This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I'm so glad you're joining me today for the beginning of a brand new week. Every single day this week, I'll be bringing you a different story of somebody who starts an income generating project.
And I'm talking about an asset, by the way, not just working harder, not just a part-time job. There's a key difference there. That's why all these stories are about people creating freedom. And every one of these people is doing it without quitting their job by using a skill they already have and without spending a lot of money. Or if they do, they don't do that until they feel confident that they're gonna have a good return on investment.
I want you to be safe. I want you to be secure. Contrary to what you may hear elsewhere, entrepreneurship is not always about taking big risks. It's often about being wise so that you can have more options for yourself in the future. That's what I'm all about here on the show.
And today we're gonna talk about a techie who sells granola to hungry Google employees. Hmm, I like granola myself, but a lot of foods that promote themselves as being healthy really aren't. Yogurt can be filled with sugar. Whole grain bread is often packed with preservatives. And much of the granola, it's sad to say, much of the granola on the grocery store shelves belongs right next to the empty calories of many kids' cereals.
But it doesn't have to be that way. In today's story, a tech employee gets a vision to create clean granola that is full of nutrients, non-GMO, and tastes delicious, which is also an important prerequisite. Now she starts out by selling this granola at a local farmer's market, complete DIY effort, but it's not long until a long line of hungry employees at Google comes calling. What does she do next? How does she scale her business?
And how does it eventually become a full-time operation? Well, I'm gonna say a thank you to our sponsor. They allow the show to be completely free to you. And then I'll tell you the whole story. [Music]
For Erica Lou Williams and her husband, Tank, the Super Bowl is a big deal.
It can also be a time for indulging. So to undo all the junk food eating, they also do a 30-day cleanse each year after the big game. It turns out that erasing refined sugars, alcohol, and processed foods forced them to come up with some pretty unique and fascinating recipes. A few years ago, one of these creations turned out exceptionally well. They couldn't stop eating it, even after the cleanse was over.
It became a year-round staple in their home. This creation was a simple granola, friendly to multiple cleanses and diets, non-GMO, nutrient-packed granola. It wasn't long before this granola was a hit at parties they hosted. Everyone loved it, and when Erica realized there was really no clean granola competition, the idea became clear. She would learn to make it in bulk and sell it.
She made this decision in March with the farmer's market season coming up in full swing by June. Finalizing her recipe, figuring out packaging, and getting accepted into a local market in just three months would be a challenge, but it would also motivate her to get started right away. So she did. The first action she took was filing for an LLC. She did it using LegalZoom, and it cost a couple hundred dollars.
She was now invested in her new brand, which she called Great Nola, and it was time to work. Erica started making granola, buckets and buckets of it. She had her regular recipe, but she wanted to launch with two others to provide variety and hopefully encourage customers to buy three boxes instead of just one. But thanks to an upcoming bikini competition that she was also determined to win, she wouldn't let herself actually eat a lot of it. That's when Tank got his job in the hustle as chief taste tester.
Because of recently updated cottage food laws in California, Erica was able to cook her product right out of her house. She couldn't sell online or wholesale, but she could sell at farmer's markets. And speaking of which, she needed to find one. The big high traffic markets turned out to have a massive waiting list. So instead she turned to a smaller one nearby.
She didn't have to have the best spot at the best market. She just needed to get her product out there in the hands of real customers. Between the LLC, insurance, setup equipment, packaging, and 20 pounds of granola, she was down at just $2,000. Now it was time to make that back. And she did, in just one month.
Four trips to the farmer's market later, she had broken even. Customers were eating up the granola and coming back for more each week. And then came Erica's big break. A friend of hers worked at Google and offered to introduce her to their food team. The food team asked for a sample, and then she got something in the mail that would change the direction of great Nola forever and invitation to present it at Google's annual Micro Kitchen Fair.
It seemed too good to be true. She'd have the opportunity to offer samples to thousands of Google employees and maybe even make a contract with the kitchens at Google. And all thanks to someone in her network who saw her page on Facebook. The week before the event, Erica and her mom baked all day long to produce 160 pounds of great Nola, packaging it into 2,000 small bags. It was stressful, but not nearly as stressful as the event itself.
Because despite having her best friend and tank there to help, they weren't able to keep up with the samples as Google employees kept walking up to her booth to try it. It was a long day, but it ended up being worth it. And very much so, because afterwards, Erica received notice that Google was going to make a large purchase of great Nola for its kitchens. She was going to be an official Google supplier. That large purchase was for 1,400 pounds of nutty whole grain goodness.
It was incredible, and it was also quite the challenge. Erica started hunting for a co-packer to help fill the order and other future orders. This would be a company that can take her recipe and make it in bulk. Once again, it was through someone in her network that she found a partner who was willing to take a chance on her. Recreating her home recipe for bulk packaging was also a challenge.
She had to work with the co-packer's R&D department to get it all just right. They had to find some alternatives to ingredients she was purchasing at Costco. They had to make tweaks to keep the flavor and texture the same. And they had to adjust the recipe for giant commercial ovens. It was a long grueling process, and it took another $20,000 to get it right.
But when she filled that Google order, she was proud. From there, she picked up several other corporate clients, including Slack, Dropbox, Uber, and Twitter. B2B sales have become her bread and butter, or her oats and butter, we could say, and all through network connections. So how does she find these companies? Well, since she worked in the marketing department at Intuit, Erica knew a bunch of people in the tech world.
All she had to do was ask friends for introductions to whoever made food decisions at their companies. From there, she would basically pitch the brand and send samples. She rarely had to do any of this in person. Email usually worked just fine because the magic wasn't the in-person visit, it was the warm introduction. Three years after starting on the side, Erica became a full-time business owner.
It was a meaningful transition. Her business alone could now support her, but the move didn't come without a few hiccups of its own. Excited to go all in, she immediately scheduled a new flavor launch, Matcha Green Tea, for two months away. The co-packer said the new packaging would be ready, so she scheduled a photographer and PR blitz accordingly. Of course, the new packaging did not arrive on time, and rescheduling everything was an expensive nightmare.
Next time, she says, she'll schedule a buffer. Erica equates these lessons learned to free business school because even if the mistake costs money, she continues to get paid through regular sales. Next up, she's launching another new flavor and considering how to grow into new product lines next year. That post-Super Bowl 30-day cleanse is now a lot easier. Thanks to Erica's Good For You and Good Tasting, great melter.
[Music]
Well, a food business is not a small project, which is why I'm impressed that we've been hearing from so many people starting one and succeeding at it, and especially when they do it on a low budget. I really like Erica's attitude about the mistakes and challenges that she encounters, about how they are essentially free business lessons. And even if they are business lessons that cost money, it's still gonna be a lot less money than going to business school, for example. So I think you in this time, in this place in life, you're in the right place for a business school that is free. I don't just mean listening to this podcast, I mean in all the different opportunities that are available to you to experiment, to try different stuff, to see what happens.
And as much as I try to highlight stories that have almost no startup costs or just a few hundred dollars of startup costs, the reality is that even if your idea does require a larger investment, and let's say even that your idea then completely fails, which by the way, it might not, if you consider the outcome that you'll actually succeed, but even so, you're still out less money than you would be if you went to a typical MBA program. And in this case, to get the business started, Erica spent about $2,000, she spent $20,000 later, but that was only after she had that major order from Google. So again, as I said in the beginning, it's about being able to proceed with confidence, making small investments, and then perhaps making more if that's what is required, but only when you feel confident that there will be a good return on your investment. I got a submission the other day from someone who was really excited about being on the program, and they had a pretty good story, except their startup costs were $300,000. And they even described it that way.
They're like, we only spent $300,000 on our business. And I thought, you know what, that's great. Like, I'm glad it actually worked out. But I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of our listeners don't have $300,000 that they can just kind of put out there and see what happens. So needless to say, that's not a story we're gonna feature because there are so many alternatives.
There are so many different approaches. Even if eventually you want to go full time, which is what Erica did. Remember, like everything you hear on the show, she started this project while she was working a busy full-time job. So if she can do it, maybe there's something out there for you too. That is my hope, and it's not just my hope, it's also my belief.
I don't think Great Nola is in a lot of retail stores just yet, but you can order it online in your choice of flavors, starting at just $2 for a little sample snack pack. We're gonna link that up in the show notes, which you can find at sidehustleschool.com/639. 639 episode 639, as always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you will continue to.
Every day this week, got more stuff on the way, and I could not be more excited about all the different possibilities to share with you. All right, wherever you are in the world, have a wonderful day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is the Side Hustle School.
