Female Founders: Tanya Vanden Bosch of Ergo Designs On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed As A Woman Founder
/
Positivity: I can not tolerate negativity. It’s just soul-sucking and draining. As a founder, you have to keep your head up, believe in yourself, your product and maintain a ‘glass half full’ mentality. For example, I spent an abundance of money with a distribution partnership that ultimately did not pan out. I could focus on the amount of money spent without return, but instead, I am grateful for the relationship because it tipped me off to a retail platform I may not have otherwise found, leading me to two of the biggest retail opportunities in my business so far. A pricey tip, sure, but reaching a top goal I set to achieve from the beginning is money well spent.
Aspart of my interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tanya Vanden Bosch. Tanya Vanden Bosch is the inventor of the Bath Bean®, founder and CEO of Ergo Designs, Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her ‘no excuses’ attitude and positive mindset have helped her navigate the invention and patent processes, build her brand and company, launch a startup straight into a pandemic, tackle national retail negotiations and learn on-boarding platforms, all while facing the most challenging task of raising her two teenagers. Tanya is a determined and resilient leader who is laying the groundwork to make the Bath Bean® a household name.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
After I had my son, Jack, in 2005 I drew a bath desperate to relieve my tailbone pain after an exhausting 36 hour labor and delivery. I was so eager to relax and found that I only lasted a few minutes in the bath after experiencing even more pain when I tried to recline and couldn’t stop sliding down in the tub. I held onto the sides of my bathtub to try and stay in place, which ended up creating even more tension in my body while pushing my tailbone onto the hard tub surface. I knew there had to be a better way, though I didn’t have a clear vision of what the solution was at the time. I sat on the ‘idea’ for another decade.
The turning point was in 2015 when I divorced and began to reinvent my life and get back to being my true best self. I was faced with an “it’s now or never” moment after watching the movie Joy, and decided that the best thing to do was invest in my idea to build a future for myself and for my children.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
One of the major items on my list to tackle was diving into analytics after my first full year of advertising and marketing strategies to see what worked and what didn’t. I was about to email my digital asset manager and I got two orders back to back. Then another. And another. I shot him a quick email, trying to locate the source of the sales. I didn’t have any ads, influencers or PR lined up at the moment, so the guessing game began. He emailed back saying it appeared to be coming from an Instagram story. More new orders, then more. My email sounded like a slot machine! We still had no idea. Then came an email from a customer in Sweden asking if I could ship internationally as a gift for his girlfriend. We went back and forth and that prompted me to open international shipping. I asked him how he found me and he said his girlfriend had seen an IG story of a woman loving the Bath Bean®. I had no idea who the influencer was. I dug a little deeper and found that her husband was an organic customer and gave her a Bath Bean® as a gift…and she happens to have 1 million followers. I was so elated he found me and she has graciously posted a couple more times out of pure love for the product…and sales skyrocketed every time. Never underestimate the power of authentic, organic customer testimonials.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I spent one weekend talking myself off a ledge after waiting to hear back from a major national retailer — I realized I had made the mistake of not including my shipping costs in the “landed costs’’ after the deal was already made. My first national retailer had covered the shipping costs, so I made an incorrect assumption that all retailers would do the same. I was terrified to correct the error in fear of losing them. I sent an email explaining my costing error and spent the weekend paralyzed with anxiety. Monday came around, and low and behold! They still wanted to work with me. Why? Because I have a great product, it works, and they were willing to accommodate my margins to get the Bath Bean® in their stores. From this experience, I learned to have better faith in my product and myself — and that I wouldn’t lose a deal for asking questions.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One fact that I am truly proud of, is that I have built my product, brand and company entirely on my own. No team of people to delegate to. You name it, I do it, with the exception of a digital asset manager for social ad placement, because I have zero time to begin to understand the complexities of analytics, and believe me, I tried. I am, however, always willing to reach out to people in various sectors, like manufacturing, fellow CEO’s, retailers, anyone that I can gain insight from to learn from their experiences and mistakes. While I may not have had someone tangible helping me, I am constantly seeking inspiration from many of my dream mentors like Sara Blakely, Joy Mangano, Emily Weiss, Natalie Ellis, and Sophia Amoruso, just to name a few. And let’s not forget Oprah. I listen to podcasts, find articles, interviews…anything that will help inspire and drive me to keep pushing forward.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Let’s first start with the fact that women are still only earning $.82 per every $1.00 men make. Why are we STILL not on a level playing field in 2021? So we’re just flat out saying women don’t deserve as much, knocking down our confidence from the get go — we’re just not good enough. For a woman waffling on whether or not to take the plunge to start a company, this mentality can stop them in their tracks. How about needing start-up cash? A bank loan? A meeting with VC’s? Society just told me I’m not as capable as a man, so we’re already put in a position to doubt our capabilities. I read a study recently where a group of men and women presented the exact same pitch and the men were more likely to be selected. The. Exact. Same. Pitch. That is so troubling. It’s sadly not surprising to me that the number of women founders is so low with statistics like these.
Then you add the expectations of motherhood on top of being a founder and it can be extremely intimidating. How will I handle running a company, pursue my dreams, utilize my hard earned degrees and remain a committed, active and engaged parent? The truth is, it is extraordinarily difficult at times. But with determination, forgoing societal expectations, finding the fire from within, it IS possible.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
A perfect example of what working moms go through was demonstrated during the pandemic. I had close friends who faced the ultimate problem — how do I fulfill my role as a corporate executive while helping my kids with school without either one suffering? Will I be penalized in the workplace for putting my kids’ needs first? How can I be there for my child who needs help navigating a new system online? Will my job even be there for me when things get back to normal?
The fact that work and motherhood are viewed and/or judged by society as two completely separate capacities is problematic for me. Women are so often asked, “so do you work, or do you stay-at-home?” Why is it one or the other? Why is one perceived as having more value than the other? I have friends who have been shunned for not having ownership in a business, and others for hiring caregivers while they go to work and earn for their families. The fact that women feel like they have to sacrifice one aspect of their life over the other, or develop a guilt complex has got to change. No wonder women won’t put themselves out there.
In addition, The societal norm that work days are from 9–5 is ridiculous in my opinion. My work day is something like 7–8, 9–11, 12–3:30, 4–6, 7–9:30, with an added bonus sometimes of 10–11 and no two days are the same. I put parenting FIRST. My kids are hungry, I make them food. My kids want my time and presence, we watch a movie and hang out. Not to mention the emotional support, driving them to and fro… it’s what mom’s do.
Luckily for me, I run my company from home so the office is a few feet away and multitasking is possible. I know this isn’t possible for all business owners, but the pandemic has proven working from home at least some of the time is possible and functional, where it may never have been an option pre-pandemic. And thankfully for me as the founder, no one is barking at me (besides my two dogs) worried I won’t make a looming deadline. I WILL make the deadline. So why does it need to be accomplished between the hours of 9–5? As long as the work gets done and done well, that’s all that matters. I love hearing about progressive companies allowing employees to have schedules that are optimal for work and family. I hope to be one of those companies when I begin hiring other bad ass moms in the coming year.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Women, especially moms, are inventive, solution seekers, time management experts, negotiators and deal makers. If more women put these skill sets and expertise into founding companies, imagine what could be created. While running your own company is extremely demanding, it is also extremely fulfilling and empowering as a female founder. I am leading by example, especially for my two teens who have watched me overcome adversities, rise up, work my butt off and prove with great risks come even greater rewards.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
There tends to be an overly glamorized version out there of Founders and CEOs. It can be anything but glamorous, let me tell you. Long hours, blood, sweat and tears…hemorrhaging money to get a start up rolling. In fact, it can take years before you become profitable. And Income? Patience, grasshopper. All revenue goes right back into the business for years and I think that’s not talked about often enough. You can spend thousands upon thousands of hours and dollars and not get paid.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Being a founder takes a myriad of traits to say the least. Some of the more obvious characteristics are passion, drive, fearlessness, determination and vision. Less typical traits are patience, consistency and positivity. You MUST be willing to learn, which is a very easy and vague thing to say in a job description. Founding a company and product can take years. There is no fast track to success — overnight successes just don’t exist. That’s where patience and commitment come in. You have to align your vision with consistent action and have faith that it will eventually pay off through meaningful, goal-driven grit and hard work. There needs to be a deep seeded fire within to keep pursuing your goals even after challenge after challenge arises. There’s just no other way around it and you must stay positive, even in the darkest hours. And fear? Yes, I have it, too, but the difference is having fear and doing it anyway.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, What are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
Patience: This is key, especially when you have a clear vision of your end goal. It can be difficult to have patience — Rome wasn’t built in a day, right? The product development process took several years, then over two more years to obtain my patent and trademarks, years of branding and website design, and months to get certified as a Woman Owned Business… and even onboarding with Amazon took several months. You would think: have a product, upload photos, start selling! No. Amazon Branded products are a beast all to their own. It was frustrating to say the least, but then, finally, the product was live after about 50 case logs, and hours on the phone with seller support.
Consistency: This is critical. Having ideas, goals, even manifesting is great, but if you are not aligning your vision with consistent, meaningful actions which push the ball forward every day, then it may take even longer to reach success, if at all.
In launching the Bath Bean® as a never before seen product on the market, visual branding is key in helping potential customers learn and understand what the invention even is. Since day one, I have used social media to consistently post thoughtful, curated, creative content daily that would engage and educate customers visually and through those efforts, I was eventually able to catch the attention of buyers for national retailers just over a year after launching. It has been tedious and laborious to create daily content: for example filling my entire bathroom with sand and tropical plants for a beach scene, or 60 pounds of white sugar for a winter shot, then hours of editing to get the special effects just right. My consistent posting of quality content got the right eyes on my brand and secured some big partnerships as a result.
Willingness to Learn: Problem solving is a given as a leader — No founder has it all figured out. As a founder in the retail sector, I am constantly having to learn new systems for the onboarding process that literally look like a foreign language at first. You want to work with an international retailer? Then be ready to spend months learning, relearning and mastering their platforms. You have to keep at it even when it seems impossible to learn another skill. I am grateful to be doing this in the digital age where google is like my personal assistant. I have spent hours upon hours scouring the corners of the internet for solutions, from Illustrator and Photoshop design issues, finding the best apps for content editing, answers to app functionality issues, to discussion threads from Amazon sellers who all have encountered the same roadblocks on the platform. You must be determined to solve and since I’m a one woman show, I have no choice.
Know your strengths: Having a graphic design, branding, marketing and advertising background allowed me to launch the Bath Bean® brand with confidence, including packaging design, website design, and all printed and digital content. But the launch is just the beginning. Then comes the ongoing maintenance of the business: web site management, shipping platforms, logistics, order fulfilment, customer service…everything needed to make the business run smoothly. I knew from the start that many of these items would be new challenges for me, but my ability to learn new skills quickly allowed me to take on these items with confidence. When the going gets tough, I can always fall back on my best assets- knowing I have a great looking brand, a product that works, great reviews and proof of sales.
Positivity: I can not tolerate negativity. It’s just soul-sucking and draining. As a founder, you have to keep your head up, believe in yourself, your product and maintain a ‘glass half full’ mentality. For example, I spent an abundance of money with a distribution partnership that ultimately did not pan out. I could focus on the amount of money spent without return, but instead, I am grateful for the relationship because it tipped me off to a retail platform I may not have otherwise found, leading me to two of the biggest retail opportunities in my business so far. A pricey tip, sure, but reaching a top goal I set to achieve from the beginning is money well spent.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Well, I’m still a newbie, but I’m definitely proud of the fact that my product is helping people Bathe Better™, release stress and tension in a healthy way. I love hearing from customers with chronic pain, or pregnant women who couldn’t find relief until they used the Bath Bean®. There has never been a better time to introduce this product to the world as people are looking for ways to find respite within the home now more than ever. On a long term scale, I would absolutely love to help other female inventors leverage their best skill sets and bring their ideas to life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Great question. I have two thoughts here. I vote that everyone needs a daily meditative bath. Let’s make the world better, one bath at a time. Secondly, I’d love to inspire a ‘woman supporting other women’ movement. If the entire female population teamed up in a supportive, compassionate, non-competitive manner, we could literally solve everything.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
The one and only queen of bathing, Oprah. If I had her address, I would send her a Bath Bean® to thank her for a lifetime of inspiring women like me to take big leaps and follow your dreams.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.