Woman quits pharmacist job to make personalized beach towels

By Emma Dunn via SWNS

A mom quit her job as a pharmacist to make personalized beach towels - and has sold a million dollars worth of merch.

Kalinda Salla, 28, and Joel Miranda, 34, decided to create colorful gym towels after getting bored with what was on offer.

Fellow gym members were eyeing them up so they decided to launch a business in March 2021.

Kalinda was able to quit her job as a pharmacist in March 2022 and now works full time creating new designs for gym, beach and golf towels.

The couple will print anything a customer requests - and bizarre requests include POO covered towels.

Kalinda and Joel, who still works part-time as a fitness trainer, have hit $1,000,000 AUD ($688,665 USD) in sales.

Kalinda, co-founder of Cheeky Winx, from Brisbane, Australia, said: “Joel and I noticed the towels we were using were boring and printed our own funky ones.

“The members of the gym wanted them so we thought ‘lets do this.’

“We made 800 towels and sold out within three months.

“I didn’t expect it to blow up.

“It’s turned our lives around.

“We do get a lot of rude requests for personalization.

“But the strange requests make us giggle.”

Kalinda, who is mom to Louis, six, was exhausted in her job as a pharmacist.

She said: “During COVID, on some days I would vaccinate 100 people without a break.

“I was missing out on time with my son.”

Kalinda hit it off with Joel in August 2020, after they met on a run, and loved spending time running, hiking and working out together.

While at the gym together they noticed the lack of fun towels and came up with the idea to create their own.

Kalinda said: “I was using a tea towel or bath mat sometimes.”

After just six months together, Kalinda and Joel launched Cheeky Winx – creating funky designs to put on their towels.

Now they sell beach, gym and golf towels which come in two different sizes – and get up to 100 orders a day.

She said: “I thought it would just be a side hustle.

“I’m glad I’m out of pharmacy.

“It’s so much better now.

“I work more hours and it can be a lot more stressful but I can do it on my own time.

“It means I can pick up and drop my son off at school.”

Kalinda’s son Louis loves helping out with the designs for the kids towels.

She said: “He loves to help me with orders during the summer.”

Kalinda and Joel say working as a couple works for them as they can “bounce ideas off each other”.

Kalinda said: “It’s exciting growing a business together.”

The couple also offer a personalization option with their towels – and will print anything a customer requests.

Kalinda said: “We do get quite a lot of weird and rude requests.

“We get a lot of swear words and someone wanted ‘wee wee’ and ‘poo poo’ on a towel.

“It’s funny.

“It always makes us giggle.”