This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, what's up? Welcome back. This is Side Hustle School. I am Chris Guillebeau. Got a story for you today about a graphic designer who profits from print on demand and then quits their job to hike New Zealand.
Now, a couple of notes on this before we get started. First of all, print on demand. We've talked about it a few different times. It's basically an industry as a series of companies in which you can upload your designs, then they can be printed on t-shirts or mugs or prints or postcards, all kinds of different items, but they're only printed when they're actually sold. So in other words, you don't have to maintain any inventory.
And the companies that do this obviously take a pretty big percentage for their services, but because of the benefits it provides, it can still be worth it for some people. So we'll talk about print on demand and also the featured case study in this story prefers to go by gender neutral pronouns. So I'm gonna use the pronouns they and there. And I just mentioned that now because as you listen to the story, you might think, well, that sounds kind of awkward. Like why isn't he saying he or she when he's just talking about one person?
And the reason is because that's what this person prefers. So personally, I believe that people can choose to identify however they see fit. I want to respect that. And also it's just a reflection of how the English language is evolving because lots of other languages, they have gender neutral pronouns. This isn't an issue at all.
But all language evolves over time and there are now style guides that address how to do this. I just mentioned that so you know what's going on. But of course the story itself is the key point. So I look forward to bringing that story of this graphic designer who uses print-on-demand with their job Hikes New Zealand in just a moment after I say thank you to our sponsor. [Music]
Today's story comes from Jack Faulkner in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jack was formerly a graphic designer at a large corporation and their side hustle, The Cabin Supply Company, sells adventure inspired prints, stickers, and shirts aimed at weekend adventurers. Jack decided on the side hustle idea while on a road trip from Seattle to Los Angeles with a friend. The goal was to do something involving the outdoors and adventure. They settled on the Cabin Supply Company theme because of a lifelong dream of owning a cabin in the woods. Jack took a lot of photos on that trip and then used those photos to make inspirational designs after getting home.
After uploading the designs to print-on-demand sites like Redbubble and Society Six, they sat back to see what happened. The first month, Cabin Supply Company made one sale for a whopping $4.30 in profit. The next month, it made two sales. In the third month, 17 sales. Jack kept the faith, uploading more designs and adding them to other print-on-demand sites.
It was easy to do because startup costs were minimal, essentially non-existent. Print-on-demand services don't cost anything at all, they just take time. Sales continued to grow and while working that day job last year, Jack earned an extra $20,000 on top of their full-time salary. In Jack's opinion, Society Six and Redbubble are the main print-on-demand sites that are the best in terms of usability, design and the use of lifestyle images of products. Redbubble was the most successful for Cabin Supply Co. at first,
but now it swings between both from month to month. Jack also loves Etsy and has used it for years for various other side hustles. But while planning a long hike back in New Zealand, they knew that physically shipping out products wasn't an option. So instead, they looked for items to sell on demand. Etsy can now be integrated with a print-on-demand service called Printful so Jack uploaded designs there and is now experimenting with selling T-shirts.
Cabin Supply Co. eventually began selling enamel pins and stickers at local markets, which unlike the print-on-demand stuff did have some costs. Money-wise, it's more beneficial to spend the day listing designs online or working on new ones, but being able to talk face-to-face with customers has value too. Jack also sells through one brick and mortar store on a consignment basis. Jack eventually quit their job to walk a 3,000 kilometer trail running the length of New Zealand.
Along the way, they took tons of photos for future designs and earned $10,000. The long trek cost around $9,000 in total. So not only did the side hustle cover all their hiking costs, Jack made a little extra on the side as well. There was no work involved other than answering the occasional email request or responding to nice comments on the print-on-demand sites and maybe sharing a sale or promotion on Facebook once in a while. They also made sure that the brick and mortar shop had enough stock to get through five months of being away.
At some point in 2018, Jack might take a part-time design job, but having this substantial side hustle income is enough to rely on if needed. Before this project, Jack had tried crafting products like fuzzy felt wallets and children's notebooks from vintage items, but everything was one-off. Since those things were made from vintage items, once the product was sold, it was gone. Another project was making pendants from vintage book illustrations, which had the same problem as the first project. They were great for the buyer, but not scalable.
Jack said that another problem was running out of mental energy for those projects because they weren't ideas that they fully loved. It was something they thought was cool, but the products didn't reflect on their values, so their enthusiasm ran out. But the cabin supply company is a brand that's easier to actually live rather than just work on, which might also be why it resonates with others. The photographs are from personal adventures. Jack loves sharing them with others and encouraging them to get out there and explore, or at the very least, just enjoy seeing different places.
In addition to continuing to create designs for more print-on-demand sites, Jack now plans to contact retailers to sell the stickers, cards, and badges wholesale. They also recently signed a contract with a big brand in the U.S. to use one of their designs. That design already existed, so there wasn't any extra work other than filling out legal forms. Being able to reuse designs again and again is a huge benefit 'cause they can be used on products or licensed for others to use, like that example.
And unlike those vintage crafted items, the previous attempts at side hustles, while using print-on-demand and working virtually, there's no limit, constraint, or risk. [Music]
Awesome, congratulations to Jack. New Zealand is a beautiful country, well worth taking off five months to go and hike, or at least if you have a side hustle that can support you in doing that. Your goals might be different from Jack's, different from mine. Just remember that a side hustle can support all kinds of goals and all kinds of people.
In this episode, I mentioned a number of different services and resources, Redbubble, Printful, Society6, et cetera. There's actually more of them, but I don't wanna overwhelm you. If you're interested in how this works and you want the details, just come to the show notes page and you can follow the links from there to learn more. Those notes are at sidehustleschool.com/385. Thank you for listening today, and never forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.
Jack was able to create freedom to be able to hike for five months in New Zealand, looking ahead to new independent projects, even if they do take on that part-time design job. So their future is bright, and I think yours is too. I'll be back tomorrow with the weekly recap. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
