This side Hustle Spotlight Q&A includes 29 -year -old, Atlanta, 29 -year -old behind Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia -based entrepreneurs. Freestyle snacksLearn more about his commercial journey here. Reactions have been edited for length and clarity.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Freestyle Snacks. Nikki Seemain.
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What was your day work or primary business when you started your side hustle?
I was on an externalship with my management consultation job at Bain & Co.
When did you start your side, and where did you get inspiration for it?
The idea of freestyle snacks came in 2021. I was inspired during the epidemic, as olive bars were closed in grocery stores, and I was forced to fix my olive from the traditional olive corridor. The “eyeball” in a jar was not cutting it for me just in terms of quality and convenience. So I decided to create an easy, more enjoyable way to eat olives.
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What were some of the first steps you take to remove your side from the ground? How much money/investment was made in launching?
I started by focusing on consumer data. I lived in the mintal report, and if there was a real demand, I conducted a group of surveys for pressure-testing. I will stand in the corridor of olives at the grocery store and will interview the olive-lovers about their preferences. After calling over 200 co-papers, I was able to find a partner to bring my vision to life for freestyle snacks. Including our packaging design, materials and first production runs, I spent about $ 50,000 in savings to go to the market.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Freestyle Snacks
Are there any free or paid resources that have been particularly helpful for you in starting and running this business?
It does not matter that the industry, a community and other founders are invaluable to chat to chat. When I was starting for the first time, I will pile up my Friday with meetings with other CPG founders as to what I can learn from their victory and their mistakes. For my industry, the Startup CPG community is a great place to find other similar ideologies who are eager to help and support. In running a business, a resource that has recently been incredible for us is Taketok – this is free biological access to millions of potential customers, and we are investing a lot of time on this platform.
If you can go back to your professional journey and change a process or approach, what would it be, and how do you want you to do it in a different way?
I must have taken more time to create a strong bench of part -time help. Initially, I was doing everything from shipping samples to the management of the Quickbook and the midnight to respond to the customer email. This was certainly, very scary, but also dry and unstable. Turning back, I could soon bring cheap support to free my time for the highest impact work. Some of my best works are my virtual accessories; They really save me so much time, and the business could not run without them.
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When it comes to this specific business, you should be particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who come in this type of work should be prepared, but not the possibility?
Retail distribution seems exciting, but it is incredibly operationally acute. This is a continuous challenge to plan for promotion from logistics coordination to distributor cuts. Getting your product on the shelf can be expensive, and this is just the beginning. The real fun comes in making sure that the product is actually selling the shelf.
Can you miss a specific example when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
We had some hiccups very quickly. There was a bad dream when we received our latest packaging order from our supplier, and the resalable zipper had holes in the packaging. We did not realize it until we pack thousands of products. Fortunately, we were able to accelerate a new order of packaging and tested it well, and now we are hypervigible about all the suppliers we work with.
How long did you take to see continuous monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
Since I did not go on the path of the farmers’ market, we tested the product-market fit by putting the product online and saw if it was sold. Within our first two days of launch, we sold olive snacks worth more than $ 10,000. I started watching revenue continuously after the first year, once our products landed in major retail vendors and the demand was slightly more estimated.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Freestyle Snacks
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What does development and revenue now look like?
Freestyle is now in about 5,000 retail places, including hole foods, targets, CVS, Harris tetters and huge foods, and we are starting now. We have seen a strong retail velocity and six-innovative monthly sales, with the development operated by extended retail distribution and a high repetitive purchase rate in our existing retail footprint.
How long do you spend on your business daily, weekly or monthly basis? How do you structure at that time? What does a specific day or week work look for you?
It began as a side of one side, but quickly turned into a full -time job and much more. I now work full-time on freestyle, often from my home office and sometimes out of our garage, which has become overflow storage. I do a lot of work seven days a week, lighter over the weekend. I like to use weekends to catch admin work or internal projects and operate store visits. My days vary, but typically include operations, sales outreach and strategy, a mixture of material construction and team management. I also try to find time for creative and strategic thinking so that I do not get stuck in execution mode.
What do you enjoy the most in running this business?
I like to make anything from nothing and people really enjoy it. It is never old when a freestyle discovers and shares that it has become an essential snack for them, whether diabetes, in search of low calorie snacks or just craving for a good olive. The best are all people that we have changed from dark green side, who hated olives until they tried freestyle!
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What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
To be successful, you need patience, passion and perseverance. You will have to face many rejections, navigate operational challenges and sometimes it seems that the world is falling around you. Entrepreneurship is a rollercaster. I like to be grounded by focusing on getting 1% better each day. These incremental improvements in business actually add something incredibly.
This article is part of our ongoing young Entrepreneur® series, which exposes stories, challenges and victory Owner of youth business.
