Supple Beauty
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[00:00:00] Hey, business besties. Welcome back to the Female Founder World podcast. I'm Jasmine. I'm the host of this show and the creator of the Female Founder World universe. Today I'm chatting with Candy Kemp, the founder of Supple Skin Co. Candy, welcome to Female Founder World.
You are now entering female founder world with your host, Jasmine Garnsworthy.
Hello, thank you so much for having me on. I am such a big fan of your show. Absolutely love your show. So I'm really honored to be here. Oh, we're so excited to chat with you. And we've caught you at a super exciting time in the business because you've actually just sold the company. And so one of the things that I really want to talk about in this is like that zero to To sale kind of process without having any like venture capital or investors, what that looks like.
Cause we see a lot of people on the show who, have VC backing and might sell their company to Unilever. And that's a totally different process. They might get a fraction of like that sale price actually, , in their pocket. And it's a different [00:01:00] trajectory. , I think most of us are probably building these bootstrap businesses that we.
Do you want to sell one day and I don't think there are a huge amount of examples of people who have done that. So I'm really excited to learn all about that process and how you did that. Yeah, for sure. It's definitely very fresh. Good. Good. So for people who don't know supple, what are you, what did you build there?
What kind of products do you sell? , if people went to your website, what would they find? It's an Australian based hemp skincare product. It was the first hemp skincare range to come to Australia. And I launched with just one hero product, which was the dew drops. I started it. I had acne, acne, scarring, like just my whole life, very oily, acne prone skin.
And I created this by accident. I just, I'd run out of my usual skincare and I had hemp oil because I had super food cafes as well at the time. So I had hemp oil in my pantry and I Googled coconut oil, no good hemp oil. I was just amazed that the benefits for this on the skin. So I thought this will last me for a [00:02:00] few days.
And it turned out to be just the most incredible product overnight on my skin. And so I turned it into a brand. Three weeks later, it launched. What was the first product? It was, was it literally like a hemp oil, face oil product? Yeah, it was a hemp oil product. I had hemp oil and a mixture of some different essential oils, a few different things in there, and it was called, well it's still called dew drops.
Yeah. Just the one product. And I found that using that one product, I didn't have to use my seven step routine. It was literally just cleanser and this, and that was it. Okay. And you did, I think it was like 15 to 20 K in sales in that first month. And this is as like a fully bootstrapped brand, it's not like you're able to funnel heaps of money into paid ads right from the get go or anything like that.
How did you do that? What was the blueprint? , I think that it was a mixture of things. One, it was Instagram was just really starting to take off. And I remember seeing brands like Frank Ford and you [00:03:00] know, that was also a little bit easier earlier. I remember watching thinking they're so lucky.
They've got in at a great time, but I didn't have an intention of doing a product based business like this, to be honest. And then when I launched, it was the social proof. I remember when I made that product for myself, the next day I woke up and I looked in the mirror and I was just so shocked that my skin wasn't an oil slick and all the red raised angry bumps had almost gone flat and the redness completely disappeared literally overnight.
So I just remember looking in the mirror going, Oh my God. And I literally grabbed my phone and jumped on Instagram stories and said, I just made this oil. And I can't believe what it's done for my skin. I need to know if this is a fluke. So I want to send out some samples of it. So I sent out 30 samples to people and 29 of those people said to me a week after trying it, can I buy this?
And so from that moment, yeah, it was just only one person who just said it wasn't right for my skin, but 29 people said, I need to buy this. And so it was that moment that I [00:04:00] thought, okay, I actually need to turn this into a business. And I decided within that week, okay, I'm going to sell this, launch the website.
And it was the social proof. I decided to give away a hundred bottles for free because I thought if I can get that much evidence from 30 samples, people in my DM saying, I need it. I need it. Imagine if I gave out a hundred bottles, the social proof that would come through. So I did a campaign, a launch campaign.
I'm giving away a hundred bottles for free. And I shared all that social proof of people saying, Oh my gosh, I need this. It's been amazing for my eczema, my acne, my child's eczema. So everybody just felt like they had to have it. And when I launched. Those 100 bottles disappeared literally in minutes, but then I had a 50 percent off backup plan because they're already on the website.
They're already there. I've already captured them. So I said, here's 50 percent off code. If you missed that 1 and. The next 200 bottles, that was all I had because it was bootstrapped. They sold within the first couple of hours as well. . Are you someone who kind of always [00:05:00] wanted to build a business? I know, I don't think this was your first business, right?
I'm curious about your background. Yeah, it's not my first, it would have been about my. So I'm a bit of a, definitely love to start a business and I think it's the, I love coming up with a concept and the brand and then starting something. And then I love to pass it on to the person who can continue it on because I love that creative side.
But this is my first project. Proper e comm beauty business. The others have been, I've had hospitality. I've had, , hair salons. I've had clothing, children's clothing, bridal business, all different industries this one was the one where I thought, I don't want to give this one, this one up.
This one's my baby, which is really interesting that I've just decided to sell it . So have you sold other businesses before this one? I have. Yeah. Um, Very differently to this one because they were Not turning over as much money and it was an easier process. I literally sold the other ones on my Instagram [00:06:00] stories to someone that was already a fan of the brand.
Wow. Okay, cool. , so within, I think six months you were doing half a million in sales through Supple Skin Co. How were you building that? So originally you had that kind of giveaway, you had that social proof, you're creating content, but what kind of took things to that next level? get you to half a million.
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Because of that first blast out that I did giving out those hundred bottles, the, that was impact. The point of doing that was I wanted people to see it everywhere. I mostly did it around the Gold Coast and Brisbane. So that it was kind of in the one area. [00:08:00] And I wanted people to see it everywhere because Keeping it local like that, people that are local just think, I'm just saying this everywhere I go.
So that was the point of that and then I had a lot of Gold Coast influencers purchasing the product. So I didn't realize until we were sending it out. It's like, Oh, I know who that is. And then Daily Mail picked up. Yeah, it was very cool. We're so lucky. I had people tagging me going, did you see this person just talk about you on their YouTube channel?
And. And, um, because of that Daily Mail did an article and that was the first moment it would have been about three or four months in. And by that stage, we were doing maybe around 20, 20 to 30, 000 a month. And I just had this one day where I was sitting there and I poured every bottle by hand at this stage.
Stage still. I still think I still pulled them by hand until it was, I was doing around 50, 000 a month and I just remember pouring like one drop at a time. It was so painful, but my phone was just making that to change, change, change, change, and I thought, what's going on? And it just [00:09:00] didn't stop. And I called my brother cause he's the only other person that worked with me in the business.
And I said, have you done something? And he looked up the Google search and said, no, but daily mail has done an article. It's like, Oh, interesting. Cause I didn't know they didn't contact me. It just came out and it had the best caption. It was something like Australian made hemp product, um, game changing product cures eczema because the influence of that had posted about it had eczema and she was raving about how great it was.
Wow. . I think that one article brought in about. 30, 000 or 40, 000 and I was hand pouring everything so that a lot of that had to be pre ordered because I just wasn't expecting it. Yeah. How did you, that's amazing. How did you, , I guess like professionalize and outsource and as the business was scaling, you know, there's only so long that you can personally hand fill all of your products.
What does that process look like now, or I [00:10:00] guess like just before you sold the business and how did you scale that up? With my first formula, the dew drops, I just reached out to a heap of manufacturers and I was lucky to find the one that I went with right from the beginning was just perfect. And we're still with them today.
And I had that original formula already. So all they did was bottle it for me, send me samples to make sure I was happy with it. And this was actually nicer. It was just, they sourced oils from different regions that had a bit of a more subtle scent to it. So it wasn't quite as earthy. And so it was the formula that I ended up sticking with.
So I still use them today. And then from then, when I wanted the next product, I just said to them, this is what I want in it. This is my must have. This is what I needed to do. And then they, we worked together and formulated that just going back and forth. So you built the business over, I mean, like, I actually can't count, but six years, I think before you, before you sold it, is that right?
Yeah. Yeah. Six years. over that process, like towards the end of the business, what were some of the things that you [00:11:00] were doing that were working really well to build awareness, convert sales? I really made a switch post COVID, I would say, , I had a new baby at this time as well. So I was really in my little baby bubble and yeah, I just had like a change of perspective. And I was just thinking, I want my community to be my influences. I want my real true users to be my ambassadors. So I started the supple ambassador club, the self care club, and I just ended up changing my whole life.
Marketing campaign where instead of using paid influence, I didn't use paid influences that often, but I just felt like I could see this shift happening. I could hear people talking about it in chat rooms and forums and just saying that. They didn't trust influencers when it came to skincare. I think influencers are brilliant if they're working longterm with a brand in skincare and brilliant for any other industry.
But I think skin is such a trusted [00:12:00] industry that you need people that are genuinely using it and not chopping and changing brands all the time. So that was why I thought, well, the everyday customer is where it's at for me. I want to see what. Somebody that I know is doing or, you know, what they're using and what works for them.
And I saw what it, you know, me just talking about my experience, how that worked out. So yeah, just starting to use real customers and creating like a very strong community, I would say. And how do you do that? How do you, Make your customers create content or leverage their testimonials.
Like what are some of the practical ways that you go from, okay, I know that our customers love this too. Let's make sure that potential customers know that our customers love this. It was very organic because. The customers loved the product so much. They wanted to create content. So it was when I, when it came to me actually choosing them, I started a Facebook group, first of all, that was called the Apple self care club and got people over there and it was the people who were constantly.
Helping others out in [00:13:00] the community or if someone had a question, they were jumping in with answers for that. Those people sharing photos, sharing their own experiences. And then when I announced it, I was doing the first round of ambassadors. I was choosing 10 of them. It was an easy pick because I could just see you're always active.
You're always giving your advice and I wanted it to be very genuine in that way. And then I just think when people see that and they see this, a community happening with your brand and I'm promoting them on my stories and I'm sharing that they're a genuine customer. I think that helps new customers build loyalty because they can see.
That there's a lot of meaning behind it. Another thing that I wanted to talk about with you. So you started the business with what, like 400 or something. Is that right? Yeah. And then, okay. So then you build it into something that's doing like half a million in six months. I just feel like this is such a, um, for someone who is bootstrapping, there's like a lot of financial complexity that goes into That like cashflow forecast being able to, , plan for your inventory.[00:14:00]
All of that is just, I don't know. There's like, it's complicated and something that you need to learn. You also ended up, I think, taking some loans through Shopify capital, . How were you learning these financial skills? Was that something that you learned?
In a structured way. Did you bring in someone to help you? It was very much alone as we go , I should have listened to my brother a bit more because he was in you know I brought him into the business with me And he kept saying, we should do it this way and we should do it this way.
We definitely had our problems as well, where orders were coming in and I mean, it was hitting a hundred, 140, 000 a month. I wasn't prepared for that. A lot of the time, you know, the, the, um, the hype just kept building and people kept sharing it and more publications.
So I definitely wasn't ready for that. And we did have our share of delays with customers. We're very, very lucky that our customers love the products so much and we're totally, and they often buy in bulk. So they're prepared. To have their backups as well. They [00:15:00] love buying in bulk. So it was okay in that respect, but yeah, definitely had our share of struggles.
The way that I launched with the 400. I didn't have the product to sell yet. It was a pre order. So that was how I launched with 400. I used that money to buy some bottles. But I didn't have the product to fill it yet. I knew that once I got those first sales, then I would order the oils, then I would fill it.
So that's how much of a bootstrap business that was. Wow. Oh my God. That's so impressive. And why did you do the Shopify capital? Like what part, like what was the inflection point in the business where you're like, I need to, I need to get some support. And why didn't you go further investors? I have had businesses in the past where I've had investors and I felt that.
It just lost. The one thing that I regret doing with some businesses was I've always been very community focused and very much a heart led. Founder, I think, like, I do like to go with what I feel is the right thing to do. And then when you bring investors in, then all of a sudden you have to consider their best interests as well.
So I think [00:16:00] it changes the way you make decisions. And I saw that in some of my other businesses. And then I also saw to the detriment of the community and the customers sometimes. So this time I was adamant that I didn't want any investors to come in. I wanted to just be. Founder owned and that was it.
And so I took out the Shopify capital loans purely just to get more stock. That was just for stock. Last thing I want to talk to you about, we mentioned this at the beginning of the show, but I really want to understand what is involved in selling a business that is bootstrapped, that is in a category like beauty.
How did you know you wanted to sell? It came as a shock to me because even at the end of last year, I was planning to have a warehouse next year and do a whole studio.
You know, I wanted to open this warehouse where I could help other founders to come in and have space for themselves as well. Cause there's nothing like that. Yeah. So I had this whole vision board and I'd been looking at properties and it was only in January this year that. I did my beginning of year [00:17:00] goal setting for the year.
And I like to kind of reflect over different parts of my life. And I rate it out of 10. And I've started this community for women like me who are stay at home moms and maybe feel a little bit lost with their daily habits and routines. And I've been loving that so much. And I felt like that was a 10 out of 10.
And while supple, I still love it. I felt like I was giving it like maybe eight out of 10. And that was a shock to me because I thought, Oh, I've never felt that with this business before. And I was finding myself not wanting to give it as much as much of my time. So I just. Did a bit of journaling and reflection on that over a few weeks and then there was something that happened I just thought this is my sign I saw someone else talking about their business And she talked about the moment that it was the right time to leave and that just landed for me And I thought I think this is the time for someone to take it to the next level because I don't think I'm going to Be taking it up another level from here Okay, first of all [00:18:00] Are you a primary parent and also building the business?
Are you home with kids as well? I have a four year old at home. Yeah. And I've got my other three kids are older. Oh my God. Okay. , cause when you said like the stay at home mom community, I'm like, yeah, but you have, uh, Business that's doing like six figures a month. Good for you. So then you've decided, right.
I want to sell the business. Something that I hear from people is like businesses are bought. They're not sold as in like, you want the buyer to come to you. , but when you make the decision and you know that it's time for you to leave and pass this onto somebody else, what are those first steps first to like figuring out what your valuation is?
Who you should be selling to, what was the first thing you did? , I considered first going through people that already know and love the business and wholesale clients, a few people that had always shown a bit of interest. And then I decided to look into a broker [00:19:00] as well, who does e com, which is what I ended up going with.
When it came to choosing the right buyer, the broker had said to me, it will probably be a process of six months. It's six to 12 months to really do this properly. And within 24 hours, there was something like 40 to 50 signed NDAs. And she was just blown away. Most of them were from America , they were very big on buying business, growing it and then flipping it.
I had a lot of offers very quickly, but I didn't, I didn't take the highest offer. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't take anywhere near the highest offer, actually, because the highest offers were all from America. And that wasn't that wasn't a deal breaker for me, but it was the person running it.
I wanted to make sure they would nurture the community moving forward. That was really important to me. And so I talked to a few of them and the buyer that I chose, I knew she's Australian based as well. She has other businesses in e com and I just knew that she felt like the right [00:20:00] fit. That's super, super interesting.
How do you find a broker? I literally just Googled it and I looked up some search engines and I looked up some forums and, especially for e com and I found whichever one I thought Felt the right one for me. I had a few zoom calls with some of them. I went through a period of thinking, do I want to do this?
It's so much effort. It's a lot of effort to sell a business. Yeah, I bet. So yeah, I did go through the period of, oh, this is so much effort, I'll just keep it. And then I went back to, no, I actually, I want more time with my children. I've worked so hard for so many years and we're about to leave on a holiday tomorrow for a month.
And it's the first time because I now will no longer have the business. That I get to spend a month just with my children and not working. Oh, that's so beautiful. And like you have earned that, good for you. I hope that you enjoy it. I have more questions about selling the business. I'm so curious about this.
So I'm guessing a broker like takes a percentage of the sale. Is that right? Do you know what standard is [00:21:00] for an econ for that? It's 9 percent with this program. 9. Okay. . And then, so then you are going through the process of, vetting potential buyers, but what's going on behind the scenes in the business to get the business ready to sell?
I'm guessing there are things you need to prepare. You need to get your ducks in a row, cross your T's, dot your I's, all of that. What does that look like? The due diligence process was obviously all of your financials, profit and loss, , your balance sheets, make a bank, I know I didn't do banks, I didn't have to do bank statements, I had to do all the Shopify reports, Google Analytics, Meta, put everything in neat little folders, drop all the Dropbox files and just getting everything ready.
Knowing this now, if I started another business in e com, I would go into it always prepared for an exit. I didn't think I would ever sell this business. Yeah. I didn't run it in the way that I didn't run everything neat and tidy in the background like I would if I knew. So many people [00:22:00] say this, and you get so like focused on the growth of the business and that always is going to take priority over , you know, those annoying little things like balancing your cookbooks, but, yeah, that's such a good call out.
You know, even if you don't think you're going to be selling it in the short term, like it probably is going to happen at some point. If you build a successful company, you're going to want to leave at some point. So you want to get all of that stuff sorted. And it's not hard if you do it from the beginning. Okay. So the very last thing that I want to ask you, Candy, is for a resource recommendation, something that's been helping you as you've been building slash selling, skin code that you would recommend other folks go and check out. My recommendation is probably more of a personal one.
I think as a mum, And as a mom of four and busy, I have multiple businesses going on and I'm somebody who has in the past really struggled with focus, you know, focusing on the one thing at a time. So I find that it's all about those before bed and [00:23:00] morning habits for me.
I never used to be a habit person at all. And it's part of why I created this community as well, just to try and help other women who feel a bit lost in that same way. So for me, it's the nighttime habits every night before I go to sleep, I'll write the things that I want to get done the next day that are really important because you know, you have those moments of inspiration and it, for me, it comes late at night.
So. And I think I want to do this and this and this. And then the next morning you go, well, that's a silly idea. Or there's no time or you forget what am I meant to do again? So writing that out each night before I go to bed, I always do what I'm, what's important to me to get done the next day. And then in the morning before I touch my phone, I used to grab my phone as soon as I woke up and check my emails and check my comments or messages from customers.
I no longer do that until after school drop off, which is huge for me. So that's a good, I get up at five that's. It's four hours of no phone time, which is huge. Some people grab it to take [00:24:00] a quick video or photo to kind of post later,, or I'll just jump in my community with an update if we have a habit challenge or something on, but otherwise I don't get to check my emails or social media till after school drop off.
And that's been a game changer because it means I get ready in the morning. I actually have a shower. I actually do my hair and makeup. Yeah. I spend time with my kids, clean the house, just other things that are a bit more productive., I honestly think like the amount of times that and the amount of time that I waste not even just in the morning, but just in the day where it's kind of like my phone is just in my hands.
I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm like checking our community group chat. I'm checking our sales. Refreshing emails, checking DMs. And it's just this constant whirring thing we're really quick on a lot of response times in the community chat, but like, we probably don't need to be that quick.
You know what I mean? It would be way more productive if I could make myself a green smoothie and have a conversation with my husband in the morning, I should probably prioritize that. I literally did a challenge in my community where it was not checking. You can't [00:25:00] check your emails. You can't check your notifications.
You have to leave your phone on the bench and walk around and do other, because we were carrying it. I mean, you carry it to you from your kitchen to your laundry. Why? Can you share any other ones that you have that have kind of been helping? I do my morning pages and it's a little bit different to journaling because. For me, it's like whatever comes out, sometimes it might be a story. I think it, I think the morning pages for me, more so than journaling, and sometimes it can be journaling, but more so than just journaling, it's about letting that creative brain out to play a little bit as well.
So sometimes I'll write a story. Or literally just write what's on my mind, sometimes I can't think of anything to say. So I'll just say, I have no idea what I'm writing and that's on the page. I have no idea what I'm writing today, but this is what I'm thinking. And this is what I'm feeling. And, and then it all just spills out.
And then I find after I empty my brain, I feel like there's so much more space for creativity as well. I used to do those as well. Maybe I'll pick them back up. [00:26:00] That's very inspiring for me. I had a few months of just forgetting about the morning pages and then I was starting to drop some of my other little morning habits as well. And as soon as I picked them back up again about a month ago, it was just the reminder of how important it is. Candy, thank you so much for coming on Female Founder World and congratulations on building, scaling and selling your skincare business. That is so exciting. I'm really, really thrilled for you and it's been really inspiring hearing your story. Thank you so much for having me on. Really, really, really loved being here.
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