The Light

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Sophie Trelles-Tvede, The Chief executive of hair accessories, The Company Invisibobble

, the weekly-in-chief-series-profiles of various executives from all over The World . This Week , we speak with Sophie Trelles-Tvede, chief executive and founder of the hair accessories of The Company Invisibobble.

For most students, the founding of a new company would probably be The Last thing you hungover on your mind if you are.

Back in 2011, a group of Swiss entrepreneurs, and Sophie Trelles-Tvede was, to find the feet, as in The First -year student at the University of Warwick, but it is open to the feeling.

"was a study in the UK, my dream, and I had worked so hard to get there. But all of my exams and deadlines were not loaded through to the summer, so that all of The Work was back.

"We were just about to go in the Christmas holidays, but I felt Like I don't deserve you all," she says.

To combat this "numb" feeling, Sophie, then 18, went to a "anything but clothes" night at The Students ' union, where party-goers wear costumes they have made, from random elements.

Sophie began at the University of Warwick in the year of 2011,

Sophie, the says now 27, said: "When I Position Out the door, I saw this old, disused phone on my wall. I unplugged the [spiral] a cord and tied my hair with it. "

The "light bulb moment," as Sophie describes it, came in the next morning.

"I have a hangover woke up, but without a headache at all, although I still regularly work with them. The hair ties don't pull or leave a dent in my hair. "

Sophie, you call the friend, and now business partner, Felix Haffa. The two decided to work on the creation of a Prototype of a spiral hair-Band - even over Christmas, the financing of The Project itself.

"We asked a guy to remove produces telephone cable, The Wire , and solder it into a round shape.

Sophie adds: "The First box was terrible! But I thought to myself: 'There is something to this'. "

Collect feedback and optimize The Product for months, Sophie was in a transparent packaging with three-spiral-hair rubber in every £5 ($6. 25) in the field.

"The packing was so important for me. I wanted to purchase an Invisibobble to an Experience - such as the purchase of a eye-shadow palette, instead of toilet paper!"

The two decided to switch to a bigger manufacturer in China in the year 2012, the hair ties in the mass. She began selling products online, the years, as well as hairdressers.

Invisibobble hair ties are now

sold in More Than 70 countries, sales grew quickly, and Invisibobble went international in 2013. Pairing with distributors around The World , The Company began shipping in 12 countries.

Although The Company grew, Sophie says: "the People were at the beginning really blind for my product. I was laughed at because it was 'only a hair accessory'.

"My roommates would laugh at my Instagram posts about The Business , or if I was creating an invoice on one of the uni computers. "

But at the time, Sophie's graduation rolled around in 2014, Invisibobble had an annual turnover of More Than €6m ($6. 6m; £5m).

"the People could not still believe that Invisibobble is a full-time job for me.

"In my last year of the career advisors told me to apply for jobs in the HR field, after you found Out that I wanted to work exclusively on my business. "

Sophie noticed a shift in 2016, after she and her business partner Felix were listed on the Forbes Under 30 European entrepreneurs in the retail list.

"is That when People started seriously," she says.

Sophie said, this is the moment when Invisibobble really started to "strategising".

"We put a product on the market, and it was a hit. It felt super weird. But we never had a moment to step and think outside the box. "

A couple of instances of Invisibobble, copied, causing Sophie to change tack. "In every market the same thing would happen," she says. "We would perform over, then a different label creates a cheaper version.

"Well, it's too risky to just come up with an idea in the shower. We have The Most innovative, hair accessories, and we have all the teams, the coolest products, or campaigns. "

Invisibobble scrunchies Eder were used by the designer Marina Hoerman at the Berlin Fashion Week last year

It seems to be paying off for The Company , which now has its headquarters in Munich, while the products, manufactured in South Korea , and Germany as well as China.

Invisibobble, the clips now, also hair bands and hair sold, recorded a turnover of €20m ($21. 7m, £16. 6m) last year. It is today sold in More Than 100,000 locations, including chains, CVS, Walgreens, and Sephora in their largest market, the USA.

More Than 100,000 People now follow the brand on Instagram, too. Sophie recently used the Social Media platform to talk about the poor working practices that you saw in China during a 2018 trip.

"our production smoothly in China, our factories have been fully audited," she says.

"But we thought we'd visit some of the [new] factories, to see if there was something we could learn from what other companies do it. "

"the mothers have children on your lap while you are soldering hair Tie , then put stickers on them for large, multi-national brands. It was heart-wrenching. "

After the visit of eight different factories in China, decided Sophie, not each of them discover as options, stick with Invisibobble-existing audited manufacturers. She says: "It made me realize The Most important thing is that we need to grow in a sustainable way. "

Although the Invisibobble ' s best-selling product, the spiral hair Band, is made of plastic, The Company says, it is made of a single material, polyurethane. It does says that The Product is fully recyclable.

"We want to consume, the less human and more responsible. By setting a higher price than conventional hair bands, we try to encourage that," Sophie.

After a successful business, Sophie has to Start now advice for young entrepreneurs: "now!"

Additional features:

Younger entrepreneurs Like Sophie have "at least two advantages," says Vangelis Souitaris, professor of entrepreneurship at the City University Cass Business School. "You have The Passion , energy and creativity of youth. Secondly, you have little to lose.

"they usually don' T children or a mortgage to worry about, so during or immediately after graduation is a Good Time to take the leap and start a business. "

Sophie says that, if you if you don't do a good idea, "someone else will".

"Also, if you start a business as a student, you can not take a risk, because you have to leave a full-time job, start a business. The Worst Case is - it doesn't work. "

Source of news: bbc.com