Jasmine Taylor, 31, of Amarillo, Texas, is no stranger to business failures. She tried and failed at a few entrepreneurial ventures before becoming successful, an experience that has guided every entrepreneurial move she now makes.
Her survival struggles began when she lost her job and had to rely on side hustles such as delivering prescriptions for pharmacies and food for DoorDash. According to CNBC Made It, she also had about $60,000 in student debt and another $9,000 in medical and credit card debt.
She discovered “cash stuffing,” a money management strategy that changed her life, when she went to YouTube to look for some business ideas.
To hold herself accountable, she decided to upload a TikTok video of herself managing her finances by stuffing cash into envelopes. Her posts quickly went viral, and people began contacting her to find out how they, too, could fit into her cash-stuffing model.
Taylor claims that in a year, she was able to get her finances in order, pay off $23,000 in student loan debt, and eliminate her medical debt and credit card balance.
She decided to turn her cash-stuffing posts into a business by establishing Baddies and Budgets, where she sold money courses, budgeting supplies, and other accessories.
According to CNBC Made It, the company made about $850,000 in 2022 and is on track to make $1,000,000. Prior to that, the company earned $250,000 from April to the end of the fiscal year in 2021.
Taylor is very frugal with her spending, despite the fact that she is on track to make $1 million this year. She pays herself $1,200 per week and reinvests in her company.
According to CNBC Made It, she used her $1,200 stimulus check to purchase a Shopify account, shipping supplies, material for cash-stuffing wallets, and a Cricut machine to print labels for envelopes and wallet covers.
Her business line has grown exponentially since 2021, as more people become interested in her offerings.
“A lot of people that buy from us are budgeters and people who save, but there are also people who buy from us because our stuff is really cute,” she says. “They’re the ones who wanted cups and keychains.”