What It's About
Did you hear the joke about the Granola Butter? I’m not telling you—you might spread it!
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
For those out there still on the fence about starting a side hustle, Ali had some great advice related to starting:
"If you're hesitating and waiting for the ‘perfect moment’ to launch your side hustle—just launch. The perfect moment doesn't exist, and it'll never come. The sooner you launch, the quicker you can pivot and figure things out as you go. Also, tell anyone and everyone that you're launching a side hustle. It'll hold you accountable to follow through."
Fun Fact
Ali’s first launch almost never happened. Before she could officially share her Granola Butter with the world, she needed the approval of the food inspector. However, there was only one food inspector at the time and she was struggling to keep up with the amount of work she had on her docket. Ali was worried that she wouldn’t get the nod before her launch date—she had already announced it and sent influencers her #freethedrip kits—kind of a big deal!
Fortunately, Ali has the tenacity of a bulldog and called or emailed every day. Finally, the day before the launch, Ali got the O.K. Phew!
Notes from Chris
Episode 599
Meet Ali Bonar, a full-time product marketer for a health tech company living in San Francisco. Growing up, Ali’s life was pretty normal. She was outgoing, had a bunch of friends, and played volleyball on her high school team. On the outside, everything appeared fine. However, on the inside, as Ali will attest, she was developing an unhealthy relationship with food. She’d starve herself all day then spend the night binge eating which left her feeling guilty. In Ali’s mind, she had no self-control and didn’t feel comfortable in her own skin. She had developed an eating disorder while studying nutrition at UC Berkeley from trying to eat clean all the time. Seriously, food was stressing her out! She began documenting her journey of intuitive eating on Instagram with the handle @avokween shortly after college. Her struggles with food persisted and she quickly realized this was a problem that wasn’t going away. She needed help. Her breakthrough came when she shifted her focus away from worrying about how certain foods made her look and instead focused on how they made her feel, everything changed. This avokween began giving zero guacs! Meanwhile, her marketing job was leaving her creatively unfulfilled. As soon as she’d get off work, Ali would go home and tinker around in her kitchen. This was the place where she could exercise her creative freedom. She felt alive. She began experimenting with different foods, posting her stories on Instagram. A self-proclaimed nut butter-aholic, Ali found herself putting the buttery spreads on everything. And it was while experimenting with a combination of granola and coconut oil that Ali stumbled upon (cue the trumpets) granola butter. This spreadable gold was getting rave reviews from family and friends. Because of all the encouragement, Ali decided to kick things up a notch. What started as mere kitchen experiments resulted in the founding of Kween Foods, a wellness company with the mission to empower women to reclaim their relationship with food through self-love and body positivity. Their first official product? Granola Butter—the first-ever spreadable granola! Riding on the coattails of popular trends was another way Ali leveraged her social media following. She sent her curated list of influencers a #freethedrip kit which was everything they’d need to create a worthy Instagram post. #freethedrip was a play off of the #freethenip movement. #freethedrip was basically a way to let your smoothies run wild, welcoming the nut butter overflow! Ali says Instagram has been instrumental in promoting her brand. 90 percent of her sales have come from her Instagram following. It made reaching out so easy because of those existing relationships. Since launching Kween Foods four months ago, Ali says business has been a steady climb resulting in $45,000 worth of sales. So, what’s next for Kween Foods? Ali says Kween is scaling quickly, and there might even be an opportunity down the road to pursue it full-time. And currently, Kween is cooking up some seasonal flavors for the upcoming holidays. Did someone say pumpkin spice? We’ll see! The avocado queen’s reign is set to continue.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Kween Foods: Head on over to Ali's website and snag yourself a jar of the world's only spreadable granola! And while you're at it, check out her personal Instagram page and the one she made for Kween Foods
- Planoly & Buffer: Platforms that allow you to manage, plan, and schedule your Instagram posts from your computer and mobile phones
- Squeaky Clean Couple Raise the Bar with Online Soap Sales: A husband and wife clean up with a homemade soap side hustle that’s no lathering matter. It’s currently earning $50,000 a month!
SEE ALSO:
- Private Chef Turns Performance Food Into $30,000/Month Hustle: A California professional uses her autoimmune disease to learn about healthy performance food, creating two businesses in the process
- Hungry, Hungry Hustlers Earn $25,000/Month Selling Paleo Bars: Frustrated by the lack of real food bars devoid of added sugar and weird ingredients they couldn’t pronounce, two hungry fitness enthusiasts create their own tasty paleo bars and hustle their way to multiple six-figures
- Full-Time Mom Ships $35,000/Month in Frozen Bread on Amazon: The busy mother of a child on a specialized diet decides to take action and ‘liberate’ parents like her with her allergen-free food side hustle
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Resources
CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE
Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.
Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today!
Learn More
GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time.
Quote of the Day
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To infinity and beyond,
