Notes from Chris

Episode 324

During the day, Rene Delgado works in operations and supply chain management for a large consumer electronics company. In the evenings, he runs an eCommerce site dedicated to selling bounce houses to residential and commercial customers. Yep, that's right—bounce houses. Rene didn’t decide to sell bounce houses because he harbors a secret passion for them. He decided to sell bounce houses after some very careful analysis and consideration of his best options.

That careful consideration began in August 2016, when he started considering his side hustle options. Amazon FBA, stock trading, dropshipping high ticket items, and reselling items on eBay were among his top ideas, but ultimately he decided on dropshipping.

To land on a winning idea, he made a list of over 100 product options and then narrowed the list based on the following criteria: the products were hard to locate in a brick and mortar store, the average price point was over $400, there were more than 5 manufacturers or suppliers, the ad spend on the PPC was below $2, and the level of competition in the space was low. These comprehensive criteria ultimately lead him to settle on bounce houses.

Once he had the legal framework in place, he bought a relevant domain—BounceHouseStore.com was luckily available—for less than $20/year and then filed his DBA with his local county. Rene officially launched the website in December 2016, once he had products from multiple manufacturers up. The first three months of the year, Rene brought in almost no revenue because it was simply too cold (winter is apparently a low-bounce season).

But by April things start to pick up for summer, with a peak in June. And then by September, as the leaves begin to fall, the bounce goes out of people’s lives...sales drop off again. But looking at sales on a yearly basis tells a much different story. So far in 2017, Rene has had just over $300k in sales!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Bounce House Store: Bounce on over to Rene's website and pick up a bouncy castle for your next Frozen themed birthday party!
• Shopify: Rene used Shopify to set up his store for The Bounce House Store, and they're offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!
• QuickSpark Financial: The business that helped Rene increase sales and provide financing to his business customers
• Dropship Lifestyle: An online drop ship course that taught Rene the basics of the business

SEE ALSO:

• The Live Cricket Dropshipping Hustle: Yep, it’s true: a Pennsylvania man makes $700+ a month dropshipping live crickets to reptile owners across the country
• Yoga Mat Reseller Changes Lives While Earning $4,000/Month: After being inspired by social good companies like TOMS, a woman in London creates a yoga accessories business that focuses on empowering women worldwide
• Woman Sells Hair Grips to Orthodox Jews & Drag Queens: It begins as a product for Orthodox Jewish women. It goes on to serve cancer patients, Broadway performers, and drag queens, earning “fringe benefits” and $4,000/month

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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