Mr. Fate reveals his experiment to start a social enterprise as a side hustle to save lives.
On October 3, 2016 my best friend died. Our paths crossed about seven years earlier and, from the moment we first met, we quickly became extremely close to the point of being inseparable. We were together pretty much every day and evening when I was not traveling for work. When I was away, he would sit at the back door patiently waiting for me to arrive home. We shared a bond unlike that I had ever shared with another being. His name was Satire and he was a cat.
While it may sound absurd that I could actually be best friends with a cat it was, indeed, the case. Up until Satire’s passing, I had mercifully been spared the emotional agony of death for well over twenty-five years. As a result, when Satire was taken by a gruesome and insidious disease called feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), I was sent for a loop – it truly fucked me up. As I was in the throes of an intense grief, I knew that I wanted to honor his life in some meaningful way but, beyond this vague notion, I didn’t have anything particularly concrete.
A STREET CAT NAMED BOB
To ameliorate the pain that threatened to consume me, I re-read the internationally best-selling book, A Street Cat Named Bob, a true-life story of a cat saving the life of homeless busker and recovering heroin addict. In the book, James Bowen along with his best friend and cat, Bob, spend a stint earning money by selling The Big Issue magazine. The Big Issue is a social enterprise and, prior to the book, I had heard of neither of these, but as a businessman, the idea intrigued me and I started doing some research on them. Since they are not altogether too familiar in the US (and unless it’s appended by “media,” many Americans seem to get panty-knotted whenever they hear the word “social,”) let’s take a moment to understand the definition of a social enterprise.
WHAT IS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?
Simply put, a social enterprise is an organization that uses business methods and commercial strategies to serve its specific social objectives. Social enterprises seek to maximize profits while maximizing benefits to society. Their profits are principally used to fund social programs. In essence, it is “doing good through doing business” as opposed to “doing good while doing business.” They are also different from non-profits who rely, principally, on fundraising for operating capital.
It was during this research that my idea to memorialize Satire’s life started to began to take some shape. I would start a social enterprise and use all of the proceeds to help save the lives of disabled and disadvantaged cats. While I had every confidence of starting and running the business, I was without a clue as to what, precisely, that business would actually do. To narrow the scope, I began to document specific criteria for the business. Here are my original notes:
- Does not, necessarily, require a lot of time
- High margin product or service
- Low/No barrier to entry
- Requires limited start up capitalization
- Scalability & flexibility
- Allow me to learn and grow
- Controlled production
- Artistic aspects where I could differentiate myself
SATIRE’S SUDSWORKS
I kept thinking of something I always wanted to try and after a couple of weeks I, ultimately, pinned it down to the idea of making soap. Ever since I read Chuck Palahniuk’s seminal book, “Fight Club,” I had always been intrigued by the idea of making soap (an inspiration for many soapers I later discovered). I also figured it would be fun to learn and I could also differentiate myself as being one of the very few dudes in the artisan soap business. It was a chance to channel my own Tyler Durden, but focused on saving lives rather than destroying them. Oh yeah, it also turns out soap is an incredibly high margin product. It costs less than $2 per bar to make using the best quality oils and can be sold for up to $8. It was then my social enterprise, Satire’s Sudsworks was officially conceived.
My goal was simple – to create an exceptionally high-quality product that everyone needed and then take every penny of each sale and donate that to one or two local feline charities. In order to do this, I needed to personally underwrite the business and fund the ongoing cost of raw materials. I traveled extensively for my job and was given a flat per diem rate to cover my meals. Since I generally opted for a sandwich at Panera rather than a ridiculously extravagant meal at some overpriced chi-chi restaurant, I wound up with a few hundred bucks each month which I used to fund the business.
INTO THE SUDS
Up to this point, my only expertise with suds had been making craft beer for a few years, so I was starting at ground zero as it were. I engaged my usual learning regime which is reading a ton, watching videos and then finding an established expert for some tutelage in the rudimentary aspects. In a bit of serendipity, I had met a soap maker at the county fair a few months back and got in contact with her. It turned out she had an in-person class scheduled in a few days and invited me to come along.
Interestingly, the fundamentals of beer making are, to some extent, transferable to soap making in that they are a mash-up of both science & art and neither are particularly difficult to do with a little research, effort and will. In any event, I ordered my start-up supplies and raw materials which was about $300, thus meeting my “limited start up capital” criterion. I practiced making a few batches with some intermediate recipes and the results were, surprisingly, pretty damn good. Moreover, I found the process of making soap fun and relaxing. I was furiously perfecting my product as I was set on launching the social enterprise on Thanksgiving Day.
SOAP MAKING, KITTY SAVING
I got the word out to friends, family, & co-workers and gave out free samples. I also created a bit of an online presence using the standard social media platforms. I initially chose Etsy as my primary distribution channel, but ultimately abandoned it once the business got going since all my available product was sold locally.
The initial response was great. The product stood on its own merit and the fact that people knew every cent was being donated to save the lives of disabled and disadvantaged kitties made it even better. Since I was only producing on a limited basis (large batches made once per month or so), I could be relatively certain that I would immediately sell out. I also began to get custom orders as well. By Spring of 2017, the social enterprise of Satire’s Sudsworks was a success and had made several thousand dollars. Now, it was time to save some lives.
I had chosen Milo’s Sanctuary, a local rescue focused on disabled cats, to be the primary beneficiary of Satire’s Sudsworks. I was aware of their amazing work, big hearts and indefatigable work ethic, so they were an easy choice. I initially began by donating for specific fundraising campaigns for individual cats that had recently been rescued. I continued to do this as well as making a larger financial commitment for the annual sponsorship of two specific cats, Sir Thomas Trueheart (who is now a bit of a superstar) and Fennel Springsong.
At this point in my social enterprise journey, I was extremely proud that the experiment had worked out so well. Moreover, it helped me work through the grief of Satire’s passing and kept his spirit alive in a way that I had never imagined. It was great to be able to have a mechanism to actually create money to help save lives rather than the donating or volunteering that I had done previously. I felt compelled to offer my gratitude to author James Bowen and the Big Issue since they were the initial inspiration for Satire’s Sudsworks. While I could have sent an email, I decided to get on a plane, head to London and thank them in person.
SATIRE GOES INTERNATIONAL
It turned out that the Big Issue Foundation has a great event called the “Big Night Walk” where participants walk 13 miles though London during the dead of night and raise money to help give a hand up to those working their way out of homelessness. James Bowen was also scheduled to speak at the opening of the event that year. So I signed up seeing this as a “two-fer” to say thanks and also have my social enterprise financially support the one that inspired it. It was also cool to be the first American to ever participate in this long-running event.
The Night Walk and the entire adventure to London was far better than I could have ever hoped. It was great to meet James and Street Cat Bob, who ended up becoming good friends. Also, personally thanking Stephen Robertson, CEO of the Big Issue Foundation as we walked in the beauty of the London night was another great memory. On top of that, we made a ton of new cat-loving, fundraising people who are also our friends. It was amazing and we have been back to London several times since then.
CLOSE TO HOME
It had been nearly a year since Satire had passed and while we were still aching, the house was very quiet. It didn’t quite feel right. So, me and Mrs. Fate decided that we might entertain the idea of adopting a new fuzzy friend. We found another wonderful local rescue called, A Pawsitive Approach, and through them brought Max and Pants (aka the Fuzzy Fates) into our family. It was another great way to use the social enterprise to support this charity and give a forever home to our two new boys.
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
By the end of 2018, it was clear that my social enterprise experiment, Satire’s Sudsworks, was a true success. We continued to make awesome soap and help save the lives of kitties. In addition, I was able to expand our scope to support other worthwhile organizations. While I have curtailed production in 2019 as we are in the process of relocating, I will get things going full-steam once we are settled and look forward to finding a new local feline charity we can support and continue our mission of “Making Soap & Saving Kitties.”
REFLECTIONS
As I look back over the nearly 3 years since this experiment started, I’m more than a little astounded. What was initially a nebulous idea of trying to honor the memory of my best friend transformed into something much more powerful in a peculiar way in which I never could have imagined. And while I won’t deny that the business and soap making aspects have been fun and rewarding, the results of the efforts are what make it truly worthwhile. Seeing and interacting with many of the cats and humans we have supported has been such an amazing experience. However, what I treasure most is the personal impact that all of this has had on me. From the new skills, wild adventures, loads of new friends – all of it has helped to make me a better person and keeps the spirit of my best friend burning bright. I’d like to think that he’d be proud.
A CHALLENGE
While growing in prominence, social enterprises are still exceedingly underrepresented in the US. Goodwill Industries is, perhaps, the most well known. My challenge to the FIRE Community is to become more aware of and patronize social enterprises. Why make individuals and shareholders wealthy when you can deploy your money to help make a real impact in your community instead? As a good starting place for those in the US, check out the Social Enterprise Alliance to learn more.
Secondly, I encourage you to think about the possibility of starting your own social enterprise side hustle. As I have proven with Satire’s Sudsworks, it can be done relatively easily, with a few hundred dollars and with little time expended. The FIRE community has some of the brightest, forward-thinking and creative people on earth, so it’d be awesome to see a few more social enterprises come to life.
This is what I am talking about when I say that “Fates On Fire is about exploring the potential of the financially free individual – the possibilities and impact beyond ourselves. What would we risk? What and who could we become?”
I hope you rise to the challenge.