Avalon Fynn-Quirk KIND BOD founder

What’s your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

Having become a first time mum early in 2020 and losing my job due to covid soon after, I decided it was time for a career change. Through the joyous rollercoaster of motherhood, I soon learnt that there’s no downtime or time for rest and relaxation. My only place of solitude to rest, recuperate and re-energize was during my daily bath or shower. This is where I decided to create a little luxury for myself and wellbeing to indulge in during these times of the day. As they helped me so much I decided that this was my career change, to build my own business and thus KIND BOD was born.

Describe the process of launching the business.

When I decided I was going to create my own business I started a course from Foundr called Start and Scale. This gave me a path to follow to build my brand as well as some great tips and tricks. While I began to research, manufacture and build my products and website behind the scenes, I also focused on building up my social audience via instagram and facebook. Watching the analytics of my posts helped me shape the brand I was able to launch. I started to see a pattern of the images my audience was interested in and used that as my brand inspo for packaging and campaign imagery. I worked on this during the night as well as during my daughter’s nap times which generally were no longer than 30 minutes at that stage. Using my time strategically was everything! I wanted to make sure that every minute she was awake I was present, and every time she was asleep, I was working on the business. Who needs sleep right? Ha! I planned my week around working my days like this. Sunday was my day to organize. I would spend the first half of the day with my family, and in the afternoon and night I would be cleaning and food prepping so that I didn’t lose time doing this during those precious nap time minutes.

As I no longer had a stable income in my near future, carefully managing my finances was crucial. I didn’t have the funds to be splurging on expensive marketing. My main focus prior to launch was to build up a decent following on socials and an email subscription list so that I had an engaged audience to present my brand to. Consistency was key here. I was posting at least once a day, making sure to engage with followers and the social community as well as testing out tiktok (which I am still learning). I also teamed up with a bunch of beautiful brands to launch a giveaway which was super successful for the brands involved as well as my business. This was the quickest way to gain followers and a good way to provide sneak peaks of our product. It also caught the eyes of some amazing retailers that I have since been in contact with for wholesale.

Through joining my local mothers’ group, I was able to meet some amazing ladies who were super supportive and also working on their own businesses. I was then introduced to multiple small business mum networking groups which has also been super beneficial to bounce ideas off and ask for advice. These groups also helped to build up a following and add consistent engagement to my posts.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Good kind and authentic communication, beautiful packaging and continuous fresh content on socials.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

Amazing! I truely didn’t expect the response I have had since opening wholesale. I launched wholesale in June and sold out late July. One of our local retailers selling out 4 times in that same month! Since then we have had on average 2 wholesale requests each week. We have also been given the opportunity to launch in the Showfields stores in the US in 2022 which has blown me away. My brand is still in its early days but I feel it has achieved so much already. The future of Kind Bod is looking incredibly bright with new products, collaborations
and launching internationally in the future pipeline.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Social connection is key! I try to communicate directly with my followers, retailers, buyers, artists ect via DM in an authentic non creepy way. This could be as simple as answering an insta story quiz or poll. This has often resulted in both B2B and B2C customers.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

Shopify, mailchimp, canva, planoly, instagram, facebook, pinterest

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

I have watched evertyhing possible from the Foundr business as well as Gary V. I find youtube and podcasts super motivational and I often listen while I am working.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

I guess I would say to try and surround yourself with supportive likeminded people. It can be super tough when you feel like you are doing it alone and don’t hesitate on launch, just get it out there.

Where can we go to learn more?

Our website – https://kindbod.com.au/ Or our instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kindbod/