#awinewith Julie Mathers
MEET Julie
Julie is the Founder of Flora & Fauna and the CEO of Snuggle Hunny.
Find Julie here:
Snuggle Hunny website or Instagram @snugglehunnykids.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:10):
Amazing. Julie, thank you so much for being here on Spark tv.
Julie Mathers (00:15):
My pleasure. Thank you for having me. It's good to be here.
Danielle Lewis (00:18):
I'm so excited to chat. All things biz with you.
Julie Mathers (00:23):
Yes. Gosh. Get into my brain if there's much left.
Danielle Lewis (00:27):
No, that's perfect. So why don't we start with how you got here. So obviously your business is Snuggle Honey Kids. Yes. But tell me firstly what that is, and then what was the backstory? So did you have a career beforehand? Other businesses? How did we arrive here?
Julie Mathers (00:49):
Oh, okay. I will attempt to keep this remotely brief, but yeah, so the businesses, so honey, so we've actually just dropped the kids.
Danielle Lewis (00:59):
Oh, cool. Okay.
Julie Mathers (01:00):
So we're in the middle of a branding refresh, but because we make baby, baby clothes, baby clothes, baby wraps, baby swaddles, everything, baby, baby, baby. Beautiful, beautiful stuff. In fact, this kind of thing, this is actually a completely, this is actually
Danielle Lewis (01:18):
Gorgeous.
Julie Mathers (01:19):
This is a new product that hasn't even launched yet, but it's literally
Danielle Lewis (01:23):
Exclusive on Spark tv. Love that.
Julie Mathers (01:27):
For anyone who is after the Milky Way in body suits, it is coming. Oh my gosh, it's
Danielle Lewis (01:32):
So lovely.
Julie Mathers (01:34):
Yeah, it's big. Lots of baby stuff using organic cotton. Awesome. So how did I get here? So I actually bought the business in February this year. Awesome. Cool. Yeah, so I bought the business then, and then the founders basically were selling it and wanted to leave, and I'm like, well, this is a brilliant business and I want to get in. So we bought it and then we've had six months of, because yeah, it's been six months. Six months of really building the team, growing the business, pulling together a spring summer range, which we're launching, which has been like, okay, how do we do that in six months, but let's give it a go that that's not a long time. And just really giving it some gusto. So that's been what I've been doing the last six months. How did I get here? I've worked in retail forever and a day, and I've worked, oh my gosh, originally from the uk, started my career over there working for retailers. I think when I finished uni, we didn't have entrepreneurs. You just got a job. Yeah, I was thinking about this earlier. I was like, yeah, it wasn't a thing. It wasn't a thing. In some ways it was easier because you just went, oh, do you want to be at uni? They said to us, oh, you could be an accountant or a Voya or a banker or a consultant. I'm like, well, none of those seem very exciting to me, but I guess I'll pick one.
Danielle Lewis (03:06):
Yeah, isn't it so funny. And that's it. Before I started a business, I didn't even know you could start businesses. I didn't know it was the thing. It was insane.
Julie Mathers (03:16):
Yeah, so strange. Really strange. Anyway, worked for lots of big retailers in the UK and Europe and Asia. And 13 years ago moved to Australia. Over here. I've worked for Woolies and Coles and a PG and Co, which is Saba, Sportscraft, Willow, those brands. And anyway, always had an niche I wanted to scratch. I was like, I just want to do my own thing. I really wanted to do my own thing. I really wanted to follow my own path. I really wanted to set the direction and I really wanted to not be told no, because I found that when I was working for others and you kind of had these great ideas and then you get the Ah, it's too hard or it's no, or there's boundaries or whatever, and you end up setting all these almost boundaries yourself and you sort of almost stop shooting for them because you kind of go, well, it's not going to happen, is it? So in 2000 and I'm trying to think, 1414, I founded a business called Flora and Fauna, which is, it ended up being hugely
Danielle Lewis (04:27):
Successful.
Julie Mathers (04:30):
Ended being sort of a really cool little online store. Ended up being Australia's largest and we worked tirelessly on that for seven years. I started it, then my husband joined pretty much straight away. He said to me, do you want me to do the finances? And I was like, yes, I do. Please,
Danielle Lewis (04:50):
Please.
Julie Mathers (04:51):
Yes. Yeah, please take them off my hands. So we've had a lot of fun building that business and got it to the point where in, yes, 20, I think it's a covid thing. It's either Covid or Age. I'm like, I dunno, dates, I dunno, dunno. No times.
Danielle Lewis (05:09):
I think that's like business owner brain slash covid slash who knows anymore
Julie Mathers (05:13):
What is going on. Last year at some point we sold it, no, July the first, 2021 after a long sales process, but definitely not as long as some I've heard of. Recently. We sold it to a listed company and I intended to stay on and keep running f and f and also run another business as well that they had in their digital division. And then I realized why I started my own business, which was not to work for other people. And I suddenly started hitting some boundaries and things and I'm like, oh geez, this is no fun. And I always think when it stops being enjoyable and fun, time to go. Absolutely. So I made the call to go and in February this year left and then basically the next day joined Cycle Honey. So that's how I got to where we are. That's
Danielle Lewis (06:07):
Amazing.
Julie Mathers (06:09):
Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (06:10):
I love it. Well, I think it's like you decided the life mantra was, things have got to be enjoyable work for yourself, and you've made an absolute empire out of it. It's awesome.
Julie Mathers (06:22):
Oh, it's good fun. And I, you know what? I've never worked so hard as when I've worked as what I'm doing this weekend, I got up both days at six and I basically fall off my perch at 10. As much as I want to stay awake, I just basically go sideways. Absolutely. And fall asleep on the sofa. But I work crazy, crazy hours. Did it f and f still doing now, but I don't mind because I really love what I'm doing.
Danielle Lewis (06:55):
And you want it to be successful.
Julie Mathers (06:58):
Exactly. I want it to work. And to be quite frank, you've got to put the hours in. Yes. It requires it. And you've got to push the envelope a bit. Well, that's at least my experience.
Danielle Lewis (07:11):
Well, I mean it's interesting because I feel like a lot of people do go into business thinking that working for yourself is glamorous, it's not. And that you can do it around and look, I'm sure there are people that do do it around a lifestyle, but depending on the type of company you're trying to build, absolutely. You've really do. It is a really not even a full-time job. It's life.
Julie Mathers (07:37):
It's life. There is
Danielle Lewis (07:37):
No balance.
Julie Mathers (07:38):
No there isn't. It really does just become your life. You live and breathe it. And that's part, I think, of what makes it the success. And it's always a struggle. I've heard so many stories about when founders leave because the heart and soul goes from the business and it really does. And I've been really mindful of that with Snuggle Honey as well. It's like I'm coming into a business that I didn't start, so I've got to live and breathe it and absorb it and it's got to run through my DNA as F and F did. It has to be the same.
Danielle Lewis (08:15):
And that's an interesting point. What differences have you found? So starting it from scratch versus coming in semi established.
Julie Mathers (08:25):
I think I've learned so much in the first business, learned so so much in the first business that it probably shortcuts quite a bit now. I think that's been definitely a learning. Some things that we did, which maybe took us longer or we were dithering over the decisions or something like that, we've just been able to just go, no, that's the decision, that's the right thing. I think you'd be quite sure of your decisions there, but then you are coming into a brand that with f and F, it ran through my veins in terms of the values that we had were my values on the wall. So we had all of our values on the wall, they were absolutely my values. So it was second nature to me. Every decision was very obvious to me. And I've basically been morphing myself into snuggle honey to go, every decision has to be second nature to me again. It's got to be. And that takes a bit of time. So there're probably some of the differences. And you're just learning a whole new customer base. You're learning whole new product. Different customers want different things. Yeah, there's heaps of stuff really.
Danielle Lewis (09:36):
Yeah. Well, and I guess because, so at F and F, you built everything from the ground up so you would intimately understand each one of those things versus coming in and going, okay, what's actually already established? How do we speak to our customer? What's the brand? What are all the systems and processes? It is almost learning rather than learning by setting them up.
Julie Mathers (10:02):
Well yeah, it's actually interesting you say that because one of the things that we've had to do is actually set up all the systems and processes because the systems and process. So there weren't too many processes in place and the systems all needed a bit of a refresh. So as an example, there was no customer care system. So we've set up Zendesk to help us with the website that we're on. We're going to shift to a new website. So there's all of that. So it's a bit of setup. So in some ways we are doing it again, we're just doing it with an established business and there's been that opportunity to really set up. So it's things like tone of voice. One of the first things I did actually at Snuggle Honey was work with the team and go, what's our purpose? What are our values?
(10:55):
Who are we? Who are our customers? And really understand all of that. And we've been understanding that together as a team, which has been really good actually some of that. So there's some things which you're kind of not building it from the ground up. You're coming in when something's established, but then you're going, okay, how do we take it to the next growth stage? And to take it to that stage, you've got to have those processes, those systems, those people. We've built the team out a little bit, brought some really great folks on board. So yeah, it's a lot of different, you're not going through those very, very young growing pains, which are just hard. Yeah, they're so hard they, so we're not going through that.
Danielle Lewis (11:49):
Good. So talk to me about, so there's two really interesting things that you touched on there. So the first one was tone of voice and really intimately understanding your customers. Why is that important?
Julie Mathers (12:04):
Oh my gosh, I'm such a customer centric person. So I think it's one of the retention is so much easier than acquisition
Danielle Lewis (12:15):
And cheaper
Julie Mathers (12:16):
And so much cheaper. So keep your customers and you've got to put yourself, I say this to everyone on my team, just put yourself in their shoes and you can get your knickers in a twist going, oh, but we should. So something that we've simplified down is when we got here, if someone wants to send a return, they've got to fill out a form and print it off and then send it back and blah. I'm just like, that's not easy. That's not easy at all. We are just making a really visible process. I hate returning anything. We're just making that process hard. So we need to make it easy. So this is why anything around the customer experience, whether it be tone of Royce, whether it be processes, whatever it is, it is crucial. And particularly we are dealing with a lot of pregnant women, a lot of new moms. It is a very personal emotional time for them. So we need to be very considerate of that when we're also talking to them.
(13:20):
So yeah, it's really, really, really key that we talk to them in their language and we are very real about it as well. We're just real. So one of the first things I did when I arrived was I got myself on social and we put a tool in to help us manage the workflow where all the stuff was coming from prior to that we'd just do it in say in store or Facebook and you miss stuff because you can't see all the comments that come through. So we've put a tool in, and I spent probably the first week or two just being in there and answering customer queries and just going, what are they asking us? What do they want to know? Just let's get to the bottom of who our customers are and let's really understand them.
Danielle Lewis (14:13):
And I guess that segues nicely into the systems processes, automation because if you're taking the time to understand what's continuously coming in, you can create systems to shortcut some of the labor involved in managing all that.
Julie Mathers (14:29):
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And I think I mentioned this one before, we just put Zendesk in and I say that Tom's done that this is very much his area to just again, manage that workflow. But also if a customer's contacting us, let's just make it easy by having all of their details at the press of a button. Rather than going, hang on, I've got to go and open this screen over here or this screen over here. It's like, no, it's all in the one place. And then we have records against that customer.
Danielle Lewis (15:03):
And I think for customers taking the time to get in touch with you, they're obviously invested enough in your brand that you need to look after them.
Julie Mathers (15:10):
Exactly. Exactly. Well, great example. So we've not had phones at all. And I just go, you've got to have a phone number because also I think there are still people that use the phone.
Danielle Lewis (15:28):
Yes, us oldies.
Julie Mathers (15:31):
Exactly. We still use the phone. And also it gives you that trust element if you have a phone number on your website. So part of the reason putting Zendesk in is so that we can also then put the phones in. And we've also brought customer care locally. It was outsourced previously. And I just think you need customer care at the heart of the business. It's something where it's got to be at the heart of the business. It's want for me, that and the warehouse team, they are so, so important. They are central to our customer care. And I do call it customer care because it's about caring about our lovely customers community. So we focus on this a lot. And we also have a bit of a rule of just make it easy for the customer, sort of let's not sweat the small stuff.
Danielle Lewis (16:33):
And that's it. I think it goes a long way. You think back to any kind of, not even just retail experience, just any kind of experience with a business. It is when those moments where you're like, wow, I'm trying to pay you money and I can't just what is happening? Or then once you've, sometimes when you've had a great experience and then something's gone Orion, then no one is to be seen. Those moments are opportunities to just jump in and make a good impression and make it easy. And you have a customer for life.
Julie Mathers (17:10):
And I think with this as well, we're human, so we make mistakes. We're human. What's awesome about us. And so if you do that, just communicate to the customer. Fall on your sword. It's okay, what's the worst that can happen? Not a lot. Fall on your sword, talk to the customer and actually be very transparent with them. And the worst thing you can do, and I've seen it happen in a retailer recently, they naming no names, but they moved warehouse and they couldn't ship orders for too long, for weeks, weeks and weeks, but they just weren't communicating to the customers. And so their Facebook page went absolutely nuts. And as a result, they stopped posting on Facebook and they've not posted now since start of June.
Danielle Lewis (18:07):
Oh wow.
Julie Mathers (18:08):
Yeah, I know. And so then people go, well, are they still going? Or they shut
Danielle Lewis (18:11):
Even in business, where is my ever coming
Julie Mathers (18:16):
So, so bad? Whereas there's so many different ways you can handle that. So yeah, so I think just be transparent, be open and honest. If you've suddenly had an influx of orders or you don't have the stock or you've had a flood or whatever it is, just be open. And people are generally very understanding.
Danielle Lewis (18:37):
There really are. I'm literally just thinking, I ordered this laundry basket the other day, email, it's like, oh my God, we had an influx of orders, so by the time we've come to fulfill yours, it's out of stock. Happy to give you a refund or if you want to wait. And I'm like, no, that's the one I want. Happy to wait. No worries. They emailed. So it's literally no stress. A human emailed me, a human told me what happened. I was like, it's all good. And it ended up turning up in a week. Anyway, so I think you're right. It just does come down to that understanding that everyone's human and communicating,
Julie Mathers (19:10):
Communicating, put yourself in their shoes and what response would you want then That's the response that you could probably give. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (19:19):
Exactly. Right. And look, not everyone's going to be happy. One thing I've learned in business, please everyone, but that is par for the course. You do always have a percentage of people that are going to be unhappy. And as long as you look after them to the best of your ability, then that's the thing that matters.
Julie Mathers (19:40):
Matters. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the other thing is you never have any idea what's going on in people's lives. And we had a, you really don't know that stuff either. And we had a team of four, Flo and Foreigner managing customer care. It's really interesting actually, because very similar size businesses, fauna Snuggle Honey, and yet Flo and Fauna had so many more queries than So Honey, just because we had 10,000 products F and F, we
Danielle Lewis (20:07):
Had, oh wow.
Julie Mathers (20:08):
It was just a lot going on and some of the stuff that came through most of the time customers, we gave great experience. It was a real fuss free policy and we gave amazing experience, which kind of I think what separated us a little bit, but equally some of the team got some pretty harsh stuff through and there's people on the end of this.
Danielle Lewis (20:38):
I know, I wish sometimes that customers would realize there's a human on the other end of the line as well. Yeah,
Julie Mathers (20:46):
It's like they've got their own stuff, they've got family. It can be a very tough job at times. So just be kind.
Danielle Lewis (20:55):
Yeah. When did you know, so I'm just sort of thinking back to the early days of Flora and Fauna and because I'm thinking obviously being such a customer-centric person, I imagine you kind of did everything at the start and probably still are doing too much. But anyway, but I think that that's important for a founder. So at Spark we are heavily into sales and marketing and lots of founders don't like to sell. And I always advocate for like, no, you're kind of the best sales asset. No one will care about the problem. You're solving more than the founder. But when did you know it was the right time to bring people on?
Julie Mathers (21:42):
Yeah, it's funny actually because my husband claims that I wouldn't let him pack a box for six months. And I'm like, surely I did. I'm, I actually can't remember. We did everything at the start. And I can remember there was a lady called Elizabeth who lived in Adelaide, and it was at the time, you make these decisions at the start because you don't know if your business is going to go somewhere or not, or you just dunno, you hope it is, but you don't know. And I can remember that she had my personal mobile, so she'd call me up every couple of weeks and go, Julie, tell me what's in that's new and I'll buy it. But then every time she'd spend like three, 400 bucks
Danielle Lewis (22:21):
And I'm
Julie Mathers (22:22):
Like, you can totally have my personal number. Call
Danielle Lewis (22:24):
Me anytime. Yes,
Julie Mathers (22:25):
Anytime. Right. And I think this is where you also have to, I've always had the, I suppose the view that every customer is so, so important and if you love your customers, they'll love you back. And so I always took a calls whenever Elizabeth called. I was like, it is Elizabeth, I'll deal with it. And when we, because for the first two years Tom and I were still working jobs, so we did this in, okay, interesting. Yeah, we did this in the evenings because we couldn't afford not to. So we did it evenings and weekends and so we were really kind of busting our gut. And then it got, I think it was after about 18 months when we went, okay, we need someone to help us to pack orders. And so we brought on a couple of people part-time to help do that. And it was really a, that was a resource thing. We just went, we can't get them all packed,
Danielle Lewis (23:28):
Not physically do it anymore. Yeah, we can't hours in the day. Yeah.
Julie Mathers (23:33):
So we did that and then we originally started on the BigCommerce platform, so we were on that and that at the time wasn't supported particularly well in Australia. So then we decided to move to Nito,
(23:49):
Which we ended up moving off again. But from Nito three years and as we moved to Nito, we were sort of just getting to the point where we were scaling a little bit. And between Tom and I, we did all jobs. So I was graphic designer, this is based on a Photoshop course I went on. That's all perfect. Yes. I love that enough to be dangerous, but it was enough to get me through because we couldn't afford to pay money on a graphic designer, so did the graphic design, did all sorts of different things. And then when we moved website, I went, gosh, actually I need help now. So that's when we found a graphic designer, which is basically contractor in Adelaide. We worked with her, Nikki, and she was one of the best decisions we made because it suddenly lifted the website a little bit,
Danielle Lewis (24:51):
Right.
Julie Mathers (24:53):
But the main team members that we bought on were really warehouse stuck and then it was customer care. And then Tom and I still kept doing all of the website marketing, finance, all of those office elements for quite a long time. And it was only in the last two or three years when we brought people on to help with that buying. My gosh, I reckon on the floor and Fauna website, I've loaded at least 10,000 products. It's insane.
Danielle Lewis (25:23):
But I love that because I feel like people want to outsource, but there's just such high value in controlling cashflow for one. And I love you mentioned the graphic designer was part-time to start with. I think a lot of people get scared because when you say the word team, you're thinking full-time, employees contract, all this stuff, but you can just outsource small tasks, take the load off, especially when they're tasks that you're either not fabulous at or you are not adding value, like packing a box, there comes a point where you're not adding value to that task anymore.
Julie Mathers (26:05):
Exactly. Absolutely. Yeah. You don't necessarily need to bring on people full time. It can just be, yeah, I mean with Nikki to start with, it was like, Hey, could you design me a couple of banners every other week? It wasn't a big outlay for us, but it was also if I didn't recruited someone, well, we couldn't afford them, but also they'd be sitting there twiddling their thumbs.
Danielle Lewis (26:31):
Exactly. Yeah.
Julie Mathers (26:32):
It was nothing for you to do.
Danielle Lewis (26:35):
And that's what I find then people start working to pay the wages of the people that they've brought on and it's just like, then they get really disenfranchised going, what am I doing? Just going out and selling just to pay these wages? That's not what I started the business for.
Julie Mathers (26:52):
Absolutely. You've got to think about what you need in the business at the time. And really we were completely bootstrapped until the point we sold. So we never had investment, which I'm very happy about, but it was very tough at points
Danielle Lewis (27:14):
Well look mean. So for my other business scrunch, we've raised capital three times. That didn't solve it being very hard at times.
Julie Mathers (27:21):
No,
Danielle Lewis (27:22):
I think
Julie Mathers (27:23):
It's tough in a whole different way, isn't it? Then you've got people to answer to.
Danielle Lewis (27:26):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly right.
Julie Mathers (27:29):
Yeah. And that's it. That's tough in a whole different way. Then you've got, oh my God, I've got people who I need to give returns to and everything else. And we never had that problem. We just had whatever we buy, we've got to make sure we've got the money for. So in some ways it's good.
Danielle Lewis (27:48):
Well, and that's the interesting thing, right? The model of purchasing stock and then worrying about selling it. That's very stressful.
Julie Mathers (27:58):
Yeah. Oh, I can remember when we started f and f, I mean it's a whole different business now actually we should talk about, but we started f and F and I reached out to, it was about 30 brands, and I said, Hey, I'm glad I did it at the time. So many online sites now. But I said, Hey, I'm starting this business. I can't show you what it is, but I want to say your products. And so many of them just went, yeah, cool. That sounds great. And I can remember just buying two units of everything, just one to sell and one and one is backup.
(28:26):
And it is cool. It's really lovely looking, thinking back on it that first order and you're like, oh, we're going to sell this on the website. How cool is that? I think that all the first stock we bought, I chucked some of my poultry savings into it to buy it. And then we just operated out of cashflow out of that. But now it's snuggle honey, we are placing orders for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars for clothing that which is months away. So we've got to have a really strong, which we do, but we've got to have a really strong cashflow to make that all work. Different things.
Danielle Lewis (29:13):
Well, but it's interesting because I feel also plenty of founders get a little bit scared of cashflow, get a little bit scared of their numbers. Any kind of tips, advice on managing that financial side?
Julie Mathers (29:26):
Yeah, look, I think a couple of things for me, you need to look at it daily. You just do. You've just got to keep, don't stick your head in the sand about it. Hope's not going to get you through at all. But also if numbers aren't your thing, get someone where they are. Like Tom loves numbers, he loves efficiency, he loves process. I'm so thankful that he does that side of it. I just don't want to. So there are some things where your numbers are so key in your business. So if there's one thing that you might want to outsource early doors, that's one.
Danielle Lewis (30:09):
Yeah, I tend to agree, especially if it's not your strong point, having that backup there that can be sending you a daily summary or something, or you're jumping on weekly meetings and just making sure you do start to get your head around
Julie Mathers (30:25):
It. Yeah, absolutely. You need to know enough. You need to understand all the reporting. You need to understand the p and l. You need to understand the balance sheets, the cashflow. Do you want to be processing that stuff? Maybe not, but get someone. And if you don't want to look at it daily, you are busy in the creative stuff doing all the other stuff that you probably are in reality because most founders, that is their strong suit. But get someone who is going to be that little devil on your shoulder saying, wait, we haven't got enough money to do this. Or we have even, yeah, that's probably my best tip for that, but also be prepared to pivot quickly if you need to. So we've always strived to grow quickly, but at the same point, we've been so cost conscious and I think it is tempting to go, I'm going to go build a beautiful office and get a great team and all that sort of stuff. And when you're starting out, most of the time you can't afford to do that. And you do have to think about every cent you spend.
Danielle Lewis (31:42):
And I think that sometimes there's glamor in the office and the team and all those things, but the glamor, and I feel like that's kind of a media lens. You see articles about capital raises, about new offices, about new team members and promotions, and you never see a headline that's like amazing business that really cares about their profit and cash flow.
Julie Mathers (32:09):
You just don't see that. No, exactly. Exactly. And this is also the joys of social media as well, right? Because people go look at my fancy office and everything like that. And when we were at Flora and Fauna, the office that we had was part of this is of, this is also what I wanted to do, but it was part of the warehouse. We were in the warehouse, we were either boiling in summer or freezing in winter. We were in the warehouse. And part of that was because I hate having a divide between warehouse and office. So it was like, no, no, no one in all in. So that was kind of our approach to it. And as a result, we didn't have a divide. But also, yeah, we couldn't afford a fancy office. That was not a thing. So I think you can get kind of sucked away into the glamor. And the reality is you've got to get the money coming in the door
Danielle Lewis (33:08):
Is simple as that, isn't it?
Julie Mathers (33:10):
Exactly. You've got to get money coming in the door and depending on what you want to do with your business, I think, and that's probably another question, isn't it? But do you want to sell it? Do you want to keep it and pass it on to your kids? What is this? Is this a nice, what's the goal with it? And now when I sold, I think we were good on the timing basically. We had good timing, but when I sold a multiple of revenue was where we were at in the market. Now all investors are about profit. They're just like profit, profit, profit. So you've really got to keep your eye on your profit line as well. It is a constant moving feast, this thing. I
Danielle Lewis (33:57):
Know, and that is a really interesting point, thinking about your business. With that end in mind, I think that it's very easy as the founder who's wearing all the hats, just kind of looking day to day like, oh my God, how am I going to get through my inbox? Versus what are those strategic decisions I have to make to Yeah, if I want to sell it? What is important to investors right now? So how does my business have to look? And I've got to work on that every day.
Julie Mathers (34:25):
Yeah, a hundred percent. And you keep all those things, I think, in the back of your mind, and you can't let yourself get too gobbled up in them. I think it's what it depends business to business. And you would know as soon as you do get investment, it does take your business, takes a different lens.
Danielle Lewis (34:48):
Totally.
Julie Mathers (34:49):
Yeah. And you've got someone else's opinion. We are in a different place now in the fact that we bought Snuggle Honey with a PE firm. Okay, yep. Yeah. So they amazing humans. I really, really like them. Arc as partners. They actually were very interested in flora and fauna. And one of the things I was gutted about was it because we sold to who we did, we didn't get to work with them. And I was like, oh, I'm really gutted. We didn't get to work with them because they're such good humans. So anyway, we've gone into Snuggle Honey with them, and it does, it puts, I mean, we have a very good relationship and they're great. They offer a different view and it's really good to bounce ideas off, but there is a different lens attached to these things as well. So you need to have that in the back of your mind about where you want to go. And also I think who could possibly, if you want to sell your business, who could possibly be that person buying it.
Danielle Lewis (35:54):
Definitely. And that's worth building a relationship with early
Julie Mathers (35:58):
A hundred percent. We started talking to, we won the Telstra award f and F in 2018, and that's when the conversation started happening. So suddenly people, four years. Four years,
Danielle Lewis (36:15):
Wow. Yeah. Cool.
Julie Mathers (36:16):
That's when we started. And that was because we won the award that we were approached. And so we started having those chats, and then I think we then got ourselves to the place of going, okay, when is the time? But it was a nurturing of relationships over those years. And you learn a lot as well.
Danielle Lewis (36:42):
And I love how you mentioned, so the PE firm that you are currently in Snuggle and Honey with, and just talking about them and the perspective they bring to the business and having somebody that you can bounce ideas off. I think for a founder, having that kind of mentor relationship with people that have experience outside of your typical wheelhouse is really, really important as well.
Julie Mathers (37:08):
Yeah, definitely. I think I'm the kind of person where I think people have said to me, oh, have you got a mentor or stuff? And I went, no, but I've got loads of people I call on if I need stuff. It's all that. Yeah, you don't
Danielle Lewis (37:24):
Have to call them mentors or your community.
Julie Mathers (37:28):
Exactly. The
Danielle Lewis (37:29):
People, the
Julie Mathers (37:30):
Who. I go, Hey, you've probably had this before. How did you deal with it? It's that sort of stuff. And it's really good because one of the advantages actually that we found with working with an investment company is that they also have other companies that they're invested in. They have so many learnings from those, which actually can be helpful for us as well. And I've equally heard a lot of horror stories too.
Danielle Lewis (37:58):
Yes,
Julie Mathers (38:00):
I think so. I was very careful about who we invested with because it had to be a true partnership,
(38:13):
And we just had to get on with them. They've been to our house, you have to get on with 'em, and you have to be in on the same path, with the same direction and values and all that sort of good stuff. And we very much are, and we talk to 'em all the time. I mean, we have a chat every Monday, but honestly, all the time we're emailing and just going, what do you reckon of this? And what do you think of that? And I think you just need that quite fluid relationship, but something where it's just, you just treat 'em as part of the team. They get the good news, the bad news, all of the news, but they're just across it.
Danielle Lewis (38:54):
Well, and I think that's it. Again, circling back to the communication thing. If people don't know the good and the bad, they can't help you. If you're not kind of clueing them into everything and they don't understand what's going on, they can't give you the support you need. So just being open and tabling everything is usually the best policy.
Julie Mathers (39:13):
Yeah, it is. It is. And they can help you too. So we are having a really good experience, but as I say, I do know lots of people who have had the absolute opposites. So do your homework.
Danielle Lewis (39:34):
Oh my gosh, yes. Yeah. And build the relationship, do your homework, talk to other people that they invested in. Absolutely.
Julie Mathers (39:42):
We started talking to the guys at, it was beaten now acus four years ago. They were the first folks we started talking to. So we've built that relationship over four years. And they described themselves as patient investors because it's very much around the long term, not the short term gain. And that was very key to us as well. What did they want out of it? If you're investing in with someone, do they want to get out in 18 months? If they do, you were going to be on a big sales trajectory.
Danielle Lewis (40:18):
Oh, totally. That's going to be stressful.
Julie Mathers (40:21):
Yeah, exactly. It's like tell what you want.
Danielle Lewis (40:25):
Oh my gosh, I love it. Well, let me leave our fabulous smart community with one last question. So reflecting on your time in business, what is perhaps one of your biggest lessons you've learned that every founder should know going into business?
Julie Mathers (40:44):
Oh my gosh,
Danielle Lewis (40:46):
Actually there's a hundred. So
Julie Mathers (40:48):
I know. What should everyone learn that's going into business? I want to say something really meaningful rather than rather something like, oh, work hard, work hard, work hard. Yeah. No, that's rubbish, isn't it? No. Well,
Danielle Lewis (41:05):
You have to, but
Julie Mathers (41:08):
I think one of the lessons, good team, get a good team around you. I think that's probably at the start. You might do everything yourself, but very quickly you're going to need a good team. And I think that's probably one of the biggest lessons that I learned when I came into Snuggle Honey. So I wasn't supposed to start until the 1st of April. I always found it hilarious. I'm starting on April Fools Day, but anyway, I wasn't supposed to start the 1st of April. And then they said no, because I finished at Fnf on the 28th of Feb. And they said, no, no, no, no. Take a month off, have a month, have a month. And I went and I just said, I do not have time. So in March, the first thing I did was just recruit. And I said, these are the key roles I need to be successful. And so I recruited my crew in March and that has really set us up for success. So find your people, find your team, and at the right time, at the right time, and get 'em around you.
Danielle Lewis (42:08):
Fantastic. I love it. Well, thank you so much, Julie, for being here and imparting your wisdom on the Spark community. You're incredible. Thank you.
Julie Mathers (42:17):
Oh, thanks so much for having me. That has been absolutely wonderful.
