Jeffery Nash invented a product called “Juppy”, which is a parent assisted baby walker. Traditional baby walkers are a hazard to children and after many accidents in the house, many countries have already banned the traditional baby walker.
Currently, the Juppy is doing around $150,000 per year in revenue and has been growing year over year. A great indication that this venture is only going up from here!
On to the episode...
Jeff’s Typical Morning:
- Wake up at 5 AM
- Answer emails, get a work out in, fulfill orders from previous evenings
Jeff’s Passion:
- Jeff has always had a passion for fitting men properly and working with fashion.
How did you get the idea?
- Jeff was out in Los Angeles and his granddaughters had a soccer scrimmage, while he was there, he noticed a lady teaching her child to walk.
- Bent over, had the baby’s arms positioned straight up in the air, and he noticed something was wrong that particular day.
- Jeff went to San Diego for a vacation and couldn’t stop thinking about the design and what the benefits and features would be
First Prototype:
- After 4 or 5 attempts, they nailed it.
- This shows that you should not give up on a manufacturer after the first time!
What is the first step in the manufacturing process?
- One of the first tasks Jeff did was hire a patent attorney so they could research
- The attorney had manufacturer in mind
- LinkedIn
- Don’t find someone who is just a middleman!
How did you know it was a good idea?
- Jeff’s first order that he placed with the manufacturer was around 1000 pieces
- After finding a few people and talking about his product, he ended up selling them 700
Creating a new category can be difficult too:
- When he wants to advertise the Juppy as a baby walker, he finds it difficult because he has to do much more educating. People don’t look at it and think of a baby walker right away.
How did you grow the business?
- The first 3 years in business, Jeff and his wife reached out to mom bloggers constantly.
- They appeared on over 450 blogs!
- As a result of those, Jeff started getting massive media publications like CNN Money, New York Times, Todays Show and much more were organically coming in!
How can a Hobby Hustler reach out to influencers?
- What Jeff used to get for free, would cost much more, and that is just because the landscape of social media has changed incredibly.
- He would suggest Googling “Mom bloggers”, research how big there following is, and if you think it’s big enough, send them 2 products
- One for them to try and review, and one for them to giveaway
How long did it take from idea to patent?
- 4 years
- Which is a typical time
- In the meantime, you get a patent pending
Patents:
- Do not let not getting the patents hold you back
- Do not let the idea that someone would rip off your product scare you
- McDonalds, Wendy’s, Harveys… they’re all selling the same burger, and they’re all making money!
- Do not be afraid that someone overseas will rip you off, cause they will do it when you have the patent anyways!
Why go on Shopify over WordPress for eCommerce?
- Jeff was on WordPress before, but he noticed that things would go down a lot, and it was too much work taking care of payments, whereas Shopify takes care of everything for them!
- Currently, they are spending about $80/month on Shopify to run their business!
- This is extremely affordable! Imagine the rent of opening a brick and mortar store!
What is the best tip for a hobby hustler?
- Believe in yourself!
- See every idea and business you have in mind and be in it for the long haul
- Don’t get excited for the short term, really try and see it through, draw it out and execute!
