Tame provides premium grooming tools to trim and maintain body and facial hair. Photo / Supplied
Nik McIntosh, founder of Tame, talks to the Herald about how his business is challenging the norms and stereotypes around personal grooming.
What does your business do?
We help people look and feel their best by providing premium grooming tools to trim and maintain body and facial hair. In addition, we offer a range of battery-powered trimmers designed to help people keep their body hair neat and tidy.
What was the motivation to start Tame?
People deserve better options than using the same tools they used for their facial and leg hair on their more sensitive areas.
For men, we want to break down the stigma around self-care and grooming to make it more accessible and acceptable for men to care for their appearance. We define self-care as presenting yourself in a way that makes you feel confident.
For women, we want to challenge societal pressure to conform to traditional beauty standards that dictate hairlessness. With the increase in body positivity and women challenging those outdated norms around body hair, providing access to tools that facilitate that flexibility is important.
We encourage personalisation and firmly believe that when you feel your best, you look your best — confidence, after all, is a person’s most attractive quality.
Why did you choose the name Tame?
We went through a conceptual development process on a few different names but felt that the name Tame and the process of taming your body hair, etc, fit very well. On top of that, the tension we could create between the name Tame and the wild feel of the brand identity gave us an excellent opportunity to do something very different from what was out there.
What were you doing before starting Tame?
I’m actually a plumber by trade and own an online education business specifically for tradespeople called Trade Lab. So before Tame I was solely focused on building that up.
How big is your team?
We currently employ one person. We’ve been very deliberate about the way we’ve set the business up in its early stages, choosing to leverage specialist consultants/contractors part-time for specific business functions rather than increase the size of our team.
How much has the business grown since you started?
Since launching in October last year, we’ve increased monthly revenue 25-fold. Within the next 3-6 months we’re looking to double that again. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but if we play our cards right, we could be looking at $10 million-plus annual revenue in the next three to five years.
What’s the major focus for the business right now?
Right now, we have three main focuses; increasing our product range; growing our footprint in the Australian market; and boosting awareness that our grooming tools are for women too.
What challenges are the business and your industry facing at the moment?
We are focused solely on eCommerce, so the main challenge is getting the brand in front of the right people. Adding to that is the iOS 14 change (among a few other things), which has made getting accurate targeting more complex (it’s a challenge we share with anyone selling online).
Supply chain management is still a key factor resulting in us holding more stock than we usually would have had to.
Where do you see your business in the next three to five years?
In the next three to five years, we’ll continue to increase our product offering, and if everything goes to plan, we’ll have a presence in more international markets.
What advice do you give others thinking about starting their own business?
Just do it. I sat on ideas for a long time, and I’m kicking myself for not executing things sooner. Don’t rush the process, though. Be patient and consistent; a lot goes into it, but the reward at the other end is worth it financially and, more importantly, the personal growth you’ll achieve.