Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bradley Barks. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Bradley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Our Barks Classroom Headphones have been a labor of love from the very beginning! I started out new to selling physical products as a business model, as I had been working more on the marketing side before. The idea was born when researching products to launch a brand for. My mom was a teacher for many years, and I had a few other ideas having to do with teachers and schools, but the headphones became the top choice from the start because they were the most unique and challenging. Challenging due to the fact that they’re difficult to make strong and durable.

The first two years of the business were a bit of an uphill endeavor as we made improvements and noteworthy upgrades to our plastics, connector points, wire connections, and many other spots. These thoughtful improvements were hard fought, not only as they were made and put in place, but to get them into the hands of skeptical customers. As we’ve grown more and more, it’s been wonderful to receive better and better feedback from our teachers and students in the past few years!

We knew that if we could manage that balance—our customers expectations and the results they achieved in the classroom—we could really have something special to offer schools across the nation. We continue to strive to make improvements and release new headphone models that are strong, durable, sound great, and fit any budget. We’re excited to keep that going for years to come!

Bradley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Bradley Barks and I’m the owner of Barks Classroom Headphones from here in Phoenix, Arizona. We’re a bulk headphones brand that makes headphones specifically designed for the classroom. They’ve been thoughtfully designed and improved to be durable, have longevity in K-12 schools, and be comfortable. They also sound pretty good, too!

I originally was thinking of product ideas for schools since my mom was a teacher for many years. I knew by watching her experiences that many brands aren’t built for the wear and tear of classroom life! By focusing on making upgrades, improvements, and truly being there for our customers, we’ve built a business that has been successful and creating happy customers for a little over five years now.

We essentially solve the issue of having to constantly replace headphones in your classroom! With daily lessons and state testing being much more digital these days, headphones have become a must in most K-12 classrooms.

We provide headphones that are designed to last, are comfortable to wear and fit any budget. Our obsession with constantly making our products better and providing best-in-class customer support after your purchase is what sets us apart and makes us different (and better).

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

This one’s so straightforward and many small entrepreneur’s only choice in the beginning: Bootstrapping your business on your own personal credit cards! That’s how I started out and made it happen. I also pulled out a small amount of capital I had in my retirement account at the time and got to work building the brand. The bootstrapped capital went right into ordering the initial inventory, getting the initial product photos shot, and firing up paid ads to help with the initial sales. From there, over time, as we grew sales and spent more time successfully in business, we were able to take small business loans provided by Amazon and lines of credit to help continue to scale the brand.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Manufacturing products was completely new to me when I started Barks Headphones! I started out at Alibaba and reached out to many different suppliers to try to find quality headphone designs at an affordable price. These was quite a big learning curve, but I was able to find the right supplier and get things started. It’s always the most difficult at the start when you don’t have very much buying power and you’re looking to order a relatively small amount of products. The larger your business gets the easier it is to negotiate a better price for your inventory.

One of the biggest lessons and tips I can offer you is to keep in mind that sourcing your products is one of the biggest ways to succeed or fail in your business. This is because if you do a bad job sourcing your product at a good price, you may never reach the profit margin you’re hoping to achieve. And if you do a great job, you stack the odds in your favor to succeed.

If you’re not finding the product you want to offer your customers at the price you need it to be at to make your numbers make sense, keep searching for the right supplier! Do your research and understand the pricing that exists in the marketplace. When your buying power is low, talk about larger orders in the future that you hope to make. Start at a good price and work towards ordering a large amount of inventory to negotiate an even better price to improve your profit margins.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://barkstech.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barksheadphones/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barks-tech
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BarksTech
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsWwA_b1NeOZnAzIWjceeRg
• Other: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/barks-tech-headphones

Image Credits

Tyler Barks Photography