Jhalesa Seymour started a soap business with $67 in college — it's now done over $16 million in sales

Jhalesa Seymour started a soap business with $67 in college — it's now done over $16 million in sales

Victoria Vesovski

Sun, September 6, 2026 at 2:00 PM GMT+3 5 min read

Jhalesa Seymour became a millionaire by age 25 by selling something simple: soap.

But she didn't build her multimillion-dollar business with a pile of startup cash or backing from investors. Seymour says she started the company while she was still in college with just $67 to her name.

Must Read

• Jeff Bezos backs a platform that lets anyone invest in rental homes for as little as $100 — 6 ways to build wealth like a landlord without actually being one

• Dave Ramsey warns nearly 50% of Americans are making 1 big Social Security mistake. Here's what it is and 3 simple steps to fix it ASAP

• The tax breaks in Trump's 'big beautiful bill' expire after 2028. Here are 4 moves to make before the window closes

In a street interview with The School of Hard Knocks, Seymour reflected on the money habits that helped her turn that small start into a seven-figure business, including one rule she says kept her from spending like a millionaire.

"A money lesson I lived by is your business money is not your lifestyle money," Seymour said, explaining that people can be quick to upgrade their lifestyle as soon as they start earning more.

She took the opposite approach.

"I was a multimillionaire driving a Nissan Altima and living in a 700 square foot apartment," she said.

The journey

Seymour launched Salt.xo in 2018 while she was still a student at the University of Central Florida. The idea grew out of a problem she had experienced herself: struggling to find feminine-care products that she felt wouldn't disrupt her pH balance.

She repeatedly came across products made with irritating ingredients, and eventually decided to create an alternative of her own.

But Seymour wasn't starting with much of a financial cushion. She grew up in a household with five children, where her mother earned about $30,000 a year, and has said she had just $67 when she started the company.

Many entrepreneurs rely on their own money to get a business off the ground, but Seymour was working with far less than most. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 80% of employer businesses use personal savings as startup capital, and nearly half start with more than $25,000.

And finding the money to launch is only part of the challenge. Keeping a young business alive can be even harder. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 57.3% of business establishments launched in 2018 — the same year as Salt.xo — were still operating five years later.

Read More: Vanguard reveals what's coming for U.S. stocks — and it could be bad news for this group of investors

The key to her success

Over the next eight years, Seymour says she turned Salt.xo into an eight-figure business. But she didn't get there by pouring money into advertising.

"So a lot of businesses rely heavily on paid marketing, but I think what set us apart was that my organic marketing was fire," she said in the TikTok video. "Word of mouth is what really sold the brand."

Instead, Seymour focused on getting people talking about the products and building a customer base willing to spread the word themselves. That approach appears to have paid off quickly.

"In 2018, I made $154,000 making soaps out of my apartment," Seymour told Business Insider. "The next year, we made $1 million in profits. Since then, we've had more than $16 million in sales."

What you can take from Seymour's money approach

Seymour's story may be unusual, but one of the biggest lessons behind her success is fairly simple: earning more doesn't have to mean spending more.

Today, she pays herself a salary from Salt.xo and reinvests the rest of the company's profits into the business instead of treating everything it earns as money she can spend personally.

That distinction is especially important for business owners, since company revenue, profit and personal income are legally not the same thing. But the broader idea can apply to anyone. If your spending rises every time your income does, it can become much harder to turn those bigger paychecks into long-term wealth.

Seymour has also said learning how to grow her money didn't come naturally.

"I was never taught how to invest and grow money," she told Business Insider. "I had to learn on my own, sometimes through mistakes."

Her approach offers a simple takeaway: As your income grows, leave room to save and invest, rather than allowing your lifestyle to absorb every extra dollar.

Moneywise reached out to Seymour for comment on her journey, but did not hear back before publication.

What To Read Next

• Millionaires under 43 hold only 32% of their wealth in stocks. Here's where their money is actually going

• Here's the average income of Americans by age in 2026. Are you keeping up or falling behind?

• A single line on your car insurance policy could be inflating your premium by up to 30% — here's what to change

• This fund has historically paid 8% or higher for 25 months — 4 ways to grow your cash without the stock market

Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise's best stories and exclusive interviews first — clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.

This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: Jhalesa Seymour started a soap business with $67 in college — it's now done over $16 million in sales

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.