The short version
David Socha started Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company in 1994, out of a garage, selling custom teddy bears by mail order off radio ads — handwriting the UPS labels and poking an air hole in every box so the bear would arrive alive. Thirty years later the company’s products sell in more than ninety countries, against competitors with a thousand times the shelf leverage.
The turn came from saying yes to something he did not know how to do. A former employer passed on the merchandise rights to Babe, the majors passed, and Socha — with no manufacturing experience and no factory — took it, called a hockey friend who flew to Asia, and went from a couple hundred pieces to a couple hundred thousand across thirty or forty countries. He was twenty-three.
The rest of the conversation is about the discipline that kept it alive: an integrity lesson at twenty-three that generated close to two years of free airtime, running closer to 90/10 than 80/20 on a product line with unlimited possible SKUs, turning the lights off fast on what is not working, hiring people better than you and then leaving them alone, and holding the company together when COVID took more than eighty percent of the revenue.
Four takeaways
- Reputation compounds long before you need it — and it is usually built by someone else’s decision, not yours. At twenty-three, Socha put every dollar he had into a radio buy with a celebrity endorser who then took ten times the money from a competitor the day before it ran. The station’s general manager told him “you cannot control other people’s ethics, but you can control your own,” and comped the airtime until Socha got the orders he had paid for. The $15,000 buy ran for nearly two years and delivered around $1.5 million of airtime. Socha’s read on it is blunt: without that, the company probably does not exist today.
- Say yes until it is genuinely impossible, then go find out how. Socha took the Babe deal knowing nothing about manufacturing. The capacity did not exist; he built it in ninety days through a relationship. Opportunity is perishable and capability is not — a gap in what you know how to do is a solvable problem, and an opportunity that goes to a competitor is not.
- In a business with unlimited possible SKUs, the entire job is subtraction. Socha runs closer to 90/10 than 80/20 at retail, and splits the line deliberately between evergreen products that sell in fifty years and trend products with a two-year life. The rule on both ends is speed: when something works, chase it hard and keep the pipeline full; when it does not, “turn the lights off quickly” rather than let dead inventory quietly consume working capital and attention.
- The founder becomes the constraint years before anyone tells him. Socha spent the first two decades inside every intricate piece of the business, helping people do jobs they were better at than he was. What replaced it is a standard his team can hear: “If I’m not talking to you, it’s probably pretty good. That means you’re doing an amazing job. And if you see me next to you all the time, we probably gotta work some things out.”
“Figure out a way to get it done when everyone else says no.”
— David Socha, founder and CEO, Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company
Full transcript
[00:00] Bill Canady: All right, good afternoon, everyone. Uh, today my guest is David Soha, founder and CEO of Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company. David started the business in his garage more than 30 years ago and built it into a global plush toy company whose products are sold in more than 90 countries. That’s right, 90 countries. Everybody loves those teddy bears. So along the way, he’s navigated licenseing and retail consolidation, overseas manufacturing, changing consumer trends. And an eighty percent revenue decline during COVID. His story is about much more than Teddy Bears, though. It’s about focus, integrity, resilience, family, and building a company designed to outlive its founder. So welcome, David. It’s great to have you on the show today.
David Socha: Thanks so much, Bill. Great to be here.
Bill Canady: Well it’s my pleasure. And just uh uh for everyone, David’s fighting a little bit of a cold. He’s he’s coaching a a new hockey league. His kids are out there, so he’s been yelling a lot as we always so so he’s already forewarned me he’s gonna be uh gonna be sunning like a frog, uh maybe one of his toys, and eating cough drops at the same time. So uh well, fantastic. So look, I thought I’d jump right in and you know, you were exposed to the toy business at nine years old, and but hockey was really your original dream.
David Socha: That’s right. That’s right.
Bill Canady: When did you realize toys could become your life work?
David Socha: Uh, you know what, I’ve always loved toys. I’ve always I was a toy kid when I was little. If I if it was out there and my family could afford it, I wanted it. So whether it was G.I. Joe or King Kong or any fun toy guns, I love toy guns. I loved the Star Trek little disc throwers. So uh but I really thought I had a shot to make a to be to be a professional hockey player. And uh
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: So in college, my college roommate and I, um, who was an unbelievable hockey player, when we both kept moving on, we had our few tryouts, some free agent camps. Uh those didn’t quite go the best they could have with the Boston Bruins. We uh we started a company and about the same time this new pro roller hockey league started. So long story short, him and I were kind of double dutying. Starting a company but playing some professional roller hockey. So uh at some point though you have to focus. And in that journey, literally in uh in one of our practices, a guy’s name whose nickname was Killer, I had my head down I had my head down and he came across the middle and he killed me. So his name lived up to everything he said it was. And It wasn’t meant to be for me to play hockey anymore. So yeah.
[02:49] Bill Canady: Well, that’s hey look, that’s how you get those lovely teeth is you get new ones after Killer has his way with you, so
David Socha: Yeah, yeah. Well that was a new shoulder actually. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I’ve only you know, to be honest, I’ve only lost teeth in non-professional games and like games that were supposed to be friendly. So it it is funny. Hockey’s a funny sport because there’s a lot of adrenal and a lot of testosterone flying around.
Bill Canady: Oh a shoulder. Well You hockey guys are a different breed. I mean, someone knocks my teeth out on a friendly game. I mean, I I’m probably gonna reconsider like am I playing this thing anymore? But yeah, God bless, man. So awesome.
David Socha: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the the golden rule kinda goes out the window when that happens. So it’s it it’s unfortunate. So my wife would rather I not play two competitive games.
Bill Canady: Well, my wife would pre probably like most of us, our wives would prefer we not do a lot of things on it. So Well look, take us back to the garage. When what did the business look like before anyone believed it could actually succeed?
David Socha: So take it way back before the internet, before before texting, right at the start of cell phones, right? Uh, we, my roommate and I said, look at let’s just let’s really dig in and uh start a mail order company. So we bought teddy bears from different makers around the the US. And our shtick was we were gonna advertise on the radio and send one that looks like Bill. So your wife could call and send uh uh a bear at that time. Maybe you were dressed in a blue suit. It’d be a bear in a blue suit. If your wife was a nurse, we’d do a nurse bear. Um and they were average of $100 each. You’d listen to you’d be listening to sports radio or talk radio. You’d call in, you’d order, we’d send it, it’d be there in two or three days. You were a hero. Especially at Valentine’s Day, ’cause it was just different. So we’d send a teddy bear with a little bit of chocolate, maybe a little uh fake flour in there with it, with a beautiful card. And uh don’t ask when we messed up the cards ’cause that would get a little tricky, but that’s that’s another story.
[05:03] Bill Canady: Oh my. So uh you know, so when when you’re doing that and you’re you’re running fast and you know, then we didn’t have all the systems we had today. How do you handle like messing up the cards and how do they you know how how how do you get through that and then pass that?
David Socha: No. You know, a lot of apologies. To be honest, you know, they say don’t ever apologize, say, you know, let’s make but we try to make lemonade out of it. But um there was a guy who professional athlete had a few different girls he was sending bears to and a couple of them got crossed in the mail and somebody got the wrong one and they knew about the other one and they called and it was a mess. But no, truly, when you say everything was manual, I remember handwriting
Bill Canady: Cross.
David Socha: all the UPS tags. So we could have hundreds of shipments going out during Valentine’s Day or a thousand. Those were all handwritten. And the boxes, we were we were a very organic type company. So every box had an air hole that we put in individually with a little a little pen that we would poke at and then stamp at air hole so your bear would be alive. So when they got there it was
Bill Canady: Tabela.
David Socha: It was fun, right? It was just a fun thing. They knew there was a stuffed animal in there and they knew that, oh, it’s alive. Which ironically, a lot of people, a lot of kids, they will throw out a lot of toys, but stuffed animals don’t really ever get thrown out. They either get donated unless they get moldy, but which is very rare. They’ll either get donated or passed on because it’s a living creature. So
Bill Canady: My kids who are in their late twenties now both still have stuffed animals, bears, things like that from their childhood. And so they don’t they don’t they don’t they get kind of loved away, right? They get the you know, the eye starts missing and the part but e each one of them, in fact, my daughter, uh there’s my grandson, he now sleeps with the bear she slept with when she was uh and you know, what else? What else do you keep a blanket, maybe? I I don’t know, but the stuffed animals.
David Socha: Yes. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. You’re right.
[07:09] Bill Canady: Yeah, that’s kind of that’s I never thought about it that way. That’s kinda kinda cool. Yeah, we had we had talked earlier about, you know, becoming sole owner uh after all the financial setbacks and all that. What did that period teach you about partnerships and control and things like that?
David Socha: Yes. Yeah, in the very beginning I had a partner who was my best friend and business was not good. It was awful. And we put our last bit of money in and it it just wasn’t working and and he wanted out. So um I gave him his little bit of investment out and I was going in extreme debt. And just to touch on that though. So so he left. We’re still friends today. Uh yeah.
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I was gonna ask you that. Does he does he re is he regret it that he didn’t stick or?
David Socha: I don’t think so. I mean it it was different. I mean, there’s been this business is very interesting. We’re not one of the big boys like uh Hasbro or Mattel. So it’s very challenging to get products on the shelf. We’re competing with billion multi billion dollar companies for a limited amount of shelf space. So I I mean, I don’t know if he regrets it. I mean, I’m just glad that we’re we’re still friends, to be honest. Um But so I’ll just go into a short story, Bill, because I think it’s I think it’s important because I learned so much from this guy and his name is Ken Christensen. I I don’t even know where he is now, but he was uh he was an executive at one of the media outlets that we used, one of the largest in the United States. And I worked with one of his reps and we had I had taken all my money and hired the celebrity from that show.
Bill Canady: That’d be great.
David Socha: And said, I want your celebrity to read it. I gave the celebrity the money personally. I put the rest of my money down. I said, okay, I’m putting all my money here. Everything’s on on black. We’re going all in and every penny. So celebrities sell product. So the day before it’s gonna start, my rep, who is a sweet gal, calls up and she says, uh, Dave, I have some bad news. I said, Oh. What what what’s up? What’s going on? She goes, You have a competitor that came in and just gave that celebrity uh newscaster ten times more than you did. And I said, Well, would it matter? I’ve already shaken his hand. We had a deal. She’s like, My boss wants to meet with you. So I’m like, So I am fuming. I’m a hockey player. I am still I’m very young. I’m on fire. So I’m like, Megan, well, I can be there in thirty minutes. So she said, Okay, come in. So we met with general manager and for some reason I let him go first. I didn’t yell, I didn’t scream. I just said, Okay, what what do you want to tell me? And he said, David, you’re gonna learn a very valuable lesson. He asked me how old I was, I was twenty three. And it and he said, You’re gonna learn a very valuable lesson today. He goes, you’re going to find out that you cannot control other people’s ethics, but you can control your own. So I said, okay, good lesson, sir. What does that mean for me? And he said, You’re going to go home, you’re going to go back to your office, and you’re going to tell me how many orders you would have gotten with my celebrity endorser. And I’m going to commit to you right now that I’m going to run advertising. Until you get that number of orders. If it takes me a month, if it takes me a year, if it takes me two, I don’t care. So, long story short, my rep recorded the commercial for this radio station. And that advertisement ran for almost two years. So for a $15,000 investment, we got over a million and a half dollars worth of airtime. And He made good. Like he truly cared that his guy uh was very dishonest and, you know, just very unethical. And I don’t say his name because he’s so on the air right now and I don’t wanna I don’t wanna but but he learned I I learned a lot that truly you can turn lemons into lemonade if you’re open to it and willing to listen. Cause I was gonna go in there guns a blazon and I’d said five words the whole time. So I learned a very important lesson. And to be honest, if that didn’t happen, I probably wouldn’t be in business today because I don’t know if he would have fulfilled if he would have got all the orders and it would have been a two week run. Instead, I had people asking me, they go, Aren’t you Beverly Hills teddy bear? They’re like, Why do I hear you on the radio every single day? They go, Is your company that big? I said, No. And so truly, you know, God works in mysterious ways. So w whatever your beliefs are, but I think that was the probably the biggest blessing in the early stages of the company. So
[12:36] Bill Canady: Holy cow. That’s such a huge joke now was it his uh rep that paid for it or did the uh who who who who kept it going for you for two years? I didn’t I missed that part.
David Socha: Oh, I’m sorry. He did. He just said, he just said, I’m gonna comp. You already paid your fifteen grand. I’m gonna comp until you say you got your to whatever it was, a couple thousand orders. I forget what it was. Yeah. Yeah. So we’d get orders every day because of his faithfulness to his integrity. Because he did he it was he ran it. He was the big boss. And he said, I’m gonna make good no matter what. So
Bill Canady: He did it himself. Yeah, whatever it was, right? Wow. That’s really impressive.
David Socha: Learned a lot that day. Learned a lot about reputation and um yeah, he he’s impacted my business more than he could probably ever know.
Bill Canady: That’s an amazing story. I thank you for sharing that with us, you know. One of the, I don’t know if this was during the same time or not, but uh uh uh babe, the movie was a big, big deal for you, right? And uh the the the merchandise became an early breakthrough on that. Was that brilliant strategy, good luck, timing, a little bit of all of it? Like, like tell us how that came about.
David Socha: It was. I one of my favorite books I ever read was Life is a Contact Sport. And I think it’s an older book, but it talks about the story of Lionel Richie and how his manager created his legacy. And he had some other celebrities too. But it truly is making the relationship. So my a company that I worked for, I did an internship with, the VP there said, Hey David, um, this babe the pig came out.
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: The company we were at doesn’t want to do it, and none of the majors want to do it. Do you want a shot at it? He knew I was dabbling in in this business. And I said, Yeah, of course I do. And I had no idea what I was doing about manufacturing. I knew all the other aspects because I worked in the uh I worked in sales, I worked, but I didn’t know anything about manufacturing. But I had a friend who, ironically, he was a hockey buddy, and he uh I called him, I said, Hey. What can we deliver this in ninety days? He called his factory, flew to Asia, had multiple factories making it, and we went from selling a couple hundred pieces to a couple hundred thousand pieces over thirty or forty countries in a very short amount of time. And this is just me in my apartment. So um uh
[15:09] Bill Canady: You know, the ability to ramp that thing up is amazing. That I mean, I don’t think people understand how challenging and you doing it by yourself. You’re what, 23, 24, 25 at this time? Doing business globally, selling stuffed pigs for God’s sakes, and uh uh and doing 200,000 units. Any what was the key?
David Socha: Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Twenty three, twenty four. Yeah, it was You know what t the key is really? Saying yes. Always say yes till the till there’s no way you can do it. And that’s one of the and I I say this humbly because I get it from my dad. My dad went bankrupt when I was very young. He had to work over a hundred hours a week just to support us because he still wanted us to play hockey and still want us to do things. And my dad never said no. And it can be a bad thing, but it for me, it taught me. Just figure out a way. Figure out a way to get it done when everyone else says no. Because and especially when you’re a smaller company and you’re just starting, find a way. So, you know, in the beginning, I’d go to Asia eight, ten times a year. Sometimes, sometimes maybe only sleep one night in Asia and fly back the next day. Because running sales and and back then, uh Blockbuster Video, which maybe some of your listeners won’t know who it is, but
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: I was one of the biggest retailers in the world and they were a big partner and they always wanted the trend and always wanted the movie and you had to be fast. So I learned a lot through those experiences too.
Bill Canady: I remember going to Blockbuster and we’d pick our movies, you know, the one that had all the then you’d go through this checkout line they had set up artificially and they’d be I don’t remember it was Coca Cola or Pepsi, but it was a soft drink, popcorn, stuffed animals, all the things. I think my kids got some of your your your stuffed animals for goodness sakes. Yeah, they were they were a master at it. It was such a big part of our totally gone now, right? Streaming’s wiped it out. But so it shows you gotta stay nimble. But uh
David Socha: That’s right. Well, th they had a chance to buy Netflix, right? For some minuscule amount of money, right? Yeah. So
[17:14] Bill Canady: They did for pennies. It wasn’t long ago. I don’t know if it’s still true or not, but it wasn’t long. I watched a movie on on, I think, Netflix of all things, that showed the last blockbuster uh in the United States. I want to say it was in Oregon or someplace out in the Northwest, you know, and it was this this guy and and and uh it was or lady or whatever was uh had one or two of them. So uh yeah. You gotta keep up with the times. I th your story is really all about saying yes and keeping up with the times.
David Socha: I think you’re right. I think you’re right. Yeah. I think you’re right.
Bill Canady: At what moment did you know you had a real company? Not merely just an entrepreneurial experiment anymore, some twenty three year old playing hockey and you know, s and and and and selling pigs. So when did you know?
David Socha: You know, I think probably three years in, four years in, I thought, you know, what’s the worst at this point, right? I mean, ’cause I had I was very in debt in the beginning and had enough experience, had the makers, and we were really aggressive. I’d hire interns to just call basically phone books of customers and say, Hey, do you need any plus stuffed animals made? And we found some enormous business in that in those times. So now we get the AI, you know, bulk emails in our LinkedIn boxes or our email boxes. We did that via phone and we called hundreds of people a day. And if a guy got one or two leads a day, it was worth it. Uh we have a we had a college here and we would just hire these guys. I had a guy overseeing them and um so I think that’s when we really knew that You know, we had some orders in the pipeline. We had some steady business. Uh and that we kinda could figure it out. And, you know, look at I’m not that smart. So I’m living proof that there’s a creator that, hey, if you if you work hard, I think there’s I think there’s biblical principles too about you know, the Bible talks about being an ant, right? Ants work really hard. They prepare for winter. And my it’s funny ’cause my grandfather always said, Don’t be a grasshopper. Because grapp Grasshoppers just hop around and they’re just, Oh, it’s all great, it’s summer, it’s summer, winter, they’re dead. And I never really understood it ’til I understood the biblical principles of what being an ant means and how hard they work. So
[19:42] Bill Canady: L lot of truths into that. Your grandfather was a wise man, you know. Across so many proprietary brands, you’ve cut a lot of deals with with major labels, custom products, licensing, real retail e-commerce. Which part of your business creates the disproportionate bat value? Where are you really winning at?
David Socha: So the fortunate part is that we’ve we’ve kind of have three or four divisions that we split it up in. And we hope that one of them is doing exceptionally well. You know, they kind of rotate through the years. But retail is really where we’re probably it’s the disproportionate part of our business. We’re we’re trying to grow the dot com and the direct to consumer, which is growing. It’s probably the probably the fastest growing part of our company, but truly
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: the retail partners we have around the world, some of the biggest. Um, and just continuing those relationships to go deeper, to work with, you know, sometimes you work with a toy buyer, sometimes you work with a seasonal buyer. Um building, I think uh I think one of the best sayings I’ve heard is it’s six times harder to get a new customer than it is to keep an old. And I I really like that. We really like to build our relationships deep.
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: And we do it even with our makers. We have a we have a lot of makers that we’re fifteen or twenty years plus. I know the owners, they’ve been at my wedding, whatever it might be, right? Where we just have those deep relationships. I have one of ’em I call Uncle, right? I’ve known him for almost thirty years and he’s truly helped me whether we’re doing business or not. So
Bill Canady: Those relationships make the difference during, you know, stressful times, knowing the people, having relationships. You don’t get that overnight. You know, that’s one of the challenges. People, I want to come in, I want to do it right away. If you’re gonna build a great company, you can’t do it in the last 90 days. It takes the years before that of setting it up, doing the right, right thing. Toy companies, especially, uh along with many others, can accumulate thousands of SKUs. How do you distinguish between, you know, the productive variety, the ones you’re gonna win with?
David Socha: No.
[21:53] Bill Canady: Uh from the ones that are quietly destroying your profits.
David Socha: Yeah. Well, I love your number right behind you, right? Uh Preto’s principal, eighty-twenty, right? It’s for our business, it’s probably closer to ninety ten on the retail aspect of it. So we really try and focus, but also there is in our business, there’s an evergreen factor and a trend factor. So we have to have the right mix of SKUs that are evergreen that hopefully can sell.
Bill Canady: Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
David Socha: now or in fifty years because everyone’s gonna want a stuff bunny. But then there’s some trend items that might only be around for two years. So there has to be a good mix. And yeah, SKUs, we’re we’re product junkies here. So SKU count is difficult for us, difficult for any company within the consumer products business that has unlimited amount of things you can do, right? There’s
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: There’s unlimited amounts of stuffed animals you can do. You can make stuffed animal bears, cherries, monsters, what you name it, you could do stuffed animals. So it it definitely is, there is some self-control within it.
Bill Canady: Uh, I believe that. Yeah, what’s the process, you know, for actually killing the products that aren’t working? How how do you get out of it? How do you deal with that? You got everything from your working capital stuck in it, you got your inventory, everything you you’re you’re globally sourcing. That means there’s gonna be sixteen weeks of stuff on the water coming at you. How do you kill ’em? What do you do when you get it wrong? What do you do when you get it right?
David Socha: Yeah, I mean we well let’s go about I always like to start with good first. When we get it right, we try to chase really hard, right? So we try to make sure we have product in the pipeline, we can fill the retailer demand. Um marketing is a big part of our business now with the social channels. So, um when it’s going right, we try to really, you know, I hate to say, you know, like a shark smells blood in the water, we just try to really blow it out. And when it’s going bad, we just
Bill Canady: Yeah, for sure.
[24:02] David Socha: really just try to turn off the lights. And if we have some coming in, we work with a lot of ministries. So hopefully if it’s one or two orders, we can just donate to them. Um, if not, then we’ll slowly liquidate. We we don’t to be honest, it’s we haven’t liquidated a lot of product lately, which a lot of consumer products do. We really try to work with our ministries when we have things left over. And um A lot of times we still have uh we have a we have a line that I think died five years ago at retail, but it’s still working online. So there are certain things that only work in certain places, which no one can explain, right? ‘Cause you would think retail or online would be the same. And actually online is harder to see a stuffed animal, but so yeah, but we we try to we try to we try to turn the lights off quickly, if that makes sense.
Bill Canady: Makes sense. Now you you mentioned before you got you know e-commerce and and and then you know kind of bricks and mortar stores and and you said that the bricks and mortars are driving more of your sales into e-commerce. Did I did I hear that right? Now now why is that?
David Socha: Correct, correct. I think, you know, I was brought up in this business and stuffed animals to me I’ve always been taught that it’s been really an impulse buy. Like your daughter probably didn’t go to the store, probably, and say, I want a blue teddy bear with a pink bow and she was walking by and all of a sudden she saw a beautiful axolato and she said, Daddy, daddy, I want this and it’s more of that impulse. I’m just gonna buy it on the spot. as opposed to an advertised Lego set that you’re going in, you’re going to get the next uh Star Wars release. So that’s that’s I think why brick and mortar do well. But I will say dot com is growing and it’s very important that you continue to grow those channels.
[26:04] Bill Canady: It’s interesting. You know, I think, you know, stuffed animals and puppies, once the child gets their hands on, they’re not letting it go, you know. Oh i uh you know, myself when I’d buy stuff, I go on Amazon or Walmart or wherever and click and have it sent because it was kind of an unemotional buy for me. But when my child’s involved, they touch it and feel it. That they’re you’re buying that stuffed animal if there’s any way possible just to see the joy. And and it’s in the grand scheme of things, it’s not very expensive.
David Socha: No.
Bill Canady: uh uh you know compared to some of the other things that kids want. Just you talk about ho hockey earlier. Outfitting a kid in hockey is hundreds of dollars. Outfitting him with the latest teddy bear maybe is twenty bucks or something. So it’s uh you can you can buy a lot of teddy bears for that.
David Socha: Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. I think one other important thing to touch on is being a small company. You have to find what is your niche? What is what are you bringing that is the proposition to the customer, but also to your retail partners if you’re trying to sell a retailer. And for us, it’s always doing something a little better. So we have a brand called World Softest. And
Bill Canady: Uh-huh.
David Socha: The second moment of truth is when after the customer reads the tag, picks up the animal, it better be the world’s softest or they’re gonna put it down. And it’s the same on if it’s on Amazon or any other online channel. When they buy it, the review better be great or not a lot of people are gonna buy it. So I think it’s important for like anyone can go out and sell stuffed animals, cars, whatever be different. You know, do be be different in the business and Um, you only have one reputation, so that’s very critical too. But sorry, go ahead, Bill.
Bill Canady: No, I’d say that it was uh but you did make me think of a question. The when you look you know, with being different in your niche, do you find your main customers being niche stores or the big box retailers? Like where where do you find you really win and and have a competitive advantage?
[28:11] David Socha: We have a really wide range of partners, I’ll call them, from the biggest to one store chains. And if you work with them and get them product at a reasonable price, a great quality and product that sells, it works. So, you know, not everyone has to sell the targets of the world. There are other smaller chains, 10, 20 stores.
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: 50 stores that if you want to go deep with them, you can. And we have a handful of those that are some of the some of the most fun because you can get creative. You can create merchandising displays. You can do things that really let your creativity out, which at the end of the day, that’s my my favorite part of the company is creating, is is making great product and finding that next new thing.
Bill Canady: Interesting. So you’re really describing a broad base of customers rather than one giant Mount Fuji or a monument customer. I’m sure you like say you have both, but but it’s really uh uh around that. How how do you balance that power diversification against the power of concentrating uh on you know your best customer? How do you deal with that? How do you make sure you’re able to handle it?
David Socha: I think scaling is really important. So we have a business and I’ll I’ll pick on Carrie. She she’s been my my director of Custom Plush for 15. She’s been with me for 15 years. And she runs that area. And we talk about it all the time because it it’s a well-oiled machine. She does hundreds of custom projects a year that she that goes through her and her little team and I would say her success rate is ninety-nine point five percent. There’s always some customer that’s not gonna be satisfied, right? It might even be higher than 99.5 because it’s if we have one bad order a year or one every two years, that’s a lot for us. And I I think it’s the scaling though, and hiring the right people, which it took me a long time to learn. But there’s a reason the Chicago Bulls were great in the day. There’s a reason that Florida Panthers were great. Whatever sports fan, you you bring in the right pieces of the puzzle, and they have to be superstar. Not everyone could be Michael Jordan. If everyone’s Michael Jordan, it but you need the m you know, you need the the balance of operations and sales. And you just need to have that everyone having the same mentality that we’re gonna figure it out, how to get it done and how not to leave someone out, right? How to
[30:49] Bill Canady: Right.
David Socha: How to make every partner feel like they’re important, which they are. We’re in a business that’s h hyper we’re in a world that’s hyper competitive. Anyone can search online, you know, um, and find fifty companies do what I do. But it’s that and you talked about it earlier, it’s about building that reputation. I mean, our resume is amazing. And I wish I could take the credit for it. I’ve had an amazing team. Right. We have amazing designers or or artists and sales and but we all have the same goal is working together. So yeah. Yeah.
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. No, that makes sense, but you know, being the founder of the business and uh you you still create such a unique value. You’re able to put your finger on things, cut through it with it. Where where have you learned that your involv involvement actually in goes the opposite, becomes a bottleneck? Where where where do where are you starting to hold people back now that you have such a strong team?
David Socha: In the early on and even I would say up to maybe five, seven years ago, I was in every intricate piece of the business and trying to help help them do their jobs. When when I hired them, they’re they’re better at things than I am. They’re smarter at things than I am. Why am I trying to muck things up? So I think really I it’s now when I when I bring a new team member on
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: which we’ve had people here over twenty years. We’ve had a we’ve had really great loyalty. We’re a different place to work too. We’re very family oriented. Um I I have six kids, so I’m very empathetic when there’s a child issue or a family issue. But um and our whole family our whole company’s like that. But truly let it I I tell them, I say, if I’m not talking to you, it’s probably pretty good. That means you’re doing an an amazing job.
[33:02] Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: And if you see me next to you all the time, there’s probably we probably gotta work some things out. But it’s true. I think, you know, let let your superstars do what they do best and really create and we create an atmosphere of it’s kind of your own business. Sales guys run their teams, you run your cup your your partners, and really a lot of autonomy. And some people don’t agree with that. I think it’s great because. I know and I I we have interns all you know on a pretty regular basis. And the one thing I tell them, I say, if you come here and you do well and you’re here a year, I will guarantee you’ll get a great job somewhere and it’ll be super easy because we’re small and you have to learn so many aspects of the business. And you learn things because I want I want them teaching me, especially if I bring out I just hired a marketing intern. I want him teaching me.
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: What’s the best in practice? What’s the best post on social media, et cetera? So I’m pretty hands off. I’m not a overbearing uh quote unquote boss.
Bill Canady: That makes a lot of sense. You know, the culture you’ve uh created really speaks volume, just the longevity. Yeah, reflecting back, you know, when the revenue fell more than 80% during COVID, what was the hardest decision that you had to deal with and yet you still were able to maintain this culture? You got you mentioned people have been here over 20 years, right? So how how’d you do it?
David Socha: You know, it was really difficult. Uh I the worst part of being a boss is hurting families. I I don’t care what anyone says. Like I can lose money, I can do but when you have to hurt families, that is the worst. So um originally we everybody across the board, like I eliminated my salary, but everybody across the board and my president eliminated his salary. And we cut we cut pay a certain percentage. Um and uh ah then we had some people, you know, it was like the right time for them to leave and just worked out. I mean, no one could have ever predicted COVID. And we were before COVID, we were flying high. I mean, we were on fire. And COVID hit. We had we we never prepared for that rainy day of And more on our distribution side. One of my key distributors flipped and went and did PPE products unbeknownst to me. So I so that business went to zero. International shutdown, which is a third of our business, went to zero. Um because COVID hit, you know, and in America it was very patchy, you know, Florida didn’t have COVID, California did. So how do you how do you manage that? And
[35:47] Bill Canady: Yeah. Mm.
David Socha: Retailers were just very careful. And there was a reason that Target had containers in their parking lot because they were so over inventoried. Well everyone was so over inventoried. So um I think your question was, how do you handle it? It very painfully. Very painfully. But it it what was great is that the people who made it through and remember that, you kind of it’s kind of like a family going through.
Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.
David Socha: an awful time together where we were all I mean the company was struggling but the people who were loyal and stayed, I think it it means something to me and to them that it is more than just a company and it is that family and they know that I hope they know that we care about about their families. So um but how do we navigate it? Very carefully cut costs. We had to sell two buildings uh that we that we were in. Um we uh just really tightened the belt, kept our customers going that we were going with, and held on for deer life. Literally held on for deer life. So
Bill Canady: Changed everything. I think we were all trauma bonded. Those of us that went through it together, uh, you know, have a special and deep understanding about each other through what is arguably one of the most traumatic and dramatic things to happen in this generation. Uh, you know, the Spanish flu, I think, was at nineteen nineteen. So over a hundred years ago, uh, lots of things, but this affected the world.
David Socha: Yeah.
Bill Canady: In ways that only things like like world wars and things like that have. And those of us who went together, that foxhole mentality that we got each other, made because we were all in it. It didn’t matter if you were rich or poor, white or black, religion, anything. Uh we we had to be there uh as much as we could uh uh for each other. You you talk a lot about faith and integrity, uh things I know you’re you’re you you you you are someone who who believes deeply. How how do you bring that into the company?
[37:51] David Socha: Yes, yes. That’s right. That’s right. Yeah.
Bill Canady: Uh and make it better without but you know, ’cause not everyone believes the same way. How do you handle that? Uh how how do you how do you how does that make you and your organization strong?
David Socha: think I think there’s a lot of benefits for even people who don’t have faith to work at a faith company. Um because we have we answer to a higher power, right? And I think most people respect it. We’re open with it. We hand out um an an ethics dictionary before we hire anyone and uh we’re very clear. The principles are all biblical. Um but it’s We never we never force anyone to come to faith. We’re you know, we we’ve prayed almost every week as a company, um for twenty-five years, but some people in the company might not even know that because um they’ve never asked. They’ve never it and it’s fine. It to me it’s totally fine. I have great friends of all religions or no religion and uh we’re We’re all made in God’s image and that’s how we should be treating each other. And but but I do think I think whether you’re faith or not, I think it is it’s it’s the principles that everyone wants to live by. Everyone wants to treat their family great. Everyone wants to have the freedom if if their kid is sick or if this. And we’re we’re pretty flexible. And on the on the flip side, we’re also very intense. There’s times where I had a gal, she has a a newborn baby, she worked till midnight the other night. And I’m so grateful for that because her nanny was sick. And so she had the baby all day and then had to work till midnight to get ready for a show. But I think that kind of mutual partnership with your team members, I think is really important. And um I I had the the company I worked for when I was very young. I I talk about I had mentors, but I had anti mentors. There were guys and gals I did not want to be like ever. There’s companies I go in, I remember going into Asia and uh there was a crazy many crazy factory owners and they would just treat their people so bad. And I just said, That is I never want to be like that, right? And it’s I I hopefully it’s permeated the whole company culture and we all treat each other with respect. Not that it doesn’t get intense sometimes, not that we don’t go direct all like right to the point, maybe not in the best of voice, but there’s always a mutual respect with everyone. So
[40:58] Bill Canady: That’s fantastic. Yeah, you’ve talked before about wanting to build a hundred-year company. What has to ha become true for Beverly Hills teddy bear uh to be able to prosper without uh David uh uh Soha? What what what what what must happen for that to happen?
David Socha: Well, definitely have to have a great team and a great succession plan. But I honestly the all those lead into you have to have legacy products. I met a um a lady from South Africa and I was on a call with her and she just struck me because we were working on a deal for us to make some toys for her organization, which was very large. And she said, I just don’t want landfill. I want toys that can be handed down from generation to generation. And the name sticks and wow, they see Beverly Hills Teddy where they’re like, I know that’s good. I know that’s what we’re all aspiring to be. Right? Because there’s plenty of companies, you know, and we tell our partners, if you want the cheapest You should probably go somewhere else. If if you want quality and things that are going to last, and you come to us, and we’re not perfect, we make mistakes. There’s everybody makes mistakes, but we try to do our best and try to make the best product we can at all times. So
Bill Canady: You know, that’s really profound. So if someone buys one of your toys fifty years from now, what do you hope remains unchanged?
David Socha: I hope they just see something different and that it’s still a family company. That um you know, we’re we’re in a business of big corporations and big companies and a lot of conglomerates. I I hope I hope I I think I hope we’re not. I hope we are just a family business that in fifty years we’d be eighty some years old, which would be great. I hope and if we can make it to a hundred.
[43:09] Bill Canady: Yeah.
David Socha: Even better, but I think kids are always gonna wanna play or always gonna wanna have some nurturing, especially the more digital we get. I think there’ll be the great divide. I think kids are gonna go very techie or very simple. And we cover the very simple, nurturing, loving aspect for the most part. And we just hopefully do it better and I shouldn’t say better. There’s a lot of great companies in my b in in our business. There’s a lot of bad companies that just put out junk. But there are some great companies and hopefully we can find our place next to them with them. And we’re all I mean, most of them we’re we’re pretty friendly competitors to most. We’re friends with a lot of them.
Bill Canady: I think it can coexist. I have yet to find a child who wants to cuddle up with a computer. Uh so you know, my my my daughters used to fall asleep with their well, they weren’t iPads at the time, but whatever toy that was, and and uh and their teddy bears. And and I think it’s always going to be that way. You know, we we to have a full richness of life, you you you need kind of the hard techie things and the things that bring you comfort uh uh uh with that. So uh listen, this has been Uh an outstanding conversation. I’ve learned so much. Is there anything you’d like to tell us you got coming up that you’d like everyone to know about? I’d love to love to maybe finish on that if we could.
David Socha: Yeah, no, we’re uh we moved into our new showroom in Los Angeles and uh the toy business has kind of centered in Los Angeles, which has been a blessing for our family. So uh and yeah, we’re uh we’re really looking forward to a lot of the new things and I’m just really uh grateful for my family and for my team because they are like family and uh yeah, if I were looking forward to anything, just Growing together with them and my family is is amazing. So thank you. Thanks, Bill.
Bill Canady: What a great way to finish. David, thank you so much for your time today. This has been wonderful. We look forward to having you back on the show soon.
[45:15] David Socha: Sounds good.
Guest card
David Socha is the founder and CEO of Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company. He started the business in his garage more than 30 years ago and grew it into a global plush-toy company whose products are sold in more than 90 countries. His leadership approach emphasizes integrity, long-term relationships, product quality, team autonomy, family, faith, and building a company that can thrive beyond its founder.
- Company: Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/david-socha-8900a23
Find out where your profit actually lives.
Socha runs closer to 90/10 than 80/20 — he knows which products carry the company and which ones quietly eat the capacity. Most operators do not, because an averaged P&L hides it. The Profit Map calculator takes your customer and product mix and builds the quad map for you: revenue and profit in each of the four boxes, so you can see how much of the business sits in Quad 1 and how much Quad 4 is consuming. About thirty minutes.
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