$1.5M/year beard brand, college grad starts $300k/year cooler biz, $2.4M/year girlfriend service.

Hey starters - happy Thursday!

This week, we feature 4 amazing stories + 45 business ideas you can start in your PJ's.

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#1: This solo founder started a $1.5M/year beard grooming brand:

Antonio started Antonio's Barber Shop - a wildly successful barbershop and eCommerce business. 

What started as just an 8-chair barbershop has now turned into a brand with three different revenue streams:

1. Barber services: two locations servicing 250 clients per day
2. Sale of products through eCommerce store: profit margin of 30%
3. Barbering Academy: offering different levels of courses to become a barber!

He's now doing $1.5M/year as a solo-founder!

Check out Antonio's full story here!

Pat @ Starter Story: Want to see more beard brand success stories? This starter tells us exactly how he grew and sold his online 6-figure beard brand!

#2: Garrett started a $300K/year paintable cooler brand right out of college:

We just caught up with Garrett from COOLERSbyU - selling paintable coolers and accessories.

In the past four years, his business grew from a few thousand dollars a month to $300K/year with zero employees.

Fun fact? They've only spent a few hundred dollars on marketing in their entire four years. Instead, they've organically grown through Youtube DIY tutorials!

Search trends for coolers in the last year

Check out Garrett's full interview here.

Pat @ Starter Story: Want to check out our most popular drinkware brand interview? Check out this 23yr old solo-founder doing $144M/year selling drinkware accessories.

#3: This female founder started a $2.4M/year girlfriend service with zero employees:

Marike started Society Service - a high-end escort service in the Netherlands that focuses on a  "girlfriend experience."

She started the business at 21 years old and now generates a multi-million dollar turnover with zero employees.

• $2.4M/year as a solo-founder and no employees
• Started the business with $4K (permits and website)
• Average spend per client is no less than $1K with profit margins of 30%

​Her secret? Honesty & transparency about the business. She even wrote a book about all aspects of the operation which generated a ton of press and legitimacy.

Check out Marike's full story here!

#4: This coder built an $1M/year smart home security system:

Nate Clark started Konnected - a wired alarm system that connects to your smart home.

He validated the idea by solving his own problem - he was unable to monitor his home from his device while out and about.

Three years later, he's now doing 9,000 orders per year, generating approx $1M/year in sales with just four employees.

His secret?  User communication - word of mouth and lasting relationships with customers has proved to be the most valuable asset for the business.

Pat @ Starter Story: Want to learn 30 ways founders grew their business? We put together a full guide for you here.

#5: 45 Profitable Home-Based Business Ideas

Sitting at home (still) with some extra time on your hands?

We put together a list of 45 profitable home-based business ideas you can start in your pajamas.

Check out the full list here!

#6: Are you ready to boost your revenue?

I want to give a shoutout to our long-time sponsor Klaviyo.

Using Klaviyo will open up a massive, untapped sales channel and bring you closer to your customers!

I'm a huge fan of the product (I use it for Starter Story and love the segmentation/drip features). I've also been able to collect so many emails using their website form integration - my list growing over 3k/month now 😲

Here are just some of the impressive businesses we've interviewed that use Klaviyo for email marketing and are raving about the product - all great interviews you should check out as well!

• Brumate ($1.1M/mo at 23 years old)
• Sheets & Giggles ($76k/mo in just 6 months)
• Beardbrand ($100k+/mo - 1.5M YouTube subscribers)
• Abs Protein Pancakes ($25k/mo passive income business)
• Xero Shoes ($460k/mo - featured on Shark Tank)
• The Longhairs ($30k/mo)
• Framed Tweets ($25k/mo)

Level up your email marketing with 👉 Klaviyo!

(And thank you for your support 🙏)

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Thanks for reading! See you next week.

- Pat Walls, Founder @ Starter Story

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