Zapato FEROZ Update: How We 6x'ed Our Business And Launched A New Product

Laura Garcia Perdomo

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Laura Garcia Perdomo

Founder, zapato FEROZ

$500K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

zapato FEROZ

zapatoferoz.es

from Paterna, España

started September 2016

$500,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

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Want more updates on zapato FEROZ? Check out these stories:

1. How We Created A $65K/Month Healthy Children's Footwear Brand That Sells Almost Everything On Launch Day (2020) ➜

This is a follow up story for zapato FEROZ. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published about 4 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

Hello again!

My name is Lau and I am the shoemaker and soul in zapato FEROZ, a minimalist footwear brand that is respectful of children's feet.

We love to offer a shoe that adapts to the foot and not the other way around. Our main clients are families who care about the health and well-being of their children.

Although our billing is quite similar to a roller coaster, due to the out-of-stock we have continuously, we are currently billing around 400K per month on average.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?

It's only been a year since our Starter Story article and it's been insane in every way.

We have multiplied our business by x6, both in terms of production, turnover, team growth or new product lines.

Incredibly, we have not yet been able to satisfy all the demand for shoes that we have. We like to grow step by step to be able to do things well and not have to throw back too many steps if we make mistakes.

A few months ago we launched the pre-sale of our first line of minimalist footwear for adults, and more than 4000 customers trusted us.

Our growth is being completely organic, thanks to word of mouth from our charming community and the spread of our brand among families.

We would love to test some marketing campaigns and promotional actions that we have planned for a long time, but we have only activated those that do not involve investment, mainly different and fun actions through social networks, such as our deep squat Instagram contest.

We have increased the team from 2 to 6 people, something completely necessary to be able to maintain this sustained and sustainable growth. It has been great to be able to share our passion for what we do with our new members, who are also FEROZ shoe customers.

A few months ago we launched the pre-sale of our first line of minimalist footwear for adults, and more than 4000 customers trusted us.

It will be great that moms and dads can feel the same sensation on their feet that their children have.

Get out of your hole zone, out of your comfort zone, share your experience with other entrepreneurs, with other companies, with other projects ... you have no idea of all that all these things can bring to your day.

Thanks to the work of our team, to creating a product with a lot of love and giving a service to all the families that trust us, we have loyal customers who remain with us over time, beyond a simple commercial relationship ... they are part of the FEROZ shoe family.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

After a few months working with the new members of the team, we have realized that this is something that we should have done before.

It is not possible to function as a ma+n orchestra and be able to grow a company in an agile and sustainable way, at least when we are already talking about important business figures.

We have also learned to protect what we do, what we create, what we love ... and lately we are much more in contact with lawyers than we would like.

It is necessary to clearly separate friendship from business, which can start as a nice business relationship without any written agreement ... it can end when things go wrong not only with the business relationship, but also with a friendship.

Everything in writing, everything very clear, all the stipulated casuistry ... let's avoid leaving loose ends and aspects to the free interpretation of people in times of pressure.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

We currently have a great project in hand, something that excites us and we think it will be very interesting for our community.

We are going to start creating a physical space where in addition to showing our products, talks and training related to childhood can be held, a place where you can share experiences and where the little ones can have a great time.

We are also starting with the adult footwear lines, a new level in our product line, which surely takes us a lot of work, but also a lot of joys.

At the growth level, we are considering our future ... we are still not clear about it, how far do we want to go? What do we want to offer to our community? Is it worth growing and growing, season after season?

We know that at some point we will start to sell seriously outside our borders, although the time has not yet come.

Have you read any good books in the last year?

With the new signings in the team, we have had to learn to hire and we have had to train. A book that we have loved has been "Who: The A Method for Hiring"

We also continue to train in aspects related to the health, growth and well-being of children, through courses, experts and books such as "Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children"

Although lately we have been somewhat disconnected from the podcast world, some like "It is not your business" by Víctor Correal (https://www.noesasuntovuestro.com/) has been a fun and incredible story to follow day by day.

You can always learn from other projects, even if they don't have so much to do with our business.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

Do things with love, be different, follow our own ideas and focus on doing something with value for our clients.

On many occasions it seems that we pay more attention to the opinions of others than to our own ideas to the philosophy by which our project was born and to which we should be faithful.

Although I know it is obvious: "Never compete on prices", there is always someone who will make things cheaper than you.

And finally, get out of your hole zone, out of your comfort zone, share your experience with other entrepreneurs, with other companies, with other projects ... you have no idea of all that all these things can bring to your day.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

We love recruiting our candidates for new positions in our community.

It is something that is working very well for us to date and whenever we can we will continue with this model.

If at any time we need a more specific profile that I cannot cover with our community members, we will be happy to update this information through Starterstory as well.