Fun with Flash Memory Part 3: Cute Flash Drives

In the past few weeks you have heard about Freshly Squeezed Flash, the makers of those cute usb drives. I bet you can't get over the rubber duckey graphic we have here!

The maker of these drives, Rachel, kindly wrote back to answer some questions about her buzzing business. Here is the interview.


1. Why did you start a business like Freshly Squeezed Flash?
I made a few modified USB flash drives for friends and people kept saying I should sell them. I never really thought I could make money off of it, but then I decided to just launch a site, geared more toward the tutorials. I decided to make the site more as an opportunity to get better at doing web stuff and then since I wanted to sell the drives, I learned about e-commerce. It turned out that a lot of people were interested in buying my drives!

2. How do you get materials for the rubber duckies?
I get almost all of my materials (excluding flash drives) from the 99 cents only stores here in Los Angeles. I am addicted to the 99 cents store! They have the coolest stuff! I got my hot glue gun there, and all kinds of other cool stuff. It was there that I found the rubber duckies, crocodiles, whales, frogs, and octopuses, and they were the inspiration for starting the business.

3. What will you do if you ran out of these types of duckies or crocodiles?
I worried about that so I ran around to all of the various 99 cents stores and stocked up on all of them that I can find! I have a big plastic tub filled with rubber animals!

4. Who is the market for these kinds of drives?
Well, I feel like I can market to a lot of different people with these drives. I think that the cutesy ones are more for girls, especially the hello kitty drives and stuff. I am hoping to tap into the Japanese market (but I don't know Japanese!). I think that the hot wheels cars are pretty cool and my husband likes them a lot. They are not as geeky and can be a fun addition to a keychain. I think that everybody can find a USB flash drive a handy addition to their keychain.



5. How much time do you devote into making these things? (per drive)
I try to price my drives based on the amount of time it takes to make them. So the hot wheels flash drive, for example, costs more because it takes a bit longer to make with the dremeling out and stuff.

6. What is the reaction of people when they see this stuff for the first time?
So many people think they are the coolest thing when they see them. It inspires creativity in a lot of people and they get ideas for ones they want to make themselves. Sometimes they place a custom order with me, and sometimes they go to my tutorials and get ideas for doing it themselves.

7. Where do you usually sell these stuff? Do you also sell some at Ebay as well?
I tried selling two drives on ebay once, but it was hard because people were bidding and I didn't know exactly how much I would get for one. It's much easier to treat it like a real business with set prices (that way I can track expenses, etc.)

8. Are there anymore products or variations of these drives in the future?
I am CONSTANTLY getting ideas for flash drives! I have several things that are in a box to try and fiddle around with when I have time. I want to try putting a drive into a gold ball, into dominoes, into poker chips. I also got some little electronic game keychains and I want to see if I can fit a drive into one of those. I love the creativity of seeing what I could make that would make someone happy.

She also provides a tutorial at her website on how to make these drives. Now that's what I call sharing!

Visit her site at: Freshly Squeezed Flash

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