How to Start Your Side Hustle

Things were going really well until COVID hit and shut down that whole part of our business. So all the coffee shops, cafes, juice bars closed indefinitely, and Annie and I were in a little bit of a rut.

And I mean, I think that that is like the ultimate benefit, right? I think so many people spend their whole lives trying to find out what their purpose is, what they're passionate about. And to be able to have, whether it's a side hustle or your work, be that thing that you care so deeply about is so gratifying on a whole level that you can't even really put that into words until you experience it. In this podcast, we share how we grew a 7-figure food business out of our 2-bedroom apartment in Chicago, all during the height of a global pandemic, and bring in expert entrepreneurs to share their stories and wealth of knowledge in business strategy and innovation. I'm Annie Slavotsky.

And I'm Morgan Lerner. And let's bite into business, shall we? In today's episode, Starting Your Side Hustle, we are taking you back to when our 7-figure business was just a side hustle, aka just 1 year ago. We will be covering our story of how we got started in college, what to expect when growing your side hustle, and all the meaningful benefits of having a side hustle, one of which could be creating a full-time job for yourself. So we are so excited for this topic because we get to share our story, our full story, and reflect on the journey that brought us to where we are today. So without further ado, let's bite into business, shall we, Annie?

It is crazy to think back to when we started almost 5 years ago at this point, when, when Morgan and I were little freshmen at the University of Michigan. We were actually neighbors in our dorm room, and we bonded over a love of health and food. And I'm actually from Michigan. I didn't live too far away from campus. So one day I decided to invite Morgan to my parents' house to bake. And in that— Yes, she did. In that car ride to my parents' house, we were debating what to bake and Morgan's Mimi had this amazing recipe for banana bread. And my mom had one that I always loved. I actually would give away little gift bags of desserts to my friends. Morgan, do you remember this?

Oh my gosh, every holiday, like St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, and the one thing that was always in there was banana bread.

That is accurate. So we decided, what else would we make other than banana bread? We came home and got all of our ingredients ready to make a healthy version of banana bread, and I asked Morgan to turn on the oven, you know, to like 350 degrees.

Yeah, this is my shining moment. It was a really old oven. That's what I'm gonna blame it on. But essentially, I burned our very first loaf of go nanas. And we didn't give up. We knew it was a really good recipe, so we dove into the center. It was so gooey and so good. And Annie and I looked at each other because we were like, we are on to something. This banana bread is fire. We should sell it. So literally on the way back home to Ann Arbor, we came up with the name. We emailed the law clinic on campus to get an LLC. We got started, and shortly after, we had a really big, fun bake sale outside of a coffee shop on campus. And shortly after, just started selling our banana bread loaves around Michigan and on campus to coffee shops, cafes, and juice bars. And fast forward a few years, we kept growing the business and testing it on campus and started selling across 6 states. Annie and I moved to Chicago, became roommates, continued doing things, but we both had full-time jobs at this point. And things were going really well until COVID hit and shut down that whole part of our business. So all the coffee shops, cafes, juice bars closed indefinitely, and Annie and I were in a little bit of a rut.

It was literally horrifying. I mean, we had been working on this business for years, and overnight every single partner that we worked with shut down, and there was no end in sight. And we had hundreds of pounds of ingredients at our commercial kitchen in Ann Arbor that we were working out of that we were nervous were going to spoil. And Morgan Lerner and I had been talking about selling a banana bread mix for years. And then one morning we were like, why don't we just put together the ingredients that are in our commercial kitchen, put them in Mason jars, slap a sticker on there, and sell what we called quarantine kits at the time to make banana bread at home. And then We got our big break. Fox 2 News Detroit reached out to us. They had heard about our mixes somehow or another and asked us to be on the show.

Yep. And so that day I remember we got all pretty— we literally had orders coming in all day long and orders stayed pretty strong. And so we knew that this product had legs and we quickly decided to transfer it over to the manufacturer we were already in talks with. We even used our branding that we worked for pretty much a year on with a club on campus at the U of M, transferred that over to a mix version and rebranded and came out. And that was just last July of 2020. So just over a year ago, crazy to see the transition. And literally a month later, we were in Nordstrom Rack. They approached us just one month after, and we've really been expanding ever since. So now we're in HomeGoods nationwide as well. Um, we are on track to be a 7-figure business in our first full year of business, and just the growth that we've seen since that very first day is insane. It's crazy to look back, and I'm really proud of where we've come.

Absolutely. I think it's really funny to reflect on our story, especially since so many people are always like, oh my God, how did you start this business? You know, it, it seems so random to a lot of people, and You know, I think that it's really good to talk now about the expectations of starting your own side hustle as we reflect on our own story, because it may seem glamorous to, to have your own company, but there are a lot of hardships that come with starting your own side hustle.

Absolutely.

I would think the first one is when you decide to start a side hustle, people are not necessarily gonna take you seriously. You may face some haters, and that's because what you're doing really goes against the grain. I mean, Morgan, I remember when we decided to start selling banana bread, and my parents were even like, you know, baking is a hobby, it is not really a business, and you're in school. And obviously now they're, they're my biggest supporters, but in the beginning they were really skeptical.

Right? I think it's hard 'cause you said it really well. By essence, an entrepreneur and your idea should be something different. It's something that's going to challenge a norm in some way and people kind of step back at that and will maybe challenge that. And then additionally, you know, it may not be fully fledged if it's just getting started or if it's their side hustle and people love to spot errors and whatever. So get used to that, expect that. And just roll with it. You know, if it's serious feedback, take it. If it's some haters out there, roll with it and keep going. Don't lose your, your motivation.

Snaps to that. I would think some other key takeaways, uh, when you're starting off is it does take money to start a business. I mean, for us, we had to spend money developing a website. We had to hire somebody to do that. We had to purchase a bunch of inventory. And so really think about how you're going to fund the beginning of your side hustle. Grants are a really great option. Maybe you have to invest some personal money. Maybe you have to get a loan, but that's, that's something to take into consideration if you're, you're thinking about doing this, right?

And I would just say be realistic about it. You know, if it's something you're really excited about, you know, you want to do it, just take a look at what it takes, figure out what that is and how to get it. And there are tons of resources out there, but just make sure it aligns with your goal. And I think the second piece to this is you may not make money for a while. I mean, it took us years, years to make money. So we were doing it because we were passionate and it aligned with our goals and was okay with us if we weren't making money for a while. We had that expectation. So we were realistic about what it took, and that may not come with the money for a while, and we were okay with that.

As somebody smart said a really long time ago, it takes money to make money.

Yeah, who did say that? We need to put a little footnote for them.

If anybody knows that, send us an email.

Yeah.

And beyond the, the input of money and facing some haters, a huge part of starting a side hustle is that it's going to come with having to make some serious sacrifices, adjusting your priorities. Because, you know, for us, we started a business in college, and so we were already busy as students and we had social lives. So to add in baking every Wednesday night and delivering on the weekends. That meant missing countless football games that were pretty much integral to being a student at any Big Ten school. But we knew that we wanted to do Go Nanas and that we wanted to have this business. We made the decisions to give certain things up, but that's a piece of what comes with having your own company.

Yeah. And I honestly think for me personally, I can say this made me grow up in a lot of ways. In college, I think you can be figuring out your priorities a little bit, and It can be hard sometimes to make those sacrifices. I mean, I went abroad and Annie was here and had to manage our baking staff. That was a choice I made. That was a choice she made. You have to be real about what a business takes and be real about your priorities and other things going on in your life.

Yeah, and it's not easy, but it's made easier by having to make those sacrifices for something that you really care about, right? Like, it's difficult to think, okay, all of my friends are going out on a Saturday night and I have to stay in and do the accounting for my small business. But when that small business is something that to your core you are passionate about and you believe in, it's not so hard.

And that was a beautiful segue, Annie. Thanks for setting us up so well to the benefits, the fun part, all the good that comes with having a side hustle. And so our first point here is the purpose you get from doing it. So that's the fulfillment you get from owning something and watching it grow. And for me, this was really valuable in college because while I learned a lot in school, and maybe this applies in the workplace as well, go nanas, and having this side hustle really allowed me to figure out what lit me up and what my passions were and what I wanted to do with my life. And I got that from the business and its impact on people. And for example, I realized food just makes people really happy. So when we gave people this banana bread, whether it was a gluten-free customer that, you know, had never tasted something so good, or a friend of mine, they got so happy from trying our products and were really impressed. And that brought me so much joy. This really just gives me a purpose in my day-to-day job. So even if I'm doing a menial task like answering emails or answering a DM, there's a bigger purpose there. So it makes the whole thing so much more enjoyable because I'm working towards this. I know the impact it's making, and that at the end of the day just gives me a lot of happiness.

Yeah, and I mean, I think that, that is like the ultimate benefit, right? I think so many people spend their whole lives trying to find out what their purpose is, what they're passionate about, and to be able to have, whether it's a side hustle or your work, be that thing that you care so deeply about is so gratifying on a whole level that you can't even really put that into words until you experience it. I agree with everything you just said. I would also say that another piece of having a side hustle is the connections that come out of that, right? So you and I were obviously neighbors in our freshman dorms, but who knows if we would have gotten as close had we not had Go Nanas. And for those of you that don't know us, Morgan is my other half. We literally are the same people in so many different aspects. It is bizarre, right? And that's because we had this like-minded passion and interest, right? We are really really weirdly specifically passionate about allergen-friendly food products in the food industry. And so we were able to bond through that. But then beyond that, right, we get to talk to people all day long in this industry who are also really weirdly specifically passionate about health food products. And it's so nice to meet people who are on that level with you. And it could be the only way we would be able to facilitate that.

Right. And I think as we got more into the business and figured out more, you know, what lit us up and what we were passionate about, we just connected deeper because we got to know ourselves more. And that really allowed us to connect even deeper. So it's cool because you have to think about it even beyond the business. You figure out what gets you going. You maybe become a better person, a leader, a friend, and that allowed us to connect with each other and other like-minded people so much better. So those are just huge.

Yeah, definitely. I would think the last point here— drum roll, please—

this is the finale.

This is the finale. The biggest benefit in our opinion is when that side hustle becomes your full-time job. And I think that it can be daunting to some to understand when and if you can take that leap, but for us it was really clear, right? We had been working on GoNanas for for so many years on the side of school, on the side of our full-time jobs. The goal for us was we were passionate about this product, we loved this product, and we wanted to sell it to everybody. So the goal was always to do it full-time, and how we got there, that road was never so clear. But in the middle of the pandemic, when our mixes were, were really blowing up, our time commitment that we were able to spend on the company and all the things we wanted to do were so wildly out of whack there were so many things that we wanted to do and so many things we felt like we needed to do that our time availability because of our full-time jobs didn't allow for. So we knew we had to take that leap.

Right, I mean, we simply didn't have enough hours in the day to get what we wanted to get done to grow the business. And that's when we knew, I mean, yes, you know, there was Nordstrom Rack coming and we saw the demand in other ways that validated what we were doing, but it was a combination of the two that led us to the leap. And I think it's important to know that your side hustle, if it is not your goal to grow it, you know, have the same goals that we had, that's totally fine. Keep it on your weekends, on your nights, on your foot, whatever it is, that's okay. Our goal was to make it national and to have GoNanas everywhere. So to be at that, at that stage and have been able to take that leap was huge for us, especially after all the years of working on it as a side hustle to get it to where we could take the leap.

I think that's a really good point because You don't have to start your side hustle with the goal of having it be your full-time job. You could be doing something on the weekend that you love or something that brings you some extra money, but you love your full-time job and that is great. We are huge proponents of starting a side hustle if it's the right thing for you and if you are super passionate about something. So don't listen to our story and feel like, oh my God, I, if I'm gonna start this, the goal has to be for it to be my full-time job. 'Cause that's just not the case. If anything, the biggest point that you should take away from this is the sort of purpose having your side hustle brings to your life.

Exactly. I was gonna say, then we'd be ignoring the other points we talked about. I mean, the purpose and connection things are huge, and you can have that whether it's, you know, an hour a week or 40 hours a week or more, whatever it is.

So, or in our case, like, uh, 150 hours a week. How many hours are there in a week? Double that.

Not enough today, I'll tell you that. Well, this was so fun. Thank you guys for listening to our story about how we maintained our side hustle for years until it finally became our full-time jobs. And if you're looking to start your own side hustle, just be prepared to work harder than you've ever expected to, face some haters, miss some football games, make some personal investments, but know that it comes along with the greatest feeling of pride, joy, and purpose, and may even enable you to do what you love every day.

Well said.

Thank you guys for tuning in. And for our sweet tooth friends out there, if you're like, what is this banana bread? I need to try it. I'm so glad I discovered this podcast. You can find us on the gram at @eatgonanas. You'll get all the fun updates, behind the scenes, new flavor updates, all that jazz. And you can also find us online at eatgonanas.com. That's E-A-T-G-O-N-A-N-A-S dot com. And if you want to try our banana bread for free, we're just starting out and So we are building our reviews. You can help us grow. It means so much. So if you're on Apple Podcasts, rate and review, or for Spotify or something that doesn't use reviews, share your favorite part of the podcast on Facebook and Instagram and tag us. We will see you. We will enter you into this and we'll be picking winners to give away free banana bread every month. So you'll be contacted. We'll be on the lookout and they just make our day. If, if anything else. And the link to subscribe to our emails and the podcast itself so you never miss a Bite of Business will be in our show notes as well. So check those out. There's a lot of good links there. And see you guys next time.

Bye!

And that is all for the episode of Bite into Business. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day, and we will catch you guys in 2 weeks to talk about how to turn that side hustle of yours into a full-time job. So more juicy details next time.

Time. Thanks for listening!