702: I Turned My Disney-Inspired Running Skirts into a Profitable Side Hustle and a $120,000 Exit

Summary

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The Side Hustle Show – Episode 702 Summary

Title: I Turned My Disney-Inspired Running Skirts into a Profitable Side Hustle and a $120,000 Exit
Host: Nick Loper
Guest: Samantha Hamilton, founder of DottieForRunning.com
Date: October 16, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode tells the story of Samantha Hamilton, who transformed a handmade Disney-inspired running skirt into a thriving e-commerce business with a strong cult following—and ultimately a $120,000 exit. Host Nick Loper guides Samantha through her entrepreneurial journey from the first spark of an idea to selling the business a decade later. Listeners hear about product development, manufacturing domestically, leveraging community and social media, pricing, scaling, and eventually exiting the business.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Finding a Niche and Product Inspiration

• Samantha combined her passions and expertise: distance running, fashion background, and proximity to Disneyland (04:07–04:39).
• The initial product was a running tutu with a big bow, inspired by her mother's sewing creativity and her own experience at RunDisney races (02:21–03:49).
• Strong market validation came when fellow racers started stopping her during events to ask about her skirt.

Notable Quote:

“I wore the first couple down to the next couple of races and I got such a fantastic response as people literally stopping me as I'm running, asking where I got it and everything.”
— Samantha Hamilton (03:34)

2. Production and Manufacturing Decisions

• Early concern: production scalability. Samantha leveraged her LA fashion experience but wanted to keep manufacturing in the U.S. for flexibility and quality (04:07–06:33).
• Found skilled, out-of-work seamstresses near the University of Alabama through family connections—offering small batch production with higher craftsmanship and no minimums (04:39–06:22).
• All skirts were handmade with per-unit pricing to support the seamstresses’ own small businesses (18:42–19:19).

Notable Quote:

“There is a perceived value in being able to have that made in the USA stamp of approval on your product.”
— Samantha Hamilton (19:37)

3. Building Demand and the First Customers

• Started selling on Etsy, which was well-suited for handmade products and brought organic traffic (12:54–13:54).
• Attended Disneyland races armed with business cards and flyers, leaning heavily on grassroots marketing and word-of-mouth.
• Employed giveaways on Instagram and Facebook to generate growth and customer engagement (15:07–16:06).

Notable Quote:

“For someone who's starting out very, very small like this... I really still to this day will sing Etsy's praises as giving a home to like, sort of like the more sort of like handmade driven products.”
— Samantha Hamilton (13:54)

4. Pricing and Margins

• Initial price: $69 plus shipping, barely covering costs; eventual prices increased to $100–$130 as costs and demand grew (16:09–17:03).
• Prioritized paying seamstresses fairly and keeping a handmade, supportive ethos (18:42–19:37).
• Margins grew over time by carefully increasing prices and evaluating overheads.

5. Operations, Fulfillment, and Family Involvement

• Early fulfillment was DIY, done from Samantha’s home, then later by her parents when she moved overseas (20:41–21:35).
• Family support proved vital: her parents took over logistics and shipping, allowing the business to grow location-independently during her time in Germany (21:07–22:32).

6. Marketing, Social Media, and Community

• Relied on Instagram and, later, influencer marketing by recruiting ambassadors (“Team Butt Bow”) from the RunDisney community (23:01–26:22).
• Ambassadors promoted for product, not commission, and annual searches generated excitement and a sense of community: “It became a point of pride rather than, well, I hope to make my 20%” (26:10–26:16).

Notable Quote:

“People are applying to be dottie ambassadors.”
— Samantha Hamilton (25:10)

7. Scaling Up and Platform Moves

• Storefront started on Etsy, then expanded and eventually transitioned fully to Shopify as sales volume exploded (29:06–34:14).
• Shopify allowed greater control, reporting, and branding.
• Maintained a lean pre-order model for new designs and popular stock for bestsellers, especially after COVID-era event surges created unprecedented demand (29:16–30:23, 33:03–33:39).

8. Navigating Disney IP Issues

• Carefully marketed the skirts as “Disney-inspired,” never using direct Disney imagery or character names, and consulted legal friends to avoid IP infringement (09:14–10:22).

9. Preparing for and Executing the Exit

• After a decade, faced with family changes and scaling stress, Samantha decided to sell, wanting to prioritize time with her young children.
• Used Flippa to list and sell the business, attracted a buyer from the RunDisney community, and closed the deal for $120,000, with the transfer complete within about six months (36:46–46:32).
• Process involved legal, IP, and inventory transitions; Flippa’s platform ensured buyer vetting and confidentiality.

Notable Quote:

“It would be a really nice, for lack of a better term, like a nice bow on it if we could sell in the 10th year.”
— Samantha Hamilton (41:42)

Memorable Moment:

“She texted me the other day. She's like, I just want you to know. She's like, I think that I just ordered my 100th dottie skirt.”
— Samantha Hamilton (31:54)

10. What’s Next and Samantha’s Parting Advice

• Samantha is taking time off to be with her family but hints she has future entrepreneurial dreams: “I love retail. I love pretty things and I love the challenge of building a business around that” (47:50–48:36).
• Her top tip for side hustlers:

“Just do it. It doesn't matter…how big or small you think you have… Do your thing, keep your focus and believe in yourself and just do it.”
— Samantha Hamilton (48:57)

11. Host Takeaways

• Nick notes the importance of finding special intersections of your interests, and the value of cultivating community so the business can live beyond the original founder (49:21–end).

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Important Timestamps

• Product Inspiration & Validation: 02:21–04:07
• Production Decisions: 04:07–06:33
• Etsy Launch & First Sales: 12:54–13:54
• Early Pricing: 16:09–18:05
• Influencer Program Emerges: 23:01–26:22
• COVID-Era Demand Surge: 29:16–30:23
• Shopify Transition: 33:03–34:14
• IP Navigation: 09:14–10:22
• Decision to Sell: 36:46–41:35
• Selling Process & Flippa: 41:35–46:32
• Celebrating the Exit: 46:39–47:09
• Samantha’s Final Advice: 48:57

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Memorable Quotes

• “I wore the first couple down…people literally stopping me as I'm running, asking where I got it.” — Samantha (03:34)
• “There is a perceived value in being able to have that made in the USA stamp of approval.” — Samantha (19:37)
• “People are applying to be dottie ambassadors.” — Samantha (25:10)
• “She texted me the other day… I think that I just ordered my 100th dottie skirt.” — Samantha (31:54)
• “It would be a … nice bow on it if we could sell in the 10th year.” — Samantha (41:42)
• “Just do it. … Do your thing, keep your focus and believe in yourself and just do it.” — Samantha (48:57)

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Final Thoughts

Samantha Hamilton’s journey demonstrates the power of starting small, listening to your market, nurturing community, and crafting a lifestyle-driven business on your own terms—and the courage to recognize the right time to exit. Her story is equal parts inspiring, practical, and relatable, making episode 702 a must-listen for aspiring and current side hustlers.

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Transcript

[A]

How a handmade skirt sparked a profitable online business and eventually $120,000 sale. Along the way, my guest today got married, moved overseas, had three kids and still managed to keep growing the business before ultimately selling it for that six figure payday.

[B]

Stick around.

[A]

In this one we're breaking down how she came up with the idea, found her first customers and drove consistent sales for a handmade product that she didn't have to be the one making. Formerly of dottieforrunning.com Samantha Hamilton, welcome to the side hustle show.

[C]

Thank you so much for having me. It's lovely to be here.

[A]

You bet. So Dottie for running this is a business to sell Disney inspired skirts into a niche within a niche market. As I understand it, there's, you know, people who love to run and then there's people who love Disney and then there's an overlap there of people who love to run and love Disney and they really love these skirts. So that the business really blew up. Post Covid the return to these Rundisney events in 2021. Tell me about what was going on in the business at that point.

[C]

I was living in Germany at the time and all of us were having to get quite creative with our businesses and how to keep things rolling throughout the shutdowns and everything. And then when rundisney finally did reopen the race seasons and they came back in 2021 with their sort of big return to in person races, I had my first six figure quarter in sales and so that was a very, very big moment and a very like legitimizing moment.

[A]

Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

[C]

And then when I personally got to go back to my first post Covid rundisney event and see the customers and see team but bow as we became known in person and get that like outpouring of, of support and get to thank them in person, it was really, really a lovely full circle moment for me.

[A]

Yeah. To post a six figure quarter, not just a year, but from what started as a little hobby side project. We'll see if anybody's interested in these things. We'll put it out there.

[C]

Exactly.

[A]

So business started a few years prior to that and what was the inspiration to make these.

[C]

So rewind back to 2015 and I had started getting into distance running. I was living in working in la. I had a sort of big girl corporate fashion executive job. And in the back of my mind of course I'm thinking like what's next? And I always knew that I wanted to own my own business eventually, but I wasn't At a point in my life where I was able or willing to sink the big bugs into that sort of venture. And I had started going to these races. My mom is much more creative than I and much more talented than I and can sew. And she and I had designed these tutus for me to wear together and she had handcrafted them with love. And behind me, they. Something that became like a thing that I just like loved was these big bows on the, on the backside. And so I wore the first couple down to the next couple of races and I got such a fantastic response as people literally stopping me as I'm running, asking where I got it and everything. And of course at the time I said, oh, my mum made it for me. But it kind of got the gears churning and it was saying, you know, this might be something small for me to just kind of get my feet wet as far as what it takes to launch a business. And the rest is history from there.

[A]

Yeah, just combining what you've got. Okay. I'm starting to get interested in distance running. I am working in fashion, I'm in la. I'm going to these races. People are asking me, wait, where'd you get that thing? Like, okay, the bells start to go off. Like, well, maybe there's something here. So what happens after that?

[C]

A hurdle for me was going to be production. In my sort of big girl job, my full time job, I had worked a lot with overseas production.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

And I was constantly aware of the pitfalls that come with that. And of course, you know, I wasn't jumping in with two feet trying to do thousands of units of volume which would require. Require sort of, sort of that overseas production.

[A]

Right.

[C]

So I thought, you know what? Like, let's look closer to home. And my dad, until he retired, he was an ad.

[A]

Your mom didn't want to be on the assembly line doing every one of these?

[C]

No, she, she'd say, she obviously did the first few samples. But no, I, I couldn't full time recruit her. But my dad was, he was an administrator at the University of Alabama and there was a lot of factories that actually closed down in that region, which left a lot of out of work. So specifically for my purposes, seamstresses. And the craftsmanship and the talent was amazing from the second that they made the first sample from their end. And this is from very frugal sketches. I am by no means a pattern maker myself. And it became something that was like an added bonus for me that wasn't originally in my mission statement to be a Small business, working with other independent people who were looking out to try and build their own businesses. And the original seamstress who I was connected with, she stayed working with me until the very day that I sold. But if you're close to a university in particular, they have fantastic programs and they will talk you through very niche things that you're trying to accomplish and trying to get made and they will help you make the connections. So hopefully that's a good resource to guide people to.

[A]

So this is on the production side. Instead of going to some overseas factory or even production in la, it's like I got to think a little bit outside of the box. I got to think a little bit smaller, leaner. And I could find independent seamstresses halfway across the country who might be willing to take on some extra work. They're already really good at this stuff. And then from your end, it's like I just got to supply the material and the designs.

[C]

Yep. And there was no sort of pressure of. Of meeting minimums and putting in huge volume orders. I could invest into it. Exactly what I could.

[A]

Now, did you have it structured where we're going to do almost like digital mock ups. Here's what it's going to look like and then as soon as we get an order, we'll send it to the seamstress. Or did you have to have an initial stock?

[C]

So we did do initial stock, but it was all very grassroots. The first round of production. Ms. Lily was my very first seamstress and she literally made the first pattern from just measuring it out on a piece of paper from my sketches, from my mum's prototypes of. She sort of deconstructed it and said, okay, we'll need this, we'll need that. And like she. She literally created a pattern essentially out of nowhere. And then of course, over time, over time, we were able to build on that and get a bit more digitized so that we could have it more uniform. But that's where it started.

[B]

Was anybody else doing this?

[A]

Like, there had to be other similar competitors? Like, no. Or is it like this was truly.

[B]

No.

[C]

Now there is. So I had a couple of things that in hindsight were very much going for me. One was my location to Disneyland and that I was right there for sort of like the emergence of the sort of Rundisney fandom and it becoming like a big, big following behind that.

[A]

Yeah. People are doing these races, trying to set a personal best time. Like it's a fun atmosphere. My wife and her friend has done it. It's like, everybody's kind of happy and people are in costumes. It's like Nobod. Setting any Olympic records here?

[C]

No, there's families and the emphasis is get out there and have a good time. People are stopping for photos. And of course it's grown into something where now there's people who are there for like, sort of like a once in a lifetime experience as part of, like their, their Disney, like, portfolio, if you will. Yeah, it's a party environment. It's just a really, a really positive thing. So. But say I was lucky enough to be sort of on the very first wave of, the very first cusp of it really becoming like a costumed, photographed, social media element sort of thing.

[A]

Got it. Okay. And Disney wasn't selling anything like this themselves.

[C]

I would come to find out they weren't at the time. Nothing specific. They do have expos that go hand in hand with these rundisney events. And of course, like, I had applied to sell at a few of the expos and they very politely declined my application because they said it was too similar to products that they sell in the parks.

[A]

And did you ever run into the letter from the lawyer team saying, hey, this, this is a little bit close to our ip.

[C]

I'm very lucky to count a number of very talented lawyers in my close circle of friends. And all of them collectively said like that, inspired by those words can. Can protect you from, from a lot because you're not claiming credit for direct imagery. You're not claiming credit for a character. You're not, you're not claiming that it is exactly their product. You're saying, you know, like, I have taken that idea and built my own interpretation of it and that's considered fair.

[A]

Use because it's not a full Belle gown. It's a Belle Running inspired by Belle Running skirt.

[C]

Exactly. And I was always just very cognizant of not using direct imagery or anything like that in any of my marketing, of course, and just being a bit sensible about it.

[A]

Got it. Okay. Well, that's helpful. There's some precedence for it. Like fan fiction in a way. Other people selling Disney inspired merch for years and years. But tread carefully with the language that you're using, how you're promoting it.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

So what's the first step in in trying to put up a storefront or you know, going to the next event and trying to sell out of the trunk of the car. What happens next?

[C]

So my first platform that I used was Etsy and because it did have the hand, the hand sewn element and everything, I thought that would be a good match initially and then hand in Hand with that, I set up my social media. Instagram was relatively new. And then of course I set up the Facebook page and just started kind of organically plugging away, trying to, to get the word out. And then the, of course, like, I, I registered myself for the upcoming west coast Disneyland races and made sure I was armed with business cards, flyers for hopefully the people stopping me once again. And this time I would have resources and a place to point them to get their own sketch.

[A]

Yeah, sure.

[C]

That certainly seems to have brought those first few customers in.

[A]

Okay. Very grassroots versus, you know, fully, fully online. Like you just put up the Etsy shop. Was anybody buying until you, you know, started handing out cards? Did people find it organically?

[C]

Yes, they did. For someone who's starting out very, very small like this, I really still to this day will sing Etsy's praises as giving a home to like, sort of like the more sort of like handmade driven products. Because it is a platform as big as it is and as vast as it is. Traffic gets driven to you and traffic is always active. And I went into all of this thinking like, oh, it would be nice to, you know, ship one. One skirt a month. I would consider that like a success for the next few months, just trying to build it. And they found me. And right off the bat I was shipping, you know, at least one a week, I would say. So it was very nice to be able to get that sort of jump start with them.

[A]

That's great. Yeah, if I could do one a month, that would be great. I'm 4xing my goal right away. So positive traction. Were you doing anything to encourage those first customers to share this on social media, like to try and get the momentum spinning. So instead of shipping one a week, we could do three, four, five a week, something like that?

[C]

Oh, yes. This was the days of the giveaway being a hot thing on Instagram or Facebook. And so we would every couple of months or so offer one of the like like and follow us and share it with a friend and you'll get an entry into this drawing. For the giveaways, I feel like there was consistent growth on social media through just like word of mouth and through these little giveaways that then I was seeing a direct translation into sales. And, you know, the beauty of having such a small business is that you can stay in touch directly with the customer. And I think when they can tell that you're just, just starting out and they're excited to be aware that they're one of your first customers, you get that back and forth. And you do get to sort of like find out where, where they heard about your product or where they saw you. And, and that is something to lean into and learn from and see where you can sort of focus your efforts to get more of that growth.

[A]

How much were you charging for these initial orders?

[C]

Pretty much all of them were $69 and then a small shipping fee which I did keep at a flat fee and that covered everything. It didn't leave much wiggle room. But again, I was still working full time. I was still very much in a place of like, this is just the stepping stone business. This is not the business that is going to become a full time job for me. In hindsight, I think that I would have swallowed some of the imposter syndrome there and made sure I was priced still competitively, but making sure that I was able to comfortably take care of everything and truly draw a profit right off the bat.

[A]

Yeah, Looking at the site today, they're almost double that, you know, between 100 and 130 usually. So imagine the pricing increased over time. Sure. Production costs or material costs increased over time too.

[C]

And there's a lot of factors at play there in the, in the price increases. Number one is obviously the cost of materials and fabrics has gone up exponentially. And from there there's lots of, of hidden costs and like overheads and everything that you do have to take care of. So it's still priced very competitively and like, I think very fairly when, when you actually like, you know, sort of dig into it. But it like obviously it draws a profit now, which is nice.

[A]

Like how did you think about the margins in terms of the materials and the production and the shipping and any marketing costs? Was there a target? Oh, everyone that we sell is 15 bucks or 20 bucks. Like, you know, was there a percentage or anything like that?

[C]

Um, no. It's like when I first started it was very much cover my expenses and keep it as low as possible. And to be perfectly honest, to just get any customers at all and to make it like an, an appealing price point that, you know, you could tell right off the bat it was a fair price for the product you were getting.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And so it was an absolute necessity for me to stay under $100. And then from there I just kept like sort of trimming away and trimming away and trimming away until I absolutely couldn't anymore. And then it was, it was a couple of years before we truly sat down and like re evaluated the pricing and said, hey, I do need to increase by just a couple of dollars here and there just to make sure everything's taken care of.

[A]

Were the seamstresses charging you per unit that they made? Or say we're going to do a batch of 50 and it's going to be a flat fee? Like how did that part work?

[C]

Yep, they've always been per unit and I've always worked with them to make sure that they're taken care of. And it's a large part of the, the cost of production in general. But as I said, like it was all, it became a priority to me to be able to support other individuals who were kind of out to do the same thing I was doing and have their side hustle or have themselves make themselves their own bosses. So that was always a priority and I always worked with them to make sure pricing was fair. But yes, it was always a per unit pricing structure.

[A]

Well, it allowed you to still check the made in the USA box, to still check the handmade box versus yeah, we could probably go overseas and produce these at a lower cost. But is the quality going to suffer is, you know, now all of a sudden I got to order a thousand units. I got all this upfront capital tied up in inventory.

[C]

Exactly. There is a perceived value in being able to have that made in the USA stamp of approval on your product. And then there are so many hidden costs to producing overseas. The thing that I used to run into was timing issues. You can have your, your product mapped out for six months and they can get it on a boat in time, but if your container doesn't get inspected fully or if it has to go through the full customs rundown, it's not budging and no one has any control over that. No one can do anything about that for goodness knows how long. And it can add weeks and weeks and weeks of just waiting time on that international product.

[A]

What was going on in terms of the shipping and fulfillment? Like were you, were they all coming to your house, your garage and then you're sending them out or the seamstresses sending them out whenever an order came through. Hey, we got a large in, you know, the Elsa model or whatever. We gotta send this one out.

[C]

When I first started it was coming to me and I had sort of stock sitting there available to ship and I would just pull and pack as needed. Then as my personal circumstances changed and the volume grew a bit more, the warehouse, if you will, sort of migrated to my parents house and my mom became the default shipping and logistics manager.

[A]

Yeah, shout out to mom.

[C]

I couldn't have had a successful business without, without their efforts and without their support. With everything that's happened on the personal side of things in my life as well as the business, there would be no way for me to, to overcome a lot of like the logistics without mum and dad's support. So it's a family business? It' family run business?

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Yeah. So they, they started having sparkly tutus take over their house and shipping from there.

[A]

Okay. What did you ultimately transition into?

[C]

So one of the things that like was a huge hurdle for me was I shouldn't say this part is a hurdle but like I, I literally fell in love with a handsome officer and my husband is still active duty in the army and we were stationed in Germany for over four years. I've been so lucky to have the, the support my, my parents who said nope, this has already grown to bigger than you thought it would. We're going to keep it going. And they continued shipping from this with the time difference would wake up in the morning, send them the, any new orders that had come in, send them like the, the shipping batch from what would then be overnight for them while I was very much doing the, the customer service end of things and the, and the design and buying end of things from my computer in Germany.

[A]

So yeah, it's, it's a location independent business but somebody's got to touch the product and, and send it out.

[C]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So and thankfully they loved me enough to step up to the plate, I guess.

[A]

No, that makes sense. You mentioned doing the, the giveaways to grow the social media following and it's, it's a product that lends itself to social media in a way. People are going to be excited that they got this or have you seen these? You know and it's, it's, there's some built in word of mouth that can spread but what else was going on to market the product?

[C]

Well so I did lean into that word of mouth element and then the emergence of the influencers as being something that was a known marketing tool coming to the forefront a few years into the brand I created a team of ambassadors who were like very active in the rundisney community and had larger platforms than I on their, on their social media within their social media networks and specifically were sort of rundisney influencers if you will.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

And they have always consistently been a fantastic group of girls. It's sort of I'll give you product if you put it out there and promote it and wear it for the races and you know Take your lovely photos with your gorgeous hair and your gorgeous makeup and style it up and have fun with it. And they did just that and they kept it light hearted and fun and made it a very heart of like your rundisney costume experience being the butt bow and being a dotty skirt. So yeah, they were wonderful.

[A]

Were those influencer relationships? Were those on an affiliate basis? Were those just out of the good of their hearts? How did you have it structured?

[C]

Every September I would have an ambassador search and promote it and really have it be a chance for the community to get in touch with me. Tell me your story. I want to hear it like, you know, and I tried to keep it a diverse enough group every year where half the group had big follow accounts and had a lot of likes and a lot of shares and everything. But then the other half of the group were perhaps also like just trying to like get off the ground as like in their sort of influencer journey. But they had a very, very real interesting story that I wanted to help them share.

[A]

So wait, hold on, hold on. So at the beginning you're doing the outreach and saying, hey, I've got these great skirts, can I send you one? And maybe you promote it, maybe you don't. But over time it becomes. People are applying to be dottie ambassadors.

[C]

Oh, yes. Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. I had wanted to establish this like supportive community and we sort of organically became known as team, but bow.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

And again, it was one of those things like initially, like, hey, would anybody be interest, interested in being an ambassador? You'll get product and et cetera and everything. And then within a year it had become like, I hate to use the word like competitive. Like it had been like, like, hey, I'm, I'm interested in this, I want to do this. And I had to sort of find a way to, for lack of a better way of phrasing it, the selection process and put this like group together. And you know, luckily it's always been a wonderful thing and has brought me much, much closer to a lot of the girls who were out there wearing the product and brought them, brought some special people into my life. So it's. And then it really, truly did help with the outreach and everything and get the word out there within this microcosm specifically.

[A]

Yeah, it became a point of pride rather than, well, I hope to make my 20% if somebody buys one of these things.

[C]

Exactly, exactly. We kept it product based and unluckily there was, there was interest enough in that.

[A]

No that's really cool. That's cool. To build that community and have people like raising their hands and saying yeah, I want versus going out trying to beg people to promote your stuff.

[B]

More with Samantha in just a moment, including her first E. Commerce platform and sales coming up right after this. There are less than 100 days left in 2025, which means less than 100 days left to hit those goals that you set or to refocus your energy on what really matters. If you've got some catching up to do and maybe you've been procrastinating on taking that next step, our sponsor Indeed, can help you find the best candidates for the role you need to fill and find them fast. In fact, three and a half million employers worldwide already use Indeed to hire great talent Fast and it'll be my first stop when I need to make my next hire. Don't struggle to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed's sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast. Plus, with Indeed Sponsored Jobs, there are no monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts, and you only pay for results. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed side Hustle show listeners get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility@inn Indeed.com Sidehustleshow just go to indeed.com Sidehustleshow right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com Sidehustleshow terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. One of the tools I've personally seen make a huge difference for business owners is Quo, formerly OpenPhone. It's the same great business phone system you've heard me talk about before, just with a new name.

[A]

When you're running a business, you know.

[B]

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[A]

Phone or your computer.

[B]

So no more using your personal number as your business line. No more carrying two phones around. With Quo, your team can share one phone number and collaborate on customer calls and texts just like a shared inbox. So anybody can jump in to keep response times fast.

[A]

And this is where it gets super cool.

[B]

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[A]

Was there ever a viral spike or a moment where you find yourself running out of inventory or is because of the lean production we could ramp up if we needed to.

[C]

We had great and steady growth. Even leading up to Covid we were sort of growing by 30% year to year. But it was around that time when they did announce the first return to the in person races post Covid and there was a sudden rush to the site and everything was selling out all at once and everything. And I was getting for the first time disappointed customer feedback of like hey, like I want this skirt. It's not there when. Or like why can't I get it Sort of thing. And I'm sitting like in Germany going oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. And so we did start sort of adapting to a bit of a pre order model to sort of of figure out exactly what that demand was like order based on the photography and the sample and it'll ship in eight weeks. And then for this sort of tried and true consistent sellers, sort of like your princess base one, your Fab 5 base ones and everything like that. We did stick to more of a stock program for them. But yeah, it was that first initial wave of demand was sort of like wait, how do I do this?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So day to day you're handling customer support, you're doing what you can on the marketing side. You're forwarding orders to mom and dad and I imagine coming up with new designs. Like my initial thought is like at what point have you just saturated the market? Anybody who is doing these races and wants one of these things is going to have it. Or they just decide that wasn't for them. But like, well maybe we could sell multiple to the same customer if we just keep coming up with new styles for the next race and the next race.

[C]

Exactly. Luckily Rundisney is on a very accelerated, accelerated schedule and so they start selling races and they start promoting the themes for races months and months and months in advance of the actual event now. So as soon as those events drop, I would start on the designs and seeing what we could offer in like a new collection that was sort of hand in hand with those themes and then that would then be like the next pre order and to speak to the repeat customers. I cannot tell you the loyalty that we had. I have always been so lucky. And I think it speaks to a quality product and why it's worth sort of like the extra mile of, like, working with individuals and working with that handmade product. There's a young lady who I mentioned, like, I've become sort of like friends outside of the business with. With some of the customers. And she texted me the other day. She's like, I just want you to know. She's like, I think that I just ordered my 100th dottie skirt.

[A]

Oh, my gosh.

[C]

And I mean, she's been a customer for years and years and years. And I was like, I don't think I have 100 dottie skirts in my personal collection because I don't know where I would fit them all.

[A]

That is a super fan.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. It was amazing to see. It is a very, very loyal customer base. And I think that that's true of the Disney fans in general. It's a quality product. It's a. It's something that's ever evolving, ever changing. And the rundisney community is just that. They do a great job of it, putting an emphasis on it being come together and we'll all do this together. And I'm thankful for this every day. But for a lot of people, the Dottie skirt sort of became synonymous with all of that and became like a part of their race event. And putting their outfit together and putting their look together and putting their costume together was all part of the fun. I think that that's where a lot of that. That loyalty has come from.

[A]

Yeah, it sounds like it. That's a hundred different orders. That's pretty cool to have that kind of fandom, that kind of loyalty. Yeah. You mentioned Etsy. What are some of the other tools in tech that were running the business?

[C]

So when we did explode in volume and everything, I did transition to Shopify just because I had sort of streamlined how we were offering the skirt as far as not as many customization options and things like that to fit in with the increased demand. And I just wanted a bit more of like a sort of slick, for lack of a better term way of handling the back end of things. And Shopify does give you, I think, that many more options to control running reports and having the sort of snapshot for more factors of your business at your fingertips.

[A]

Was it all run through Etsy prior to that or were they kind of running in tandem?

[C]

It was all through Etsy prior to that. And then I did have a period of time where they were kind of running in tandem, but then as soon as I realized that we did have the name clout, sort of it was an established enough brand name that the website itself could just carry itself. I did transition everything to Shopify again, just to sort of keep everything as streamlined as possible for me. And of course, like, it allows you to have a little bit more control and have more options over building the website, which is nice.

[A]

Yeah. It's scary, though, to shut down the store or to put you put the store on vacation mode because it says, like, 3,500 sales and all this positive feedback and it's like, are they. Are they really going to come over here?

[C]

The fact that it's still on vacation mode is very much. I still am terrified of sort of, like, losing all of that data, if that makes any sense.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You never know what is going to spring up.

[A]

Could you turn it back on just as, like, incremental, like, if people wanted to discover it through. Sure. All of your marketing is going to point to the Shopify storefront, but, I mean, you don't. You. You don't own it anymore. It's not your problem.

[C]

But I definitely couldn't these days, Nick. But, like, but at a point in time. Yes. And that's actually something that, like, my mom was always saying, like, oh, can't you just keep the Etsy going?

[A]

Yeah. What if people are looking specifically on that store? I don't know.

[C]

I know. I hear and understand all of that. I reached a tipping point, which I wish we couldn't talk about more, but that, like, I did need to say, okay, like, this is as much as I can handle and admit to myself that I was almost, like, getting in my own way and say, like, try to streamline it and try to find that balance of what I was comfortable running and what I could run with everything going on around me and still offer the customer service and the quality and everything that we'd become. We'd become known for at that point. And so I think. Think one platform was more than enough.

[A]

Sure. Simplify, simplify. I like that call.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Anything else aside from Shopify?

[C]

We really, truly just did Shopify and then social media. And I did hire a social media manager for a while who was fantastic. And she very much, like, sort of tied things together for me as far as, you know, like, having the Facebook shop and everything. I am hopeless at Facebook. Like, I am very much a millennial in the sense that I used to share my photo albums on There. And then it sort of stopped for me. So we would get the odd order come through from Facebook, but again, like, it was never the big sort of draw, like, conversion for me.

[A]

Well, it sounds like things were really going well and had the systems in place and you had this loyal customer base and this group of fans and ambassadors. And then you say, hey, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore. Or, you know, somebody else. Somebody else could take this off my hands. That would be great. I'm going to walk. Talk to me about the transition from running the business to setting it up for a sale and then. And then finding a buyer.

[C]

In the time that I started the business, I got married and married into the military lifestyle. So very. We're still in it very much, like, every couple of years where we're moving to comes up to question. Like, you know, we just don't know where we're going to be from time to time. And then we also. We've been very, very lucky enough to. We have three small children now, but within the span of a few months, I had all of the dotty stuff going on. I had Arthur, my second little boy, and then we had a PCs back to the States. So we had an international move. He was literally three months old when we did that move. And I could see where I was sort of cutting corners a little bit, like, kind of going into survival mode, where I was, like, having to choose between my customers and my children, essentially. And I wish I didn't have the imposter syndrome at the time to hold me back from, like, establishing more help, because I think that I viewed that as, like, such a big commitment, and I wasn't ready to, like, take that on as well. But then no one can prepare you for having that second child and what that juggle does to your life and how it takes things over and everything. It's a glorious mess. So it was a huge transition time, and it was the first time that I really thought, can I keep doing this? Like, can I keep this up? And what does the end game look like? I started figuring out what that balance was, and I started not downscaling. But I was very much having to learn the word no in a lot of ways, because as small business owners, we have to realize that we're not Amazon, we're not Target. We cannot be available 24 7. As much as we wish we could be, and as much as you hate to even have, like, the tiniest, teeniest, tiniest bit of disappointment in a customer's email, or anything like that. And I had to figure out what that balance was. Like, this is what we're offering and this is like the volume that we can do and this is where we have to kind of cap this out.

[A]

Because it's doing hundreds of orders a month at this point. It's a significant operation. Bigger than maybe you ever expected it could be.

[C]

Never in a million years dreamed that this would become like sort of the legitimate business that it became. And you know, and by that point in time, like I was drawing like a paycheck from was my, my job. Like, you know, it was the transition from no longer being the side hustle to being my contribution to the family.

[A]

And I imagine, and correct me if I'm wrong, but like there's a certain level of identity tied up in that where, you know, it's. Samantha is synonymous with Dottie. And it, it becomes a thing again. It's. It would be hard to step away from.

[C]

Absolutely. I mean, I took a great deal of pride in the fact that like, it's sort of like this is the house that Tutu's built sort of thing. But I, I did feel like I was tripping over my own feet and getting in my own way as far as what the business could then become. I could see it right. Like I could see what it could be. And I just did not have enough control over my time. Time was the biggest, the biggest commodity and the most in demand thing. And to be perfectly honest, any of us who are parents, the cliches are very real. Like time is fleeting. And when you have these little children, like, you know, babies don't keep. And I'm very lucky to be in a position where I can be at home with the children. And I realized that, hey, like that window of opportunity is getting shorter and shorter and shorter.

[A]

Those days seem really long when you're in it. But it is, it is a very brief window.

[C]

Exactly. All of a sudden you're planning for kindergarten and he's going to big boy school, you know, so. Yeah, and, and as far as the business goes, it was coming UP on its 10 year anniversary this year. So I. Very little expectations. Started speaking to some brokers and researching what a sale would look like and sort of trying to get that idea of the valuation and everything. It's very, very, very expensive and very time consuming to sell with a private broker. Of course, like if you're talking about like a multimillion dollar sale, I would say like, you know, then that's when the private broker becomes worth it. That's when hiring your own accountant, hiring your own lawyer comes worth it. I knew that I was, you know, low six figures, and that was sort of like my bottom line was like, I just wanted to like, be in the six figures.

[A]

Okay, as a point of pride or just like, hey, that seems like a fair offer based on a multiple of historical earnings.

[C]

50. 50. Something that I learned along the way is the valuation is based on like the true profit. And it would be a really nice, for lack of a better term, like a nice bow on it if we could sell in the 10th year, you know, because then I feel like from the point of pride position, that's like, okay, I have owned this business for 10 years. That's no small amount of time.

[A]

Yeah, you made it. Seven out of ten don't make it to year five. You know, whatever the statistics are, you're like, not only do we make it, but, but, you know, now we found a buyer to carry the torch.

[C]

We're at this nice, like, round number. So I had some friends who had sold a, A, a small business a couple of years ago and they had got in touch with Flippa and they, they recommended I look into it and see if it would be a good option for me. And I just kind of had that like, initial phone call with them already with like a, a valuation range in my head from doing my own research. And they were right kind of bang slap in the middle of that. The fact that they're sort of full service in the sense that it's like all done for you, like the legal contracts, anything like that. It's all just kind of done. You don't have to worry about having contracts drawn up yourself. You don't have to worry about, like getting things like, looked at yourself or anything. It's all done.

[A]

And they promote the sale to, you know, a pretty big network of buyers at this point. Flip has been around forever versus you trying to get do manual outreach to other Disney sellers.

[C]

Where would I begin?

[A]

Other members of your ambassador team, maybe, like, I don't know. Who would be a target buyer for something like this? Somebody with some E Comm experience and who also loves Disney and tack it onto your portfolio.

[C]

Exactly. The young lady who became my broker, Malia, she. I remember in like one of our initial conversations, she said to me, you're not going to get hundreds and hundreds of buyers because it's such a niche business. She's like, but that's okay because you just need that one buyer.

[A]

Yeah, it only takes one.

[C]

Yeah, she's like that, that's what we're gonna go after is we're gonna go after that person who, who understands it, who really like knows and gets what this business is. She said, because they're, that they're, they're out there, you know, she was like I'm gonna find them. And sure enough she did. And the young lady who owns the business now, she very organically like she is a rundisney runner, she is a Disney fan and she just so happens to, you know, whereas I'm sort of in the, the early childhood stages of having my children, she's about to become an EMP next couple of years. So she, she was looking for like her project.

[A]

Sure. In the next chapter.

[C]

Yeah, exactly what's going to be hers. And from those initial conversations it just kind of felt like we understood each other and, and she like kind of got the vision and. Yeah. And then Flippa kind of took care of the, the rest. And the awkward bit, if you will.

[A]

Was it nerve wracking putting it up for sale and because you kind of have to, you know, open the kimono to in a sense on like here's what the business is making, here's our order volume, here's where are coming from. And part of it might be like well shoot, somebody could rip this off. Nevermind. They'd have to replicate 10 years worth of work to get to this point. But like that's in, that's in the.

[B]

Back of my mind.

[A]

And then just it's kind of vulnerable in a way to like be really, really transparent.

[C]

Flipper is very good about like they won't release any sales figures or numbers until someone signs an NDA to sort of like look into the business. And they have sort of pre approved buyers in that sense and everything who their funds are already there. They take out all of that sort of like legwork.

[A]

Okay. Yeah. Prove you're somewhat serious about it.

[C]

Yeah. And so we did have you know, sort of consistent interest from like venture capitalists and everything. But of course it's, it's a turnkey business only in the sense that it's established. It's not a turnkey business in the sense that you can be an absentee owner without taking the extra steps of like building a team who's going to run it on the ground for you. And so that was where you know, like a couple of months into the listing being up there, I was like, oh, am I kind of like barking up the wrong tree here? Like, and that's where like Malia was like no, like, stay steadfast.

[A]

That was, that was the next question. Well, how long did it take and sounds like a couple months at least.

[C]

The listing went live on November 2 and then the ink was dry and everything had been handed over. I think by April 23rd was the big date. Okay, so it took. Took, let's see. I think that it was early February when the young lady who ultimately became the buyer initially reached out and got in touch with us. And so it took a couple of months for us to get everything, like, sorted. And I mean, like, she already physically had the inventory. Like, we were signing the very, very, very final documents and handing over, like the very, very last bits of IP and stuff, like on April 23rd. So it was all.

[A]

Yeah, transfer the Instagram account, whatever else needs to happen.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. Here's all the passwords. It's yours.

[A]

Did you do anything to celebrate when that final wire hit?

[C]

A very expensive bottle of champagne? We definitely have a celebration trip planned, actually for like next summer. But army life, you can't really, like, plan these things too far too soon in advance. We've definitely had some special meals and stuff, but I'm very much looking forward to being on a beach with my husb and truly celebrating.

[A]

Yeah, it's really rewarding to have built something and grown it and sustained it and then to be able to remove yourself from the operation and have somebody take the reins and, and get paid for that. And that's a, that's a really cool kind of full circle side hustle, entrepreneurial moment. So congratulations on that.

[C]

Well, exactly, and thank you. It was very rewarding to be able to do that, that for my family and to be able to, you know, like to give us, give us options for the future and everything is again, like a very rewarding feeling.

[A]

Yeah. What are you working on these days? You got another project you're cooking up or just. I got these young kids at home. I'm going to be a mom.

[C]

So I had promised myself that, you know, like a lot of the catalyst for the sale was allowing myself the luxury of time with the children. So I have, I have promised myself, promised my husband that I will do that and I will be a stay at home mom for at least a year or so. That doesn't mean there's not things cooking back here because I think that once you sort of get the bug for, you know, being your own boss and everything and having your own business, it's hard to get away from that. And, you know, I think that at heart, I am a Shop girl. I love retail. I love pretty things and I love the challenge of building a business around that. So I'm sure that whatever is around the corner and down the road will include that revolve around that.

[A]

Well, I'm excited for whatever that project turns out to be. I hope you'll keep us posted and let us know. DottieForRunning.com is the skirt site. If you are in this Disney community and don't already have one of these in your life, go go pick one up. Help out the new owner over there. Samantha. This has been really, really fun. Let's wrap this up with your number one tip for side Hustle Nation.

[C]

Just do it. It doesn't matter like how big or small or you think you have or if it's going to be just like a small investment. Don't be put off by all of like the bigness of things that are out there and like the flash of things and like launch parties and everything like that. Do your thing, keep your focus and believe in yourself and just do it.

[A]

Yes. Start small, start quietly if you want to, but you gotta start. So appreciate that. A couple notes for me before we wrap. Number one is I'm looking add the theme of looking for these intersections and overlaps between different areas of your life if you're looking for that side Hustle idea where it was running plus Disney plus fashion in this case. And bonus points if one of those is something where there's a built in interest or demand, in this case Disney and the rundisney events where it's like you can kind of draft off of that popularity or piggyback on that popularity and that demand that already exists. I think that's a really powerful business building tactic. And the second thing was to really, really become a part of this community. Remember going back to the very first days where I made this for myself and people were asking me at the event, where did you get that? It's like, ding, ding, ding, ding. That's a good sign. So being part of that community and then fostering that community. We talked about the ambassador program, but not so much where you're the only ambassador. That makes it hard too to have this exit moment to sell down the road. It's like, I'm here, I'm part of it. I'm the voice, I'm the face. But you know, it doesn't have to be me all the time. And so there's a kind of a fine line to walk there. So I thought this was a really cool episode. We've got links to all the resources in the show. Notes if you're new to the show, welcome. We've got 700 killer episodes just like this one to binge on, but if you're a little more pressed for time, I understand that as well. What you can do is grab yourself a personalized playlist at Hustle Show. All you have to do is answer a few short multiple choice questions about your side Hustle goals, interests, you know, what do you like, what do you don't like? And it'll spit back out 8 to 10 of our greatest hits episodes based on your answers that you can go add to your playlist. You can go learn what works that is Hustle show for that personalized playlist quiz. Big thanks to Samantha for sharing her insight. Big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone. Sidehustlenation.com deals is where to go to find all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place. That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend. So fire off that text message to that Disney fan in your life, that professional 5 ker in your life, and say, hey, check this out. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen and I'll catch you in the next edition of the Side Hustle Show. Hustle on the.