Curated Gift Boxes for Breakups and Baby Bumps

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Should you go to business school? What if you're working a regular job and you like the idea of starting a business, should you go and get your MBA at night or in all the excessive free time, which of course you don't have? Well, if you want to get ahead in your job, perhaps depending on the job, depending on the corporation you work for, then an MBA might help. But if you're looking for actual business experience, if you want to start a side hustle, why not get that actual business experience instead of spending lots of money on an MBA? Welcome to Side Hustle School.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. And speaking of business experience, you might even do something like today's story. This story features two women who sell gift boxes for breakups, baby bumps, or just because. They're focused on reaching other millennial women and are selling hundreds of boxes a month. This project is going really well and is worth paying attention to.

You know, in all the research we do for the show, sometimes I see a concept that sounds really interesting, somebody will send in a story and we look at it and we say, oh, that sounds really interesting. But then like the more we delve into it, we kind of see that the results leave something to be desired. So usually in those cases we'll pass and we'll choose something else. This story was the opposite. The more I learned about it, the more I liked it.

At first I thought, well, we've done a few different subscription boxes. You know, what's different about this one? And I think if you listen to the story, you'll notice that both the process, the idea and how they made it happen, as well as the results are a bit unique. And these two women who happen to be sisters have made some wise choices along the way. So stay tuned, let's say thank you to today's sponsor and then on with the show.

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They say that when one door closes, another door opens. That's the case for many things in life, including love and money. And in this particular story, the closing door was Ariel Redmond's breakup. The opening door, all the inspiration needed for a new side hustle. You see, Ariel's big sister, Hannah, wanted to be there for her during that breakup, but they were separated by distance and desk jobs.

One of them in Maryland and the other in New York City. Since Hannah lived too far away to show up on her sister's doorstep with pints of ice cream and boxes of tissue, she had to settle for the next best thing. She ran around the city in search of fun little gifts to send to Ariel to cheer her up. It was kind of like an adult care package because not all heroes wear capes. Halfway through a race on the Lower West Side of Manhattan with a full box of goodies ready to mail, Hannah felt like there had to be a better way to do this.

She couldn't be the only caring friend or sister who wanted to make a tough week a little easier. Curating a box of goodies was fun, but running around to get everything, much less so. And Hannah hadn't even been to the post office yet. She knew that it would be worth it when Ariel opened the box, but Hannah still wished she could cut out or at least minimize some of the legwork. There had to be a better way.

And if there wasn't, Hannah would make it happen herself. Luckily, she didn't have to go it alone. Ariel loved her care package, and she also loved Hannah's idea, so much so that when the side hustle concept was floated, she jumped at the chance. The result is called Happy Box. And the idea was simple yet innovative.

Hannah and Ariel wanted to create a modern day gift basket that would be both personalized and convenient. Customers picked their preferred box theme from a selection of options, including life events, such as breakups, cheer ups, baby bumps, and housewarming. They then filled their chosen box with fun gifts and select a card to go along with it. Hannah or Ariel packs up the box, writes a handwritten note that comes from the customer and ships it to the lucky recipient. The Happy Box co-founders knew that variety would be important from day one.

It would be what set their side hustle apart from potential competitors, and it would entice potential customers to use their service. That's not to say that selecting their range of 70 plus gift items was easy. According to Hannah, it took both an intense amount of time and a lot of learning because neither of them had ever been product buyers, except when buying something for themselves. To overcome this initial hurdle, they began to cold call and email companies to try to secure wholesale pricing. To their surprise, it generally worked out.

They've now built relationships with different partners to get the items you can see on their website. Most of these items come from wholesale relationships, but in some cases, they design products themselves and have them made. Ariel's background in creative design helps them vet each product they bring into Happy Box based on their look, feeling, and brand, so that each product is consistent and high quality. So let's talk about launching Happy Box. Hannah correctly identified a problem when she was running around Manhattan trying to curate the perfect breakup gifts, but she still wanted to do market research before she started the business.

Together with her sister, she had to dig into understanding how their customer would think, feel, and act, and most importantly, why they would buy curated gift boxes in the first place. Happy Box is centered on two retail trends, customization and convenience. Gifting has become a $130 billion industry in the US so there is no shortage of suppliers in the marketplace, but that also means that customers are looking for unique and custom solutions. Nobody wants to give their friends something they already have. They wanna give their friends something unexpected, again, personalized and convenient.

Hannah and Ariel invested a combined $5,000 of their savings. They use this money to build a website and purchase their first set of inventory. This investment has paid off well. They're now selling, packing, and shipping hundreds of boxes a month at $40 to $60 each, and the customer testimonials are equally rewarding. Ariel said that each testimonial makes them feel like what they're doing truly has a well-deserved space and purpose.

She also said balancing our side hustle with demanding jobs can be a challenge, but each happy customer makes it worth it. On that point, Hannah believes that starting a project you're passionate about helps it feel a lot less like work and more like a puzzle to be solved. The two sisters worked on building Happy Box as they went along. They're now focused on making side improvements, choosing new products to offer, and are beginning to test out a line of corporate gifts as well. When one box closes, another one opens.

Here is a fun fact about this happy little business. In fact, I'll give you two fun facts. First one is that they handwrite all these cards themselves. So Hannah and Ariel, as mentioned, they're selling hundreds of boxes a month, but for now at least they're handwriting each of the cards that go in the boxes themselves. It's not outsourced.

Ariel said it was important to her that each box was highly personal and something that the recipient could be happy and excited to receive and open. They did have that value of convenience, but they strobe to be convenient while also being highly personalized. So I thought that was pretty cool. And the second fun fact is they were doing some advertising for this business, but they've actually dialed it way back because they were getting too many orders, which is of course a good problem to have. Now in the long term, of course, they want to be able to fulfill more orders.

So that's why they're trying to think through their process, make some side improvements and improve their underlying structure before they essentially go back and kind of turn on the tab. So like I said, a good problem to have, but it can be a problem. So it sounds like they are being wise in how they deal with it. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you learned something from it.

Don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Maybe you have an idea like these two sisters did, or maybe you'll get an idea through this episode or one of the other episodes. And my hope is that that will spark something in you to perhaps bring more happiness to your life as well. That is the goal every day here on the show. And if you'd like to check out the notes for today's episode, maybe learn more about Happy Box, just come over to sidehustleschool.com/531.

That's episode 531. Another one is coming up for you tomorrow. I hope you'll join me. My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School.