Market is sewn up
Kate Barry wasn’t the only 11-year-old running a small business in her Year 5 class last year. One friend sold “slime” and another cupcakes. Her grandmother, a dressmaker, taught Kate to sew and so she launched Scrunchie Munchies.
“Back in my mum’s day, scrunchies in your hair were all the rage,” she says. “I saw the cost of the hair scrunchies in the stores and at the school uniform store and was astounded by the prices. Most were over $10 and were mass-produced offshore.”
Kate originally had a short-term goal of buying tickets to the Harry Potter musical in Melbourne but realised there is a genuine demand from local girls and some longhaired boys who wear scrunchies to school. “I’ve also launched a specific range that I sell on a weekend at Little Athletics, with club colours. It’s led to lots of enquiries about custom ranges for schools and other sporting events.” Kate makes the scrunchies after schooI and on the weekend. “It takes a while to make the tubes and then stuff them with elastic and I spend a long time looking for the latest fabrics,” she says.
The profit margin is good at 30%-50%. She says it hasn’t always been easy. “I made the website myself on Wix in the last school holidays and it took ages for me to get an ABN and tax file number before I was able to launch it.”
Setting up the website and taking the right photos was fiddly: she had to reshoot pictures and get the design right. She learnt that it’s OK if things don’t go to plan.
Kate has dropped off flyers in letterboxes to promote her three ranges, which are popular with different groups.