A WOMAN who dropped out of uni to start a side hustle from her own kitchen now owns a £280million business.
Tara Bosch has always had a sweet tooth but as she got older she realised she had to cut down on sugar.
Determined to find a way to satisfy her desire for sweets whilst staying healthy, Tara dropped out of university at 21 and began researching how to make healthy sweets.
After buying a gummy bear mould from Amazon and some ingredients from her local supermarket, Tara began testing out low sugar sweet recipes from her kitchen table.
It took her four months to create her first recipe and she took out a loan of around £80,000 to allow her to make the first batch.
From tongue scraping to saying no, here are 12 health trends to try in 2023
Speaking to Shelby Church on her YouTube channel, Tara said: "I knew if the business didn't work that at that point I would have $105,000 debt to my name."
To start with, Tara said she struggled to get supermarkets to stock her product, which she named SmartSweets.
Determined to pursue her dream, she visited one supermarket 50 times, before they agreed to take on the product.
After her first year, the Vancouver-based entrepreneur managed to get her sweets into 1300 shops, and hired 10 employees.
Her business began to grow, and after a journalist reached out to her and asked to write an article about her business, she was contacted by Wholefoods, who said they were keen to stock her products in the US.
"That was really the catalyst for us growing and getting into more stores like Target and Costco," she said.
Tara was able to get more investment for her company by going on the Canadian version of Dragon's Den.
Asked if she always knew that her business would become successful, she said: "When I was in my kitchen I started telling myself 'SmartSweets is a global company, Smartsweets has revolutionised candy.
"This was really powerful because it put into my subconscious that this had already happened."
I'm a nutritionist - here's the 10 best diet trends to help lose weight in 2023
After five years of building up the company, Tara sold a majority stake for £280million.
She is still the largest individual shareholder, and still very much involved in the company.
The now 26-year-old said: "Growing up I also felt underestimated and didn't really have any talents or abilities.
"When I stumbled on SmartSweets I didn't want to squander that and gave it my all."
Sharing advice to anyone thinking of starting their own business, she said: "If you don't believe in your head that it's possible, then it's not possible.
"Take away what you think you are capable of, and just believe."
Fabulous will pay for your exclusive stories. Just email: fabulousdigital@the-sun.co.uk and pop EXCLUSIVE in the subject line.
