Coco Dry founder sells booming business for $80k to Melbourne entrepreneur after 15 months

A Sunshine Coast mumpreneur who sold her booming beauty business for $80k to a Melbourne buyer after just 15 months of operation has revealed how she achieved early success.

A Peregian Beach mum who sold her booming beauty business for $80,000 to a Melbourne entrepreneur after running it for just 15 months credits savvy marketing as key to its success.

Amanda Kunkenrenken founded Coco Dry in December, 2020.

In March, 2022 she sold it to Melbourne entrepreneur Amanda Davis who runs her own skin care brand Luna Rossa Botanicals.

Ms Kunkenrenken said Ms Davis’ father bought the business and registered it under her name to learn from and build on alongside her current venture.

Coco Dry makes fake tan drying powder in the luxury segment using natural ingredients and accessories ranging from brushes, sprays, exfoliating mitts and robes.

Ms Kunkenrenken ran the business from home and made about $3000 in revenue her first few weeks before going on to average between $10,000 and $11,000 a month.

Her estimated yearly earnings for the start-up was more than $470,ooo.

Ms Kunkenrenken said her branding and targeted social media marketing content enabled her to increase Coco Dry’s exposure and foster a growing customer base.

“Facebook ads were huge for the business,” Ms Kunkenrenken said.

“It’s a good and bad thing because you’re at the mercy of them. You have to understand your audience and I had to go through some learnings about who they were and how to market to them properly.”

She said getting stockists early on allowed her to increase brand awareness and revenue streams.

“If Facebook took a dip at least you’ve got stockists that can help with sales and it creates credibility when people see your product on shelves in stores,” Ms Kunkenrenken said.

The 41-year-old came up with the business after receiving and recovering from two skin cancer diagnoses over the last 10 years and wanted to provide women with a way to achieve a natural looking tan in a healthy way.

Her tan powder formula is made up of only natural ingredients which she said was another strong selling point for the product.

Ms Kunkenrenken also ran her own tanning salon alongside Coco Dry.

She said the start-up’s rapid growth became too much to manage while juggling the needs of her family and other business which prompted her decision to sell it.

“I need a bit of a break and I still have a spray tanning business as well,” Ms Kunkenrenken said.

“I really fell in love with e-commerce and I think if I did something again I would do something like an app or another type of digital product.

“My advice for someone starting an e-commerce business would be to test and fail early, don’t worry about the perfect packaging at the beginning and to focus on marketing as you can have the best product and amazing website, however, without marketing no one will know about it.”