This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello there, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. A couple months back, we featured a story of a woman who created her own natural deodorant and brings in more than $5,000 a month selling it. Well, today we hear of a similar story, only this woman is earning more than $10,000 a month.
Apparently there is a gold rush in natural deodorant. At the end of the episode, I'll also tell you how she wasted $10,000, some startup costs that she really didn't need to spend. So don't try this at home. And also I'll give you some advice from her about why you might not want to tell your family about your side hustle right away. Wait, was that right?
Don't tell your family about your side hustle? Yup, that's what she says. Stay tuned for this story of a California accountant who earns sweat equity and super dry profits. [Music]
Rebecca So struggled her entire adult life looking for a deodorant that worked. Her dream was to find a product that didn't just help with body odor but also left no residue or white marks.
Her hunt for this elusive product came to a head one day at a networking event for her industry. Rebecca is a CPA at a firm in Los Angeles. Accounting is traditionally a corporate industry where everyone dresses in professional clothing. At the event, she bumped into a good friend of hers and gave him a big hug. She was wearing a sleeveless dress and when she let go, she felt mortified.
She'd left a white stain on his expensive black suit. It was an embarrassing and emotionally taxing moment. That was the day she'd had enough. She knew there must be some deodorant out there that solved this problem. So she tried everything she could find.
She even resorted to aluminum-based deodorants that would leave her underarms stinging for hours. She was fed up. With nothing available on the market, Rebecca decided to work up a sweat creating her own deodorant brand. She knew she already had one customer, herself. What perspired from that initial thought became Sway Detox deodorant.
After 20 years in the corporate world, it was her very first side hustle. She experimented with a range of natural products over her kitchen sink. It wasn't until a small adult acne breakout that she had her eureka moment. It came in the form of apple cider vinegar. Using vinegar to treat acne is a well-known natural remedy.
One day while applying some to her face, she decided to try it as deodorant. And to her surprise, it actually worked. She'd accidentally stumbled upon the main ingredient for her deodorant brand. To validate the concept further, she added aloe vera and rosewater to the mix. She began providing free samples to her gym buddies in exchange for them filling out a survey.
With encouragement from a friend, she set up a Facebook page and asked anyone who enjoyed the free sample to leave her a review. While the feedback was positive, she had no official product, so hadn't made any real sales yet. But that was about to change. For the next part of our story, we travel halfway around the world to the hot and sweaty streets of Dubai. There we meet Sheila, Rebecca's first customer.
Sheila also struggled with body odor most of her life. She had tried every product you could imagine in hopes of a solution, been to several doctors, but nothing worked. It caused her embarrassment and battered her self-confidence. When she stumbled onto that Facebook page, she needed a solution. She reached out to Rebecca and requested a sample.
At the time, all Rebecca had was a single 3D mockup of what the product might look like. Still, Sheila was keen, ready to spend $60 to have the sample shipped. No small sum for a tiny sample bottle of deodorant. The product worked perfectly for Sheila and she became the first of Sway's many fans. Like an accountant at tax time, Rebecca began working harder on the product.
If someone halfway around the world was willing to spend $60 on a sample, she knew there'd be plenty more people out there that would purchase. The next step was to take the concoction she created at home and turn it into a legitimate product that would pass regulation. For this part, Rebecca contacted a chemist to help her develop things further. When creating a skin care product in the USA, it's important to have the correct FDA approval. Through her research, she knew a chemist would be able to handle all of that.
The chemist was also able to fine tune the formula and assist in labeling and packaging to make sure things remained compliant. All of this wasn't cheap, not a $100 startup here. Between the chemist, packaging, inventory, and setting up her Shopify store, the cost added up to around $30,000. Fortunately, as a good accountant, Rebecca knew it was all tax deductible, no sweat. With a dent in her finances, it was time to make some of that money back.
Rebecca utilized her existing Facebook page to get her first few sales of Sway Detox deodorant. Since then, she has really ramped up the marketing. Sales are now generated through a combination of Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and more recently, Google AdWords. Rebecca recently started up a YouTube channel, and all of these channels are yielding positive results. One of the most effective marketing methods has been Sway's Refer a Friend program.
With this, customers can recommend the product in exchange for credits, which they can then use in turn to purchase on their own. It's been a good driver of growth, and that growth has been impressive. From humble beginnings in her kitchen sink just seven months ago, Sway Detox deodorant is now generating $10,000 a month in sales. To be clear, while that sounds like a lot of money, Rebecca is still working for sweat equity at the moment. Every extra dollar has been put back into the business to build this brand and help the product grow.
With all the cash coming in, it's a good thing Rebecca knows a good accountant. And that would be herself. She can handle all of that and more without breaking a sweat. All right, awesome story, congrats, Rebecca. Like I said, it seems like a gold rush for natural deodorant these days.
Now, in addition to the story itself, I had two updates or two lessons from her that I wanted to make sure I shared. First one is something that did not go well at all, because this is a great success story, but even in great success stories, there are often major challenges. In this case, the main thing that didn't go well was when she started up. I mentioned she had $30,000 in startup costs. Well, $10,000 of that startup cost was for hiring a PR agency.
And what she says is I hired a PR agency that ended up not fulfilling their promise deliverables. Long story short, I wasted over $10,000 for nothing. Listen, I hear this story all too often. Hiring a publicist for a brand new business is not usually a great idea. If you don't know what you're doing, if you're not really sure what you're getting into, save the money.
And also here's the second lesson. When we asked her for some general advice, she said, well, definitely validate your idea. When you've got your side hustle idea, make sure you validate it. But I would caution people against discussing it with family members or even certain friends because they might not always be the most objective. And many times they might even try to talk you out of your ideas, whether your idea is good or not.
I thought that was really important and I wanted to include it for somebody out there. The first part is definitely true. Your family members and friends are not necessarily the most objective about your ideas, especially your business ideas. But the second part of that is sadly true as well. Many times they might even try to talk you out of your ideas.
So if you have an idea that you believe in and you're worried about people being negative about it, especially family members or close friends, it's not that you have to keep it a secret from them, but maybe hold off until your project is a little bit further along. If you just tell them when it's an idea, they might try to crush your dream. But when you've got an actual product and say, look what I've done, I've validated this idea, there was somebody in Dubai who actually paid $60 for a sample of this. I know this product works. I know it can help a lot of people.
Then you're on much stronger footing. So this advice is not gonna apply to everyone I realized because lots of people have very supportive family members and close friends. But for those who don't or for those who have family members or close friends who are well-meaning, but don't always get it. Don't always understand like, why would you want to do something like this? It's okay to do it on your own for a while.
It really is. Focus on proving it to yourself first and then you can prove it to other people. Not that you need to prove it to anyone else, but the point is show them results. Don't just show them an idea. Like I said, I have a feeling that's for somebody out there.
So let me know if it's you. And regardless, thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. To find the show notes, including links for today's episode, go to sidehustleschool.com/566.
That is episode 566. If you have a comment or question for the show, give me a call on the Hustle Hotline. That number is 8449 Hustle. That's 8449 Hustle or 8449487853. I will be back tomorrow with another story.
Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
