Episode Description
Nicole Stanners, founder of Muze Women, a cycling apparel brand for women, discussed her journey from a marketing executive to entrepreneur. Identifying a gap in the market for well-fitting cycling apparel, she conducted extensive research, prototyping, and fit testing. Despite initial setbacks, such as a factory misinterpreting grading, she launched Muze in 2023. Focusing on comfort, practical design, and sustainability, she bootstrapped the business and leveraged social media, events, and community engagement. Muze’s success includes collaborations with micro-influencers and plans for international expansion, emphasizing the importance of persistence and resilience in entrepreneurship.
About Richard:
From Nicole’s LinkedIn: “I’m the Founder and CEO of Muze Women, an innovative women’s cycling apparel company, and a consultant to entrepreneurs, SMEs, and large corporate clients.
After spending 25 years honing my skills in business, marketing, and innovation leadership across local, regional, and global levels, I decided to channel my passion for sport, equality, and sustainability into creating a brand that champions gender balance and empowers female cyclists through meticulously designed, sustainable apparel. Muze Women specifically focuses on addressing the unique challenges women face in cycling—particularly in fit, practical design features, and environmental impact.
In addition to leading Muze Women, I consult with innovative entrepreneurs and corporate clients on business and marketing initiatives. This includes business, category, innovation, and marketing strategy; organization structure and capability development; and all aspects of the marketing mix from idea to execution.
I believe in using business as a platform for social change. Inspired by my love for cycling and a vision of a more inclusive cycling environment, Muze Women is committed to transforming the landscape for women—making it more inclusive, comfortable, and enjoyable.”
Nicole’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-stanners/
Muze Women Website: www.muzewomen.com
Note: This has been automatically transcribed so is likely to have errors! It may however help you navigate the points of interest.
Michael McGrath 00:10
Welcome to the troubleshooters podcast with me. Your host, Mike McGrath, now Nicole stanners is the founder of Muze, a cycling apparel brand that she launched in 2023 which is going gangbusters. Like most great business ideas, this came to Nicole, who’s a keen cyclist, seeing a problem with poorly fitting cycling apparel for women, and then she took some action. Sit back as I learn how Nicole went from marketing executive to online entrepreneur.
Michael McGrath 00:46
So Nicole, welcome to the troubleshooters podcast.
Nicole Stanners 00:49
Thanks for having me.
Michael McGrath 00:51
I feel like I know you, even though it’s the first time we met this morning, because just to declare an interest, I know your dad quite well, and he’s he’s been keeping me up to date on your progress since you launched your business, and the last time we had a chat, I said, we must get Nicole. And so here you are. Thank you. Now, Moose is a female cyclist apparel, so that’s the thing that’s emerged, right? And so, like most great businesses, your business started when you identified a problem. So you’re a very keen cyclist, and you were presumably having trouble getting decent female cyclists apparel. Is that how you conceive the idea?
Nicole Stanners 01:28
Yeah, I think I’ve always been into sport and really passionate about it. A lot of running team sports when I was younger, but I first started in triathlon and cycling about 14 years ago, and I remember I was really excited to get my first club kit, and I tried it on and looked at it in the mirror and just thought to myself, Oh, my god, is this as good as it gets? You know, it didn’t fit. It didn’t look great, didn’t compliment the body. Yeah, it was pretty bad. So
Michael McGrath 01:57
was it largely? Had it been produced for males, or was it? I mean, what was the deal those days?
Nicole Stanners 02:02
I think, you know, probably back then, everything was pretty standardized. And, you know, there’s this term in the industry that’s called shrink it and pink it. So I think what happened is they would just have smaller male cut sizes and try to put a bit of a female design on it. Things have improved, but there’s still a bit of that going on, and not a lot of catering for women. You know, designing from the ground up, I suppose,
Michael McGrath 02:27
okay. I mean, it’s interesting. I mean, many great businesses start from that premise of, you know, someone’s got an interest in an area, they see a problem, and they say, like, how can we fix it? But it takes, you know, many of us identify those problems, but not many of us do something about it. So it stands to me, what did you do about it? What was your first action around okay, maybe I’m going to do something about this.
Nicole Stanners 02:52
Well, that was the seed. And I think that kept germinating away in my head because I was working in marketing and corporate, and kept thinking to myself, is this an opportunity, and certain things I experienced over the next probably, gosh, you know, five to seven years just cemented that in my mind. So I remember going, I used to work for Campari, and I was in Italy, and actually stumbled across an Italian cycling race just for amateurs one day when I was there and they were wearing the worst kit ever. And I thought, How can this be happening in Italy? And then I did lots of different cycling events in particular, one called Race Across America, which is a cycling race from one side of the US to the other.
Michael McGrath 03:34
5000 is it 5000 kilometers?
Nicole Stanners 03:36
Yeah, 5000 kilometers. Crazy, six times Everest in climbing. Is that right? Yeah. So it’s pretty so you is it west to east? It goes from Oceanside in California to Annapolis in Maryland, yeah. And just, you know, experiencing six and a half days in cycling kit day after day also just reinforced that. So, yeah, I started initially, just looking at, you know, the size of the market was it growing, how many females were in that space. And then started to do a little bit of research on factories and suppliers while I still have my corporate jobs,
Michael McGrath 04:11
yeah, so let’s go back a bit. So you’re a marketing person. I mean, you, I mean, you were the marketing director at Campari group, I mean, and you were there eight years or so. I mean, that was a big gig, really. And then you’d previously worked for Diageo and Arnotts, and then you Unilever, so you’re a thoroughbred marketing corporate, really. Yeah. So did that help? Did that my perspective around, okay, what’s the market opportunity here. Did that help?
Nicole Stanners 04:43
Yeah, I think, I think my background in marketing and innovation really, really helped to I suppose, you know, I had my consumer head on looking at, you know, what it felt like to be a cyclist, but also from a marketing perspective. And I think. Going back to your point of lots of people have good ideas, but it’s about executing it. You know, I wasn’t the first person to come up with that insight that things aren’t great for women. So yeah, that that definitely got me moving, I suppose.
Michael McGrath 05:13
And so that was germinating, you were kind of prosecuting your corporate career. So what, when did you begin to take some take some steps, maybe some more concrete steps, because most of us start moonlighting a bit, you know, before we jump. So what? What was going on there?
Nicole Stanners 05:31
Once I had the idea, I think I started to do the research. I also started to do some prototyping of kit that I thought would be good, also looking at partners to work with, and suppliers, which was extremely hard because it’s quite a protected industry. People protect their factories, the people they work with, so it’s hard to
Michael McGrath 05:51
so it’s hard to break into that kind of supply chain area. You’re a startup. No one knows you okay, and I suppose you’re upsetting the upper car, but with some of the ideas, maybe,
Nicole Stanners 06:02
yeah, a lot of, I mean, a lot of factories. I prefer to work with people that are already established. Plus, if you want to do any variation on a standard cut of kit, that’s a bit of a headache for them as well.
Michael McGrath 06:12
So what was the solution? In essence, I mean, clearly, the female body is different to the male body. Well, I’m not sure I can say that anymore, but anyway, I’ve said it so, but I presume that you had to do some real research and some real testing around that. So how did you go about fixing the problem?
Nicole Stanners 06:34
I guess I think I had some intuition myself, and also just talking to friends. And then initially, what I did is did the common marketing thing. I did some focus groups with some friends, triathletes and also cyclists.
Michael McGrath 06:47
You’d be amazed how many people don’t do that though. Yeah, I mean, that is just your marketing background would have helped with that, because, yeah, that’s not as common as you might think.
Nicole Stanners 06:58
No, exactly. You don’t want to be just basing it on your own thought. And then once I had some decent prototypes, I actually did some fit testing, just to see how it fit on the body for women of different sizes and body shapes. And then also just pedaling on an indoor bike. What did that look like? What did it feel like? I worked with a designer for that, and also someone called an anthropometric expert.
Michael McGrath 07:22
I read that. I’m not sure I could say it, but I had a crack at it in my head.
Nicole Stanners 07:26
And they’re an expert on body measurements, you know, mapping of sizes and patterns and things. So she was really useful in helping me look at patterns, how things needed to be shaped and sit on the body in order to establish my first proper prototypes.
Michael McGrath 07:44
So there’s that combination between comfort and looks, I guess, isn’t it? That sort of, how can we make it comfortable? How can we make it look? Okay,
Nicole Stanners 07:51
Yeah. And she can also help you commercially looking at, you know, if you’re going to do six sizes, right, the best breadth for each of those size to make it commercially viable and get less returns as well. Yeah. So yeah, when I launched Muze, I think the three big things I wanted to focus on, besides technical performance, was getting a flattering fit, so making sure women felt good. They felt comfortable. They could forget about it and just perform even things down to where the zipper sat and where the prints sat on women. That makes a difference in making you look good as well. The second area was practical design features, so things that are important to men, but mostly to women. So I’ve got things like a ponytail holder in your cap or a heart rate monitor sleeve in your crop top. So different things like that. And then lastly, just making sure that it’s as sustainable as possible. You know, fashion is one of the biggest contributors to climate issues, yeah, so you want to take a step in the right direction. It can’t be perfect from day one, but really trying to do that, and then just creating a brand that really supports women, so helping to overcome barriers and inspiring them to get on the bike.
Michael McGrath 09:00
Yeah, so how did you come up with the name Muze?
Nicole Stanners 09:05
It was funny, because I think, I think the marketing perfectionist in me wanted to absolutely nail it, so I was procrastinating quite a lot. And actually, initially, one of my friends, I had a catch up with her, and she said, Muze, sounds really cool. What about that? And she owned her own business, so she suggested it. And then I thought, actually, that fits really well, because the brand is about inspiring women, having women as the Muze for creating the brand, not men. So yeah, I quite like it.
Michael McGrath 09:34
Yeah. Okay, cool. I like it so memorable. Yeah, you’d be amazed how many tech companies I come across with the most extraordinary names so unmemorable? And I’m like, that is not you’ve not spoken to a marketing person about this. Okay, that’s interesting. So you’ve got your brand. You’ve got and so when did you leave your corporate role?
Nicole Stanners 10:00
Uh, yeah, it was interesting because I was trying to do stuff on the side, and, you know, had had a pretty busy corporate role. And, you know, talking to people now, they always say, you know, you sort of got to jump at some stage, because while you’re trying to do everything, you’re just not putting 100% in. So I was actually at the point at the beginning of 2020 or even 2019 thinking about if I jumped out. Now, could I do consulting on the side or something? AndI was lucky enough that Campari restructured Asia PAC in 2020 so I was able to get a redundancy. So that was a really nice step to move into actually taking it on full time.
Michael McGrath 10:43
So I suppose, essentially, you’re starting with a whole prototyping and then beginning to get products. And that’s all money out the door. Yeah, did you squirrel some money away? Did you have to borrow anything? Well, how did you get it funded?
Nicole Stanners 10:58
Now, everything for me is bootstrapped. So, so, yeah, tried to often, the way, isn’t it? Yeah, I think it has to be. And even looking back now, I think I could have bootstrapped a lot better, you know, I’d have sage advice to give to some people, but, yeah, that’s definitely what I’m doing. I think it’s great, like you really, you know, you come from corporate where you’ve got millions of dollars for budget, and you have to think about every dollar when you’re in your own business.
Michael McGrath 11:24
Yeah, it’s so true that, I mean, necessity is a mother of invention, so if you haven’t got access to capital and cash, you’ve got to find another way. And that’s often part of the part of the testing proving process, I think, with a new business. Yeah. I mean, bearing in mind that 60 or 70% fell within five years. I mean, and you know, over 20% fell in the first year. So you know the odds, you know the odds are stacked against you, so the less you borrow, probably the better. Yeah, yeah, okay, so, and then, how did you go about placing your first order. I mean, that would have been quite a sort of, I don’t know, it’s a big moment, that isn’t it. When you’re, you’re actually, it’s the moment where you say, Okay, can I, can I sell this stuff?
Nicole Stanners 12:12
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That’s quite the quite scary. I think I had a couple of bumps along the way. So my intention was to launch 12 months earlier than I did. In the end, it’s always better to launch coming into the summer season. You know, springtime for a cycling brand,
Michael McGrath 12:29
and that’s springtime in Australia. Yeah. So, yeah. So you’re Australian, selling to Australian market
Nicole Stanners 12:34
Yeah, initially, when you’re global, it’s a little bit different. But yeah, I was working with a factory. I’d prototyped a lot of stuff here in Australia, and then gone to a factory to really perfect it. And when we went to so we were perfecting me as the prototype size, which is like a size eight. And then what we did, we wanted to do, luckily, was we did a size set, so from six to 16 of certain items just to see how the grading had worked and how the pattern worked in different sizes. And that should have worked really well, but it was a disaster. And so something had happened in how the factory had interpreted the grading, and basically the sizes as you got bigger were not fitting in the right places, so, particularly on the bibs. So I had to take a deep breath and say, this is terrible, but it could have been worse. Imagine if I’d gone into production. So it really only cost me the prototypes. But what that also meant is we missed the window launch that year. Interesting. Yeah. So what I did more is sort of pivot and focus on a pre launch phase so that I could then launch the next year. And, yeah, I think
Michael McGrath 13:46
so that was your first major setback. Really, yeah, really. And so, I mean, that was just get back on the bike and start pedaling again, wasn’t it? To use a metaphor,
Nicole Stanners 13:55
I’ve had a few moments since I’ve started where I go. You know, there’s a sense of urgency to push things through, but it’s like, no, do the right thing. You know, what could be the worst scenario of either decision is what I say to myself now, and in that case, it was like, No, take the time and do it in 12 months.
Michael McGrath 14:11
Okay, yeah, no, that’s interesting. Sometimes you’ve got to kind of play the long game, haven’t you? You sort of, yeah, it’s not, it’s never, it’s not a five minute job building a business. I mean, it can look like that when we pick the paper up and we see a success story, which looks like an overnight success, but in reality, it’s often taken years. I mean, I would even, I would even say that yours has taken a lot longer than it looked because all that marketing experience you’re putting in every day, aren’t you one way or another you’re pulling on it.
Nicole Stanners 14:41
Yeah, exactly. And I think I probably got a little more patience, because my background in I’ve worked in various marketing product categories, but in spirits, when you grow a spirits brand, you the best formula is to grow it slowly, so establishing a core community, getting members involved. Influences, and then sort of growing from there, you know, starting in the on premise environment, and then bringing it into the off premise environment. So that’s sort of the mentality I’ve had in growing
Michael McGrath 15:09
as well. So that’s, that’s very interesting, because that’s a sort of, sort of a gorilla approach, in a way, isn’t it? Where you get your early adopters that then become the fans, and so just knowing and understanding that conceptually, and then use it. You’ve used that, I guess, with Muze,
Nicole Stanners 15:24
yeah, yeah, having a spiritual home, etc, yeah, leveraging community, so using a lot of
Michael McGrath 15:29
that, and then being a keen cyclist, yeah, is essential, isn’t it, I guess, in a way, because you know, you’re otherwise, it’s just a product,
Nicole Stanners 15:38
yeah, exactly. And I think you just, you know, whilst you try to listen to everybody else, I think understanding that market as a consumer yourself is always really important, and being connected to the community, knowing,
Michael McGrath 15:50
okay, so that’s interesting. So you’ve, you’ve got a factory, they’re being supportive. Bit of a blip costs you 12 months. Not easy. You eventually get that right, and you put an order in, and then, I presume that’s in the Far East, and then the gear arrives, right. So what? So what was the next step?
Nicole Stanners 16:12
Yeah, well, actually, I produced in Italy. Did you Okay? Wow, yeah. So I think there’s, there’s sort of big hubs of,
Michael McGrath 16:19
yeah, there is, like a reaction. I mean, that’s how the Coronavirus spread, isn’t it? Apparently, though, all the Yeah, exactly, from Wuhan, all the flights for to
Nicole Stanners 16:30
Italy. To Milan, yeah, yeah. So that you know that was one of the challenges when you first start, is a lot of people won’t work with startups, no matter how polished you look and then also the minimum orders high. So I just looked at lots of different options, and I ended up in Italy there. Also, from a sustainability perspective, it’s quite good.
Michael McGrath 16:52
Okay, now that’s interesting. So you’ve got, you’re getting Made in Italy. It’s a big order you’ve put. I had to put your cash out, no doubt. So it arise, I presume you had a plan at that point of how you’re going to sell it, but, but that’s a plan at that stage. So what actually happened? Yeah,
Nicole Stanners 17:10
Actually that part wasn’t too bad, because I think, because I’d had 12 months, I was like, Okay, now I’m going to focus on building the community before and teasing everything before it arrived. So the day I launched, I did a pre launch out to the community. So I’d really focused on building a database and, you know, email, social media following so yeah, day one of pre launch, and then the next couple of days was actual launch. Yeah, when I was really, really happy with that cycle.
Michael McGrath 17:39
So this is online you’ve got, yeah, you’ve got a website which you’d spend time on, yeah, you got an E commerce element to that, and, and so you, you know, you were using social media, I guess that was, you were familiar with what that was going to take. And I suppose is relatively cost effective that,
Nicole Stanners 17:58
yeah, I think, um, I mean, the elements I used were, you know, building my database, so sending out an email, social media, PR ambassadors, you know, connecting into cycling clubs. I think the heyday, really, of E commerce brands was probably around 2013 14, when you didn’t have all the algorithms and things happening. It’s still good, and you still should focus on an organic community. But something that I’m doing more now is, you know, paid advertising in that area. You just can’t get the scale and the reach that you used to, so that has to be part of it as well.
Michael McGrath 18:33
So what was the reception like? It was
Nicole Stanners 18:36
really great. Yeah, you know, a lot of support and and it’s funny, you you, you go through ups and downs, sort of along the journey, and then little things happen that just make your day. I remember, it’s probably about three months ago, a lady, because I’m a new brand, I’m really focused on fit. I do a free fit exchange if you get the wrong size. And a lady had exchanged a pair of bibs, and she sent me a beautiful card back with a beautiful note, just thanking me for what I was doing to cater for women’s cyclists. Yeah, you know, stuff like that just makes you Yes,
Michael McGrath 19:11
I suppose. I mean, we need that kind of encouragement, don’t we, because it sort of endorses what you’re doing, because you can get lost in the detail, and that what fast becomes, that sort of mundaneness of it all, yeah.
Nicole Stanners 19:26
And also you go through, you know, roller coaster initially, of like, no donut days, you know, no sales to start with, and then you’ll get great sales. And, you know, just trying to really understand also what’s going to work as as a marketing lever to bring people in.
Michael McGrath 19:41
So, so you the website is going well. So what are you doing? Are you getting out to the community? Do you go? Are there any kind of trade shows? I mean, what? What are the other avenues that you were looking
Nicole Stanners 19:54
at? Yeah, so I’m doing this is obviously all the online activity. But one of the. Other things I’ve been doing is events. So going to cycling events or triathlon events, I think the most important thing with events is to look at the types of people that are attending. You know, for me, I’m a female brand, so I have to have good representation of women. And I’ve also found events that cater for serious right down to, you know, sort of the amateur. So a really great event for me has been Brisbane cycling festival, okay, you know, they’ve traditionally had a professional series race, a qualifier for World Championships for amateurs right down to a family ride. So you get a lot of females in that Expo. Also who you’re working with as well. Are they establishing a really good flow of athletes through to the expo as well? Yeah, okay, so yeah, they’ve been fantastic. Because I think people your E commerce brand fits really important. People want to try things on. They also get quite excited about meeting the founders and hearing the story as well.
Michael McGrath 21:04
Yeah, okay, and so that. So do you find that? Have you ventured into sponsorship? Yeah. I mean, if you got any other leading female cyclists that you know are endorsing Muze or, I mean,
Nicole Stanners 21:19
at this stage, I mean, I’m working sort of, you know, I’ve got, actually, a retired professional cyclist, Chloe Hosking, who owns her own bike brand as well. She started up. She has been wearing the Muze kit, and we’ve done some things together. We did a collaboration, right a couple of weeks ago. So that’s been great. My focus, though, has been mostly on people that are micro influencers, or they can influence the local community at this stage to get that grassroots happening, and then also doing some community rides and sponsoring those. So in Queensland, I work with a couple of female groups, and so they’re a female tri triathlon group and a cycling group, and so we do collaboration rides with them.
Michael McGrath 22:05
And I know that, you know, cycling is dominated in Europe, right in terms of, perhaps the US, and I know it had a big spike in the UK after the Olympics, but we, how are we doing in Australia with our cycling, and particularly a female cycling we got some good cyclists.
Nicole Stanners 22:23
Yeah, we have, I think, yeah. Australia really punches above its weight in terms it does in so many sports, doesn’t it? Yeah. I mean, you look at, I think, traditional or historically, you, if you’re an Australian, you wanted to cycle professionally, you had to pack your bags up and go off to Europe, sort of solo, no support, right? Whereas these days, you know, there’s more of a transition for athletes to go professional over there, and Australian, Australian teams like J covalula, for example, men and women are Australian. So I think Australia does really well. Cadell Evans is obviously one of France. And you’ve got, you know, Grace Brown won a gold medal at the Olympics last year as
Michael McGrath 23:05
well. Okay, so it’s, it’s happening. It’s important that, isn’t it? That for a sport, it’s the trickle down effects quite phenomenal when you get local successes.
Nicole Stanners 23:15
Yeah, I think the interesting thing about cycling that I’ve found I spoke to, I’ve spoken to many people in the industry as I’ve been developing the brand, just to try to get some learnings for them, to mentor me a little bit in the business journey. And someone said to me, the interesting thing about cycling is that the amateur, everyday weekend warrior doesn’t always even know who some of those professional cyclists are, whereas if you’re in soccer or something like that, you’ve probably got a better sense of that. That’s interesting. Then that’s why sometimes it’s hard if you just focus on endorsing and sponsoring those professional teams, because actually, it’s not going to resonate at that local level with everyone. If you’re a super passionate cyclist, absolutely. But people that ride socially, not often. So what’s important, I think, is to make sure that you really connected at that grassroots level.
Michael McGrath 24:04
Where do you go from here? So, so you, you know, starting to get some traction, you’ve got sales online, I presume. I mean, just before we go to the future, how you have you got over the whole distribution side of things? So, you know, you get the, you know, your your apparel arrives in Australia, and then you’ve got to get it to customers, right? So the challenge with online is that that whole cost of distribution, how’s that? And Australia is a big country, so yeah, you can be sending it all over the place, yeah. So how have you figured that out?
Nicole Stanners 24:37
I think the good thing about launching an E commerce business these days is there’s a lot of templating that happens. So you can set up a Shopify website, which is a platform I’m on, you’ve got plugins that can take you to that distribution and last mile. So at this stage, I work with a plugin called ShipStation, and then also with Australia Post they. Might be a bit more expensive, but at least you know that your package is going to get to the end consumer. So to be honest, that’s probably been an easier part. I think the challenging thing is, I’m getting orders overseas now, so you really need to start thinking about tariff situations, duties. You can put all those disclaimers if you’re shipping from Australia, which I am at the moment, but once you start to get bigger, you need to think about three, pls, where you’re going to base things. So, yeah,
Michael McGrath 25:27
okay, that’s interesting. And I mean, do you have plans internationally? Do you think that’s what you know, that you can end up doing a lot overseas?
Nicole Stanners 25:35
Yeah, I think so. I mean, the beauty of having an E commerce business these days is you can go overseas. And I think to scale, you need to,
Michael McGrath 25:44
okay, and so what’s the future? For me is we’re going to sell it to Adidas for you one day, or May, what I’d love to do,
Nicole Stanners 25:53
I think it’s interesting you look at, I think, the journey of an E commerce business, of most businesses, it’s like you get set up, and now, what I mean, you set up, calibrate scale and, you know, take it into the future, or sell it, or whatever. I’m definitely in calibration stage. So I think a few things, I’m actually changing factories, just looking at something that’s more cost effective and streamlined and can help me in the innovation space and improve cogs. Then the other piece is just really understanding what marketing levers are working best for you. And just I’m in a stage of really tightening everything up. The other thing I’ve done, I think, in terms of the stock, is looking at the sizing that works for me. I was probably surprised that women sort of size 12 upwards, haven’t been catered for very well. So that’s where I’m selling out the sizes so reorientating the whole business in the next stage. I think it’s definitely, you know, growing overseas, and scaling and, yeah, if I could sell the business one day, that would be fantastic. But
Speaker 1 26:59
I suppose the key thing is, is that I just want to talk to you a little bit about the differences between your corporate career and what you’re now seeing. So what, what was it? Do you miss anything about the corporate line?
Nicole Stanners 27:16
I do miss some things. I miss working with people probably more I find myself it’s, it’s, you know, a solo journey could be working from home a lot. So I missed that part of it. It’s interesting, because I’m still doing consulting into FMCG and alcohol, and I do consulting projects, which gives me a little taste of that. But then when I see all the bureaucracy, I don’t, I don’t miss
Michael McGrath 27:41
that. What was the big shock for you? Like, you know, you can simulate working for yourself, but then when you jump and you you jump in and you hold your nose, so what? What were the things that you weren’t expecting in the first 12 or 18 months that you were
Nicole Stanners 27:55
You hear all the people say these things about going out on your own. You hear it, but you don’t really understand it, which I think, until you’re in that space. For me, it’s like there’s always something to do. The other surprising me is probably, you know, I’ve always been quite motivated and determined and everything. But I think what’s been flexed more in this space is my hustle, yeah, like, I’m not scared of, well, I still scared, but I just do more of negotiating, asking people for help, which I probably wasn’t good at before, also just being, you know, running and making decisions with not as much information or time To ponder. You just have to go. Or, you know, ask yourself a quick question, is this going to change the trajectory, trajectory of the business tomorrow, in the future,
Michael McGrath 28:48
or not? So you’re moving, you’re moving faster, would you say, than in years? Yeah, exactly. I think we see that a lot. We hear that a lot, but it’s just faster
Nicole Stanners 28:59
and less ready. Yeah. Hey, less perfect. I was a bit of a before,
Michael McGrath 29:04
yes. Okay, now that’s that’s interesting, and you’re developing those hustle skills. That’s part of the necessity, isn’t it? You know, if you asking for discounts and yeah, you know, changing minimum orders and yeah, being cheeky, I guess. Yeah, yeah,
Nicole Stanners 29:19
they can always say, No, yeah,
Michael McGrath 29:21
yeah, yeah. And so are you enjoying it?
Nicole Stanners 29:27
Yeah, I do. I do love it. Okay? I think over my corporate journey, I think, you know, I when I started, or even say 10 years ago, I didn’t think I wanted to start my own business, okay? But I think along that journey, I’ve ended up in probably more entrepreneurial roles or situations in corporate. Yeah, that really gave me a buzz, and so that started to direct me to this space. And yeah, I’m loving it. I’m loving the part of learning new skills. I really like seeing the. Immediacy with things as well. And you know, if I can create a brand that’s remembered for challenging the status quo or the orthodoxy that is in cycling at the moment, and really support the women who buy me, it’s
Michael McGrath 30:16
interesting. You know, we, you know, we talk to lots of business owners and, you know, have built, who’ve built businesses over 20, 3040, years. And, you know, we, we, the last thing that an owner wants to think about is selling it, because that’s a daft idea, really, especially when you’re building it. Yeah. And now cancer takes care itself, if that’s the thing. But I think the main thing is enjoying it. And then, you know, de risking a bit as you go. You don’t want to be living on the edge all your life, right? And that’s what you’re saying, really, that you’re in that phase of tidying it up and and stiffening up a bit, and, you know, making it, making sure it’s sustainable and stuff. And I think if you’re enjoying it, there is a sense of achievement and and also, there can be a sense of freedom. There’s always something to do, but you you’re not actually reporting in anymore and writing reports for other people, are you? Yeah,
Nicole Stanners 31:13
and you can set, set things to your vision. I think probably at times I was trying to be too challenging. You know, I could see opportunities I felt were worthwhile going after, but then when it gets into the corporate space, it’s too risky. So, you know, being an entrepreneur, you can start to satisfy, yeah, that need. So
Michael McGrath 31:34
how would you develop your vision for moving overseas? Where do you go first? What do you you know, how does that? I mean, I presume you try and repeat what you’ve done here. Do you?
Nicole Stanners 31:46
Yeah, I think that the I’m not saying this is my intention. I’ve done a little bit of testing, you know, I’ve got an ambassador in New Zealand, and we’ve started to talk about things there. I think it’s important to understand the structure a little bit there. I mean, I’ve worked in regional and global roles within corporate and I know, you know, there might be, say, 60% of it that you can plug and play into different places, but you need to know how to adapt it to that market. I think the easiest first step is to go somewhere that’s most similar. So New Zealand, UK, you know, maybe one state of the US. So, for example, in California, I’m talking to someone at the moment who has a marketplace website she’s taking to physical that’s female focus. Okay, so that’s a really nice step in the water to see how that might work. Yeah.
Michael McGrath 32:32
And do you, do you ship direct from your manufacturer to them, or do you shipping out of Australia? What at the
Nicole Stanners 32:39
moment, I’m just shipping out of Australia. I think I need to ship from Australia to get proof of concept. I mean, my whole idea on the whole thing is proof of concept, then scale and solution.
Michael McGrath 32:50
And I mean, how your money? I mean, I’ve done a fair bit of that sort of consumer product, you might say. And the perennial challenge is inventory, right? My God, the ultimate crystal ball gaze, right? How many Shall I order, right? And how many can I sell? Which is more important? So, I mean, I presume you’re kind of managing that the best you can really,
Nicole Stanners 33:16
yeah. I mean, that’s really hard. I’d add another one to the mix is, how many will the factory let me make or not? How many are they make? Going to make me make? Yeah, I think that would be another big learning. You never know you like you start with this product range, and you don’t necessarily know what’s going to sell. Like a good example, a couple of things that I’ve probably tweaked over time when I did research with my mates and different people on colors. Lots of women say I don’t want to wear pink. Yeah, pink has sold its socks off. Yeah. Also, my other point before about, you know, the sizing, you know, you do see the majority of cyclists are probably those smaller sizes, but that’s like the red ocean, where everyone’s focusing, whereas women of bigger sizes. They’re not being catered for. So I
Michael McGrath 34:03
must say, I mean, you don’t see many fat cyclists, right? And that’s for sure. And if you do, they’re not fat for very long normally. So I presume there is a predominance to smaller sizes. But you’re saying, No, you’re seeing larger size. I think that’s, yeah.
Nicole Stanners 34:17
I go back to, I really love a book called Blue Ocean Strategy, yeah. And basically, that’s all about, you know, not fishing in the red ocean, where the sharks are looking for blue ocean, where you can create your own rules. I think it’s really competitive in that, you know, in the cycling market. And, you know, I think women that are smaller sizes are probably reasonably well catered for by unisex brands. You know, issues with with pattern making doesn’t come into play until you grade it, and then the issues get bigger. So I think a lot of women that are bigger aren’t catered for. So that’s going to be a big focus for me, and sort of blue ocean, I suppose,
Michael McGrath 34:59
as some. Cycling is growing, and female sports growing. I suppose the trick is trying to tap into that, you know, and that’s for the sport itself. Is, you know, how can we get more people cycling that aren’t, aren’t doing much movement? I mean, the great benefit of cycling is it’s, it’s easy on your joints, isn’t it, relative to running, say, yeah, and particularly for a bit
Nicole Stanners 35:22
bigger Yeah. And you can look at the stats like I had a good look at there’s participation surveys that are done on cycling. And women that cycle once a week. There’s about 330,000 of those. So they’re regular, whereas women who actually ride, it’s about 780,000 a year. So you know, could you get more of those casual cycles? And that’s,
Michael McGrath 35:43
that’s in Australia, is it? Yeah,
Nicole Stanners 35:45
that’s yeah.
Michael McGrath 35:46
So they’re, they’re quite big numbers, aren’t they? Yeah. Excellent. Look. That’s been such fun to find out about your journey. Look before we kind of let you go. So tell us a key attribute that you’ve had to draw on to really get this thing going and and keep keep yourself moving forward. I mean, what? What attribute? Is it persistence, or is it something else?
Nicole Stanners 36:12
Yeah, I’d say persistence and resilience. Yeah, yeah, persistence that, I think you, you know, we talk about business failure, but I think they probably just give up too early. You’ve got to go through the roller coaster, learn from it, and be persistent. And also, I think be resilient, because there’s some tough days, but then there’s some good days, like when you get a card from a customer, for example. Yeah,
Michael McGrath 36:36
no, isn’t that true? So, yeah, Persistence is key, and a re key and reoccurring theme. Really, you’ve got to keep at it. It takes much longer to to build something good. Takes much longer than you’d like it to Yeah, definitely. Interestingly, before we go, there’s about 22% of female founders in Australia. So if you look at the million businesses, about 22% of them are have been founded by females. And you know that probably needs to rise, and maybe people can look to you and look to others and jump in, hold your nose and see what happens.
Michael McGrath 37:18
Yeah, thanks for coming in.
Nicole Stanners 37:19
Thanks for having me
Michael McGrath 37:24
So there you have it. Nicole saw a problem, verified it, mused on the idea, then, after biding her time, took some action, more power to her and others like her. Quick piece of trivia, the country with the most female entrepreneurs is Ghana, at 47% Come on, ladies, there’s work to do. If you want some great female cycling apparel, be sure to check out Muze. The details will be in the show notes. Now, before I go, a shout out to Oasis Partners who sponsor this podcast. The corporate advice for the practical buyers. Call the guys at Oasis Partners. Now if you like this content, be sure to tell your friends. And if you’re feeling really generous, leave us a review until next time you.
Link to previous episodes: https://www.oasispartners.com.au/troubleshooters-podcast/