From zero to $10,000 a month within 6 months and what happens next!
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Plenty of you know about my little homie, Ollie, who lived with me for a year along with his parents as we were working on Innclusive. Ollie became my little man during that stint – this post is a quick look at how his mom, Dara King, introduced him to entrepreneurship at an early age with this project.
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Backstory:
It all started with this post on Facebook:
Summary:
This kid legit loves bathbombs.
Bathbombs with toys in them? He goes even more crazy!
Ollie: “Aubrey asked for some bathbombs, Mommy… and Darren, too!”
Dara: “You could try to make some money with these bathbombs, Bean!”
Ollie: “Reallyyyyyyyyyyy? And I can get more dinosaurs?”
LOL. Say no more!
By now, you might be wondering if a five-year-old is actually interested in entrepreneurship.
For Ollie, this is all he’s ever known. There has never been a time in his life when his mom and dad weren’t entrepreneurs full time. After living in a home with eight other entrepreneurs working hard for a year, this cat can already explain to you why mommy uses Stripe rather than PayPal. I kid you not.
Photo of the crew at my house:
AND IT SHOULD NOT SURPRISE YOU – DARA AND I WERE ENTREPRENEURS AT AN YOUNG AGE, TOO!
By the age of seven, I was selling lettuce from the back of my bike, and Dara was out there selling holiday cards. She even had her aunt working for her as her very first employee! In my opinion, this early introduction to entrepreneurship was really impactful for both me and Dara… but back to Ollie Bean!
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Ok, so here’s what Dara did to get started:
Step 1: WEBSITE BRANDING
Dara chose to go with Shopify (probably the easiest way to get to work on a project like this). Just chose a theme and set up your website. Design is critical – even more so with a consumer product where emotion is a large part of the buying decision. Also, this website needed to feel playful and kind and fun. See the branding:
Step 2: PRODUCT LINE EXPANSION
The original venture only delivered kids bathbombs, which was a great place to start. But feedback from the moms Facebook groups showed that moms really loved them, too – and wanted them for themselves. So Dara saw the opportunity to get some mom bombs together. See how we expanded our product line:
Step 3: PACKAGING SELECTION
Enjoying a product like a bathbomb or a product like it is more experience than anything else, and that starts with packaging and unboxing. Dara contacted different box suppliers and had them send samples and got the box designs together. See the unboxing experience:
This process so far had taken Dara about two months of work, but things were starting to shape up. She crafted the vibe and feel, and based on feedback from her potential customers (hot tip: she just asked around in moms groups, and contacted moms she knew BEFORE taking next steps), she knew she was heading in the right direction.
Step 4: COST-EFFECTIVE MARKETING (And making it on Buzzfeed)
With a product where the price tag is relatively small (only $6 per bomb), there isn’t a lot of room for a large scale advertising campaign with a crazy budget. So everything had to be organic. Since Dara had already built relationships in Mommy Facebook groups, simply by asking moms for their input while conceptualizing business, these folks really came through as soon as the product was available. See some of the marketing efforts:
Step 6: PRODUCTION AND SHIPPING
With the incredible results of these efforts, Dara outgrew her apartment. She had been shipping out of her home but things picked up and she needed additional space to make it work. So she found a small coworking office, moved in ten days later and got everything set up. Check out the digs:
And now, a recap of all this work and the results:
June will be the company’s first $10,000 month. Dara now has interviews lined up, thanks to being featured in Buzzfeed.
What’s next:
1.) Creating a custom mold with the logo that will imprint on the bathbombs automatically to further extend her branding efforts.
2) Selling at outdoor markets because Ollie doesn’t fully appreciate online retailing; allowing him to see the process in real life will make it more tangible. (Plus, he’ll get to do his thing with people and have a blast!)
Outdoor markets aren’t necessarily scaleable, but for him to see product going into people’s hands as they hand him money for something he helped create will be dope.
Ollie thinks getting “monies” is the coolest thing ever so this will blow his mind!
Oh – sneak peek at the stall that’s being assembled right now:
AND FINAL TAKEAWAYS!
Starting a business is hard work. But it can be fun and really exciting to do something like this with little ones. I’ve seen up close how Dara includes Ollie in as many aspects of their operation as possible. He sees things he likes, and she makes sure to find ways to implement some of his ideas that are just plain ridiculous! (Watch the vid below to see the scent they chose – haha.)
Dara entered this adventure not knowing a thing about how to make bathbombs. But, like I always say, everything under the sun can be figured out if you’re resourceful enough and willing to hustle until you make yourself an expert in that thing.
Google, work hard, and Google some more! 
Finally, a list of vendors and operations that make this business possible:
Boxes: Uline (and a custom stamp to add the little logo and tagline)
Shipping: Pirateship (best app ever, affordable rates, Shopify integration, and help for you to manage everything)
Store: Shopify (easiest way to get started on your ecomm website)
Custom molding: Shapeways
Inserts: NextDayflyers (great if you need stuff in a hurry)
Designwork: (Dara hooked everything up)
Photos: iPhone plus a freelancer on Fiverr to touch a few things up
Storage containers and other incidentals: Amazon
Payment processor: Stripe (as noted above)
Hope you enjoyed this journey!