Meet the Newest Small Business Owner: Jessica Alba

Anybody can own their own business and even Hollywood’s elite have been known to try their hand at entrepreneurship. Jessica Alba is no Hollywood has-been. She may be best known for her role in the TV series Dark Angel but her list of credits is vast and continues to grow.

Being a successful business owner based on your star power will only go so far. Alba is also a mother and it was this role that made her consider business ownership.

The Problem

Every business starts with the mission of solving a problem. The problem doesn’t have to be something big like curing hunger. In fact, many of the best businesses exist to solve just one, very simple problem. In this case, eco-friendly products.

Alba, while pregnant with her daughter, Honor, wanted to fill her house with products that were organic. She didn’t want the chemicals that are often used to manufacture baby products to be around her daughter. She began looking for baby products that were more eco-friendly but was surprised to find that they weren’t easy to find.

Honest.com

Alba launched The Honest Company, an internet startup that sells eco friendly products like diapers, baby wipes, cleaning supplies and body products that are delivered monthly. First, the customer answers some easy questions about their family including the age and gender of their youngest child. After that, honest.com constructs an ideal nursery that fits their needs. Customers can customize the nursery and have the products delivered to you on the schedule you choose.

Giving Back

Small business owners often start their business because of a passion they have instead of trying to make a lot of money and many small business experts believe that passion is what pushes business owners through to success. Alba knows that one of the problems with her company is that the products are more expensive than their non eco-friendly competitors. Because of that, the company donates a portion of their profits to programs that allow underprivileged families take part in the program as well.

What can You Learn?

Because of Alba’s celebrity status, her small business has received more free advertisement than most business startup owners but her story is probably similar to yours. She was living the life of a mother and noticed a corner of the market that wasn’t being served. Because of that she started a business to solve the problem. Is there a corner of the market that you know of that is underserved? If you do, that might be where your small business belongs.