The school of hard knocks on TikTok/Salt.xo on Instagram
Jhalesa Seymour became a millionaire at age 25 selling something simple: soap.
But he didn’t build his multimillion-dollar business with a ton of cash to start up or with the backing of investors. Seymour says he founded the company while still in college with just $67 to his name.
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In a street interview with The school of hard knocksSeymour reflected on the financial habits that helped her turn that small start into a seven-figure business, including one rule she says kept her from spending like a millionaire.
“One money lesson I experienced is that the money from your business is not the money from your lifestyle,” Seymour said, explaining that people can quickly improve their lifestyle as soon as they start earning more.
She took the opposite approach.
“I was a billionaire, I drove a Nissan Altima and I lived in a 700-square-foot apartment,” she said.
the trip
Seymour launched sal.xo in 2018 while still a student at the University of Central Florida. The idea arose from a problem she herself had experienced: struggling to find feminine care products which she felt would not disturb her pH balance.
He repeatedly came across products made with irritating ingredients and finally decided to create his own alternative.
But Seymour wasn’t starting out with much of a financial cushion. He grew up in a home with five children, where his mother earned about $30,000 a year, and he has said he only had $67 when he founded the company.
Many entrepreneurs rely on their own money to get a business off the ground, but Seymour worked with much less than most. According to the US Small Business Administration80% of employer companies use personal savings as startup capital, and nearly half start with more than $25,000.
And finding the money to launch it is only part of the challenge. Keeping a young company alive can be even more difficult. According to the Bureau of Labor Statisticsonly 57.3% of commercial establishments launched in 2018 (the same year as Salt.xo) were still operating five years later.
Over the next eight years, Seymour says he built Salt.xo into an eight-figure business. But he didn’t get there by investing money in advertising.
“A lot of companies rely heavily on paid marketing, but I think what set us apart was that my organic marketing was fantastic.” she said on the TikTok video. “Word of mouth is what really sold the brand.”
Instead, Seymour focused on getting people talking about the products and creating a base of customers willing to spread the word themselves. That approach appears to have paid off quickly.
“In 2018, I made $154,000 making soap in my apartment.” Seymour told Business Insider. “The next year we made $1 million in profits. Since then, we’ve had over $16 million in sales.”
What you can learn from Seymour’s monetary approach
Seymour’s story may be unusual, but one of the biggest lessons behind her success is quite simple: earning more doesn’t have to mean spending more.
Today, he pays himself a salary from Salt.xo and reinvests the rest of the company’s profits back into the business instead of treating everything he earns as money he can personally spend.
That distinction is especially important for business owners, since business income, profits, and personal income are not legally the same. But the broader idea can apply to anyone. If your expenses increase every time your income increases, it can be much more difficult to turn those larger paychecks into long-term wealth.
Seymour has also said that learning how to grow his money didn’t come naturally.
“I was never taught how to invest and grow money.” he told Business Insider. “I had to learn on my own, sometimes through mistakes.”
Their approach offers a simple conclusion: As your income increases, leave room to save and invest, rather than letting your lifestyle absorb every extra dollar.
Moneywise reached out to Seymour for comment on his trip, but did not receive a response before publication.
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