Shower Toga Update: We Scrapped Facebook Ads And Pivoted To TikTok Instead [$20K/Month]
This is a follow up story for Outdoor Adventure Solutions Inc Shower Toga. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published about 3 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I’m Kressa Peterson, founder of Shower Toga. Shower Toga is a waterproof changing garment that allows you to change clothes and get cleaned up out in the open, providing you with the privacy you need when no shower or changing facilities are available. You can read my original Starter Story here. Shower Toga is our flagship product, and we’ve recently added an inclusive Shower Toga Plus as well as Shower To Go, a handheld shower device.
Who are our customers? A better question might be who aren't our customers? While we started out with Spartan racers in mind, after four and half years in business, we've learned that our customers are other athletes like cyclists, surfers, and other beachgoers. Our customers are also healthcare workers decontaminating after a COVID shift, long-term care patients and workers, first responders, disaster relief and preparedness services, parents, and now with Shower To Go, pet owners, too. So, who aren't our customers? Shower Toga is a unique product that has never existed before so it has been difficult to educate the consumer but we are getting there and the growth is finally starting to ramp up. Slow and steady wins the race.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Our sales are improving month over month, but here’s the thing… I didn’t invent a better mousetrap; my flagship product isn’t a universally recognized thing like a shoelace. I invented a new thing that didn’t exist before that nobody has ever heard of and doesn’t know they need, so product education is necessary and constant.
It’s hard to grow and scale a product that did not exist before your product existed. Also, my product isn’t a retail shelf product, because no one knows what to do with it until we show them. So, growth isn’t explosive, it’s more of a slow burn, but I’m in it for the long haul.
My focus lately has been on rebranding; as we become more of a company than just one product, we’ve decided to rebrand as Outdoor Adventure Solutions. Rebranding is difficult and involves overhauling the website and lots of other stuff, but that's something we're working on right now.
Another exciting thing happening recently is Shower Toga product testing by the Army in Arkansas. I’ve gotten several messages over the last few years from female soldiers saying things like, “I wish I’d had this in Afghanistan.” Then, I was in a meeting in which a buyer from the Army happened to be at the time, and she saw Shower Toga and said, “Women in the Army should have this product.” She put us in touch with another buyer and they’re doing product testing. We’re not sure where that’s going, but it’s exciting stuff.
Over the last two years, we’ve donated $128,000 worth of products to healthcare workers and first responders during COVID and to migrant children at the border through the Office of Refugee Resettlement. We’ve been in discussions with Louisiana’s Cajun Navy, too. We’re working together to figure out how to get Shower Togas into their disaster relief emergency kits.
In addition to all of that going on, we debuted a new product called the Shower To Go. We previously sold a portable shower solution, but it had issues. There wasn’t a way to turn the water off, which caused spills, and people kept losing one of the parts. We knew we needed a better solution for our customers.
Our new solution allows you to shut off the water in transport, and it is a one-piece operation with no parts to lose and a built-in handle. Shower To Go was intended as an add-on product for Shower Toga, but it works just as well as a standalone product for kids, dogs, or even gardening. We’re excited about it!
I probably haven’t done enough to increase traffic and sales because of my focus on the above things, but we have embraced TikTok as a marketing channel. There’s a bit of a learning curve if you’re not already on TikTok, but we’ve gotten a lot of exposure through viral videos. We’ve had two videos go viral with millions of views, and those equated to sales. Paid ads on TikTok don’t work nearly as well as organic viral TikToks.
We shifted our focus to TikTok because Facebook ads are no longer reliable. Earlier this year, Apple made changes to iOS that reduced the amount of user data that apps have access to, basically making Facebook ads useless to us. Facebook ads are an absolute disaster now, and I don’t see it getting better. If someone tells you they have all the answers, don’t believe them. To be frank, Facebook and Instagram ads suck ass now unless you have a massive marketing budget you’re willing to gamble and lose, and we don’t have that!
Customer acquisition may be harder for us, but once we get them, our customers tend to be very happy. We have very few returns. We have almost no returns from direct-to-consumer sales, less than 5 since we started a business, and less than 20 on Amazon. People tend to love their Shower Togas!
We wanted it to be durable enough to last at least a year of regular use with proper care. It turns out that Shower Toga is such a great quality product that people tell me they’re still using theirs from the original Kickstarter - and that was four years ago! So, that means they haven’t needed to come back for replacements. They do come back to buy additional Shower Togas for their car or work or to buy more as gifts, though!
Video: Shower Toga on TikTok
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
One of our biggest challenges has been the Facebook changes I mentioned before. We spent time trying to figure out workarounds only to finally come to terms with the fact that there’s not workaround. Joe Weeks, who started out with us as our social media manager and has been instrumental in all areas of our business growth, is a Facebook rock star and has been pivotal in helping me navigate this issue and find better solutions like TikTok.
I guess another challenge I have is that I want to put my foot on the gas pedal because I know how much people love the product, but the truth is that I don’t have the budget to market it, and I’m not willing to raise capital by giving away more of my business. I feel the responsibility to Mark Cuban. He believed in me, and I take his commitment seriously. I’m not willing to gamble like that with other people’s money, and that’s what a huge marketing spend feels like to be - a gamble.
Struggling is just what it is. Being an entrepreneur is a struggle. Expect mistakes, anticipate the need to pivot, and if you can’t do that then maybe consider finding something else to do.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
Forces beyond my control, namely the pandemic, showed me uses for Shower Toga that I’d never imagined before. Our product use broadened from athletes and outdoor enthusiasts to help solve the very serious real-world problem of decontamination for healthcare workers and first responders. Suddenly our product was helping the helpers keep their families safe when they went home.
I mentioned earlier I gave away all my inventory during COVID. I had inventory, and my thoughts were only on helping people survive and protect their families. You know, just give away everything you can and see if it can help even just one person. It felt apocalyptic at the time like we needed to just do whatever we could. I guess my biggest lesson was “don’t give all your shit away!”
I didn’t really plan, I just started emptying my warehouse. I ran out of inventory because I literally gave it all away. I had no inventory for three months. We did not fully appreciate the delays that Covid had caused, in the supply chain, at the time and we just assumed we could get faster. Inventory got held up at the ports and something that would usually have taken two weeks was now taking three months or more.
The lesson I learned was that rather than getting so caught up in the camaraderie and unity of purpose, I should have been more strategic with my giving.
Another lesson I learned was a hard one; I’m ashamed to say that I was ignorant about my sizing. Sizing Shower Toga as One Size Fits All, in the beginning, makes me cringe now. In the process of donating products to healthcare workers and first responders, we received feedback from hundreds of people saying One Size Fits All didn’t actually fit them, and that Shower Toga was too small.
We replied and asked those people for bust and waist measurements, and we took those replies and compiled them. We also took measurements from the largest clothing sizes produced and added on to that. Shower Toga Plus was born out of that feedback, and it now makes up around 50% of the Shower Togas we sell. We took the original, which goes up to 66” circumference, and increased it to 80” and made it 4” longer so the length wasn’t an issue either.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
My focus will be on rebranding to Outdoor Adventure Solutions. When rebranding is complete, we’ll work on expanding into other outdoor hygiene solutions. We’ve got some great ideas in the pipeline, things like a wearable towel for after Shower Toga use, which I’m really excited about.
What else am I excited about? Literally everything. I’m excited about everything I’ve talked about, and I’m the most excited about getting Shower Togas anywhere there is a natural disaster. Look what just happened in Florida. Disaster victims deserve access to cleanliness and good hygiene while maintaining privacy in places like shelters.
Our five-year plan is more of the same: to expand the outdoor hygiene market, to get into disaster relief - I would love to get something going with Red Cross and FEMA - and to continue to educate people on what Shower Toga is and how it can help them. We plan to continue our slow and steady expansion by not taking out loans or raising capital by selling off more of our business.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
I don’t read self-help books or business books. I sometimes listen to podcasts. I listen to Joe De Sena’s Spartan Up podcast. He has some very interesting topics. He doesn’t just talk about Spartan - he talks about resiliency, entrepreneurship, health and fitness, motivation, etc. If I’m listening to a podcast, it’s usually Joe De Sena.
Also, I’m not embarrassed to say that I watch the Kardashians! My daughter was watching them one day while I was at her house, and I asked her why she was watching them. She said, “Mom, they are so smart. You would love them if you met them” I sat down and watched an episode, and now I watch all the time. Those bitches are some really smart, kick ass businesswomen.
I’ve grown to admire and respect their work ethic, and I can even relate to a small portion of it even though I don’t have that kind of wealth. I relate to the mental struggles and everything they go through to grow their businesses. I just find their business savvy really compelling.
I have to mention here that I’m also obsessed with Sarah Blakely of Spanx. If you’ve heard me talk at all before you probably know that since I talk about her a lot. If I could meet one female entrepreneur, it would be her. She’s also a guest Shark. I’m just weirdly obsessed with her. We both hate flying and love vodka, so we’re basically soul sisters. She seems fun and funny, she has kids and a husband, and she hustles like a motherfucker. I just feel like we should be friends.
Another reason that I feel like I don’t need self-help books is… I do have Mark’s ear. I ask him questions, and he does give me advice. I could read or listen to a self-help book, or I could go straight to the source and ask Mark. He’s great about getting back to me. I’m inspired by his dedication to his Shark Tank entrepreneurs. We are blessed to have him. Instead of reading an entire book, I get the cliff notes from Mark and I trust what he tells me!
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
Don’t be an entrepreneur if you’re not okay with struggling. You’re going to struggle. You’re going to wonder why you’re doing this for what amounts to maybe 80 cents per hour. I didn’t take a salary for two years. I started taking a salary, but it was only $1300 per month net. I had to stop paying my salary during COVID when I started giving everything away. I wasn’t liquid enough to reorder and also pay myself. I’m still not paying myself a salary. It might be another year before I do, and it will still probably be only $1300/month.
Struggling is just what it is. Being an entrepreneur is a struggle. Expect mistakes, anticipate the need to pivot, and if you can’t do that then maybe consider finding something else to do. There’s nothing wrong with doing something else. You have to be little nuts to be an entrepreneur, which works for me because I am nuts. But for sure it’s not for everybody. It’s really really hard.
At the end of the day, you have to have a passion for the end goal. If I was just selling Shower Togas for people to clean themselves up at the beach, I’m not sure I’d still be doing it. It’s too hard. But the end goal has always been disaster relief, the unhoused market, women in the military, etc. That’s what keeps me doing it.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
I’m not hiring at the moment, since I’m not even paying myself. I’m really good at networking, connecting people, and making things happen both for myself and for other people. Joe Weeks helps me with social media work, Amanda Durdin does copywriting and editing for me, Katlyn Hoyer helps me with organic social media content, and our son Conner happens to be a very successful action sports videographer - on occasion I can beg him to make some time for his Mom’s company.
None of these team members are Shower Toga employees, but we work together in a way that’s beneficial for all of us, and I’m happy to make introductions to them to anyone that is looking for good people!
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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