Best Friends Ink Profits By Covering Up Scars

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

You know what they say about those August 23rd resolutions. Everybody makes those resolutions and then by the end of August, they are long forgotten. Oh wait, you haven't heard about August 23rd resolutions? Well, the thing is, you can make resolutions or make decisions or set intentions at any point during the year. At any time, whether it's August 23rd or whatever day you happen to be listening to this episode, you can use discontent or frustration or yearning for something to make a change.

You know, whatever it is, there might be somebody listening today who needs to do just that. Now, I have a secret mission in bringing you these daily stories. The stated mission, this is Side Hustle School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. And our stated mission is to show you lots of practical examples of people starting income generating projects.

Projects you might never have thought of from people who never thought of themselves as entrepreneurs. So through this process, I hope to help you find an idea or learn the process of generating ideas so that you can find the best one for you. That's our stated mission. But my secret mission is to highlight stories of change and active decision making. People just kind of standing up and saying, you know, I want to do something different with my life.

And I really, really believe it's never too late to reinvent the reality that you want for yourself. So in this story, in this example, both stated and secret, two women produce temporary tattoos to cover up surgical scars. It's a personal mission, it's solving a practical need, and it's also a for profit project. So lots of good stuff here. Stay tuned. It's coming up in just 30 seconds.

People often make New Year's resolutions at the start of the year, only to have them fade away shortly thereafter. But not these two friends. In 2014, Denise O'Connell and Amanda Hudson were making plans for the rest of the year and realized they weren't interested in working for the man any longer. Although they each had a cytosol of their own, it wasn't enough for them to leave their day jobs. So is when they stumbled upon a problem that they both faced.

Having recently undergone a stomach surgery, Denise had a large scar across her belly and was wondering how she could go about disguising it when wearing a bathing suit. Amanda had previously had surgeries that left her with the same issue. Denise realized that there were two options, at least at first. Option one, she could wear a grandma suit and cover everything up, but that was far from desired. Option two, as crazy as it sounded, she could get a tattoo to cover it up.

But a tattoo was also out of the question since the surgery area was still tender. It made Denise cringe just imagining them scraping across her scar with a tattoo needle. Plus, what if she hated the results? She would be stuck with it forever. Amanda felt the same way about her body. So together, they decided they would come up with their own line of temporary tattoos.

Tuck tats, as they called it, became the colorful, inky solution to their problem. They considered making these temporary tattoos themselves, but the necessary equipment would cost at least $100,000, which neither of them had. They also knew that they were going to be producing large tattoos that were over 20 inches in length, roughly the size of an abdomen surgery scar, and they knew that the processing quality of the product would be wildly inconsistent if they did it themselves. So they agreed at the start that they would get a manufacturer. Next came the design. Because the tattoos were for aesthetic purposes, they knew it was vital to work with a good artist who could come up with trendy and cool designs.

Their first search turned up a web designer who not only owned a small tattoo parlor, but also had a temporary tattoo printing machine. Denise and Amanda thought that she would be the perfect partner for their business, but reality had other plans. The samples that they requested turned out to be low quality, and the work came back at a very slow pace. Eventually, they knew they had to pull the plug if they wanted to move forward with their idea. Although they had to start from scratch, they quickly rebounded by hiring a Shopify design expert they found on Upwork.

And after some searching online, they got in touch with a manufacturer that handles most of the temporary tattoo production in North America. The first batch of tattoos included one thousand each of four separate designs, four thousand in total, setting them back by five thousand dollars each. Not small money, but a lot less than any other solution would have been. Contrary to some of our stories, sales and marketing turned out to be the easiest and most enjoyable portion of their process. As their tattoos were targeted at women who had gone through surgery, Denise started by joining some relevant Facebook groups.

She contacted the administrators of these groups and asked nicely if she could post stories of how she covered up her scars, with no links or sales pitches included. When her request was OK'd by the administrators, her post began to garner personal messages from members who wanted to learn more. These members turned into tuck tats first customers. Since then, she has remained active on Facebook groups and has even identified brand champions who talk about the product without any prompting. Word of mouth has since become a secondary channel in which tuck tats would get customers. No paid advertising needed.

One of the greatest takeaways for Denise and Amanda has been learning how to work with each other. While both of them had an entrepreneurial spirit and were willing to take risks, building a business together isn't something that can be taught. Their conversations have moved from complaining about their kids and jobs to how they would continue to build their business. And they're honest about the fact that not all of that conversation is positive. But in a similar manner to how they started tuck tats, they decided to fix their problems instead of leaving things to chance.

Therefore, put in place a partnership agreement to spell out the nitty gritty of how they would run operations. As Denise put it, it's never easy to talk about such things, especially when you want to preserve your friendship and the cost of lawyers. But this is something you want to get out of the way if you want the business to really survive. No one ever thinks that the business will fall apart, but it's like a prenup. You want to spell it out so the breakup is easier if necessary.

Fortunately, their partnership continues to be strong. Amanda and Denise have since started to become profitable with over $15,000 in net income so far. As they continue to expand and serve different market segments, they're leaving their mark and ink on a lot of people. Even though they still work their day jobs, Denise as a multimedia producer for a bank, and Amanda as a communications professional, they no longer complain about it. In fact, they say that the side hustle makes it a lot more tolerable.

Why don't you just love the name, tuck tats? That is like the perfect name. Also, as I said, it's a personal mission that solves a practical problem, helping women feel better about themselves without the permanence of a tattoo. And of course, it is a for-profit project. So all good things there. Congratulations to Amanda and Denise.

Before I go, I want to give a shout out to Scott Young. He's the author of a brand new book called Ultra Learning, how to master hard skills, outsmart the competition, and accelerate your career. I've known Scott for about a decade. I wrote about him in my book, The Happiness of Pursuit, when he went to conquer the MIT computer science curriculum, the four-year curriculum in just one year. So he is all about hacking things, intensive language learning.

You know, if you want to learn the MIT curriculum or learn a language in a short period of time or any other skill, then you should check out this book because it will tell you exactly how to do it. Again, it's called Ultra Learning by Scott Young. I'm going to link up that book at Tuck Tats and anything else that I mentioned in the episode at sidehustleschool.com/965. That's right, 965. Thank you so much, my friends. I hope you'll do one thing today to get you closer to a goal you believe in.

You can set a New Year's resolution no matter what day of the year it is. I'll be back tomorrow with another resolution of my own or at least another story for you. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side-of-School. ♪♪♪ From the Onward Project.