By Eric Johnson
The Journal Times, Racine, Wisc.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Trudy Brown says she was inspired to launch “2Bubbly” while she was stuck in the house with her kids during the lockdown. What started out as simply blowing bubble outdoors has turned into a full-fledged organic scented bubble company with fragrances including watermelon, Red Velvet cake batter, and strawberry.
Racine
“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
If history is any indicator, the economic downturn spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic may be the inspiration for entrepreneurs like Racine’s Trudy Brown to do just that.
Past economic downturns, combined with American ingenuity, have been the springboard for many businesses: More than half of today’s Fortune 500 companies — General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Disney, Hyatt Hotels, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft among them — were established in the midst of an economic downturn.
Serendipitous inspiration
In May, Brown launched 2Bubbly, an organic scented bubble company operated by her and her family, including children Jermaine Spears, Jr., 3; Jayla Moore, 6; Cornelius Herring, 9; and Noah Herring, 10. When COVID handed the family lemons, they made lemonade-scented bubbles, among 18 other scents. Jayla and her cousin, Amiayh Blair, provided the inspiration, Brown said.
“We were sitting at home and they were so bubbly with their personalities and I was like, ‘Let’s go outside and blow bubbles,’ ” Brown said. “And then it kind of was like, ‘We should make scented bubbles.’ “
“With COVID, I was just ready to get out and move and I wanted the kids to get out and move and not be locked in the house the entire time, because it’s kind of depressing for a lot of people. Any parent will kind of go cuckoo with the kids not being in school, no day care, no work.”
Brown, who is studying small business entrepreneurship at Gateway Technical College, put her studies into action: She filed 2Bubbly as a limited liability company, created a logo and labels, and started production. 2Bubbly made its first sales on June 1.
“I love being an entrepreneur,” she said. “I don’t want to work for anybody else. I’d rather work for myself and my kids.”
For Brown, 2Bubbly is a valuable and important family life lesson in entrepreneurship and people skills.
“That was the idea behind 2Bubbly — let’s get the kids involved to gain some entrepreneur skills,” Brown noted. “They get to bring their creativity in as well.”
Such skills are important when life-changing major events like COVID-19 occur.
“I want them to learn that, especially with something like COVID, you can’t really rely on a job,” Brown said. “I was (working) part-time and they laid us off for months.”
Organic, natural scented bubbles
2Bubbly’s flagship product is 100% plant-based bubbles produced in a variety of scents including watermelon, Red Velvet cake batter, strawberry, raspberry, almond, coconut, lemonade, peppermint, chocolate, banana, peach, mango, orange, lime, root beer, orange cream, cinnamon, lilac and pear.
“I like the way the products smell,” Brown’s son, Noah Herring, told The Journal Times after selling a 16-ounce jar of scented bubbles to Racine resident Jeoe Juerro and his 2-year-old daughter Emily at Monument Square in Downtown Racine on Friday afternoon.
The bubbles are produced at the family home on Green St., where Brown and her children make two types of scented bubbles — natural bubble solution and organic scented bubbles
Bubbles are sold individually in 16-ounce jars in a choice of scents, or in custom Poke-A-Dot Bubble Boxes featuring two 16-ounce jars of bubbles in a choice of scents, one large bubble wand, two homemade bubble wands, and two suckers.
To spur interest in the products, 2Bubbly holds a monthly raffle, including its most recent raffle on July 17 for a “Girl Boss Bubble Box” featuring scented glitter, jars of strawberry- and almond-scented bubbles, one large bubble wand, two small homemade bubble wands, one bag of cotton candy, two iridescent cosmetic bags, one “Girl Boss” desktop sign, and two iridescent raspberry suckers.
Online, direct sales
While most of 2Bubbly’s sales are online, direct face-to-face sales are made by Brown’s children out of their hand-drawn red Radio Flyer wagon at various high-traffic Downtown Racine locations, including Monument Square and Smoke’d on the Water, 3 Fifth St.
“I like live sales for the kids to become more engaged with others and not be shy,” Brown said. “People are more involved when they see the kids involved.”
Positive reaction
Customer reaction to 2Bubbly has been gratifying, Brown said, noting 2Bubbly has already shipped its products to Green Bay, as well as to customers in six other states including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas.
Brown said product delivery is typically within 1 to 3 days depending on the order destination.
Locally, Brown said 2Bubbly also offers pickup and delivery “all around Racine.”
“There’s been nothing but positive feedback,” Brown said. “They (customers) love the fact that I started this for my kids so they can see how business works from a young age … instead of trying to figure out how business works when they get older.”
New products coming
With the warm-weather seasonality of bubbles, Brown said she recognized the need early on to diversify the product offerings. A variety of products are in the works for a fall rollout including scented kids dish soap, scented kids bubble bath solution and scented bath bombs.
“We’re all working at home to produce more things for our off-season, when bubbles aren’t as popular” she said.
For more information, visit 2Bubbly online on Facebook and TikTok (2Bubbly), Instagram (Instagram.com/2Bubblyofficialbiz) and Shopify (2Bubbly.myshopify.com).
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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
