I started a side hustle from my kitchen table & it’s already making £1.5k a week for a just a few hours work
WHEN Tessa Reed had a brainwave business idea while she was eating dinner with her partner, she never imagined it could make a roaring trade.
But within just a few months, she’s taken the idea and turned it into a £1500 a week side hustle, all from her own kitchen table.
Tessa, 30, made a simple Tahini dressing from scratch to go with the roast chicken she’d prepared and it tasted so good, she knew she had to bottle it.
And in that moment, her thriving business, All Dressed Up, was born.
Almost overnight, Tessa started experimenting with different flavour combinations in her kitchen in London and began asking her friends to try them out.
“I’d make tiny little bottles and just give them to my friends when I met them for dinner,” she says.
Once Tessa was happy with the flavours, she decided on the branding and then made up hundreds of bottles of the dressings in her kitchen, and sold them on Instagram.
“We sold about 350 bottles in about two weeks, purely through word of mouth and people ordering them online,” she adds.
She then asked the people who had bought her dressings to give detailed feedback on what they did and didn’t like about the product, and decided to completely re-brand the packaging, after comments that it looked too “childish”.
As her sales began to grow, Tessa decided to outsource the production of the dressings, as she was still working full time as a chef.
“It was very chaotic trying to juggle everything, and I was working lots of late nights and early mornings, and weekends,” she explains.
After finding a manufacturer, Tessa was able to scale up her business, and her products are now available to buy in shops such as Wholefoods and Bayley and Sage.
Her dressings are priced at £5.99 and include Tahini and Lime, and Spicy Harissa.
Tessa says that what makes All Dressed Up unique is that the brand champions itself on being the best tasting salad dressing on the market.
How to start your own business
Dragon's Den star Theo Paphitis revealed his tips for budding entrepreneurs:
- One of the biggest barriers aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners face is a lack of confidence. You must believe in your idea — even more than that, be the one boring your friends to death about it.
- Never be afraid to make decisions. Once you have an idea, it’s the confidence to make decisions that is crucial to starting and maintaining a business.
- If you don’t take calculated risks, you’re standing still. If a decision turns out to be wrong, identify it quickly and deal with it if you can. Failing that, find someone else who can.
- It’s OK not to get it right the first time. My experience of making bad decisions is what helped develop my confidence, making me who I am today.
- Never underestimate the power of social media, and remember the internet has levelled the playing field for small businesses.
- Don’t forget to dream. A machine can’t do that!
She adds: “It’s quite an innovative range, using lots of trending products.”
The business owner says that another of her priorities was to make sure that the dressings are healthy, so they can be enjoyed everyday.
She explains: “Ironically, a lot of salad dressings are quite bad for you.
“I wanted my dressings to taste great and be good for you too so they’re refined sugar free and as a bonus they’re dairy free and gluten free too.”
She added that her favourite creation so far is her Miso and Sesame dressing as it is “super versatile”.
“I never really thought this was going to be possible, it’s just like a dream.”
Tessa
She says: “It’s something that as a consumer, I would love to have in my fridge.
“I use it every single day.”
All Dressed Up only officially launched in April this year and is already making £1500 a week.
Tessa works around 20 hours a week on the business, and juggles it with her day job.
She’s hopes in time she’ll be able to turn her profitable side hustle into a full-time job.
She says: “I never really thought this was going to be possible, it’s just like a dream.
“Hopefully it will become my forever job, because I absolutely love doing it.”
Sharing advice to anyone thinking of starting their own side hustle business, Tessa says: “I think if you really believe in your product, it will to an extent sell itself.
“But you’ve got to hustle, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
“Don’t give up at the first hurdle, because it is going to be a roller-coaster.”
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