In 2014, an Australian lawyer invested $7,000 of her savings in a fashion side hustle; 3 years later, her brand was worth $23 million

Alyce Tran was still working as a lawyer when The Daily Edited started taking up more of her life. She had put $7,000 of her savings into the idea in 2014, without knowing where it would lead.

At first, The Daily Edited was a fashion blog. Tran then moved into selling personalised leather goods, starting with cardholders and compendiums in August 2014. She did not have a large marketing budget. Some of the first product pictures were simply taken on her iPhone and posted to Instagram. Then something happened that made the small business harder to ignore. The first batch sold out in two weeks.

How Alyce Tran turned $7,000 into a $23 million fashion business

Tran ordered more stock after the first products sold. From there, The Daily Edited became a second job that was difficult to squeeze around her legal career. Her working day was already long. She spent roughly 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. After a short break, she turned to the fashion business at about 7:30 p.m. and kept going until 2 a.m.


That routine continued until her accountant gave her some blunt advice. He told her there was little point in continuing to work as a lawyer if the business was already demanding her full attention.

It was an unusual position for a side hustle to reach. Tran had started with her own savings and was building the company outside normal working hours. Now the business had grown enough for her professional career to become the thing standing in the way. She eventually left law and concentrated on The Daily Edited.

The early success did not come from a huge retail operation. Tran had first tested a relatively simple idea online: leather accessories that customers could personalise.

The first sellout gave her a useful piece of information. People were willing to pay for the products. That meant she could put more money into stock and spend more time developing the business.

Over time, The Daily Edited expanded far beyond those early Instagram posts. The company grew to eight stores across the world and employed about 100 people. Its expected annual turnover reached $23 million in the financial year described in Tran's story.

For Tran, the most meaningful financial milestone was surprisingly straightforward. She was proud that the company had become profitable, but she has said her biggest achievement was paying off her mortgage. The home was in Woollahra, an area in Sydney's eastern suburbs.