on the stain,

you add some cold water and leave it to soak overnight, and then you just put it

in the wash with all your other clothes as normal, and then the stain is gone.

So it's super easy to use, super quick to use.

It's not complicated.

Um, And it just means that then those blood stains come out when you wash

them, because I don't know about you, but I found with other kind of generic

stain removers that you just add to the wash, they don't really do anything.

They don't really make a difference.

Um, and sort of old wives tales that people say, you know, put your knickers in

the sunshine or add a bit of lemon juice.

I, I found they didn't really work either.

Um, which is sort of again, sort of why I came up with the product as well.

So, that's how we work.

As I say we work on knickers and pyjamas and clothing and bedding and towels.

We've had some customers use it on their carpet.

Um, so kind of anything that you happen to get blood on.

I think that's amazing, because as you say, other products, they

kind of, they might fade it slightly, but then it almost looks a bit worse actually.

Um, yeah, this is the only thing that I've tried that actually does the job.

And what inspired you Lucy to, to come up with, with start

my nick, Save My Knickers.

So I was just really bored of ruining my own underwear.

Um, so I have, um, polycystic ovaries syndrome, so P C O S.

And with that I have really irregular periods, so I never know whether my

period's going to start, um, or when it finishes, whether it is actually finished.

Um, um, sometimes they can be really heavy and sometimes they can be really light.

Um, and I was just really fed up of yeah, getting blood stains on my underwear

and pyjamas and bedsheets as well.

And then not being able to get rid of them, like with

other conventional methods.

So, I decided to experiment in the kitchen.

Um, And found something that worked.

And then it was only sort of after I was sharing that with some friends

and things that they were like, you're not the only person in the world to

ever have a period or have a baby or have gyne surgery, for example.

Um, there's, that's a problem that I think that so many other people have had.

Just, nobody really talks about it.

It's not something that you necessarily say, Hey, guess what?

I got some blood on my knickers today.

Um, so it was, yeah, I realized it started off just for me and then

I realized that it was a problem actually that lots of people had.

Um, and so I needed to share that with everybody.

So before you started as a business, I'd love to

go back a step if that's okay, Lucy.

Yeah.

Of course.

I'll ask you.

Because I'm really fascinated by this.

How on a, did you know how to make something that would take the stains out.

Um, because you've, you've overlooked that, but that's massive that you

actually did this because I'm, am I right thinking you did this yourself?

It's not like you went to a company and gave them a, them a

brief of what you wanted to do.

You actually formulated it yourself?

Yeah.

So, um, and I get this question a lot.

So people might say, oh, you must be really good at chemistry.

Um, I'm really not.

So my, um, background is physiotherapy.

So I was working as a children's physio in the N H S.

So.

Not working in the cleaning world or the period world or anything like that.

Um, and actually, um, got a d at a level in chemistry.

I don't tend to share that with many people.

Um, and I often think that if I was to tell my chemistry teacher what I'm

doing now, she'd probably be like, what?

Really?

I don't think he would ever be able to do anything like that.

Um, so yeah, chemistry is not my thing.

Um, but I just experimented, so I, I quite like baking and I quite

like cooking, so I'm, I sort of thought of it as a bit like that.

So trying to different ingredients, um, different quantities of ingredients and

different timeframes for, um, leaving it to soak and different fabrics.

And I think one of the other like funny things when I look back at when we were

doing our, um, like product formulation is whenever anybody bled in the house,

obviously you don't, with periods you don't have a constant supply of blood.

So product testing's actually quite hard.

Um, but obviously all blood is the same.

So, um.

If my husband had a nosebleed or if my daughter had a nosebleed or

if someone cut themselves, I'd be like, quick find some knickers.

Um, which knickers haven't we tested yet?

And then it's only, when I look back, I was like, we could have tested it on any

random fabrics, but it always had to be a pair of so I'd like go through my knicker

drawer and be like, oh, we haven't tested this pair, we haven't tested that fabric.

Um, so that was quite funny.

When I look back and think about all these, these have all these mugs lined up

on the kitchen surface with all various different colours of knickers and fabrics

of knickers, um, testing them all out.

So yeah, that was, that was how we started.

That's amazing.

Well, I, I just feel, I'm honestly, I'm fascinated by the fact that you

came up with it yourself, but I guess it's, at first, were you literally just

thinking this is going to be something you were going to use yourself when

you were in the formulation stage?

Yeah, to start with just because I kind of, maybe I didn't

realize that everybody, it was of such a problem for everybody else.

Um, or maybe I just thought, or maybe generic state removers work for other

people or, um, but the people aren't bothered about it, but, yeah, so to start

with, it was purely just for myself.

And then as I say, the more I think, because I was so excited that

I'd found something that worked.

Um, and so started talking about it with more people and then the more I talked

about it, the more I realized that actually I could impact a lot of other

people and help a lot of other people.

Um, and also just reduce a lot of waste.

I think that we like throw away so many things, like so many items because

of blood stains or they get replaced.

So, you know, if you've got especially bedsheets and big items like that,

you, you get blood on them and then you don't necessarily want to use them.

You don't want to use them if you have people coming to stay.

Um, they're not, you know, especially white bedsheets and that sort of thing.

Um, and then you just buy more of them.

And I think as, uh, a society, we're trying to reduce the

amount that we're doing that.

And so there was sort of this twofold.

We're going to be able to reduce waste.

And there is also something amazing about wearing your favorite knickers, right?

So when you like get up in the morning and you put on your best knickers,

you're like, yes, I feel incredible.

I can take on the world.

Um.

But if you put on your like sad stained like granny pants, like that, you

just make you feel a little bit sad.

Um, and so the fact that I could wear whatever knickers I wanted to or whatever

pyjamas I wanted to, and sleep in whatever bedsheets I wanted to, and then

I was like, oh my goodness, everybody else should be able to have this.

So that was sort of the, the moment that I was like, I need to share this.

Absolutely.

I mean, you're right.

Because it's amazing that you can do that because you're right.

You mean I think a lot of us have like our special underwear that we save, um, when

we're on our period and you know, like you say in pyjamas, there's definitely

things where you go, oh, I won't risk.

Well, well for me there was definitely things where I'd go, oh, I'm not going

to risk wearing that, just in case.

Um, because yeah, the last thing you want to do is ruin something.

So, yeah, I, I think you're right that I'm sure that it must be something

that a lot of us experience, and as you say, not just women on periods,

but um, yeah, childbirth and all kinds of I guess other, how do I say it?

Non gynecological things as well.

Like any kind of surgery, recovery or yeah, anything like that.

So it's great that you decided to, to sort of make it into a business and

make it available to other people.

Um, you did mention that very briefly, but I did pick up on this that you were

working as a physiotherapist at the time.

So how were you able to start and grow your business alongside what,

I guess must have been a really busy, um, career at the time?

Yeah, so I, so I came up with the idea.

Um, sort of mid 2019 and then was sort of doing little bits on the side.

And, and I also have a five year old, so it was also then juggling, like at the

time she was probably, what, like two, so being onto a two year old and working, so

I worked four days a week for the N H S.

Um, and then just as things were starting to get a lot of traction

business-wise, then Covid hit.

And then, um, obviously for the NHS that was just crackers, um,

and so I'm, when I look back, I'm not really sure how I did it.

Um, but it was basically any time that I wasn't working in the N H

S, um, or being mum was dedicated to Save my Knickers basically.

So, um, evenings, weekends, and I did a lot of driving in my role in the N H

S, so like listening to, um, audiobooks and things to sort of help, you know,

learning about things like marketing and business development and all of that.

Beause obviously they don't teach any of that at physio school.

Um, so yeah, doing that and then eventually I reduced the hours that I was

working for the N H S so that I could then commit more hours to Save my Knickers.

And then, um, it got to the point where I knew there was going to be

a time where I'd have to take that leap of faith and leave the N H NHS

and take on full-time Knicker Saving.

Um, and so I did that um, February last year, which has been amazing.

That is amazing.

And that's quite a short period of time really, when you think about it.

Yeah.

Especially that.

Uh, yeah.

And I can't believe like how far I've come and how much I've learned as well.

I think I, I see a lot of, um, my colleagues I used to work with

and they just say like, well, how did you learn all of this?

And like, h where did you find out how to, to do all of this?

And I think it's quite scary when you first start out and

you don't really know anything.

Um, but there's actually, there's so much support out there, especially though,

our local council have been amazing.

And, um, there's all these sort of like pockets of people that are really happy

to share their business experience and share their business skills.

Um, and you can just learn from each other.

And I think, you know, maybe a few years ago you would've, you know, been

in your like, I'm a physio and I'm only going to ever going to be a physio.

But actually now I think, that's not the case anymore.

And you can learn something new at whatever age, and you can learn a

new skill even if you don't have qualifications in it you know?

You don't have to have a business degree to run a business.

And I think that's been like a huge sort of realization.

I suppose that just because you don't have that background

doesn't mean you can't do it.

I think you're right and, and it's definitely, I've seen a change

so much over the past couple of years.

I mean, this podcast has been going, I think, a similar amount of time.

I started it in March, 2020 and I want to say, not I, I don't know what the

percentage is, but there's a lot of people who, who I have on the podcast

and when I talk to them, when they started their business, they were doing

something completely different, like so far away from the product they're selling.

Or maybe they were in, you know, they were em, employment, they

weren't running their own business.

Um, and I definitely see over the, like the last couple of years, and I

don't know if this is a Covid re you know, if it's related to Covid at all.

Possibly there's a bit of an impact where more and more people are

saying, do you know what, I'm going to try and do something with myself.

Yeah, definitely.

And I think.

You know, more people are trying to work more flexibly and, um, do things

that work around them and also like, you know, learning new skills as well.

I think, you know, people go to university and they, or if, or college

or whatever and do whatever they're going to do, and then they stop learning.

And then I think there's always that opportunity to learn more, um,

and to, to get new skills and to, yeah, to be able to do new things.

So I think that's, that's really important.

I think a lot of people kind of forget that you can still do that.

Yeah.

And it also sounds like you were really passionate about your product as well,

so I guess that must have, that must have helped with kind of, I think if you've

got the drive to get something out into the world and to tell people about it,

that helps massively because obviously you must have been really motivated to

do that and therefore motivated to learn all those skills and do what was needed.

Yeah, definitely.

And I think, um, it's been amazing as well seeing people's responses.

When I talk about the products, obviously it is a, a kind of,

period related product, if you like.

So talking a lot about periods and women's health and, um, especially when

I first started out, you know, talking to um, you know, suppliers for things

and, um, you know, business support and that sort of thing, and trying to

explain to people what I wanted to do.

Um, and people would be like, either people would get it and

be like, yes, this is genius.

I totally get it.

Um, or particularly a lot of men that I would speak to would

be like, what you want to do?

What?

And I can't believe you've said the word.

Period and tampon in the same sentence.

Um, but I think it's been so amazing to see how, um, a lot of those

conversations, even in the last couple of years, have changed so much.

Um, and I think that's really motivating as well to, to keep

pushing for that change and for people to keep talking about periods

and talking about women's health and having those open conversations.

And I think that also really motivates me.

The more that I do that, the more I'm inspired to, to continue to do it.

I think that's great.

And as you said earlier, when, before I came across your product, I hadn't even

thought about the fact that this was something that affected more than just me.

You know, like having to throw away a pair of knickers or whatever.

Um, so I feel like that's amazing too, that I guess more people are just

you, you know, you're encouraging more people to talk about the fact that this

is something that happens, whereas I think a lot of us just don't tend to

talk about our periods or or anything.

Yeah, definitely.

And I've had quite a few, um, mums of teenage girls particularly say that

they sort of use Save My Knickers, um, as a talking point, as a way

to start talking about periods.

So rather than necessarily coming in something like sometimes a tampon might

be quite a scary thing to be like, you know, because you've never seen

a tampon and that could be quite an intimidating product potentially to,

to start a conversation about periods.

Um, so they said they've been using it as a way to say, look, this is

going to happen and you are going to get blood on stuff, especially when,

you know, when you first start your period and it's really irregular and.

Um, you're not really sure what you're doing.

And I think they've, they've been saying that it's a really nice way to

say, it's okay that this is going to happen, um, and let's talk about this

and using it as a conversation starter.

And I think that's, that's really important as well to, you know, to have

those conversations with our children.

Um, that it is something that's normal and, you know, you don't

have to be embarrassed about it.

Um, so that's been really lovely feedback to hear that people

have been using it for that.

That's really nice.

And it also, I think it makes a lot of sense because the fact that there

is a product out there for it helps to normalize it because it kind of says,

okay, there are enough people that this is an issue for, so therefore

there's a product for, whereas I think, as I said, when, when there

wasn't anything, any sort of solution.

I think you can see why people would think, oh, it must be just me this

happens to, because if it was a big issue, there would surely be a product.

So I think it's amazing as well that you decided to sort of be the one

to create a product to normalize it.

Yeah.

And I think, I just can't believe that, you know, it's taken this

long for us to find something.

Um, I think it's just something that we've been put up, we've put up with for so

long that you just get blood on stuff and then that's ruined and then that sucks.

Like it's just another reason that periods can suck.

And you think, well, yes, they can be a bit rubbish, but here's a way to

make them a little bit less rubbish.

Um, Yeah, and especially when you can wear, you know, wear those

lovely comfy pyjamas and if you get blood on them, it's okay.

It doesn't matter because you couldn't, you can save them.

Let's talk about some of the other things you're doing to break

period taboo as well, if that's okay.

Yeah.

So for example, some of your images, um, so p p for people who

haven't seen your website, I'm hoping everyone will look at your website after

they've listened to this conversation.

But if anyone hasn't seen your website, can you talk a little bit

about some of the images you, you use and why you've chosen to use them?

Yeah, so when um, I first started out and was getting imagery

together, I was really keen not to use the blue liquid that is used in a

lot of, um, period imagery and period adverts in the mainstream media.

Um, because we don't bleed blue blood.

I think that's really unrelatable.

Um, and to start with, I was thinking, oh, maybe we could use sequins or

something that red that you could still use to represent blood.

And I was like, actually, do you know what, it's just blood.

Like if we're going to um, stop being embarrassed about it then we

need to use something that fully represents what the product does.

Um, and so in our imagery we do use, um, blood.

So we have images of knickers with blood on and bedsheets with blood on, um, images

of people wearing knickers with blood on.

Um, And just trying to, to show that it's okay and it is normal

and this is what a period is like.

Um, and I think that's really important because you know, we don't, we don't bleed

blue blood and we don't bleed sequins.

Um, it's had a lot of interesting responses.

I think most people initially are like, oh okay, that's quite shocking.

I suppose they're not expecting it.

I think more is the, the issue is because they're so used to seeing adverts

of period products with blue blood.

Um.

Or no blood used in an advert, um, or any imagery.

So I think to start with, people can be a bit shocked by it, but I think actually

afterwards they're like, well, actually yeah, it's normal and that's okay.

Um, a very small percentage of people, um, are not happy with imagery that I use.

Um, but I think then that comes back to just, they're not happy

to have that conversation yet.

And that's okay.

And you know, we are going to keep talking about it.

We are going to keep using those images.

Um, and I think they're really powerful and I think it just shows,

um, I think it's reassuring for other people that that's okay.

Like I'm not the only person that has this problem.

I think so too.

And just out of interest, how, have you had any pushback, not

just from customers but sort of anywhere else using those images?

I don't know, like facebook or advertising, or have you had run into

many issues because you are doing something completely different and when

you do try and change things, I can imagine you do get a bit of pushback.

We've had quite a lot of issues, particularly on social media.

So I've had my, um, my ad account is actually blocked.

Um, so I can't actually run any ads at the moment because I've been banned.

Um, I think that is they, they've said that I've violated their policies,

um, and imagery is within that.

So I, that is one of them.

We've been blocked on that.

I've had, um, posts removed, um, because of the imagery that we've been using.

Um, and then I ha we were shortlisted in a, in an award, um, a couple of

years ago and we had to send imagery for the, um, for the presentation.

It was a huge, um, awards.

It's the National Recycling Awards and it was in, um, in London in a big hotel.

Um, and I had to send imagery and I sent one of our pr, like the product, and

then I sent one of our images, um, over a woman with blood on their underwear.

Um, and I was really excited because I was really hoping that they were

going to display, um, this image to all of these hundreds and thousands

of people at this award, and they didn't, and I was so disappointed.

Um, they used the one that was just the, the product image.

Um, and I mean, it might have just been their, their choice to use

that one rather than the other one.

Um.

But I was kind of hoping that they would've used that as a,

kind of like making a bit of a statement and they didn't.

Um, so I was a, yeah, disappointed about that.

Um, but then again, I think it's just people aren't used to seeing

it and not necessarily something people want to talk about.

So.

Yeah, that makes sense.

But is, it is a shame and it's, I can't believe, by the way, about your

ad account that just seems crazy when you see, when you think of some of

the things you see on social media.

I'd actually think that a little bit of blood is fairly tame actually.

I know.

And it's not, you know, I, I don't know, it's just one of those really frustrating

things and particularly because you can't go and talk to a person about it.

It's just like, computer says no, like, that's it.

Oh, that's, that's a shame, but I guess,

you know, that's sort of, yeah.

Um, have you, out of interest, have you, have you run into any

other obstacles you didn't foresee with selling something so unique?

Um, just trying to think.

Sorry, bear with me a minute.

I'm just.

No, don't worry at all.

Because I mean, I didn't plan, I didn't plan this question.

It was just something that suddenly occurred to me because you, your

product is in unusual in the sense that you are the only person

and the first person selling it.

So I, I guess that does bring up a few challenges because people

aren't necessarily, they don't necessarily know that there is a

product that does your product.

Yeah.

So what.

Sorry.

So yeah, when you, when you said that.

So yeah, we have, um, went to some issues when, when it comes to getting people

to, to give the product a go, I think.

Um, so as you say, unless you have experienced that problem and then

know that it's a problem and then know that there's a solution, people

aren't necessarily looking for us.

Um, and then particularly when we are approaching, um, like

wholesale shops for example.

Um, I think people aren't necessarily wanting to take a risk on a new product.

Um, so that has been a bit of a challenge and we've been really fortunate.

There's one shop that we are stock in and the lady that owns the shop, um, used

the product herself and then loved it.

So she was a huge advocate for us.

But it's um, it's quite difficult when you're approaching somebody that

doesn't necessarily know that it's a solution to a problem that they don't

know they had, if that makes sense.

That does make sense.

And I'm imagining, and I don't, I definitely don't want to generalize

here, but I can imagine that this might be an easier product,

therefore, to sell to women than men.

When I say sell, I mean when you're from a wholesale perspective, um, because I

suppose at least if you're approaching a, a woman, then there's a chance that

they will have experienced the issue.

Whereas I, I'm, because I don't want to generalize at all, but I'm wondering

if it's harder for men to, to realize that this is an issue that women have.

Yeah, definitely.

And even just from my own experience, um, talking to my husband about

it, so we've, you know, we have a very, you know, open relationship.

We, he, you know, he knows everything basically, that we don't

hide anything from each other.

Um, but when I first told him what I wanted to do, he was

like, you want to do what?

Like, why do you want to do that?

Um, and then I realized that he had no idea that it was such a big problem

because you know, you, if you were to get blood on your knickers, you'd

actually go, oh, look what I've done.

Let you just squirrel them away.

Right?

And like, and I do predominantly do all the washing in our house.

Um, and so it wasn't, nec wasn't ever necessarily something that

he was going to come across.

Um.

Even though I share everything with him.

Um, so even, you know, I just assumed that he knew that that was a problem.

And then I realized that he didn't.

And so actually just even having that conversation with him, he was saying

like, oh yeah, like I can see why this would be a problem and I can see, you

know, why you're having to keep buying new pairs of knickers and pyjamas and things.

Um, And so that's been fascinating actually.

And then also seeing his journey that he's come on.

So to start with, he would be all awkward about it and wouldn't want

to say the word period and, you know, tampon and vulva and all sorts of things.

Um, and now, well, like when he has conversations about, with, you know, with

his colleagues about what I do, he, so he's in a very male dominated industry.

Um, and he sometimes just drops the, like, the period bomb in a conversation with his

colleagues and sort of just to see them all act like, react really awkwardly, um.

So, yeah, it's really interesting seeing as, you know, different male responses.

Um, I suppose it's, you know, whether it's spoken about, whether, how much they

know about it, because as women, maybe we don't share that with them as well.

So I think we can, we can do something as well to help with that.

And talking to our other halves and, you know, children and even, even my grandad,

um, has now got involved and so the other week, well, not the other week, sorry.

Last year when it was the tennis and there was all of the, um, discussion

about whether the women, um, should be wearing, realize, wear black

knickers or white knickers or white shorts and black shorts and things.

Um, and so my grandad lives in Wimbledon, so he's a huge fan of the

tennis and, um, I was a ball girl, so tennis is like in our, in our family.

Um, and he rang me up to tell me that, um, he'd saved me an article in the newspaper

about periods and the tennis, um, and how he believes that they should be able to

wear whatever colour knickers they want.

And I was like, you know, for, for a 90 something year old man, I thought

that was quite, quite impressive.

That is really impressive.

And I think you're right.

It's just good to like to normalize things.

I think.

I feel like that it's about so many things that the more we talk about

them, the more they're just normal.

Yeah.

And then we don't have to be embarrassed.

So I think that's brilliant.

Would you mind if I just, just to change that very quickly, would

you mind if I, there's one more thing I was just interested in, in

asking about, if you don't mind.

I think I've, I'm asking, because I think people listening, might

find this really interesting.

So obviously you came up with a formula yourself and then when you switched

to growing the business, I'm just wondering, is this something that

you are able to still make yourself?

Or does that change when it's a business?

I genuinely don't know any of this, so I'm just curious because I feel

like if anyone's listening and they've got an idea for something, um, that

this just might be quite helpful.

Yeah, so from the, from the very start of the business, we knew that

we didn't want to be, um, mixing any formulas and holding any stock at our

house just from a space perspective.

We don't have a lot of extra room here.

Um, and we wanted to try and make the, the product side of the

business as hands off as possible.

So once we've come up with the formula, um, we then approached, um,

manufacturing companies, um, and for the packaging and then from the filling

perspective and everything else.

So that was all, all automated from the beginning.

Um, and the same with our fulfillment, um, side of things.

So when somebody places an order on our website, or if I input a wholesale order,

for example, um, that's all, all automated and goes through to our fulfillment centre

and then they send the products out.

So we don't actually do any of the filling, um, or hold any stock at home.

Um, just it, so it probably from a, a cost and um, efficiency perspective from

the beginning, that was quite a big jump.

Um, so I think if we would.

I think maybe we could have kept it at home to start with,

but we were very conscious that we didn't have a lot of space.

Um, and equally the um, minimum order quantities for things were quite high.

Um, so our initial run, we needed to buy 2000 tubes, which, um,

we were like, we don't really know what 2000 tubes looks like.

Like that sounds like a lot of tubes.

Um, and so it just had images of like our house being filled

with all these turquoise tubes.

And so we knew from the get-go that we need, we didn't want to have that.

We wanted that to be, I didn't want to have to keep running

to the post office every day.

Um, and so thought we would automate that side of the

business as quickly as possible.

Um, which has really helped from the perspective of being able to

do everything else in the business because it is just still me.

So.

That's really helpful.

That really makes sense.

And I guess also when you started a business, you were still working four

days a week, so I think this would've been a lot had you been doing it yourself.

So, and thank you for explaining that.

Because I was really curious at what point in that happened because I

know, um, for myself, when I had my own products business, I did automate

everything but not from the start.

Um, and looking back, that is something I wish I had thought about doing sooner

because as you say, you can spend so much time doing the practical things that

you don't need to be doing, like filling boxes and going to the post office.

That could take up an awful amount of time.

And it's not arguably, possibly not always the best use of time.

Yeah, and just like prime example of this, like just

yesterday, so we were trying to get onto Amazon, um, because we aren't, at

the moment, we're not listed on that.

So I'm in the process of trying to get that off the ground, um, and.

But just because of the, like, the way that Amazon works with their labeling

and stuff be, I was, I'm doing that from home initially until yesterday I wasted

so much time trying to work out how my printer prints labels, um, as hours,

like just trying to work, you know, which way does the paper go in the printer?

And then having to cut them out and stick them on and all of that stuff.

That, um, just really made me reflect on how glad I am that we did automate the

other side of things as much as possible.

And hopefully as, um, after I've done my experiment with Amazon and

that hopefully that will all work, then I can get our performance centre

to do that side of things as well.

But, um, yeah, just reminded me of how long as you say, labeling things takes.

Like it just takes forever.

It does.

And especially when you're sort of used to being more hands off with

like the practical side of it.

Yeah.

I found, yeah, that it always gives, gives you a bit of

a shock, doesn't it, when you're sort of out of the habit of doing it and

it's suddenly you have to do it again.

Yeah.

I just thought I'll just quickly label up these boxes and then, yeah, as you

say, like an hour or so later, I was like, how has this taken me that long

to stick like eight labels on a box?

Oh, well hopefully you won't have to do that again for a while.

Yeah.

Hopefully.

So one final question, please, Lucy, if that's

okay, which I asked everyone is what would your number one piece of

advice be for other product creators?

My number one piece of advice would be, um, that you can always do it.

I think a lot of people have a lot of self-doubt and I think it's really

easy to go down that doubt spiral and think, oh, I can't do it and I'm

not good enough and I don't know how, um, I think you could do anything.

And just believing that you can do anything, um, and keeping that in

your mind, especially on the days where things don't work and things

feel really difficult, it's just remembering that you can do it.

Oh, I like that.

Thank you.

And of course, we'll link to your website and social media and

everything like that in the show notes.

Yeah.

Oh, amazing.

Thank you so much for listening right

to the end of this episode.

Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources

on my website, vicki weinberg.com.

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