Personal Problem Leads to Profitable Project

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

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We can talk about all kinds of things here on the program. This is Side Hustle School. Sometimes we talk about personal problems. Personal problems in need of real solutions. And sometimes where the solution can be found, there's also some profit, okay?

Sometimes a lot of profit. Now today's story, not surprisingly, given the setup, is all about a personal problem that affects a lot of women who wear shapewear. Shapewear are those tight fitting undergarments like Spanx and similar. Also some clothing that women have to wear after surgeries. So what's the problem?

Well, again, let's be real here. The problem is it's hard to pee while wearing those tight fitting undergarments. And our Cytosil features a mom who sets out to tackle this problem by making a unique device. I'm gonna tell you all about this device today. It provides restroom relief to women and effectively creates an all new category on amazon.com and elsewhere.

So with no intention of irony, we can be just perfectly descriptive by saying this is no mess peeing, produces private productive profits. Or we could say it's a personal problem that leads to a profitable project. Whatever it is, the whole story is coming up after this message from our sponsor. [Music]

Like all of our profiles, Tracy Beck is a side hustler. She's also a working mom with a job in marketing and once had an online jewelry store.

But we're not gonna talk about jewelry today. We're gonna talk about a more personal problem faced by millions of women who wear shapewear. Shapewear, for the guys out there or anyone else who's unfamiliar, is a category of clothing consisting of super tight undergarments. Some women are required to wear shapewear after surgeries and others just like to wear it to look more slimming. But it comes with complications.

After experiencing her own issues, Tracy looked around online and found comfort in the thousands of women complaining that it was way too easy to make a mess trying to pee while wearing shapewear. The small opening for getting business done just doesn't work. So she thought there had to be some other way. And there was. One day while Tracy was cooking dinner, really love this part, she noticed something that looked almost perfect, a kitchen funnel.

Tracy went to the bathroom, gave it a shot and sure enough, she left feeling clean and confident. And then she told her husband that the funnel shouldn't be used for cooking anymore. It was obvious, however, that a kitchen funnel wasn't the best long-term solution. There needed to be an easier, faster and more portable way for women to relieve themselves while wearing shapewear. And as a side hustler, Tracy wanted to be the one to invent it.

She'd read all about how Sarah Blakely of Spanx solved a common problem millions of women experience and became a mega, mega millionaire. You may have seen her as a shark on Shark Tank. So Tracy figured her idea was worth going after. She took the problem to her husband, Tyler, who conveniently worked as a professional product designer. They began working on prototypes.

It took a few rounds of 3D printing as well as a handful of awkward conversations, but they finally landed on a design that functioned smoothly just two months later. They spared no time in finding a way to bring their product to market. Once the prototype was complete, Tyler took it down to San Jose, California for a manufacturing show. Some of us might be intimidated to bring that kind of product to an industry trade show, especially one usually dominated by men, but Tyler didn't flinch. He knew the idea was worth any weird looks he might get from less than understanding people.

He ended up finding a manufacturing partner just 40 minutes away from where he and Tracy lived in Oregon. This helped speed up the production process because they were able to sort out the details in person rather than over the phone and waiting on long shipping times. Now, up to this point, startup costs were all R&D related. Those handful of 3D printed prototypes had been just a couple of hundred dollars to produce, but now that they were going to create a new injection mold for their product, they had to dish out quite a bit. The total cost was $15,000, but it wasn't all that scary because by that point, they felt confident.

They believed they'd be able to make it back eventually because the problem it solved was so widespread. While the manufacturer was getting everything set up, Tracy applied as a seller on amazon.com and listed her prototypes under the brand name P-Lux. You get it, like deluxe, but P-Lux? I bet to her surprise they sold organically without any ads, any promotion in just a couple of weeks. Now that was another big confidence booster because there was no category for shapewear P assistance on Amazon, or as far as she knew, anywhere.

Their product was so different and new, they figured it would be harder to convince people to buy. But it seemed that a lot of women were aware of this problem. Four months later, the US manufactured P-Lux officially launched on Amazon and its own dedicated website. Tracy set the initial price to $1 for friends and family to help boost reviews and get more organic traffic. From there, she raised the price and published some Facebook and Amazon ads to maintain momentum.

It became pretty clear after talking to those first organic, non-network customers that most people who purchased didn't see P-Lux as just a luxury or even a nice-to-have item, they saw it as a must-have item that solved a serious issue fast. And they learned that it wasn't the fashion and celebrity market that loved the P-Lux with the most intensity, it was the people who had to wear shapewear after surgery. These customers were desperate for a solution because it directly affected their health and wellbeing. With that knowledge, Tracy started reaching out to surgeons and doctors on social media, asking them how they helped their patients tackle the issue of peeing and shapewear. And they responded.

The brand is now developing partnerships with physicians around the country. Also, the worlds of wedding planning and fashion are now discovering P-Lux as well. A year and a half in, the new product brings in just over $1,000 a month and sales are trending upward. But while the growth is exciting, it's not the most rewarding part. Answering the call of nature in shapewear is no longer an anxiety-inducing activity for lots of women.

And for Tracy, that's the best feeling of all. [Music]

Awesome, well, it sounds like a really practical, personal problem that a lot of women have. So I'm glad that Tracy is addressing it. And this does seem like the kind of product, like I was poking around on their website, it does seem like the kind of product that would really benefit from a lot of attention or like a major crowdfunding campaign, or perhaps some more extended investment. And, you know, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you know, I'm not encouraging people to go out and borrow money or even seek investment because there is so much you can do on your own.

And she has obviously developed this as a side hustle together with her husband. So that's fantastic, of course. But it does seem to me like this is the thing that should scale and should be, you know, just have a lot of attention on it somehow. And so I don't quite know about how to go about doing that or what the best route is. You know, obviously there are lots of different paths or avenues there.

But since it is such a unique idea and there wasn't anybody else in this category, she's essentially pioneering in that way. It seems to me that it could be, if she wants it to be at least, a lot more than a side hustle. It really could become its own brand that takes off and becomes, you know, widely, widely known. So I look forward to following along. If I get any P-Lux updates, I'll pass them on to you, our listeners.

And listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Is there some practical problem out there that you've got your eye on? Some frustration, some annoyance, that could perhaps not only be your own frustration or annoyance, but something that is a hindrance or even a serious problem for lots of other people? And if so, what could be a potential solution for that? How could you fix it?

Not only for yourself, but for other people, just like Tracy is doing in this story, and like many of the other people in our stories are doing as well. So I'll leave you with that today. Our show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/815. That's for episode 815. We'll of course include links to P-Lux and anything else that I mentioned.

Thank you so much. Have a great day. I'll be back again tomorrow. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

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From the Onward Project.