This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Here on Side Hustle School, we often look at solutions to problems, or sometimes problems in search of solutions. If you're trying to figure out what your first side hustle should be, or perhaps your next side hustle, one of the best things you can do is to pay attention to problems, pay attention to things that trouble you, or just things that could be done better, and then look for a potential solution. Now, a lot of problems have been around for a long time, but sometimes a problem can emerge over time. Decades ago, we never considered how we would connect to the internet. Now, that is a major issue for people as they go about their daily lives, as they commute, as they travel, and so on.
Today's story is about a working mother who sells coats to buckle in babies. This is an example of a solution to a problem that has emerged over time. Now, if you are a parent or just of a certain age, you probably know that some things have changed over time in terms of how kids can safely travel, how kids can ride in a car, for example. When I was a kid, the car seat rules or regulations guidelines were much more lax than they are now. I believe there's been a lot of research and studies that show, oh, actually, up to a certain age or a certain weight, kids need to be facing backwards, and kids can not be in the front seat, and all this kind of stuff just to make sure they are as safe as possible.
Same thing is true with peanut allergies and other allergies. I'm sure that kids had peanut allergies a long time ago, but when I was a kid, it wasn't something that most schools were aware of, or at least most schools were sensitive to. But now, as you probably know, if you're a parent, you probably have a whole list of things that you can or can't send with your kid to school, just to make sure that all the other kids are safe. So going back to this issue of kids riding in cars, which is what we're gonna talk about today, I don't think I realized until researching this episode, it's actually unsafe for young kids to be in a car seat with a puffy winter coat. And if you also didn't know that, I'll explain why in this episode, but it's a pain to dress and undress your toddler or your kid, however old that kid is, each time you enter the car.
Especially when it's cold, when they would therefore be wearing that puffy winter coat. So the working mother that I'll tell you about in this story, she finds a way to solve the problem, finds a way to design and manufacture an alternative winter coat, an alternative puffy coat, and actually goes on to sell something like 3,000 of them. I believe last month she did something like $12,000 in sales, but to be clear, this has been a long road, because manufacturing is not simple. And in producing this product, she also has a unique challenge, in addition to all the challenges in manufacturing. And so I'll talk a little bit more about that at the end of the episode, why she has to overcome this challenge of providing something that people need, they don't necessarily know that they need.
This is an important lesson if you're trying to figure out what you should make next. All right, so here's a quick thank you to our sponsor, really appreciate them, they allow the show to be free. And then I'll tell you about this working mom who sells coats to buckle in babies. [Music]
As a working mother of three, Dahlia Rizk is no stranger to frenzied and chaotic family life. It was against this background that she stumbled upon the inspiration for her side hustle.
Like many parents, when Dahlia had her first child, she found it extremely tiresome to have to remove her daughter's winter coat each time they got into the car, only to struggle to put it back on the fidgety toddler when they arrived at their destination. This annoyance only amplified exponentially when her two other kids came along. Dahlia's strict enforcement of the no winter coats in car rule was not unwarranted. She knew all too well of the risks she would otherwise be exposing her kids to. The average puffy coat adds up to four inches of extra bulk to the car seat harness.
In the unfortunate event of a car crash, air gets pushed out of the puffy coat and the child would then be too loosely strapped into their car seat. This means they could easily be propelled out of their seat in the event of a crash. And this occurs more common than you might think. In fact, car crashes are the leading cause of death among children. And yet parents don't want to expose their child to the cold either.
For these parents, there were a limited number of options. For example, the child could be wrapped up in two to four thin, tight layers of warm clothing, such as thin fleece jackets, or they could turn to coats designed specifically for car seats, such as the one kid road coat. 15 years ago, however, the internet wasn't what it is now. These options were less accessible. Dahlia was sick and tired of having to deal with the additional task each time she brought her kids out of the car, as if getting them out of the house in the first place wasn't challenging enough.
Her eureka moment came one day when she was, as usual, struggling to get her toddler's coat off. And she thought, why does the zipper have to be in the middle? This prompted her to experiment with various designs to see if she could find a solution or an alternative. She made a prototype and wanted to get it crash tested. But it wasn't an easy process.
Dahlia struggled to find a company that would take on the task. She had no manufacturing background and didn't understand the process or vocabulary. Still, she persisted. She chanced upon a local tailor in the Boston area who did prototypes and reached out to him with no expectations, but he turned out to be exactly what she was looking for. From there, she learned about the manufacturing process and was put in touch with the right people at accessible costs.
Now, her product worked like this. The coat buckles up on the side. You can dress your child in it while you put them in the car. Then when you have them in their seat, you open the coat, move the fabric aside, and just strap them into the harness without the coat underneath. The prototype was successful, but her side hustling journey had just begun.
Dahlia struggled to find support. She pitched her idea around to manufacturers, but she encountered a problem. None of them believed that children's coats needed to be modified for the car seat. They just didn't understand the daily struggle. She ended up putting the idea on hold while she was pursuing a master's degree, but she always felt like it was the one that got away.
It wasn't until two years later when Dahlia witnessed a mom in a parking lot struggle with her daughter that the idea bounced back. Now she was able to turn to social media as a tool to reach moms directly. She created a video with her nephew using one of her prototypes, and that video went viral, garnering more than 500,000 views on Facebook with thousands of likes and comments in no time at all. But it was a limited success because Dahlia had nothing concrete to offer. There was no money and no manufacturer, therefore no real product.
She wanted to ride the momentum and make the most of the second opportunity, so she jumped onto Kickstarter to raise funds and take orders while she looked for a manufacturer. This was the birth of "Buckle Me Baby" coats. Dahlia had a large space of time because manufacturing takes a while, so in between January when she posted the video and September when the first shipment of coats would finally come in, she thought about ways to keep people interested in hanging around. She began sharing her journey with followers and asked them to sign up for her email list. Along the way, she also asked them for color and style preferences, so she could tailor her product to the customer base right out of the gate.
She found that people were really interested in the story and the process, so once she finally got her coats in stock, she kept up that level of transparency because customers seemed to really like it. She was a single mom working a full-time job, and they wanted to see her succeed. Today, "Buckle Me Baby" coats pulls in up to $12,000 in sales during winter months, mainly from parents and grandparents, and she sold nearly 3,000 coats. That's great, but of course, there have been some major challenges. Until recently, Dahlia had the coats made in the USA.
That was always her vision, but it was also incredibly expensive, and she only barely managed to break even. She has since moved production overseas, which has led to her bringing in a 30% profit margin, and she's looking forward to expanding sales through Amazon. For now, Dahlia's gonna buckle in and enjoy the ride. [Music]
All right, so first of all, congratulations to Dahlia. It sounds like a helpful and much-needed product, especially if you're a parent who lives in a cold climate.
Now, let's talk about this unique challenge that I briefly mentioned at the top of the episode. So in her case, like I said, I didn't actually know this was a problem, and I'm not a parent, so perhaps I wouldn't know, but it seems that a lot of parents don't know either. And when we talked with her, she gave this example of someone who sells diapers. If you sell diapers, you've invented a new kind of diaper, you don't have to start by saying, "Hey, here's what a diaper is, and here's why you need it," because everybody already knows. But in her case, she does have to explain that.
If you're not familiar with the struggle of getting your kids into their seats with coats on or why having your children in puppy coats while driving is dangerous, then you don't understand why her product is necessary. So it can be kind of a slog. Like, it's the kind of thing where in the long term, it's not gonna be a problem, but right now, that's where she's at. If there is a greater awareness of the problem and why there needs to be a solution for it, then she's gonna be well positioned. But until that happens, that obstacle is gonna be in the way.
So this, to me, is the kind of project that you start. If you have a vision for it, if you definitely wanna provide a solution to this problem, it really bothers you. It's the kind of change that you want to create in the world. That's the reason why you go down this path. If, on the other hand, your motivation is, oh, I just wanna have a side hustle.
I want to make some extra money. I want to create security for myself and that second income so I don't have to depend on my day job, for all those reasons. If your motivation is more in line with something like that, then this would not be a good opportunity for you to choose. There's probably something else out there that might be easier that you might not have to educate people about. You might not have to persuade people that you need something if you can provide something that they already know they need.
That's usually so much easier. So, of course, it's not to say one way is better than the other because, again, helpful and needed product. But if you don't have that vision, maybe do something different. So neither pathway is right all the time. The question is, which path is best for you?
What are your goals and what are the steps you're gonna take to get closer to those goals? I enjoyed learning about this problem and also seeing Dahlia's interesting and creative solution. I hope you enjoyed this episode. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes where we will link up everything I discussed are at sidehustleschool.com/682.
That is for episode 682. I'll be back again tomorrow with another episode, much more on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
