A couple started a business worth $15,000 a month
A couple started a business worth $15,000 a month
By Amanda Breen | Published: 2025-12-03 15:00:00 | Source: Entrepreneur
Key takeaways
- The couple launched Fiera Flavors, their own olive oil brand, last year.
- Here’s how they’re off to a strong start — and are on track to double revenue in 2026.
This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features husband and wife duo Mariana Carrizosa and Sebastian Jaramillo, both 32, who recently moved from Bogotá, Colombia, to Austin, Texas. The couple launched their own brand of olive oil Viera Flavorswhich started as a side business for both of them, last year. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
What was your day job or primary career when you started your side hustle?
Mariana: I was a consultant at Bain & Company, and Sebastian ran his own software development company, which he still runs today.
When did you start your side project, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
Mariana: Neither of us ever planned to start a food brand. It just kind of happened. In fact, Sebastian made the first version for me on our first date in 2020. It was part of his recipe for arrabbiata sauce, and I loved it so much that I took some home in a plastic bag (my most exciting move!). We kept trying it on different dishes, introducing it to friends and family, and it grew organically from there. We sold our first bottle in the US last May.
RELATED: This Law School Student Made $10,000 a Month — So He Quit Legal to Go All-In
Image credit: Courtesy of Fiera Flavors
What were some of the first steps you took to get your side off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch the product?
Sebastian: Once we saw people really liked the product, the big steps were permits and branding. Validating the recipe and process for safety, registering the business, branding and getting the right look and feel. It ended up being more expensive than we expected because moving to the US meant starting everything from scratch, even the name. Our original brand in Colombia is “Bestial”, which we realized didn’t translate well here. In all, we spent $15,000 to $20,000 on things like food scientist consulting, legal permits, and trademarks.
You can really teach yourself anything on YouTube these days.
Are there any free or paid resources that have been particularly helpful to you in starting and running this business?
Sebastian: YouTube Premium and local networking events. You can really teach yourself anything on YouTube these days with the amount of knowledge people share. From setting up your Shopify store to automating everyday tasks, you can learn it all for just a few dollars a month. On the completely free side, go to local networking events in your area. You would be surprised at the kindness of strangers and how much people want to help fellow entrepreneurs.
RELATED: This Rapper’s Non-Music Side Hustle Led to $100,000 a Month — Then 8 Figures
If you could go back into your business journey and change one process or approach to save time, energy, or just a headache, what would it be, and how do you wish you had done it differently?
Mariana: I wish I had adopted a more technical-first mindset earlier. At first, I was spending hours every day emailing stores and manually writing follow-ups, trying to reach retailers. Once Sebastian realized this, he built me a tool that automated everything, and we went from about five stores to over 40 within a couple of months. It also gave me back at least three hours of my day. If something seems manual or repetitive, there’s probably a tool that can help you improve it. The faster you fix it, the sooner you can focus on the parts of the business that actually move the needle.
Image credit: Courtesy of Fiera Flavors
When it comes to this particular work, what is something that you have found particularly difficult and/or surprising that people who engage in this type of work should be prepared for, but probably aren’t?
Mariana: No limits. You are responsible for putting it in place and respecting it. There is no company policy or boss making sure you don’t overexert yourself, don’t sleep, don’t eat right, or don’t spend time with your loved ones. It’s your responsibility to create the work-life balance you want, and that’s hard because every hour you’re not working seems to have a direct impact on your business. Finding that balance is difficult.
Can you remember a specific instance when something went wrong? How did you fix it?
Sebastian: At first, we got overly excited and ordered 10,000 pre-labeled 16 oz bottles from China. We quickly realized that the 16 ounce bottles were too large and had long repurchase cycles. We ended up paying four months’ storage costs for fifty boxes of bottles, and eventually had to give them away because no one wanted the pre-labeled packaging. The solution was simple: start small with generic packaging from a local distributor. Once you’ve proven your concept, consider custom designs and larger orders. It was An expensive lessonBut one we won’t forget. To be clear, our current bottle is five ounces and lasts for about two weeks for our valued customers, and for our regular customers about a month. We missed the mark by a lot.
RELATED: Starbucks Barista Project ‘Stealth Mode’ Is Now Making $1 Million a Month
How long did it take until you were able to see consistent monthly revenue? What do growth and revenues look like now?
For US business, it took a few months. It takes direct encounter, repetition, and exposure to get people to try your product, love it, and ultimately repurchase it. We did a lot of farmers markets, store demos, silly skits on social media – anything to get the word out.
We aim to double revenue next year by reaching over $15,000 in consistent monthly sales by the end of the year.
Doing something well and putting it out into the world is better than holding on to it forever.
What do you enjoy most about running this business?
Mariana: Small victories. Entering a new store, or getting a five-star review or compliment about our products Trademarks. These little things seem huge, and you can usually experience them every day.
Related to: My business tapped into a misunderstood market and generated $760,000 in the first year
What is your best specific and actionable business advice?
Mariana: “Lo perfecto es enemigo de lo bueno.” This basically means that doing something well and putting it out into the world is better than holding on to it forever while trying to make it perfect. I suffer from this all the time. I hate putting out stuff that doesn’t look 110% polished. Sebastian is usually the one reminding me to aim for “less perfection, more fulfillment,” and frankly, that’s the only way to actually move forward and stay away from the never-ending to-do list.
Key takeaways
- The couple launched Fiera Flavors, their own olive oil brand, last year.
- Here’s how they’re off to a strong start — and are on track to double revenue in 2026.
This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features husband and wife duo Mariana Carrizosa and Sebastian Jaramillo, both 32, who recently moved from Bogotá, Colombia, to Austin, Texas. The couple launched their own olive oil brand Viera Flavorswhich started as a side business for both of them, last year. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
The rest of this article is locked.
Join the entrepreneur+ Today to arrive.
(tags to translate) Branding
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
