A young Aussie woman has shared how her simple bikini idea turned into a business that has brought in over $500,000 in a single month.
Tara Jane Sargent hasn’t even turned thirty, and she’s already created an envious swimwear empire with her company TJ Swim.
Sargent, 29, explained to news.com.au that she was only 21 when she decided to start her own swimwear company from her parent’s house in 2015.
Her experience was limited; she’d attended FBI Fashion College in Sydney and worked casually in fashion retail – but that didn’t stop her.
The desire to create a swimwear brand stemmed from seeing a hole in the market during her personal shopping.
“I was struggling to find good quality Brazilian cut bikinis that would last longer than one season,” she said.
Sargent invested $10,000 to get her idea off the ground, an amount of money she’d previously saved for a European holiday.
She traded gallivanting around Europe for being a girl boss and now she can confidently say that her swimwear brand now brings in a staggering seven figures per year.
She’s turned her $10,000 investment into a million-dollar business.
At the time, she considered the business a “side hustle” because she was still working part-time and studying.
She conducted the bikini business from her parent’s laundry, but it quickly outgrew the space and she realised she was onto something.
“I was storing the stock and packing the orders from my parent’s laundry,” she said.
Within six months, she saw that her business had outgrown its spot among her family’s washing and detergent, and she’s never looked back.
“After about six months, the brand had grown pretty quickly, so I left my job to run TJ Swim full time, and the rest is history,” she explained.
Sargent puts down her success to the quality of her product.
Sure, the swimwear market in Australia is saturated, but she saw a need for a better quality product that wasn’t unaffordable.
You can purchase a TJ swim one-piece for around $180 and a bikini set for roughly the same price.
The marketing taps into that quiet luxury look that has become trendy but the price point means it isn’t inaccessible.
Sargent said that she thinks the success comes down to the “product” and it remains her focus.
“We’re constantly striving to produce premium quality swimwear that will transcend seasons and last an eternity of summers,” she said.
That also means that the business leans firmly away from fast fashion and is constantly trying to better itself.
“We also work hard to incorporate sustainable materials and practices into everything we produce,” she explained.
These days, the business has been up and thriving for over eight years, and Sargent isn’t just out of the laundry room – she has her own staff now and celebrity fans.
For Sargent, it has all exceeded her wildest expectations and, while she has admitted there were tough times, like working out how to run her business during a pandemic, it has all paid off … literally.
The young Aussie said that the true highlights have been seeing her brand in “Miami Swimwear” and also seeing celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Delta Goodrem embrace her products.