#awinewith Samantha Trayhurn
MEET Samantha Trayhurn, founder of Chuffed Skates.
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:07):
Sam, welcome to Spark tv. I'm so thrilled to have you here.
Samantha Trayhurn (00:12):
Thank you so much for inviting me. Very excited to be here.
Danielle Lewis (00:15):
I can't wait to share your story, so let's dive straight in and tell everyone who you are and what you do.
Samantha Trayhurn (00:23):
Okay, awesome. My name's Sam Samantha Trahan, and I'm the owner and founder of Chuff Skates. So we're an Australian roller skating brand, so we sell roller skates essentially. Yeah, that's what we do.
Danielle Lewis (00:36):
This is so cool. How did you get into selling roller skates?
Samantha Trayhurn (00:41):
I guess it's kind of a long story and not at the same time. I've worked in roller skating throughout different stages of my life, so I originally worked at the National Sporting Body of skate sports when I was a lot younger in admin, and I've roller skated myself for many, many, many years. I've coached roller skating, and then in my other life I did a doctorate in creative arts and I finished my degree and I was like, all right, what am I going to do now with my life? And so I'd thought about starting a skate brand for a long time, and then just before Covid hit when I graduated, I was like, all right, I'm going to do it. And so yeah, that's how it started. I guess. I just one day decided to take the plunge and try business of all things. So
Danielle Lewis (01:34):
That just like that. Yeah,
Samantha Trayhurn (01:36):
They just start of business. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (01:38):
Oh, that's so cool. So what kind of products? Give me a rundown on products.
Samantha Trayhurn (01:45):
Sure. So mostly we do quad skates. So for people who don't know skating, you have quad skates, which are the two at the front, two at the back, and inline skates, which are the four in a row. And we do the first, so quad skates, and they're kind of like a cool nostalgia looking skate. So they're mostly a suede skate with a bit of a heel. A lot of people use them for recreational skating, dancing on skates, skating in the skate park. And so most of what we do is actual roller skates, but we also have accessories and apparel, t-shirts, hats, all that kind of stuff too. So as it's grown, so has the product offering. But essentially we are a roller skate brand. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (02:32):
That's so cool. What's the process of actually getting roller skates manufacturers? Oh
Samantha Trayhurn (02:39):
My god,
Danielle Lewis (02:40):
It seems like feels like a nightmare.
Samantha Trayhurn (02:42):
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's fun if you're into roller skating, I guess. So when I started I was like, all right, the perfect roller skate would be something like this. And then I had to speak to factories and figure out what was possible to actually do, and then kind of work through with a factory how to build our skate. And I was fortunate that I've been a roller skater myself for so long and know a lot of roller skaters, so I knew what was good and what was rubbish, and so there was a lot of sampling and prototyping, and then eventually finding a product that I was happy with and then going from there into mass production. So we made our skates originally in China. At the moment, we work with the factory in Cambodia, so dealing with that in itself has been such a learning curve of manufacturing overseas
Danielle Lewis (03:39):
And through covid. So you said just before Covid you made this decision, so how the hell did, was it obviously you had to do everything through the post, you couldn't go there.
Samantha Trayhurn (03:49):
Yes, exactly. So this was mostly through FaceTime meetings and email and video and all of that stuff. So I've still not been to our factory in person, which is pretty crazy. But fortunately somehow in the beginning we got our first order just before Covid got really crazy, so I had at least a little bit of time of things flowing smoothly before the logistics nightmare of covid happened. So yeah,
Danielle Lewis (04:25):
That is a fricking blessing. And I mean, it's really interesting though. I love that you have done it remotely because I feel like sometimes people have great ideas on things that they would love to create, but when it comes to physical products, I feel like there's such a, there's not really a blueprint as to where to find a factory, how to communicate exactly what you want, sending samples, receiving samples. So the fact that you are the poster child for doing it virtually should serve as some inspiration to people who are wanting to go down that path.
Samantha Trayhurn (05:07):
Absolutely.
Danielle Lewis (05:08):
You said there were lots of learnings. Any key tips for people who are just getting started in manufacturing their own product?
Samantha Trayhurn (05:16):
For sure. I guess you have to really know what you want and be pretty stern about not making too many compromises. Sometimes factories have their own ideas about how things should be, and sometimes that can be really different to what you think you want. And if you know what your idea of quality is, then you just have to really stick to your guns. I think I've worked with a few factories now, and I'm super happy with the one that we're working with at the current moment, but there has been times where I've had to be like, no, it has to be like this. And that can be so hard, especially when you don't really have a background in doing that. You question whether it's possible to do it the way you want to do it, and sometimes things aren't possible, but you shouldn't just accept straight away that that's the case. I guess you have to go through that process of trying and maybe sometimes failing and then trying again, and just at the end of the day, you just want to be happy with the product that you have, I guess. So that can be hard, and sometimes it doesn't work perfectly, but you can always improve and find other people to work with. If your current factory is not perfect, there's probably another one. And from my experience anyway, I would say you will find one that is a good fit. And
Danielle Lewis (06:52):
How long was the process? So once you had the idea to go into business and you started prototyping, how long was it from that first, I want to do this to I can sell this pair of skates?
Samantha Trayhurn (07:06):
It sort of in the very beginning it was quite slow, so it was a bit of back and forward and then not being quite sure of whether I was really going to do it or not. And so probably the first conversations with factories was a couple of years before it really happened, but when it really started getting underway, it was probably six to 12 months of back and forth and being serious about it. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (07:39):
Yeah. Cool. No, and because always interesting, I think we do live in an age where people are creating digital products in a weekend and throwing them up, and I feel like with physical products, you've kind of got to reset your expectations a little bit in terms of timeline and cost potentially as well. I think one of the big barriers, usually people who are doing physical products say to me is the overhead of actually purchasing the stock.
Samantha Trayhurn (08:08):
So one thing I will say about that is I've never had any investors, and in the beginning I never had any loans, so I had a bit of savings, but I actually did, once I had a product that I was happy with, I did a pre-sale and that nearly paid for everything, which I was amazed about. I was so fortunate that other people wanted this product, I guess, but it gave me confidence in knowing that it could work. So I guess I would probably say to people as well that maybe not having a big loan or something upfront is a good thing, and if you can do it through presale or just smaller quantities, it lets you test it a bit. I was always very scared of I guess getting in over my head. So yeah,
Danielle Lewis (09:03):
I love that advice. I am such a big supporter of sell it first, even if it's a digital product. So obviously we're talking about physical product where there's that overhead and that capital outlay to purchase the stock. But I even say that with digital products, if you've got an idea for a course or you want to sell a particular service, create a landing page and try and sell it to someone first before you invest all of this time, all of this energy, all of this money into something, and you're like, oh, no one wanted that.
Samantha Trayhurn (09:34):
Yeah, exactly. And with a physical product, you can't really afford that. You don't want to end up with hundreds or thousands of something that you can't sell. So yeah, I think that's super important if it's a physical product more than any other product.
Danielle Lewis (09:48):
Yeah, I love that. I love that so much. So is this your first business?
Samantha Trayhurn (09:54):
Yes, yes. And I don't even know how, I guess I knew I was starting a business when I started, but I was thinking in my mind that it might be a bit of a side hustle type thing, and I wasn't really a business minded or business trained person, so I still am surprised sometimes people are like, oh, you own a business, and I'm like, oh, yes, I do. Yeah, it wasn't exactly planned to go the way that it did, I suppose.
Danielle Lewis (10:33):
How did you feel going from, I guess, employee to business owner? So if it wasn't sort of planned when you sort of started falling into it a little bit and going, oh my God, I'm going all in here, how did that process work for you? What were the learnings? How did you feel?
Samantha Trayhurn (10:53):
So I went from doing a doctorate and freelancing, doing writing copywriting and creative writing and all kinds of writing on the side. So I already wasn't a full-time employee of a company as such, but I also wasn't just solely focused on a business, so it was a lot pretty quickly. So because sales went so well, which was awesome, I ended up working full-time for the business much faster than I would've thought I would. And I was needing to do all kinds of things that I really had no idea how to do. So I had to learn a lot really fast. And I had an accountant who also does business mentoring and advising stuff who pretty quickly told me that I could not wear all of the hats of the business and not that's good advice. And I was like, well, what do you mean? How is anyone else going to take what's in my brain and then do it? And it took me probably over a year to start to delegate tasks and have people help me. And I loved it. I was really enjoying it, but I was also burning out pretty fast, so I was just well over my head in the amount of work I was trying to do. So yeah, learning to I guess train other people to help you and accept help that made the second year of the business so much better than the first year in a lot of ways. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (12:33):
How did you find that process of getting the things out of your head into the head of somebody else? Because that's something I really struggle with.
Samantha Trayhurn (12:42):
Oh my goodness, I still struggle with it. And I think what it was more so than that was I guess looking at the things that maybe other people are really good at, and then just letting them have a bit of ownership in that role while still having input. For example, I had someone come in to help me with branding and marketing, social media stuff, and I guess while I still had input into it, they also had really awesome ideas that I probably didn't have. And so once there's the right people, I guess it evolves in its own way. And I didn't have to I guess tell them exactly what to do all the time. But there has also been other times where it's like, yeah, there's still things that I feel in my own mind that I can't explain and I have to do, but then it's finding the things that I don't have to do that someone else can do so that I can focus on those things. And it's still a process for sure.
Danielle Lewis (13:51):
Yeah, I'm currently looking at this giant to-do list going, what stuff on here do I not have to do? But it's so hard.
Samantha Trayhurn (14:01):
It really is, and I don't know about you, but at the moment for me, because the economy is a lot harder this year, I've had to bring a lot of stuff back in that I now have to do again. And yet my to-do list is definitely a little bit out of hand, and then it becomes a bit more of a how do I streamline these tasks a little better, which I'm now in the process of learning how to do as well. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (14:26):
And it's so funny because I follow a few people, business coaches and people online, and this one woman in particular who talks about systems and processes and operational elegance. And I'm like, my operations are very far from elegant, but it does always make me think how important those systems and processes are. But I feel like when you take them on yourself, you're kind of just winging it a little bit. You're kind of going a bit more by gut feel like, I know this works, I know how to do it. I think it changes when it's you doing the task versus getting somebody else to do the task.
Samantha Trayhurn (15:06):
Yeah, for sure. Definitely.
Danielle Lewis (15:09):
So good. Any big challenges that have cropped up for you along the journey
Samantha Trayhurn (15:16):
A lot? For sure. So the first really big challenge was throughout Covid where getting stuff to Australia was just so hard. So we had massive shipping delays and having to deal with logistics, I guess that was really hard at the time. It was very stressful. And then at a certain point I had to just be like, well, nothing. And now when there's a delay, I'm just like, oh, well, whatever.
(15:48):
I've seen worse. Yeah, of course there is. There always is. So I guess what seemed really bad then now doesn't seem that bad. Most people were actually kind of fine to wait and we're not that stressed. But I think this year, the second half of this year, especially just with how the economy is now, people don't have as much money to spend on recreational stuff. So sales are lower and we still getting through it, but just seems now that we have to work kind of twice as hard for the same result. And that for someone like me who hasn't had a really long business background of things being up and down, now that we're a little bit down, it just feels like such a slog sometimes. But I know there's so many people in the same position, so I am realistic about the reasons why, but it just does feel harder work for sure.
Danielle Lewis (16:53):
And that's an interesting thought. So when it comes to marketing, what has worked and what hasn't worked, so how do you focus the marketing? I know you said having to work twice as hard now. Have there been things over the past few years that have worked really well for you in the online space?
Samantha Trayhurn (17:13):
For sure. Social media is our biggest one. Our Instagram, for example, is such a useful way of how we connect to customers. And for roller skating, it's just really big in that online space. So we have been able to connect really authentically with our audience in social media. So that's always been kind of our core marketing channel. And then as things kind of evolved, we went more into paid ads through socials and stuff and email marketing, that kind of thing. And now we are doing that and it's still very important, but the returns are just a little lower, so your ad spend is higher, and it's just this evolving thing.
Danielle Lewis (18:03):
It's like a juggling act a bit. It's
Samantha Trayhurn (18:06):
A hundred percent. And then I've tried to be a little more creative this year in doing more face-to-face events and stuff, which has been really good as well. But it's just having to constantly pivot in the marketing space and being like, well, this isn't working. What else can we do? And it can be a little tiring, I guess, to be like, oh, now we have to think of something new, something else new and something else new. And yeah, it's just part of what it is, I suppose. But yeah,
Danielle Lewis (18:40):
And look, I think you're right. It's really interesting reflecting on some clients of mine. We have Scrunch, which is the digital agency, and then the marketing we do for Spark. And I kind of feel that way at the moment as well. I'm like, okay, what is every possible thing that we could do? And you are right, it does. You kind of looking at this list going, what else can I possibly do? Yeah.
Samantha Trayhurn (19:05):
And you're like, well, the ad that I would've thought would've done really well 12 months ago is not performing the same way now. And it's like, okay, is it the creative? Is it the captions it? Are we doing something wrong or are people just not into it buying stuff? And yeah, it's pretty constant analysis and reflection and wondering, but we are now coming into the end of the year with Black Friday and Christmas and all of that stuff. So I'm very interested to see how that goes and whether that's going to be really different as well. And then just assess it from there, I suppose.
Danielle Lewis (19:47):
Any big plans for the Black Friday weekend?
Samantha Trayhurn (19:50):
Well, we're having a sale, but in our first two years really, we didn't have Black Friday sales. I feel like I was, so what is Black Friday? Why are we doing this? And then I realized that it seems now very much for an online retail business, it seems very much like you just got to get on board. It's going to happen whether you like it or not. So we are doing a sale and hopefully it goes well. And yeah, we are just going to clear some stock that we have and discount some stuff a little. And also, it's good for the consumer because I really do feel for people at the moment, stuff is so expensive. And so I understand more than ever before why people would be waiting for a sale because everything is so expensive. So hopefully it gets more people into skating and that brings them a little bit of joy over the, and yeah, we're kind of all in it together in this kind of really difficult economy, so I feel like we kind of have to do it. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (20:57):
I love that so much. And I love that comment around bringing people joy. It is so nice. And I know mean obviously Instagram right now all marketers are talking about is Black Friday and all brands are talking about is Black Friday, and it's kind of overwhelming, but it's nice. I actually love the idea of buying something. Yes, you can get a deal on, which is fantastic, but it's actually going to be something that supports getting out of the house and being active and doing something to break the routine and get a bit of exercise. And I love that idea of bringing people joy through skating. It's awesome.
Samantha Trayhurn (21:38):
Yeah, thanks. We try to keep that front of mind even when it is hard. That's the point, I guess. And maybe discounting things gets a whole different group of people into it that maybe actually can't afford it at the moment. So it's like, yeah, it's tough for us on the bottom line sometimes when we're primarily generating sales through sales, but it may actually be really great for someone else. So it's trying to keep that front of mind, I guess. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (22:09):
Yeah. I mean it's really interesting. I love that we're having this chat today because literally this morning I was like, I need to get out of service work. I just want a product business so I don't have to deal with anybody and I can just create something amazing. And then all my time and energy is focused on selling it, marketing it, all the things. But I'm like, I don't think it'll be any easier.
Samantha Trayhurn (22:32):
No, I hate to tell you, I feel like it's all the same stuff. Yeah, I just think it is probably the same kale of fish no matter where you are at the moment. Damn it. Yeah, I know. But that being said, it could be a nice change. If you have a good product, you could still do it for sure.
Danielle Lewis (22:54):
Totally. Not that I need to start another business. That is a horrendous idea for me. So what's next for you? What's on the horizon for 2024?
Samantha Trayhurn (23:05):
It's an interesting question because I feel like this year I've been, we had such two massive years of growth in the first two years and then this year has been really focused on making things sustainable. And then behind the scenes, I've kind of been working on a few products here in Australia, so manufacturing a couple of, not roller skates, but skate hardware things closer to home. And that's been so exciting because it's really nice to be able to go to a factory and it's just down the road and not have to worry about the shipping costs of getting things here from overseas. And obviously from a sustainability kind of factor of actually having locally made things and bringing things closer. So I really hope those products will be ready pretty early in the new year, and I would love to make that a little bit more of a focus for me moving forward.
(24:11):
We also did a really cool big event just a couple of weeks ago, which was an invitational roller skating competition. And I really loved that, and it kind of reminded me how much I like working on events, so I would love to do some more of that as well, maybe even taking that to other locations and things like that. So while it's been a pretty hard year, it has been kind of a year of pivoting and finding new ideas as well. So hopefully those new things kind of take their own direction in 2024 and we see where they go.
Danielle Lewis (24:49):
So good. I love it so much. And you are right. It is interesting when harder times kind of push us a little bit to find solutions to those problems. And we kind of sometimes try things that we never really would've thought we would try. And if we kind of go, oh, my Instagram ads are converting really well, let's just put more money there.
Samantha Trayhurn (25:10):
Totally. Yeah, for sure.
Danielle Lewis (25:13):
I love it. So let's leave our fabulous Spark community with one final piece of advice, reflecting on your time in business over the last few years, what would be a piece of advice that you would pass on to another woman in business?
Samantha Trayhurn (25:31):
Okay, that's a hard one. I guess we,
Danielle Lewis (25:36):
We've got wine, so you can give us as good advice as you like.
Samantha Trayhurn (25:42):
I suppose being a woman in business can be so incredibly rewarding. And I've been really lucky in the first couple of years that things just went so well for so long and it was just like success after the success after the success, and it was so awesome. I think whoever emailed me told me that you found me through the Telstra Business Awards, which we were nominated for, and there's just been so many wonderful things that have happened. And then when things get a little bit harder, it's so hard not to equate those challenges with failures. And it's been so difficult to be like, oh my gosh, what am I now doing wrong? All these things are so hard now and it feels like you're failing. But really, I think only very recently I've kind of come to terms with the fact that sometimes things just are a bit harder, and it's not necessarily your fault at all. It's just the situation. And you can be doing your absolute best. And sometimes things just are not going to work perfectly. And I think, yeah, that would be the advice is to just not equate your challenges with failures and just accept them as they are and still see value in what you're doing, I suppose. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (27:10):
I love that so much. You are so right. It is really hard not to take business personally. And it's so weird because I think sometimes we can even be objective about and be like, I logically know that I am not a bad person. I haven't failed. My business isn't over. Everything will be okay. But right now I want to cry and I hang everything and I should probably quit.
Samantha Trayhurn (27:37):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Maybe that's the thing. Don't quit, I suppose.
Danielle Lewis (27:43):
Go to sleep on it. Sleep on
Samantha Trayhurn (27:44):
It. Don't quit. Exactly. Exactly. You probably don't have to quit. It probably will be fine, I think. Yeah, that's probably the truth for most people. It might be hard, but it's probably still going to be fine. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (27:57):
I love it. It's so true. Well, Sam, you are incredible. Cheers to you. Thank you so much for coming on Spark TV and sharing your story and your journey and your wisdom. So grateful for you. Yeah, it's so impressive what you're doing, so thank you for sharing it.
Samantha Trayhurn (28:15):
Thank you so much for having me.
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