19. GOOD SQUISH: The celeb-favourite Instagram brand generating thousands of sales

Summary

Podcast Summary: James Reed: All About Business
Episode 19: GOOD SQUISH: The Celeb-Favourite Instagram Brand Generating Thousands of Sales
Release Date: March 17, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 19 of "James Reed: All About Business," host James Reed engages in an in-depth conversation with Billie Jo Cronin, co-founder of the rapidly growing independent brand, Good Squish. Billie Jo shares her entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing sustainable business practices, leveraging social media for growth, and the dynamics of running a business with her sibling. This episode offers valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to build a meaningful and impactful business.

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Starting Good Squish

Origin of Good Squish: Billie Jo Cronin began Good Squish in 2021 with a modest investment of £1,000. Initially, she crafted unique hair scrunchies, affectionately branded as "squishes," using vintage broderie anglaise and cotton fabrics. The inspiration stemmed from the lack of such products available online at the time.

Notable Quote:

“When I started, there actually wasn't any of these. I couldn't find them anyway on the Internet because this was the first one.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [01:30]

Early Growth: The brand's growth was organic, driven by Billie Jo’s network in the fashion industry. Friends wearing Good Squish products on set led to increased visibility and demand. This grassroots approach laid the foundation for the brand's initial success.

Notable Quote:

“It was very, very organic and very slow, which was really nice.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [03:50]

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Sustainable Strategy

Embracing Slow Fashion: Good Squish distinguishes itself from fast fashion by utilizing deadstock fabrics—materials that would otherwise go to waste. By keeping production handmade in London, the brand ensures high quality and sustainability.

Notable Quote:

“We're using dead stock fabrics wherever we can and the hope to use much more of it. So, yeah, in that way, we are slow fashion.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [02:25]

Commitment to Quality: Billie Jo emphasizes meticulous attention to detail, ensuring each squish is crafted to perfection. This dedication not only upholds the brand’s reputation but also fosters customer loyalty.

Notable Quote:

“She has to be really error free. Because even if the label's slightly wonky, well, we wouldn't take them.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [09:00]

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Growth and Marketing

Leveraging Instagram: Instagram has been the primary marketing tool for Good Squish. The strategy involves "dead stock drops" where limited, unique products are released periodically, creating a sense of exclusivity and urgency among followers.

Notable Quote:

“Dead stock drops are actually our best, the activations that do the best for us even now.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [06:19]

Building a Community: The interactive approach on social media, including soliciting customer feedback and involving them in product naming, has been pivotal in fostering a loyal community. This engagement translates into high retention rates and repeat purchases.

Notable Quote:

“We've always asked for product feedback and that's when we've had a lot of engagements.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [10:26]

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Team and Operations

Expanding the Team: From a solo venture, Good Squish has grown to employ eight team members and various freelancers. All production remains handmade in London, ensuring quality control and supporting local employment.

Notable Quote:

“Our atelier is a 2-minute walk across a courtyard from us and that's where all of our production is made.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [08:05]

Quality Control: Maintaining high standards involves rigorous quality checks, with Billie Jo and her brother Phoenix personally overseeing the process. This hands-on approach guarantees product excellence.

Notable Quote:

“We have a good retention. So we want them to.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [09:26]

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Collaborations and Challenges

Strategic Partnerships: Good Squish has engaged in several collaborations, such as with Marge Sherwood and Bao, a restaurant brand. While these partnerships have expanded the brand's reach, they also present challenges in resource allocation and time management.

Notable Quote:

“We have to spend our time thinking about it. Unless they're small, which the one we did with Bao, they're smaller.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [30:14]

Balancing Opportunities: Billie Jo highlights the importance of capital allocation—deciding where to invest time and resources. Learning from past collaborations has refined their approach to future partnerships.

Notable Quote:

“We realized when we say yes to something like they have to remember that you're going to be working double the hours.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [27:27]

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Celebrity Endorsements

Organic Growth: Celebrity endorsements for Good Squish have been entirely organic. Influential figures like Chloe Sevigny and Helena Bonham Carter have showcased the products, significantly boosting sales and brand visibility.

Notable Quote:

“There was actually one particular person who I really am a fan of... She did a post saying, oh, hell yeah, Good Squish wearing them.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [31:19]

Impact on Sales: Endorsements from celebrities have led to substantial increases in sales, demonstrating the power of authentic endorsements in marketing.

Notable Quote:

“There were so many sales after that.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [32:03]

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Working with a Sibling

Dynamic Partnership: Good Squish is co-run by Billie Jo and her younger brother Phoenix. Their complementary skills—Billie Jo’s creativity and Phoenix’s operational expertise—create a balanced and efficient leadership dynamic.

Notable Quote:

“I'm very creative and sort of free thinking. And I think it's exactly what we each need.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [19:38]

Trust and Communication: Their strong familial bond fosters quick decision-making and honest communication, essential for navigating the challenges of a growing business.

Notable Quote:

“The trust is really important. He's always going to have my back.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [18:50]

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Future Plans

Expansion Goals: Looking ahead, Billie Jo envisions expanding Good Squish into new markets like Japan and the United States. Additionally, the brand plans to diversify its product range to include other accessories and potentially ready-to-wear clothing.

Notable Quote:

“I think we're definitely going to stay with doing the squish and keep evolving and tweaking them to the trends.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [15:23]

Store Openings: With aspirations to open physical stores in major cities, Good Squish aims to enhance its presence and accessibility to a global customer base.

Notable Quote:

“I’d love to have stores in New York and Japan and continue in London doing pop-ups.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [38:51]

Building a Strong Team: A key focus for the future is cultivating a robust and enthusiastic team that can support the brand’s growth while maintaining its core values and quality standards.

Notable Quote:

“Having a really strong team that we trust and that are enthusiastic and excited.”
— Billie Jo Cronin [39:25]

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Key Takeaways

1. Sustainable Practices Drive Growth: Leveraging deadstock fabrics and embracing slow fashion not only positions Good Squish as an eco-friendly brand but also attracts a loyal customer base committed to sustainability.

2. Social Media as a Catalyst: Effective use of Instagram, particularly through exclusive product drops and active community engagement, has been instrumental in scaling the business from local to international markets.

3. Quality Over Quantity: Maintaining stringent quality control ensures customer satisfaction and repeat business, crucial for long-term success.

4. Power of Authentic Endorsements: Organic celebrity endorsements can significantly amplify brand visibility and credibility, leading to substantial sales boosts.

5. Family Business Dynamics: Trust and complementary skills in a sibling partnership can create a balanced and effective leadership team, essential for navigating business challenges.

6. Strategic Collaboration: While collaborations can expand reach, it is vital to manage resources effectively to avoid overextension and ensure core business operations remain strong.

7. Future-Oriented Planning: Continuous innovation and strategic expansion, coupled with team development, pave the way for sustained growth and market presence.

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Conclusion

Billie Jo Cronin’s journey with Good Squish exemplifies how passion, sustainability, and strategic marketing can propel a small independent brand to international recognition. Her insights into building a community-driven brand, maintaining quality, and balancing growth with operational excellence provide invaluable lessons for entrepreneurs aiming to create impactful and enduring businesses.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• “We're using dead stock fabrics wherever we can and the hope to use much more of it. So, yeah, in that way, we are slow fashion.” — Billie Jo Cronin [02:25]
• “Dead stock drops are actually our best, the activations that do the best for us even now.” — Billie Jo Cronin [06:19]
• “There was actually one particular person who I really am a fan of... She did a post saying, oh, hell yeah, Good Squish wearing them.” — Billie Jo Cronin [31:19]
• “I'm very creative and sort of free thinking. And I think it's exactly what we each need.” — Billie Jo Cronin [19:38]
• “I’d love to have stores in New York and Japan and continue in London doing pop-ups.” — Billie Jo Cronin [38:51]

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For more information about James Reed, Reed Global, and Good Squish, please visit the links provided in the show notes.

Transcript

[James Reed]

Welcome to All About Business with me, James Reed, the podcast that covers everything about business management and leadership. Every episode, I sit down with different guests who bootstrapped companies, masterminded investment models, or built a business empire. They're leaders in their field and they're here to give you top insights and actionable advice so that you can apply their ideas to your own career or business venture. Launching a high end product in a competitive space can be tough when you're up against cheaper alternatives. How do you nail your branding to buy in customers? Joining me today on All About Business is Billie Jo Cronin. She and her brother Phoenix bootstrapped the independent brand Good Squish, selling hand stitched accessories made from deck stock fabrics. The siblings went from selling a few units to 1,900 globally in under a year, along with gaining many celebrity endorsements. Today we talk about how a small independent business can sustain rapid growth. Harnessing social media as your sole marketing tool and going into business with a sibling. Good Squish is an accessories to explain to people who might not know your brand. I know many do, but is an accessories business. And I think you began by doing sort of super special hair scrunchies.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

When I started, there actually wasn't any of these. I couldn't find them anyway on the Internet because this was the first one.

[James Reed]

So for people listening, what is it?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

You're holding a scrunchie, but we call them squish. You're actually not allowed to say scrunchie.

[James Reed]

Okay, I won't use that word again. So that's a squish.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Describe it to someone who's just listening. What is it?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

So it's Broderie anglaise and cotton and it's double layered, basically a hair tie, but a very elaborate one.

[James Reed]

So you started making these yourself using.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Broidery on glaze, like vintage, vintage material.

[James Reed]

Which has a rather unfortunate description of dead stock in some. So what is dead stock?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Dead stock is fabric. That is the fabric that's not used in production. So that would otherwise go to waste. It would otherwise go to landfills and we use it to make product.

[James Reed]

This is a very sustainable business model. And you're the opposite of fast fashion. You're doing using Dead start. You're slow fashion. Is that phrase, what do you call it?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, it's. It is slow fashion. I don't want to say we're 100% sustainable. We're aiming towards that, but we're using, we're keeping everything handmade in here, handmade in London and using dead stock fabrics wherever we can and the hope to use much more of it. So, yeah, in that way, we are slow fashion. Being fast fashion is something that we're not interested in.

[James Reed]

So you're handmade in London using dead stock fabrics as your sort of strategy?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah. Which I think is completely possible.

[James Reed]

You've shown it to be.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Keep that with growth. It just might. You might not grow as quickly, but I think that's a good thing. If anything, I've grown it through Instagram and the response from the first post that I did is always stratospheric. Yeah.

[James Reed]

There's lots I want to ask you about in just that one sentence. How long have you been making these?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Since 2021.

[James Reed]

So you started the business in 2021 and you started on your own? I believe. So it's just you and you had some material and you started making these squishes?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, making the squishes. I had some help from my friend's mum who helped me do all the sampling during lockdown. We did the sampling together because she's a really amazing seamstress. The first one we ever made was this. It was just this one that existed.

[James Reed]

So that's your very first squish. You're holding onto it tightly.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

This star's the very first one. And then it sort of went from there. But when I first ever made one of these, I didn't do anything with it for a while. And then I started giving it to my friends and they wore it on set. Because I worked in fashion at the time, it was really organic because people would see them wearing it and then I would get the odd message asking if they could one.

[James Reed]

Right.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And it was. That's how it sort of started at the beginning.

[James Reed]

So it's organic. Demand bubbled up and you realize people really quite like these.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, it was very, very organic and very slow, which was really nice. And it was all through my friends borrowing them and sharing them with their friends. And then.

[James Reed]

So when people wanted to buy them. But you didn't pitch it low, did you? You said this is a premium product.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Well, it was. It took time.

[James Reed]

But how long did it take you to make one at the time?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

An hour. More than an hour.

[James Reed]

Right. So it was at least an hour of your time, plus the materials, plus all the other added costs.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, I think I priced them. The price hasn't changed at all. It stayed exactly the same since the beginning.

[James Reed]

How much is a squish?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

The Queen is 45 pounds.

[James Reed]

That's the one you're holding this one. That's the original.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

So they vary from 28 to as high as like 70 pounds.

[James Reed]

Right.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think that's our highest priced one.

[James Reed]

So these are premium accessories made sustainably out of dead stock. I think it's important to stress that because it's a really strong message. I mean, you've built a brand around that and you people know that. Yeah, customers like that, they come back for that.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, it's part of our branding. Also, there's a lot of fabric that goes into this. I think people are surprised. We've done some workshops and the first comment is always, I can't believe how much fabric. And time goes into one, because there's over five meters of fabric.

[James Reed]

Five meters of fabric.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

There's like one meter, but then there's layers. So there's like a lot of fabric in one queen. It means they're quite heavy. But people are always really surprised because they're like, I didn't realize it was that much fabric.

[James Reed]

So they're pleasantly surprised when they get it in a parcel.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, we've always had a really good response to the products. It's really different now from when we first started because there's so many other people making them.

[James Reed]

People have copied you.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, but that's a high form of flattery.

[James Reed]

Yeah, yeah, but you're the original authentic squish.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, but we also. People always say to me now is something that people say is that when they see one that's like a version of ours, they can tell immediately it's not a good squish, which I think is really.

[James Reed]

That's good too. Yeah, yeah. So people really spot yours over the others. So how much money do you have when you start. Start this business? You didn't have family backing or some rich sort of entrepreneur saying, I'll invest in this. Well, how much did you have? How did you.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I started with a thousand pounds.

[James Reed]

You started with a thousand pounds?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. So I bought all the fabric that I could with that money and then I would do small drops on Instagram every month or every two to three weeks, where I would make batches of loads of different variations. It was called a dead stock drop. We still do them now. And dead stock drops are actually our best, the activations that do the best for us even now. But that's how I started.

[James Reed]

So what. So when you get each batch of dead stock.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

So I'd buy lots of different fabrics and then make one of ones from the fabrics. There would be one of each style. So. And then I would drop them on Instagram.

[James Reed]

It's almost like you're getting a unique.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Like an auction.

[James Reed]

It's the only one. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's interesting. So how many versions are there now then?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

So now that we have our core lines, which is the Queen, the Bloomberg, baby Bloomberg, there's like seven different.

[James Reed]

Seven different types of squish.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

One comment we had once was that it was like getting a Glastonbury ticket because now we have thousands of people that come online at the same time to get them.

[James Reed]

Right, so it's like getting a Glastonbury ticket.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Reed]

Okay. So you mentioned Instagram several times. You obviously use social media to build your brand. Talk me through how you did that. What did you mean? The dead stock drops? Obviously a part of it. An important part of it.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Establishing your name, your estate. How did you get going?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

First I came up with the name and then after I came up with the name, I started the Instagram and then I just started posting and I would just post whatever came into my mind. But I think because I was so excited about the product and I loved it so much, that came across a lot in my social media.

[James Reed]

Enthusiasm and passion for what you did.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, I think so. And I think that was quite unique at the time to see someone speak in all capitals as if they were screaming about a product.

[James Reed]

Oh, is that what you did?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, I still. That still asks.

[James Reed]

Your tone is all capital.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Is it? Okay, that's. That's interesting. So you make these products now you've grown a team. You were telling me earlier how many people work for you now?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We have around eight people and then we work with freelancers as well. That will help us.

[James Reed]

So you have a team of eight. So this is over a four year period, you've built a team of eight.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

So instead of outsourcing to China or something, you're literally doing handmade in London.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. So I think we will always be handmade in London, which does limit feels as it could limit growth. But I think it's more important for us to oversee the quality. Our atelier is 2 minute walk across a courtyard from us and that's where all of our production is made. And that's been really important for us just to keep it here. And also it means that she employs. She has a whole studio full of women that do the sewing. So it's great for us to her.

[James Reed]

Yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And keep it here. I think that's definitely something we want.

[James Reed]

I applaud you for that. It's good to have jobs in London. So how many go out a week now?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Well, our direct consumer is we sell between like 1,000 and 2,000 units per month.

[James Reed]

Per month. So you're looking at, you know, 100 a day on average. Checking them for quality.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We do it on Thursdays.

[James Reed]

Right. And how many would you reject now?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Because we've been working with a loner since the beginning. It's not many. I would say 10 or so. Because she.

[James Reed]

So a small percentage.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

A very small percentage. Our tolerance for quality. We don't have any tolerance. So she has to be really error free. Yeah. Because even if the label's slightly wonky, well, we wouldn't take them.

[James Reed]

So. So you're a real perfectionist, I'm hearing here.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think you have to be with product. If you're going to sell product, you have to be. And also if it's a new customer getting it, you want the retention to be good. So you want them to buy another one, which is. We have a good retention. So.

[James Reed]

So people tend to buy more.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Reed]

And that's a big part of your strategy to make sure. Yeah, they're happy.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, we want them to.

[James Reed]

So what happens if they're unhappy? You send them a squish and, well, they give you a one star. What do you do?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, something that's really important to us. My brother and I will go through if there's any reviews that aren't good and we'll send them a squish or we'll. Phoenix has like cycled over and hand delivered them himself.

[James Reed]

So Phoenix, I should stress, is your brother who you work with? Yeah, yeah. And he's covering the fort today, isn't he? While you're here talking to me, he will go in person to the customer with another one or if it's been.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Late, if the delivery is late, he's cycled over before to meet them and give it to them in person. Or we pick up the phone, we'll always call the customer and ask them how they. Because our community is the reason we are where we are and their feedback so important to us. So we just try and make sure that we communicate with them as much as possible.

[James Reed]

So you're really close to the cut. You talking to customers a lot?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, I still talk to a lot of them. I spend time.

[James Reed]

That might be a big part of your success. You know what they like, you know what they want.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

You know, I think that's also a reason we've done so well on Instagram, is that we've always asked for product feedback and that's when we've had a lot of engagements. We'll say well I always make products that I love but then I want to know what our customer wants because that also.

[James Reed]

So what sort of feedback have you had it steer your business.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We'll have them involved in the naming process of them or if they feel that we should change the fabric so that they're lighter in the hair. Also because everyone has different hair types. I think we've been really lucky because we've made these products so that really anyone can wear them and that's taken a lot of time. Except.

[James Reed]

Except people like me. I'd love to.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We made Alice in another life.

[James Reed]

Alice Ben. Maybe I'll need one of them. Yeah. We're delighted that you're listening to this episode. Hit the follow button so that we can continue to bring you the best business insight and actionable advice to help your business and or career. So Billy Joe, I'm sure you won't mind me saying but you didn't go to university, you didn't go to business school. You're self taught entrepreneur. I think you left school at 16, is that.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, I left school at 16. Yeah. So I've, I've just, I think, I think in a way maybe from not going to university. I'm very curious and I want to learn so I'll look for ways to learn. Often I learn quite a lot from listening to podcasts or reading. I get really excited about things if I learn them. But yeah, I didn't go to. I didn't go to university or anything. I think there's lots of other ways you can learn.

[James Reed]

Which would you recommend?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think reading, mentorship, working with people. We've had an incredible mentor for the last three years.

[James Reed]

How does that work?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

It sort of started with me calling him when we were going through a bit of a hard.

[James Reed]

So this is someone you knew or.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Knew that I knew already and I had. Have a lot of respect for. He actually got us out of a really bad position really quickly. He told us to go. We called him and we said look, we can't pay anyone and we don't.

[James Reed]

That's a bad position.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Really bad position. And he said, he. We ended up speaking for three, four hours and he said turn everything on pre order. And I said phoenix. And I said people aren't going to wait 30 days for a scrunchie. That is ridiculous. And he said just do it, just try. You have nothing to lose. And you also can't do anything else, so you're going to have to try it. And we did it and it built our business back up within like six months. And everyone waited 30 days for a scrunchie. So he literally just from. We never would have thought that. And just from one suggestion, we stayed a lot. I don't think we would have made it through. So it was like having that mentor that we could ring. That didn't help with anything financially.

[James Reed]

But this mentor was a person with business experience.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Incredible business.

[James Reed]

Yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And we still speak every month, so.

[James Reed]

So for entrepreneurs, listening, looking out for mentors is a good.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

To do. You'll say.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And don't be scared to ask. People always say yes. I think they want to pass on.

[James Reed]

Yeah, I think it's. I think from my experience of mentoring is it's a two way street. Learn from each other.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

So I'm sure your mentors learn from you too. Yeah, I would say they have.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. I think that's definitely. That's been. One of that would be advice is look for someone that you admire and trust.

[James Reed]

And I believe you're selling quite successfully in places like Japan and Korea now. Is that right?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. So we sell in Korea and Japan and America now. But Korea's been really great for us. We've had a lot, a lot of sales.

[James Reed]

Talk me through that. How did that come about?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

That happened really organically too.

[James Reed]

So someone in Korea saw you on Instagram or.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. And now we work with a really nice distributor who is in Seoul called Mirabel and she does these pop ups, Good squish pop ups. Which we haven't, we haven't gone over there to be at one yet. But the way that the customer in Seoul react to the product is so amazing.

[James Reed]

How do they react?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

They do like tea parties with them. Send us hundreds of photographs of how they've styled them.

[James Reed]

Really?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

As if I'm. I was there right at the pop ups that she puts on. So then we've had, I think from her, from that happening, we've had quite high engagement there.

[James Reed]

Okay, so talk. Let's talk about the brand. Good Squish. I mean, it's an interesting choice of words. And you, you said you did that right at the beginning.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

You gave it a lot of thought. Why Good squish?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I did give it a lot of thought before, but then when the name came into my head, I just came to you. I was just writing loads of names down. I think I wrote good and then Squish and then that was it.

[James Reed]

So you were thinking what you were sort of describing it. Yeah, it's good.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

So squishy and then.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Well.

[James Reed]

So that literally was a Eureka type moment. You think? Yeah, that's what I want.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Then it sort of felt right.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I immediately knew it was the name and I messaged a friend of mine called Roydon who did the logo and it looked perfect. So I just kept. I kept it.

[James Reed]

How do you hope to take the brand forward in terms of the. Like, are you looking to sort of widen your range or. Or simply sell what you have in more markets? What's your sort of thinking around that?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think we're definitely going to stay with doing the squish and keep evolving and tweaking them to the trends. I always get asked if I'm worried that people, they won't be popular anymore and I don't feel like that. I think because they're a functional product, you'll always need a hair tie so we can just tweak and change it.

[James Reed]

Yeah. Women have been wearing things in their hair for thousands of years. Exactly. Hats or accessories.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Exactly.

[James Reed]

That's not going to, is it?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

No. So I think. I think I would love to do these for 20, 30 more years, but just keep tweaking them to maybe the trends and making them better and better and then broadening into other accessories and then hopefully ready to wear.

[James Reed]

So what do you have in terms of other accessories?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

At the moment we have Alice bands. You're wearing one now, which I'm wearing.

[James Reed]

Yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And then.

[James Reed]

So is that made in the same sort of approach style, using the same type of dead stock?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

So it's a sort of splits between dead stock and fabrics that aren't dead stock. But I think this year and beyond, we'd want to be focusing more on sourcing dead stock.

[James Reed]

Yeah. So you've got Alice bags. What else?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Bag straps, shoe straps, hair clips. We have pins. Then we have keychains and stuff like that. It's all accessories at the moment.

[James Reed]

And is there an online store that someone can visit?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Tell us what the address is.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Www.goodsquish.com goodsquish.com and you can buy all.

[James Reed]

Of these things there?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Wherever you are in the world.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. We now, we just launched, Send everything globally, which is really exciting. Just Christmas. So that's going really well.

[James Reed]

So how many countries have you got customers in now, do you know?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We have over 20, probably. Sometimes we'll get the odd order from somewhere completely new. And it's so exciting. I still go through the orders every day to see it's amazing that how.

[James Reed]

You can now export so all over the world. It is amazing website fulfillment.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah. It's incredible.

[James Reed]

And you do that from your headquarters.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We do all of our fulfillment in house, which is a big challenge. Has been one of the challenges.

[James Reed]

So you've got to think about that for the future.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, we have to think about that for the future. But it's nice to keep it. I've always wanted to keep it in a house and so has Phoenix. Just to have a close eye on it, the way everything's packaged and making sure that it goes out. And we. Because we do pre order and in stock, that's quite a tricky thing to manage. It's a very full time position managing the split between that. So we have. We've had to keep it in house. So it does mean that people are posted often sitting in piles of packages.

[James Reed]

Well, this is real life, isn't it? You've got real business growing and developing around you, which is so exciting. You mentioned Phoenix several times. You work with your brother.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

My brother.

[James Reed]

How did that come about?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

He was in South Africa when Goodsquish started growing quite quickly and I'd been approached by a few people actually to. For them to work as my partner and I hadn't really. I did really want help because it was growing really quickly and it was really difficult to manage but I just wasn't really sure. And then my brother called me and he'd been working on another project and then said, look, I'm thinking of coming back to London. Do you want me to help you for a little bit? And I was like, yes, please do that. Because he's really bright and I just.

[James Reed]

So is he older or younger than you?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

He's younger. He's 20, 27.

[James Reed]

So you can take instructions.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, well, it's very balanced. He sometimes feels like my older brother and then sometimes my younger brother and I think vice versa. But so.

[James Reed]

But you feel you work well together.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think it's the. I think it's one of the coolest things ever to work with a sibling.

[James Reed]

That's so nice to hear. So tell me about why. Why do you feel that?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think because we trust each other, it means we can act very quickly and make decisions and sort of go, there's not that problem. So the trust is really important. He's always going to have my back. So that sort of.

[James Reed]

We had two brothers in the studio recently, so they were talking about that. I think it's that they said the same thing.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, well that, that's not Gonna. There's nothing. I wouldn't worry about anything. So you can just go. Go at everything when. Like opportunity.

[James Reed]

So you'd say to, you know, a young entrepreneur, listening. You know, if you're finding you're getting too much work, think about involving a sibling, would you?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, I think so.

[James Reed]

You have the right. If it's. But do you have complementary skills or do you have. You obviously have temperaments that don't clash.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We're complete opposites.

[James Reed]

So do you think that's important?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think it's the perfect recipe for business because he does operations and he's very logical and I'm very creative and sort of free thinking. And I think it's exactly what we each need. But I think it does take work because we're siblings. It also means if we're having a meeting, we can say whatever we want and get through it really quickly. We can make decisions really fast that way because we're completely honest. But that does mean that you have to work on that in a business environment, too.

[James Reed]

Yeah. What happens outside of the business environment? I mean. I mean, I work in a family business too.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

But it's hard to see where one ends and one begins. Family and business.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. I find that we often, when we hang out outside of work now, we end up speaking about squish and we have to. We have to stop ourselves and say.

[James Reed]

Why would you want to stop? I mean, it's something you both enjoy.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

You talk about it forever and ever and ever.

[James Reed]

Yeah. No, that's what I find. I mean, that's the trouble with a passion. It's.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. It sort of gets into every thing but think.

[James Reed]

But the other way of looking at that is what an amazing way to be sort of creative and energizing around a business idea. Because if you are talking about it, that's a stimulation.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

New ideas and new thoughts that will help you carry it forward.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

If you go home and watch tv, don't talk about it. You're not going to be doing that.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

No. No.

[James Reed]

So that's probably another advantage of. I'm just speculating.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

But you might not agree with working.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

With a sibling where it's funny because I'm. I think. Yeah. I often wake up and it's like 2 in the morning, and Phoenix is like, we should do this, this, and this. And this is two in the morning.

[James Reed]

You texting? Well, he texts you.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

He texts me, like millions of ideas. Yeah. Before I go to sleep and I'm like, now I can't sleep because I'm just thinking of what we should do.

[James Reed]

I have this problem, but I don't have a brother to text. I'm always awake till three in the morning for some reason. But you start thinking about stuff, don't you?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

You communicate with each other.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah. And then we have a lot of ideas. Sometimes too many ideas.

[James Reed]

So how do you decide? Yeah, how do you decide which ideas to run with and between you, how do you sort of curate? Because I think that's a challenge for lots of entrepreneurs having lots of ideas. But which ones should we really put our energy into? How do you. How do you grapple with that?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I'm really impulsive and I'll. If I have an. If I have an idea, I'll try and do it. I want to do it straight away. And it's been really good for squish that because I'm really reactive. If I have an idea, I'm going to do it.

[James Reed]

So you try everything sort of thing.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And so what you're saying, as we were going. Yeah, especially I would try everything. I think now, because we're. It's a different stage of the business.

[James Reed]

And that's hard work.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah. And. But because now, now there's a lot of other things, like we have a team, there's. We're much bigger than we were. Phoenix will sort of be like Billy. No, let's think about that idea. Is it possible? Will it benefit us? Which is great because otherwise I'd probably be doing far too many things at once. We also get a lot of opportunities, which that I find. We find deciding on whether we should do something that's been like an opportunity that's come to us or another brand that wants to collaborate, we find that more difficult because it's hard to know what's the right thing often because we're just deciding together. And we've done a lot of collaborations which have been incredible. But you learn so much that our thoughts now are that always just do things really think about whether they're going to be good or not. Because it's your time and energy.

[James Reed]

Yeah, but I suppose we don't know, do we? Or you don't know when you start on something, whether it's going to work, you never know.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

It's only after you just learn, I guess. And then we learned a lot last year. So now we're going to go into this year having a much clearer idea of what we want.

[James Reed]

But you're keeping an open mind, though, aren't you? Still trying things.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Weighing up whether it's worth a go. Or not.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Reed]

And you feel the relationship with your brother is a good, Good way of doing that?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah, it's. It. We work really well together, which is really nice. We do a lot. We do. We actually also. He does all the photography when we shoot, when we do the shoots for our website and stuff. So that's really nice when we get to work in that way, because that's different way of working. That's quite a creative way of working together. So. Yeah, there's so many.

[James Reed]

So this is a great collaboration.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

I mean, it's interesting to me. There are all sorts of sibling businesses that do really well, and I think for the reasons you've described, you've got different skills.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

And different preferences, but you can build it on trust.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, exactly.

[James Reed]

I'm interested in your just trying ideas all the time, because I think that's so important. And, you know, we. We talked to a CXO Chief Experience Officer in one of the earlier podcasts who. That was literally their strategy online. You know, they'd use a B testing on their website all the time to see which one worked over the other. And, I mean, that's in some ways easier to do in a digital space than it is when you're actually fabricating things. I mean, it's much more difficult for you.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

And the amount of work involves probably much. But it's interesting that that's still, to me, the philosophy. Try at sea. Try at sea.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, exactly. That's. It's really important.

[James Reed]

But making decisions is also interesting to me. You were talking about that and you do that together. There are two of you. What happens if you don't agree?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We have to talk it out for a while and work out. We have to try and see both sides. So we'll spend a lot of time. I think if that's something Phoenix and I struggle is it takes us a lot of time to make the decision sometimes because Phoenix will. Often we will get spreadsheets up and we'll do like, the pros and cons, and then we'll narrow it down, and then the next day we'll look at it again and narrow it down. So that can be tricky.

[James Reed]

So he's a spreadsheet person.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

He is very much a spreadsheet person. If Phoenix can see something that I can't see because I'm very much in it, he'll flag it to me and say, look, I think this isn't working. I think we should try something else.

[James Reed]

And while you'd Sleep on it and wake up at two in the morning and message him. So how long would that process take? Is it usually.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

It depends on what it is. It depends on what, what the project is or not. Projects that have been sort of extra, I guess like other brands or companies wanting to work with us. That's where that's been most of the.

[James Reed]

So you've done quite a lot of these collaborations?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We've done quite, quite a lot of. Of collaborations.

[James Reed]

How do they work? What has that been a big part of your growth? You seem like you're a bit ambivalent about them now.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Is that right? Last year.

[James Reed]

So are you happy to talk about one or as an example?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, we've done. So we've done. We did one with a brand called Marge Sherwood. But that was a very big collaboration. I mean it was great. It was a huge learning curve.

[James Reed]

But so what do they do? What's this?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

They do clothing and bags. I think they started doing bags actually. But we did 12 products. Collaborative products with them or more actually. I think I was actually like close to.

[James Reed]

So when you say collaborative products, are you working together on the design of them?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

You design them together.

[James Reed]

Right.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And then launch them on both platforms.

[James Reed]

Okay. And so how was that process? So you're doing. So you're designing something jointly with someone in Korea now?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yes, it was communicating with them.

[James Reed]

Different time zones, different language and everything. Yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And then also they were producing some in Seoul and we were producing some in London. We did a campaign together and then we did two pop ups, one in Seoul and one in London. So it was enormous. But I think when we.

[James Reed]

How did it work out? Did London do better than Seoul or Seoul better than London?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

London did really well. The whole, the, the pop. The collaboration itself did really well, but I think we just didn't. When we got the email that I was just like, yes, we've got to do this. It looks really cool.

[James Reed]

Yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And it was really cool, but it took up all our time and we're a tiny team. So as soon as you say yes to something like they have to remember that you're going to be working double the hours.

[James Reed]

Yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Because you still have to run your business.

[James Reed]

So this is about opportunity costs, you know. Could your time have been better spent doing something else over collaboration? Yeah, I think when it's good. But you might have gone, yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

When you're young you have to remember that your brand is so your community, your business, your brand, your product has to be the most important thing because as soon as you take your Eye off. It can.

[James Reed]

That might be true when you're old as well.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Reed]

I'm thinking that as soon as you take your eye off anything, you go end up in ditch.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I mean, young, like business.

[James Reed]

Yeah, no, no, that's what I took.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

You to when you're over.

[James Reed]

I'm thinking as an older business, that's absolutely. Our business is going to be 65 years old this year. I'm thinking you're right. This is exactly right. We should be exactly focused.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

But when you've got a bigger team, then you can potentially take on those sort of things because they might not touch.

[James Reed]

Yeah, you can try. Perhaps you can try more.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

And. And you know, you can have more pilots running exactly as you got as your business grows, but still in the. On the understanding that some will be successful and some won't and you've got to scratch things that aren't efficiently and move the resource on.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

In sort of business school, they call it capital allocation. You know, that's the posh. So where you're going to spend your money, but it's also your time and energy.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, that's interesting.

[James Reed]

And it's finite amount.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

And, you know, capital allocation is so important to all businesses, whatever their stage, I think.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Because it defines whether we're putting our money into areas where you get a good return or not.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think that's something we've learned a lot from last year. But also our time. I think I just forget about my time.

[James Reed]

So I suppose with a collaboration, by making a commitment to collaborate with someone else or another party, our time is not our own so much. Is that something, you know, because you said, well, I'm going to spend time with you on this.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Well, yeah.

[James Reed]

You don't have the control over your time. Is that. Is that what you're saying? That's what I'm hearing to answer.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah, It's. It's more that it was also. It's some. Some of it can feel a bit like a risk because you haven't seen if this works. It's not something that's guaranteed to work. It can be, I think, just weighing it up in that way because we had no idea if it was going to be good for the business or bad for the business. But we were spending. I was, you know, I was doing drawings and you end up spending time designing the product. I also take a very long time because I want to get it right and I'm a perfectionist. So I was just spending a lot of time On a collaboration and not as much time on. On.

[James Reed]

So your philosophy this year is to spend more on the sort of home. We're just range.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Exactly. I think we're. We're going to be. If we do get asked to do any collaborations, we're really going to spend our time thinking about it. Unless they're small, which the one we did with Bao, they're smaller.

[James Reed]

Talk me through. Who's Bao and what was that?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Bao is a restaurant called Bao. They do these bow buns and we did a squish that was. Looked like a bow bun.

[James Reed]

Well, a squish that goes over a bun.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

No, it just has wadding in it. So it kind of looks like a bow bun.

[James Reed]

Oh, I see.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And then it releases.

[James Reed]

And that went well, did it?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, it went really well.

[James Reed]

So those collaborations are good when they work. You've also had, I believe, sort of celebrity endorsements. That's another part of the sort of marketing landscape, isn't it? So who did you find to endorse you and how did that come about? Or was it by accident? Talk me through celebrity endorsements and how it works.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

They've all been organic. We've not. We haven't ever looked at.

[James Reed]

So these are people that bought your products, are they?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Been given them?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah. We've. Since the beginning, we've had. We've been really lucky with the people that have bought them and worn them. There was actually one particular person who I really am a fan of.

[James Reed]

Who's that?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Called Chloe Sevignier, who's an actress. I've watched all her films, like every single one.

[James Reed]

And so it's good she likes your product.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. And that's actually when we grew quite quickly because it was really weird because I wrote in my. I wrote a list of people that I wanted. I want to wear squish. And she was number two or something. And then a few months later, I was on holiday and I woke up to a message from her on Instagram, which is completely mental, right. Saying, can I buy a good squish? I remember looking at and being like. Like, that's not a real message. That can't be real. And then she did. She ended up buying them and I sent her a few extra ones and wrote that. I'd written it in my diary on a card to her. And then she. She did a post saying, oh, hell yeah, good squish wearing them. And I remember when that happened, there were so many sales after that.

[James Reed]

So it really made a difference commercially.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, yeah. And then since Then you should keep.

[James Reed]

Writing lists, shouldn't you? I mean, obviously somehow transmits. You get more emails. Maybe.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Maybe I should.

[James Reed]

How many others have come through on the list?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

No one else.

[James Reed]

No one else?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

No, actually one more person. But. But I never saw a photo of her. Was Helen Helena Bonham Carter, and I never saw a picture of her wearing one, but she did order one because I saw her name and I asked her to be in a film and she said no, but it's fine.

[James Reed]

Well, you've got to try Helena Bonham Carter, if you're listening. I hope you like your squish.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, but we haven't. Yes. It's all been organic and now we have a lot of great. We've had. We've worked with Olivia Dean, who's an amazing singer and artist. Maud Apatow, amazing actress and she's come to our studio before. Bel Powley obviously, is my friend and she. She wears them. So I think it's all been really organic in that way. I think now we're sort of looking at, I think having. Doing sort of endorsements, celebrity endorsements is so helpful. So we have been looking at that. But. But I think when we get asked whether we'll do like a paid one, I've always been like, no, I think.

[James Reed]

It'S good that it's got integrity the way you. I. I just hope anyone listening, you know, who knows celebrities say this is an incredible way to support young entrepreneurs.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

You know, it doesn't take much, does it, to put a squish on and say, I love this. If you like it.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think they actually love them because they order loads.

[James Reed]

Yeah. So that if you love them, you know, put a picture and say, I love them, because why not? I mean, it helps people get business going, creates jobs. It's good for.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Exactly.

[James Reed]

Opportunities. London.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

I think that's a power that people sometimes have that they maybe don't realize they have.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. It's very true.

[James Reed]

When you say the orders went through the roof, that shows.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

How powerful it is.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, it's. Sometimes we haven't been. A girl called Amber worked with us on press for a while and she, she was amazing because I'm not very good at knowing who's cool, but she would go through our orders and she'd see a name of someone that is a kid.

[James Reed]

You'd be a lot better than me, I tell you. So people on TikTok, she was the.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Best and she'd find like a Tick Tock person on Tick Tock and she'd be like, this person's just ordered Super Baby in white. And then we would just get loads of orders for Super Baby and white from her. Just checking through. Because we'd always send a few extras. Right. But yeah, so that it does really work.

[James Reed]

So you need to be really tuned into that. That you're saying for people listening who are potentially going to be marketing things.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

That's an area to really keep a BDI on.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. And if you can't. Because I can't do that because I don't know who.

[James Reed]

And you're doing the product. But find people who are really.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Find someone that's really good at knowing who's in at the moment.

[James Reed]

Yeah, that's really important part of marketing, isn't it?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

So you're growing your business. You mentioned earlier that you were thinking.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Of going into Ready to Wear.

[James Reed]

Ready to Wear. I was going to say clothing, but that doesn't sound as good, does it? So. So that's your next. That's a big step. Is that.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yes.

[James Reed]

Accessories to. Ready to.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think it will be really slow. If I do go sort of go into that, it's going to keep the same brand. Yeah. Someone asked me this the other day. Yeah, definitely. No, Harry asked me, actually. But yeah, I would definitely want to keep the same brand.

[James Reed]

Yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I wouldn't want to change. I think good squish could be clothes.

[James Reed]

Yeah. Why not? Yeah, I. I see that. And there's a brand. But would it be a certain type of clothes? Squishy.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

Is that right? I mean, so I suppose I imagine that'd be super comfortable.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

I. I actually want to go very buttoned up.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I want to go into homeware also. So I think it will be slow. It'll be some things.

[James Reed]

Homeware.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I'm definitely going to go into homeware, but very slowly and ready to where I'm going to do over the next five years. But just really small batches. So maybe 30, 40 units of a skirt or. Yeah, I just want to keep it all really small with a focus on dead stock so that once.

[James Reed]

So you can still get dead stock in sufficient quantities to do that.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah, there's so much dead stock, you just have to look for it. So you need someone to look for it constantly. But I think something really. Something that is really nice about Deadstock is when we do use it for capsules. Once a product sold out, you can't get it again. So some people have 150, which is such a nice thing to know that.

[James Reed]

It'S like buying A print from an artist.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

[James Reed]

One of a number.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

So very unique.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I think that's so nice when there's not. You don't. You don't want to see the same person wearing the same product. Like, loads of.

[James Reed]

Well, you go to a party and there are three people in the same outfit.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. That's happened to me once, and I think that maybe that made me never want that to happen.

[James Reed]

Not. Not with a squish product.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I mean, now I see a lot of people wearing them. Yeah, but that's amazing.

[James Reed]

Yeah, but they're all. They'll all be different from different batches of dead stock.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah. Yeah. Except for our cool ones, which obviously we make the Bloombergs, the Queens, and we have to make a lot of those.

[James Reed]

Yeah.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And then we have wholesale, so. So we stock in a lot of different shops.

[James Reed]

So when you see someone wearing them, do you say hello to them? Do you ask them, how are you getting on with that? Or do you just give them the.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

That's actually a good point, because that's. I think one of the reasons we grew is that during just after lockdown, a lot of people said that they made friends through seeing someone wear a squish on the street.

[James Reed]

So they say hello to each other.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

People have made actual friends that hang out through seeing someone else.

[James Reed]

The community you're creating.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

That's fantastic.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Oh, I get videos of someone sitting on the bus, like, taking a video of someone wearing one. And then they would be like, I ran up to her and said, I knew about good squish. And then they would talk and. Yeah, that's. That's how we've grown. It's all been through people talking to each other, because you can see them. They're on ahead.

[James Reed]

Yeah, it's fantastic.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

So you. So, you know, you didn't like the word. You banned it. But we could have said this is about scrunchies, but you've gone way beyond that in terms of creating this squish where it's now community. You're selling a career. You're selling in Japan, you're selling in America.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

You've got celebrities endorsing it.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Yeah.

[James Reed]

You've created something that's. Yeah. A real brand and experience.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Thank you.

[James Reed]

So, Billy Joe, my first question to you is a question I ask everyone who comes onto this podcast, which is what gets you up on a Monday morning.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Good Squish. Yeah, that's it.

[James Reed]

That's all you need to say.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

Okay, good.

[James Reed]

Yeah, you go, that's if it's two words. Good squish. Let's keep that. If you want to say more, do. But that's your answer.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

That's probably what gets me up on a Monday.

[James Reed]

Good squish. Good. And my other question, which is a question from my interview book, why you? Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I have a lot of ideas for 5 years time but I think just still doing what we're doing but having moved into more accessories, having a really strong, amazing team and hopefully open a store in New York and Japan.

[James Reed]

Fantastic. Store in New York and Japan.

[Billie Jo Cronin]

And Japan. Maybe one in five.

[James Reed]

What about London? Would you have a store in London?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

I'd like to do pop ups in London and maybe have a store in London but I think New York and Japan are two places that I haven't been yet and I really want to go to. So I'd love to, I'd love to have stores there and then continue in London doing pop ups around.

[James Reed]

Yeah, that's a long way from where you are on the moment where you can quality control everything yourself. You're obviously going to have to build a team of people you trust. How are you going to do that? Where are you at in that process now?

[Billie Jo Cronin]

We're very much. Feels like we're, we're a long way from. We're still, we're still building on that and we're young. Phoenix and I are really young so we're learning how to be you know, team managers and boss and you know, all those things. So I think that's, that's one of our like really important and main goals at the moment is building a really strong team that we trust and that are enthusiastic and excited and making sure that they can progress through Good Squish. And something important to me is, I think I'm quite good at it is noticing what people are good at and I want everyone on my team to feel like they're sort of able to utilize what they're great at in, at Good Squish. So yeah, just having a really strong team is something we want.

[James Reed]

Well, I look forward to inviting you back in five years time and seeing how all that's progressing. Thank you very much for coming in. Thank, thank you. Thank you to Billy for joining me on All About Business. I'm your host James Reid, chairman and CEO of Reed, a family run recruitment and philanthropy company. If you'd like to find out more about Reid and Good Squish, all links are in the show notes. See you next time.