In this week's #MuseSeries, I had the pleasure of talking to the mother-daughter duo behind the ever so popular scrunchie brand, Supercrush (formerly know as Bunhead). We love Supercrush not only because they lovingly hand make all their beautiful scrunchies, but that they believe supporting local is essential, and they stay true to it by ensuring their supply chain is 99% Canadian! Read on to learn more about their inspiring journey from 2018, challenges in their every day, and what it's like to run a business with family.
What is your story?
Well, first of all we’re a mother/daughter team! We were both born in Vancouver (3rd and 4th generation). Shelby studied finance at BCIT and Courtney studied communications at SFU. Most recently, we both worked in non-profit healthcare roles … which we were doing when we started our scrunchie side hustle in Jan 2018. We both resigned our FT corporate positions this year to pursue and grow our business.
What inspired you to start Supercrush?
Well TBH we never set out to start a business. Supercrush (formerly Bunhead) began as an idea of Courtney’s to just make scrunchies one night with a few friends. She posted about her creation on instagram and wore the scrunchie to work the next day and it generated a lot of interest. Friends and family started asking if they could buy them. She enlisted the help of Shelby to sew up a few scrunchies and we found out there was a demand. We put together a website in a weekend and began to sell online and eventually to 40+ stockists across Canada and the US.
What does a typical day look like?
Before we were in this fulltime, our typical day looked like working 9-5 and then running the business off the side of our desks and spending evenings and weekends in our studio. It was slightly insane! Now we’ve regained more of a process where we are working independently about 60% of the week and together about 2 days. Courtney is in charge of the creative/marketing/sales and Shelby leads operations/finance side. We also have a team of amazing women that help us with production. We have a slightly better work/life balance now where we keep Sundays business-free (which our husbands greatly appreciate).
Favorite part of your job?
We both love the collaborative process of envisioning our collections and then bringing them to life. Shelby loves problem solving: from fine-tuning our designs to streamlining shipping. Courtney loves all things marketing and loves the creativity that goes into building a brand and an engaged community. We are both energized by the opportunities to support our community and incorporate increasingly sustainable practices.
Most challenging part about running your own business?
Customer relations is equally the most rewarding and challenging part of this business. It’s so personal. When people are excited about what you’re doing it feels amazing and when things don’t go as planned it can be very deflating. That’s why we’re so glad we have each other - we know each other very well (obviously), trust each other 100%, have very mutually complementary and radically different skill sets and are equally invested in the success of this endeavour. We not only balance each other out but support and encourage the other person.
If you weren’t running Supercrush, what would you be doing?
Shelby: Would be spending at least 50% of the year on the Amalfi Coast.
Courtney: Would probably be working in marketing somewhere a lot less interesting ;).
What has been one of the most rewarding experiences being in your line of work so far?
Building something out of nothing is super rewarding. We’ve had the unique experience of doing this twice, as we recently rebranded our business and got to build a brand from scratch again.
It’s also been extremely energizing to be part of the local community of female entrepreneurs. There are so many badass women in Vancouver and many have been incredibly generous and supportive to us since the beginning.
Best piece of advice to others that are wanting to start their own business? Life motto you live by?
Planning is crucial but realize that the moment of absolute certainty will never arrive. If you want to start something new you have to be prepared to take a leap of faith. One of the most necessary requirements for any entrepreneur is to have the commitment to always move forward and to have the confidence that you’ll be able to figure it out. In our case we’re lucky to be able to do this together!
A super practical piece of advice? Either become or invest in a great photographer.
What’s next for you and Supercrush?
So many exciting things brewing for 2020 including exciting collaborations and new products (!!). You can stay up to date with all things at supercrush.com or @supercrush.
