I turned my side hustle into a six-figure business – I now work just two hours a day from the beach in Australia
LIKE everyone else, Hannah was stuck at home with little to do during the pandemic.
The then 16-year-old had just finished her GCSEs and was waiting for her sixth-form classes to begin in the Autumn.
So she occupied herself with arts and crafts, often wasting time doing fun little doodles.
Little did she know those doodles would become the basis of her six-figure phone case business, which has now received more than 11,000 orders in just two years.
Hannah Cowley, now 18, currently runs remotely from Australia and has hired her mum Andrea and sister Grace to keep the fulfilment side of things going in the UK.
She spends her time focusing on new designs and marketing the brand on social media - but often while sitting on the beaches of the Gold Coast.
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Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, she said: “I was so bored in lockdown. Plus I was really sick of being too young to have a job.
“I wanted to be out there working and starting to earn money for myself, instead of just getting pocket money from my parents.
“I wanted to prove to people that you can start young, and you can do what you want before you’re an adult.
“Now, to date, I think I’ve had about 11,000 orders.
“Sometimes I’ve been walking down Oxford Street in London and walked past someone with one of my cases. That is insane.
“It’s something I never thought I’d be able to achieve, given I was so young.
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“But I think I’ve proved to myself and to others that it is possible to do things outside of the typical nine-to-five jobs.”
When I’m at the beach, I’ll have my sketchbook out, coming up with ideas.
Hannah Cowley
“Obviously I was at sixth form at the time, but it was online schooling and so sometimes I’d be doing ordered and social media marketing in the middle of a lesson.
“But now, we’re only packing orders once a week.
“I’d say I spend a couple of hours a day over here - it depends like if an idea strikes me, I like to get that down.
“When I’m at the beach, I’ll have my sketchbook out, coming up with ideas.”
Looking to the future, Hannah would like her brand to become well-known across the world, and feature in stores like Urban Outfitters.
Another dream is to also collaborate with other budding artists, in order to give them a foot in the door.
But what’s her advice to those that want to launch their own business?
“As long as you go with your gut feeling and just get on and do it, it’s possible.
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“I’m funding the rest of my life through my own creativity, and I want to prove to my generation that it is possible.
“You don’t have to get a degree in this and you don’t have to do all this training in order to be good at something.”