We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alejandro Bras. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alejandro below.
Alejandro, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.
I’ve suffered loads of failures. I co-founded a toy company after a career in law, so I had nearly zero experience in how to make a physical product, let alone sell it. Sometimes that inexperience has been an advantage since we’re less encumbered by the “right” way to do things and more free to create. But, lots of times its not!
A recent failure of mine comes to mind as a great learning opportunity. Coming into the holiday season, we were very excited to be launching a number of new products. We planned far in advance (a lesson we learned through previous failures) and had everything in perfect order for a successful launch. Then, a cascade of problems put a wrench into our plans. First, the factory neglected a detail during production, after countless revisions and assurances, that was essential to the products and that we weren’t willing to compromise on. Production was set back a month. Then, the shipper failed to arrange timely pickup of goods and we missed our window for delivery. Another few weeks gone. Finally, due to the delays we lost out on a large order that we had been counting on.
Holidays ruined? Nope. We recovered and were moving forward within the day.
There were two essential lessons from the experience. First, to take responsibility. It was easy to blame others for the problems since we had worked so hard to plan ahead. And sometimes things are just out of your control. But at the end of the day, when you run a business you are the end of the line even when others let you down. There were a dozen things we could have done to prevent the delays: have a backup order in place, diversify manufacturing, in-production quality checks, etc.
The second lesson is perhaps the more meaningful one: as a founder and business owner, you have to be resilient. A lot of smart people have spoken about how resilience is an essential trait in a successful founder, more important than having a great idea, education, management skills, or “vision.” What gets lost in most of these discussions is that resilience (or grit, or whatever the current trendy term is) isn’t some character trait that some people have and others don’t. Just like nearly everything else in life, it’s learned over time and with experience.
We came out of this recent failure more confident in our business and in ourselves than ever. Earlier in our start-up adventure, the smallest things would absolutely ruin us. Everything was the most important thing and anything less than perfect was a failure. We’ve now pressed through and learned from a lot of difficult experiences. So, this time, when we were presented with a new challenge, it was just a bump in the road.
Alejandro, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Almost five years ago, I left my job as an attorney at one of the largest law firms in the country to co-found a toy company called Womple Studios. Needless to say, it was a huge leap into the unknown. It has been a real journey (we started our business just a few months before the pandemic hit) and one that I’m incredibly grateful to be on.
I started Womple Studios with my co-founder and partner Erin McGarry because we wanted to build something meaningful. The idea for Womple Studios, a toy company that highlights the quirky and amazing wonders of our world, had been a glimmer in our eyes for years. Erin’s experience as Art Director at a successful educational start-up convinced us that we could make a difference by building toys that inspire kids to be curious explorers. We saw a real lack of imagination in the toy industry – an industry you would think would be teeming with creativity!
We set out to build a toy company that would reflect our curiosity and fascination with the world and our love of the unknown and obscure. We design toys that shine a light on the incredible places, people, and things that make our world extraordinary. From activity kits that introduce kids to less-traveled corners of the planet to plush dinosaurs that reveal fossil skeletons, we’re breaking the mold of what toys should be.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
We design and create all of our products. We started out of the gate extremely ambitious: our first products were monthly activity kits that contained anywhere from 15 to 20 unique components. Each month, to create one single product, we would write and illustrate a ~70 page children’s book, develop two unique craft activities, design a fold-out map, and create a customized collectible. A craft could be a laser-cut wood project that required precision design and fit or an art activity that contained multiple pieces, so we needed to work with multiple different factories at a time just to create one toy.
We learned quickly that we needed reliable manufacturing partners. More important than their pricing was their ability to communicate and meet our rapid fire deadlines and requests. We needed to be able to reach our manufacturing partner at any time of day, make changes last minute, and have them work with us rather than for us to deliver quality products.
Having to design and manufacture some 25+ unique toys (not to mention writing over a dozen books) within our first year of business was a gigantic undertaking and an experience that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend. However, we did learn a tremendous amount very quickly. I’ve summarized some of the key lessons below:
(1) Communication is key. When looking for a manufacturer, put communication at the top of your list of essential qualities. If you can’t effectively tell a vendor what you want, and they can’t accurately tell you what they have done, you have nothing.
(2) Don’t fall for low-price schemes. Starting out, every penny matters. The temptation to always go with the lowest price is large. But it is illusory. Often times vendors will give you a great price on a first order to get your business and then raise it substantially on future orders due to “increases costs.”
(3) Use multiple vendors. Always have backups. You don’t want to be stuck with only having one manufacturer when things go wrong – and they will go wrong.
(4) Plan ahead. Always give yourself plenty of time for a new project… and then add another 20%.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Diversify your efforts and go with the flow. If you aren’t learning new things about your audience and your customers as you go, you’re doing it very very wrong. Always be learning and when a new potential audience presents itself, embrace it.
One way to maximize your learning and growth is to try a lot of different things.
If you’re an e-commerce brand, like we are, don’t rely on only one social media channel even if does seem like the logical choice. Try others, you might find you tap into an audience that doesn’t even exist elsewhere.
If you advertise and have one ad that’s been successful, that’s great – but always keep testing new ones.
If you sell direct to consumer, see if selling to retailers is a possibility as well. Or try your hand at licensing.
The key is to never become complacent in one thing to grow your business. That one thing may form your foundation, but you should always be looking out for opportunities elsewhere. Failure to do so will not only limit your growth, it may always put your business at risk.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.womplestudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womplestudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WompleStudios/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-bras/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC3Y0Sf_pczKCuzGGrIB7mg
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/WompleStudios/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@womplestudios
Image Credits
Womple Studios LLC