I make £7.8k a month thanks to my side hustle – I’m a single mum & it’s perfect for working around my kid’s school hours
A MUM who didn’t want to splurge on a pricey dress for her maternity photoshoot has revealed how she turned her idea into a side hustle.
Alice, 39, cared about creating as little waste as possible long before being a mum, so wearing something just once for some pictures was a big no-no.
Speaking to Kidspot, the Australian-based mum said: “I couldn’t find anything I wanted to rent or buy here, so I bought a dress from overseas and that’s when I knew there was a gap in the market to help other people find dresses for their shoots without having to buy them.”
Alice spent just £100 on buying some of her favourite dresses and started to rent them out on Shopify.
The mum decided to take a change on the side hustle because she noticed it was already a trend in different countries, but no one in Sydney was doing it yet.
Then in 2017, she launched Mama Rentals, and even without any advertising it was a slow and steady success.
“Back then I was celebrating one sale a week.
“There were a lot of times where I felt like I was an imposter because I had a lot of challenges. I always thought it would be a side hustle and never be a full-time thing,” she explained.
It wasn’t until 2021 that Alice made the fashion business her full time job, all while raising her then five-year-old daughter, Hazel.
Now the mum’s business stocks over 400 dresses in sizes four to 22, it’s safe to say her idea has paid off.
Alice makes £7,800 from her rental gig every month, and the business has made over £313,000 since she started.
Each dress she bought was a total investment, and each one brings in a huge earning for the brand.
But despite the earnings, it’s still all about producing less waste and the eniviroment for the mum.
“It’s the fact that I’ve saved so many dresses from being manufactured and sitting in someone’s wardrobe for years,” she said.
And even if the dresses in her inventory get damaged, they’ll always try to repair them rather than chuck them out.