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[00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.320] And now, onto the show.
[00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:11.040] This 15-year-old is running a $100,000 business on the side from school, on the side from sports, on the side from just regular teenage stuff.
[00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:24.400] Stick around in this one to hear his process for coming up with the idea, how he made his first sales, and the growth in marketing tactics have helped him scale to hundreds of orders a day from cooltow.co.uk.
[00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:27.440] Harrison Knott, welcome to the Side Hustle Show.
[00:01:27.440 --> 00:01:29.280] Well, Nick, first of all, thank you for having me on.
[00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:33.200] And I'm really excited to share my top tips for everyone.
[00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.520] Yeah, I'm excited for this one as well.
[00:01:35.520 --> 00:01:40.560] I believe you're the youngest guest in the 12-year history of the show.
[00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:42.880] We probably started when you were a toddler.
[00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:43.920] I was three years old.
[00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:44.560] Yeah, I was three years old.
[00:01:44.800 --> 00:01:47.360] Yeah, that's exciting in its own.
[00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:55.040] So Cool Towel is a, you know, a cooling neck towel inspired by, oh, I'm getting hot and sweaty playing squash as a kid.
[00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:55.360] Yep.
[00:01:55.360 --> 00:01:58.320] So you just wrapped up your third summer of this business.
[00:01:58.320 --> 00:01:59.400] Started when you're 13.
[00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:00.600] It's kind of nuts, too.
[00:02:00.600 --> 00:02:04.200] But can you give us a sense of how this summer went for you?
[00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:04.440] Yep.
[00:02:04.520 --> 00:02:11.000] So this summer I'm projected to hit £100,000 in revenue, which is about in dollars, about $130,000.
[00:02:11.320 --> 00:02:12.680] Obviously, that is revenue.
[00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:14.200] Disclaimer, that's not profit.
[00:02:14.200 --> 00:02:16.840] To be transparent, there's lots of hidden costs involved.
[00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:24.280] Everyone sees that big figure and thinks I'm making loads of money, but actually, I find more value in the skills that I've learned and the knowledge that I've learnt along the way.
[00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:24.680] Yeah.
[00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:28.040] You got to be eking out some profit on that kind of sales volume though, yeah?
[00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:31.400] I'm probably sitting at around 20 profit, which is which is good.
[00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:32.440] But it's all reinvested.
[00:02:32.440 --> 00:02:33.800] It's all back into the business.
[00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:37.240] Yeah, that's fantastic, you know, to have that kind of experience under your belt.
[00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:37.720] Totally.
[00:02:37.720 --> 00:02:37.960] All right.
[00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:39.720] So where does this idea come from?
[00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:46.600] It seems like almost a kind of a commodity product where people would go on Amazon and say, okay, I heard of this thing.
[00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:49.000] I'm not very brand loyal when it comes to this thing.
[00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:50.440] I don't know of any brands that are making this.
[00:02:50.440 --> 00:02:53.160] So it's just like, whatever comes up and has decent reviews.
[00:02:53.160 --> 00:02:56.600] So what inspires you to say, you know what, I'm going to take a swing at this?
[00:02:56.600 --> 00:02:59.160] Yeah, so I love playing sport and going to the gym.
[00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:00.600] That's sort of my passion.
[00:03:00.600 --> 00:03:07.080] And three years ago, I decided that I'm sick and tired of being hot and sweaty and uncomfortable.
[00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:13.640] And essentially, I went onto Google and I searched up, you know, like cooling towel, you know, like ways to cool down.
[00:03:13.640 --> 00:03:15.880] And turns out aircon's expensive.
[00:03:16.200 --> 00:03:17.400] Fans don't really work that well.
[00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:19.320] They just push the hot air around.
[00:03:19.320 --> 00:03:22.440] And the cooling towel wasn't really a thing three years ago.
[00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:25.960] It was around, but it wasn't, there was no big brand selling it.
[00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:28.360] So I thought, you know, there is a gap in the market for this.
[00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:28.760] Okay.
[00:03:28.760 --> 00:03:33.400] I got my grandma to come around and she bought her sewing machine with her.
[00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:35.480] And we got a microfiber towel.
[00:03:35.480 --> 00:03:39.400] And with this microfiber towel, we sewed it together around an ice pack.
[00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:42.200] We made the first ever cool towel prototype on day one.
[00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:42.520] Okay.
[00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:43.640] And that was sort of the beginning.
[00:03:43.640 --> 00:03:48.880] That was when I thought, okay, well, this prototype didn't work, but actually, I know that there is a future for this.
[00:03:48.880 --> 00:03:57.520] So I went on alibaba.com and I found a manufacturer willing to produce and supply the cool towels and bought 50 units and just scaled it from there.
[00:03:57.520 --> 00:03:59.840] That's the story of how it originated.
[00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:09.200] Okay, so if they were willing to do a relatively small initial order run, because sometimes when you go to Alibaba, it's like, yeah, we want 500 units, 1,000 units.
[00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:15.360] And you're like, well, now that's a lot of upfront inventory costs for an idea that maybe not quite proven out yet.
[00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:16.560] Maybe other people are selling them.
[00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:18.560] So there's some level of validation.
[00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:21.200] But it's like, well, I don't know if they're going to buy it from me.
[00:04:21.200 --> 00:04:22.080] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:04:22.080 --> 00:04:22.480] Yeah.
[00:04:22.640 --> 00:04:25.840] I did have to sort of negotiate my way down with that.
[00:04:25.840 --> 00:04:34.480] And I think because I've used the platform before and I had experience with negotiating with suppliers and also like, I think they knew that I was trustworthy and I wasn't just going to buy 50.
[00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.120] You know, I think they knew long term that I was going to buy more.
[00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:38.400] And obviously I have.
[00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:38.640] Okay.
[00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:40.480] So step one sounds like personal pain point.
[00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:40.880] I'm hot.
[00:04:40.880 --> 00:04:41.760] It's uncomfortable.
[00:04:41.760 --> 00:04:44.080] Like, what solutions are out there?
[00:04:44.080 --> 00:04:47.440] Okay, here's something that I believe that could solve the problem.
[00:04:47.440 --> 00:04:52.240] Step two, go find manufacturers of people who are making something similar-ish.
[00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.560] Did you have any modifications for this initial order?
[00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:59.840] Or was it just like, yeah, just throw my own brand on here, the cool towel brand, and we'll see if we can sell those?
[00:04:59.840 --> 00:05:02.640] Or what else went into that initial production run?
[00:05:02.640 --> 00:05:06.080] The biggest part for me with the first initial batch was the branding.
[00:05:06.080 --> 00:05:19.520] I think that is, you know, one of the most important things about the product because at the end of the day, there are similar products out there, but for the cool towel to sell, it needs to show what it does and how to use it and all the information on it on the bottle.
[00:05:19.520 --> 00:05:28.320] And I think that's something that I put a lot of time into at the start, you know, like developing the brand and making sure it was perfect because then it sort of gave me that clear pathway to sort of scaling up.
[00:05:28.320 --> 00:05:36.680] Because I think if you have bad packaging, if you have bad branding and people won't value your product and you'll get, you know, you'll get returns, you'll get bad reviews.
[00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:38.440] I think it's just, it makes it more premium.
[00:05:38.440 --> 00:05:40.360] It means I can sell it for more money and make more money.
[00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:41.800] Were you hiring out that design?
[00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:42.680] You're 13 years old.
[00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:43.640] Were you doing it yourself?
[00:05:43.640 --> 00:05:45.880] This cool little like polar bear with a guy?
[00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:47.000] I did do it myself.
[00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:47.480] Nice.
[00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:47.720] Yeah.
[00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:49.320] Well, this isn't the original packaging.
[00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:52.200] This is updated, but the original one I did myself.
[00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:56.200] I think the main thing for me with Cool Tal is it wasn't the first business I started.
[00:05:56.200 --> 00:05:58.040] My first business was at eight years old.
[00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:01.240] I was reselling on eBay and other platforms.
[00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:04.360] And essentially, at eight years old, I'm not joking either.
[00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:05.080] I've got proof.
[00:06:05.080 --> 00:06:05.480] Sure.
[00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:07.480] At eight years old, I love it.
[00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:09.000] I got a nine-year-old.
[00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:11.080] I got to make him listen to this episode.
[00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:14.440] I think I've always just liked the idea of like, it was never money for me, really.
[00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:19.960] The reason why I started, it was because I liked the idea of being successful and almost like becoming my best self.
[00:06:19.960 --> 00:06:22.200] But I also enjoyed the process, solving the problems.
[00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:23.480] I enjoyed starting a new business.
[00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:27.880] I enjoyed learning about how to grow as a person and as an entrepreneur.
[00:06:27.880 --> 00:06:29.000] I think that's the main thing for me.
[00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:32.920] And I think a lot of people, when they start businesses, is they give up after the first hurdle.
[00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:35.160] You know, like they get one problem and they just give up.
[00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:37.720] The key to my success was resilient.
[00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:45.960] I kept going through all the because I started 13 businesses and I think out of the 13, 10 of them were failures really, and four of them are successful.
[00:06:45.960 --> 00:06:52.680] But the nine that were failed took so, you know, so much of my time, so much of my effort, so much of my money, you know, and it all failed.
[00:06:52.840 --> 00:06:57.320] I think most people, after losing all that and spending all that time, would just give up.
[00:06:57.320 --> 00:07:03.560] But from that, I've gained so much knowledge and so many skills I can apply into the next business and and keep growing.
[00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:04.520] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:07:04.520 --> 00:07:10.040] So you're 13 years old, you're lobbying emails off to China to find a manufacturer through Alibaba.
[00:07:10.200 --> 00:07:12.360] You get these fifty units landed.
[00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.000] Do you remember the production costs for those first fifty?
[00:07:15.280 --> 00:07:17.760] It was about three pounds per unit.
[00:07:17.760 --> 00:07:19.520] So it was 50 units, yeah.
[00:07:19.520 --> 00:07:20.640] Okay, that's helpful to know.
[00:07:20.640 --> 00:07:21.040] Got it.
[00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:25.200] Okay, so you get these landed out of your spare bedroom or the garage or something.
[00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:25.440] Yep.
[00:07:25.440 --> 00:07:26.480] Well, now I got to sell them.
[00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.600] So what happens next to try and move these units?
[00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:39.920] So again, from previous businesses that I've done, I've learned skills like web development, you know, creating video campaigns and, you know, learning about social media itself.
[00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:41.520] And I think I applied all those skills.
[00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:44.000] I spent months developing the brand.
[00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:53.600] But essentially, I created a website on Shopify and I then developed video ads and I posted them organically and also utilized UGC content eventually.
[00:07:53.600 --> 00:08:00.640] Because I didn't have the capital to spend on paid ads, the organic definitely paid off because it was profitable, much more profitable than it is now.
[00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:03.440] The only difference is obviously paid ads is predictable.
[00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:06.480] You know that you're going to make money, whereas organic is hit or miss.
[00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:09.360] You know, you can't guarantee anything with organic, if that makes sense.
[00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:10.000] Gotcha.
[00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.280] Was the organic content under your own handle?
[00:08:13.280 --> 00:08:16.080] Was it under a cool tow, like new handle?
[00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:17.520] It was under a cool tow handle.
[00:08:17.520 --> 00:08:22.480] I think the original videos are actually deleted now just because they weren't the best, but they did well.
[00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:24.160] They got, you know, a good million views.
[00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:24.960] Oh, my gosh.
[00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:30.000] But content that I've got on there now is, you know, they've all got a really good amount of views.
[00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.280] I think they're averaging like 500,000 with paid.
[00:08:33.280 --> 00:08:36.320] But they're also, all the ones I've got on now are UGC ads.
[00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.200] I only really do UGC right now for that TikTok account.
[00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:44.240] And I think that's been really helpful for me to grow because the people that are making content are experts.
[00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:49.680] They know how to sell products, and they and they have all the equipment and all the skills necessary.
[00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:50.720] Got it, got it.
[00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:55.440] Yeah, well, I'd love to get into the UGC or the user-generated content in a little bit.
[00:08:55.440 --> 00:09:00.440] But it sounds like you throw up the Shopify store and you start to create these own video ads about the product.
[00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:05.960] Do you remember which one or two, like the format or structure that popped off and got to a million views?
[00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:08.680] And I imagine helped move those initial units?
[00:09:08.680 --> 00:09:14.280] Yeah, I think it was videos that I did that had trending sounds.
[00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:20.120] It was almost like a drop shipping type of, if you've seen all them drop shipping videos on TikTok, where it's like just the product.
[00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:21.720] So I had like just the product.
[00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:22.760] It was a good hook.
[00:09:22.760 --> 00:09:24.520] It was a controversial hook, I think.
[00:09:24.520 --> 00:09:26.760] Some of them were targeting their pain points.
[00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:28.360] Obviously, for me, it was overheating.
[00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:35.160] And it was like, and some of them were about menopause, some of them were about, you know, at the gym, some of them were about all sorts of stuff.
[00:09:35.160 --> 00:09:39.480] You know, I had lots of different pathways I was trying to go down to see what performed the best.
[00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:39.800] Okay.
[00:09:39.800 --> 00:09:41.480] And at the end of the day, it was trial and error.
[00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:46.040] Like, there was no set-in-stone video scripts that worked.
[00:09:46.040 --> 00:09:46.440] Okay.
[00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:46.840] Yeah.
[00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:52.120] Do you have a sense of the volume of these little videos that you made?
[00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:54.520] You know, five, ten, twenty.
[00:09:54.520 --> 00:09:59.640] Like, what's reasonable to say, okay, this is either going to work or this is not working?
[00:09:59.640 --> 00:10:05.480] I think I posted about 50 videos before my first one properly blew up.
[00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:09.480] I mean, I think the first, like the 15th video did well.
[00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:12.360] It got like, you know, 30,000, 50,000 views.
[00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:17.000] But then I think the 30, 40th type zone was where it did really well.
[00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:17.400] Okay.
[00:10:17.400 --> 00:10:25.160] The reason I ask is it's helpful to know where it's like, well, I posted five things and I've kind of exhausted my creativity and it didn't make any sales.
[00:10:25.160 --> 00:10:27.160] So I was like, well, I guess this is not going to work.
[00:10:27.160 --> 00:10:27.320] Yeah.
[00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:27.480] Yeah.
[00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:31.720] It's like, no, no, take 30, 40, 50 swings and keep iterating on the.
[00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:34.680] And it's interesting you say, oh, I need to find a controversial hook.
[00:10:34.680 --> 00:10:38.040] And I'm like, well, what's controversial about a little cooling neck towel?
[00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:42.440] It's like, you gotta make it make it applicable, and then like try and find some angle.
[00:10:42.440 --> 00:11:01.520] One thing I did do in 2023, especially, is I looked at similar, not cooling towels, but similar so it was drop shipping ads I was looking at and seeing the viral, the outliers, the ones that are done really well, and then taking them and sort of putting that idea and not copying it, but putting my own spin on it.
[00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:10.320] Yeah, I think that's what I did because I obviously you say about you know your my creative mind and I couldn't develop you know two videos a day doing it all by myself.
[00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:15.520] I had to go to other people who have done well already, and it's the you know the proof of concepts already there.
[00:11:15.520 --> 00:11:24.960] Okay, is it all uh Shopify at this point on the cooltow.co.uk site, or is it set up a TikTok shop in parallel?
[00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:30.080] So at the start, it was Shopify, but then after about a month, I went to TikTok shop.
[00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:38.640] So throughout the end of 2023 and the whole of 2024, I was only on TikTok shop because it was doing incredibly well.
[00:11:38.880 --> 00:11:43.200] I think the conversion rate was like numbers that I have never seen on Shopify before.
[00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:47.200] It was just, I think because the platform was new, it was pushing my videos out further.
[00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:47.680] Okay.
[00:11:47.680 --> 00:11:52.400] And also, it's got a bigger platform for businesses, I think.
[00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:57.680] Like, it's got a built-in affiliate system that really helped me grow.
[00:11:57.680 --> 00:12:02.240] And it also, I think the fact that users don't have to go off the app is also really good.
[00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.240] So they don't have to go to a separate website.
[00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:05.760] They're always on TikTok.
[00:12:05.760 --> 00:12:06.560] I think that's good.
[00:12:06.560 --> 00:12:13.200] Yeah, maybe there's something in the algorithm where TikTok wants to keep people on the app, or maybe they make a cut of every sale.
[00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:14.080] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:15.760] Yeah, I think TikTok shop is great.
[00:12:15.760 --> 00:12:17.680] It's definitely got its big benefits.
[00:12:17.680 --> 00:12:22.480] But the only thing I would say is it's also got its not-so-good aspects.
[00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:23.680] I've had a lot of issues with it.
[00:12:23.680 --> 00:12:26.560] It can go into detail if you want me to about the not-so-good bit.
[00:12:26.560 --> 00:12:29.040] But like fraudulent orders, or like what kind of issues?
[00:12:29.040 --> 00:12:31.160] Yes, well, the first 50 orders I ever got.
[00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:31.960] So, this is the story.
[00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:41.640] So, when I first got that viral video that did really well organically, I remember waking up, running into my parents' bedroom and like going, Oh my goodness, I've just sold 50 orders.
[00:12:41.640 --> 00:12:47.320] Yeah, you know, I've just got 50 all of it, it was the whole stock, you know, everything that I bought on the first batch, right?
[00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:58.040] And it was literally like it was my first time properly that I've done side hustles in the past, and I've done like you know, small businesses, but that was the first time that I thought I can really scale this, I can really take this to the next level.
[00:12:58.040 --> 00:13:01.800] And obviously, it took a lot of time to do that, but in the moment, it was amazing.
[00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:09.000] Sure, long story short, I sent out the orders for the first time via like it was called second-class shipping, we call it in the UK, okay.
[00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:14.440] But essentially, they didn't have a tracking number, all of them didn't have a tracking number, and I thought that that would be okay.
[00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:22.040] But TikTok shop did not like that, and even though I had proof from every single buyer that the order has been delivered, they didn't pay me a penny.
[00:13:22.040 --> 00:13:25.080] So, all of that time, you know, all that money spent on the product.
[00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:28.600] I had to pay a TikTok shop fee, even though I didn't get any money back.
[00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:30.840] So, it was a big loss on the first one.
[00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:32.360] Oh, my gosh, okay.
[00:13:32.360 --> 00:13:36.600] They were like, We require you to send it some method that can be tracked.
[00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:37.560] Correct, yes.
[00:13:37.560 --> 00:13:39.960] I mean, it was in the small print, but it was just a mistake.
[00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:41.320] Oh, yeah, brutal.
[00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:42.680] Oh, my gosh, I'm sorry, dude.
[00:13:42.760 --> 00:13:46.600] Yeah, I mean, I had lots of things like that, and uh, and that was all my capital gone.
[00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:48.600] You know, that was a big moment.
[00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:50.440] Again, a lot of people would have given up then.
[00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:53.800] Yeah, I was gonna plow that into more inventory, yeah.
[00:13:53.800 --> 00:13:55.240] Oh, my gosh.
[00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:56.600] So, what happens after that?
[00:13:56.600 --> 00:14:00.600] I think the main thing that's there in that moment was I learned that the proof of concept was there.
[00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:03.480] I know that, you know, there is a demand for this, it can work.
[00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:16.880] Yeah, well, you got kind of a narrow selling season, and now if you got to go back to your manufacturer, and it's going to be another four to six weeks to get the inventory to you, it's like, ah, I gotta, I need it now, you know, I gotta get it here now.
[00:14:17.760 --> 00:14:32.160] And that is definitely one of the big issues I had: one, cash flow because it takes, especially when you start off on TikTok shop, it takes, I think it was two months for from the order place to you getting the you know the money in to your account.
[00:14:32.160 --> 00:14:33.600] Oh, sure, sure, okay.
[00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:37.600] So, and then I also had to then take that money and then spend it on product.
[00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:41.600] So, basically, I had no money for half the summer, and that was my big issue.
[00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:43.360] I had no cash basically.
[00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:51.280] And this is across any type of physical product, e-commerce, where even if you find something that hits, okay, it was a big initial order quantity.
[00:14:51.280 --> 00:14:52.480] Okay, I got it landed.
[00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:55.520] Now, I'm either almost practically giving the units away.
[00:14:55.520 --> 00:15:06.480] This is the traditional Amazon model to get reviews and build sales momentum to try and climb in the ranks and hopefully make some organic sales, or I'm running paid ads to try and boost up the conversions and everything else.
[00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:12.400] And it's like, and then whatever you made, if there was any margin left, now you got to plow it back into more inventory.
[00:15:12.400 --> 00:15:17.680] Sometimes for years, like the cycle goes on, so I can relate to that.
[00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:20.000] Yeah, that is exactly what happened, really.
[00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:26.240] So, for the whole of 2023 and I would say half of 2024, it was just recycling.
[00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:29.840] It's just literally like trying to build up their capital, but then waiting again.
[00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:35.680] And then I then got into paid ads in mid-2024, and that's when, yes, I started to scale up a lot more.
[00:15:35.920 --> 00:15:40.560] I had months where I was selling 500, 600 cool towels.
[00:15:40.560 --> 00:15:42.480] You know, that was big for that time.
[00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:42.880] Yeah.
[00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:51.600] But then, obviously, my margins were significantly cut down because I was selling the product for eight pounds and I was spending five pounds on ads alone.
[00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.960] I was choosing quantity over actually making money.
[00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:56.480] It was stupid, really.
[00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:59.760] Now, I think now I look back on it, it was stupid because I just wanted to see what I'm orders.
[00:15:59.760 --> 00:16:02.360] I wanted to see the success.
[00:15:59.920 --> 00:16:05.000] That was just a schoolboy error of me, I think.
[00:16:05.320 --> 00:16:07.320] Yeah, how much volume can we push?
[00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:09.080] Sure, but meanwhile, you gotta.
[00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:09.640] Correct.
[00:16:09.640 --> 00:16:11.560] Yeah, it was like, how far can I take it?
[00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:13.560] Okay, that's interesting.
[00:16:13.560 --> 00:16:18.040] Have you been able to get the cost of acquisition down this summer?
[00:16:18.040 --> 00:16:19.640] Yeah, this definitely 2025.
[00:16:19.640 --> 00:16:20.040] Yes.
[00:16:21.160 --> 00:16:23.800] TikTok have released this new thing called GMV Max.
[00:16:23.800 --> 00:16:29.480] It's essentially what it does is it runs ad campaigns for you via AI.
[00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:32.680] And essentially, it just means you don't have to know anything about ads to run them.
[00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:35.240] But what you do need now is a lot more creatives.
[00:16:35.400 --> 00:16:42.440] You need a lot more people and you need to make a lot more content to do well on it and to get your CPO down.
[00:16:42.440 --> 00:16:42.920] Okay.
[00:16:43.560 --> 00:16:44.360] Got it.
[00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:56.440] More with Harrison in just a moment, including how he thinks about the per-sale profitability of each cool towel and his large-scale user-generated content campaign coming up right after this.
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[00:17:52.880 --> 00:18:00.000] Shopify.com/slash sidehustle years ago, this is probably 2009.
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[00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:17.040] I saw myself as this full-time entrepreneur, but it was this moment of clarity that no, I was still very much working in the business day to day.
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[00:19:14.320 --> 00:19:27.680] Okay, is now a good time to talk about how you think about the unit economics of this, where it's like, okay, well, the initial production run was three pounds per towel, but now we're ordering way more at a time.
[00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:31.080] So, that production cost goes down, and we can sell them for $8.
[00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:33.720] We could sell multiples, you know, and give customers a discount.
[00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:38.760] Talk to me about how you think about the margins on like a per sale basis.
[00:19:38.760 --> 00:19:43.480] When I first started, I was buying them in about £3 and I was selling them for about £8.
[00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:45.240] Obviously, there are lots of hidden costs with that.
[00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:47.080] So TikTok take a 10% fee.
[00:19:47.080 --> 00:19:50.680] In the UK, now I have to pay 20% income tax.
[00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:55.080] Then I have to spend a set amount on the ad spend if it's not organic.
[00:19:55.480 --> 00:20:00.840] I then may have to spend 20% on affiliates because they get a commission for every sale they get.
[00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:03.320] I've got subscriptions to software that I use.
[00:20:03.320 --> 00:20:08.040] I've got lots of stuff, you know, that I think that's what people need to know about starting the business.
[00:20:08.840 --> 00:20:13.640] The numbers look amazing, but when you really deep dive into it, I'm making money, but don't get me wrong, I'm making money.
[00:20:13.640 --> 00:20:14.680] I'm grateful to be where I am.
[00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:16.600] Yeah, but it's thin.
[00:20:17.160 --> 00:20:19.320] There's not a lot of wiggle room there.
[00:20:19.320 --> 00:20:19.880] Correct.
[00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:21.800] Yeah, I think I have improved that over time.
[00:20:21.800 --> 00:20:23.800] So as I develop my brand, I've started.
[00:20:24.040 --> 00:20:26.680] I now charge £10 per unit instead of £8.
[00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:26.920] Okay.
[00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:28.600] So I've increased the price a bit.
[00:20:28.600 --> 00:20:31.560] I now get charged 20% VAT, so that's almost taken off.
[00:20:31.560 --> 00:20:31.960] Sure.
[00:20:32.040 --> 00:20:33.800] I've obviously lowered my CPO down.
[00:20:33.800 --> 00:20:35.480] I've lowered my ad costs down.
[00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:37.240] So, yeah, and also my product costs.
[00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:39.400] So it goes both ways.
[00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:39.800] Okay.
[00:20:39.800 --> 00:20:51.640] So the advantage of the ad spend is, well, I can drive steady sales at a somewhat predictable cost per acquisition versus just trying to hit the next viral spike on the organic side.
[00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:54.120] Am I hearing, am I kind of understanding that correctly?
[00:20:54.120 --> 00:20:55.480] Yeah, pretty much.
[00:20:55.480 --> 00:20:55.880] Okay.
[00:20:55.880 --> 00:21:01.640] How did you go about recruiting affiliates or user-generated content creators for this?
[00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:03.560] Or those are kind of one in the same?
[00:21:03.560 --> 00:21:08.440] So, TikTok Shop has a built-in platform for affiliates and for creators.
[00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:20.400] So, in 2024, what I did was I, well, first of all, I was manually going through the list of I don't know what it was, like 10,000 creators, and I was manually pasting in each message, sending off each message.
[00:21:20.560 --> 00:21:31.360] I was spending hours on this, and I was getting like you know, people were replying to me, and I was sending out free samples, but it was slow, it was very slow, and there was definitely a lack of creators on the platform at that time.
[00:21:31.360 --> 00:21:41.680] But now, in 2025, I use a subscription-based software to basically automatically send out messages for me to creators that are doing well, which is obviously much better.
[00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:43.600] All right, what tool is that?
[00:21:43.600 --> 00:21:46.400] It's called Reacher, Reacher AI.
[00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:47.600] Oh, okay, got it.
[00:21:47.600 --> 00:21:48.560] It is a good software.
[00:21:48.560 --> 00:21:52.160] Well, I think it's only good if you have an established brand, really, because I don't think I could have done it from the start.
[00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:57.680] Just because to get them affiliates to accept, you need to have proof of concept with your product, you need to have sales, you know?
[00:21:57.680 --> 00:21:58.720] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:07.920] Is there an opening pitch with, hey, I'll send you a free towel, or do you have to lead with I'll give you 500 pounds, or do you have to lead?
[00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:10.080] Well, you can earn 20% commissions on all this.
[00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:12.320] What's the initial conversation look like?
[00:22:12.320 --> 00:22:19.280] So, I filtered on the platform, I said only message people that have over £100 gross merchandise value.
[00:22:19.280 --> 00:22:24.640] So, essentially, what that means is I only message people who have sold £100 worth of product in the last 30 days.
[00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:26.240] I said it very low barrier.
[00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:32.400] For me, because my product's so cheap to get out, I actually would rather go quantity over quality.
[00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:34.400] I'd rather just get loads of people making videos.
[00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:36.800] And if one goes bang, it's easy, you know.
[00:22:36.800 --> 00:22:44.240] I'd rather do that than choose specific creators, and also just because I'm doing a commission-based idea and a couple of retainers as well.
[00:22:44.320 --> 00:22:45.280] I'll go into that in a minute.
[00:22:45.280 --> 00:22:49.920] But essentially, I didn't have to pay people to make videos, I only had to give them free samples and a commission.
[00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:51.760] Okay, yeah, it's all performance-based.
[00:22:51.760 --> 00:22:59.040] Hey, look, if you drive sales, you're gonna make money, I'm gonna make money, everybody's happy, and it all it costs you was the cost of the product to get in their hands.
[00:22:59.040 --> 00:22:59.520] Correct.
[00:22:59.520 --> 00:23:02.280] Were you focusing only on UK creators too?
[00:22:59.840 --> 00:23:03.240] Is it or is it like this?
[00:23:03.320 --> 00:23:04.360] This is worldwide.
[00:23:04.360 --> 00:23:05.720] Yeah, so this is the thing.
[00:23:05.720 --> 00:23:13.320] So, uh, cool tow for 2023, 2024, and basically all of 2025 has been UK only.
[00:23:13.320 --> 00:23:13.640] Okay.
[00:23:13.640 --> 00:23:16.840] Mainly because TikTok shop does not allow me to sell them internationally.
[00:23:16.840 --> 00:23:18.600] That's one big issue I've got with it.
[00:23:18.600 --> 00:23:25.160] But it's definitely, definitely got its downside to that because the UK weather is extremely seasonal.
[00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:29.960] So I've probably got a four-month window of relatively hot weather.
[00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:32.440] Then it goes to rain and cold and winter.
[00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:34.360] So I'm almost out of time, really.
[00:23:34.360 --> 00:23:37.720] And that's why I have plans in the future is definitely to expand internationally.
[00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:41.480] But do you want me to read out the cold message I sent out to the creators?
[00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:42.600] Oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
[00:23:42.600 --> 00:23:44.040] I said, hey, creator name.
[00:23:44.040 --> 00:23:46.280] So I basically extracted the creator's name from it.
[00:23:46.280 --> 00:23:47.720] And I said, I hope you're well.
[00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:55.160] I'm reaching out from Cooltal, a trademarked family-owned brand with over 11,000 sales on TikTok shop and hundreds of five-star reviews.
[00:23:55.160 --> 00:24:02.760] We've built a movement around cooling towels, helping athletes, parents, menopausal women, pet owners, and outdoor workers beat the heat naturally.
[00:24:02.760 --> 00:24:06.200] No batteries, no chemicals, just science that works.
[00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:09.960] You wet it, wring it out, and snap it to feel cooler in seconds.
[00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:11.160] What makes us different?
[00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:12.920] We're not just a drop shipping store.
[00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:17.400] We donate to charity, reinvested creators, and care about actually making a difference.
[00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:22.280] We already have proven video formulas shared with affiliates that drive thousands in commissions.
[00:24:22.280 --> 00:24:27.320] And if your content performs, we will boost it with paid ads and offer retainers for long-term deals.
[00:24:27.320 --> 00:24:31.480] You don't have 20% commission, and we'd love to send you out a free sample so you can try it out first.
[00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:36.680] Let me know if you're interested by requesting a sample, and I'd be happy to answer any questions and get you involved.
[00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:39.160] Best regards, Harrison, founder, Cool Tail.
[00:24:39.400 --> 00:24:40.680] That was the message I sent out.
[00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:41.800] Yeah, that sounds great.
[00:24:41.800 --> 00:24:46.160] And that had a pretty good response rate, I think, for cold messaging.
[00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:46.320] Yeah.
[00:24:46.560 --> 00:24:51.840] Did you pay any attention to follower account on those creator accounts that you're reaching out to, or is like that?
[00:24:51.840 --> 00:24:53.200] That's pretty irrelevant.
[00:24:53.200 --> 00:25:03.440] When I was manually doing it, I did, but I actually realized that followers, especially on TikTok, don't really matter because someone with 2 million followers can get the same amount of views as someone with 50,000.
[00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:05.760] And someone with 50,000 can get the same amount of people with 100.
[00:25:05.760 --> 00:25:07.680] It all depends on the quality of the video.
[00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:08.000] Yeah.
[00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:08.800] No, that's good.
[00:25:08.800 --> 00:25:18.800] Do you have a sense of how many free cool towels you sent out to creators, to influencers, to try and cast this really wide net, this body of content you're trying to build up?
[00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:23.120] Probably sent around 800, maybe 1,000 free samples out.
[00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.920] A lot of them haven't got any sales back.
[00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:28.560] You know, a lot of them were even people who didn't even make a video at all.
[00:25:28.560 --> 00:25:34.880] You know, I'm not saying everyone was successful, but I mean, I've had some cases where they've done £15,000 in revenue just from one video.
[00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:38.960] Like, some of them have been ridiculously good and it's really been successful.
[00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:41.520] Yeah, that seems to be the name of the game.
[00:25:41.520 --> 00:25:48.240] It's almost playing like micro-venture capitalist, where it's like, I'm going to plant a bunch of seeds, and I know most of them aren't going to grow.
[00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:50.160] Most of them aren't going to do anything.
[00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:58.400] But the one or two that do, they're going to wipe out all the losses, all the costs of doing everything else, and make a ton of sales.
[00:25:58.400 --> 00:25:58.960] Yeah.
[00:25:58.960 --> 00:25:59.440] Okay.
[00:25:59.760 --> 00:26:01.360] So we mentioned Shopify.
[00:26:01.360 --> 00:26:06.240] We mentioned the Reacher app to kind of automate some of this outreach process.
[00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:10.560] Anything else on the tools and tech side that is helping run this business?
[00:26:10.560 --> 00:26:11.520] I use a lot of Canva.
[00:26:11.520 --> 00:26:13.360] Yeah, anything to do with design, you can do on Canva.
[00:26:13.360 --> 00:26:14.080] It's ridiculous.
[00:26:14.080 --> 00:26:14.400] Yeah.
[00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:15.680] I use a lot of Chat GPT.
[00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:16.400] This is a big one.
[00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:17.920] Yeah, I use a lot of AI.
[00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:18.640] Totally.
[00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:20.000] Just to help me.
[00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:23.040] I mainly use it for a customer service.
[00:26:23.040 --> 00:26:25.600] So I have an AI bot to do some of the customer service.
[00:26:25.600 --> 00:26:29.880] And if it doesn't respond in time, if there's a big issue, it then goes to me.
[00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:36.200] But I also use ChatGPT for, if I have to do anything that needs a lot of time, I chuck it into ChatGPT and see if it can do it for me.
[00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:38.040] But if it can't, obviously, I will do it myself.
[00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:39.960] But yeah, it's a big, big one for me.
[00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:43.720] Do you have any recent example of a ChatGPT use case like that?
[00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:51.240] For example, I'd say, like, help me set out a layout for my website for a calling towel, and here's the information for it.
[00:26:51.240 --> 00:26:56.920] Make sure it's X, Y, and Z, and make sure it fits the theme that I'm going for.
[00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:03.320] And I basically just, the main thing for me with AI is to give it a good foundation.
[00:27:03.320 --> 00:27:05.240] You know, you can't just say a couple words.
[00:27:05.240 --> 00:27:07.320] And for me, it's got to be a good foundation.
[00:27:07.320 --> 00:27:09.720] To get the output you want, you have to give a good input.
[00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:10.200] Right.
[00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:11.880] Fiverr is another one.
[00:27:12.120 --> 00:27:16.840] If I ever need to outsource something, I will occasionally go to Fiverr if I really can't do it myself.
[00:27:16.840 --> 00:27:20.920] But most of the time, I do tend to try and do it myself just because I feel like it's good.
[00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:28.600] Especially for me, like I like to learn new skills and learn how to do it myself just so it's sustainable because I don't want to keep outsourcing it.
[00:27:28.600 --> 00:27:34.120] On the site, it looks like you're doing all you can to improve the average order value.
[00:27:34.120 --> 00:27:36.600] It's like, well, the shipping is more or less the same.
[00:27:36.600 --> 00:27:40.120] If I'm sending one of these out or if I'm sending two, three, four, or five of these out.
[00:27:40.120 --> 00:27:40.360] Yeah.
[00:27:40.360 --> 00:27:43.560] So it looks like you're kind of encouraging multiple orders.
[00:27:43.560 --> 00:27:46.120] Hey, buy one for the whole family kind of a thing.
[00:27:46.120 --> 00:27:49.960] Anything else you found effective in increasing that cart size?
[00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:54.680] Well, for the drop shipping stores I was running, I like to upsell as well, if possible.
[00:27:54.680 --> 00:28:02.040] And I'd like to also try and only use products that drive repeat purchases.
[00:28:02.040 --> 00:28:07.320] So, obviously, cool towel isn't a big one, but at the end of the day, the towel will eventually get smelly.
[00:28:07.320 --> 00:28:08.760] And, you know, it's like cloves.
[00:28:08.760 --> 00:28:18.800] You know, you want to eventually get a new one, which is good for me, obviously, because it means reoccurring income and the average order price of a customer does increase, you know, value of the customer.
[00:28:19.120 --> 00:28:23.120] Yeah, it's not something that people are going to subscribe to, especially on their first order.
[00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:24.960] Like, hey, I'll send you one every three months.
[00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:26.320] Like, yeah, probably not.
[00:28:26.320 --> 00:28:27.040] I agree.
[00:28:27.040 --> 00:28:32.000] Well, for my plan in the future, I'm going to start creating new products and I'm going to try and upsell them.
[00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:37.600] I'm going to do like cooling headbands, cooling pet products, you know, different colors, different packaging.
[00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:39.760] You know, there's lots of different pathways I'm going down.
[00:28:39.760 --> 00:28:42.720] And essentially, I'm trying to increase the cart value.
[00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:44.080] You know, that's the main thing.
[00:28:44.080 --> 00:28:44.560] Got it.
[00:28:44.560 --> 00:28:44.880] Okay.
[00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:49.360] Underneath the cool towel umbrella, we could have other cooling-related products.
[00:28:49.360 --> 00:28:53.360] Yeah, expand more and more, add more SKUs to the inventory here.
[00:28:53.360 --> 00:28:53.920] Correct.
[00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:57.280] Talk to me about the logistics side of this.
[00:28:57.280 --> 00:29:02.640] So after the first, well, we ship these out second rate or second class mail, and that was a mistake.
[00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.080] And so, what's the fulfillment side look like?
[00:29:06.080 --> 00:29:08.240] You're still fulfilling orders yourself.
[00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:13.520] I think I saw a video of, you know, hiring a bunch of teammates and friends to come pack and label and do all this stuff.
[00:29:13.520 --> 00:29:15.280] But what's that side of it?
[00:29:15.280 --> 00:29:20.480] This is like the big question I get asked: why don't you go to a 3PL, a third-party fulfillment?
[00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:22.240] So a warehouse to do it for you.
[00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:25.600] And the main thing for me is: one, I enjoy packing them.
[00:29:25.760 --> 00:29:26.560] I like the process.
[00:29:26.560 --> 00:29:29.040] It's quite satisfying, you know, seeing all the orders go out the door.
[00:29:29.040 --> 00:29:30.800] Two, people like a tangible business.
[00:29:30.800 --> 00:29:32.640] People like the fact that, you know, they can see it.
[00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:35.600] It's a real, it's not just some big corporation.
[00:29:35.600 --> 00:29:39.920] Three, I can make content out of it, and that will then lead to more sales.
[00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:46.720] And yeah, so with the orders, either do it myself and if it's a big day, it's all for my bedroom here behind me.
[00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:49.840] I've got over there, I've got boxes and boxes of cool towels.
[00:29:49.840 --> 00:29:50.640] It's in my bedroom.
[00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:51.040] Yeah.
[00:29:51.040 --> 00:30:00.200] If it's a big day, if it's a really hot day, and I've got loads of ads running, and I've got my biggest day, I think, was about £25,000 pounds in revenue this year, which was like, it sold me out.
[00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:02.120] You know, it was just like ridiculous.
[00:30:02.120 --> 00:30:06.520] Which would be what, like 1,500 or 2,000 individual towels?
[00:29:59.840 --> 00:30:06.760] Yeah, yeah.
[00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:08.120] It was something around 2,000.
[00:30:08.120 --> 00:30:08.520] Yeah.
[00:30:08.520 --> 00:30:09.080] Oh my gosh.
[00:30:09.080 --> 00:30:13.880] That's like so much backing and shipping and licking and stamping and labeling.
[00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:14.760] Yeah.
[00:30:14.760 --> 00:30:19.080] So I bought around 10 of my school friends and I paid them all, you know, a good wage.
[00:30:19.080 --> 00:30:20.760] I got my family around.
[00:30:20.760 --> 00:30:22.520] Literally, everyone was here.
[00:30:22.520 --> 00:30:27.800] I didn't do it for that day, but a couple of the days, if it got that big, I would then auto-utilize my dad's warehouse space.
[00:30:27.800 --> 00:30:29.960] He runs his own bespoke furniture business.
[00:30:29.960 --> 00:30:30.440] Oh, okay.
[00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:31.720] So there's some storage.
[00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:32.760] This is in the family.
[00:30:32.760 --> 00:30:33.960] We have some extra space.
[00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:34.360] Okay.
[00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:35.160] Yeah.
[00:30:35.320 --> 00:30:40.600] I did have the option of renting it out, but one, I want to lower my overhead cost as much as possible.
[00:30:40.600 --> 00:30:42.280] And also, like, I enjoy having it here.
[00:30:42.280 --> 00:30:43.640] You know, it's not a burden to me.
[00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:44.920] I enjoy it.
[00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:45.320] Okay.
[00:30:45.320 --> 00:30:48.920] So packing and doing the shipping yourself, again, margins are pretty thin.
[00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:55.640] So having a 3PL, you don't have to raise prices or do something else to cover their fulfillment cost space.
[00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:58.520] And you don't get any content out of it because somebody else is doing the work.
[00:30:58.520 --> 00:31:09.560] More with Harrison in just a moment, including the risk of running out of inventory and some of the unexpected benefits of racking up millions of views on his videos coming up right after this.
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[00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:33.960] So, what happens when you have this viral hit and it's 2,000 orders in a day, something nuts, and you're like, well, I only have a thousand units in stock.
[00:33:33.960 --> 00:33:39.560] Like, what happens to the stuff where it's like, oh, we physically can't fulfill this because we don't have it.
[00:33:39.560 --> 00:33:42.600] So, this is actually a really good question because this happened to me.
[00:33:42.600 --> 00:33:45.160] Essentially, I oversold massively.
[00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:46.360] I was a bit stupid, really.
[00:33:46.360 --> 00:33:48.040] So, I got the sales.
[00:33:48.040 --> 00:33:54.120] So, the order was coming from my manufacturer and it said it was expected to be here in about three days or four days.
[00:33:54.120 --> 00:33:56.280] But, long story short, it got stuck in customs.
[00:33:56.280 --> 00:33:59.880] So, it got stuck, you know, at the airport, it was.
[00:33:59.880 --> 00:34:00.760] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:34:00.760 --> 00:34:04.040] And all the orders just were sitting there.
[00:34:04.040 --> 00:34:08.200] You know, I had all the orders on the computer, but I couldn't fill them because I didn't have any stock.
[00:34:08.200 --> 00:34:08.600] Yeah.
[00:34:08.600 --> 00:34:09.880] I completely sold out.
[00:34:09.880 --> 00:34:16.120] So, it was about, I think it was about 2,000 orders over the course of like two weeks that they were stuck in customs.
[00:34:16.120 --> 00:34:17.720] So, I was like, okay, this is really bad.
[00:34:17.720 --> 00:34:18.040] Yeah.
[00:34:18.040 --> 00:34:19.160] And I emailed TikTok.
[00:34:19.160 --> 00:34:19.960] I tried to sort it out.
[00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:22.360] I tried to say, you know, can you try and help me?
[00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:27.960] Can you basically on TikTok after a certain amount of time, it will cancel the orders and I'll just lose all the money.
[00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:29.160] And that's what happened.
[00:34:29.160 --> 00:34:31.160] I lost 2,000 orders.
[00:34:31.160 --> 00:34:32.040] And that was all.
[00:34:32.120 --> 00:34:33.560] I still had to pay affiliate commission.
[00:34:33.560 --> 00:34:34.280] I'm pretty sure.
[00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:35.800] I still had to pay ad spend.
[00:34:35.800 --> 00:34:37.480] That's the main cost that I lost.
[00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:42.840] It was about, so in total, I reckon I lost £10,000 in a week, which was a big, big loss.
[00:34:43.160 --> 00:34:53.320] And I do think I did manage to recover some of that because I used this platform Reacher to send out messages to the buyers that have orders have been automatically cancelled.
[00:34:53.320 --> 00:34:55.480] And I said, hey, so sorry about this.
[00:34:55.640 --> 00:34:59.400] You know, the stock got stuck in customs, which was a bit awkward.
[00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:04.120] But I sent a nice message, and I think I got, you know, a few sales back, which is good.
[00:35:04.120 --> 00:35:06.440] But pretty broke even, which isn't great.
[00:35:06.440 --> 00:35:08.280] Yeah, yeah, that's so frustrating.
[00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:12.200] It's kind of this impulse buy price point where it's like, oh, you see the video?
[00:35:12.200 --> 00:35:16.160] Sure, I'll take a chance at that for 10 or 15 pounds to get a couple.
[00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:21.920] And then it's like, but then if it doesn't show up immediately, it's like, well, do I really need this in my life anymore?
[00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:24.080] Or it's like, ah, it gets cancelled.
[00:35:24.560 --> 00:35:29.120] And it also really hurt my brand as well because lots of people wrote negative reviews and it hurt the brand.
[00:35:29.120 --> 00:35:30.080] Yeah, not just money.
[00:35:30.080 --> 00:35:31.040] It hurt me.
[00:35:31.040 --> 00:35:31.440] Yeah.
[00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:32.320] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:37.520] A lot of different pieces to juggle and try and forecast because you don't know when the next viral thing is going to hit.
[00:35:37.680 --> 00:35:44.480] Like, I don't need to order 5,000 units if I don't think I'm going to sell 5,000 units and have all the cash tied up sitting in the warehouse.
[00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:46.400] It's like, there's a lot of moving parts here.
[00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:51.600] So, aside from the initial shipping mistake, anything else you would do differently starting this thing over?
[00:35:51.600 --> 00:35:54.000] At first, I advertised the brand.
[00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:54.800] I didn't use my face.
[00:35:54.800 --> 00:35:57.280] I only used the logo and the product.
[00:35:57.520 --> 00:36:04.320] I think if I used my personal brand from earlier, maybe I would have done a little bit better, but I'm definitely doing that now.
[00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:11.920] You know, I think personal branding is now, especially in 2025, is something that is so, so strong.
[00:36:11.920 --> 00:36:13.360] And there's so much potential in that.
[00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:18.400] And that's definitely something, definitely something I want to keep going with and keep expanding.
[00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:21.920] Do you think that's a response to just everything being AI generated?
[00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:24.560] It's like, no, I want to buy from Harrison.
[00:36:24.560 --> 00:36:26.080] I want to buy from an actual person.
[00:36:26.080 --> 00:36:26.800] Yeah, I do.
[00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:27.600] I really think that.
[00:36:27.600 --> 00:36:35.280] Yeah, I think a lot of my sales have been because people like to support real businesses and ones that, you know, aren't just AI here.
[00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:37.440] Well, Breakup, you've got lots of great press.
[00:36:37.600 --> 00:36:40.160] It was a Yahoo article that I initially found about you.
[00:36:40.160 --> 00:36:42.240] It's like, well, this is a really inspiring story.
[00:36:42.240 --> 00:36:44.960] Any other big surprises that have happened as a result?
[00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:46.720] Yes, this is a big one.
[00:36:46.720 --> 00:36:56.640] So, literally, about two months ago, from the personal brand videos that I made, like packaging orders and telling my story, that was where it all started on the Harrison Art TikTok account.
[00:36:56.640 --> 00:36:57.200] Yeah.
[00:36:57.200 --> 00:36:59.200] And essentially, I went viral on there.
[00:36:59.200 --> 00:37:07.160] I got like multiple videos with like 4 million views just because people liked the fact that it was a teenager, not just like you know, gaming.
[00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:10.760] And from that, one, I got sales.
[00:37:10.760 --> 00:37:13.240] Two, I developed a personal brand.
[00:37:13.240 --> 00:37:16.280] Although it's still quite small, it's still better than nothing.
[00:37:16.280 --> 00:37:21.720] Three, I got quite a few opportunities, and people email me, like just like yourself, you emailed me.
[00:37:21.720 --> 00:37:23.720] But I also had lots of different people, really.
[00:37:23.720 --> 00:37:31.160] I had a guy called Alex, who like owns a big company, and he was like, if you ever need any help or mentorship, I can do that for you free of charge.
[00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:32.680] You know, so opportunities, really.
[00:37:32.680 --> 00:37:38.440] And the main one that I got from these personal brand videos was an email from Ali Barber.
[00:37:38.440 --> 00:37:44.840] And they said, we are doing a co-create event in Vegas and Las Vegas and London.
[00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:45.480] Okay.
[00:37:45.480 --> 00:37:48.120] And essentially, we want you at both of them.
[00:37:48.120 --> 00:37:52.840] And it would be all costs paid, you know, and we want you to create promotional videos.
[00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:54.280] And basically, it was like a brand deal.
[00:37:54.280 --> 00:37:55.160] And I've never had that before.
[00:37:55.160 --> 00:37:59.640] And that was like, I'm literally going to Vegas in four days, five days.
[00:37:59.640 --> 00:38:00.840] I'm going to going off to Vegas.
[00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:01.320] Wow.
[00:38:01.400 --> 00:38:02.520] You know, paid by them.
[00:38:02.520 --> 00:38:05.320] So that was really, really, really cool, I think.
[00:38:05.320 --> 00:38:07.240] And yeah, that was a cool experience.
[00:38:07.240 --> 00:38:08.680] So networking as well.
[00:38:08.680 --> 00:38:09.560] That's really cool.
[00:38:09.560 --> 00:38:11.960] Yeah, you never know who's out there watching.
[00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:12.920] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:38:13.560 --> 00:38:16.120] I thought school was starting next week, but no, you're going to Vegas?
[00:38:16.120 --> 00:38:20.040] Yeah, so school starts on the 2nd of September.
[00:38:20.360 --> 00:38:21.560] But I'm off to Vegas.
[00:38:21.560 --> 00:38:24.200] Yeah, I've got permission by the school to have a time off.
[00:38:24.760 --> 00:38:25.400] School can wait.
[00:38:25.480 --> 00:38:27.080] I got business to attend to.
[00:38:27.080 --> 00:38:31.240] I focus on school a lot as well as businesses as well as squash and the gym.
[00:38:31.240 --> 00:38:33.880] Yeah, I just like to be busy all the time, really.
[00:38:34.120 --> 00:38:35.400] With the personal brand thing.
[00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:35.800] Yeah.
[00:38:35.800 --> 00:38:36.520] Well, it's really cool.
[00:38:36.520 --> 00:38:39.720] I think this is probably going to be the rule for our kids on social media.
[00:38:39.720 --> 00:38:43.480] It's like you don't need to be on here unless you're making money.
[00:38:43.640 --> 00:38:46.000] You don't need to be on here unless you're building something.
[00:38:44.680 --> 00:38:48.480] If you're a creator rather than just a consumer, yeah.
[00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:49.520] I think social media is good.
[00:38:49.680 --> 00:38:54.240] I think you know, it's great to relax, but then I think people overuse it.
[00:38:54.240 --> 00:38:56.000] I think it's good in moderation.
[00:38:56.240 --> 00:39:00.640] I use it in moderation, you know, I don't, I don't use watch too much of it, but I do watch it.
[00:39:00.640 --> 00:39:05.520] You know, it's entertaining, you know, and I also think you can also learn from videos most some of the time.
[00:39:05.520 --> 00:39:07.760] You know, there's educational videos out there.
[00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:08.320] Yeah.
[00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:15.040] Also, from the personal brand videos that went viral, the main thing was I, like I said, I developed networking, you know, with people like yourself.
[00:39:15.040 --> 00:39:21.280] You know, there are lots of people that messaged me saying, you know, like I'm X, Y, and Z, and I like what you're doing.
[00:39:21.280 --> 00:39:26.640] You know, if you ever need any help, if you ever need any advice, if you want to do this X opportunity of me.
[00:39:26.640 --> 00:39:29.520] And one of them was a company called Paws.com.
[00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:35.200] And essentially, we're in the process of developing a partnership to create a dog calling towel.
[00:39:35.200 --> 00:39:36.240] And they're quite a big company.
[00:39:36.240 --> 00:39:40.480] So, like, you know, there's lots of opportunities you can get from posting social media videos.
[00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:42.080] You know, there's, I think that's one big thing.
[00:39:42.080 --> 00:39:43.200] It doesn't have to be about business either.
[00:39:43.200 --> 00:39:45.040] It could be about anything, the passion.
[00:39:45.040 --> 00:39:45.600] Yeah.
[00:39:45.600 --> 00:39:47.440] So we're expanding the product line.
[00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:52.800] We've got the different colors, different use cases, dog, the dog product line.
[00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:54.720] We've got this Alibaba event.
[00:39:54.720 --> 00:39:55.760] All expenses paid.
[00:39:55.760 --> 00:39:57.200] We've got school coming up.
[00:39:57.200 --> 00:39:59.360] What else is on the horizon for you?
[00:39:59.680 --> 00:40:01.440] International sales.
[00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:03.360] This is one big thing for me.
[00:40:03.520 --> 00:40:05.280] So I've got friends in America.
[00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:12.560] That's one, you know, I definitely want to get out to the States and maybe even like, you know, hot countries in Africa.
[00:40:12.560 --> 00:40:14.560] And, you know, other basically, I want to get around the world.
[00:40:14.560 --> 00:40:16.160] I want to get cool tail around the world.
[00:40:16.160 --> 00:40:20.240] Whether that's through 3PL or whether that's through like networking.
[00:40:20.240 --> 00:40:27.920] So, I've had quite a few people from like loads of different countries saying we'd love to host your product out here and dispatch it, you know, around our country.
[00:40:28.240 --> 00:40:29.600] It's a brief selling window.
[00:40:29.680 --> 00:40:30.920] Are you doing Amazon at all?
[00:40:31.320 --> 00:40:32.920] Maybe I should have asked earlier.
[00:40:32.920 --> 00:40:33.800] I am on Amazon.
[00:40:33.960 --> 00:40:38.520] I get probably like one or two sales a day maximum.
[00:40:38.760 --> 00:40:42.120] I think that's because really I don't know enough about the platform just yet.
[00:40:42.120 --> 00:40:46.200] I think I can utilize it a lot more, but I basically just create a listing and let it run.
[00:40:46.760 --> 00:40:48.440] I didn't do anything to it.
[00:40:48.440 --> 00:40:49.880] So, it's just running.
[00:40:50.040 --> 00:40:50.360] Got it.
[00:40:50.360 --> 00:40:51.000] I got it.
[00:40:51.000 --> 00:41:01.160] Yeah, we talked to another e-commerce entrepreneur earlier this summer, and he was like, Yeah, I have the listing up there because I think people just have a certain level of comfort with Amazon.
[00:41:01.160 --> 00:41:11.800] Yes, they heard about this through my own marketing, but for whatever reason, they're like, I don't want to check out on this guy's individual store, but I will go out and seek it out directly on Amazon.
[00:41:11.800 --> 00:41:12.680] That's what I found.
[00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:22.920] I looked at Google's search results, and especially when I was only on TikTok shop, lots of people saw the product, loved it, and just didn't trust TikTok shop at that point in time.
[00:41:22.920 --> 00:41:26.280] And I think I lost a lot of sales just because I wasn't on the website nor Amazon.
[00:41:26.280 --> 00:41:28.200] So, that was definitely a big one.
[00:41:28.200 --> 00:41:35.560] But regarding my plans for the future, I'd also like to get a bit more into wholesaling and potentially even retail.
[00:41:35.720 --> 00:41:39.960] I'd like to sell to big sports shops or sell to hotels.
[00:41:39.960 --> 00:41:43.960] You know, there's so many different pathways that I can go down, and I've got big plans.
[00:41:44.200 --> 00:41:46.600] I need to make a lot of decisions, really, I think.
[00:41:46.600 --> 00:41:48.520] But yeah, that's the goal.
[00:41:48.520 --> 00:41:50.520] Well, I'm excited to see where it goes.
[00:41:50.520 --> 00:41:56.840] I imagine probably do a follow-up at some point and see kind of a where are they now with what happened with Cool Tail.
[00:41:56.840 --> 00:41:58.040] That'd be amazing, yeah.
[00:41:58.040 --> 00:42:00.200] Yeah, I mean, it might not even be Cool Tale.
[00:42:00.200 --> 00:42:08.200] I'm also looking to develop my personal brand and just not only develop the cool towel name, but also develop my name just because it's so it's so powerful, especially in 2025.
[00:42:08.200 --> 00:42:12.760] And it just means that I can keep creating businesses and have that audience that trusts me, you know.
[00:42:12.760 --> 00:42:15.840] And I think in the future, I'd like to help people create businesses.
[00:42:16.160 --> 00:42:24.960] I'd like to help people, you know, learn about entrepreneurship, whether that's side hustles, whether that's e-commerce like I'm doing, anything really.
[00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:28.960] I'd like to just develop a social media page that helps people.
[00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:29.600] Well, very good.
[00:42:29.600 --> 00:42:30.480] We'll link that up.
[00:42:30.480 --> 00:42:33.920] Give them a follow at HarrisonNot on TikTok.
[00:42:33.920 --> 00:42:37.200] And again, cooltow.co.uk.
[00:42:37.200 --> 00:42:39.600] And really appreciate you stopping by.
[00:42:39.600 --> 00:42:47.440] This has been great, taking some lumps along the way, but overall, lots of cool lessons learned and some success from selling these things on TikTok at Shopify.
[00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:48.560] Thank you for having me.
[00:42:48.560 --> 00:42:52.880] Let's wrap this thing up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation.
[00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:55.760] For me, it would be: don't give up, stay resilient.
[00:42:55.760 --> 00:43:00.640] If it was easy, then everyone would do it because, you know, the pathway won't be smooth.
[00:43:00.640 --> 00:43:05.600] It'll be bumpy, and there'll be so many mistakes you have to get over, and so many errors, and so many problems.
[00:43:05.600 --> 00:43:08.080] But just enjoy the process and learn from your mistakes.
[00:43:08.080 --> 00:43:08.960] That's what I'd say.
[00:43:08.960 --> 00:43:10.160] Yeah, I like that one.
[00:43:10.160 --> 00:43:11.760] That's a line we use quite a bit.
[00:43:11.760 --> 00:43:13.440] If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
[00:43:13.440 --> 00:43:14.720] So keep at it.
[00:43:14.720 --> 00:43:17.040] A couple of takeaways for me before we wrap.
[00:43:17.040 --> 00:43:21.200] Number one, like on the surface, simple business: buy low, sell high.
[00:43:21.200 --> 00:43:24.560] You know, buy the product cheap, sell it for more, make your margin.
[00:43:24.560 --> 00:43:30.880] But there's some complexities in the shipping and fulfillment, in the timing of cash flow, in the marketing.
[00:43:30.880 --> 00:43:39.520] And on that marketing side, the importance of branding and being able to drive your own traffic, especially for something that might be considered somewhat commoditized.
[00:43:39.520 --> 00:43:41.120] Like, okay, I'll just go with the cheapest ones.
[00:43:41.120 --> 00:43:49.840] Like, but no, if I found the cool towel video and that's specifically the one that I'm after, click, click, click, and now I'm checked out on your store page.
[00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:50.800] I didn't have time.
[00:43:50.800 --> 00:43:52.800] I didn't even think about chopping the competition, right?
[00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:59.200] So you kind of command premium prices or higher prices than you would if you're just like a generic competitor on Amazon.
[00:43:59.200 --> 00:44:01.640] So those were a couple of things that stood out to me.
[00:44:01.960 --> 00:44:08.680] Your listener bonus for this week is my list of 25 e-commerce niche ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
[00:44:08.680 --> 00:44:16.760] If you've been inspired by this chat with Harrison, you can download that for free at the show notes for this episode and just follow the show notes link in the episode description.
[00:44:16.760 --> 00:44:18.520] It'll get you right over there.
[00:44:18.520 --> 00:44:24.680] Big thanks to Harrison for sharing his insight and big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.
[00:44:24.680 --> 00:44:31.800] Sidehustlenation.com/slash deals is where to go to find all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
[00:44:31.800 --> 00:44:33.240] That is it for me.
[00:44:33.240 --> 00:44:34.840] Thank you so much for tuning in.
[00:44:34.840 --> 00:44:45.160] If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend, to fire off that text message to that young person in your life who might be inspired by Harrison's story.
[00:44:45.160 --> 00:44:48.360] Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen.
[00:44:48.360 --> 00:44:51.480] And I'll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show.
[00:44:51.480 --> 00:44:52.440] Hustle on.

Prompt 2: Key Takeaways

Now please extract the key takeaways from the transcript content I provided.

Extract the most important key takeaways from this part of the conversation. Use a single sentence statement (the key takeaway) rather than milquetoast descriptions like "the hosts discuss...". 

Limit the key takeaways to a maximum of 3. The key takeaways should be insightful and knowledge-additive. 

IMPORTANT: Return ONLY valid JSON, no explanations or markdown. Ensure:
- All strings are properly quoted and escaped
- No trailing commas
- All braces and brackets are balanced
Format: {"key_takeaways": ["takeaway 1", "takeaway 2"]}

Prompt 3: Segments

Now identify 2-4 distinct topical segments from this part of the conversation.

For each segment, identify:
- Descriptive title (3-6 words)  
- START timestamp when this topic begins (HH:MM:SS format)
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Most important Key takeaway from that segment. Key takeaway must be specific and knowledge-additive.
- Brief summary of the discussion

IMPORTANT: The timestamp should mark when the topic/segment STARTS, not a range. Look for topic transitions and conversation shifts.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted, no trailing commas:
{
  "segments": [
    {
      "segment_title": "Topic Discussion", 
      "timestamp": "01:15:30",
      "key_takeaway": "main point from this segment",
      "segment_summary": "brief description of what was discussed"
    }
  ]
}

Timestamp format: HH:MM:SS (e.g., 00:05:30, 01:22:45) marking the START of each segment.

Prompt 4: Media Mentions

Now scan the transcript content I provided for ACTUAL mentions of specific media titles:

Find explicit mentions of:
- Books (with specific titles)
- Movies (with specific titles)  
- TV Shows (with specific titles)
- Music/Songs (with specific titles)

DO NOT include:
- Websites, URLs, or web services
- Other podcasts or podcast names

IMPORTANT: 
- Only include items explicitly mentioned by name. Do not invent titles.
- Valid categories are: "Book", "Movie", "TV Show", "Music"
- Include the exact phrase where each item was mentioned
- Find the nearest proximate timestamp where it appears in the conversation
- THE TIMESTAMP OF THE MEDIA MENTION IS IMPORTANT - DO NOT INVENT TIMESTAMPS AND DO NOT MISATTRIBUTE TIMESTAMPS
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Timestamps are given as ranges, e.g. 01:13:42.520 --> 01:13:46.720. Use the EARLIER of the 2 timestamps in the range.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted and escaped, no trailing commas:
{
  "media_mentions": [
    {
      "title": "Exact Title as Mentioned",
      "category": "Book",
      "author_artist": "N/A",
      "context": "Brief context of why it was mentioned",
      "context_phrase": "The exact sentence or phrase where it was mentioned",
      "timestamp": "estimated time like 01:15:30"
    }
  ]
}

If no media is mentioned, return: {"media_mentions": []}

Full Transcript

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[00:00:57.440 --> 00:01:00.000] That's policygenius.com.
[00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.320] And now, onto the show.
[00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:11.040] This 15-year-old is running a $100,000 business on the side from school, on the side from sports, on the side from just regular teenage stuff.
[00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:24.400] Stick around in this one to hear his process for coming up with the idea, how he made his first sales, and the growth in marketing tactics have helped him scale to hundreds of orders a day from cooltow.co.uk.
[00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:27.440] Harrison Knott, welcome to the Side Hustle Show.
[00:01:27.440 --> 00:01:29.280] Well, Nick, first of all, thank you for having me on.
[00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:33.200] And I'm really excited to share my top tips for everyone.
[00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.520] Yeah, I'm excited for this one as well.
[00:01:35.520 --> 00:01:40.560] I believe you're the youngest guest in the 12-year history of the show.
[00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:42.880] We probably started when you were a toddler.
[00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:43.920] I was three years old.
[00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:44.560] Yeah, I was three years old.
[00:01:44.800 --> 00:01:47.360] Yeah, that's exciting in its own.
[00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:55.040] So Cool Towel is a, you know, a cooling neck towel inspired by, oh, I'm getting hot and sweaty playing squash as a kid.
[00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:55.360] Yep.
[00:01:55.360 --> 00:01:58.320] So you just wrapped up your third summer of this business.
[00:01:58.320 --> 00:01:59.400] Started when you're 13.
[00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:00.600] It's kind of nuts, too.
[00:02:00.600 --> 00:02:04.200] But can you give us a sense of how this summer went for you?
[00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:04.440] Yep.
[00:02:04.520 --> 00:02:11.000] So this summer I'm projected to hit £100,000 in revenue, which is about in dollars, about $130,000.
[00:02:11.320 --> 00:02:12.680] Obviously, that is revenue.
[00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:14.200] Disclaimer, that's not profit.
[00:02:14.200 --> 00:02:16.840] To be transparent, there's lots of hidden costs involved.
[00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:24.280] Everyone sees that big figure and thinks I'm making loads of money, but actually, I find more value in the skills that I've learned and the knowledge that I've learnt along the way.
[00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:24.680] Yeah.
[00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:28.040] You got to be eking out some profit on that kind of sales volume though, yeah?
[00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:31.400] I'm probably sitting at around 20 profit, which is which is good.
[00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:32.440] But it's all reinvested.
[00:02:32.440 --> 00:02:33.800] It's all back into the business.
[00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:37.240] Yeah, that's fantastic, you know, to have that kind of experience under your belt.
[00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:37.720] Totally.
[00:02:37.720 --> 00:02:37.960] All right.
[00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:39.720] So where does this idea come from?
[00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:46.600] It seems like almost a kind of a commodity product where people would go on Amazon and say, okay, I heard of this thing.
[00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:49.000] I'm not very brand loyal when it comes to this thing.
[00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:50.440] I don't know of any brands that are making this.
[00:02:50.440 --> 00:02:53.160] So it's just like, whatever comes up and has decent reviews.
[00:02:53.160 --> 00:02:56.600] So what inspires you to say, you know what, I'm going to take a swing at this?
[00:02:56.600 --> 00:02:59.160] Yeah, so I love playing sport and going to the gym.
[00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:00.600] That's sort of my passion.
[00:03:00.600 --> 00:03:07.080] And three years ago, I decided that I'm sick and tired of being hot and sweaty and uncomfortable.
[00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:13.640] And essentially, I went onto Google and I searched up, you know, like cooling towel, you know, like ways to cool down.
[00:03:13.640 --> 00:03:15.880] And turns out aircon's expensive.
[00:03:16.200 --> 00:03:17.400] Fans don't really work that well.
[00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:19.320] They just push the hot air around.
[00:03:19.320 --> 00:03:22.440] And the cooling towel wasn't really a thing three years ago.
[00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:25.960] It was around, but it wasn't, there was no big brand selling it.
[00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:28.360] So I thought, you know, there is a gap in the market for this.
[00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:28.760] Okay.
[00:03:28.760 --> 00:03:33.400] I got my grandma to come around and she bought her sewing machine with her.
[00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:35.480] And we got a microfiber towel.
[00:03:35.480 --> 00:03:39.400] And with this microfiber towel, we sewed it together around an ice pack.
[00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:42.200] We made the first ever cool towel prototype on day one.
[00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:42.520] Okay.
[00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:43.640] And that was sort of the beginning.
[00:03:43.640 --> 00:03:48.880] That was when I thought, okay, well, this prototype didn't work, but actually, I know that there is a future for this.
[00:03:48.880 --> 00:03:57.520] So I went on alibaba.com and I found a manufacturer willing to produce and supply the cool towels and bought 50 units and just scaled it from there.
[00:03:57.520 --> 00:03:59.840] That's the story of how it originated.
[00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:09.200] Okay, so if they were willing to do a relatively small initial order run, because sometimes when you go to Alibaba, it's like, yeah, we want 500 units, 1,000 units.
[00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:15.360] And you're like, well, now that's a lot of upfront inventory costs for an idea that maybe not quite proven out yet.
[00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:16.560] Maybe other people are selling them.
[00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:18.560] So there's some level of validation.
[00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:21.200] But it's like, well, I don't know if they're going to buy it from me.
[00:04:21.200 --> 00:04:22.080] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:04:22.080 --> 00:04:22.480] Yeah.
[00:04:22.640 --> 00:04:25.840] I did have to sort of negotiate my way down with that.
[00:04:25.840 --> 00:04:34.480] And I think because I've used the platform before and I had experience with negotiating with suppliers and also like, I think they knew that I was trustworthy and I wasn't just going to buy 50.
[00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.120] You know, I think they knew long term that I was going to buy more.
[00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:38.400] And obviously I have.
[00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:38.640] Okay.
[00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:40.480] So step one sounds like personal pain point.
[00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:40.880] I'm hot.
[00:04:40.880 --> 00:04:41.760] It's uncomfortable.
[00:04:41.760 --> 00:04:44.080] Like, what solutions are out there?
[00:04:44.080 --> 00:04:47.440] Okay, here's something that I believe that could solve the problem.
[00:04:47.440 --> 00:04:52.240] Step two, go find manufacturers of people who are making something similar-ish.
[00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.560] Did you have any modifications for this initial order?
[00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:59.840] Or was it just like, yeah, just throw my own brand on here, the cool towel brand, and we'll see if we can sell those?
[00:04:59.840 --> 00:05:02.640] Or what else went into that initial production run?
[00:05:02.640 --> 00:05:06.080] The biggest part for me with the first initial batch was the branding.
[00:05:06.080 --> 00:05:19.520] I think that is, you know, one of the most important things about the product because at the end of the day, there are similar products out there, but for the cool towel to sell, it needs to show what it does and how to use it and all the information on it on the bottle.
[00:05:19.520 --> 00:05:28.320] And I think that's something that I put a lot of time into at the start, you know, like developing the brand and making sure it was perfect because then it sort of gave me that clear pathway to sort of scaling up.
[00:05:28.320 --> 00:05:36.680] Because I think if you have bad packaging, if you have bad branding and people won't value your product and you'll get, you know, you'll get returns, you'll get bad reviews.
[00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:38.440] I think it's just, it makes it more premium.
[00:05:38.440 --> 00:05:40.360] It means I can sell it for more money and make more money.
[00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:41.800] Were you hiring out that design?
[00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:42.680] You're 13 years old.
[00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:43.640] Were you doing it yourself?
[00:05:43.640 --> 00:05:45.880] This cool little like polar bear with a guy?
[00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:47.000] I did do it myself.
[00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:47.480] Nice.
[00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:47.720] Yeah.
[00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:49.320] Well, this isn't the original packaging.
[00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:52.200] This is updated, but the original one I did myself.
[00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:56.200] I think the main thing for me with Cool Tal is it wasn't the first business I started.
[00:05:56.200 --> 00:05:58.040] My first business was at eight years old.
[00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:01.240] I was reselling on eBay and other platforms.
[00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:04.360] And essentially, at eight years old, I'm not joking either.
[00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:05.080] I've got proof.
[00:06:05.080 --> 00:06:05.480] Sure.
[00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:07.480] At eight years old, I love it.
[00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:09.000] I got a nine-year-old.
[00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:11.080] I got to make him listen to this episode.
[00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:14.440] I think I've always just liked the idea of like, it was never money for me, really.
[00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:19.960] The reason why I started, it was because I liked the idea of being successful and almost like becoming my best self.
[00:06:19.960 --> 00:06:22.200] But I also enjoyed the process, solving the problems.
[00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:23.480] I enjoyed starting a new business.
[00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:27.880] I enjoyed learning about how to grow as a person and as an entrepreneur.
[00:06:27.880 --> 00:06:29.000] I think that's the main thing for me.
[00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:32.920] And I think a lot of people, when they start businesses, is they give up after the first hurdle.
[00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:35.160] You know, like they get one problem and they just give up.
[00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:37.720] The key to my success was resilient.
[00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:45.960] I kept going through all the because I started 13 businesses and I think out of the 13, 10 of them were failures really, and four of them are successful.
[00:06:45.960 --> 00:06:52.680] But the nine that were failed took so, you know, so much of my time, so much of my effort, so much of my money, you know, and it all failed.
[00:06:52.840 --> 00:06:57.320] I think most people, after losing all that and spending all that time, would just give up.
[00:06:57.320 --> 00:07:03.560] But from that, I've gained so much knowledge and so many skills I can apply into the next business and and keep growing.
[00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:04.520] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:07:04.520 --> 00:07:10.040] So you're 13 years old, you're lobbying emails off to China to find a manufacturer through Alibaba.
[00:07:10.200 --> 00:07:12.360] You get these fifty units landed.
[00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.000] Do you remember the production costs for those first fifty?
[00:07:15.280 --> 00:07:17.760] It was about three pounds per unit.
[00:07:17.760 --> 00:07:19.520] So it was 50 units, yeah.
[00:07:19.520 --> 00:07:20.640] Okay, that's helpful to know.
[00:07:20.640 --> 00:07:21.040] Got it.
[00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:25.200] Okay, so you get these landed out of your spare bedroom or the garage or something.
[00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:25.440] Yep.
[00:07:25.440 --> 00:07:26.480] Well, now I got to sell them.
[00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.600] So what happens next to try and move these units?
[00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:39.920] So again, from previous businesses that I've done, I've learned skills like web development, you know, creating video campaigns and, you know, learning about social media itself.
[00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:41.520] And I think I applied all those skills.
[00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:44.000] I spent months developing the brand.
[00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:53.600] But essentially, I created a website on Shopify and I then developed video ads and I posted them organically and also utilized UGC content eventually.
[00:07:53.600 --> 00:08:00.640] Because I didn't have the capital to spend on paid ads, the organic definitely paid off because it was profitable, much more profitable than it is now.
[00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:03.440] The only difference is obviously paid ads is predictable.
[00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:06.480] You know that you're going to make money, whereas organic is hit or miss.
[00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:09.360] You know, you can't guarantee anything with organic, if that makes sense.
[00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:10.000] Gotcha.
[00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.280] Was the organic content under your own handle?
[00:08:13.280 --> 00:08:16.080] Was it under a cool tow, like new handle?
[00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:17.520] It was under a cool tow handle.
[00:08:17.520 --> 00:08:22.480] I think the original videos are actually deleted now just because they weren't the best, but they did well.
[00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:24.160] They got, you know, a good million views.
[00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:24.960] Oh, my gosh.
[00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:30.000] But content that I've got on there now is, you know, they've all got a really good amount of views.
[00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.280] I think they're averaging like 500,000 with paid.
[00:08:33.280 --> 00:08:36.320] But they're also, all the ones I've got on now are UGC ads.
[00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.200] I only really do UGC right now for that TikTok account.
[00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:44.240] And I think that's been really helpful for me to grow because the people that are making content are experts.
[00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:49.680] They know how to sell products, and they and they have all the equipment and all the skills necessary.
[00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:50.720] Got it, got it.
[00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:55.440] Yeah, well, I'd love to get into the UGC or the user-generated content in a little bit.
[00:08:55.440 --> 00:09:00.440] But it sounds like you throw up the Shopify store and you start to create these own video ads about the product.
[00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:05.960] Do you remember which one or two, like the format or structure that popped off and got to a million views?
[00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:08.680] And I imagine helped move those initial units?
[00:09:08.680 --> 00:09:14.280] Yeah, I think it was videos that I did that had trending sounds.
[00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:20.120] It was almost like a drop shipping type of, if you've seen all them drop shipping videos on TikTok, where it's like just the product.
[00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:21.720] So I had like just the product.
[00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:22.760] It was a good hook.
[00:09:22.760 --> 00:09:24.520] It was a controversial hook, I think.
[00:09:24.520 --> 00:09:26.760] Some of them were targeting their pain points.
[00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:28.360] Obviously, for me, it was overheating.
[00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:35.160] And it was like, and some of them were about menopause, some of them were about, you know, at the gym, some of them were about all sorts of stuff.
[00:09:35.160 --> 00:09:39.480] You know, I had lots of different pathways I was trying to go down to see what performed the best.
[00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:39.800] Okay.
[00:09:39.800 --> 00:09:41.480] And at the end of the day, it was trial and error.
[00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:46.040] Like, there was no set-in-stone video scripts that worked.
[00:09:46.040 --> 00:09:46.440] Okay.
[00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:46.840] Yeah.
[00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:52.120] Do you have a sense of the volume of these little videos that you made?
[00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:54.520] You know, five, ten, twenty.
[00:09:54.520 --> 00:09:59.640] Like, what's reasonable to say, okay, this is either going to work or this is not working?
[00:09:59.640 --> 00:10:05.480] I think I posted about 50 videos before my first one properly blew up.
[00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:09.480] I mean, I think the first, like the 15th video did well.
[00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:12.360] It got like, you know, 30,000, 50,000 views.
[00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:17.000] But then I think the 30, 40th type zone was where it did really well.
[00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:17.400] Okay.
[00:10:17.400 --> 00:10:25.160] The reason I ask is it's helpful to know where it's like, well, I posted five things and I've kind of exhausted my creativity and it didn't make any sales.
[00:10:25.160 --> 00:10:27.160] So I was like, well, I guess this is not going to work.
[00:10:27.160 --> 00:10:27.320] Yeah.
[00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:27.480] Yeah.
[00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:31.720] It's like, no, no, take 30, 40, 50 swings and keep iterating on the.
[00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:34.680] And it's interesting you say, oh, I need to find a controversial hook.
[00:10:34.680 --> 00:10:38.040] And I'm like, well, what's controversial about a little cooling neck towel?
[00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:42.440] It's like, you gotta make it make it applicable, and then like try and find some angle.
[00:10:42.440 --> 00:11:01.520] One thing I did do in 2023, especially, is I looked at similar, not cooling towels, but similar so it was drop shipping ads I was looking at and seeing the viral, the outliers, the ones that are done really well, and then taking them and sort of putting that idea and not copying it, but putting my own spin on it.
[00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:10.320] Yeah, I think that's what I did because I obviously you say about you know your my creative mind and I couldn't develop you know two videos a day doing it all by myself.
[00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:15.520] I had to go to other people who have done well already, and it's the you know the proof of concepts already there.
[00:11:15.520 --> 00:11:24.960] Okay, is it all uh Shopify at this point on the cooltow.co.uk site, or is it set up a TikTok shop in parallel?
[00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:30.080] So at the start, it was Shopify, but then after about a month, I went to TikTok shop.
[00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:38.640] So throughout the end of 2023 and the whole of 2024, I was only on TikTok shop because it was doing incredibly well.
[00:11:38.880 --> 00:11:43.200] I think the conversion rate was like numbers that I have never seen on Shopify before.
[00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:47.200] It was just, I think because the platform was new, it was pushing my videos out further.
[00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:47.680] Okay.
[00:11:47.680 --> 00:11:52.400] And also, it's got a bigger platform for businesses, I think.
[00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:57.680] Like, it's got a built-in affiliate system that really helped me grow.
[00:11:57.680 --> 00:12:02.240] And it also, I think the fact that users don't have to go off the app is also really good.
[00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.240] So they don't have to go to a separate website.
[00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:05.760] They're always on TikTok.
[00:12:05.760 --> 00:12:06.560] I think that's good.
[00:12:06.560 --> 00:12:13.200] Yeah, maybe there's something in the algorithm where TikTok wants to keep people on the app, or maybe they make a cut of every sale.
[00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:14.080] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:15.760] Yeah, I think TikTok shop is great.
[00:12:15.760 --> 00:12:17.680] It's definitely got its big benefits.
[00:12:17.680 --> 00:12:22.480] But the only thing I would say is it's also got its not-so-good aspects.
[00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:23.680] I've had a lot of issues with it.
[00:12:23.680 --> 00:12:26.560] It can go into detail if you want me to about the not-so-good bit.
[00:12:26.560 --> 00:12:29.040] But like fraudulent orders, or like what kind of issues?
[00:12:29.040 --> 00:12:31.160] Yes, well, the first 50 orders I ever got.
[00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:31.960] So, this is the story.
[00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:41.640] So, when I first got that viral video that did really well organically, I remember waking up, running into my parents' bedroom and like going, Oh my goodness, I've just sold 50 orders.
[00:12:41.640 --> 00:12:47.320] Yeah, you know, I've just got 50 all of it, it was the whole stock, you know, everything that I bought on the first batch, right?
[00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:58.040] And it was literally like it was my first time properly that I've done side hustles in the past, and I've done like you know, small businesses, but that was the first time that I thought I can really scale this, I can really take this to the next level.
[00:12:58.040 --> 00:13:01.800] And obviously, it took a lot of time to do that, but in the moment, it was amazing.
[00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:09.000] Sure, long story short, I sent out the orders for the first time via like it was called second-class shipping, we call it in the UK, okay.
[00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:14.440] But essentially, they didn't have a tracking number, all of them didn't have a tracking number, and I thought that that would be okay.
[00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:22.040] But TikTok shop did not like that, and even though I had proof from every single buyer that the order has been delivered, they didn't pay me a penny.
[00:13:22.040 --> 00:13:25.080] So, all of that time, you know, all that money spent on the product.
[00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:28.600] I had to pay a TikTok shop fee, even though I didn't get any money back.
[00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:30.840] So, it was a big loss on the first one.
[00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:32.360] Oh, my gosh, okay.
[00:13:32.360 --> 00:13:36.600] They were like, We require you to send it some method that can be tracked.
[00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:37.560] Correct, yes.
[00:13:37.560 --> 00:13:39.960] I mean, it was in the small print, but it was just a mistake.
[00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:41.320] Oh, yeah, brutal.
[00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:42.680] Oh, my gosh, I'm sorry, dude.
[00:13:42.760 --> 00:13:46.600] Yeah, I mean, I had lots of things like that, and uh, and that was all my capital gone.
[00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:48.600] You know, that was a big moment.
[00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:50.440] Again, a lot of people would have given up then.
[00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:53.800] Yeah, I was gonna plow that into more inventory, yeah.
[00:13:53.800 --> 00:13:55.240] Oh, my gosh.
[00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:56.600] So, what happens after that?
[00:13:56.600 --> 00:14:00.600] I think the main thing that's there in that moment was I learned that the proof of concept was there.
[00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:03.480] I know that, you know, there is a demand for this, it can work.
[00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:16.880] Yeah, well, you got kind of a narrow selling season, and now if you got to go back to your manufacturer, and it's going to be another four to six weeks to get the inventory to you, it's like, ah, I gotta, I need it now, you know, I gotta get it here now.
[00:14:17.760 --> 00:14:32.160] And that is definitely one of the big issues I had: one, cash flow because it takes, especially when you start off on TikTok shop, it takes, I think it was two months for from the order place to you getting the you know the money in to your account.
[00:14:32.160 --> 00:14:33.600] Oh, sure, sure, okay.
[00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:37.600] So, and then I also had to then take that money and then spend it on product.
[00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:41.600] So, basically, I had no money for half the summer, and that was my big issue.
[00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:43.360] I had no cash basically.
[00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:51.280] And this is across any type of physical product, e-commerce, where even if you find something that hits, okay, it was a big initial order quantity.
[00:14:51.280 --> 00:14:52.480] Okay, I got it landed.
[00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:55.520] Now, I'm either almost practically giving the units away.
[00:14:55.520 --> 00:15:06.480] This is the traditional Amazon model to get reviews and build sales momentum to try and climb in the ranks and hopefully make some organic sales, or I'm running paid ads to try and boost up the conversions and everything else.
[00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:12.400] And it's like, and then whatever you made, if there was any margin left, now you got to plow it back into more inventory.
[00:15:12.400 --> 00:15:17.680] Sometimes for years, like the cycle goes on, so I can relate to that.
[00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:20.000] Yeah, that is exactly what happened, really.
[00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:26.240] So, for the whole of 2023 and I would say half of 2024, it was just recycling.
[00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:29.840] It's just literally like trying to build up their capital, but then waiting again.
[00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:35.680] And then I then got into paid ads in mid-2024, and that's when, yes, I started to scale up a lot more.
[00:15:35.920 --> 00:15:40.560] I had months where I was selling 500, 600 cool towels.
[00:15:40.560 --> 00:15:42.480] You know, that was big for that time.
[00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:42.880] Yeah.
[00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:51.600] But then, obviously, my margins were significantly cut down because I was selling the product for eight pounds and I was spending five pounds on ads alone.
[00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.960] I was choosing quantity over actually making money.
[00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:56.480] It was stupid, really.
[00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:59.760] Now, I think now I look back on it, it was stupid because I just wanted to see what I'm orders.
[00:15:59.760 --> 00:16:02.360] I wanted to see the success.
[00:15:59.920 --> 00:16:05.000] That was just a schoolboy error of me, I think.
[00:16:05.320 --> 00:16:07.320] Yeah, how much volume can we push?
[00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:09.080] Sure, but meanwhile, you gotta.
[00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:09.640] Correct.
[00:16:09.640 --> 00:16:11.560] Yeah, it was like, how far can I take it?
[00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:13.560] Okay, that's interesting.
[00:16:13.560 --> 00:16:18.040] Have you been able to get the cost of acquisition down this summer?
[00:16:18.040 --> 00:16:19.640] Yeah, this definitely 2025.
[00:16:19.640 --> 00:16:20.040] Yes.
[00:16:21.160 --> 00:16:23.800] TikTok have released this new thing called GMV Max.
[00:16:23.800 --> 00:16:29.480] It's essentially what it does is it runs ad campaigns for you via AI.
[00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:32.680] And essentially, it just means you don't have to know anything about ads to run them.
[00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:35.240] But what you do need now is a lot more creatives.
[00:16:35.400 --> 00:16:42.440] You need a lot more people and you need to make a lot more content to do well on it and to get your CPO down.
[00:16:42.440 --> 00:16:42.920] Okay.
[00:16:43.560 --> 00:16:44.360] Got it.
[00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:56.440] More with Harrison in just a moment, including how he thinks about the per-sale profitability of each cool towel and his large-scale user-generated content campaign coming up right after this.
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[00:17:52.880 --> 00:18:00.000] Shopify.com/slash sidehustle years ago, this is probably 2009.
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[00:18:20.320 --> 00:18:30.400] It was the first in a long series and an ongoing series of steps in trying to take control by being okay of letting go of certain tasks.
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[00:19:14.320 --> 00:19:27.680] Okay, is now a good time to talk about how you think about the unit economics of this, where it's like, okay, well, the initial production run was three pounds per towel, but now we're ordering way more at a time.
[00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:31.080] So, that production cost goes down, and we can sell them for $8.
[00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:33.720] We could sell multiples, you know, and give customers a discount.
[00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:38.760] Talk to me about how you think about the margins on like a per sale basis.
[00:19:38.760 --> 00:19:43.480] When I first started, I was buying them in about £3 and I was selling them for about £8.
[00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:45.240] Obviously, there are lots of hidden costs with that.
[00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:47.080] So TikTok take a 10% fee.
[00:19:47.080 --> 00:19:50.680] In the UK, now I have to pay 20% income tax.
[00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:55.080] Then I have to spend a set amount on the ad spend if it's not organic.
[00:19:55.480 --> 00:20:00.840] I then may have to spend 20% on affiliates because they get a commission for every sale they get.
[00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:03.320] I've got subscriptions to software that I use.
[00:20:03.320 --> 00:20:08.040] I've got lots of stuff, you know, that I think that's what people need to know about starting the business.
[00:20:08.840 --> 00:20:13.640] The numbers look amazing, but when you really deep dive into it, I'm making money, but don't get me wrong, I'm making money.
[00:20:13.640 --> 00:20:14.680] I'm grateful to be where I am.
[00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:16.600] Yeah, but it's thin.
[00:20:17.160 --> 00:20:19.320] There's not a lot of wiggle room there.
[00:20:19.320 --> 00:20:19.880] Correct.
[00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:21.800] Yeah, I think I have improved that over time.
[00:20:21.800 --> 00:20:23.800] So as I develop my brand, I've started.
[00:20:24.040 --> 00:20:26.680] I now charge £10 per unit instead of £8.
[00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:26.920] Okay.
[00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:28.600] So I've increased the price a bit.
[00:20:28.600 --> 00:20:31.560] I now get charged 20% VAT, so that's almost taken off.
[00:20:31.560 --> 00:20:31.960] Sure.
[00:20:32.040 --> 00:20:33.800] I've obviously lowered my CPO down.
[00:20:33.800 --> 00:20:35.480] I've lowered my ad costs down.
[00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:37.240] So, yeah, and also my product costs.
[00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:39.400] So it goes both ways.
[00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:39.800] Okay.
[00:20:39.800 --> 00:20:51.640] So the advantage of the ad spend is, well, I can drive steady sales at a somewhat predictable cost per acquisition versus just trying to hit the next viral spike on the organic side.
[00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:54.120] Am I hearing, am I kind of understanding that correctly?
[00:20:54.120 --> 00:20:55.480] Yeah, pretty much.
[00:20:55.480 --> 00:20:55.880] Okay.
[00:20:55.880 --> 00:21:01.640] How did you go about recruiting affiliates or user-generated content creators for this?
[00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:03.560] Or those are kind of one in the same?
[00:21:03.560 --> 00:21:08.440] So, TikTok Shop has a built-in platform for affiliates and for creators.
[00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:20.400] So, in 2024, what I did was I, well, first of all, I was manually going through the list of I don't know what it was, like 10,000 creators, and I was manually pasting in each message, sending off each message.
[00:21:20.560 --> 00:21:31.360] I was spending hours on this, and I was getting like you know, people were replying to me, and I was sending out free samples, but it was slow, it was very slow, and there was definitely a lack of creators on the platform at that time.
[00:21:31.360 --> 00:21:41.680] But now, in 2025, I use a subscription-based software to basically automatically send out messages for me to creators that are doing well, which is obviously much better.
[00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:43.600] All right, what tool is that?
[00:21:43.600 --> 00:21:46.400] It's called Reacher, Reacher AI.
[00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:47.600] Oh, okay, got it.
[00:21:47.600 --> 00:21:48.560] It is a good software.
[00:21:48.560 --> 00:21:52.160] Well, I think it's only good if you have an established brand, really, because I don't think I could have done it from the start.
[00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:57.680] Just because to get them affiliates to accept, you need to have proof of concept with your product, you need to have sales, you know?
[00:21:57.680 --> 00:21:58.720] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:07.920] Is there an opening pitch with, hey, I'll send you a free towel, or do you have to lead with I'll give you 500 pounds, or do you have to lead?
[00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:10.080] Well, you can earn 20% commissions on all this.
[00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:12.320] What's the initial conversation look like?
[00:22:12.320 --> 00:22:19.280] So, I filtered on the platform, I said only message people that have over £100 gross merchandise value.
[00:22:19.280 --> 00:22:24.640] So, essentially, what that means is I only message people who have sold £100 worth of product in the last 30 days.
[00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:26.240] I said it very low barrier.
[00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:32.400] For me, because my product's so cheap to get out, I actually would rather go quantity over quality.
[00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:34.400] I'd rather just get loads of people making videos.
[00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:36.800] And if one goes bang, it's easy, you know.
[00:22:36.800 --> 00:22:44.240] I'd rather do that than choose specific creators, and also just because I'm doing a commission-based idea and a couple of retainers as well.
[00:22:44.320 --> 00:22:45.280] I'll go into that in a minute.
[00:22:45.280 --> 00:22:49.920] But essentially, I didn't have to pay people to make videos, I only had to give them free samples and a commission.
[00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:51.760] Okay, yeah, it's all performance-based.
[00:22:51.760 --> 00:22:59.040] Hey, look, if you drive sales, you're gonna make money, I'm gonna make money, everybody's happy, and it all it costs you was the cost of the product to get in their hands.
[00:22:59.040 --> 00:22:59.520] Correct.
[00:22:59.520 --> 00:23:02.280] Were you focusing only on UK creators too?
[00:22:59.840 --> 00:23:03.240] Is it or is it like this?
[00:23:03.320 --> 00:23:04.360] This is worldwide.
[00:23:04.360 --> 00:23:05.720] Yeah, so this is the thing.
[00:23:05.720 --> 00:23:13.320] So, uh, cool tow for 2023, 2024, and basically all of 2025 has been UK only.
[00:23:13.320 --> 00:23:13.640] Okay.
[00:23:13.640 --> 00:23:16.840] Mainly because TikTok shop does not allow me to sell them internationally.
[00:23:16.840 --> 00:23:18.600] That's one big issue I've got with it.
[00:23:18.600 --> 00:23:25.160] But it's definitely, definitely got its downside to that because the UK weather is extremely seasonal.
[00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:29.960] So I've probably got a four-month window of relatively hot weather.
[00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:32.440] Then it goes to rain and cold and winter.
[00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:34.360] So I'm almost out of time, really.
[00:23:34.360 --> 00:23:37.720] And that's why I have plans in the future is definitely to expand internationally.
[00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:41.480] But do you want me to read out the cold message I sent out to the creators?
[00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:42.600] Oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
[00:23:42.600 --> 00:23:44.040] I said, hey, creator name.
[00:23:44.040 --> 00:23:46.280] So I basically extracted the creator's name from it.
[00:23:46.280 --> 00:23:47.720] And I said, I hope you're well.
[00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:55.160] I'm reaching out from Cooltal, a trademarked family-owned brand with over 11,000 sales on TikTok shop and hundreds of five-star reviews.
[00:23:55.160 --> 00:24:02.760] We've built a movement around cooling towels, helping athletes, parents, menopausal women, pet owners, and outdoor workers beat the heat naturally.
[00:24:02.760 --> 00:24:06.200] No batteries, no chemicals, just science that works.
[00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:09.960] You wet it, wring it out, and snap it to feel cooler in seconds.
[00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:11.160] What makes us different?
[00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:12.920] We're not just a drop shipping store.
[00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:17.400] We donate to charity, reinvested creators, and care about actually making a difference.
[00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:22.280] We already have proven video formulas shared with affiliates that drive thousands in commissions.
[00:24:22.280 --> 00:24:27.320] And if your content performs, we will boost it with paid ads and offer retainers for long-term deals.
[00:24:27.320 --> 00:24:31.480] You don't have 20% commission, and we'd love to send you out a free sample so you can try it out first.
[00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:36.680] Let me know if you're interested by requesting a sample, and I'd be happy to answer any questions and get you involved.
[00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:39.160] Best regards, Harrison, founder, Cool Tail.
[00:24:39.400 --> 00:24:40.680] That was the message I sent out.
[00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:41.800] Yeah, that sounds great.
[00:24:41.800 --> 00:24:46.160] And that had a pretty good response rate, I think, for cold messaging.
[00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:46.320] Yeah.
[00:24:46.560 --> 00:24:51.840] Did you pay any attention to follower account on those creator accounts that you're reaching out to, or is like that?
[00:24:51.840 --> 00:24:53.200] That's pretty irrelevant.
[00:24:53.200 --> 00:25:03.440] When I was manually doing it, I did, but I actually realized that followers, especially on TikTok, don't really matter because someone with 2 million followers can get the same amount of views as someone with 50,000.
[00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:05.760] And someone with 50,000 can get the same amount of people with 100.
[00:25:05.760 --> 00:25:07.680] It all depends on the quality of the video.
[00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:08.000] Yeah.
[00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:08.800] No, that's good.
[00:25:08.800 --> 00:25:18.800] Do you have a sense of how many free cool towels you sent out to creators, to influencers, to try and cast this really wide net, this body of content you're trying to build up?
[00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:23.120] Probably sent around 800, maybe 1,000 free samples out.
[00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.920] A lot of them haven't got any sales back.
[00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:28.560] You know, a lot of them were even people who didn't even make a video at all.
[00:25:28.560 --> 00:25:34.880] You know, I'm not saying everyone was successful, but I mean, I've had some cases where they've done £15,000 in revenue just from one video.
[00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:38.960] Like, some of them have been ridiculously good and it's really been successful.
[00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:41.520] Yeah, that seems to be the name of the game.
[00:25:41.520 --> 00:25:48.240] It's almost playing like micro-venture capitalist, where it's like, I'm going to plant a bunch of seeds, and I know most of them aren't going to grow.
[00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:50.160] Most of them aren't going to do anything.
[00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:58.400] But the one or two that do, they're going to wipe out all the losses, all the costs of doing everything else, and make a ton of sales.
[00:25:58.400 --> 00:25:58.960] Yeah.
[00:25:58.960 --> 00:25:59.440] Okay.
[00:25:59.760 --> 00:26:01.360] So we mentioned Shopify.
[00:26:01.360 --> 00:26:06.240] We mentioned the Reacher app to kind of automate some of this outreach process.
[00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:10.560] Anything else on the tools and tech side that is helping run this business?
[00:26:10.560 --> 00:26:11.520] I use a lot of Canva.
[00:26:11.520 --> 00:26:13.360] Yeah, anything to do with design, you can do on Canva.
[00:26:13.360 --> 00:26:14.080] It's ridiculous.
[00:26:14.080 --> 00:26:14.400] Yeah.
[00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:15.680] I use a lot of Chat GPT.
[00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:16.400] This is a big one.
[00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:17.920] Yeah, I use a lot of AI.
[00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:18.640] Totally.
[00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:20.000] Just to help me.
[00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:23.040] I mainly use it for a customer service.
[00:26:23.040 --> 00:26:25.600] So I have an AI bot to do some of the customer service.
[00:26:25.600 --> 00:26:29.880] And if it doesn't respond in time, if there's a big issue, it then goes to me.
[00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:36.200] But I also use ChatGPT for, if I have to do anything that needs a lot of time, I chuck it into ChatGPT and see if it can do it for me.
[00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:38.040] But if it can't, obviously, I will do it myself.
[00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:39.960] But yeah, it's a big, big one for me.
[00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:43.720] Do you have any recent example of a ChatGPT use case like that?
[00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:51.240] For example, I'd say, like, help me set out a layout for my website for a calling towel, and here's the information for it.
[00:26:51.240 --> 00:26:56.920] Make sure it's X, Y, and Z, and make sure it fits the theme that I'm going for.
[00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:03.320] And I basically just, the main thing for me with AI is to give it a good foundation.
[00:27:03.320 --> 00:27:05.240] You know, you can't just say a couple words.
[00:27:05.240 --> 00:27:07.320] And for me, it's got to be a good foundation.
[00:27:07.320 --> 00:27:09.720] To get the output you want, you have to give a good input.
[00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:10.200] Right.
[00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:11.880] Fiverr is another one.
[00:27:12.120 --> 00:27:16.840] If I ever need to outsource something, I will occasionally go to Fiverr if I really can't do it myself.
[00:27:16.840 --> 00:27:20.920] But most of the time, I do tend to try and do it myself just because I feel like it's good.
[00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:28.600] Especially for me, like I like to learn new skills and learn how to do it myself just so it's sustainable because I don't want to keep outsourcing it.
[00:27:28.600 --> 00:27:34.120] On the site, it looks like you're doing all you can to improve the average order value.
[00:27:34.120 --> 00:27:36.600] It's like, well, the shipping is more or less the same.
[00:27:36.600 --> 00:27:40.120] If I'm sending one of these out or if I'm sending two, three, four, or five of these out.
[00:27:40.120 --> 00:27:40.360] Yeah.
[00:27:40.360 --> 00:27:43.560] So it looks like you're kind of encouraging multiple orders.
[00:27:43.560 --> 00:27:46.120] Hey, buy one for the whole family kind of a thing.
[00:27:46.120 --> 00:27:49.960] Anything else you found effective in increasing that cart size?
[00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:54.680] Well, for the drop shipping stores I was running, I like to upsell as well, if possible.
[00:27:54.680 --> 00:28:02.040] And I'd like to also try and only use products that drive repeat purchases.
[00:28:02.040 --> 00:28:07.320] So, obviously, cool towel isn't a big one, but at the end of the day, the towel will eventually get smelly.
[00:28:07.320 --> 00:28:08.760] And, you know, it's like cloves.
[00:28:08.760 --> 00:28:18.800] You know, you want to eventually get a new one, which is good for me, obviously, because it means reoccurring income and the average order price of a customer does increase, you know, value of the customer.
[00:28:19.120 --> 00:28:23.120] Yeah, it's not something that people are going to subscribe to, especially on their first order.
[00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:24.960] Like, hey, I'll send you one every three months.
[00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:26.320] Like, yeah, probably not.
[00:28:26.320 --> 00:28:27.040] I agree.
[00:28:27.040 --> 00:28:32.000] Well, for my plan in the future, I'm going to start creating new products and I'm going to try and upsell them.
[00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:37.600] I'm going to do like cooling headbands, cooling pet products, you know, different colors, different packaging.
[00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:39.760] You know, there's lots of different pathways I'm going down.
[00:28:39.760 --> 00:28:42.720] And essentially, I'm trying to increase the cart value.
[00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:44.080] You know, that's the main thing.
[00:28:44.080 --> 00:28:44.560] Got it.
[00:28:44.560 --> 00:28:44.880] Okay.
[00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:49.360] Underneath the cool towel umbrella, we could have other cooling-related products.
[00:28:49.360 --> 00:28:53.360] Yeah, expand more and more, add more SKUs to the inventory here.
[00:28:53.360 --> 00:28:53.920] Correct.
[00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:57.280] Talk to me about the logistics side of this.
[00:28:57.280 --> 00:29:02.640] So after the first, well, we ship these out second rate or second class mail, and that was a mistake.
[00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.080] And so, what's the fulfillment side look like?
[00:29:06.080 --> 00:29:08.240] You're still fulfilling orders yourself.
[00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:13.520] I think I saw a video of, you know, hiring a bunch of teammates and friends to come pack and label and do all this stuff.
[00:29:13.520 --> 00:29:15.280] But what's that side of it?
[00:29:15.280 --> 00:29:20.480] This is like the big question I get asked: why don't you go to a 3PL, a third-party fulfillment?
[00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:22.240] So a warehouse to do it for you.
[00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:25.600] And the main thing for me is: one, I enjoy packing them.
[00:29:25.760 --> 00:29:26.560] I like the process.
[00:29:26.560 --> 00:29:29.040] It's quite satisfying, you know, seeing all the orders go out the door.
[00:29:29.040 --> 00:29:30.800] Two, people like a tangible business.
[00:29:30.800 --> 00:29:32.640] People like the fact that, you know, they can see it.
[00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:35.600] It's a real, it's not just some big corporation.
[00:29:35.600 --> 00:29:39.920] Three, I can make content out of it, and that will then lead to more sales.
[00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:46.720] And yeah, so with the orders, either do it myself and if it's a big day, it's all for my bedroom here behind me.
[00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:49.840] I've got over there, I've got boxes and boxes of cool towels.
[00:29:49.840 --> 00:29:50.640] It's in my bedroom.
[00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:51.040] Yeah.
[00:29:51.040 --> 00:30:00.200] If it's a big day, if it's a really hot day, and I've got loads of ads running, and I've got my biggest day, I think, was about £25,000 pounds in revenue this year, which was like, it sold me out.
[00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:02.120] You know, it was just like ridiculous.
[00:30:02.120 --> 00:30:06.520] Which would be what, like 1,500 or 2,000 individual towels?
[00:29:59.840 --> 00:30:06.760] Yeah, yeah.
[00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:08.120] It was something around 2,000.
[00:30:08.120 --> 00:30:08.520] Yeah.
[00:30:08.520 --> 00:30:09.080] Oh my gosh.
[00:30:09.080 --> 00:30:13.880] That's like so much backing and shipping and licking and stamping and labeling.
[00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:14.760] Yeah.
[00:30:14.760 --> 00:30:19.080] So I bought around 10 of my school friends and I paid them all, you know, a good wage.
[00:30:19.080 --> 00:30:20.760] I got my family around.
[00:30:20.760 --> 00:30:22.520] Literally, everyone was here.
[00:30:22.520 --> 00:30:27.800] I didn't do it for that day, but a couple of the days, if it got that big, I would then auto-utilize my dad's warehouse space.
[00:30:27.800 --> 00:30:29.960] He runs his own bespoke furniture business.
[00:30:29.960 --> 00:30:30.440] Oh, okay.
[00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:31.720] So there's some storage.
[00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:32.760] This is in the family.
[00:30:32.760 --> 00:30:33.960] We have some extra space.
[00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:34.360] Okay.
[00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:35.160] Yeah.
[00:30:35.320 --> 00:30:40.600] I did have the option of renting it out, but one, I want to lower my overhead cost as much as possible.
[00:30:40.600 --> 00:30:42.280] And also, like, I enjoy having it here.
[00:30:42.280 --> 00:30:43.640] You know, it's not a burden to me.
[00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:44.920] I enjoy it.
[00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:45.320] Okay.
[00:30:45.320 --> 00:30:48.920] So packing and doing the shipping yourself, again, margins are pretty thin.
[00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:55.640] So having a 3PL, you don't have to raise prices or do something else to cover their fulfillment cost space.
[00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:58.520] And you don't get any content out of it because somebody else is doing the work.
[00:30:58.520 --> 00:31:09.560] More with Harrison in just a moment, including the risk of running out of inventory and some of the unexpected benefits of racking up millions of views on his videos coming up right after this.
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[00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:33.960] So, what happens when you have this viral hit and it's 2,000 orders in a day, something nuts, and you're like, well, I only have a thousand units in stock.
[00:33:33.960 --> 00:33:39.560] Like, what happens to the stuff where it's like, oh, we physically can't fulfill this because we don't have it.
[00:33:39.560 --> 00:33:42.600] So, this is actually a really good question because this happened to me.
[00:33:42.600 --> 00:33:45.160] Essentially, I oversold massively.
[00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:46.360] I was a bit stupid, really.
[00:33:46.360 --> 00:33:48.040] So, I got the sales.
[00:33:48.040 --> 00:33:54.120] So, the order was coming from my manufacturer and it said it was expected to be here in about three days or four days.
[00:33:54.120 --> 00:33:56.280] But, long story short, it got stuck in customs.
[00:33:56.280 --> 00:33:59.880] So, it got stuck, you know, at the airport, it was.
[00:33:59.880 --> 00:34:00.760] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:34:00.760 --> 00:34:04.040] And all the orders just were sitting there.
[00:34:04.040 --> 00:34:08.200] You know, I had all the orders on the computer, but I couldn't fill them because I didn't have any stock.
[00:34:08.200 --> 00:34:08.600] Yeah.
[00:34:08.600 --> 00:34:09.880] I completely sold out.
[00:34:09.880 --> 00:34:16.120] So, it was about, I think it was about 2,000 orders over the course of like two weeks that they were stuck in customs.
[00:34:16.120 --> 00:34:17.720] So, I was like, okay, this is really bad.
[00:34:17.720 --> 00:34:18.040] Yeah.
[00:34:18.040 --> 00:34:19.160] And I emailed TikTok.
[00:34:19.160 --> 00:34:19.960] I tried to sort it out.
[00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:22.360] I tried to say, you know, can you try and help me?
[00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:27.960] Can you basically on TikTok after a certain amount of time, it will cancel the orders and I'll just lose all the money.
[00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:29.160] And that's what happened.
[00:34:29.160 --> 00:34:31.160] I lost 2,000 orders.
[00:34:31.160 --> 00:34:32.040] And that was all.
[00:34:32.120 --> 00:34:33.560] I still had to pay affiliate commission.
[00:34:33.560 --> 00:34:34.280] I'm pretty sure.
[00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:35.800] I still had to pay ad spend.
[00:34:35.800 --> 00:34:37.480] That's the main cost that I lost.
[00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:42.840] It was about, so in total, I reckon I lost £10,000 in a week, which was a big, big loss.
[00:34:43.160 --> 00:34:53.320] And I do think I did manage to recover some of that because I used this platform Reacher to send out messages to the buyers that have orders have been automatically cancelled.
[00:34:53.320 --> 00:34:55.480] And I said, hey, so sorry about this.
[00:34:55.640 --> 00:34:59.400] You know, the stock got stuck in customs, which was a bit awkward.
[00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:04.120] But I sent a nice message, and I think I got, you know, a few sales back, which is good.
[00:35:04.120 --> 00:35:06.440] But pretty broke even, which isn't great.
[00:35:06.440 --> 00:35:08.280] Yeah, yeah, that's so frustrating.
[00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:12.200] It's kind of this impulse buy price point where it's like, oh, you see the video?
[00:35:12.200 --> 00:35:16.160] Sure, I'll take a chance at that for 10 or 15 pounds to get a couple.
[00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:21.920] And then it's like, but then if it doesn't show up immediately, it's like, well, do I really need this in my life anymore?
[00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:24.080] Or it's like, ah, it gets cancelled.
[00:35:24.560 --> 00:35:29.120] And it also really hurt my brand as well because lots of people wrote negative reviews and it hurt the brand.
[00:35:29.120 --> 00:35:30.080] Yeah, not just money.
[00:35:30.080 --> 00:35:31.040] It hurt me.
[00:35:31.040 --> 00:35:31.440] Yeah.
[00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:32.320] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:37.520] A lot of different pieces to juggle and try and forecast because you don't know when the next viral thing is going to hit.
[00:35:37.680 --> 00:35:44.480] Like, I don't need to order 5,000 units if I don't think I'm going to sell 5,000 units and have all the cash tied up sitting in the warehouse.
[00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:46.400] It's like, there's a lot of moving parts here.
[00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:51.600] So, aside from the initial shipping mistake, anything else you would do differently starting this thing over?
[00:35:51.600 --> 00:35:54.000] At first, I advertised the brand.
[00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:54.800] I didn't use my face.
[00:35:54.800 --> 00:35:57.280] I only used the logo and the product.
[00:35:57.520 --> 00:36:04.320] I think if I used my personal brand from earlier, maybe I would have done a little bit better, but I'm definitely doing that now.
[00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:11.920] You know, I think personal branding is now, especially in 2025, is something that is so, so strong.
[00:36:11.920 --> 00:36:13.360] And there's so much potential in that.
[00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:18.400] And that's definitely something, definitely something I want to keep going with and keep expanding.
[00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:21.920] Do you think that's a response to just everything being AI generated?
[00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:24.560] It's like, no, I want to buy from Harrison.
[00:36:24.560 --> 00:36:26.080] I want to buy from an actual person.
[00:36:26.080 --> 00:36:26.800] Yeah, I do.
[00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:27.600] I really think that.
[00:36:27.600 --> 00:36:35.280] Yeah, I think a lot of my sales have been because people like to support real businesses and ones that, you know, aren't just AI here.
[00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:37.440] Well, Breakup, you've got lots of great press.
[00:36:37.600 --> 00:36:40.160] It was a Yahoo article that I initially found about you.
[00:36:40.160 --> 00:36:42.240] It's like, well, this is a really inspiring story.
[00:36:42.240 --> 00:36:44.960] Any other big surprises that have happened as a result?
[00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:46.720] Yes, this is a big one.
[00:36:46.720 --> 00:36:56.640] So, literally, about two months ago, from the personal brand videos that I made, like packaging orders and telling my story, that was where it all started on the Harrison Art TikTok account.
[00:36:56.640 --> 00:36:57.200] Yeah.
[00:36:57.200 --> 00:36:59.200] And essentially, I went viral on there.
[00:36:59.200 --> 00:37:07.160] I got like multiple videos with like 4 million views just because people liked the fact that it was a teenager, not just like you know, gaming.
[00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:10.760] And from that, one, I got sales.
[00:37:10.760 --> 00:37:13.240] Two, I developed a personal brand.
[00:37:13.240 --> 00:37:16.280] Although it's still quite small, it's still better than nothing.
[00:37:16.280 --> 00:37:21.720] Three, I got quite a few opportunities, and people email me, like just like yourself, you emailed me.
[00:37:21.720 --> 00:37:23.720] But I also had lots of different people, really.
[00:37:23.720 --> 00:37:31.160] I had a guy called Alex, who like owns a big company, and he was like, if you ever need any help or mentorship, I can do that for you free of charge.
[00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:32.680] You know, so opportunities, really.
[00:37:32.680 --> 00:37:38.440] And the main one that I got from these personal brand videos was an email from Ali Barber.
[00:37:38.440 --> 00:37:44.840] And they said, we are doing a co-create event in Vegas and Las Vegas and London.
[00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:45.480] Okay.
[00:37:45.480 --> 00:37:48.120] And essentially, we want you at both of them.
[00:37:48.120 --> 00:37:52.840] And it would be all costs paid, you know, and we want you to create promotional videos.
[00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:54.280] And basically, it was like a brand deal.
[00:37:54.280 --> 00:37:55.160] And I've never had that before.
[00:37:55.160 --> 00:37:59.640] And that was like, I'm literally going to Vegas in four days, five days.
[00:37:59.640 --> 00:38:00.840] I'm going to going off to Vegas.
[00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:01.320] Wow.
[00:38:01.400 --> 00:38:02.520] You know, paid by them.
[00:38:02.520 --> 00:38:05.320] So that was really, really, really cool, I think.
[00:38:05.320 --> 00:38:07.240] And yeah, that was a cool experience.
[00:38:07.240 --> 00:38:08.680] So networking as well.
[00:38:08.680 --> 00:38:09.560] That's really cool.
[00:38:09.560 --> 00:38:11.960] Yeah, you never know who's out there watching.
[00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:12.920] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:38:13.560 --> 00:38:16.120] I thought school was starting next week, but no, you're going to Vegas?
[00:38:16.120 --> 00:38:20.040] Yeah, so school starts on the 2nd of September.
[00:38:20.360 --> 00:38:21.560] But I'm off to Vegas.
[00:38:21.560 --> 00:38:24.200] Yeah, I've got permission by the school to have a time off.
[00:38:24.760 --> 00:38:25.400] School can wait.
[00:38:25.480 --> 00:38:27.080] I got business to attend to.
[00:38:27.080 --> 00:38:31.240] I focus on school a lot as well as businesses as well as squash and the gym.
[00:38:31.240 --> 00:38:33.880] Yeah, I just like to be busy all the time, really.
[00:38:34.120 --> 00:38:35.400] With the personal brand thing.
[00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:35.800] Yeah.
[00:38:35.800 --> 00:38:36.520] Well, it's really cool.
[00:38:36.520 --> 00:38:39.720] I think this is probably going to be the rule for our kids on social media.
[00:38:39.720 --> 00:38:43.480] It's like you don't need to be on here unless you're making money.
[00:38:43.640 --> 00:38:46.000] You don't need to be on here unless you're building something.
[00:38:44.680 --> 00:38:48.480] If you're a creator rather than just a consumer, yeah.
[00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:49.520] I think social media is good.
[00:38:49.680 --> 00:38:54.240] I think you know, it's great to relax, but then I think people overuse it.
[00:38:54.240 --> 00:38:56.000] I think it's good in moderation.
[00:38:56.240 --> 00:39:00.640] I use it in moderation, you know, I don't, I don't use watch too much of it, but I do watch it.
[00:39:00.640 --> 00:39:05.520] You know, it's entertaining, you know, and I also think you can also learn from videos most some of the time.
[00:39:05.520 --> 00:39:07.760] You know, there's educational videos out there.
[00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:08.320] Yeah.
[00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:15.040] Also, from the personal brand videos that went viral, the main thing was I, like I said, I developed networking, you know, with people like yourself.
[00:39:15.040 --> 00:39:21.280] You know, there are lots of people that messaged me saying, you know, like I'm X, Y, and Z, and I like what you're doing.
[00:39:21.280 --> 00:39:26.640] You know, if you ever need any help, if you ever need any advice, if you want to do this X opportunity of me.
[00:39:26.640 --> 00:39:29.520] And one of them was a company called Paws.com.
[00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:35.200] And essentially, we're in the process of developing a partnership to create a dog calling towel.
[00:39:35.200 --> 00:39:36.240] And they're quite a big company.
[00:39:36.240 --> 00:39:40.480] So, like, you know, there's lots of opportunities you can get from posting social media videos.
[00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:42.080] You know, there's, I think that's one big thing.
[00:39:42.080 --> 00:39:43.200] It doesn't have to be about business either.
[00:39:43.200 --> 00:39:45.040] It could be about anything, the passion.
[00:39:45.040 --> 00:39:45.600] Yeah.
[00:39:45.600 --> 00:39:47.440] So we're expanding the product line.
[00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:52.800] We've got the different colors, different use cases, dog, the dog product line.
[00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:54.720] We've got this Alibaba event.
[00:39:54.720 --> 00:39:55.760] All expenses paid.
[00:39:55.760 --> 00:39:57.200] We've got school coming up.
[00:39:57.200 --> 00:39:59.360] What else is on the horizon for you?
[00:39:59.680 --> 00:40:01.440] International sales.
[00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:03.360] This is one big thing for me.
[00:40:03.520 --> 00:40:05.280] So I've got friends in America.
[00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:12.560] That's one, you know, I definitely want to get out to the States and maybe even like, you know, hot countries in Africa.
[00:40:12.560 --> 00:40:14.560] And, you know, other basically, I want to get around the world.
[00:40:14.560 --> 00:40:16.160] I want to get cool tail around the world.
[00:40:16.160 --> 00:40:20.240] Whether that's through 3PL or whether that's through like networking.
[00:40:20.240 --> 00:40:27.920] So, I've had quite a few people from like loads of different countries saying we'd love to host your product out here and dispatch it, you know, around our country.
[00:40:28.240 --> 00:40:29.600] It's a brief selling window.
[00:40:29.680 --> 00:40:30.920] Are you doing Amazon at all?
[00:40:31.320 --> 00:40:32.920] Maybe I should have asked earlier.
[00:40:32.920 --> 00:40:33.800] I am on Amazon.
[00:40:33.960 --> 00:40:38.520] I get probably like one or two sales a day maximum.
[00:40:38.760 --> 00:40:42.120] I think that's because really I don't know enough about the platform just yet.
[00:40:42.120 --> 00:40:46.200] I think I can utilize it a lot more, but I basically just create a listing and let it run.
[00:40:46.760 --> 00:40:48.440] I didn't do anything to it.
[00:40:48.440 --> 00:40:49.880] So, it's just running.
[00:40:50.040 --> 00:40:50.360] Got it.
[00:40:50.360 --> 00:40:51.000] I got it.
[00:40:51.000 --> 00:41:01.160] Yeah, we talked to another e-commerce entrepreneur earlier this summer, and he was like, Yeah, I have the listing up there because I think people just have a certain level of comfort with Amazon.
[00:41:01.160 --> 00:41:11.800] Yes, they heard about this through my own marketing, but for whatever reason, they're like, I don't want to check out on this guy's individual store, but I will go out and seek it out directly on Amazon.
[00:41:11.800 --> 00:41:12.680] That's what I found.
[00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:22.920] I looked at Google's search results, and especially when I was only on TikTok shop, lots of people saw the product, loved it, and just didn't trust TikTok shop at that point in time.
[00:41:22.920 --> 00:41:26.280] And I think I lost a lot of sales just because I wasn't on the website nor Amazon.
[00:41:26.280 --> 00:41:28.200] So, that was definitely a big one.
[00:41:28.200 --> 00:41:35.560] But regarding my plans for the future, I'd also like to get a bit more into wholesaling and potentially even retail.
[00:41:35.720 --> 00:41:39.960] I'd like to sell to big sports shops or sell to hotels.
[00:41:39.960 --> 00:41:43.960] You know, there's so many different pathways that I can go down, and I've got big plans.
[00:41:44.200 --> 00:41:46.600] I need to make a lot of decisions, really, I think.
[00:41:46.600 --> 00:41:48.520] But yeah, that's the goal.
[00:41:48.520 --> 00:41:50.520] Well, I'm excited to see where it goes.
[00:41:50.520 --> 00:41:56.840] I imagine probably do a follow-up at some point and see kind of a where are they now with what happened with Cool Tail.
[00:41:56.840 --> 00:41:58.040] That'd be amazing, yeah.
[00:41:58.040 --> 00:42:00.200] Yeah, I mean, it might not even be Cool Tale.
[00:42:00.200 --> 00:42:08.200] I'm also looking to develop my personal brand and just not only develop the cool towel name, but also develop my name just because it's so it's so powerful, especially in 2025.
[00:42:08.200 --> 00:42:12.760] And it just means that I can keep creating businesses and have that audience that trusts me, you know.
[00:42:12.760 --> 00:42:15.840] And I think in the future, I'd like to help people create businesses.
[00:42:16.160 --> 00:42:24.960] I'd like to help people, you know, learn about entrepreneurship, whether that's side hustles, whether that's e-commerce like I'm doing, anything really.
[00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:28.960] I'd like to just develop a social media page that helps people.
[00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:29.600] Well, very good.
[00:42:29.600 --> 00:42:30.480] We'll link that up.
[00:42:30.480 --> 00:42:33.920] Give them a follow at HarrisonNot on TikTok.
[00:42:33.920 --> 00:42:37.200] And again, cooltow.co.uk.
[00:42:37.200 --> 00:42:39.600] And really appreciate you stopping by.
[00:42:39.600 --> 00:42:47.440] This has been great, taking some lumps along the way, but overall, lots of cool lessons learned and some success from selling these things on TikTok at Shopify.
[00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:48.560] Thank you for having me.
[00:42:48.560 --> 00:42:52.880] Let's wrap this thing up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation.
[00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:55.760] For me, it would be: don't give up, stay resilient.
[00:42:55.760 --> 00:43:00.640] If it was easy, then everyone would do it because, you know, the pathway won't be smooth.
[00:43:00.640 --> 00:43:05.600] It'll be bumpy, and there'll be so many mistakes you have to get over, and so many errors, and so many problems.
[00:43:05.600 --> 00:43:08.080] But just enjoy the process and learn from your mistakes.
[00:43:08.080 --> 00:43:08.960] That's what I'd say.
[00:43:08.960 --> 00:43:10.160] Yeah, I like that one.
[00:43:10.160 --> 00:43:11.760] That's a line we use quite a bit.
[00:43:11.760 --> 00:43:13.440] If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
[00:43:13.440 --> 00:43:14.720] So keep at it.
[00:43:14.720 --> 00:43:17.040] A couple of takeaways for me before we wrap.
[00:43:17.040 --> 00:43:21.200] Number one, like on the surface, simple business: buy low, sell high.
[00:43:21.200 --> 00:43:24.560] You know, buy the product cheap, sell it for more, make your margin.
[00:43:24.560 --> 00:43:30.880] But there's some complexities in the shipping and fulfillment, in the timing of cash flow, in the marketing.
[00:43:30.880 --> 00:43:39.520] And on that marketing side, the importance of branding and being able to drive your own traffic, especially for something that might be considered somewhat commoditized.
[00:43:39.520 --> 00:43:41.120] Like, okay, I'll just go with the cheapest ones.
[00:43:41.120 --> 00:43:49.840] Like, but no, if I found the cool towel video and that's specifically the one that I'm after, click, click, click, and now I'm checked out on your store page.
[00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:50.800] I didn't have time.
[00:43:50.800 --> 00:43:52.800] I didn't even think about chopping the competition, right?
[00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:59.200] So you kind of command premium prices or higher prices than you would if you're just like a generic competitor on Amazon.
[00:43:59.200 --> 00:44:01.640] So those were a couple of things that stood out to me.
[00:44:01.960 --> 00:44:08.680] Your listener bonus for this week is my list of 25 e-commerce niche ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
[00:44:08.680 --> 00:44:16.760] If you've been inspired by this chat with Harrison, you can download that for free at the show notes for this episode and just follow the show notes link in the episode description.
[00:44:16.760 --> 00:44:18.520] It'll get you right over there.
[00:44:18.520 --> 00:44:24.680] Big thanks to Harrison for sharing his insight and big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.
[00:44:24.680 --> 00:44:31.800] Sidehustlenation.com/slash deals is where to go to find all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
[00:44:31.800 --> 00:44:33.240] That is it for me.
[00:44:33.240 --> 00:44:34.840] Thank you so much for tuning in.
[00:44:34.840 --> 00:44:45.160] If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend, to fire off that text message to that young person in your life who might be inspired by Harrison's story.
[00:44:45.160 --> 00:44:48.360] Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen.
[00:44:48.360 --> 00:44:51.480] And I'll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show.
[00:44:51.480 --> 00:44:52.440] Hustle on.