Products for men who love stylish beards idea → 100k/month

🏖️ Creative Entrepreneur fun one-liner:

Why did the entrepreneur go to the bakery? Because he wanted to make some serious 'dough'!

Onto Today’s story….

Eric Bandholz loved growing beards, but everyone around him, associated him with bearded stereotypes who were very rough and rugged.

He didn’t like this association,and he built a business called BeardBrand and built products for his style of people.

Now he is making $100k/Month.

Let’s see how he did it.

Eric Bandholz was working as a financial advisor at a big bank, and he didn’t like the corporate pressure to conform.

He had to look and behave a certain way and it was too much for him.

He quit and started his own graphic design business.

At the same time, he also started growing his beard.

At that time in 2010, beards were not widely accepted in professional settings.

As Eric met people in his business dealings, they saw his beard and associated him, with the typical bearded stereotypes who were very rough and rugged.

But Eric didn't identify with those rugged mountain men lifestyles, and he didn’t like this association.

After attending an event full of bearded men more like himself,

Eric coined the term "urban beardsman" - your average dude with a beard, that doesn't fit the stereotypes.

Seeing an opportunity to unite these urban beardsmen, Eric launched Beardbrand in 2012 to give bearded men the tools,

and community they needed to feel confident being themselves.

Eric launched Beardbrand informally at first, with regular posts on Tumblr, a few blog posts and a few YouTube videos.

Growth was slow.

After a year, he had just 300 YouTube subscribers and 100 daily blog visitors.

One time, in November of 2012, a reporter from The New York Times, contacted him to feature Beardbrand in an article on beards.

Eric saw the opportunity for "free" publicity.

He quickly put together an e-commerce site on Shopify to start selling beard grooming products.

With his background in graphic design, Eric was able to build and launch the site in just two days,

on January 28th, 2013, Just in time to ride the wave of the NYT article published two days later.

He did not have any of his own products.

He found a small Etsy beard oil vendor and affiliated with him, to offer beard oils and mustache waxes to start.

The NYT article drove an influx of $515 in sales that first week, proof this was more than just a hobby.

Initial inventory was just $100 worth of products.

Once he saw people were buying the products, he started to create his own products.

Sales started to trickle in.

Eric slowly reduced his time at the graphic design business and focused on BeardBrand.

He brought on his friends as co-founders, and they invested sweat equity to keep operations lean.

In the early bootstrap days, Eric was fulfilling all the orders himself and hauling products to the post office.

At this time, he found out that his wife was pregnant with their first child.

With an expecting wife at home, Eric gave himself a tight deadline, to turn Beardbrand into a family-supporting business,

or he had to go back to the 9-5 corporate grind.

Luckily his wife was working, and they were able to support themselves by her salary.

At that time, there was no dominant player in beard care yet, and Beardbrand enjoyed significant early traction,

simply by taking beards seriously when no one else did.

More media publicity drove customers to their site.

But Eric knew his biggest growth channel was creating content with blogs, videos and podcast interviews,

to build his community of urban beardsmen.

Though it was tough, none of the founders took a salary for the first 10 months to keep costs down.

To their surprise, In 2014, Beardbrand was invited onto Shark Tank.

Overnight, appearing on primetime TV rocketed Beardbrand's brand recognition.

Site traffic spiked for months after and sales increased.

Once visitors visited their site, they would direct them to their Beardsman Quiz funnel, which allowed them to capture their email.

They also focused more on creating daily YouTube Videos, which became their largest source of traffic.

Consistent improvements in all these channels compounded growth.

Slowly, they introduced more products like beard oils, mustache waxes, beard wash, combs and tees.

Today, Beardbrand generates over $100K/month.

Not bad selling to a niche market.

Eric says… “Just do it. Nothing more than that.”

10 reasons why they succeeded.

1. Identified an unmet need through personal problem.

• Eric didn't fit the stereotype of the rugged, mountain man beardsman.

• He identified that beards were becoming more mainstream and men with neat, professional beards were an underserved niche.

• Creating the term "urban beardsman", he tailored his brand to support this group's specific grooming needs.

2. He coined a new name for his market

• When Eric started his business, the beard market was still new and fragmented without a dominant brand.

• He carved out the "urban beardsman" niche that was distinct from the rugged stereotype.

• This allowed Beardbrand to become a trusted, go-to brand for that underserved demographic.

3. Intrinsic Motivation to solve his own problem

• Eric already had a passion for beards and beard grooming products.

• He recognized the business potential when he encountered negative stereotyping of beards.

• Building a company around his interest created internal motivation during the early bootstrap days.

4. Validated demand with the least expense.

• Eric started with posts on Tumblr and a making a few YouTube videos.

• Once he got lots of responses and comments, he knew there was demand.

• The NYT article also showed him that Beardbrand had appeal, since he got some sales.

5. Tested sales with almost zero expense

• With no products yet, Eric affiliated with a small Etsy beard oil vendor to start.

• He didn't attempt manufacturing until basic demand for third-party products was proven.

• Leveraging existing micro-businesses let him test products before he made any big investment.

6. Prioritized organic growth through content

• Eric focused on blogging, videos and podcast interviews to fuel word-of-mouth.

• This built an authentic community and audience for the niche he was serving.

• With limited funds, content marketing was a less expensive growth lever compared to ads.

7. Imposed a tight deadline to succeed.

• With a baby on the way, Eric gave himself a deadline to make Beardbrand profitable.

• This urgent deadline focused his effort intensely during the long bootstrap days.

• The now-or-never threat of going back to corporate work increased his drive and commitment.

8. Moved quickly when he saw proof of demand

• The early sales and NYT article showed Eric that there was market potential.

• Eric rushed to get a Shopify store up in two days to sell while interest was high.

• Striking while the iron was hot secured Beardbrand first-mover status.

9. Had a personalized Lead Magnet to get email signups

• He put up a Beardsman Quiz on his website to capture user emails.

• The quiz gave a tailored experience while growing his subscriber list.

• Nurturing subscribers let him repeatedly market to interested users.

10. Doubled down on the highest traction growth channel

• For Beardbrand, YouTube delivered the most website traffic.

• They focused aggressively on producing consistent, high-quality daily YouTube videos.

• Optimizing and scaling their best channel compounded growth over time.

Hope you enjoyed the story and their success tactics.

Keep Rocking!

Yours “Rooting for your success” Vijay Peduru