Melbourne couple’s hair dye kit The Shade makes $69k a month

The Melbourne pair took a risk by quitting their stable careers and starting their own business later in life. But it paid off.

A Melbourne couple who quit their day jobs to start a new business are now raking in $69,000 a month.

Partners Maia Dodds and Craig Ford, who have been together for 15 years, never could have imagined that their idea was exactly what everyone would need during a Covid-19 lockdown.

Back in 2018, Ms Dodds went to get her hair done on an already busy Saturday and “$400 later, three hours later” she was beginning to wonder if there was a better process.

It was time consuming and costly but the only other option the mum could see was buying do-it-yourself kits from the supermarket that irritated her sensitive skin.

So she and her partner decided to launch their own salon-grade hair dye kits without irritants in the ingredients.

After flying to Italy to create the perfect formula, they launched their e-commerce business The Shade in June of that year.

Business was “slow” at the beginning, Mr Ford told news.com.au, with the couple only making $60,000 in revenue for the first full year.

But then Covid-19 hit and suddenly people were unable or unwilling to go their local salon, and interest in their hair kits exploded.

“Covid gave us a good boost,” he said, explaining how they are now turning over more than their yearly revenue in the space of a single month.

Maia Dodds and Craig Ford took a gamble by starting the business, but it ultimately paid off.

Mr Ford, 54, and Ms Dodds, 46, kept working in their existing jobs until 2019.

The couple sold a property and poured the $500,000 from the sale straight into The Shade to get it off the ground.

They initially had 27 different hair colours and the entire package can fit inside a standard letter box.

As well as the actual hair dye, the colour kits include a bowl, brush, four sectioning clips, a protective cape and a bench mat for new customers.

They also come with a colour tube, shampoo and conditioner, barrier oil, hair colour removal wipes, gloves and instructions.

The Shade operates a subscription business model to help as a reminder for women to colour their hair on a continual basis

To get some traction, Mr Ford and Ms Dodds initially gave out their products in a free trial which “cost a lot of money” but ultimately paid off.

Maia Dodds stumbled upon the lucrative idea when she got her hair dyed in an expensive and time consuming ordeal during her already very busy day.

The first year The Shade only made $60,000 but by 2020, that had ballooned into $300,000.

For the 2021 financial year they made $769,000 in net revenue and the Melburnians are now raking in $69,000 in sales every month.

“There was quite a significant jump between those two years,” Mr Ford said.

“Up until Covid hit, we were packing from our kitchen table.”

It was the job of their teenage kids to flatpack the boxes in what became a whole family affair.

Once the pandemic arrived, however, the workload became too much to bear and they ended up moving into a warehouse in Dandenong South and hiring contractors.

The Shade now ships products into the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and New Zealand.

Craig Ford said Covid benefited the business massively.

Even with the business taking off, Mr Ford revealed that they are still on a “tight belt”.

“We don’t take a salary, we just draw down on the loan,” he explained.

“When there’s cash flow available, we use just enough to get by.”

It helps “knowing one day it will get to a point where we can draw down more of the loan and treat ourselves to a holiday”, he added.

“That’s why we’re doing a fundraiser, so we can get some funds to totally invest in the business.”

The couple are running an equity crowd-funding campaign through Birchal for the next three weeks to put more cash into the business so they can take it to the next level.

“Speaking of future plans, our goal is to set up Shade colour bars around Australia, using only our products,” Mr Ford explained.

“We think it’s going to be very much cheaper than a traditional salon.

“We have increasingly been getting more inquiries from salons. Our kit we use isn’t so appropriate for them so we are thinking about getting bulk products so we can sell that to salons.”

Originally published as Melbourne couple’s hair dye kit The Shade makes $69k a month