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What It's About
A woman locks down the market with her unique dreadlock tool.
Business Model
Product
Skills Required
Product Design & Resourcefulness
Complexity
Medium
Profit Potential
Medium
Words of Wisdom
When we asked K. what she would tell someone looking to start something similar, she had this to say:
"Do what you can and keep moving forward. You won't always know the right path and sometimes you may take a wrong turn, but trust that if you keep putting your intention out there, there will be opportunities, people and things that cross your path to point you in the right direction and you will reach your goal."
Fun Fact
K launched Loccessories™ in September 2012 and shortly thereafter got a unique opportunity to work on a cruise ship sailing amidst the gorgeous Hawaiian islands. She literally built her business hundreds of feet below sea level. She shipped out orders at each port...even as far away as Malta!
Notes from Chris
Episode 431
K Hill is a Product Marketing Manager for a mobile healthcare company based in greater Chicago, Illinois—and she’s also a lifelong crafter and tinkerer. As a kid, she took apart her McDonald's Happy Meal toys to see how they worked. As an adult, she’s designed and sewn custom bedding, jewelry, and invitations. Her tinkering and crafting skills came in handy when she started developing her dreadlocks. In case you live on the moon and aren’t familiar with humans, dreadlocks are a hairstyle consisting of rope-like strands of hair formed by matting or braiding. Picture Bob Marley. There were some popular methods out there when K was getting started locking her hair. One involved a tool, which can damage the integrity of the loc. The other method, called palm rolling, was a long process. You would twist and retwist the hair until it became a single coil. Then you would wait for the new growth to matte and become a dreadlock. This process could take months depending on the texture of your hair. Not washing your hair makes the matting process happen faster. This was not an option for K. She has to wash her hair at least weekly! So what does a lifelong crafter and tinkerer do? K made her own tool that locs the hair instantly. That tool, the InstaLoc, solved both her problems. She could rock her desired hairstyle immediately, and her scalp wouldn’t suffer in the process. Back then there were few products or accessories for people who wore locs. So she decided to build it herself. Her store, Loccessories™, launched in September of 2012, includes hand-crafted and custom-produced items that she makes herself, and items she sources from manufacturers. Startup costs were less than $150, and included domain registration and hosting, a website template, and initial supplies to make products. Gross sales are roughly $3,500-4,000 per month. The majority of her sales currently come from Amazon.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Loccessories™: If you're trying to get a loc on your hair, head on over to K.'s website to learn more about her nifty loc tool!
- Alibaba, AliExpress, & DHgate: A few of the manufacturers that K. reached out to for wholesale purposes
- Oncology Nurse Creates Products to Regrow Hair After Chemo; Earns $80,000: After kicking cancer to the curb, a Texas oncology nurse discovers the power of essential oils for hair regrowth and launches her own handmade hair care line
- Woman Sells Hair Grips to Orthodox Jews & Drag Queens: It begins as a product for Orthodox Jewish women. It goes on to serve cancer patients, Broadway performers, and drag queens, earning “fringe benefits” and $4,000/month
- Woman Earns $7,000 in Three Days by Selling Glass Nail Files: How an impromptu trip to a local farmer’s market leads one woman in California to a sustainable six-figure side hustle selling glass nail files online
Quote of the Day
"I know that once I release the product it will be copied, but my hope is that I will already have mindshare with my niche market that they will be able to identify the counterfeits and can discern their shortcomings."
—K. Hill #SideHustleSchool
