{"id":37553,"date":"2023-10-20T14:50:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-slim-margins-triggered-a-strategy-rethink-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:50:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:50:48","slug":"how-slim-margins-triggered-a-strategy-rethink-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-slim-margins-triggered-a-strategy-rethink-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How slim margins triggered a strategy rethink &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"90\" height=\"110\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/my-best-mistake-thurin-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"my-best-mistake-thurin-thumb\" title=\"my-best-mistake-thurin-thumb\"\/><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-19113\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"my-best-mistake-thurin-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/my-best-mistake-thurin-thumb.jpg\" height=\"110\" width=\"90\" \/>Expanding overseas is the goal of many Australian business owners, such as Sharon Thurin, founder of Victoria-based business Slim Secrets, which is gradually establishing a global presence.<\/p>\n<p>  <span id=\"more-7426\"><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Slim Secrets is a range of nutritional snacks designed to curb cravings in between meals and is stocked in Australian supermarkets and health outlets.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Australia, Slim Secrets is available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Bahrain, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji and several smaller Asian markets.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thurin spent the bulk of her early career in her husband\u2019s pharmacy business. As a health and wellness coach, she founded Slim Secrets out of a desire to address unhealthy snacking habits.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Her idea for a healthy snack range quickly evolved into a global business. But as Thurin explains, there are often unseen obstacles entrepreneurs encounter when they expand overseas.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI launched Slim Secrets at the end of 2005\u2026 About two years into the business, we started shipping to Canada and also to the US,\u201d Thurin says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thurin says she wasn\u2019t prepared for the complications of doing business in the US and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I wasn\u2019t prepared for] the layers involved in terms of marketing, and everybody takes a cut in the US and Canada. In the end, there were such little margins,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor example, we were in a chain of health food stores and they do tastings in-store. With all the products they use for those tastings, they ask for payback.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey insist on advertising in certain magazines and, again, we had to pay for it\u2026 In the end, I was having to pay back almost as much as I received. It was a very good lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rather than pull out of the US and Canada, Thurin simply stopped supplying to those markets, which, according to her, reaffirmed the demand for her products.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe best thing was we saw there was good demand for our products\u2026 I still get emails from people saying, \u2018Why aren\u2019t you here? We would love to see your brand here\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Having learnt an expensive lesson, Thurin is now approaching the US and Canadian markets from a different angle.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re speaking with a businessman who\u2019s looking at licensing the product in the US. We\u2019re about 98% of the way there,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis guy\u2019s American and he saw the products in China, loved them and asked us if he could license the brand over there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll be looking at royalties for that. They oversee everything, so we don\u2019t have to worry about legalities or anything else\u2026 It\u2019s really very exciting. [That should happen] in about six months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Having changed tack in its most challenging markets, Slim Secrets has been able to focus on ramping up its efforts locally, launching a new range in partnership with Michael Klim.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe co-branded using the Milk Active brand, which is powered by Slim Secrets. We\u2019re working so well together and people are loving the product,\u201d Thurin says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Slim Secrets has also signed an exclusive deal with women\u2019s fitness chain Fernwood Fitness.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As a result of these partnerships, Thurin is confident the company could double its revenue to reach around $3 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As simple as it sounds, she believes the secret behind the brand\u2019s success is in its subtle points of difference.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur brand is more a lifestyle snack. It\u2019s not your typical Weight Watchers brand \u2013 it can sit anywhere on the shelf. It sits in the supermarket in the diet section but it could sit in the sports section,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust try to differentiate yourself. Competing with such big companies, we had to find small things to differentiate ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been in this for nearly six years and I learn something new every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Expanding overseas is the goal of many Australian business owners, such as Sharon Thurin, founder of Victoria-based business Slim Secrets,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}