Frustrated Mom Grows Hair Brush Hustle to Seven Figures

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

In Episode 737, I told you the story of retro hair accessories scrunch up $4,000 a month. That was featuring, of course, the 1980s hair scrunchie that has returned to prominence. Well, this episode could be the logical follow-up. It's all about a hairbrush specifically for curly hair. It's all started by a frustrated mom who has promised to not cut her twin daughter's hair overly short but finds that the struggle is real when it comes to morning hairbrush rituals.

Her self-designed improvement is such a huge hit that it grows to seven figures in annual profits. That's right, seven figures in annual profits and spawns a number of imitators. It's now earning a bit less than seven figures but still highly profitable. We're talking about multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, again, from a hairbrush. Sometimes you don't just need to improve an existing product.

You need to think outside the barbershop and create something entirely new. You need to ask yourself what the best possible hairbrush could be, or whatever it is, and then go and make it. Consider this the trials and tribulations of curly hair. This is one episode you don't want to brush off. Stay tuned for the whole story.

Ricky Moore of Colorado Springs was the youngest of three very curly-haired girls. Much of her adolescence was spent actively avoiding her mother and the dreaded hairbrush that never seemed to be far from her reach. If you're part of the 65% of the human population blessed or cursed with curly hair, it's no surprise as to why. While straight and even wavy hair can handle a good brushing, no matter its current state, curly hair is a bit extra. Due to its texture, curly hair is prone to developing knots, and attempting to brush through those knots can be a traumatic experience for everyone involved.

It was that constant frustration that led Ricky's mother to do something pretty drastic. She took the three of them to a salon and had them cut it all off. Just like Newton and the Apple, it was that haircut that changed the trajectory of Ricky's life. Because, according to her at least, having short hair, being named Ricky, and wearing glasses meant that everyone thought she was a boy. With a new frustration to add to her list, she swore she would never cut her own children's hair unless they explicitly asked her to.

You know what happens next, or at least two decades later. Twenty years on, Ricky was married with twin daughters sporting hair just as long, unruly, and unmanageable as her own. And she had an opportunity to put that childhood promise to the test. While Ricky and her husband rarely argued, the gloves were off when it came down to the morning ritual of brushing out the twins' hair. At this point in time, Ricky owned every brush available on the market.

It promised it would get through all types of hair. But none of them were a match for her daughter's magnificent manes. One especially trying morning, Ricky vented to her husband about their predicament through tears of frustration. How is it possible that humanity had put a man on the moon but still had not found an easy solution for brushing curly hair? She knew she couldn't be the only mom or dad dealing with this issue, but nobody was coming up with a solution.

Something had to give, because those knots were certainly not budget. This time, instead of arguing, her husband took a more productive approach. He asked her what she thought did and didn't work with all the brushes they'd tried. This got her to thinking, what would she do if she were designing a brush of her own? To start, Ricky said she would take those annoying little balls off the tip of each bristle.

She'd also remove the handle so that she could have more leverage. And she'd make each bristle a different length to form with each texture of hair. After sitting on the idea for a while, Ricky approached a local product engineer to show him the way she brushed her daughter's hair. For example, how she held the brush by its head rather than its handle for more control. She also wanted bristles that worked more like little fingers.

After several iterations, they settled on a perfect 5x3 inch brush. Each bristle would penetrate the hair at a different depth, with the longest one capable of digging into the knot while the other links would open it up. Since it worked like magic on the knots in her girl's hair, she called it Not Genie and set up a website to sell it. Once the e-commerce side of things was ready, she found a manufacturer in China using Alibaba. That seemed to be a good fit, and she put in an order that arrived by shipping container.

So far, so good, but stay tuned. When it came to startup costs, Ricky said that she and her husband agreed to invest enough money to get it up and running. So much that if they lost it all, they wouldn't be able to put food on the table. And that was fortunate when they sold through their initial order and found themselves in a tangled situation of their own. This brings us to the good news/bad news part of the story.

Although their first order was exactly what they were looking for and sold out, the second order was a complete disaster. The most important part of the brush, the bristles, were completely useless. When Ricky went back to the manufacturer to complain, they told her to tell customers that they were better that way. Suddenly, Ricky and her husband had lost the $25,000 they had profited from the first round of sales. It was at that moment that she realized the importance of having a strong QA process in place, quality assurance, with manufacturers, and that one successful round of products doesn't guarantee similar success on the next.

After moving forward with a new manufacturer, she decided that samples, in one form or another, were going to be essential before making any large order. Now let's get to more good news. For the first couple of years of business, Ricky juggled building Not Genie with her job working for Nationwide Insurance. By the end of their second year of business, Not Genie's sales had grown to seven figures, allowing her to start working on it full-time. Seven figures, that's more than a million dollars, just to be clear.

How did this happen? Well, the timing for a product like this was somewhat idyllic. Not only were they the only product like it on the market, they also debuted during the height of the blogosphere. This is back in 2012, at least when they started, since they didn't really have much of a marketing budget set aside, they focused their efforts on outreach to blogging parents, not especially mom bloggers, but others as well, in return for offering them free product in exchange for honest reviews. Before long, the uniqueness of this product even landed them in the Wall Street Journal and other publications.

However, more challenging news now, that uniqueness only lasted so long. After experiencing several years of seven-figure profits as a result of their luck on the market, similar products began popping up from companies with deeper pockets, unlike Rickey, they could hire celebrities and some of the most popular influencers to get their brand in front of audiences. These days, their income from Not Genie has been cut in half from what they were making in earlier days. But again, they were making a lot in the earlier days, so they're still taking home profits in the mid-six-figure range. That's acceptable, right? Decent?

And they certainly aren't throwing in the hair towel. They've been working on other products now that fit with their brand and mission, including a line of Not Genies specifically tailored to groom the family pet. No matter how you curl it, it's a spectacular hair-raising success. As we wrap up the episode, I wanted to share a fun quote from Rickey. I really like this. I noticed this in the notes for our episode.

She said, "Creating the Not Genie was never supposed to become my full-time job. I was a mom who wanted to help other moms. I put the Not Genie online in the hopes that other moms would find it. Never in my wildest dreams did I think the Not Genie would turn into a full-time gig and change the course of my life." So that's fairly self-explanatory. I'll leave you with it.

All I will add is that this story and what Rickey is talking about there in that quote, that illustrates the beauty of the side hustle, the beauty of creating something that has potential and possibility, and you never know what's going to happen. Obviously, not every story is going to turn into a multiple six-figure, seven-figure success or whatever. We often talk about stories where people have false starts and failures and mistakes, missteps. That is all part of the journey. But whenever you hear a big success as well, just remember, if she hadn't actually pursued those questions, if she hadn't actually said, "What would a better hairbrush for curly hair look like?

How would I actually go about designing that and then making it and then selling it?" She obviously wouldn't have the experience that she's had now. So it's not just like this thing kind of happened. It kind of fell from the sky. She wouldn't have made it happen. So it's the combination of good fortune, of being in that idyllic season of the right place at the right time, but also positioning yourself to benefit from those circumstances and variables.

So I know this can be kind of a soapbox topic for me, but the whole point of side hustle school is ultimately empowerment. It is ultimately get people thinking so that they're like, "Wow, what can I do? What can I do myself? How can I have a story like this? How can I write my own story?" Perhaps, you know, starting with the guidance or perhaps starting with the practical tip that I hear, but then obviously doing it myself in my own way.

That's my greatest hope for all of our listeners. So I'll stop now. The show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/831, episode 831. Do come back tomorrow. Much more is on the way.

We've got some really great stories coming up, and I feel so fortunate to be able to share them with you. Thanks so much. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.