Disappearing Barrettes Lead to Bow-tiful Business

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

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Welcome to a brand new week. So excited you're here today, at least for me in real time. I am live in New York City tonight. Gonna do some filming here over the next couple of days and then on to Boston/Cambridge tomorrow. Very cool to be back on the road meeting many listeners every single day.

And of course the show goes on. So let's talk about that. I've got a bunch of good stuff coming up for you this week. In today's story, a mom and daughter solve the age old problem of disappearing hair bows. They do this by inventing a double face double snap barrette.

This pre-teen kidpreneur and her mom now earn a significant profit of more than $4,000 a month and also own a patent on their very special barrette. Now, if you know anything at all about hair barrettes or hair bows, you know they can be annoying. If you know anything about solving problems and then making money from those solutions, you'll be interested in how this mother-daughter duo went to market. And if you know anything at all about telling a good origin story, you will be impressed with this one. I know I was.

It's called "Disappearing Barrettes" lead to Boda full business. All right, stay tuned. Here's a quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]

Rosalind Goodwin is a wearer of many hats and bows. She's a vice president for the South Carolina Hospital Association, booking agent for her comedian husband, and investigator of lost barrettes for her daughter Gabby.

That last project is what we're gonna focus on here because one night after yet another run to the beauty supply store to purchase more replacement hair barrettes, Rosalind found herself frustrated. She pulled out all the hair products that Gabby had, by the way, Gabby was five years old at the time, and dumped them on the kitchen table. As she picked them up, she began to notice just how poorly constructed most of them were. Many were even missing clasps to snap and attach to the hair. Rosalind then did what many frustrated moms do and took to social media.

She complained about the age old problem of disappearing and poorly made barrettes, and how she was tired of having to replace them. Many other moms chimed in, agreeing with her. Then her pastor spoke up, telling her that it sounded like a market she needed to break into. Rosalind was a little annoyed. How was she supposed to manufacture hair barrettes with all of her other responsibilities?

But then a few mornings later, as she was styling Gabby's hair before school, she found herself in the same frustration mode. She mumbled to herself that someone needed to make a bow that would stay in. She didn't realize she was talking out loud, but then Gabby exclaimed, "Mommy, are we going to make a bow?" Rosalind was caught off guard and tried to push it aside. But like most kids, Gabby wouldn't soon forget. Later that afternoon, after she'd been picked up from school, Gabby asked once again when they were going to make bows.

From there, she was like a broken record caught up in pigtails and wasn't going to let it go until it was fixed. Rosalind finally agreed to try, thinking of it like a science project. She thought they could investigate what was missing with the current barrettes on the market and maybe sell the results to a company. Unfortunately, at least in the short term, it wasn't that simple. They began to make notes of what could be improved upon with the design.

After they had a concept, Rosalind presented it to many hair accessory companies, but no one was interested, at least not in a newly invented product without a patent. She quickly learned this was not an easy road to clip down. But rather than letting the idea disappear, like all those missing barrettes, they decided to make and sell them on their own. Rosalind was confident in their unique design, and she also wanted to show Gabby that anything was possible. She began researching product patents and decided to pursue a provisional patent, which is good for one year.

After speaking with an attorney, she was advised to pursue both the design and utility patent. She dipped into her retirement funds to cover the costs. So you might wonder what's the difference between these various types of patents? A design patent covers the actual design of the product, whereas a utility patent covers the function of the product. For anyone else out there wanting to patent a product, Rosalind recommends reaching out to the US Patent Trademark Office.

They have a hotline. You can call them first to get advice on what direction to take before paying any money to speak with an attorney. Most of the time, a provisional patent will do and cost only a few hundred dollars, compared to the thousands of dollars in lengthy process that an official patent could take. To launch their product, which they now called Gabby Bose, Rosalind and Gabby made a short video demonstrating how the double face, double snap barrette works. They posted it on Facebook with a link to their simple WordPress website.

Within a day, they had more than a thousand views and their first sale. They believed this was the start of something great. Now that was all a few years ago and sales have continued to climb, now averaging around $4,500 in profit each month. Thanks to consistent marketing and use of the hashtag #kidpreneur, Gabby Bose has been featured in many publications and TV shows, including the Today Show. For Rosalind, the best part about this hustle is getting to watch Gabby shine.

She went from being a shy kid to one who speaks at events all across the country. She also inspires other kids to launch their own businesses through the Mommy and Me Entrepreneurship Academy. This is a micro-franchising opportunity for young girls to create their own business selling Gabby Bose. Girls who join get a start kit with 25 votes to sell, monthly online trainings with Gabby, and an affiliate link to earn more money. They currently have 70 girls enrolled and hope to eventually have more than 1,000.

Now 12 years old, Gabby's advice for kids wanting to start a business is try your best, work hard, and never give up. She and her mom are clipped in for the rest of the ride. [Music]

So on their website, GabbyBose.com, I took a peek and it's just so refreshing. They do a wonderful job telling their origin story. I talk from time to time about how important it is to have a story behind why are you doing your side hustle.

It's not just about selling barrettes. Like you could have a website that just says like, "Hey, here are a bunch of barrettes. "The barrettes are good, go and buy them." But that's not what they do, of course. There's lots of photos of Gabby and then other kids. There's this main benefit that kind of appears right away.

Reduce your barrette bill by 75%, which I thought was kind of funny because I don't know what an average barrette bill is. But you know, it's pretty good benefit, 75%. Then it says a solution to many frustrated moms, just really kind of honing in on that target market there. Frustrated moms have this problem, here's the solution. And then it also has Gabby kind of front and center.

So there's a letter from her on the site, like a handwritten letter, as well as a video. So it's all just, it's just really informative and refreshing, as I said, and also inspiring. You kind of go away thinking like, "Wow, what a cool business. "Like, I'm really rooting for them "and I can't wait to see what they do next." Oh, I also like the micro-franchising thing. Basically, she's set up her own affiliate program, essentially, which is more than just an affiliate program, but it seems like Gabby's actually like building relationships with a lot of these girls around the country.

So good for her. Congratulations, Gabby and Rosalind. Thank you so much for allowing us to share your story with our listeners. And listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. I hope that you too will start a project like this, or maybe a project not quite like this, but in your own way, your own idea, whatever it is, I hope you'll do what it takes to bring it to life.

And I'll be here every day telling you stories, giving you ideas, and perhaps some action steps. All right, today's show notes, all right, sidehustleschool.com/891. Come and check out more about Gabby's Bose, anything else I mentioned in the episode. And of course, I'll be back again tomorrow. So be sure you're subscribed, tell your friends it's completely free.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, and you are listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.