Bella Lin launched a side hustle to improve the quality of life of her pets. It’s become so successful that this 17-year-old was considering putting a college education on the back burner.
What To Know: Lin used $2,000 of her own savings to start a side hustle on Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN selling improved living spaces for guinea pigs. According to a CNBC report, the business brought in more than $410,000 last year alone.
Lin first started thinking about the business when she was 12 years of age. She had three guinea pigs as pets and thought they “looked miserable” trapped in their cages, so she let them roam outside in her parents’ fenced-in yard.
Before she knew it, the two-pound guinea pigs began disappearing. She thought they were escaping until her father saw an eagle fly off with one in its grasp. To avoid returning the animals to their cages, she started designing prototypes for a better solution.
Traditional guinea pig cages have bars, a top to close the cage and plastic bottoms. They are hard to clean and tend to smell bad, Lin said.
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Her early designs featured glass enclosures that allowed for more visibility. They also had a tiered base system where the cages could be cleaned by pulling out a removable plastic tray.
Ultimately she ended up using acrylic, which was much cheaper than glass and built replaceable bottoms from biodegradable, wax-coated paper. The bottoms can be removed and tossed out, which also keeps customers coming back to buy more, she said.
Her father connected her with a family-owned factory in China that was run by one of his former clients and she quickly launched her side hustle GuineaLoft selling the alternative cages on Amazon.
The factory in China made 100 cages in its first manufacturing run and Lin sold all 100 within two weeks without any marketing effort. The business now generates roughly $34,000 per month, but she’s reinvesting all of the profits into marketing and R&D.
After finding early success with her Amazon side hustle, Lin is considering taking a gap year after graduating high school to focus on her business and visit the factory in China.
"As someone who once placed great emphasis on academic validation, the success … of [my side hustle] has boosted my confidence in navigating life beyond high school,” Lin said.
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This story is part of a series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.
Photo: chiprida from Pixabay.
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