This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
In this week's first $1,000 segment, we're gonna hear from the creator of Dental Lace. It is the original Zero Waste Dental Floss. This product is now sold in retailers worldwide, and it all started with an idea that some people thought was crazy. Welcome, friends, welcome to Side Hustle School. My name's Chris Guillebeau, your host.
I'm so excited to make this podcast for you every single day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And every Monday, in fact, we have a feature called Your First Thousand Dollars. It is, in fact, how somebody gets their idea, how they make it happen, what they learn along the way, and so on, how they make $1,000, and then often much more. This is a business that is going great. I think it's featured in over 300 independent retailers in the US and 40 other countries as well.
We're gonna hear about it from Jodi. She is based in Maine. We first featured her way back on episode 1105, Librarian Invents Eco-friendly Dental Floss. But let's go to the origin point. What about that first $1,000?
How did Jodi make it happen? I'm gonna pass the mic to her. I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. [Music]
Hello there. My name is Jodi Breaux, and I'm the creator of Dental Lace Refillable Floss.
I was originally featured on Side Hustle School, episode 1105, and I wanted to share how we started our business. First, let me say our first $1,000 was earned because I had created a totally unique product that without me fully realizing it, people were actually looking for. You see, I really hated plastic dental floss. It was so ugly, and I knew the plastic wasn't good for the environment. So I created a dental floss that is fashionable and eco-friendly.
I called it Dental Lace Refillable Floss. I started with my lipstick. I figured there had to be a way to turn it into a refillable dental floss container. My husband, being an engineer and his friends, were up for the challenge. They helped me design the container and made prototypes using a 3D printer.
While they were working on the dispenser, I went searching for a floss manufacturer. I started in Maine and then around the US. Honestly, I think they thought this woman was crazy. No one was doing it, and they just couldn't see my vision. Eventually, I realized the container was going to be plastic, and I couldn't find floss, so I started over.
I'm a former librarian, so when I say start over, what I mean is research. I headed to a public library and then spent hours on the web. And this went on for months until one day on Alibaba, I found a Chinese supplier with a refillable container and silk floss. It's actually the design we use today, and that's how we started. But now we've just launched a new dispenser from China and floss from Indolee.
[Music]
Big thanks to Jodi for telling us about her first $1,000. Check it out for yourself listeners, dentallace.com. You can find stores, I think you can order right online, but if not, you can find a local store, read more about the business, and so on. They are proud to be a certified B corporation, I see. They also have a risk-free 30-day money-back promise.
There's all kinds of business ideas out there. I hope you will take advantage of one. You can borrow one from us if you want. With more than 3,000 episodes in the archives, all those ideas are just ready for you to take. It's totally fine with me.
Or you might have your own, and that's great too. If you have a question and update about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com. We've got notes pages for every single episode, all completely free on those archives. But for now, I'm signing off. I hope you'll come back tomorrow.
My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
