We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katrine Kazakova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katrine , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?

I always prioritize growing revenue over cutting costs. I believe its always better to get the calcium in the hands of more people who need it. I run my business in good spirits, and I know the profits will follow shortly after. Right now we are in a critical stage in our business where I have to figure out how to exponentially grow our production capabilities, though I know taking the next leap of faith will take a huge chunk out of our profits. I would rather give KatsAquatics my all, and know with 100% certainty that I am providing quality products and never compromising on quality rather than make slightly more profit. In fact, we are constantly developing and improving the formula for all of our products – so while we’ve been hit with inflation, and increasing product/labor costs, we still incorporated higher quality ingredients and never changed our price since day one.

Katrine , 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?

I started my company (KatsAquatics) as a sophomore in high school. I was forced to stay home when COVID hit, and was able to finally dedicate time to all of my aquariums. That’s when I really dove into the issue of my fish, mainly my invertebrates being sickly and even dying. Through mounds of research, consultations and third party opinions, I discovered they were lacking calcium in their diets. I tried to simply find a product on the market to fix my issues, but they all clouded up the water and changed water parameters which ended up killing even more fish. So, I created a product for myself, and never really intended to sell it. However, as I kept getting deeper and deeper into the hobby, people continued asking me for it. As one thing led to another, I ended up creating five variations of the KatsAqauatics calcium, specially formulated for both fresh and saltwater invertebrates. The calcium does not dissolve into the water, and all of the formulas are 100% natural. I am currently 20 years old, make every single jar by hand, and have sold over 12,000 jars in the past 2 years. It has been a difficult road with many bumps, and my biggest struggle is delegating duties. Through out my three years or so in business, I’ve travelled to many trade shows through out the country such as Aquashella, acquired over 20 retailers, and even began selling at chewy. I am most proud of not only creating a brand new product and formula that actually works, but I am proud of being able to stay dedicated and getting the calcium into the hands of thousands. I have been hit with painful expenses, many of which were not even deserved, such as the IRS billing me falsely (me being scared and paying without first referring to my accountant), Amazon taking more than half of my revenue, making sure I always have at least $5000 to buy more jars when we run out, dealing with our jar producer being delayed by 2 months, causing shortages on our end and much more. I wish my followers knew exactly how much work goes into every single jar, and that each one is made by my family and I – no machines, no oversees labor, just simple American work. I wear every single hat in this business(marketing, production, shipping, customer service, etc) , though in addition to that, I am also a full-time undergrad biology student, volunteer oversees, maintain my physique and try to ensure my friends, family and partner are all loved and appreciated by me.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

This is currently my full time business. As I’ve mentioned, I’m also in school working on my Biology BS as well as minor in business law. However, I’m getting that degree just in case my heart continues to yearn for veterinary school. My current knowledge gained through business and fish keeping experienced has helped me in college, and not vice versa. The main issue I see in friends and aspiring entrepreneurs is having imposter syndrome, believing they are not worth it, or thinking they have to come to market with an absolutely perfect product. Firstly, there is no such thing as a perfect product or a perfect business. The goal is to create an idea, be innovative, introduce it to the market, and let your customers tell you how to make it better. That’s how we started. Before we ever even had calcium tablets, it started with a water insoluble calcium powder, until one customer asked if we would ever make them in tablet form to make their life easier. From there, formulation and testing began. KatsAquatics tablets and jar designs from 3 years ago and tablets today look completely different than today. While they calcium tablets three years ago had the basic concept down and were still beneficial, I would have never gotten to where I am today if I didn’t start selling what I was capable to create at the time. Im sure in another three years the product will improve another tenfold, though that requires gaining experience, knowledge and capital, something that isn’t possible if you never the the first step.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Keeping in touch with clients and adding a personal touch to orders is very important to me. It is nearly impossible to do when I sell through other channels such as chewy or amazon, but whenever I get orders from KatsAquaticsShop.com, I always try to add a personal touch. They always come with hand written thank you notes, free stickers, samples of different calcium, and for larger order I even include free tank decor. I also love going to shows and meeting people in person, plus whenever I am traveling I always try to stop by the local fish stores, introduce myself and get to know them as well. I also am working on content creation, showing my face and my personality, though with so many things going on, I often leave it to last and don’t do well with social media. That’s definitely something I am looking to change in the near future. Lastly, I always guarantee my customers 30 day returns, plus shipping guarantees when they order live plants or animals from our site. There have been many instances in where an order actually caused us to lose money due to shipping issues. However, we will willingly take those losses as long as we can ensure a happy customer is the result.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.KatsAquaticsShop.com
• Instagram: Kats.Aquatics
• Linkedin: Katrine Kazakova

Image Credits
Anesa Feratovic