Episode Ten features Travis Rosbach talking about how he created The Hydroflask and what he is doing now with the Tumalo Group.
My Key Takeaways:
- Some of my key takeaways from my conversation with Travis are:
- Like Travis said about digging his pool: When you have the right tools or equipment for a job its quick, easy, and a lot of fun. When you don't it is challenging.
- He learned from his watching his Mom run her daycare business that there is a fine line between going the extra mile to take care of your customers and also saying enough is enough when said customers are taking advantage of you.
- Travis is quick to credit a lot of his success to the motivational books that he read by such greats as Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Dale Carnegie, and others.
- Travis found out early on in his first business that he didn't like profiting on others misfortunes and doesn't recommend that type of business for anyone else as it can be soul sucking.
- Pivoting, he started a Fencing company despite not knowing anything about Fencing. He quickly learned that everything is figure-out-able which seems to be a common theme among successful entrepreneurs as Aaron Walker said in episode two.
- Hydroflask kind of came together as a result of his prior buisness experience, some unique institutional knowledge that he had, and he saw the need for an improved product that was BPA free and would keep hot liquid hot, and cold liquid cold.
- Travis didn't realize that he could become too successful too quickly especially with a physical product. He was having to "float" the cost of manufacturing and then wouldn't see the cash flow come back in until 90 to 120 days later which almost put him out of business.
- Travis had several guerilla marketing tactics that he employed. He (and employees) would go into stores asking for their product to create perceived demand and eventually the stores would contact his company placing an order. He also provide the security crews T-shirts at events that would make it seem like Hydroflask was sponsoring them. The Hydroflask warranty was probably one of the companies greatest selling points as they offered a lifetime warranty.
- Like Steven Key in Epsiode three said, his competitors knocked off Hydroflask legally by making their designs about 30% different.
- Travis tries not to dwell on his mistakes and just learn from them and move on.
- Travis started the Tumalo Group to both get back in to the game of creating new products and brands, but to help people as well.
- The Tumalo Group can get a product launched from idea to completion in 4 months time. It takes around 30-60 days to get product molds created, another 30 days to get it manufactured, and another month to get it into fulfillment centers. Travis said that it takes around 75-100K dollars to get a brand or business going.
- A lot of his clients use their services to build a prototype and gather information to go start a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter or pursue a licensing deal with an existing company.
- Travis said the world needs more entrepreneurs to both make life better and help save the planet. His advice to paraphrase from another Oregon company is if you are thinking about making the leap to "Just Do it!"
Travis can be reached at travis@tumalogroup.com If you have a product or business idea and are stuck I highly recommend reaching out to Travis and the Tumalo Group to see what they can do to move you forward!
Now next week we'll have Bill Soroka on talking about how he overcame 26 business failures to finally find success as a Notary Influencer.
Show notes and more can be found at EntrepreneursOver40.com
