Leather Footwear Supplies - Meet Lisa Koba Of Cheeky Little Soles

By sandy.naidu | Category: Home & Work Supplies

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My guest today is Lisa Koba of Cheeky Little Soles. Lisa sells unique, top quality, stylish and reasonably priced leather shoes for babies. These are soft, stay-on and non slip shoes - ideal for 0 to 2 years old. I have browsed through her range on her website and they look very cute - adorable!!! These shoes have been received extremely well by the market. Lisa has now expanded her product range into ladies leather slippers, convenient leather bibs and polar boots. The leather bibs are easy to clean and they also have a handy magnetic clasp that won’t pull or tangle hair, can be stuck and stored on the fridge and are easy to keep clean.

Read and Be Inspired…..

How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Cheeky Little Soles began early in 2005, when I searched for a way to keep my 6 month old daughters socks on and to stop her from slipping on our floorboards at our home in her early attempts at learning to stand.

I saw a gap in the market for top quality, stylish and reasonably priced soft soled leather baby shoes. Not one to sit back, I set about designing my own range.

After many months of research, designing and sourcing, the first range of Cheeky Little Soles footwear emerged onto the market. The response to the range, both from customers and retailers was fantastic, Mums and bubs throughout Australia and New Zealand just adored Cheeky Little Soles.

Can you briefly tell us what you did to take your business from idea to production stage? (Basically how did you go about finding the manufacturers, did you do market research, did you have to get any special tests done for the product and did you have to get funding from banks for the project and anything else you might want to add…?)

Once I had the idea that I wanted to design and manufacture baby shoes I put together an extensive business plan which included market analysis, finance analysis, marketing strategies etc. I had never prepared a business plan before, but it was a learning experience and I drew on lots of different resources including joining business forums.

Next I sourced the world the world for manufacturers to make the product. I came to a lot of dead ends, but at each dead end I asked if they could refer me onto any other contacts they felt maybe able to assist me. From there I had a selection of my designs made into samples. From there it was a process of elimination and negotiation. Negotiating can be complex when you are dealing with different countries, but there are resources out there that can assist.

It’s not easy juggling business and two small children. Can you give us some of your time management tips?

I think the main key to time management is being super organized and having supportive people surrounding you.

I am always working on my ‘things to do list’. I also have a yearly schedule which includes deadlines for designing, manufacturing, advertising, trade shows etc.

Being a mum and running your own business is no 9-5 job. I work at any and all hours of the day, 7 days a week. I work whenever is suitable for both myself and my family.

What is the best advice you ever received about running a business?

“Work smarter not harder”, which is now my motto. When running a business you are expected to be a ‘jack of all trades’ and it is very difficult to be good at everything. So in working smarter I have outsourced any tasks that I felt someone else could do better or more effectively or efficiently.

In the initial days did you ever want to give up?

No, never. I absolutely love my business, the products I bring to the public and what I do. Sure we all have our good days and our bad days, but if you are driven, passionate and make smart business choices, giving up is never an option.

Finally, your five keys to success?

1. Be passionate about what you do
2. Be organized
3. Believe in yourself and your products
4. Set and achieve your goals
5. And of course work smarter not harder