Strap-Saving Invention Helps Women Get Their Bounce Back

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hello, Side Hustle School friends, listeners, and community. Hey, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and we're coming to the end of a week. Been a pretty busy week with all kinds of exciting stuff. Tomorrow I've got a recap for you. I look back on our first episodes of 500 Plus.

I don't know if there's a word for that, but you know, after 500, the episodes that come afterwards, whatever that is. Well, today is episode 504. Something I forgot to mention the other day, episode 501, the film editor who helps people in this industry, it's called Optimize Yourself. It's basically helping people in Hollywood. And it reminded me that there's another show on the onboard project that I haven't talked about in a while.

That show is called Happy You're in Hollywood. And the co-hosts have recently been talking about everything involved in making a pilot. So they've got lots of fun stories. It's both entertaining and informative. Kind of like what I hope to do with Side Hustle School, but in a different way, different industry, different conversation format.

But you should check it out. You can subscribe at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to shows. Once again, that's called Happy You're in Hollywood. Now today on Side Hustle School, we're gonna talk about a strap saving invention made by women. Okay, so by women for women.

This is specifically a make your own adjustable strap for bras and bikini tops. The two founders describe it as bringing clothes back to life with a simple gadget that saves straps with no need to sew and then using it to send a positive message about women's health. Now all that sounds good, but when talking about bras and bikini tops, just to kind of state the obvious here, this is something I don't have a ton of experience in, at least not when I'm out and about. What I do in the privacy of my own home is my business. Okay, but for the production of this episode and putting together the story, I relied a lot on the notes from Whitney.

Now Whitney is my assistant, our content manager. And then again, just to be kind of obvious, she has more experience with bras and bikini tops than I do. Okay, so she did a great job with this story. She even added some puns in and I had to take some of them out because I was like, Whitney, this is really funny, but I can't say some of these things. I'm sure there are lots of funny things to be said about an accessory for bras.

But as a male host, I do know enough to realize that I'm probably not the best person to put forward those comments. So I'm just gonna tell you the story and how it works because I do think there's something you can learn from it. And if you out there would like to add your own commentary as you go along, feel free. I'd love to say a quick little message to today's sponsor and then we'll strap in. That one's okay, right?

[Music]

Shari Deutsch works as a marketing strategist for a telecoms company, putting together content for the likes of BET, Comedy Central, and the Discovery Channel. But under the deep shadows of the night, she dons the guise of the most unlikely of alter egos. She's the co-founder of the Strap Saver, a nifty little gadget that saves women's tops, bras, bikinis, and maybe even lives. So where does our pseudo hero story begin? Well, to answer that, we need to take a trip back to 2013.

It was the beginning of Obama's second term in office. It was of course the year of Miley Cyrus' twerking display at the VMAs. Who can forget those days? Well, it was also the middle of summer. And our champion was lounging by the pool alongside her best friend and future sidekick, Beth Lieberman.

This was a time honored tradition that they'd been doing since college. While their cherished poolside chats often covered a multitude of topics, this conversation in particular came strapped with a specific theme, non-adjustable swimsuit straps. Their bathing suit straps just weren't holding their own or holding anything up, for that matter. And they were quickly becoming the bane of their existence. The straps on Beth's new suit, cute though it was, were too long.

And Chari's had stretched out completely following a few summers' wear. What's a woman to do with a seemingly fantastic swimsuit when the straps take a dive south? Sure, they could hop on a sewing machine to remedy their elastic strap woes, but that would just be a temporary fix. Chari and Beth were looking for a more long-term solution. They figured this was a problem that could be solved by something simple, but after an evening spent with a bottle of wine and their other friend Google, they were surprised to find that there was literally nothing on the market.

So you know how it goes, they set out to create a solution. That solution came in the form of a small gadget that attaches to any bra or clothing strap so that it can be adjusted to the right length. They called it the Strap Saver, your multipurpose comfort-providing hero, or heroine, I guess. Wherever there was a swimsuit, bra, or tank top in need of a little lift, the Strap Saver would be there. There was no job or size too small or too great.

The Strap Saver had a mission to save damsels in distress one strap at a time. By the way, that was Whitney's line, good touch there. But this was definitely not something that happened overnight. Neither Chari nor Beth had ever tried their hand at launching a business, so they got a little help. The first step was to lasso in a few friends with engineering prowess to assist in design.

A few sketches later, Chari had something that could be 3D printed, and then they officially had a working prototype. The next challenge was to find a manufacturer so they could get their Strap Savers into the hands and on the shoulders of the people who needed them. Chari attended an expo at a nearby convention center with less than fantastic results. No manufacturer wanted to take on the job, and not only that, they didn't give her many answers. Disheartened but still determined, Chari came home and posted about her trials and tribulations on Facebook.

As luck would have it, a friend put her in touch with a company in Michigan, and they clicked immediately. The team there answered Chari's questions, asked for her input and feedback, and soon after, Chari received her first batch of Strap Savers. Meanwhile, back in the Strap Cave, graphic designer Beth had been working on the Strap Savers branding. Together, Beth and Chari used their combined web and design experience in conjunction with a developer to create the first version of their website using WordPress. Now, all in all, Chari and Beth's startup costs came to just shy of $10,000.

Thanks to the help of their friends, the cost of the prototype was just 150 bucks, and they spent about $3,000 hiring a developer to build a website and another $6,000 unmanufacturing their first order. Sales were also not an overnight success. It took some time, but they're not bringing in around $800 each month, more when the sun's out and less during sweater weather. The business is completely self-sufficient, they've recouped their initial costs, and they're currently working toward a higher level of profitability. They're also doing more than just saving straps and the sanity of the women who own them.

They first came up with the idea for the Strap Savers soon after Chari lost her mother to breast cancer. So right out of the gate, they made the decision to always donate 5% of their revenue to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. They're also using the Strap Savers blog as a platform to educate people about the importance of early detection and to share the latest breast cancer research and statistics. Their goal is to make a genuine difference in the world one strap at a time. As with any good superhero origin story, there have been some challenges along the way.

Their biggest setback was hiring a PR company who simply didn't deliver. This cost them some much needed cash during a critical time. So since then, Chari has learned the importance of setting clear expectations upfront, especially when working with an agency and requesting minimum results. That being said, they have bounced back, in particular they've got some coverage on lifehacker.com, not to mention this profile inside of school. And they see their site traffic go up every time these articles are shared.

Looking ahead, they're hoping to expand their reach to more customers using the power of amazon.com. They'll also be optimizing their website and looking at how inbound marketing can help them grow awareness and expand their customer base. And that's not all. The rest of their energy will go toward developing a clear plastic version of the Strap Saver that's just as effective as their current stainless steel version. No doubt there's more to come from this pair of friends who are now business partners.

So we'll strap ourselves in and prepare to follow along. [Music]

Awesome, well congrats to Chari and Beth. I'm a big fan of solving practical problems. So many episodes that we featured are people coming up with some just really simple solutions to things that you would think somebody else has solved, but for whatever reason they haven't, or they haven't solved it in this way. So this definitely fits into that category.

My only comment is this project needs to find some more momentum. Because with a product like this, they're selling it for $15 each. I think I forgot to mention that, but I just went to take a peek at their website. So they're selling like a two pack for $15 each, and then I think there's a discount if you purchase more. At that kind of price point, you're gonna need to sell a lot of these items.

So they really need to get better reach through amazon.com, which I think is already in the works as mentioned, or work with some kind of wholesaler or distributor who can get these into like a lot of different stores. It's gonna be hard to be profitable at a level much higher than they're at now, just by doing those kind of direct sales that they're doing. So they've got the product nailed down. What they need to focus on is reaching more customers and preferably reaching a lot more customers because the price point is so low. Still definitely an interesting story and always something we can learn from these projects.

And of course I respect how they're donating 5% of their revenue to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Okay, I hope you enjoyed this one. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's strapping show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/504. That's for episode 504.

Got episode 505 coming up for you tomorrow. It's gonna be our weekly recap, looking back and also looking ahead. Hope that you are looking ahead. I hope that you're making progress. I hope you do one thing today to get closer to something that you believe in.

So those values that you identified when you first subscribed to the show. Do you want more freedom for yourself? Do you want extra income? Do you want the ability to make different choices? You just wanna do something fun and creative?

All those things are great reasons for having a side hustle and I hope that something you hear is gonna support those goals. All right, that's all from me. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]