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What It's About
A Side Hustle School success story with real lather!
Business Model
Product
Skills Required
Research & Experimentation
Complexity
Medium
Profit Potential
High
Words of Wisdom
Danielle says that you should find a trend in social media and see how this can benefit you. One of the things she said benefited them significantly is the fact that they are a black-owned and operated soap company—which as they say is kind of a rarity. They were able to market their product to their community and receive tremendous support.
Fun Fact
While we’d never tell you to shower less, there’s a bar of soap made by a family-run business in Lebanon might make you think twice about washing too much. Each bar of soap is made with gold and diamond powder, which is why it’s so pricey. Soap is surprisingly expensive!
Notes from Chris
Episode 594
Couples who side hustle together, stay together. At least that’s what the evidence from North Carolina couple Danielle and Rondel Roach suggest. They met while working together at the National Institute of Health, but after a few years, they decided to make a change. And they made this change in more ways than one... Rondel had quit his job to drive for Uber and Lyft. Danielle also quit working as a manager for a cancer research company. While they both enjoyed their new routines, Danielle wanted to find a way to earn more money together so that Rondel could work fewer hours, and come home earlier. Danielle was thinking of ideas but wasn’t sure exactly where to start… or even how to start. Then, in November 2017, Rondel’s cousin sent Danielle an email. He knew that they wanted to earn extra income and had an idea of how they could start. As it turns out, that cousin and his wife had recently started a doll business, and he was preparing to create a course and share everything he had learned about how to use Instagram for marketing. He wanted to test-run the course on someone, and who better to turn to than family? Danielle and Rondel spent several hours learning about Instagram marketing. They wanted to execute what they learned, but they needed something to market first. Danielle spent her lunch breaks putting her new skills to work, researching what was trending on Instagram. She hoped that if she found something interesting, she would be able to put her own unique spin on it and turn it into a successful side hustle. After a good thumb workout… I mean, lots of scrolling through Instagram, she found something that interested her. Danielle brought the idea to her husband, who loved it even more than she did. Since they both had the fire of motivation burning, Rondel ordered supplies the next day and they got to work making their test products. The product was… natural soaps. Danielle turned to Youtube video tutorials for instructions on how to do… just about everything! As she told us, “I am a early morning person so I'd wake up at 5:30am and watch endless Soap Queen Videos on Youtube.” Meanwhile, Rondel built the website for Bombd Aesthetics on Shopify, and both of them continued to make soap every day after work, coining names for the batches that were visually appealing. They officially launched on January 1st, 2018. The same cousin that helped them navigate Instagram marketing invested $600 so they could register their business as an LLC and buy supplies like a stick blender, measuring cups, and bowls. Almost right away, they began seeing sales… a LOT of sales. It wasn’t just that they’d found a hit with their product; they’d also found a huge hit with how they marketed it using Instagram ads and features. Danielle and Rondel drive traffic to their website by finding large social media pages that align with their holistic values and ask them to feature Bombd on their Instagram page in exchange for a small promotion fee. They’ve also branched out into Facebook and Google ads, and invest about $200 into one ad. Danielle told us that they typically invest about $200 in one ad, and then see a return of about $1,000—pretty great ROI. Thanks to these efforts, Bombd Aesthetics is bringing in around $50,000 a month. That’s right! Danielle says they actually get nervous on days when sales are $500 or less. They’ve now hired an apprentice soap maker to help them handle all those orders coming in. As for what’s next, they’re on a three-step plan to lather, rinse, and repeat.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Bombd Aesthetics: Take bath time to the next level—snag some goods over on Danielle and Rondel's website!
- Shopify: Danielle and Rondel used Shopify to set up their site for Bombd Aesthetics, and they're offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!
- Soap Queen: The all things bath products resource page that Danielle turned to in order to learn how to create her products
- Florist & Sculpture Professor Make Presidential Lip Balm: Adventures in creating homemade presents for friends and family lead a Beyoncé-obsessed duo to lip balm world domination. Bonus: learn Abraham Lincoln’s favorite dessert recipes
- Holiday Body Butters Become $1,000/Month Side Hustle: An entertainment industry professional transforms her body butter holiday gifts into a quickly growing Etsy store and craft show side hustle
- Natural Deodorant That Actually Works Brings In $5,500/Month: A former venture capitalist starts a scent-sational side hustle selling her own natural, floral-based deodorant
Quote of the Day
"I remember our first customer, her name was Destinee W. I remember telling my husband about the Side Hustle School book and how we need to envision our ideal customer, give them a name, and target more customers like them. To this day we call our ideal customers Destinee W."
—Danielle Roach #SideHustleSchool
