Outfox Pickpocketers While Traveling idea → $50k/Month

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Why did the entrepreneur study astronomy? To shoot for the stars!.

Onto Today’s story….

Johanna and her husband, shared a boundless love for travel and adventure.

But they were losing their valuables to pick-pocketers.

They built a business, Clever Travel Companion, to solve this problem, and are making $50k/Month.

Here is how they did it.

Johanna and her husband were from Stockholm, Sweden, but they never met there.

They met when they were studying in Moscow.

They were in their early twenties and decided to travel together.

They went backpacking across Asia, starting with the Trans Siberian railroad from Moscow to Beijing.

It was quite an adventure and definitely not luxurious at all.

This was in the early nineties and Russia had just opened up.

Johanna ended up having things stolen from her on the train, much to her great chagrin, as they were both poor students at the time.

Earlier, when Johanna was 16, she had spent an entire summer delivering newspapers, starting at 4am in the morning, every single day.

She had saved up this money to go to London.

In London she had her money in her inside pocket, yet somehow a pickpocketer got to her.

She lost her entire savings in a matter of seconds.

She was pretty devastated.

After these incidents she tried all the regular travel safety stuff,such as neck pouches and money belts, but they were just not any good.

Travel safety gear was inadequate and caused her constant worry about her belongings.

At 17, she stayed in a Greek hostel where theft was common due to lack of secure storage.

They carried their valuables at all times and even slept with their bags.

It was exhausting trying to make sure everything was safe all the time.

For years, she had this idea of making better travel safety gear but life got in the way: university, work, etc.

After their graduation, they got married, and Johanna and her husband worked in startups.

Everything was good until the 2001 dot com crash happened.

They lost their jobs and were broke again.

For a couple more years, they worked as consultants to startups.

They tried their hands on a couple of businesses, but that didn’t work out.

When their son was born, Johanna and her husband made a pivotal choice…

…they didn't want the daily grind of 9-5 work to keep them from raising him.

They also yearned to explore the world as digital nomads.

They decided it was finally time to start their travel safety company.

Johanna had nursed the idea for concealed travel clothing since her youth.

But now they needed money.

So, they sold their Swedish home to fund turning her idea into a reality.

They invested that money and did everything themselves initially, while bootstrapping the company.

As their first product, they decided to create mens and women’s underwear with two secret hidden pockets, to store money, credit cards and passports.

In order to validate the product, they relied on their own experiences and talked with fellow travelers.

Since they had been considering this product line for years,they were confident about the market and the strength of their idea.

The pair researched and found a manufacturer, willing to produce small test batches in customized colors and designs.

They also started to build their website on Shopify.

Why underwear?

Their initial thought was that travelers needed to be able to completely hide their valuables, and to also be able to sleep with their valuables hidden and never misplaced.

After all, who misplaces underwear?

Their research showed that upwards of 50% of travelers, at some time either lose or get their belongings stolen when traveling.

It was also a huge problem for insurance companies, reimbursing theft and loss.

They decided that their first product should be something, that truly worked and that would be fun for the press to cover.

Initially, they did everything themselves, from designing the site to creating the products.

They also learnt things which they didn’t know before.

She says “There is nothing you cannot do yourself if you need to”

They were completely self-funded and ran everything very lean.

One morning, they woke up to several orders from Australia, but couldn't find the source online.

It turned out there had been a small notice in an offline Australian newspaper, called the Sydney Morning Herald, and this immediately translated to sales.

After this Johanna spent hours cold emailing hundreds of writers, relentlessly pitching stories to travel, lifestyle, and tech journalists.

Most ignored her, but a few wrote about their products in their magazines.

Slowly it started to pick up steam.

The travel editor at LA Times covered them for a gift guide, just before Christmas and that drove sales.

Johanna's sister became their first make-do fulfillment partner.

She stored all the products in her garage and fulfilled all orders for them.

Despite targeting Europe, they found more customers in the United States and Australia.

Johanna and her husband plowed every bit of profit, into releasing improved clothing designs.

People loved their product.

When they saw that the idea was working, they decided to expand the product line.

They introduced scarfs, Backpacks, T-shirts and Leggings with secret zipper pockets,

all designed to keep traveler's valuables safe from pick-pocketers.

People loved these products too and sales took off.

They hired freelancers through various freelance sites for site design, photo editing and bookkeeping.

They also narrowed down who their target audience was, which they honed after a few years of being in business.

She says they are not city people, overly trendy people, but regular folks,

who worry a tad when traveling, middle to high income, friendly, open minded.

Once they know their target audience,

they designed all their clothing for this target audience.

Had this idea failed, Johanna says they would have been broke.. again

For her , Facebook and Google ads were time consuming,but press coverage was what helped her to get customers.

She keep pitching to Journalists and bloggers and this helped her to get lot of customers.

Many bloggers also wrote reviews and this helped them a lot.

On their blog, they wrote about travel related tips and advise and focused on SEO.

They focused on organic growth rather than paid marketing.

They continued to grow and are making $50k/Month.

Johanna says…

“There is no golden rule for starting a business.”

“In the end it is all about getting things done, getting up and doing it”

5 reasons why she succeeded:

1. Trusted their gut and also checked with their target audience

In order to validate the product, they relied on their own experiences.

Since they lost their valuables to Pick-Pocketers,

they knew they too wanted products like this.

They also talked with fellow travelers and they said they would love these products.

2. Learnt as they went.

Johanna and her husband didn’t know a lot of things,

about prototyping, manufacturing and building a website.

They just learnt as they went and got better and better

3. Running Lean

Initially, they did all the work themselves.

Later they just hired two people and a few freelancers.

4. Focused on Organic growth

Since they had very less money,

they focused on organic growth like getting PR,

reaching out to bloggers and writing SEO focused articles.

5. Clearly defined Customer Avatar.

They clearly defined their ideal customer avatar,

and tailored their products and messaging to their pain points and aspirations.

She says they are not city people, overly trendy people,

but regular folks, who worry a tad when traveling,

middle to high income, friendly and open minded.

They designed all their clothing and messaging for this target market.

Hope you enjoyed the story and their success tactics.

Let the good times roll for you!.

Yours "Build your Biz with almost no risk" Vijay Peduru