Reaching $2M In Sales With Our Innovative Tools For Kids [Update]
This is a follow up story for UnbuckleMe. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 5 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I am Becca Davison, and I am the co-inventor of UnbuckleMe, an innovative, patented tool that makes it easy to open kids’ car seat buckles. In 2014 I moved back to Houston with my husband and we started our family.
Our business was born from my need for childcare, as I needed my mom’s help with my daughter when I went back to work after maternity leave. My mom quickly realized she couldn’t unbuckle my daughter’s car seat because of arthritis.
She also spent her career as an occupational therapist and decided to invent a tool to solve her problem. I recognized the market potential, and we founded our business from there. I never imagined it would grow to nearly $2M/year in sales and support my family full-time.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Since appearing on Shark Tank in 2020, our business has really catapulted to new levels. Our sales have grown 150% since our original interview with Starter Story. We have accumulated more than 10K positive reviews on Amazon.
We developed and launched a new product this year: the Totebook Dry Erase Activity kit to entertain kids on the go, screen-free. As a cut & sew product it is very unique from UnbuckleMe, so we had to source a wide range of materials to bring this to life.
We also had to hire an illustrator to help us create colorful activities for kids. As a mom myself, I know one of my biggest pain points in the car (with kids) is keeping them occupied, and also not dropping markers or activities down the cracks of the seat.
These personal pain points were my inspiration for developing the Totebook, which includes tethered markers that can’t drop down between the seats. The activities are also simple for pre-readers, without a lot of words to explain what to do. I strived to create a high-quality product that would add value to road trips and car rides for families.
We jumped on TikTok in Q4 of 2022 and have seen tremendous growth and momentum on that platform, both from followers as well as sales.
We finally started to invest our time and focus into content creation on TikTok, and it’s paying off big time.
Here’s a recent article about our new success on TikTok.
We’ve also prioritized growth on Amazon, leaning into keyword research and listing optimization, as well as editorial opportunities to improve our visibility and discoverability to Amazon customers. Social media is also a big driver of our success on Amazon, so we’ve seen the benefits of organic content creation here as well.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
Our biggest challenge this year is leaning into organic social media, which is new for us. TikTok has presented a new opportunity for reaching customers and driving sales, but it requires a shift in day-to-day work towards content creation and post moderation.
We’ve struggled with time management, how/where to focus our time, and where/when to outsource or hire. It’s a constant reassessment of priorities!
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
The biggest lesson learned is to stay ahead of the “next big thing”. I resisted TikTok for a while because it seemed daunting to try to gain traction (and I wasn’t sure our target customer was there, but I was wrong about that).
I’m glad that we finally started to invest our time and focus into content creation on TikTok, and it’s paying off big time.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
Upcoming plans are to continue to introduce new products and continue to grow. We are introducing 1-2 new colors of UnbuckleMe later this year which we’re excited about. We are leaning away from retail and focusing on our B2C channels that we own and of course Amazon.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
I love watching the success of other brands, and studying what works and doesn’t work for them, that can apply to my business. I tend to learn more from researching and watching, more than reading (these days!) I love podcasts.
I still love the podcast How I Built This. And it was a HUGE accomplishment for us to be featured at the end of one episode (with Tobias Lutke, the founder of Shopify) as the How You Built That feature. In the beginning, I also relied on the book ‘The Mom Inventors Handbook’.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their businesses?
Be willing to learn, don’t give up, and focus on measurable value. Identify your target audience as early as possible and put yourself in their shoes to figure out how to reach them. What are they doing/reading/watching where you can get your product or service in front of them?
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
