This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, hey there. I'm so glad you've made it to another episode of Side Hustle School. Every once in a while I have an episode that is pretty surprising. Longtime listeners know that there's all kinds of ways you can make money, but I'm pretty sure that you've never thought of this one before. Now, we're not afraid to talk about personal things here on the show because, you know, everybody's got needs.
I mean, that's life. So today I'm gonna tell you the true story of how three friends embrace the reality of pubic area discomfort and build a pubic oil business from scratch, turning it into a $100,000 side hustle despite the skepticism of literally every person they talk to about this. Yes, my friends, it is in fact the six-figure pubic oil hustle. You can indeed make money from the most unusual of sources. I know you're in suspense, so I'll tell you the whole story in just a moment.
[Music]
David Gaylord was traveling with a good friend in Canada when the side hustle of this story was born. That friend, who had recently returned from his honeymoon, was excited about a personal discovery and just had to share it with David. What was that discovery? Well, he had been using beard oil in his pubic region, and it was working wonders. Now listen, before we go on, if you use a moisturizer on your face, or if you use beard oil on your face, or some kind of product like that, consider the benefits.
It reduces irritation and redness after shaving. It soothes the often sensitive or dry skin, gives it nutrients. It reduces the risk of ingrown hairs. And not to mention, it makes you smell nice. These benefits and remedies to discomforts don't just apply to faces.
They exist in the pubic area as well. The thing is, nobody talks about these issues, except on this show, apparently, because they have to do with a much more private area of the body. After dispelling the weird feelings that came from hearing this news from his friend, David realized maybe it could actually be some kind of money-making opportunity. They realized that because nobody was talking about it, that translated to just about no competition in this space. And to be among the first in the pubic oil space, well, they had no time to beat around the bush.
David and his friend returned to Ottawa and brought on a third friend. The trio began researching oils, nutrition, and skincare. The beard oils worked all right, but they knew they could refine the recipes to be even more suited for the pubic region, and of course, to be relevant for both men and women. They continually worked out better recipes, but each step closer they got to a sellable product, the more hesitant they became. See, I know this sounds crazy, but their families and friends didn't understand why they were pursuing such an odd idea.
They had virtually no support beyond the three of them, but they couldn't let this pubic profit potential go. The partners eventually rounded up some other friends who were at least willing to try the product out. They invited them over to have a testing party, where they narrowed down the recipe options through feedback. And just in case you're wondering, I did not ask for details about that testing party. But after having a chance to actually try it, families and friends were on board.
This was confirmation to David and his friends that they could convert skeptics into customers if they could just get samples into their hands. With a couple oils ready to sell, it was time to figure out manufacturing. They were able to source everything for their products from Canada, except for the small glass bottles, which came from China. There was just no affordable local alternative. Each of the three partners threw in $250, which covered their total startup costs.
That was the bill for their Shopify store, the packaging in bottles, and 100 bottles worth of oil. And then came the big day, Bushbaum officially launched. And it was a sensation. The Bushbaum bottles were flying off the shelves. Oh, wait, that's actually not what happened.
What happened was things started off really slow. They would get a sale here, maybe a sale there. But then two popular blogs responded to David's cold emails. The first blog was DudeIwantThat.com, great domain name, and IncredibleThings.com. Bushbaum saw a major boost in sales from that press, and before long, the 100 bottles were sold out.
To everyone's surprise, the orders kept rolling in. The wait time of over a month was clearly displayed on the Shopify store, but people were pre-ordering anyway. It was clear they had something special. They knew they were tapping into a severely underserved niche, to say the least, and they were one of the very few pursuing it. David and his friends reinvested all the income back into the business, purchasing 500 bottles of pupa coil.
With the extra money, they also began experimenting with ads to drive traffic and sales more consistently. It took about $500 to find a groove with the ads. At first, they were a little too lewd. So they sat down together and trimmed down their brand identity, set some language boundaries, and explored new ways to approach the ads. They eventually found the right terminology and visuals.
After they found their groove, a mere $20 per day, with ads on Instagram, can bring about four to five orders to the Bushbaum website. That didn't lead to an amazing amount of revenue, but it was a sustainable, proven ROI they could count on. They also tried Facebook ads, but they kept getting flagged as inappropriate. Then they tried to cause several videos to go viral, but they realized that wasn't so easy either. Through feedback, David realized that the $25 price tag was too high for many people who were skeptical.
They needed a less expensive way to get product into their hands. So they launched the sampler package, three cents, two milliliters each, for 10 bucks. Included in the sampler is a discount on the next purchase. Despite actually losing a couple dollars on each sampler package, Bushbaum finds that it's been an effective way to acquire customers who return a few weeks later for larger orders. Bushbaum has now stepped out of the experiment phase.
The three friends are spending more money on better ads, are reaching out to spas and retail partners, and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their brand new packaging. They're also revising their website, and they even think they'll lend a celebrity endorsement in the next several months. Just FYI, it's not me. What started as a strange, yet solution-based side hustle has now grown into a $100,000 a year business in just under two years. As it turns out, there was treasure hidden in the bush all along.
Well, I'm not sure what I could add to this story, except I will say once again props to my assistant Whitney. She brought this one to me, and at first I was like, there's no way I'm talking about that. That's ridiculous. So I basically had the same response as these three guys' friends did. But then she was like, no, look at it.
They're actually making a lot of money. This is a product that helps people. It's definitely an interesting story. And so I was like, okay, let's try it. It clearly is something that's working out.
They've got this great brand name, which is both funny yet also immediately understandable. And in experimenting with those Instagram ads, they were able to get to that initial level of sustainability that's now led them to do things like redesign the website, focus on other channels, look into relationships with spas and retail partners. So, I mean, what's not to love? Six figures in an oil-based product for a private region of the body. I mean, who knows?
Maybe one day they'll have an IPO, an initial pubic offering. But with that, I will leave you for the day. You're welcome. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. To find the show notes and learn more about Bush Bomb, go to sidehustleschool.com/326.
Thank you for listening. I will be back tomorrow. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
