Sydney woman turns $10,000 side hustle into successful $400,000 business

After her work dried up as international borders closed, a Sydneysider poured her savings into something risky, and it paid off.

After her work dried up as international borders closed, the 29-year-old Sydneysider poured her savings into something risky.

A Sydney woman has managed to turn $10,000 into $400,000 in the space of 18 months after stumbling upon a lucrative side hustle.

Lisa Lin, 29, from the city’s southwest, found herself at a loose end after Australia’s international borders closed in March last year.

She worked as an accountant for her family’s business in tourism, and work dried up with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I was bored out of my mind,” she told news.com.au.

In May, Ms Lin visited her brother and sister-in-law who had recently had a son.

The new mum was struggling with breastfeeding and was chewing on a special cookie designed to help with lactation, which Ms Lin noticed was very high in sugar.

This sparked an idea.

“To be honest, I thought it would be something fun to do during lockdown,” she said. “But it blew up immediately.”

Ms Lin (middle) with her brother, sister-in-law and nephew, who helped spark her idea.

The protein powder being stored in Ms Lin’s spare room.

Ms Lin started researching what options were available to new mums if they were struggling with producing breastmilk and realised there was a gap in the market.

Using $10,000 that she had saved up originally for a holiday overseas, she poured that into creating a formula with the help of lactation consultants and then started mass-producing the product and packaging it from her spare room.

She essentially designed a powder that provided protein, superfoods and helped with lactation for new mums.

As Ms Lin’s sister-in-law was lactose intolerant, she decided to make her products vegan and gluten-free.

Still working as an accountant, the aspiring entrepreneur researched heavily into the e-commerce space.

By August 2020, she launched Hey Mama. But she never expected what came next.

Ms Lin previously worked as an accountant and had no e-commerce experience.

Ms Lin runs the company by herself, posting all the orders by hand.

“It blew up immediately,” Ms Lin said.

She started by offering free samples to 120 mums in online groups to get their feedback on her Hey Mama product.

“Those mums straight away came back and asked to buy it now,” she said.

“When I ordered my first batch it sold out as well. I didn’t do any ads or anything; it was just word of mouth.”

Since then, the business has taken off.

Ms Lin has sold to 5000 customers across Australia and New Zealand and has made $400,000 in sales so far.

She says financially, she is “definitely more comfortable now” than when she was working in accounting.

The business has made a whopping $400,000 over the past 18 months.

For 2022, the business owner has her sights set on wholesale as well as supplying her product to overseas markets in Asia and the UK.

For other aspiring entrepreneurs, she had a word of advice.

“It’s not that hard to start a business. Everything you need is at your fingertips,” Ms Lin said.

“I was in accounting and sourcing, I had no branding or marketing experience – I learnt it all from podcasts and YouTube.”

Have a similar story? Continue the conversation | [e-mail]