I’m always fascinated by how people leverage the current ideas, memes and trends that are floating around in the marketplace. I really like it when I see people leveraging those observations and tying them to something profoundly personal. I recently met a woman named Brandi Lee who did just that and is in the process of building a business around that combination of ideas along with another mom. The name of their business is Two Cool Moms and they leveraged a passion for using green products that were safe for their kids. The result is some of the most effective and best smelling cleaners I’ve come across so far.
I was even more intrigued by this because my 8 year old daughter came into the bathroom after I cleaned it the other day and said "This stuff makes my nose and eyes burn, why do you clean with that dad?" It was a fair quesiton and my only answer was, well, that's pretty much what my mom used (less the bleach and ammonia and sos pad). So I started thinking about what I should be doing instead that would be better for her.
I also found it interesting of all the ways that they could distribute their products they chose to build a direct selling (mlm) business. While I’m generally not a fan of the mlm model, because I think it makes founders a ton of money on the lack of success of most of the people, I recognize it as a viable business for some people as well as a viable business model for distribution of products. What I found particularly compelling about this one is the hands on involvement of the founders in the success of the consultants. In full disclosure, Brandi did give me a couple of products to try, did not try and recruit me as a consultant and did not ask me to post about this. I am in no way affiliated with the program, just intensely curious about this startup.
I really like following startups and seeing where they go, I’ve never followed a startup mlm before so this is my first. They are still developing new products to add to the lineup and they only have 70 consultants so far, so if you are interested in mlm opportunities and green products that are good for the environment and kids, this might be something for you to check into. I’m going to be checking in with Two Cool Moms over the next year and I’ll post what I find out here. I’ll interview them about their challenges, their successes and the challenges and success of their consultants. Let’s watch together to see if they can do something unique in the market.
I’m very curious, what are your thought on direct selling or mlm as a business model?
