Lather, Rinse, Recycle: Soapy Problem Leads to Clean Solution

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

Today on the program we are going to unpack one of the great mysteries of life, not the Bermuda Triangle. It's not the question of how come there's only one Monopolies Commission, isn't that weird? Nor is it the question of if the police arrest a mime, they have to tell him he has the right to remain silent. None of those, in fact, is a completely different question, different mystery. An account manager solves the pondering question of what happens to soap after it's been used in a hotel room.

And then he turns his answer into a sustainable side hustle. We're going to call it Lather, Rinse, Recycle. Soapy problem leads to clean solution. Some parts of it are going well, but his next step, his challenge is increasing sales. So this is profitable, but he definitely needs to increase sales further.

So we'll look at that a bit more at the end of this squeaky clean episode. I'm so glad you're here. This is side hustle school. Stay tuned for the story. Have you ever stayed up at night wondering what happens to used soap in hotel rooms?

Like after a bar is only used once. For account manager, Tristan Curavo, this question kept him awake in his hotel one night about three years ago. And rather than letting the question simply wash away, Tristan decided to spend some time researching this probing question. As he researched, he learned that something like two million used bars of soap are thrown away every single day. This figure completely blew his mind, and before it slipped down the drain, he decided to do something about it.

His first thought was to collect the used soap and see if he could make something entirely different out of it. But then he realized why make something new when you can just use it for how it's intended. Contacted the hotel where he was staying in Portland, Maine, and asked if they would be interested in donating all of their used soap to him for a project. To his surprise, he discovered that the hotel had been wanting to do something with the soap but didn't have a great idea. So Tristan began by working with local university students to run experiments alongside their professors.

Together they began to develop a process for sterilizing partially used bars of soap and turning them into liquid hand soap. This process they use in autoclave, a strong heated container that produces steam. Once the bars are sterilized, they are repurposed into liquid soap and packed in 1 gallon glass bottles. Why glass? Well, every year, over 8 million tons of plastic finds its way into the ocean, and Tristan wanted to change that too.

So in addition to repurposing soap, he's also improving the environment by cutting down on plastic use. The testing process was a little slippery at first. It took months of trial and error. They landed on a simple product made from the bars of soap, water and baking soda. Finally, Tristan had his concoction and the 1 gallon soap company was officially born.

In terms of marketing, he started small in the beginning by testing the product with his community. He then built a website which is now the main source of sales. Start-up costs were not squeaky clean. They cost Tristan about $5,000 to get going. But he believed in this mission and its future, and he was right.

The 1 gallon soap company is now profitable at a low but sustainable level. He utilizes his website, Instagram and word-of-mouth for sales. As he grows, he's been able to add additional hotels to his roster of soap suppliers. The most rewarding part about the experience is the sustainability of the product. Tristan found a problem and created a sudsy solution that helps everyone involved, including the hotels.

He's also come up with a monthly contest with the housekeepers from partnering hotels to collect the soap. Each month, they set a goal of collecting a certain number of bars, and if the number is met, he rewards them with a pizza party. In getting this product out of the trash and into the bottle, Tristan utilized many resources. He partnered with the hotels to collect soap, worked with those local college students to create a sterilization process, and relied upon early customers for feedback on what they liked and disliked about the product as it was being developed. For anyone else hoping to sell a product, Tristan recommends asking lots of questions.

Why is this product important to you? Where will you get your materials? And to whom will you sell it? These questions will support you in getting started and taking action. If you ever feel like quitting, go back to your why.

Why do you care about this? Why are you doing it? If your why is greater than making money, you'll be more inspired to move forward. He plans to keep partnering with more hotels and hopes that the one-gallon soap company will bubble up all over the world. Okay, so here we have what is kind of a common situation.

A common, interesting, and important situation where this guy has created a product that is relevant. He's put a lot of time into figuring out the best process for it, how to make it safe, sterilized, and also just attractive. Like I'm going to talk about the website in a moment, and he actually does have some really good branding. But the weak spot here is sales. So he's wisely focused on the product and his mission at first, but now he needs to devote more attention to getting the word out because it is profitable, which is also great.

So now the question is, how can he make it more profitable? How can he sell to more people, essentially? So the first step here is I always go and look at the website, and I think the website overall is good. Like I said, I do think the branding is strong, which is important if you start with that, and it's so much easier going forward. So website is good, but it needs some love because his story is missing from it.

We have one or two sentences here about how there's a lot of plastic that goes into the ocean every year. Let's change that. It says, "We sell our soap by the gallon and in-glot dispensers because we believe in more clean and less plastic." So that's great, but that's pretty much all there is. There's nothing about his story, all the stuff that I just told you about how it came to be. There's nothing about is there anybody else on the team?

Where is this company based? None of that is on the website. I have other questions too, and I think if anybody stumbles on this website, they're like, "Oh, this is interesting, interesting promise, but how does it work exactly?" And how do they find the partner hotels? What's in it for them? And can I get this shipped anywhere?

Are there costs for that? Just a bunch of stuff that I think could be addressed a little bit better and more thoroughly. Just not really a huge change to make, but I think it will help. And then also, for everybody out there, not just for Tristan, be sure you update your copyright date on your website. I've mentioned this a couple of times before.

On the onegallonsuppcompany.com site, at the bottom, it says copyright 2016, which I think is probably when he got started with this project and maybe first made the basic website, but we're not in 2016 anymore. So be sure you update that. Sometimes with WordPress or other plugins, they will automatically do that, like January 1 will roll around and you're like, "Whoa, my website already says the next year." But obviously, in a case like this, it needs to be done manually. So make sure you stay current. And for the onegallonsuppcompany, Tristan, we wish you every success.

I hope many of our listeners will go and check it out. And I hope you continue to grow. All right, listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. What great mystery of the world can you solve? Or at least what great problem can you find, discover, create, invent, whatever the answer is.

And then of course, find a way to make it profitable, profitable, sustainable, all good things. Today's show notes, including links to the onegallonsuppcompany, anything else I mentioned. All right, sidehustleschool.com/92920. I'll be back again tomorrow. Thank you so much for listening.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Site Us All School. From the Onward Project.