00:04
Serena Reynolds
Hi, everyone. I’m Serena Reynolds. I’m the creative director and owner of Conceptiv limited.

00:08
Sara Ferrer
And my name is Sara Ferrer. I am a small business consultant. And today we have joining us, Sabre Mrkva. He is the CEO of Bright Stripes, which offers fun, creative DIY and craft kits for kids. Full disclosure, I met Sabre at a trade show last year, and we just became kindred spirits. And I told Serena, girl, we’ve got to pull her on the podcast. And welcome Saber. And tell us, with Bright Stripes, what motivated you to take that leap into entrepreneurship by starting.

00:46
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah, so my. My very good friend Eric Von Stein and I work together at another arts and crafts company for many years. We worked together for 10 years side by side, running product development, hiring up people, went through some mergers and acquisitions. We’re like, how are we going to tame this beast? So we had been through the fire together. We knew that were, you know, of sound mind and body. So were always, like, thinking, you know, wouldn’t it be great if we could just make items that didn’t have, like, all these layers of bureaucracy and, like, people telling us what to do and we don’t think it’s right, but then we got to do it anyways.

01:24
Sabre Mrkva
Like, wouldn’t it be great if we just had our own company where the vision was pure and the crafts were pure and we didn’t put a bunch of plastic crap in things that didn’t need to have plastic crap and things and spend all that money and go off in tangents and, you know, like, we. We would do such a great job and we got a little bit of a kick in the boot, and we actually got let go from our job in 2018. I was six months pregnant. You know, we had been talking about it and actually workshopping it because we lived a block away from each other. Still do. So were, like, taking notes on the ride in and out from work and carpooling together and trying to figure ourselves out. And then when we got the boot, were like, well, we’re ready.

02:07
Sabre Mrkva
Let’s just do it. And so we created our llc. The very next day, like, went out and we’re like, I just got canned. He’s like, I just got canned, too. He’s like, let’s go meet for breakfast. And then the very next day, we registered our llc. True story.

02:23
Serena Reynolds
That’s. That’s. That’s great. I mean, it just goes to show that even when you think that something’s horrible, I mean, being let go isn’t the nicest of things to happen to you. But it can sometimes be the pathway to. To much. It’s always the pathway to much bigger and better things. My story is very similar. I also got.

02:44
Sabre Mrkva
Okay. Got booted. Yeah. And at first we’re like, will, we left? You know, it’s like, you know what? This is what happened. And it was great. It was awesome. You know, I got to collect a little unemployment, being six months pregnant and getting my feet under my ground. We had like a couple of. Couple of weeks of severance, you know, which is awesome. And then ba boom, you know, it had a, like, it felt really good. It felt really strong. And then I got to be home with my baby instead of. The other plan was I’ll have the baby and then figure out how to start a business with you. It’s like, that would have been a lot harder. So the timing was perfect. Yeah, the timing was perfect.

03:23
Sara Ferrer
What made you. First of all, I love that I. I recommend if anyone gets canned, to go straight to breakfast. That feels like a great balance of a day. Why? Like, like DIY craft art kits? Where does that come in terms of, like, we’re going to start a business and this is going to be it and it’s going to be bright stripes.

03:46
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah. So what we ended up doing is we started consulting and creating these items, and then we’re like, you know, these are really cute. We should try to sell them. Let’s just throw our hat in the ring. Let’s just be importers and take on, you know, an inventory business. That should be easy. So we just, you know, and the naivete of it all. I was like, I think it’s going to be really hard because you can be designers and developers and being a distributor is. It’s, it’s whole business. You got to market and sell and do the inventory operations part. Like, I think it’s going to be hard. It’s like, now we got this, we know a bunch of people, we’ll sell it to a bunch of people. I’m like, all right, let’s do it. And he was. Eric was so sweet.

04:31
Sabre Mrkva
He suggests that we rent a storage unit and get a container of goods and just, you know, unload it ourselves and pack it in a storage unit and just ship product ourselves. Like, I don’t know if that’s going to work out so good. So we got set up. We presented our items to a colleague who was also looking for a new opportunity, something new to do. And so he took us on. He was like a very well Respected, wonderful salesperson called John Tushler. He’s been in the business for many years. And everyone knows he’s like Steady Eddie. Like, he’s very like kind of even keel. And by the end of the call, we’re like, we’ll just present it. Like, we felt so shy with like 30 little items.

05:12
Sabre Mrkva
We’re like, we’ll present it, you know, and see what he thinks and maybe one day he’ll point us in the right direction. He’s like, yeah, he’s like, I’ll totally work for you guys. Like, we didn’t have any product. We didn’t have anything. We’re like, okay, this could be a business. And so four weeks later, literally four weeks later, we’re like, let’s get the samples, let’s build the booth. And we launched at the American Specialty Toy Retailers Association. And it was literally so fast, we didn’t even. We got like the last booth in like the newcomers aisle. And. And John set us up. He set us up with sales groups across the country. He like had handshake deals with that by the end of the week. And he set us up with a warehouse that he knew of.

05:54
Sabre Mrkva
He set us up with like some great shipping rate buying group thing. And he’s just such a lovely human being and was excited to work with him. We all. So we just like did it, you know, we just like started. We just got messy. We just got right in the middle of it, didn’t think too hard, you know, and it was. That’s how we did it. So October 20th, 19th. It was the first time our product arrived.

06:21
Serena Reynolds
What year was that? Sorry?

06:23
Sabre Mrkva
I spoke October 2019, just before COVID Right. And then in September, sound to me.

06:32
Serena Reynolds
As though you kind of threw all your chips up in the air and they landed in a row. It sounded so easy. You make it.

06:40
Sabre Mrkva
It was so smooth.

06:42
Serena Reynolds
Everything just falls as it should be. Is that kind of was reality?

06:47
Sabre Mrkva
It kind of was a bit. We’re just like running so fast and like things were falling into place. We’re like, let’s keep running. Let’s keep running. And then like these realities would come in. Like, I did all the pricing and then we’re like, well, we have to offer free shipping to everybody because all these little mom and pop shops, they need free shipping. And so I was like doing the math. After, after I had figured out the shipping and we had already printed like a thousand price lists and it’s like, we’re going to be losing 20% on every product. It’s like, it’s okay. We can raise our prices. No one’s seen this price list. I threw those out. We had, like, drop a new price list and print those out. Yeah.

07:26
Sara Ferrer
You feel like. So when I hear, like, okay, it’s okay. We’ll just. Is that kind of your gut feeling of who or just your. When. When. When shit hits the fan, to be very frank? Are you, like, cool under pressure? Are you. Because the way you.

07:41
Sabre Mrkva
I try to be.

07:43
Sara Ferrer
Is that you or is that your business partner or is that you kind of.

07:46
Sabre Mrkva
No, no. It’s way more me. I’m more the cool under pressure. He’s like, oh, my God, I’m freaking out. I was like, no, we got this. We can control what we can control, you know, and the rest is. So I’m very calm. I’ll be honest with you. Real talk. I’m very calm and very collected. In my professional life and in my family life, I’m quite. Quite the opposite. So. Poor guys, they gotta take all my. My bowl. I’m like, what, you didn’t close at a cupboard door? Everyone must die. So I’m. I’m a little opposite. Yeah.

08:19
Sara Ferrer
We love you for that. I feel like that is irrelatable. Right. It’s like, oh, you think I’m this calm? You should see me at home.

08:26
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

08:29
Sara Ferrer
Did you.

08:29
Serena Reynolds
When.

08:30
Sara Ferrer
When it comes to. And this is kind of a topic we discuss a lot those first year, second year, especially with COVID These are outlier years.

08:37
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

08:38
Sara Ferrer
I’m sure that there are a lot of problems or bumps in the roads or unforeseen, you know, issues.

08:44
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

08:45
Sara Ferrer
What is your. Besides, of course, just naturally being calm. Can you just speak to kind of. What was that process of working through this, of, you know, working with retailers, with customers, with yourself, with your business? How do you manage all these changes that are happening and particularly changes that have money behind them?

09:07
Sabre Mrkva
Right. Yeah, it’s very. You know, were pretty well prepared in our last job to deal with, like, the types of things that came up. Like, we’d been to a million trade shows, so we had that, like, shtick down and we worked.

09:20
Serena Reynolds
Can I just clarify, had you worked in commerce before?

09:26
Sabre Mrkva
Not only on the development side, to be fair, so developing. And then also being in buyer meetings and, like, trade show stuff. So being in front of customers. So I had that side down. And, you know, Eric and I were both very nosy, and we’re like, you know, we’re like little smarty kids that tried to get an A on every homework assignment. So, you know, when we’re in a room and we see like, I was like, well, what do you do and how do you do that and how does that relate to what I’m doing? So what I can do is better and what I can communicate to you makes you better and just like try to fix everything right? Like not show up, do your job and like bounce out. We were like getting involved. So, you know, were, you know, kind of.

10:07
Sabre Mrkva
I would have all these operation meetings and we would talk about like item number, like organization, tree stuff. Like I was into all that stuff. So when we did our own business, it felt like we’re kind of doing the same types of things. But of course, adding in, being an importer and figuring out the whole logistics part, that was a whole nother kettle of fish. And like figuring out a warehouse and how to deal with a warehouse and like data and, you know, there’s a lot with a business and for a long time it was just Eric and myself. Now we have some help, you know, five years down the road. So that’s amazing and makes a huge difference. But in the beginning I was just like Google University, like, what is that term means? Freight forwarder. Yep.

10:56
Sabre Mrkva
I’m right there with you and want you to put that on top too and you know, figure it out.

11:02
Sara Ferrer
So thank you for being so honest because so many times we feel like we have to. Yeah, I, I knew the whole playbook before I even knew what a playbook was.

11:12
Sabre Mrkva
Right.

11:13
Sara Ferrer
Just googling profit margin. Right in the way, way, way beginnings. Like, is this normal? But how do you know in the beginning until you know.

11:27
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah, you don’t. You gotta dive in. Yeah. So there was a lot of diving in and then we knew people. So if we needed help, we would ask like for the whole logistics thing, which is like the paperwork and the processes. Like, I was very nervous about that. And I had a friend in my daughter’s classroom that was in the freight forwarding business and it was just starting a freight forwarding business. So he became my freight forwarder. And him and his wife, who was also in the business in the past, like, explained the process. I took all these notes, like, okay, there’s isf and there’s this and there’s, you know, I would take the notes and figure out how to do these things and Google things when I didn’t understand. And yeah, so I just.

12:08
Sabre Mrkva
We knew that we knew enough people that we could rely on Their guidance, you know, so that was very helpful, too. It’s like a goodwill, you know, fostering goodwill. Being good people in the world and, you know, always coming right by people worked out for us because people were willing to return the favor for us.

12:28
Sara Ferrer
It sounds like you attracted.

12:29
Sabre Mrkva
And this. This is.

12:30
Sara Ferrer
I, you know, naturally, I always kind of relate it to. Serena and I were just two kindred spirits in the business that came together. It sounds like, not to get too woo, if you will, but like. Like energy kind of attracts, like energy. Right. And it sounds like you really use people. You use network, you. I mean, I’m biased because I’ve met you and I love you. So I’m like, she’s fabulous. But it’s energy that you have of. I’m learning. I’m a student. I’m going to take notes. I’m going to be honest. I need help.

13:06
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

13:08
Sara Ferrer
Was that. Did that come naturally that I need help? Was that something that you were just very upfront with and that attracted people? Or did you find that you struggled with the ask?

13:20
Sabre Mrkva
No, I. We knew that were like babes in the woods and needed help. And, you know, we’re not like, going to come out to. Oh, consultant that we’ve never met. We have no idea what we’re doing. Please explain everything. We would ask trusted friends or colleagues, you know, how to do things and. Yeah. But yeah, I have always been open because I’m confident that I have enough smarts to get me through the day. So it’s not about being weak. Like, I don’t. Like, I apologize if I make a mistake. I’m like, I messed up big time. I am sorry I messed up. And I’ll tell everyone. I’ll tell the factory, I’ll tell the warehouse. I’ll tell salespeople. I messed up. You know, there’s no. For me, there’s no shame in it.

14:06
Sabre Mrkva
Like, I know that’s a big deal for a lot of people and I never understand why. It’s like, let’s move on. Like, the weird, like trying to cover yourself, trying to cover your track. Like, I hate that nonsense. Like, that does not work for me. So I think that’s not something like, employees do go forward.

14:24
Serena Reynolds
Isn’t that more of an employee thing? When you become manager of your own business, you. The only person you’re really answerable is yourself.

14:32
Sabre Mrkva
Right? Well, that’s true. Yeah. For sure. It’s a different level of that. I mean, but were. Eric and I were both managing teams at. At our Old job. And, you know, I always hated when you were like, there’s a problem, you’re trying to figure it out, and then you can kind of see someone just covering their tail, you know, so then you have to spend time on that and unwinding that, and it’s just like. It’s just wasting everyone’s time. We’re all, we all know there was something screwed up happened, and now I gotta do like a forensic analysis. Like, let’s cut to the chase, you know, like, we all know. And when you’re in manufacturing, these are like real things, right? These are real things or like, they’re really in a box.

15:17
Sabre Mrkva
You know, you said there was going to be six in a box and there’s, you know, four in the box. Like, these are real things that you have to deal with. So, like, the quicker you can figure it out and like, fix the problem, the better. Because age does not help with any of those things. It just doesn’t. And you learn that pretty quick too. Like being in, you know, product, I don’t know, product delivery, like, product of physical things. It just, you just see it and can’t hide.

15:46
Sara Ferrer
At this point, if I’m doing the timeline correctly, at this point, you’ve had your baby, right? Like, because you were, you were six months pregnant about when you had got canned, right? So all of this is happening. I’m talking first couple of years, going to the trade shows. All these things you kind of knew, right, from past experience, but yet now you have, you’ve delivered the how is. How is balancing now being the owner of this business? Was this, Was this your second child or first child?

16:15
Sabre Mrkva
It was my second. Yeah.

16:16
Sara Ferrer
Second was my second. Talk to us about kind of the what were you on autopilot? You kind of knew what to do. Was there challenges family with, you know.

16:26
Sabre Mrkva
Family life and feels like a lifetime ago. So my daughter’s now five. Okay. So I can, like, my business and my daughter are like the same age, like, walking through life, and I can kind of can measure years and her height, right? And it was tough, man. It was really tough because I had a C section and so I was like, recovering. But then we had to, like, finish these, like, well, projects. We’re a craft company, so there’s a lot of, like, panic crafting at the last minute. Like, okay, it was all cute in the render, but now you have to, like, make it happen, do the photography, get the package together. So I was like, okay. Waking up at five in the morning with my Little stitches, like decoupaging some ceramic llama literally in the morning. My mom was here to help me.

17:13
Sabre Mrkva
I’m like, mom, help me craft, you know, the baby sleep and she was helping me craft, you know, it was a lot of that. My baby was, thank God, healthy. No, no problems, no issues. My first baby was in the NICU for a month. Like if that was like aligning, I, I don’t know, I would have, that would have broke me. But she was fine. You know, I had grandma. We have a two family house, so my mother in law lives underneath us and we live on top. So she’s there. So that’s like gigantic, that’s like a gigantic blessing that she’s there and she can help me out. She’s helping with the baby, helping with after school stuff.

17:49
Sabre Mrkva
So yeah, I’m very lucky that all of those things are in place and it’s just, you know, grind it out and don’t get a lot of sleep.

17:59
Sara Ferrer
Like in the first. So talk to us about then going to the trade shows. You kind of have the experience there with the setup. What, what’s. If you could just take some big rocks. What was really unexpected or what were some lessons you learned in the first couple of years? You’re like, oh, I really. For being so cool, calm and collected. This threw me off. Or this was such a pleasant surprise.

18:23
Sabre Mrkva
When you know, demand planning. I don’t know if you’ve experienced like trying to figure out what people are going to buy you. Like you make all these things, you think they’re all pretty cute. You know, you take it out in the world and you have to, you got to put your money where your mouth is. You have to say they’re going to buy 12 of these and 35 of these and you got to put them in container and get them over. So that is, you know, it’s an art and a skill to do that. And that has been a long journey of figuring out like not buying too much of the duds, buying like extra of the good ones and like figuring out which ones are the duds and which ones are the good ones. That’s been a hard lesson.

18:59
Serena Reynolds
How do you do that? Do you take it to market beforehand? Do you, do you take it around and ask small children to play with your toys? So how does that work?

19:08
Sabre Mrkva
Oh yes, I would love to. So I have my own like tiny little family test group and you know, neighbors and friends test group. But I mean I would love to like just spend more time with the children you know, testing things and getting them, like, absolutely perfect. But yeah, you. We show them to our sales guys, but, you know. Yeah, you have to, like, gauge on, like, they’re like, that’s nice. Or like, wow, this is amazing. And then like, gut check, because for our size of business, there’s. If you ask our sales guys forecasts, our sales groups and whatnot reps across the country, it doesn’t. It’s hard to quantify, like, how many mom and pop shops are going to buy this product over the course of the year. It’s like, it’s pretty abstract. So you just kind of, you know, we.

19:58
Sabre Mrkva
We’ve gotten a lot better about, like, trimming the order as we. Our. Our catalog has grown, we can fill the container with different items. So that’s been helpful because we just try to buy tight and then just keep reordering. But that comes with time, right? You don’t have that luxury, and you only have a couple of items, and it’s spread across a couple of factories. So in the beginning, we way over inventoried on a few things that we, like, just got rid of like a couple, you know, a couple months ago, it’s like, oi. That’s. We still have 25 pieces of that first item that we bought. Like, oi. So that. That’s a big, like, learning curve for sure.

20:37
Sara Ferrer
Yeah, that’s. That’s. I. Again, I appreciate that because you just need time, right? You just need time to be like, what’s working? What’s the trends?

20:46
Sabre Mrkva
Right.

20:46
Sara Ferrer
How did you find that?

20:48
Sabre Mrkva
Right. Versus.

20:49
Sara Ferrer
Yeah, well, how did you feel that during COVID or, you know, Covid, you. Were you going to the trade shows? Were you like, okay, let’s switch up the plan and do more online? How did that kind of affect not just the business, but how did you kind of switch to. To. To what the demand was or the shipping delays? What does all that look like?

21:09
Sabre Mrkva
Well, that. I mean, we all survived as entrepreneurs. The COVID years. That was. That was some rough stuff, especially starting during that time. So we got product in. On October 19, 2019, we go to our very first trade show, our very first New York Toy Fair. That’s in March or February. And in March, the whole world shuts down. So a lot of people canceled. They were like, everyone’s on fire for our stuff. It’s so awesome. It’s so great. It’s arts and crafts. So we’re like, could have been poised to, like, really clean house. No, you know, I’m not trying to belittle the moment of the pandemic. But a lot of arts and crafts companies were really set up to do well. We had a placeholder website at that point. We were just like heaving something up so you could buy stuff. But it weren’t.

21:59
Sabre Mrkva
We still don’t like, market to our website. It’s not really our focus. So weren’t set up for direct to consumer at all. We’re not on Amazon. Right. We’re not on Amazon. And just fledgling relationships with these little mom and pop shops. So some, you know, most of them I actually carried through and did an amazing job. They would do like door deliveries and birthday party stuffs. Like, and we’re doing a great job of delivering product and keeping kids busy and making it fun and making it part of the, you know, staying at home experience. So we did pretty well with most of our stores. We did a dropship program where they could just list it on your website and we’ll just drop ship it to your customer. And we thought, well, at least that’ll get us by.

22:45
Sabre Mrkva
But not that many stores took us up. But the one store that like, couple stores that did were like keeping us by and were on masonnet.com that was our only online presence between the two. They kept the lights on and like barely kept the lights on because everything was slow as snails. And weren’t set up for direct to consumer. So no one was like buying our stuff. When everyone wanted arts and crowds. We’re like, okay. The timing of that was just like off. And that was a tough moment. So the first half of the year was like $0 in, but then the last half kind of picked up as everyone’s like, let’s have a good Christmas, everyone. So everyone started buying and then we like evened us out. So yeah, we got through that year. That was a tough year for sure.

23:32
Sara Ferrer
How did you be. It sounds like holiday kind of got you through. But then how do you survive? Because it sounds like, you know, you’ve got a good attitude. You’re pretty chilled. But then it’s also like you can’t struggle against the economy or against like.

23:45
Sabre Mrkva
No, no. Yeah.

23:46
Serena Reynolds
Global pandemic. Yeah.

23:48
Sabre Mrkva
Like any kids at home, like trying to be on Zoom in the second grade? I mean, kudos to all those kids that survived schooling on Zoom. That was not easy for sure. And the teacher moms, oh, Lord of mercy. Those teachers are saints.

24:05
Sara Ferrer
Right? Did you find though that like after that holiday, like because you sales rep system in place, you had some specialty and boutique stores. Like, did you expand after that or did you just say, listen, guys, we got this system in place. Let’s just keep tracking and over time, something will happen.

24:24
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah, well, that was. That was basically our strategy to keep track and try to get some little bit larger accounts that will, like, support us, you know, going forward. But so after. In 21, we exploded. So then I learned a new lesson in economics. It sounds great. You’re like, oh, explosive growth, like a bazillion growth. It’s like, you know what that means? It means you’re making more money tomorrow than today. So today you’re losing money. That’s what it just is. Let’s be real. That’s what it means. Today you are spending way more than you’re earning today because you’re growing and tomorrow is earnings.

25:01
Sabre Mrkva
So this is like, intellectually you understand, but when it’s your dollar bills and you’re like, 401k, your measly 401k, you cashed out and put in the business, you’re like, as the cost of containers, like, went crazy up and your costs are like, going crazy, and you’re trying to figure out what the hell is going on. And we just, like, stuck with it, stuck along for the ride. And, you know, fortunately, our factories were very generous with us and us being really late with paying them, being really late. And they. They survived it. We survived. Everyone just had to, like, grip the rocket ship. It was blasting through the air. It’s like everything was falling apart, you know.

25:44
Serena Reynolds
And of course, you guys had all the containers on the ships just lined up outside your ports, not being able to get in, not being able to unload. I remember going over and seeing that for.

25:55
Sabre Mrkva
Oh, yeah, I know. The port business was crazy. I mean, it was $3,000 for a container before we started, and then it was like $4,000 when we started. And then it got up to like, 20 oh, $8,000. I mean, how can you factor that into your cost of goods, people? This is what I mean. I don’t understand why this wasn’t like, blasting all over the news. And there was no real reason for it other than it was an opportunity to make some big bucks. And they’re just like, it was horrible what fine demand owners and the consumer was going through. It was just because these shipping guys are like, let’s take our day in the sun. Everyone died.

26:42
Sara Ferrer
Like, I know you had said, like, you know, cash out your 401k. Now, I’m assuming that actually happened because, you know, or. Right. Yeah. I could read between the lines. I’m like, you know, us kindred spirits, we like a good joke sometimes. Joke about personal. Personal experience. And so I’m listening to this and I’m thinking, this is what the entrepreneur does. They just. They figure it out. They put their stuff on the line.

27:08
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

27:09
Sara Ferrer
Was in your head at that moment if this didn’t. Did you let me take a step back? Did you think, heck, what if this doesn’t work out? Or were you just like, I’m putting it on the line?

27:19
Sabre Mrkva
That was so not an option. It just, like, was not an option. We just had to ride it out. We knew it was temporary. The shipping thing, like, eventually has to go down, but when you see it, like, 30% month over month over month over month, it like, good God, it’s gotta have an end. It’s gotta have an end. And, yeah, there was moments of doubt, actually, at that point. Like in August at its peak, you’re like, oh, my God. But then, you know, we had faith that our products were. People liked them enough. Right. And we liked what were doing enough, and we liked each other enough, and we liked the people we worked with enough. And. And all of our eggs are frankly, in that basket at this point. So it’s like, let’s just play this out. Right?

28:08
Sabre Mrkva
Let’s just play this out. You know, this is the cards that we’ve been dealt. Just like, play it out to the end and just keep grinning and bearing and just keep going. Yeah.

28:21
Serena Reynolds
You know, six months pregnant, starting a business building, doing decoupage, you know.

28:29
Sabre Mrkva
Right.

28:30
Serena Reynolds
With a newborn and stitches, I’m hearing fearlessness, you know, riding out the. The economic crisis that was happening and global health issues that were happening all around us. So where’s the flaws? You’ll feel it. I mean, that’s obvious.

28:49
Sabre Mrkva
So what.

28:49
Serena Reynolds
What did you really struggle with? What was. What was the one thing that made you go, do you know what? This. You know, I. We can ride out these containers. We can ride out this a little while longer.

29:02
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

29:03
Serena Reynolds
Where was it that you like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? Should I be doing this?

29:08
Sabre Mrkva
You know what I. I lose it is that I didn’t. I don’t have an mba. I don’t have business degree background. That part I’m definitely figuring out and learning a lot. If you want to get an MBA and you’re worried about student debt, just start a business because you’ll learn everything real time. You’ll probably spend about the same amount of money, maybe go in the same amount of debt, but you will come out so much stronger.

29:36
Serena Reynolds
I actually love that.

29:37
Sara Ferrer
I do.

29:40
Serena Reynolds
The universities or colleges, you will learn.

29:43
Sabre Mrkva
So much about yourself and your own journey and how you can relate to your children and husband and family and. Well, the financial stuff breaks my brain. I. This is, this is a. This is something that is. I’ve been struggling because the financial modeling, you know, you put it on paper and I can kind of figure it out. And I’m trying to figure out the inventory part and I’m trying to figure out that, like, you know, projections, your cash flow projections. That part has been a big struggle for me, like, because there’s no cushion. It’s like a razor thin getting by to the next day. So we all have to make it work. We have to pay everyone. It’s very important. But it’s like figuring that part out has been my biggest struggle for sure.

30:32
Sabre Mrkva
And I’m, you know, trying to learn and got a little couple of tricks in Excel, but that has been. That’s been really hard. And that’s the parts where like, I give up. I don’t care. I’m going to work at Dunkin Donuts because this part is super challenging.

30:47
Sara Ferrer
And you’re going to get me 30% off the donuts. Right. I’m going to say save.

30:50
Sabre Mrkva
And that’s enough. You know what, at the end of the day. Yeah. Sometimes you feel like that. Yeah. So that’s the part that breaks. Can. Can. If I have like a couple of days where that’s my job, like digging in like 50 spreadsheets and trying to weave them together to like, make sense of what’s going on. Those are the days when I want to kill everyone in my house. Yeah.

31:10
Serena Reynolds
Just speak to my accountant. She will concur. I’m exactly the same.

31:14
Sabre Mrkva
So if you’re starting a business, you’re going to do NBA DIY, right? Because I’m a DIYer. Get yourself a financial person for sure. Like, that happened like. Like we’ve been through so many accountants and we finally have a good one. But that was. Oh, man. We had some real, real challenges with that, like keeping track of all the things in the correct and proper way that you could follow and then being consistent person to person as were, like, trying to find our path and. Oi. Yeah. So I would say definitely that because if you’re not knowing how much you make, like, what is it all for? What is it all for?

31:51
Sara Ferrer
That’s a great point about, I think in the beginning. There’s always that kind of hustle of, like, just get it done. And that’s super great. Right? That’s great.

31:58
Sabre Mrkva
Right, Right, right.

31:59
Sara Ferrer
You’ve got to do it. But then at some point, things are going out, Things are coming in. Make it make sense. I can speak very level in the beginning, but some point, you feel like, no, I actually should know on paper.

32:13
Sabre Mrkva
What these things are exactly what is happening at every moment in time.

32:17
Sara Ferrer
When did you get to that point? Because, again, in theory, it’s always ideal to say, well, I figured it out quick. Really quantified.

32:24
Serena Reynolds
Can I also just chuck in here as well? Being an entrepreneur, you’re like the bottom of the list of anyone that gets paid.

32:32
Sabre Mrkva
Oh, for sure. Oh, for sure.

32:34
Serena Reynolds
I mean, that is. That’s a really hard pill to swallow at times. You’re the one putting in the hours. You’re the one putting in the risk, and you are the one last in line, for sure.

32:45
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah, 100%. Yeah. That’s very rare that I can really do. So after, you know, we’re five years in of shipping product and figuring out how to give ourselves enough. Right. And then. And then, you know, we. You have to prioritize yourself because there’s always, like, 100 guys waiting in line. And if you don’t pay yourself and your quality of life is crap and you look on paper, you’re like, out of everything that I pay for in my year, the part that I have to pay to myself to live is, like, not that much, and I skip it. Like, this is ridiculous. So we learned that lesson over time, too. And there’s a reality of, like, you just have to pay everyone. If there’s nothing left, there’s, like, nothing left.

33:30
Sabre Mrkva
But we’ve been trying to get better this year about really being disciplined, about paying ourselves first. So fair. It’s so.

33:40
Sara Ferrer
It’s taken about, you know, it’s a. It’s a journey. And after five years, where. Give us kind of an up. Where are you guys at? How many stores are you in? Like, in the beginning, you said you were just on Mason, kind of with the boutiques and specialty. Is that still your core? Have you blown up? Has that growth come to fruition, that expansive growth during COVID Where are we at now? With Bright Stripes?

34:00
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah. So after that, like, one year where we’re like, ba. Bam. And, like, that was a lot. Like, we don’t want to grow that fast anymore. And then, you know, you’re lucky if you can grab onto the comet at that point. So I love company like this. Like exponential growth. It’s been steady now, which has been lovely. Right?

34:22
Serena Reynolds
It’s gross. Sounds like a really good thing. But it can crush a lot of.

34:27
Sabre Mrkva
Companies, that cash flow, man. That’s it. It’s. You can intellectualize it all you want, but when you’re seeing it just like, you know, the sieve of money going out and you’re like, but if I could just survive, as we tell ourselves all the time. I know it’s hard right now, but if we can just survive to that three months in the future when the orders are coming due, right, then we. We’ll have made it. So, yeah, there’s still a lot of that going on, but I even forgot the question.

34:54
Sara Ferrer
Honestly, I’m just in a France. Whatever, Whatever you say. I’m always like, yes, girl, keep going. It was just five years. Monumental birthday. Monumental.

35:05
Sabre Mrkva
Oh, where are we now? Where are we now? Oh, that’s the fun part. Right? So we do. So I want to brag a little bit. So we did our little redo today. So we spent some time. This is a tough year too. So we did a little rebrand.

35:18
Serena Reynolds
So we have these like podcasts. So let’s describe things as well.

35:21
Sabre Mrkva
Oh, sure. So we have a logo that we redid. So we’re bright stripes and has like this like kind of paper cut, crafty look. We’ve got these little critters, little pencils and little paintbrushes and clouds and strawberries and stuff. They’re just so cute.

35:38
Sara Ferrer
That wholesale catalog that you’re showing us which is like, yes.

35:43
Sabre Mrkva
Here’s me and my buddy Eric looking at the Solar five. Yeah. Celebration that big celebrations were five years old at a party. We had cupcakes and some. Some sparkling wine. At our last Astra trade show was really fun. And we have our. We’re being more forward. We before were like a capsule collection kind of a company where we’d have like a little bit over here and a little bit over there. But now we’re like bright stripes brand forward. And so that was a big journey to get there. We’re really excited to. Our whole thing is giving kids skills for life that they, you know, things that they can make that are easy enough for them. Like it has some mastery to it, there’s some investment in time. But at the end, you make what you see on the package. You’re guided to it.

36:35
Sabre Mrkva
It’s made for you to feel good about it and it’s a quality thing that you’ve made. At the end so it’s not just like some cheese ball thing that mom is like, thank you. And then she like puts it on the fridge for a moment and then something that you want. So we have like knitting kits and painting kits and really beautiful things.

36:52
Serena Reynolds
So I, I mean, I’ve been looking through your website and having a look. My daughter would have absolutely loved this a couple of years ago. She’s now nearly 18. She probably still would love most gradually sucking.

37:06
Sabre Mrkva
I got a 12 year old, I got a long way to go. Man, that’s gonna be a journey for sure.

37:13
Sara Ferrer
I’m sorry.

37:13
Serena Reynolds
And I really love this. I mean, as a mum and as a mum of a child, that was creative. I mean these things are absolutely beautiful and they look like so much fun. I could have fun doing these things.

37:27
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

37:28
Serena Reynolds
The crafts and things. And in an era of iPads and iPhones and computers and things that I’ve really struggled over the years to find presents for my children that haven’t involved a download.

37:43
Sabre Mrkva
Right. I know.

37:44
Serena Reynolds
It’s a whole new world.

37:45
Sabre Mrkva
I know.

37:46
Serena Reynolds
So I’m really loving and I’d love to see, you know, in stores here in the uk, but right now that’s.

37:58
Sabre Mrkva
That’S the Dover yet. So we’re in. Yeah, we’re in over, I think 1200 independent mom and pop shops. We’ve got some things going in Canada. Mastermind Toys, we’re deeply into that chain in Canada. And other mom and pop locations up there. Chapters Indigo, we got in Nordstrom’s in a couple of different department stores. Von Mars, like a regional one, the paper store. So we’re in some good locations.

38:32
Sara Ferrer
Saber, saber, you say all these accomplishments so smooth, like clap, clap. Five year birthday, monumental. All the. Do you feel like, let me ask. Because when I hear it, when I’m. I’m outside of the bright stripes bubble. Right. So when I hear it, I’m like, oh my God, this is, I mean these are real numbers.

38:58
Sabre Mrkva
And Noble. Forgot about Barnes Noble.

39:03
Sara Ferrer
But like when you look back at it now, five years in and you see where you’ve come.

39:09
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

39:10
Sara Ferrer
Well, congrats. This is amazing. What do you have any insight, any advice, any. Like now here’s where we’ve been five years later.

39:19
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah.

39:20
Sara Ferrer
What would you tell the saber who was at breakfast?

39:27
Sabre Mrkva
I wouldn’t say a word because if I told her what was really going to go on, she would have run the other way.

39:35
Sara Ferrer
Well, I would have gaslit her. It’s going to be fun, sweetie.

39:38
Sabre Mrkva
Oh my gosh. You Know, it really would be more like cash flow planning. Don’t over buy. Right. Be simple, start simple, you know, and if your guts, you have to listen to your guts. Because so many times like, well, we made this item. Let’s just buy 3,000 units of it. It’s like we. We learn now. It’s like, no, if it. If it’s not resonating, just don’t even order it. And you put it in the catalog and no one’s. No one’s buying it. Just leave it out. Leave it out, you know, or, you know, if it’s the. The pricing is now doubled. You said you were going to do it, but the pricing doubles. Like, that needs a rework. Just like, let it stay back. Let’s rework that. Let’s get it back into reality.

40:20
Sabre Mrkva
Because at the height of the pandemic, we had our biggest, like, item, which is this, a beautiful dream jar, and was supposed to be $20 retail. And I tell you, it was awesome. It had so many things to figure out. Was like this little world that you build with little cloud and it would light up. So it was like this ethereal, like, miniature world of a candy castle and a tree house with jungle animal. It was, like, so cute and so beautiful. It was $40 by the time we got through with it with the shipping and the things and the stuff. We wouldn’t do that again. No more $40 items. Like, no one needs a $40 craft kit. This is a 1999, 24, 99 world. And like, we kind of like go back down to earth. So.

41:06
Sara Ferrer
So what would you. Would you have, like, if that happened now, you would have just said, hey, we’re not going to proceed forward with it.

41:12
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah, yeah.

41:14
Sara Ferrer
Making quick decision.

41:15
Sabre Mrkva
You can go down the road and go down the road, and then you see what it’s going to cost, and then. Then you can stop. Right?

41:20
Serena Reynolds
You can always. And you know your market, you know your audience.

41:25
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah, yeah.

41:26
Serena Reynolds
So how many SKUs do you have? I mean, your site looks crowded. It’s busy. Lots of things going on. It’s all beautiful.

41:34
Sabre Mrkva
Just, we have 130 now. About 130 now. So it’s a lot. And we try to, like, you know, keep it fresh, too. So as many as we add, we take away pretty much for the past couple of years. So we might expand a little bit more. But we want a tight catalog. We don’t want to have, like to maintain so many different things. You know, we just want. We just want everyone to have Winners, right? We want all customers to have winners. So. Yep.

42:09
Sara Ferrer
We’Ve been talking about Bright Stripes for like, you know, of course for the hour. But where did the name come from?

42:16
Sabre Mrkva
So were, you know, Eric and I were in the car, I was taking my notes as he’s driving us to work and we come up with this long list of names and we’re trying to figure it out and just something that like where did it? Because like the hot, the high eyes there, the bright stripes and something about it just like hit us, but we had a lot of them. Yeah, we’re doing that for days and days, coming up with different names and of things or products or collections or brands or. Yeah, and so that was the one that stood out as like a really fun one.

42:55
Serena Reynolds
So we’re coming upon our time now. I’d really like to ask. I mean one of my biggest takeaways from this is how you just jumped in. You’ve been talking about it, an opportunity came up and you fearlessly jumped in and not knowing everything. And you were perfectly upfront about not knowing everything at the beginning. But what I’d really like to know is where do you see this in another five years on your 10th birthday?

43:26
Sabre Mrkva
Oh my. Yeah. So Eric and I have a big vision for Bright Stripes to be five years down the road. You know, we are trying our best as a small company with not a lot of buying power. Right. Trying to make our products as eco as possible. So we’ve eliminated as much plastic in our packaging as we can. We have a product line that’s made of all like recycled plastic bottle, polar fleece and stuffing. So more eco materials. And by five years I would love to say that every single product is made like with our, you know, fully proud of all of the recycled paper and recycled plastic bottles and bioplastics and everything’s made of recycled or biodegradable.

44:16
Sabre Mrkva
We’re introducing some really fun kits coming up and I could see us getting more involved in just teaching kids about ecology also and like learning about how our earth works through crafts and beautiful things and just having a bigger impact on kids. Like working more closely with children in our charity Art Feeds, who we give back to in our Iheart Art supply line. They do amazing work doing social emotional learning through art projects. So it builds our self esteem. Helps like little kids deal with these big feelings. You know, they’re on the front lines when people lost their homes due tornadoes or they have some kind of emotional school crisis like you know, middle school, suicide, like horrible things. And they’re there to help kids process all these things with art projects. And they have teacher trainings that I would.

45:15
Sabre Mrkva
I absolutely see myself working much more closely with them in the future and just, you know, getting involved with real kids and sharing the love of craft and how you can make things, how you can be a producer, not just a passive consumer like these kids. A lot of kids today, they don’t connect. They don’t have that tactile skill. And it’s. And our hands are like our heart, right? And it’s like if you don’t keep your hands busy, like there’s something like aching and missing in your heart. I think, like, you have to be busy. You have to like get the creative juices flowing and do those problem solving things. Like these two things.

45:54
Sabre Mrkva
How do they fit together and making them fit and you know, being a problem solver in this world is a big thing that I am happy to kind of contribute to in my small way. So that’s where I see. I love.

46:09
Sara Ferrer
And then sabre, for anyone listening, where do you. Where do they find these amazing craft and art kits? Where can they buy in? They love it. They’re like, give me that creative kit. I need to that.

46:21
Serena Reynolds
That you have an unusual domain so you have to shout it out.

46:27
Sabre Mrkva
What.

46:29
Serena Reynolds
You’Re a do. You’re not a dot com.

46:34
Sabre Mrkva
Bright Stripes with the gh, Bright Stripes with the s dot co. Not dot com, just dot com.

46:44
Sara Ferrer
Didn’t you tell me one time for chatting, you’re like, you know, in the beginning we couldn’t afford the M and I was.

46:49
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah, with $5,000 for Rogers dot com.

46:52
Sara Ferrer
Yes.

46:53
Sabre Mrkva
Like 50 bucks for dot com.

46:55
Serena Reynolds
Nobody else was using it.

46:57
Sara Ferrer
Yes.

46:57
Sabre Mrkva
Yeah, yeah, wonderful. And then we have a store locator on our website so you can go there and you can type in your zip code and it will tell you the local stores that carry Bright Stripes items because we love local retail, support our local retailers and that would be. That would be lovely.

47:14
Sara Ferrer
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Sabre. This has been wonderful hearing the journey of Bright Stripes. Serena, baby girl, I always love meeting with you and chatting. So this is just my weekly catch up with you. And yeah, thank you for sharing your story. And until next time.