For entrepreneur Assie Khoussa, the boundaries between work and private life are nearly nonexistent. A few of this industriousness comes from necessity – operating a child model as a single mom is not any straightforward feat, requiring Assie to be in work mode 24/7. However, the success of her small enterprise additionally stems from Assie’s capability to point out up as herself one hundred pc of the time. The truth is, Eizzy Child originated due to the entrepreneur’s relatability.
“Eizzy Child actually began from me sharing issues that I used to be utilizing each day with my son and considering nothing of it,” Assie mentioned. “I used to be occurring my private web page on Instagram, sharing ‘I simply bought this snack cup,’ After which all my father or mother pals had been like, ‘Wow, the place did you get it from?’”
In 2020, amid a pandemic, Assie formally launched Eizzy Child and began promoting silicone bibs, snack cups, and suction plates, amongst different objects. A core tenet for the model is to supply sturdy and unhazardous merchandise that make dad and mom’ lives simpler and easier. And whereas Eizzy Child has seen quite a lot of success, it hasn’t at all times been a straightforward street for Assie, the small enterprise’s one and solely worker. Nonetheless, two years in, Eizzy Child has already gained over tons of loyal prospects.
If you happen to ask Assie what her sport plan has been, she’ll let you know that there is no such thing as a grand technique she follows. And that’s what’s most refreshing about Eizzy Child – its development can principally be credited to Assie’s authenticity. She’s simply related together with her prospects by way of Instagram by sharing her personal experiences as a mom, utilizing only a few paid promoting and advertising and marketing efforts.
This realness seeps into all the pieces Assie does and is a giant motive why she resonates with so many, together with Tracy Jabbal, one among Eizzy Child’s longtime prospects.
“To help an actual individual — you get such a special sense of [Assie] and the way she’s caring for [her son] Noah and desires to do good for herself and have a productive, profitable enterprise,” Tracy mentioned.
And whereas Assie’s actuality as a single mother and small-business proprietor might not at all times be image good, the entrepreneur has no intention of filtering herself.
“Instagram tends to be so good,” she mentioned. “I stay extra of a TikTok life the place it is uncooked, uncut, unedited.”
At first, Assie needed to promote diaper baggage. She ordered a ton of stock and thought prospects would purchase up her merchandise like hotcakes…till they didn’t. This preliminary miscalculation didn’t cease her, nevertheless.
“I at all times had quite a lot of grit,” Assie mentioned. “I do not actually take no for a solution, particularly when it’s one thing I need in life. So I simply picked again up and tried one thing completely different.”
She remembered particular objects that she had casually shared on her Instagram Tales – together with child plates – that appeared to resonate most together with her followers. This catapulted what would turn out to be Eizzy Child, however there have been nonetheless some hurdles Assie needed to overcome. Particularly, the entrepreneur wished that she trusted herself extra when Eizzy Child was in its infancy.
As she bought her model up and operating, she encountered advertising and marketing and PR companies who tried to persuade Assie they’d Eizzy Child’s greatest curiosity at coronary heart.
“Once I first began, I used to be believing in all people that got here to me, and was like, ‘hey, I can do that for your online business. And I may do this.’ That was laborious for me,” Assie mentioned. “I misplaced some huge cash that means.”
Shortly, nevertheless, Assie realized to depend on herself, and to this present day, she manages each facet of Eizzy Child – from advertising and marketing to purchasing to customer support – on her personal. As an entrepreneur, she’s additionally resourceful and takes benefit of free coaching at any time when attainable, like when she lately participated in a stay web site audit that Shopify provided to small companies.
Ultimately, Assie was capable of rent her first worker, who helped with Eizzy Child’s social media and weblog. Nonetheless, within the spring of 2022, the enterprise slowed down, and Assie needed to in the reduction of and let her first worker go. This additionally coincided with Assie’s birthday and a time when the mother and enterprise proprietor was feeling extraordinarily burned out. Whereas this second was irritating, the entrepreneur picked herself again up.
“I simply gave myself grace… I allowed myself to fall,” Assie mentioned. “After which return to determining how I could be extra artistic and provides myself the okay to proceed to point out up as myself.”
With practically 5,000 followers, Eizzy Child’s Instagram account is the place Assie connects together with her prospects probably the most – normally on Instagram Tales or by way of her many Reels. For Tracy, Assie’s depiction of sure parenting conditions – just like the battle of hiding snacks out of your youngsters – was simply one of many causes she grew to become a fan of the model.
“[Assie] does quite a lot of actually humorous, tremendous relatable Reels and polls,” Tracy mentioned. “And as a mom, I can actually connect with that. You get this sense she’s such a real individual.”
However the entrepreneur additionally makes use of social media to gather buyer suggestions and opinions on new colours and designs for her snack cups and bibs. She’s even joked that she owes all her Instagram followers a sure share of the earnings since they’ve helped form so many Eizzy Child merchandise. On this means, Assie has been constructing in public and together with her neighborhood in on her small enterprise’s journey.
And Instagram is just not the one platform the place Assie has cultivated this type of relationship together with her prospects. She’s additionally used Fb Teams, particularly parenting ones, to attach with like-minded people. By becoming a member of these on-line areas, Assie has been capable of community with dad and mom and introduce her model as an answer to among the challenges they face. This aligns together with her objective to create merchandise that can in the end assist mothers and dads spend extra time with their youngsters.
“The theme for all of my merchandise is easy and simple,” Assie mentioned. “Like, simply minimize off as a lot stress as attainable. So [Eizzy Baby products] make your life as a mother and as a father or mother just a bit bit simpler.”
Not solely do prospects take pleasure in Assie’s social media presence, however in addition they genuinely like Eizzy Child’s merchandise. As a mother of youngsters ages two and 5 years outdated, Tracy has examined dozens of child manufacturers from the U.S. and Europe and has but to seek out one which’s stood as much as Eizzy Child. Particularly, she particularly appreciates the Snack Cup’s collapsible design and spill proof performance.
“Of all of the issues that we have tried, from Goal, Amazon, shops in Europe, [Eizzy Baby’s] stuff has simply been favorites when it comes to sturdiness and longevity. It is outlasted all the pieces else,” Tracy mentioned.
By being susceptible and sharing each the ups and downs of parenthood, Assie has been capable of efficiently promote her model, however extra importantly, she’s additionally constructed a neighborhood together with her followers.
“I observed that at any time when I present up — it is simply me. No eyebrows on, nothing. I get extra engagement, I get extra love, I get extra help, I get extra patrons,” she mentioned. “The very best half is I get to have this enterprise and nonetheless be a mother, nonetheless be myself, and nonetheless present the new mess that occurs within the background.”
Whereas operating a small enterprise is already hectic sufficient, it was nonetheless vital for Assie to incorporate a charitable part to her model. On Eizzy Child’s homepage is a tab for a company known as Angel Home Worldwide, which gives sources for younger ladies in Uganda.
Assie first labored with Angel Home Worldwide years earlier when she was part of an area basis that offered meals on wheels and different providers to her neighborhood. There, she watched a presentation on the group and realized in regards to the difficulties dealing with many Ugandan ladies and younger ladies, together with rising up in poverty, coping with gender discrimination and sexual violence, and having to drop out of faculty at a younger age.
“Rising up in Senegal, I felt so free as a toddler. I had no worries,” Assie mentioned. “And I could not think about having somebody undergo a few of these issues.”
As soon as Eizzy Child was up and operating, Assie knew she needed to help this trigger in any means she may. After studying the group was constructing a facility and dormitory for the ladies, Assie began promoting Angel Home Worldwide’s Beads of Hope – bracelets made by the ladies themselves – on Eizzy Child’s website and social media. one hundred pc of the contributions from the beads go on to serving to and empowering ladies in Uganda. Together with spreading the phrase about Angel Home Worldwide, Assie has donated proceeds from sure Eizzy Child gross sales to the group.
Incorporating this social affect into her model was a pure transfer for the small-business proprietor.
“It was seamless. I’ve labored with [Angel House International] up to now and fell in love with the group,” Assie mentioned. “It was simply one thing I may do to create affect each single day with our gross sales.”
Although Eizzy Child gives dad and mom with non-toxic and ethically sourced merchandise, it is clear that for Assie, her model is about a lot greater than that. It is a means for her to attach with different mothers, elevate consciousness for deserving causes, and most significantly, an area for the entrepreneur to be her true self.
