Notes from Chris

Episode 562

Ahmad Iqbal grew up traveling the world. His father’s work meant his family often moved to foreign countries. Although he was born in Canada, before his 22nd birthday he’d spent time living in Pakistan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Korea, England, United States, Italy and Dubai.

This constant moving gave him a unique perspective of the world, exposed him to new ideas and instilled a maturity beyond that of most kids. That perspective meant he got good at spotting opportunities. Opportunities that most people growing up in a single culture don’t see.

By his early twenties, the travel had settled down and Ahmad was no longer being moved around by his family. He’d set up home base in Toronto, Canada.

He lived around a lot of immigrant families and this triggered a memory. In all the countries he’d lived, people used the bathroom differently. In North America, we take it for granted that we flush and wipe with toilet paper. However, in many Middle Eastern, European and Asian countries, they use a bidet to tidy up.

To describe a bidet, I’ll use Ahmad’s own words; “A bidet is like a mini shower you can use while you’re on the toilet.”

He thought it strange that something so fundamental to foreign bathroom habits hadn’t made its way to North America. He decided to find out why and asked his family and friends why they hadn’t installed one. The responses gave him hope:

• 1. It seems hard to install or might require sophisticated plumbing
• 2. They didn’t know they were available

Both these concerns were addressable. Ahmad just had to make or acquire a bidet that was super easy to install and then get the word out about it. So he decided to create his own bidet company, Nadeef Bidets.

Once they arrived Ahmad commenced rigorous testing—I’ll let you use your imagination to figure out how. He settled on the one that was the best performing, highest quality, and easiest to install. He had found the gold standard of bidets.

He started with an order of 100 bidets but should have made it more. By the time they arrived, he’d already sold the additional 80 units and had to order more straight away. Things were happening so fast that he didn’t even have packaging for the product. For the first 100 orders he ended up wrapping them like a Christmas present. It wasn’t until his second large order from the supplier that he had them prepackaged every unit before shipment.

And the sales have not slowed down! Nadeef Bidets now generates around $10,000/month and is still run by just one man, Ahmad. That’s been enough for him to quit his job at Deloitte and go full-time. It just goes to show you, you never know where a good flush can lead you!

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Nadeef Bidets: Clean up your act! Learn more about Ahmad's handheld bidets over on his website
• Shopify: Ahmad used Shopify to set up his site for Nadeef, and they're offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!
• Raven: In addition to keeping the North American masses squeaky clean, Ahmad has also created an app that helps you collect the phone numbers of your best leads and keeps track of the products they were interested in
• Facebook Advertising: Find the right people, capture their attention, and get results
• Alibaba: The platform that Ahmad used to locate a manufacturer for his handheld bidets

SEE ALSO:

• Claire's Facebook Guide: Free beginner's guide to getting started in the world of Facebook Ads
• German Funeral Urns Are Not a Dying Business: Two friends in Germany create a side hustle manufacturing funeral urns that double as personalized works of art
• Woman Sells Hair Grips to Orthodox Jews & Drag Queens: It begins as a product for Orthodox Jewish women. It goes on to serve cancer patients, Broadway performers, and drag queens, earning “fringe benefits” and $4,000/month

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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