Tote-ally Functional Bags for Women on the Go

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

[Music]

Hey, my friends. What's up? Welcome to pool school. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Excited to bring you another story today.

Now we've actually featured a number of stories recently about bags, about people who are making some kind of different bag, whether a messenger bag or a duffel bag or a tote bag, she might hear about today, just to name two that were particularly interesting. Episode 568 was a Louisiana oil worker who creates a premium duffel bag. That project is doing really well, as was episode 759, tote bag titans, teachers custom bag shoulders, $110,000 profits. That was a story of two teachers who created this project and indeed make more than six figures in less than a year from it. So today is another story about tote bags.

And I was thinking, man, have bags jumped the shark? Are we oversaturating the market of cytosol school features on homemade or custom made bags of some kind? And then I started thinking, well, how many bags do I own? And maybe that's a question for you as well. How many bags do you own?

I realized for myself, like even though I try to be intentional about what I bring into my life, I do actually own a lot of bags. Started counting up and I was like, well, I have at least three different messenger bags that I rotate between. I have my traveling bags, the carry on and laptop bag that I take with me when I'm on the road. And I have at least two smaller bags that I sometimes carry on short errands. And maybe I even have more actually.

I was like, wow, should I be embarrassed? Maybe I need to reread Gretchen Rubin's new book, Outer Order Intercom. And I probably do 'cause it's a really good book. But in this case, I think most of the bags I own actually do have a purpose. They do make me happy.

They spark joy or they contribute to a sense of order. So I don't think I need to declutter in the bag department just yet, but always good to be safe, always good to review these things. So in today's story, a New Yorker designs totally functional bags for women on the go. After struggling with her bags on the subway one too many times, she takes the problem into her own hands and makes over a hundred thousand dollars. That's right, another six-figure bag success.

I guess we all have a lot of stuff to carry around. With that in mind, keep calm and carry on. The story is coming right up. [Music]

The infamous salad incident of 2015 happened on the New York City subway. Every day, Hannah Fastoff took the subway to her job as a product developer at Brooks Brothers.

Between her purse, her lunch, and a change of clothes for the gym, she needed to take three bags with her each morning. As she was passing through the six train turnstile at 33rd Street, one of the straps of her bags got caught, launching her salad from that bag into the darkness of the subway. Although disappointed and missing out on lunch that day, Hannah ended up with something better, a big idea. She started asking the women in the locker room at the gym if they liked their gym bags, to which she was met with a resounding, "No." Hannah probed further, asking what they would change about those bags that they could. She hastily scribbled down notes and then continued to ask around each time she returned to the gym.

After a few weeks, she designed a more formal survey, which she sent to her friends and family on Facebook. They shared it, and more people saw it, and those people shared it, and so on and so forth, until Hannah had a good pool of responses. She learned that women wanted bags with more pockets. They especially wanted pouches dedicated to footwear and water bottles. Plus, many urban women, like Hannah, wanted bags that were hands-free.

This led her to her first design, the infinity bag. It would have the pockets her survey sample asked for, and she would also include a strap so that women would have the choice between wearing it as a crossbody and as a shoulder bag. She got out a plain, pocketless tote bag and began to tape pieces of paper to the inside to represent all the pouches and pockets that she wanted to implement. When she finally finished her mock-up, she took it to a nearby factory. It was there that she experienced her first rejection.

Although all her tape and paper made sense to her, it was gibberish to the people she showed it to. Plus, she had no spec sheet, which is what outlines the purpose of a design. Hannah was crushed. For months, she didn't touch her idea. She almost bagged it in.

But then, at the beginning of 2016, after a trip to India, she was motivated to revisit the idea. And this time, she'd get professional help. With the help of a designer she found on Upwork, she created a new design, including a spec sheet this time, and sent it around to factories. A month later, her first prototype was finished. For seven more months, she revised the design until finding the perfect prototype.

She also came up with the official name of her new company, Go Dash Dot. A month after that, in October 2016, she hosted a launch party, but didn't make any sales. Another discouragement. Then, a few weeks later, a woman overheard Hannah talking about Go Dash Dot at the gym and asked about purchasing a bag. At that point, her website didn't have an online order feature, so she and Hannah met up in a hotel lobby to complete the sale.

But in yet another discouragement, the woman contacted Hannah a week later to return the bag. Hannah was crushed and felt like a failure. But through that experience, she realized that not everyone was gonna like her product. Not only that, but this forced her to create a return policy, which is something she hadn't thought of before. Then, in January 2017, she started taking Go Dash Dot to trade shows.

During her second one, an accessories buyer approached her. She said that she liked the bags and she would pass on Hannah's information to their handbag buyer. Hannah didn't hold her breath. She had been approached by other buyers in the past and nothing had come of it. But then, in April, she got an email that changed everything.

That buyer wanted to work with her. Hannah was excited. Her confidence in her bags reached an all-time high. She realized at this point, she had two choices. Keep Go Dash Dot as a side hustle and let it grow slowly or go all in and see what she could do.

With another big trade show coming up, she knew she wouldn't be able to take off work for it because it coincided with an important week for her job. She made a decision and took the leap. At that trade show, she opened 20 new accounts, including one for Nordstrom. It was a revolutionary week for Go Dash Dot. In 2018, her first year of working on Go Dash Dot full-time, the business grew 78%.

And in 2019, it's projected to do at least that much. By paying attention to what her audience wants, Hannah is building a successful business, one that brings in six figures annually while she's still in her 20s. Hannah says she now feels more independent and confident and she loves getting to do a job that she's passionate about. Who knew that selling tote bags would actually lift a weight off her shoulders? [Music]

Two fun facts that I wanted to add to the story from our notes.

First of all, the woman who returned that first bag actually came back and purchased a new backpack a few months later. So that was a good little turnaround. At that point, Hannah had a website that could take orders and the buyer didn't return a second one. So victory in the end. And by the way, a side note, I just saw this as well.

Hannah now has a new side job. Now that the side hustle is her main business, she has a new hustle. She says she's a footwear fit model on the side. Apparently she has the perfect size seven foot with an average size calf. I guess that is what's desirable in the world of foot modeling.

So perhaps at some point we'll need to look at the side hustle of being a foot model. You never know what else is out there. All right, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. If you want to check out the show notes for today's episode, learn more about Hannah's business, go dash dot, learn more about Upwork and anything else I mentioned, just come to sidehustleschool.com/801. That is for episode 801.

Thanks so much for listening today. Do come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is side hustle school. [Music]

From the Onward Project.