Sam Arcadipane - Founder of Fuss Pot

Fusspot Collagen Beauty Tea is the outcome of my research and discovery of the incredible benefits of tea, and, as an avid tea drinker, I have always consumed a lot of tea daily, and found out that it is so beneficial for your skin, your health, your digestive system and your immunity. At the same time, I was also looking into taking collagen for myself and found a lot of misinformation…. So, upon finding out how incredible tea is for your skin and complexion, I realised that no-one out there was developing tea with collagen, and thought “I bet that there’s heaps of other women out there, just like me, in our 40’s, who are looking to improve their health, improve their skin and stay looking young, who would also benefit from drinking a collagen-infused organic tea” – and so the idea was born! I then spent 15 months developing the range and sourcing the best organic teas, and premium collagen peptides, and working out how actually to develop and blend it.

2. What was your main inspiration behind starting your own business?

 I had always wanted my own business and my own brand, but just had never come up with what the actual ‘thing’ was. Once I came up with the idea of collagen tea, it was clear that this was what I could sink my teeth into, that I believed in the product enough to launch it.

3. What was the most challenging part of getting your business off the ground and how did you overcome those challenges?

 The most challenging thing to launch Fusspot was taking that leap of faith, and paying those initial big bills that came in at the beginning… it’s like “Am I really going to do this?” and it’s a huge leap of faith. Since then, I’ve launched, and we’re nearly 3 years old. There have been hundreds of challenges along the way, mostly Covid, which happened 6 weeks after we launched, and caused us to have 3 false PR launches amidst lockdowns, media freeze on anything other than hand sanitiser and covid stats and no live events or retailers being open… it was definitely a challenge to keep re-launching and going through that again, especially being Melb-based, as we have been in lockdown for a total of 264 days over the last 2 years, so a real challenge!!! And yet, even today, retail is still in the hangover of covid and there are still challenges that are ever-present, and hopefully will ease in 2023.

4. Are there any small businesses out there who inspire you?

 There are so many small businesses that I love watching and I buy from them, and I’m supportive of them! There are a few candle companies that are doing well, a few jewellery businesses that are doing well and who I love to buy from and follow and watch what they’re ranging and who have a lot of creativity, and there’s some supplement and health foods companies that I also love watching and following on Instagram who are clearly in growth. That’s inspiring!

But I mostly feel inspired by the bigger players, watching what trends they’re following and evolving with in response to consumer sentiment – I love following and reviewing their changing technology, their copy and content strategies, and what they do to constantly evolve as social media is changing and consumer confidence is changing. This inspires me to remain ever-changing.

5. How would a typical day look for you? 

 Each day is different. Some days I’m back-to-back in zooms and meetings, others I spend on socials, others I’m doing retail presentations and then there’s other days where it’s all admin and expenditure and finances and clearing the menial tasks of admin! But what’s a constant every day is I start my day with my Fusspot THE HIGH-FLYER English Breakfast collagen infused teabags, and swap to my loose leaf and powdered teas throughout the day, having several cups of collagen tea through my day to keep me energised and hydrated and get my collagen boost every day!

6. Did you have any reservations when you started your business? How did you move forward from them?

 YES! Of course, I did! It’s moving away from a 20-year career and full-time salary, and that was scary! Really scary!! I literally had to take the leap, and kept telling myself if it doesn’t work, I can always go back full time to a job. But I persisted and pushed through the fear and launch I did!!! Having your own business is a constant work in progress and a constant story of telling yourself that you can do it, get through it, and get through the enormous workload and stay motivated each day.  You just have to keep moving forward.

7. What advice would you give to someone who is on the fence about starting their own business?

 I would say, do your due diligence, look at competitors, look at other business models and look at how much funds you have to kick off your business. The stories you read about these people who start these huge companies with $200 in their pockets are not realistic. It costs more than that to start a website, and to develop product and you pay for a lot of stuff, constantly and so you should build a budget and a plan. I would also say you need to be prepared to put in a lot of hard work, it’s 24/7 and always hire consultants or contractors to help with the things you’re not good at, like bookkeeping, accounting, or any other areas you don’t know how to do.

8. What are you most proud of in terms of your business venture so far?

 I’m extremely proud that we’ve already won so many local and global awards. We even won a global award for the World Tea Awards in our first year.  There’s nothing better than seeing your brand pop up in lights, or feature online, or in a publication where it’s won an award! I’m also really proud of all the media publicity we’ve had and the wonderful reviews we get from our customers! I’m always chuffed when someone writes a review!

9. What is your bestselling product?

 We get asked this all the time, but we don’t have a singular best seller. People prefer differing types of teas, in our loose leaf collagen tea range, our GLOW JUNKIE and our CLOUD NINE are in the top 3 best sellers, our Chai and our matcha do well in our powdered collagen teas and our THE HIGH-FLYER English Breakfast teabags do really well, but because most people have teabag or loose-leaf preferences, and green, black or herbal preferences, they kind of all sell at similar rates….

10. Do you have any tips/advice for someone who has no idea about collagen and how it helps you?

 Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies, with every cell containing it and helps with the structure of our body, and all soft tissue. Collagen provides structure and strength to our skin, hair, nails, ligaments, tendons, and joints. It helps keep our skin firm and elastic by holding moisture in, helps with hair growth, and helps with stronger joints and ligaments and muscle performance. It’s a great supplement, that is beneficial by being consumed and we offer all 11 x beauty teas infused with bovine type I and III hydrolyzed collagen peptides from one of the world’s most premium suppliers where they have scientifically proven these results for more radiant, smoother and firmer skin, thicker hair and stronger nails, joints and bones. It’s pretty incredible really, and we all start to lose about 1% to 2% of our natural collagen product PER YEAR from our mid 20’s, so there’s never a better time to start consuming collagen tea to support the infrastructure of your body from the inside!

11. Is there anything you are excited about for your business going into 2023?

 I’m hoping that the state of retail and consumer confidence builds again in 2023 after the damage from Covid these last two years as well as the increase of goods/rates and petrol and interest rates and general cost of goods. I’m hoping the economy will start to stabilise. I’m also excited for several opportunities that have recently presented themselves for 2023, and so we hope that they can come to fruition (they’re secret, so can’t share just yet!).

12. How do you find a good work/life balance?

 I’d like to say that I’m very focused on work/life balance, and I do fit in a lot in my life. I don’t need a lot of sleep, so I find a great amount of extra time every day, every week - compared to most people… I’ve got a great home life and spend a lot of time with my husband, I have a busy social life and ensure that I get out and see friends every week, and I also work every day on Fusspot and then again most evenings after dinner well into the late hours of the night - so I’m not the best to give advice about sleep, but I do have a great work/life balance as I do manage to do a lot of fun things and social things and have down-time, but I also work long hours - so I do fit in a lot in my average week!

13. What is your favourite thing/s to do for selfcare?

 I love sitting down and painting my nails! Sounds funny, but it’s one thing that I find very relaxing. And then you’re forced to sit there and perhaps read or watch TV whilst they dry. I also love lighting a candle, drinking a lot of collagen tea, and I love going out to the country for big walks and seeing nature. Simple things to unwind.

14. What is a quote you live by?

 If you always do, what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got!

15. What makes your products amazing?

Fusspot Collagen Beauty Teas have been developed with a Tea Master, so the blends themselves are DELICIOUS. They are really yummy, and we get lots of feedback how nice they are to drink but what adds that ‘bonus’ is that they’re all infused with premium collagen peptides and so you’re getting your daily caffeine fix, collagen boost and antioxidant hit! They’re pretty amazing, but I may be a little biased! Just read our reviews! 

If you want to read more about Fuss Pot collagen tea click HERE.

If you want to try Fuss Pot's collagen tea, use this code at checkout to get 10% off your order “ FUSSPOT10 “.