Louisiana Oil Worker Creates Premium Duffel Bag

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hello and welcome. This is Chris Guillebeau, and you are listening to Side Hustle School, the only show bringing you a daily story that is every single day, seven days a week, of someone who is creating a side hustle. When I say side hustle, I mean an income-generating project that is an asset, not just a second job. Today's story features an oil worker from Louisiana who creates a premium duffel bag. Did I say Louisiana right?

By the way, I know that's a pronunciation controversy. Anyway, this bag is so premium, he calls it the badass work bag. And as a point of minor correction, the other day, I think it was last week's weekly recap, I was talking about some upcoming episodes, and I mentioned that the aprons featured in episode 583, this is episode 586, so three days ago, were badass kitchen aprons. My fault, I actually meant that the product today bears the descriptive adjective badass. Like that's actually the name of his duffel bag.

I'll explain that in the story. So, please note this in your detailed records, badass aprons have become badass duffel bags. Sorry about that. However, for the sake of complete accuracy, we might as well say that the aprons are pretty badass too. I mean, it's amazing.

She's selling millions of dollars of kitchen aprons, and it all started as a side hustle while she was working at night as a chef, okay? So let's just say this is badass week, badass aprons on Monday, and today is the badass duffel bag. Let's say thank you to our sponsor, and then I'll tell you how these duffel bags came to life. [Music]

Have you ever heard of an offshore bag? It's a large, robust vinyl bag carried by oil workers in Louisiana.

They aren't pretty, but they're highly functional, designed to survive harsh environments and long-term daily use. Paul Chittenden has been carrying one since he was nine years old, when he was given one for his hunting gear. That's right, they start him young in the bayou. As his life progressed to work on oil rigs and platforms, presumably when he was at least 12 years old, these bags became an essential part of his daily life, as they were for all of his colleagues. For a while, Paul didn't know these offshore bags weren't commonplace for the rest of the oil industry.

As he began to work in sales with people around the country, whenever he mentioned the bags, he was met with a look of puzzled bewilderment. There are over 1 million people in the American oil industry who could benefit from having an offshore bag. If he could break into that market, he thought, he could have a real business on his hands. It would be, of course, in the bag. He started by researching how much it would cost to manufacture one of these bags.

He headed over to ThomasNet, a supplier and product sourcing website, and looked around for anyone who worked with vinyl and bags. Companies offering this service were hard to come by, and even when Paul found a supplier with potential, there were lots of roadblocks. They either weren't willing to work with him at all, or weren't willing to produce a small amount of stock. It felt like the business was about to fail at the first hurdle, but Paul had an idea. Instead of buying a large amount of stock and keeping inventory, he could create the bags as made to order.

When an order came in, he could have the bag made up and sent to the customer. So instead of looking for a factory, he looked for seamstresses who could create those bags for him. He posted on Craigslist and found some local sewing partners within a few days. They agreed to not only create the bags as orders came in, but also to dropship them, meaning that Paul didn't need to handle the products himself or worry about shipping. He could focus on sales, marketing, and growing the company, all without a large amount of stock and debt looming over him.

With his inventory problems solved, Paul set about naming the company. He wanted something rugged and strong, like his bags, which would resonate with the hardened men he was targeting. He settled on badass work bags, which the guys in his circle loved. The name has since changed to badass work gear, I guess that he can offer more than just bags. Since he wasn't making anything until it was sold, Paul's only startup costs were spent on getting the business online.

He bought a domain name and cheap hosting where he could create a WordPress website. Then he invested in the WooCommerce plugin to allow him to sell online products. He created the logo himself using Microsoft Paint. That's a throwback. So his total startup costs were $89.

Not bad for a physical product. Paul used a simple method for setting the price of his bags. Now this is interesting. He looked at his closest competitor and added $10 to their price. Although simple, this allowed him to create a premium feel around his bags and position himself as the leading product provider, even though he was new.

This is of course the opposite of what you'd expect. So stay tuned, we'll talk about that a bit more at the end. Having higher prices also made sense for Paul's business model. The profit margins on his bags are low, so he needed to ensure it was worth his while. The largest bag on his product list retails at around 90 bucks, but it costs $53 to make.

This means it's hard to make pricing strategies like paid ads work effectively, so he's had to focus on organic marketing. The most effective strategies have been word of mouth and SEO. Every order comes with stickers and fun promotional items customers can use, which helps with brand visibility. The strategy seems to be working as Paul has received photographs of his bags being used as far north as Alaska. Badass work year is now in its third year.

Year one, it generated $60,000 in revenue. Year two, $110,000. This year it's on track to hit 150,000. Looking ahead, Paul wants to expand into other areas and is looking at creating bags and other items for firefighters. He's also thinking about how he can create T-shirts and other branded clothing for badass workers all over the country.

All right, how about that pricing strategy? I thought when I started reading these notes for this episode that he looked at the price and then he subtracted $10. But as you just heard, it was the opposite. He looked at the competitor's price and he added $10. That's a bold move, and obviously he's making a great product to begin with because if his product was inferior, he certainly couldn't charge more money for it.

But I think a lot of people in that situation, when they're just starting out, they would look at competitors and think, oh, I have to underprice them. I need to charge $10 less because I'm not established. Obviously he chose something different and it's been quite successful. On track for $150,000 of revenue this year. Now the story also reminds me of Big Ass Fans.

I don't know if you've heard of them. They are a company I believe in Chicago, Illinois, although I could be wrong about that part. But Big Ass Fans has been around for a long time. They have ads in The New Yorker and other publications and guess what they sell? They sell really big fans.

And that branding is so memorable. If you're ever looking for a really big fan, like for a workplace or a factory or maybe just for your house, if you have a big house and need a big fan. If you've heard of this company before, it's probably going to come to mind. And with the name Big Ass Fans, they occasionally get complaints, but they wear those complaints as like a badge of honor. They like post them up on their website.

Like here are negative reviews or negative comments about Big Ass Fans. So it's like a pseudo negative that works to their advantage because maybe there are some people who don't like that name, but there are a lot of other people that are like, oh yeah, that's cool, that's awesome. Probably the most important thing is to know your audience. Okay, so if we read this story with the Bad Ass Workbags, Paul knows his audience. He knows that these oil workers are not going to be offended by that name.

Now here's one fun fact as we close things out. Paul's mom got in an argument with her boss because I think she works in the oil industry as well. And his boss wanted to order the Bad Ass Workbags. And she let him know that it was her son's company and she had found a vendor that could do them cheaper. How about that?

Paul told me the story and he said, yeah, thanks a lot, mom. But then her boss said, no, everyone in the oil field is talking about these Bad Ass Workbags. Those are the ones we want. So a couple lessons there. First of all, sell a premium product.

And secondly, make sure your mom isn't selling you out. Take that to the bank today, or at least take it wherever you go. I hope you're doing something to work on your side hustle as well, your freedom, your independence plan, even if you love your job and have no desire to quit. Starting a side hustle is good for all kinds of reasons. If you'd like to check out the show notes for today's episode, just go to sidehustleschool.com/586.

That is for episode 586. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School.