Husband and Wife Team Pampers Their Way To Profit

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

[Music]

Welcome to a brand new week and almost a new year. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Over here, I'm beginning a new trip for the next 10 days, just as we begin the year of interaction. I'll be in New York and London, and I look forward to debuting a whole new format of episodes for you later this week, beginning on the first. So stay tuned, that's coming up in just two days.

For now, when a Silicon Valley manager looks for a way to pay for his $15 lunches, he tempts his wife with a side hustle opportunity that grows to $40,000 a month. A big success, of course, and he's got some very helpful criteria if you're trying to figure out what kind of product can I sell. Well, at the end of the episode, we'll break down the four factors that allowed this project to do so well. All right, here's a shout out to our sponsor and then on with the show. [Music]

Tony and Fei Wuyang lived and worked in one of the most expensive cities in the world, San Francisco.

Tony was a marketing manager for a large finance startup, while Fei was a product manager at Cisco. They had met in university 10 years earlier. While many of their friends went on to start companies, they took regular jobs instead. Not that that was a decision they regretted, it afforded them a great lifestyle in a beautiful city where they had two kids and earned plenty of money to support them. But working at startups can wear down even the most optimistic person after a while.

That was certainly the case for Tony, who in 2017 was eager to find stimulation outside his nine to five. To do that, he explored the idea of starting a side hustle. There was no grand plan. He was just looking for a hobby and figured he might as well pick one that could make money. Didn't have to be a lot of money.

In fact, he had a very specific goal in mind. His goal was to earn enough to pay for his $15 work lunches. He quickly landed on the idea of selling a physical product on Amazon. He had a family member who'd had success doing that, so it seemed feasible. And Tony had two criteria for his product.

One, it shouldn't be something breakable, like glass or electronics, that would avoid quality issues and returns. And two, he had to make at least a 50% profit margin. In the end, he decided to sell cold brew filter bags for coffee. It was a product he would use himself, being an avid cold brew drinker. And furthermore, he'd seen the rise of cold brew in places like Starbucks and knew it was growing in popularity.

With the product idea set, it was time to find a manufacturer. Tony hunted on Alibaba, where he found one in China. He placed an order of 100 bags for $640. After that, he found freelancers on fiber.com to create the graphics and labels for just over $100. Those were his total startup costs.

Soon after, he used the fulfillment by Amazon program to list the product for sale. And although it was December, the Christmas rush didn't help. In fact, he didn't make his first sale until mid-January the following year. Still, within a couple of months, the cold brew bags were generating enough money to cover his lunches. And they tasted oh, so sweet.

In fact, he was so happy with his profits that he regularly indulged himself with extra guacamole. Just a few months later, Fay, having seen the success of the cold brew bag, wanted in on the action for herself. They decided to team up and take the side hustle more seriously, which meant it needed a name. And they came up with Doppletree, a play on the word doppelganger, because of course, two is better than one. Fay chose to sell a new product under the same brand name.

To find one, she repeated Tony's process from a few months earlier. That is, she wanted to devise a simple product that she herself would buy, one that wouldn't break, and had a good profit margin. With two kids at home and a demanding day job, Fay was always looking around for a tiny moment to pamper herself, a little relaxation in her day. To do that, she often used all natural beauty and skincare products. After exfoliating for ideas, she settled into under eye masks.

These are small patches that are placed under the eye to minimize the look of wrinkled and tired eyes. Just what Fay and every other hardworking woman or man needs. I need to get some of these myself. She and Tony again sourced a supplier from Alibaba, partnered with the pair for their pampering product. Just like that cold brew bag, they listed them for sale in Amazon's ecosystem.

Next, like receiving a discount at a day spa, people rushed to order. The Doppletree husband and wife team knew it wasn't a fluke. They were quietly confident that if they launched more products, they could replicate their success. They might not all work, but surely some would. However, before they did that, they thought it best to learn how to actually run a business because while Doppletree was a successful side hustle, they knew it had potential for more.

Their biggest challenge was separating their business and personal lives. For that, they set proper boundaries of who would work on what. And then the second hurdle was prioritizing what needs to be done and when. Something almost all side hustlers struggle with, at least at first. Over the next 18 months, Tony and Fay expanded their product line to include full face masks, foot detoxes, and vitamin C face serum, most of which sold well.

They attribute the success to building a strong brand and focusing diligently on customer service. Many of their sales come from repeat customers. So providing that great service is something they pride themselves on and try to offer it to each and every customer. Those customers have spoken by opening their wallets to the tune of $40,000 revenue per month. It's a large sum by anyone's standards and allows for enough profits that Tony is going full time in 2020 to have a real go at growth.

If all goes well, Fay will quit her day job next. For this married couple, the money is just one benefit. They're also thrilled about being able to own their time and see a path to building their future. [Music]

Awesome success. Congratulations to Tony and Fay.

Wonderful stories. We wind down the year. Now let us look at the criteria that Tony and then Fay used in deciding which products to sell. 'Cause I think this is really important. This is kind of like step one, if you're gonna sell a retail product using fulfillment by Amazon or another sales channel.

If you can fulfill these four factors criteria, then you're off to a great start. Okay, so those four factors or criteria are number one, personal interest. So Tony as a coffee drinker would use these filters himself. And it wasn't just his own interests. It was also number two, big demand.

He noticed the rise of cold brew coffee, which you can see everywhere. Now it's not just Starbucks, like every independent coffee shop. You know, he's also doing this. It's in the grocery store, many different brands and kinds. So personal interests combined with the big demand.

And then he was looking for something simple and practical that wouldn't break. Okay, so he probably is not gonna sell cold brew itself. It comes in these glass bottles. It's also a food and beverage product, which adds all kinds of complexity. He's just selling the filters.

You know, again, really, really easy. Simple, practical, wouldn't break. And last but not least, a good profit margin. What is a good profit margin? Well, you know, for something like this, you at least want to be able to double your money.

Ideally, you actually want to buy something, I don't know, for a dollar and sell it for $4 or buy something, you know, for $5 and sell it for $20. I mean, these are just some examples. But you actually wanna have a really healthy profit margin, which coffee filters and eye masks, products like these do. Because the more margin you have, it's not just the more money you make. It's also, you know, the more mistakes you're able to make.

If everything is not perfectly optimized, if you're still figuring things out, a healthy profit margin can help so much. So personal interest, big demand, a simple, practical, wouldn't break, and a good profit margin. All right, that's my encouragement for you at the end of 2019. Just one more day left. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1094, 1094. I'll be back tomorrow for New Year's Eve and then every single day in 2020. Can't wait and I hope you'll join me. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.