This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Side hustle school listeners, friends, and community. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Let us talk today about soap that makes $50,000 a month. That is correct, five zero.
And that number of course may go up, may go down, but that's what this side hustle is bringing in right now, $50,000 a month in soap. And there's more to it. The business lesson or the business question we're gonna look at is do you start with a product or do you start with a way to sell that product? So when you're starting out and you wanna create a big success of your own, do you start with a product in mind or do you think more about a selling channel or a medium or means of selling that product? If you've listened for a while, you can notice how a lot of our stories unfold with kind of a product-based narrative.
In other words, somebody was passionate about coffee and they found a way to make their own coffee or roast their own coffee beans or otherwise present coffee in a way that's a little bit different or reaching a different group of people or whatever it is. The point is it's all focused on the product and they find the right medium or means or selling channel to promote and sell that product. But there's another way to do it where you essentially flip that model. And today's story, the one we're gonna talk about, all that soap, it starts by focusing on Instagram marketing itself. And then it finds the right product to sell using Instagram.
So two different approaches. We will start with the story. And the story is about a husband and wife duo who cleans up with this homemade soap side hustle that is no lathering matter. As I said, it's doing pretty well. That's an understatement.
They are taking these soapy profits straight to the bank. So here's a quick little shout out to our sponsor. Really appreciate them. They allow the show to be completely free. And then I'll tell you how this couple makes it happen.
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Couples who side hustle together stay together. At least that's what the evidence suggests from North Carolina couple Danielle and Rondell Roach. They met while working together at the National Institute of Health. But after a few years, they decided to make a change. And they made this change in more ways than one.
Rondell had quit his job to drive for Uber and Lyft. Danielle also quit to work as a manager for a cancer research company. While they both enjoyed their new routines, Danielle wanted to find a way to earn more money together so that Rondell could work less hours and come home earlier. She kept thinking of ideas but wasn't sure exactly where to start or even how to start. Then in November, 2017, Rondell's cousin sent Danielle an email.
He knew that they wanted to earn extra money and he had an idea of what they could do. As it turns out that cousin and his wife had recently started a doll business and he was preparing to create a course and share everything he had learned about how to use Instagram for marketing. He wanted to test run the course on someone and who better to turn to than family. Danielle and Rondell spent several hours learning about Instagram marketing. They wanted to execute what they learned but they needed something to market first.
Danielle spent her lunch breaks putting her new skills to work, researching what was trending on Instagram. She hoped if she found something interesting, she'd be able to put her own unique spin on it and turn it into a successful project. After a good thumb workout, as in lots of scrolling through Instagram, she found something that interested her. Danielle brought the idea to her husband who loved it even more than she did. Rondell ordered supplies the next day and they got to work making their test products.
Those products were natural soaps. While they were testing recipes, they listened to podcasts like this one. And it was after listening to episode 101 about a guy living in Japan who created a subscription box for candy that Rondell suggested they work on a website for a subscription bath box called Bath Bombed. They began building that website and figuring out how they could make, pack and ship out the boxes. But they became frustrated with the logistics of a recurring subscription service.
So they decided to change the plan. They cut the box but kept the bombed part of the name. Danielle turned to YouTube video tutorials for instructions on how to do just about everything. As she told us, I'm an early morning person. So I'd wake up at 5.30 AM and watch Endless Soap Queen videos on YouTube.
Meanwhile, Rondell built the bombed website on Shopify and both of them continued to make soap every day after work, coining names for the batches that were officially appealing. They officially launched on January 1st, 2018. The same cousin that helped them navigate Instagram marketing invested $600 so they could register their business as an LLC and buy supplies like a stick blender, measuring cups and bowls. Thanks to what they'd learned from that course, the podcast, the YouTube tutorials, almost right away, they began seeing sales and they began seeing a lot of sales. It wasn't just that they'd found a hit with their product.
They'd also found a huge hit with how they marketed using Instagram ads and features. Danielle and Rondell drove traffic to their website by finding large social media pages that align with their holistic values, then they would ask them to feature bombed on their Instagram page in exchange for a small promotion fee. After a while, they branched out into Facebook and Google ads. Danielle said that they typically invest about $200 into one ad and they typically receive about $1,000 in return, which is a fantastic return on investment. How about that?
Invest $200, get back $1,000. As sales increased, Danielle found herself ordering more soap molds, storage containers, and eventually a workspace for soap making so she could take their side hustle off their dining room table. They also expanded their product range to include body butters, salts, and scrubs. You heard it in the headline, but still, get ready. Thanks to these efforts, bombed aesthetics is bringing in around $50,000 a month.
That's right, $50,000. Danielle says they actually get nervous on days when sales are $500 or less. Sounds like a pretty good problem to have. Honey, we only made $500 today. We might make $48,000 at the end of the month instead of $50,000.
So their biggest piece of advice to someone starting a project like this is to find a trend in social media, just like Danielle did, and then see what kind of product could naturally connect with it. They've now hired an apprentice soap maker to help them handle all those orders that are coming in, and as for what's next, they're on a three-step plan to lather, rinse, and repeat. All right, so much to talk about here. And first and foremost, congrats. Big congrats, huge congrats really to Danielle and Rondell.
What a fantastic story, and thank you for allowing us to share it with our listeners. So glad you guys have been able to see so much success so far, and much success to come, I hope. One of the notes that Danielle had for us in our little survey forum is that they are proud to be a Black-owned, family-run business. And in that particular niche, I guess the niche of soap, which kind of blew up in recent years, soap is a thing. Soap is more than just a commodity.
There were lots of people building businesses in that field, but no one, or at least not a lot of people, doing so from a different cultural perspective. And so they try to kind of integrate that with their marketing, and with who they're connecting with online. So anyway, well done again, Danielle and Rondell. Now, at the top of the show, I talked about how there's a couple different ways to approach a goal like this. And you can start with a product, or you can start with a selling channel.
It's more common to start with a product. It's more common for someone to say, "Oh, for years, I've been really passionate about soap. Where could I sell my soap? How could I transform this love of soap into something that actually pays me money in return?" As I said, that is the most common. But the other approach, which is the same pathway that they took here in this story, is to say, "Okay, I'm gonna study a specific selling channel.
I'm gonna study a specific medium or platform. And then from there, I'm gonna ask myself, "Okay, what is the best product to sell on this platform or channel?" And that's what Danielle did in all her research. She spent lots of time looking through Instagram. She spent lots of time watching YouTube. And it was only through that research that she decided, "Oh, I'm gonna learn how to make soap.
And this is gonna be our business, or at least our first attempt." So you see the difference there? She could have taken the same skill and perhaps discovered a different product. Now, it's not so much that one way is better than the other. I think in general, like if you're not sure what to do, sometimes it's good to think product first. But maybe you've been trying this for a while, or maybe you got stuck doing something.
If you've gotten stuck with one approach, perhaps try the other. So you might ask yourself some questions like, "Do you already have a product or know what your product would be?" So in that hypothetical example, if it was someone who was passionate about soap and knew a lot about soap, not just passionate, but skilled, then maybe they would start with that. Or you can ask yourself, "Are you already an expert in a particular selling channel?" Or, "Are you really good at social media or some other marketing skill?" If that's the case, that might indicate that you go down that path and you say, "Okay, how do I apply this skill and find the right product or the right service to match with this particular social media channel, this particular selling channel or platform," or whatever it is, whether it's Etsy or eBay, or something completely different. Craigslist, who knows? So both approaches are valid.
As you can see, this one worked out pretty well here. And that also illustrates the fact that there is more than one way to do this. There's so much creativity in this world of starting a little side hustle without quitting your job, or while you're trying to build a bridge from one thing in life to another, or even if you're perfectly content, but just like the idea of a different creative project, or perhaps building security for your future. Now, last but not least, some comments on puns. Whenever I'm doing events, I hear from some listeners who come up and say, "I love the puns, I'm side hustle school, keep it going." And I say, "Of course, we're trying to keep it fundamental.
That's in our DNA." But every so often, I get some haters who kind of write in and say like, "Hey, Chris, enough with the puns. I just want to hear the story about how they made money selling soap, okay? So get off your soapbox." And I'm like, "All right. I understand, totally get it. Over here, I'm just trying to have some good, clean fun, okay?
I want to provide something that is fun and joyful to people. And what better topic really than this one? Because soap rings eternal." It used to be a problem for me. In fact, for a while I was addicted to soap, but now I'm clean. All right, I respect your opinion, but right now I'm at my office.
So with that, I'm going to sign off because there's no place like foam. Oh, and thank you for listening. You are sensational. My friends, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including links to bombed aesthetics are online at sidehustleschool.com/594.
Come on by and check out Danielle and Rondell's awesome little business. Not a little business. It's making $50,000 a month. Congrats again to them and let's see who will be next. Come back tomorrow and find out.
My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School.
