We were lucky to catch up with Tina Newton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Safety Babes Keychains was developed when I noticed so many self-defense keychain businesses popping up with poor quality products. This means resin made window breakers and kitty knuckles, both beautiful but, useless in a time of need, battery operated SOS alarms, those have to be thrown away after a year, wristlets made from thick laminated paper. Basically, the cheapest way to make something for maximum profit. This bothered me to my core as this is someone’s safety at stake and I couldn’t stand by and let it happen. I spent nine months researching quality products, understanding needs, finding small and local businesses to purchase supplies from and producing a quality product. Then I took it a step further, there were still so many people hesitant to purchase self-defense keychains because they were only found online. I began selling them at pop ups, events and conventions… the number of times I’ve heard someone say that they knew they needed one but, was worried about buying them online is astonishing and are thankful for the time I took to explain how each item worked and just being able to handle them before purchasing is truly what makes me the happiest.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I have been working in the vendor community for many years selling baked goods with my company Baked, don’t worry for those who know me I haven’t stopped.
Finding events that weren’t food related was one of my biggest trials when venturing out into the world with a whole new product. I found that anime events were my favorite there were so many young adults who needed that piece of mind to carry around with them, plus my kids loves these events and love participating in them. Yes, I still bring my kids to events to help sell and I have to say watching my preteen daughter explain the self-defense keychains and how they work to college aged women has to be the cutest thing ever.
One of my biggest questions I get is, can I take these on an airplane? I tell everyone the same thing, I have people who have no issues and some who get theirs taken away, this is why I recommend shipping it to yourself or you can test out the keychain you want and order it online to have it shipped to your house right from my booth.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Building the capital for Safety Babes Keychains came purely from Baked. When I was ready to invest in myself again, I buckled down, came out with new recipes, had more specials and booked as many events and pop ups as I could. This took a bit of time but, every cookie, brownie and cupcake sold got me one step closer to my goal and when it did finally happen, I started contacting everyone I wanted to order from starting with my wristlet providers. I met the nicest couple at an event, loved their handmade wristlets and just knew they were the ones for my business. I had so much anxiety, excitement and many other emotions when I placed my first $800 order, it was so scary, I still don’t regret it and still love working with them.
How did you build your audience on social media?
If you look at my social media following you will definitely see I am still building followers but, this doesn’t discourage me as I have my one-woman hype team behind me, reminding always to post my product, share things with people and do the general marketing as this is my weakest ability.
My friend Kathryn from UnEarthed, who is the friendliest person you’ll ever meet, is amazing when it comes to social media and just running her business in general, I aspire to build myself up to her level of confidence in the world of entrepreneurship and can’t wait to see what else she can teach me.
I know I have an amazing product that sets me apart from the rest, it’s just a matter of showing the world what I can provide them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.SafetyBabesKeychains.com
- Instagram: @SafetyBabesKeychains
- Facebook: @SafetyBabesKeychains