What It's About
A non-profit worker goes in search of fair-trade, quality sleepwear.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
Anna has some words of encouragement if you've got a side hustle idea that might seem strange at first to others, "trust your own intuition on what you are wanting to do. People thought I was crazy when I said I was starting a sleepwear label."
Fun Fact
Sorella’s first customer’s had an interesting name: Cash. Anna felt like it was a good sign for the business!
Notes from Chris
Episode 1022
Back in 2010, when Anna McGregor started Sorella Organics—an online sleep and loungewear company—there wasn’t much of a market for ethical and sustainable clothing in Australia. Anna saw an opportunity, not just to claim that market for herself, but to work the way she wanted to. She had previously started a private rehabilitation company as a side hustle that became a full-time business, so she knew that she could do it again … and that she could carry over some lessons from building one business to the next. Anna had left her prior company and was working full-time with a non-profit in India and Vietnam. What she saw and learned doing this work inspired her to look at using fair labor in the supply chain, and organic fair trade cotton in the products. While many people were advocating against sweatshop-made garments, few were talking about the people providing the raw materials for those garments—the farmers who were growing the cotton in the first place. The biggest issue she had, in the beginning, was finding good sources for the cotton. And while there was such a thing as organic fabric, it wasn’t readily available, because most suppliers didn’t see a need to stock it. Thanks to her non-profit contacts, she ended up buying cloth directly from a mill in India. The brand made its first in-person sale to a customer at a trade show, and then launched their online store three months later. However, Sorella was always designed to be a flexible business. At some point, Anna went back to work at a non-profit again, both because she missed the work, and because she wanted a break from the fast fashion business. While she was at the new non-profit, she kept working on Sorella. She came back to it full time in 2018, after she and her fiancé Alex decided to start a family. She’s now able to work from home with their son. She hasn’t had quite the massive growth she first expected. There are a number of larger companies she’s competing against. Because these other companies have greater profit margins, they can invest more in marketing. Still, 2019 has seen the company’s best period of growth—60 percent for revenue, 50 percent in the number of sales — with a 40 percent increase in U.S. sales. With this success, and a child who is getting a bit older, Anna is ready again to take Sorella to the next level. In addition to her full-time hustle with Sorella, she’s a partner in her fiancé’s business, which provides training and employment to local disadvantaged youth in Melbourne. She’s also pursuing a couple of new ideas. She looks at all these projects as opportunities. Most importantly, they’re a chance to keep improving each step of the way.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Sorella Organics: Learn more and checkout Anna's luxury organic sleepwear at her website.
- The Snuggle Is Real: Architect Moonlights by Selling Designer Onesies: An architect creates minimalist onesies and t-shirts for his own kids—then turns it into a profitable side hustle.
- Austinite Creates Radical Girl Clothing Line: After feeling burned out from a career at Nike, this merchandiser looks elsewhere for radical inspiration. She then moves her side hustle to Austin, Texas while relocating for a new job.
- Finance Professionals Go Gorillas for Bamboo Fiber Socks:Two NYC financial sector employees decide to make socks and rescue gorillas.
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